8/12/07 The Jerusalem Debates Pt. 2

We are studying a four chapter section of the Gospel of John,

chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10.

It’s a large section,

containing a great deal of material,

and yet these four chapters all belong together as a unit.

They include everything John has given us from the 3^rd year of the Master’s public ministry,

and nearly everything we find in these four chapters

took place during two separate visits to Jerusalem that 3^rd year.

The first visit was during the week long Feast of Tabernacles,

and the second, two months later, during the Feast of Dedication.

If you’d like a cultural parallel

to how these Feasts fit into the Jewish calendar

you can think of Thanksgiving and New Years.

The Feast of Tabernacles

was possibly the most treasured family holiday of the year.

The Feast came immediately following the fall harvest,

intended in part as a celebration of God’s bountiful provision for the year.

It was certainly a kind of national Thanksgiving celebration,

but it was far more than just that.

The Feast had its roots

in the events surrounding the nation’s great exodus from Egypt

and return to the land of Israel.

It was a week long national party

in which each family was required to live the entire week

in a makeshift temporary dwelling, or “tabernacle,”

made from branches and leaves.

It was to be furnished with just the bare essentials.

Part of the dwelling had to be open to the sky

so that those within could see the sun, the clouds, and the moon and stars at night.

These dwellings were intended

to remind the Jewish people of God’s deliverance

from their houses of bondage in Egypt

and of His Fatherly care for them throughout the journey in the wilderness.

People flocked to Jerusalem for the celebration.

For those involved in agriculture,

it provided a week of rest and enjoyment in the big city

following the intense labor of the harvest.

The adults loved the opportunity to reunite with family and friends,

and the children loved having the whole family

crammed into the little stick houses,

with mom cooking over an open fire

and dad forever fussing and fumbling with his crumbling construction.

It was a great tool for building a strong sense of family unity and national heritage.

Then, two months later in the month of December came the Feast of Dedication.

This was a more solemn time,

a time when the Temple alter was cleansed

and the Temple itself was rededicated for the coming year.

It was these two annual events,

the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Dedication,

that provided Jesus with the stage He wanted

as He prepared the Jewish national leadership

for the role they would play in His death the following year.

What we have in these four chapters

are several heated exchanges between Jesus and His enemies,

exchanges in which He forced them into such a frightened rage

that they were willing to literally risk anything in order to destroy Him.

And rather than taking our more common verse-by-verse approach to these four chapters

what I’m going to do is to simply share with you

an overview of what took place and why.

Using broad strokes

I’ll do my best to show you how this warfare between Jesus and His enemies progressed,

and then encourage you to fill in the details

with a more careful reading of the passage on your own.

OK, we’ll pick up John’s account at the beginning of chapter 7

with the approach of the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths as it was sometimes called.

As I’ve just said,

this was an annual event that frequently served as a great tool

for building strong unity into the family structure.

But in Jesus’ family this particular Feast of Tabernacles was having exactly the opposite effect.

As Jesus’ mother, Mary, and her other children

prepared for the trip south to Jerusalem for the feast,

Jesus’ brothers began goading him about His plans for the Feast.

“Aren’t you coming down with us, Jesus?

So what’s the matter?

You suddenly afraid to be seen in public?

Surely you want your disciples to see the works you’re doing, don’t you?

No one does things in secret when he wants to be known publicly.

Why don’t you go to Jerusalem with us and show yourself to the world?”

Being raised in a family in which Jesus was your big brother couldn’t have been easy.

How would you like your mother to forever be saying,

“Why can’t you be more like Jesus?”

His brothers knew all too well

the level of tension that now existed between Jesus and the Jewish leaders,

and they just wanted to see what would happen

if Jesus made a grand public entrance into the city.

He didn’t take the bait, of course.

No one controlled Him, ever.

Jesus said, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.” John 7:7-9

He stayed behind,

and the rest of the family headed to the big city.

Even in that statement, “My time has not yet fully come.”,

Jesus made it clear that He and He alone determined His own future.

He knew his own plan ,

He knew his own time,

He knew what would happen and when it would happen.

Then, a few days following His family’s departure,

when everyone else was well on their way,

Jesus Himself went down to Jerusalem.

He knew the trip was necessary.

He knew there were some things His enemies needed to hear

and only through cultivating in them a sense of helpless rage

would they be ready for the role assigned to them.

But His purposes could best be accomplished at this point

not through a grand public spectacle

but rather through several carefully controlled, more private confrontations.

His first such confrontation

came in the form of a sudden powerful presentation of Himself in the temple,

proclaiming, JOH 7:16-17"My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”

To say the least, His words were not well received.

It was no giant mental step from Jesus’ words

to the obvious conclusion that anyone who did not accept His teaching

did not have a heart for God.

It made the religious leadership furious,

but then, before the situation could escalate,

He dropped once again out of sight.

Twice during the week

He used others to provide Him with the platform

for the fulfillment of His purposes.

At one point, when the religious leaders spotted Him teaching in the temple,

they suddenly burst into His presence,

dragging a woman caught in the act of adultery.

With the pathetic creature cowering in shame at His feet,

they demanded His opinion of what should be done with her.

The law of Moses was clear -

she should be stoned.

In a brilliant response to their attempted entrapment,

He confronted the accusers with their own sin.

“He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

For obvious reasons the execution never took place.

In silence the woman’s accusers melted into the crowd.

When they were gone,

He turned His attention to the terrified woman before Him and said simply,

JOH 8:10-11 "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more."

A few days later

He enlisted the help of a man born blind.

After Jesus restored his sight on the Sabbath Day,

the man’s bold proclamation of gratitude

triggered a theological debate between the man and the Pharisees

that once again enraged Jesus’ accusers and, in the end, made them look absurd.

They were determined to force the formerly blind man

to admit Jesus must be evil

because he accomplished this wonder on the sacred day of rest.

The man’s response to their theological stupidity

could not have been better.

“Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” John 9:25

Perhaps the most powerful public proclamation Jesus made that week

took place on the last day of the Feast.

At this point in Jesus’ presentation of Himself to the Nation

the entire city was talking of little else but Him.

Who was He?

Was He from God?

Was He from Satan?

Was He the promised Messiah?

Could He really do the things people said He could do?

With the whole city talking about Him,

watching for Him,

wondering about Him,

He suddenly stood before the crowd in the Temple courtyard,

clearly intending to make some public statement.

As soon as the crowd saw Him,

absolute silence filled the courtyard.

What He said

left little doubt about His claim to national leadership

and about His ability to change the lives of all who came to Him.

JOH 7:37-38 "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'"

And then, just so that there could be no misunderstanding about the meaning of His words,

John includes this editorial statement following the quotation from the Master.

JOH 7:39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

On the day of Pentecost,

when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the people of God,

those there most certainly recalled that proclamation of the Lord’s

and understood what he was talking about.

And then, having accomplished His purposes,

Jesus pulled back out of sight once again,

returning to Galilee with His disciples for the next two months

avoiding all public meetings and open confrontations with the Pharisees.

Then, two months later He made one final visit to Jerusalem

prior to the Passover visit the following year that culminated in His crucifixion.

It was December,

the Feast of Dedication,

the annual cleansing of the temple altar

and the rededication of the building for the coming year.

His conversation with the Jews in the temple on that occasion

was calculated to leave no question in their minds about His identity or His claims.

This time the Jews brought no veiled request for “a sign.”

They came right out and asked Him.

JOH 10:24 "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."

And the Master’s response was just as direct and to the point.

JOH 10:25-30 "I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

Their choice was clear:

accept Him as the Messiah,

or stone Him for blasphemy against the Most High God.

Immediately they looked around for stones.

It must have been a terrifying and intensely frustrating time for Jesus’ disciples.

They knew Jesus was the rightful, God-ordained ruler of the Nation.

And yet they still did not have a clue as to God’s much greater plan,

the plan that would bring about the offer of salvation

to every person who would choose to call out to their God.

At this point all His men knew

was that rather than winning over those who held power

He seemed to be intentionally enraging them.

How could he possess so much power,

so much wisdom,

and yet fail to understand the techniques

necessary to move Himself into leadership over the nation?

His debate with his enemies continued a few minutes longer.

Then, when He had accomplished what He wanted, He left.

The stage was now ready.

The key players had just received their final instruction.

With two rows of men standing on either side of Him,

their fists clenching the largest stones they could find

the Master walked out of the city with His disciples following close behind.

No one threw a stone,

no one spoke another word,

not because they didn’t want to

but because they had yet to be given permission to do so by this Man who did all things well.

OK, now that’s the framework for these four chapters.

But to do what I’ve just done may not have been wise

because it will leave some of you with the assumption

that we really have just studied chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10 of the Gospel of John,

and the truth is that we have done no such thing.

We’ve built a framework for the chapters,

showing what Jesus was doing and why,

but we haven’t even begun to touch the wealth contained in these 193 verses.

Some of the most remarkable,

powerful,

potentially life-changing statements Christ ever made

are contained in this section of the book.

Let me give you just a few examples to show you what I mean,

and hopefully also give you an interest in reading this section on your own.

In 8:12 Jesus says,

"I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."

Do you think that’s Bible talk?

Does it sound to you like religious words that have no real contact with reality?

If so, then I hurt for you

because it probably means you have been subjected to some of the worst

that Satanic religious systems have to offer.

You see, that’s not religious talk,

that’s a promise to us from God Himself,

a promise in which He is telling us that, when we enter into Christ,

from that time on

we need never have to walk in darkness again,

a promise in which He tells us that through Him

we can literally know how life itself operates.

It’s not learning a system, though,

it’s learning how to place our hand in His

and then our following His lead step by step.

The Lord’s wording in that statement is fascinating.

He doesn’t say that He will show us the light or teach us the light,

He’s not suggesting that He wants to offer us an organized system of truth.

What He says is “I AM the light.”

And then He emphasizes this

by telling us that our hope,

our pathway into the light

is found through our following HIM,

one step at a time,

one day at a time.

And right here, by the way,

is a valuable tool with which we can help distinguish between religion and truth.

Religion offers you a belief system

and then calls you to obedience to it.

Christ offers you Himself

and then calls you to submission to Him.

“... he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

But you see, there is within true Christianity

a deep dependance upon the literal presence of Christ Himself in our lives.

In fact, that’s all it is.

Let me put it this way.

Everything that we could continue to do if the Holy Spirit was suddenly removed from us

is simply the product of religion and flesh motivations within us.

Everything that would cease within us if the Holy Spirit was suddenly removed from us

is the real thing,

the expressions of the life of Christ within us.

And in this one sentence

Christ is simply telling us

that we can and will be able to see life correctly

as we hear and follow His voice one step, one day at a time.

A few verses later in 8:19 we have another remarkable statement from the Master.

“... if you knew Me, you would know My Father also."

Do you know what that statement is?

It is God clearing up all the confusion about Himself forever in just 10 words.

It is God freeing us from endless confusion,

and deception,

and lies about Himself.

It is our God telling us

that any ideas about God,

or approaches to God that do not bring us directly and only to Jesus Christ are lies.

We live in a world in which we love to believe that there are many paths to God,

and if we are “sincere” in our pursuit of Him,

each of those paths are equally valid and equally honored by Him.

In other words, we love to set ourselves up as the ultimate authority in the God/man relationship,

giving ourselves both the right and the ability to decide

where, and when, and how we come to Him.

Welcome to the worst of the Garden of Eden.

Welcome to the lie that Satan fed Adam and Eve.

We tell God that He is obligated to honor our efforts,

our decisions,

our opinions about how we will and will not pursue Him.

And how does He respond to our arrogance?

Not the way we would expect, let me tell you,

and certainly not the way we deserve.

He responds by clothing Himself in human flesh and blood

so that we can see Him up close and personal,

so that we can see His love for us in the face of our arrogance,

our rebellion against Him.

But it should come as no surprise

that He reserves for Himself the absolute right

to determine how we can enter into the discovery of His love,

and we do it by bowing before the Son.

JOH 14:6 Jesus said to him, "... no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

It was this same truth that enraged the religious folk in the 1^st century,

enraged them to the point where they determined to destroy the King.

And this same truth has been the only true dividing line in the human race ever since.

“... if you knew Me, you would know My Father also."

I probably made that whole thing too complicated.

What He’s saying is that we can easily recognize the truth

because all truth will lead us to Jesus Christ.

And we can easily recognize the lies

because they will seek to offer us a path to God or a path to “truth”

that does not involve our personal submission to Jesus Christ.

What leads us to Christ is truth...everything else is a lie.

And the remarkable statements from our God found in this section

go on, and on, and on.

Just a few verses farther on in chapter 8

we come to 5 verses that have had as great an impact on my own life

as any other five verses in the Bible.

JOH 8:31-32, 34-36 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. ...Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

There is so much in those few verses.

Just the fact that Jesus clearly states

that His goal in our lives is to make us free is a truth filled with wonder.

He doesn’t want to make us religious.

He doesn’t want to make us weird.

He wants to make us free,

truly free in the deepest sense of the word.

Which means, of course,

that anything that does not contribute to our growing personal freedom-

not the pseudo freedom to do whatever we want whenever we want,

but the true freedom to have both the desire and the ability to be the people we were designed to be -

anything that does not contribute to that freedom is neither true nor from Him.

And talk about unmasking the enemy!

Here He is telling us that sin always brings slavery into our lives.

It always has hooks,

hooks that set themselves deep into our flesh and hold us.

And only His truth has the ability to break the power of those hooks

and allow us to become all that we were designed to be.

And here again what I just said probably didn’t help some of you at all

because it sounded like something you expect a Bible teacher to say,

and because the words,

and the truths they communicate did not make the transition into your life.

So let me try one more time.

With some of you here this morning

there is a lie that has taken root in your minds.

You don’t know it’s a lie.

Nobody knowingly ever chooses to believe a lie.

In fact you believe it is the truth absolutely.

But it is a lie, none the less.

You have believed that there is something you need,

or something you must do,

or something you must not do in order to have the kind of life you truly long for.

It is something that you know is directly opposite from what your God is asking from you.

And yet there it is.

And I will say simply that

I could not care about you as I do,

and I certainly couldn’t fulfill my obligation to you as your teacher

without telling you the truth.

If what you are pursuing is not consistent with what He has said to you

then it will not bring you freedom,

it will bring you only bondage,

and pain,

and regret.

I’m certainly not suggesting that what He’s asking from you is easy.

I’m just telling you

that He alone has the truth

that will make you free indeed.

So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Well, that’s just a sampling of some of what we find in these four chapters,

and I think we’ll take one more week to look at a little more of what we have here.

But we’re out of time for this morning.