25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”
30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. 33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So there was a division among the people over him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
45 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” 47 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Our heavenly Father,
We praise you for this day and for the opportunity to come together again and to worship you. May you bless our time as we study your word and proclaim your gospel.
May our hearts and minds be transformed by the truths of your scriptures. That Jesus is the Lord who has come into the world to redeem sinful humanity. Lord, we continue to pray for our community as covid cases are on the rise. May we continue to trust in you but to also exercise wisdom in our actions. We pray for our state and the surrounding areas.
Lord, we pray for our nation. It’s been an exhausting year with covid, economic issues, civil unrest, and heated political tensions. May we continue to rise above all of that and to trust in you above all things. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Introduction
Part of this section we’ve preached over the last couple of weeks.
But to make sense of where we’re going in the passage, I think it’s important to have some of what precedes today’s section. As we’ve noted numerous times, Jesus is speaking to a large group of people in Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths.
And so I look at this entire passage as three main scenes. Verses 25-36 is what we looked at two weeks ago.
Verses 37-39 is the second scene. That’s where we were last weekend.
And the remainder of our passage is the third scene and where we’ll spend most of our time.
But I think the first point to make if you were to look at the first scene and the third scene is that they both have a lot of similarities to each other.
Both at the beginning and end of the passage, we see confusion as to the origins and identity of Jesus. In the beginning and ending scenes, we see that there are some people who are drawn to Jesus but we also see there are people who reject Jesus. In both the first and last scenes, you see people questioning what others believe about Jesus, sometimes in accusatory tones. In both the first and final scene of this passage, there are attempts to arrest Jesus which are unsuccessful.
And the reason why I point all of these out is because I believe that makes the second scene the hinge of the whole story where in the midst of all of the chaos and the raucous environment surrounding Jesus, he stands up and says:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’
We see all of the division and differing opinions among the various groups in this chapter…
That’s the way the world is.
The world has all sorts of assumptions that it makes for who Jesus is.
And that’s what we see in this passage.
There are those who are asking if he could be the Christ. There are those who are trying to explain why Jesus can’t be who he claims to be. You have those who are outwardly hostile to Jesus and his claims.
That’s how the world is today.
We have these groups.
We have all sorts of assumptions about Jesus.
And it’s in the midst of all of that that Jesus says:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
We can have all sorts of assumptions about Jesus.
But what the middle of the passage is telling us is that none of that matters.
Jesus isn’t calling people to have it all figured out and then come to him.
He’s not saying that we need to be master theologians.
He’s not saying we need to get all of our ducks in a row morally and then come to him.
He’s not giving an exhaustive explanation of the Old Testament and why he is the Christ and should be worshipped and praised.
He says: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
Regardless of the arguments for or against Jesus. Regardless of what a person thinks about Jesus or what the world tells about Jesus.
That if we truly want to know Jesus and what he is all about that we have to experience Jesus.
Psalm 34:8 says: taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
We can have all sorts of opinions about Jesus. But he invites us to come to him and know him. He invites us to experience him.
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
He invites us to find our rest in him. He invites us to approach him. He invites us to find our hope.
Jesus doesn’t say in this passage that the strong or superior find rest in him, but it it those who are heavy laden.
That is the goodness of Jesus. He came to a dead world to bring life. He came to a guilty world to bring forgiveness. He came to a prideful world to bring grace.
Jesus calls us to believe in him.
Romans 10:13 says: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
And again, a verse we looked at last week.
Revelation 22:17: The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
Jesus invites us. He invites us to come to him.
He invites the Spiritually thirsty to come to him and to drink the water that he offers.
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’
That’s the offer Jesus makes to the crowd in John 7. And it’s the offer that he makes to the whole world. For those who are Spiritually thirsty to come to him, to know him, to believe in him, to worship him, to come and drink.
And with that, we come to our passage. And in the fallout of what Jesus has just said, we will see three different responses from the audience.
- Positive response to Jesus
Verses 40 into 41: 40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Christ.”
So some suggest that Jesus could be the prophet. Others suggested Jesus could be the Christ.
They’re both right.
In the first century, there were some who thought that these were two different figures. In reality, Jesus is both.
Let’s explain this further.
For the people who have heard Jesus teaching and wonder if he could be “the” prophet, the is important there.
Because they’re not questioning if Jesus could be a prophet like Isaiah or Ezekiel.
They’re asking if he could be the prophet which is a reference to Deuteronomy 18. In that passage, Moses is still leading the Israelites in their desert wanderings and he talks of a future time when a greater leader than he would come to lead Israel.
Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen-
And so people question if Jesus could be this long ago promised prophet.
We actually discussed this over a year ago when we were in chapter 1.
When John the Baptist was teaching and there were people who wondered if he was the prophet. He was quick to set the record straight that he was not.
In John 6, after Jesus fed the multitudes, the immediate response of the crowd given in John 6:14 was:
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
So back in our passage, there are people who wonder if Jesus could be the prophet.
But you also have those who wonder if Jesus could be the Christ.
And I think it’s helpful to give a reminder that when they refer to Jesus as the Christ, the word Christ is not a name, it’s a title.
The word “Christ” comes from the Greek word “Christos” which means anointed. In the Old Testament, the high priest, the kings of Israel, and the prophets would be anointed with oil. The olive oil would be ceremonially poured on them.
Also in the temple, some of the items were also anointed with oil.
The anointing was meant to show that a thing was consecrated to the Lord and set aside.
In the first century, there were people who were looking forward to a coming anointed one. A coming Christ.
And so when Jesus is teaching here, there are people who wonder if he could be that person.
So we do have two camps who see something special in Jesus. Is he the prophet? Is he the Christ?
The answer is: yes.
He’s both.
He is the prophet. And he is the Christ. Jesus who fulfills the Old Testament prophecies of both.
He is the long ago promised prophet to lead Israel into the true Promised Land: the new heaven and the new earth. But he is also the anointed one. He is the Christ.
He fulfills the Old Testament. He lived a perfect life. He went to the cross and died and rose so that all who believe in him can be forgiven.
So that’s our first scene. That’s the favorable response to who Jesus is.
That’s not saying that all of the people in that camp were confessing believers or truly understood the gospel. But they’re drawn to Jesus.
So that’s our first group. People who have a favorable response to Jesus. This group is drawn to Jesus.
Disbelieving response to Jesus
We come to a second group.
Others are explaining that he can’t be the Christ. This second group is people who don’t believe in Jesus but they’re not also militant in their opposition.
Rest of verse 41 through the end of verse 43:
But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So there was a division among the people over him.
Again, you have this long expected Christ figure and so the Israelites had opinions of what he would be like.
Just like at the beginning of this section, the passage we looked at two weeks ago, some look to the origins of Jesus as disqualifying to his being the Christ.
Some of the people point to the fact that Jesus is from Galilee and look at that as the reason as to why Jesus cannot be the Christ. Because the Jewish people all knew Micah 5:2: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
The Christ had to come from Bethlehem.
Which Jesus did.
They said that the Christ had to come from the line of David. Which Jesus did.
So what’s happening is there are people in the crowd who actually do have some correct understanding of the Bible but they do not have correct understanding of the facts about Jesus.
Makes me think of the Mark Twain quote: “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
That’s something we can all be guilty of. Having our facts wrong. But in this case, that falsity is pointing them away from the savior of the world.
Once again, I think that this is something that often happens in our world. People have part of the truth. They know a little bit about the Bible. They know a little bit about Jesus.
They hear God is love and so assume that moral opinions are somehow unbiblical.
They think Jesus is good, but they don’t really believe he’s Lord and so they don’t believe in him.
They think Jesus quaint but they don’t think he’s their savior.
So much of the world takes slivers of truth about Jesus but misses the whole point of why he came.
It was because the world was dead in sin and true life could only come from a perfect savior who died for the sins we committed and reconciled us to a righteous God.
That’s the gospel.
So from the crowd, we’ve seen those who think he’s the Christ, those who think he’s the prophet, those who think he’s not the prophet.
The second group doesn’t believe in Jesus but they’re not out and out hostile to Jesus here.
That’s where much of our world is today.
There are lots of Bible passages that talk about persecution. That talk about opposition to Jesus.
There are lots of news stories that talk about opposition to Chrsitianity and persecution. We mentioned earlier today that next Sunday is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.
That’s important and significant.
And I point that out right now because I think it’s on our radar to consider the strong-armed opposition to Jesus.
This second group isn’t like that though. They’re just explaining why they don’t believe Jesus is the Christ.
But they still don’t believe in him.
And there’s no middle ground with Jesus.
Matthew 12:30, Jesus says: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
You believe him or you don’t.
So I ask. What do you believe?
Who is Jesus to you?
Is he the Christ? Is he the savior of the world? Is he your Lord?
Or does he not fit the criteria that you think matters?
The danger humanity faces isn’t only those who are opposed to Jesus but it’s those who are indifferent to him.
Because the person who is indifferent to Jesus can be tempted to think that they’re all right with Jesus.
But they’re not.
There’s no middle ground.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He’s the word who became flesh. He’s the God who was in the beginning. And he has made a way for sinful people to be forgiven. He did it by going to the cross. Again. We don’t have to have it all figured out.
But we must come to him.
And then we see the third group.
Opposing response to Jesus
Verse 44, we see that there are those in the crowd who think that Jesus should be arrested for what he’s saying. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
As we discussed before, at this point in John’s Gospel, we’re seeing increasing hostility to Jesus. There are people who want him arrested. There are people who want him silenced. There are those who want him killed.
And what follows in the passage are the interactions between these various groups of people.
Another attempt is made to arrest Jesus. We’ve already seen an unsuccessful attempt in the first scene. Here again the temple guards are sent for Jesus.
But the officers in the temple do not follow through.
Verses 45-46: The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”
The priests and the pharisees are outraged. Like a looming cloud their opposition to Christ hangs over the rest of this passage.
The guards did not follow through on their orders to arrest Jesus.
Something to note here. When we hear of the religious leaders sending the guards of the temple to arrest Jesus, it’s important to understand that it’s not a swat team. They didn’t send in the Marines. The temple guards were Levites who were responsible for tending to the temple.
So the chief priest might have sent the guards to arrest Jesus but they too have their opinions on the Christ and what he would be like. They’ve heard Jesus teaching.
And so the Levites, the temple guards are taken by what Jesus has said.
No one ever spoke like this man.
Jesus’ words are forceful. They’re moving. They confront us.
To paraphrase an idea from the great 19th century preacher Charles Spuregon, the guards were sent to arrest Jesus, it was they who were arrested by his words. They did not take Jesus but were taken by the power of his message.
We see the intermingling of different responses to Jesus.
The positive and negative responses to Jesus coming to battle.
The pharisees berate the guards. And really they basically lash out against everyone there.
We see those who are sympathetic to Jesus coming into conflict with those who oppose Jesus.
Verses 47-48: The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
D.A. Carson adds a helpful point in their response.
The leaders are not mad at the guards as a commanding officer over subordinates for dereliction of duty. The derision of the authorities comes to the temple guard that they did not listen to their Spiritual and theological authorities. Moreover, the guards should have had more sense and better knowledge of the Old Testament than to be sympathetic to Jesus’ message.
In verse 48, they ask if any of the authorities or pharisees have believed in Jesus?
The irony is that one is about to.
But first, the religious authorities continue their rant and also criticize and insult the crowd.
Verse 49: this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”
Again, we’re seeing these differing opinions about who Jesus is.
Verse 50, we see a climactic moment of this whole scene.
The return of Nicodemus. Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” (John 7:50-52)
Nicodemus is introduced in John’s gospel in chapter 3. He was the leading theologian and scholar of his time. He comes to Jesus and he’s intrigued by Jesus and his teachings.
In that famous passage, Jesus told Nicodemus you must be born again.
Nicodemus had responded to Jesus with confusion and questioning:
John 3:4: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
But here we see Nicodemus coming to the defense of Jesus. We’ll also see him reappear after Jesus is crucified.
We’re never told specifically whether or not Nicodemus comes to faith but the fact that John continues to bring him back throughout the story indicates that Nicodemus saw Jesus for who he is.
Nicodemus speaks up on Jesus’ behalf in this passage. He suggests that they give a fair evaluation to Jesus’ words and what he’s said.
But the rest of the religious leaders lash out against him too.
We see these conflicts.
And the conflicts should not be surprising, because as I’ve said many times before: the gospel is offensive. The message of Christ and him crucified, and him coming to redeem the world is offensive. Because it confronts us with our sin and coming to terms with our own sin. It confronts us with our eternal hope. It confronts us with placing our faith and trust in something outside of ourselves.
The gospel is offensive.
And so we have all of these different responses. We see these conflicts in response to what Jesus has promised.
And the solution to the conflicts is Jesus himself.
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
What do you believe?
The only response which Jesus accepts is belief in him.
Josh Benner 