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Chapter 5, as we continue to read through this wonderful New Testament epistle. Jason will read, then pray for us, please.
Hebrews chapter 5, For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward since he himself is beset with weakness.
Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, You are my son, today I have begotten you.
As he also says in another place, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.
You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child, but solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You for the work of Christ. We thank You that He is our great High Priest, that He has reconciled us to You, that He continues to make intercession for us. Lord, we thank You that this was His work that You determined that He would do, and that He did it faithfully.
Lord, without Jesus Christ, we would be ignorant of the things of the Word. We would be lost. We would be in darkness. We would be enemies of You. But because of Christ and because of His work, we who are far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
We who were aliens have become adopted into Your family, and now we share all of the blessings, Lord, that there are. We thank You for these tremendous truths. And Lord, I pray that we would not become dull of hearing, that we would long for the pure milk of the Word, that we would long for solid food.
So Lord, help us now as we listen to the Word of God proclaimed. Help us, Lord, to be attentive. Help us, Lord, to be alert. Help us to be thinking about these things as they pertain to our souls. And may Your Holy Spirit teach us how to apply these truths.
We thank You, Lord, for this morning. We thank You that we can be here to worship You, for You are worthy. Thank You, Lord, in Jesus' name, Amen.
Well, let's turn in our Bibles once again to John 7. And it's our intention today to complete our study of John 7. This is the fifth Lord's Day that we've been in this chapter, which sets forth Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.
We're going to consider verses 40 through 52 in some detail, which complete this episode of John 7. But in order to retain the context of these verses, we'll begin reading with verse 37, which we read and addressed last week, but we want to speak a little further about it today.
And so we'll read beginning with John 7, 37 through verse 52, which is one verse short of the end of the chapter, but it actually completes the episode, because really verse 53 should be connected with the opening passage of John chapter 8, rather than the closing portion of John chapter 7.
But we'll address that next week, Lord willing. So John 7, 37, Jesus, we read of Jesus, on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Therefore, many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, truly, this is the prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, will the Christ come out of Galilee? As not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was.
So there was a division among the people because of him. Now, some of them wanted to take him, but no one laid hands on him. And the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, why have you not brought him?
And the officers answered, no man ever spoke like this man. And then the Pharisees answered them, are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.
Nicodemus, he who came to Jesus by night being one of them, said to them, does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? And they answered and said to him, are you also from Galilee?
Search and look for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. And with that last word, the episode concludes. As we work through these verses, we'll consider the promised gift of the Holy Spirit that we touched on last week.
Secondly, the varied proposals to the identity and role of Jesus put forth by these people. Third, the failure of the officers to take Jesus. And then lastly, we'll consider Nicodemus' appeal on behalf of Jesus, which is quite interesting.
And so let's first consider the passage itself, and then we'll consider some of the implications for us. First, the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. We addressed our Lord's words in these verses, the last Lord's day, the Lord Jesus used the last day of the feast of tabernacles in order to present himself as the one to whom the feast anticipated, even the Messiah who would inaugurate the promise of God.
And so he declared the one who is thirsty, that is the one who truly desires to know God and be received by him into his kingdom, may believe on Jesus in order to receive the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life.
The one who believes on Jesus has his spiritual thirst satisfied, but then he in turn becomes a source for abundant living water for others. For having come to Christ in repentance from sin and faith in him, believers not only receive their own forgiveness of sins and eternal life, but they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus gives to every one of his own that are in his kingdom.
They then become the source of life for others as they tell of the Savior who had loved them and bestowed his mercy and grace upon them. This gift of the Holy Spirit would enable each believer in Jesus Christ to become a spring of life, giving water to others in need.
In other words, the Lord purposes to use his people to reach other people with his life, giving power and presence as they make known to others the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so each of us who know Jesus Christ, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us and we are to be springs of living water flowing out to others in the world as we make known Christ to them.
Our thirst has been assuaged by the gracious mercy of God in Christ and as we tell others of the mercy and grace of God in Christ, we can have their thirst also assuaged, their spiritual thirst. And so not only will every true believer receive full satisfaction for his spiritual longing, he'll have his need fully met, fully complete his eternal well-being, but in addition he becomes a source of spiritual blessing to others.
And that's what God intends for you to be as a Christian within this fallen world. And so through his prayerful concern, his words of life that speak to others, his good works that cause others to see the reality of God in his life, the water of life will flow into the souls of others for their everlasting benefit and soul satisfaction.
And it's a wonderful privilege, opportunity, but also responsibility that we have as Christians to make others to hear and understand the grace of God in Christ that we heard once and we received. And in so doing, we have the ability to satisfy the thirsty souls of those about us.
The Lord, of course, creates the thirst and then he provides satisfaction for that thirst through the gospel. And he intends for you and me to be ones through whom this grace is channeled. And so by coming to Jesus Christ in faith, the believer will have enough true life for himself and more than enough for others as well.
And it's a wonderful thing to be used of the Lord, isn't it? To know that you're further in the kingdom and that you are actually being of eternal benefit to others about you. And we've often said, you know, as wonderful a thing as it is to have God answer your prayer, it's a far greater thing to be an answer yourself to somebody's prayer.
When they are calling out desirous for God, God has given them a spiritual thirst, hunger and thirst. And then the Lord sends you along with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it's just a wonderful thing to be a part of that.
And that's what he does, of course, through our church as well. And it's a wonderful thing to have a part in that. Here's a good description of the blessing to the world that Christians are, and it'll be revealed on the last day.
You and I can't know really fully just how much influence we have among others in the world. That day alone shall reveal the amount of good that every believer is made the instrument of doing to others from the very day of their conversion.
Some do good while they live by their tongues like the apostles and the first preachers of the gospel. Some do good when they are dying like Stephen and the penitent thief and our own martyred reformers at the stake.
Some do good long after they are dead by their writings like Baxter and Bunyan, Machain. But in one way or another, probably almost all believers will be found to have been fountains of blessings by word or deed, by precept or by example, directly or indirectly, they are always leaving their marks on others.
They know it not now, but they will find it at last that it is true, Christ's saying shall be fulfilled. And so this is a glorious work of God that he does through his people. Now, before we move on from this truth, I would like us to consider the meaning and implications more carefully of verse 39, which is John's explanation of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
John wrote of Jesus's promise, but this he spoke concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. So John gave explanation of the promise of Jesus by saying it would be a future realization for believers.
He was referring, of course, to Pentecost, when the enthroned Lord Jesus in heaven sent the Holy Spirit upon each and every one of his disciples, everyone who had believed on him. But we see that Pentecost, this blessing of the gift of the Spirit to everyone who believes on him could not occur until after Jesus was glorified.
And when we read of Jesus being glorified in John's gospel, we should understand that it chiefly is speaking about being lifted up on his cross. You might be thinking primarily of him being glorified in heaven when he's seated on the throne of God, and certainly is glorified in that matter.
But for John's gospel, Jesus being glorified is chiefly him being lifted up on the cross. As one noted, notice the cross is referred to in terms of glory, not of shame. And that's how John presents the cross of Jesus in his gospel.
But we should also see his glorification is really one movement from the cross through the grave onto his resurrection, ascension, exaltation of king of kings and Lord of lords. But chiefly on his cross in John's gospel.
Now, as we stated last week, here the coming of the Holy Spirit is not a direct reference to the regeneration of the sinner. It is the new birth. When the Holy Spirit causes a spiritually dead sinner to come alive spiritually, which then shows forth itself in faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord, his repentance from sin, and his desired commitment to live for Christ and serve him among his people.
The word regeneration or the new birth is the experience of every person throughout history, not just after the cross of Jesus, which this blessing that Jesus was speaking about would be after his glorification.
John declared this is when it would take place. But the new birth regeneration is the way that all people have ever been saved throughout the Old Testament era and the New Testament era is through the Holy Spirit causing a person to be born again, that they come to repentance and faith.
The Old Testament saints, faith in the coming Messiah, New Testament saints, of course, in who Jesus Christ is and what he did. This gift of the Holy Spirit is not regeneration, but rather it's the promised gift of every believer under the new covenant that God has promised new covenant believers.
It's really the grace of sanctification that's being promised for New Testament believers. And again, this gift had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. The gift of the Holy Spirit empowers the Christian for witness, as we clearly see in the book of Acts.
The gift of the Holy Spirit empowers the true Christian to live the Christian life. In other words, this gift of the Holy Spirit is the means by which King Jesus enables every one of his disciples, true Christians, to live holy lives before him.
This is a special enablement that the Lord gives every one of his people in this gospel age. It is a promise of the new covenant found in the Old Testament prophets, but not realized until the day of Pentecost and thereafter.
Every true Christian has the gift of the Holy Spirit given to him or her in a manner that Old Testament believers never enjoyed. Yes, they had the Holy Spirit regenerate them. Yes, the Holy Spirit would come upon some at different times to give them physical proudness or strength or wisdom.
But in the New Testament, under the new covenant, every true Christian is given the gift of the Holy Spirit that enables them to live for Christ, live a life, a holy life before God in a way that people in the Old Testament time just were not capable of doing.
It's a promise of the covenant in Jesus Christ. And it was secured prior to the life and death of Jesus Christ and his glorification. And so this is a special enablement that the Lord gives to every one of his people in this gospel age.
As Christians, we have far more ability in this kingdom age to live holy lives before the Lord than any of the saints were capable under the old covenant prior to the glorification of Jesus Christ. And so there's a clear difference in distinction of privilege and ability on the part of Christians in this New Testament age than there were of believers in the Old Testament age.
That every Christian has the Holy Spirit which brings about his sanctification, that is his ability to live the Christian life and faith and obedience to Christ was stated and explained by the Apostle Paul quite clearly and fully in Romans chapter 8.
As we read these words, consider the privilege and capability the Lord gives through the Spirit to New Testament Christians that those formerly under the law never possessed or enjoyed. Paul is comparing and contrasting those while living under the law and those now living under Christ in this gospel age who've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit to enable them to live holy lives, sanctified lives.
This is a longer passage, but it's an important passage. Here we have instructions on how you as a Christian may live a holy life. Paul reasons, there is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.
There's no law that can condemn the Christian now. It's been fully satisfied on the cross of Christ. And then he gives the reason why, the explanation why. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. See, something new happened, something wonderful happened that the law couldn't produce prior to the coming of Christ, but God has done through the coming of Christ by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.
And then in verse four, we have a purpose clause. Why did God do this? In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
We have an ability to live according to the law of God that people in the old covenant, Old Testament time just did not have. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
And here the things of the Spirit is living according to righteousness, according to God's law. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, that is to live for sin and according to sin, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. That's speaking about the non-Christian. For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. It's not possible. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you. In other words, if you're a Christian, you're not in the flesh, you're in the Spirit. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.
Again, Jesus said in John 7 that everyone who believes on Him is going to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So much so, if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not a Christian. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
There's a struggle there, but the Spirit is there. Verse 11, If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
So then, brothers, we are not debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. And then in verse 13, he gives the reason why we're debtors to the Spirit. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
If you live for sin, you order your life according to sin. Sin governs your life. You're going to die in your sins. You're not a Christian, regardless of what you claim. Now, every Christian struggles with sin, fights against sin, but we don't live in sin.
We don't live for sin. We live for Christ, is what the scriptures say. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,.
You will live.
This is true of every true Christian. We cannot put to death sin in our lives by our own strength, our own will, our own love for the Lord. Only by means of the Holy Spirit can we fight and defeat sin.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we also may be glorified with him.
And so Paul declared that those who had been under the law of Moses as a covenant during the days of the Old Testament could not order their lives according to the law of God, although they were commanded to do so.
They were incapable of doing so. But those in Christ in this new covenant age have the gift of the Holy Spirit that enables them to live according to God's law. The Holy Spirit gives the believer both the desire and the ability to order his life according to the righteousness of God's law.
Every true Christian has the Holy Spirit and therefore has the resources. Now, you may not use them. You may not call upon them and you're to be faulted for that, maybe due to ignorance or rebellion.
I don't know.
But every Christian has the resources available by God, from God, in order to live a sanctified life before God. Of course, this does not deny that the ability and success of the true Christian to live a life of holiness takes place with great difficulty and struggle.
Every one of us struggled to live for Christ. But again, it's our desire to do so. And to the degree daily we look to Christ to give us the power of the Holy Spirit to do the things he commands us, he enables us to do so.
Not out of love, not out of self-will, not out of a, you know, a resolve and commitment, but out of the enabling power of the Holy Spirit that King Jesus gives his people when they look to him and trust him to give them that power.
And so the promise of God is true that every true Christian in this church age has the Holy Spirit to enable him to live a life of righteousness before God. And that's what Jesus was declaring at the end of this feast in John chapter 7, that everyone who believes on him would be given the gift of the Holy Spirit.
He was not yet given according to John because Jesus had not yet been glorified. But after Christ was crucified, buried, rose again, enthroned in heaven, he gave the Holy Spirit to his people. And now the Holy Spirit has come upon every true Christian, whether male or female, great or small, Jew or Gentile, every true Christian has the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit to live the Christian life.
Now, one of the reasons that I wanted to rehearse this this morning and press this upon us is that this truth has implications for how we define the nature of the local church as set forth in the New Testament.
There are those who advocate that believers of both the Old Testament era and the New Testament era are all members of the same church of Jesus Christ, that there's no difference between Old Testament believers and New Testament believers.
Our Reformed Paedo-Baptist friends, that is those who are Reformed, who understand the gospel in the same way we do, but they baptize infants, children of believing parents, believe and teach this, that believers under the Old Testament, believers under the New Testament are exactly the same in their abilities to live before God.
Now, in a sense, we agree that all Old Testament believers and New Testament believers are of one universal church. They are all redeemed by Christ through his death, life, death, and resurrection. In fact, our confession of faith states this true.
The Catholic, and that's lowercase c, Catholic is just a word that means universal, not capital C like Roman Catholic Church, Catholic like universal. The Catholic or universal church, which with respect to the internal work of the spirit and truth of grace, may be called invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof, and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.
And so the church here is called invisible for the members of this universal, invisible church cannot be precisely identified in this world, since there are so many who claim to be true Christians who are not.
However, in contrast to the universal invisible church, there is a visible people who have been identified as God's people throughout history. There's the invisible church, and there is the visible church.
And for the most part in the Old Testament, the visible people of God was the nation of Israel. This nation was not comprised of true believers only. Rather, the Israel of the Old Testament was constituted a physical nation.
People became citizens of this nation through physical birth, signified by physical circumcision.
Of the males.
God had given the nation of Israel his law through Moses that was to govern its national life. If national Israel kept God's law, God's blessing on the land was assured them. But God had forewarned them that if they failed to order their life according to the law of God, then God would curse them and reject them as his people.
And of course, this is what occurred in history. God brought his judgment upon Israel in history for its failure to keep the Mosaic covenant before God. But thankfully, in the Old Testament prophets, God promised that he would bring an end, would not bring an end to that people, but that he would save a remnant of them onto himself.
He would send to this remnant, the Messiah who had established the kingdom of God. And everyone who believed on him as Lord and Savior would enter this spiritual kingdom, not a physical or literal kingdom, but a spiritual kingdom.
And of course, that's the kingdom that our Lord Jesus brought into realization through his ministry, death and resurrection. And so since that time, his kingdom is not entered as in former times through physical birth, but it is only by the new birth that people enter the kingdom of God.
As John makes very clear in John chapter three, with Nicodemus, only those who experience a circumcision without hands, speaking about a change of heart and inward work of saving grace are admitted as citizens of the kingdom of God.
And so there's a clear distinction between the people of God of the Old Testament, people of God of the New Testament. The Old Testament, it was a physical ethnic people of Israel. New Testament, it's a spiritual people that are brought into relationship with God through Jesus Christ and faith in him.
Now, this is one of the main reasons that we as Baptists are to be distinguished from our reformed Pato Baptist friends. And again, Pato Baptist means, Pato is just a Latin word for child or infant. Those who practice infant baptism.
Our Pato Baptist friends claim that the visible church of the New Testament is the same as the visible church of the Old Testament. They teach that the church of the Old Testament was entered through physical birth.
If your parents were in the church, then their children would also be regarded as in the church. And in the same way, they teach that the church of the New Testament is entered through physical birth.
If your parents are Christians, then you are also to be regarded as members of the New Testament church because of your parents' faith. And that's the basis of baptizing infants. Here is their definition of the New Testament visible church from the Westminster Confession of Faith, which except for one or two of these little articles is a wonderful Confession of Faith, almost identical to our Baptist Confession of 1689.
But here is wherein we would differ. It declares, the visible church, which is also Catholic, again, universal, under the gospel, not confined to one nation as before under the law, consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion and their children.
See, the visible church, not just believers only, not just people who have faith in Jesus Christ, who have the Holy Spirit, but those who profess the true faith and their children are to be regarded as members of the visible church.
And is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, in other words, they're members of the kingdom, the house and family of God out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. And so they teach that the visible church should be comprised of adults that profess the true religion.
That's a very precise statement. And what it says and also what it doesn't say. Take note, membership is not restricted to those whose lives give evidence of new life in Christ, as we Baptists advocate, but it's open to all who profess the true religion.
In other words, people are treated and regarded as Christians and qualified to become members of the visible church if they have only been taught rightly and that they claim to believe the true religion.
But in addition to these are embraced in the visible church who agree to certain doctrines only, their children are also qualified to enter formal membership in the local church. And so they become members of the visible church, not because of the new life in Christ that they give evidence of having received, but only due to who their parents are, those who profess the true religion.
In short, and here's the bottom line. In short, local membership is not restricted to true Christians, which we advocate as Baptists, but membership is open to anyone in the sphere of public profession that believes the right things.
Its membership is by creed, not by conversion, by natural birth, not by spiritual birth. And that's wherein we differ quite strongly with our good, good friends who are reformed Paedobaptists. And so we strongly disagree with our Paedobaptist friends regarding who should be allowed to become a member of the visible church.
We advocate that only those who exhibit in their confession and life that they know the Lord savingly, that they have new life in Christ, that they have the gift of the Holy Spirit, as we've described, are to be admitted to the New Testament local church.
And here's the statement in our Baptist confession. All persons throughout the world professing the faith of the gospel. Now that's the same as what the Presbyterians in the congregation said in the Westminster Confession, but notice it adds, and obedience unto God by Christ according to it, and not destroying their own profession by any errors averting the foundation or unholiness of conversation.
The way they live,.
Are and may be called visible saints and of such are all particular congregations to be constituted. In other words, we as Baptists believe the New Testament says that a local church should be comprised of only people who are Christians, who truly experience new life in Christ, who have the Holy Spirit, who are seeking to live for Christ and order in their lives according to the righteousness of God.
And so Old Testament Israel was a physical people who became members through physical birth and physical circumcision. New Testament Israel is a spiritual people who become members through their spiritual birth, that is spiritual circumcision.
Whereas Old Testament Israel could not keep the law of God as its rule of life under the Mosaic covenant, the citizens of New Testament Israel do keep the law of God as a rule of life due to the gift of the Holy Spirit that King Jesus gives to every one of his people.
The point that we're making here, and maybe summed up in this way, all true Christians live holy lives through the power of the Holy Spirit, not perfect lives, obviously, but holy lives through the power of the Holy Spirit that King Jesus gives everyone who knows him as Lord and Savior.
And they only are to be admitted and regarded as members of local churches in this New Testament age. This is a Baptist distinctive. We believe it's taught by the New Testament. And Baptists down in history have been persecuted because of this matter that we proclaim.
Here in Massachusetts, back in the 1700s, from 1740 to 1800, Isaac Bacchus was a Baptist, born Pato Baptist, came to Baptistic convictions, and he was persecuted terribly,.
Jailed.
The properties of his church members confiscated in order to pay a tax to support the official congregational clergy in Massachusetts. And it was because they were advocating no local church should be comprised of true Christians only that resulted in them suffering great persecution from their Pato Baptist contemporaries.
Thankfully, we live in a free society today, and we have liberty in our land where you're free to go to any church, and every church is free to live according to its own convictions. But it was largely due to the influence of Baptists in the formation of our Constitution.
Isaac Bacchus was one of the attendees down at the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia who made an appeal, persuaded James Madison to set forth the idea of a separation of state and church, which resulted in liberty to Baptist churches and not only Baptists but other churches as well, including Quakers who were persecuted as well for their practice.
And so this is an important matter. Every true Christian has the Holy Spirit, and they live lives differently than they had before. And only true Christians.
Should be admitted.
As members of the local church. I'm of the opinion that a paedo-Baptist church is just one generation from apostasy, possible apostasy and corruption. You have a child born into the church, son or daughter of a Christian parent.
They're catechized well. Paedo-Baptist churches do that. They grow up in the church. They affirm the right truth of the gospel when they become 12. They become communicant members of the church, members of the church.
They may go to college and then maybe a young man gets out of college, I'm going to go to seminary. Goes to seminary, he's ordained, he becomes a pastor of a church, and yet he's never experienced the new birth in his life.
Although he has an affirmation and conformity to what is true, but it's not true reality to his life and soul. And unfortunately that happens. Now, if we had time, we could hit on Baptists too, by the way, not say that they're perfect because Baptists today tend to admit and accept anybody and everybody who makes the least claim that they're a Christian.
They embrace them as members of the church. And so you have the same problem in Baptist churches because they're not attempting to maintain a regenerate church membership as the scriptures teach and as our confession of faith expresses.
Well, let's move on now in our passage. And here in verses 40 through 44, we read a varied proposals to the identity and role of Jesus. Verse 40, Therefore, many from the crowd, when they heard this aid, said, truly, this is the prophet.
Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?
And so there was a division among the people because of him. And now some of them wanted to take him, but no one laid hands on him. Now, the text we have been using is the New King James Version. And there's a textual variant in verse 40.
In other words, down through history, some scribe made a change in the text he was copying. And it shows forth in the New King James Translation different than, say, the ESV, the English Standard Version.
And so in verse 40, the newer translations speak of some from the crowd. The New King James Version says, many of the crowd. Apparently, some scribe down through history felt he wanted many of the crowd being in favor of Jesus rather than just some of the crowd and made that intentional change.
It probably should read some of the crowd. That's how John penned that originally when he wrote the gospel. And of course, it's that original gospel that John wrote, which is inspired of God directly and inerrant in every way.
And we have copies of that, good copies, by the way. Now, there were some there that concluded Jesus was the prophet. In verse 40, therefore, many from the crowd, some from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, truly, this is the prophet.
And we've spoken about this before. There were varied beliefs and expectations among the Jewish people regarding the coming of the promised kingdom.
And the Messiah.
All believed that God would raise up for them the prophet that Moses had foretold. This is recorded in Deuteronomy 18, 15 and following. Moses declared, this is at the end of his ministry. He's about to die.
The people are about ready to go into the promised land under Joshua. And he declared,.
The Lord, your God,.
Will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear according to all you desired of the Lord, your God, and Horeb, that's Mount Sinai in the day of the assembly, saying, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord, my God, nor let me see his great fire any more lest I die.
I will raise up for him, them a prophet like you. This is God speaking to Moses from among their brethren and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words, which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him.
And so verse 40 indicates that some thought Jesus was the prophet that Moses foretold would come. And in the Greek text, we have the definite article before the word prophet. It's not just some thought he was a prophet, but rather some thought he was the prophet, clearly the prophet that Moses foretold would come.
Interestingly, however, not all Israelites believe this promised prophet would be the Messiah, but rather some thought he would be a prophet of the coming Messiah. In other words, they look for two notable persons to arise, the Messiah, and then the Messiah would have his prophet alongside him.
And they thought perhaps Jesus was this prophet, not the Messiah. No, no, this is the prophet that Moses declared would arise. But then we see in verse 40 that we read of others, some others, who did believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
Again, verses 40 and 41, therefore many from the crowd, some from the crowd, when they heard this said, truly this is the prophet. Others said this is the Christ. You see, they distinguish between the prophet and the Christ.
These believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Christ, the promised king, the son of David, who would restore the Davidic kingdom in all its glory. Of course, we know that the prophet whom Moses promised would come and the promised Christ, the king, was one and the same person, Jesus Christ.
They thought apparently there would be two different people. And so Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, not too long after Pentecost, preached to the gathered crowd.
In Jerusalem.
And made declaration that Jesus Christ was the prophet that Moses had said would one day arrive. And so we read now Acts 3, 17 -26, Peter preaching,. Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it, that is, crucify Jesus in ignorance, as did also your rulers.
But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets that Christ would suffer, He has fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
And then here it is, For Moses truly said to the fathers,.
The Lord your God.
Will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren, him you shall hear in all things whatsoever he says to you, and it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.
Notice you've got the people, Israel, and Jesus comes, and the ones who refuse to hear Jesus, they are taken out from the people. The people continues, the people of Israel continue, but now the people of Israel are only those who believe and respond to Jesus as the promised prophet.
And yes, all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as spoken foretold these days, that is the days of this church age, you are the sons of the prophets of the covenant which God made with our father, saying to Abraham, in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed, to you first, speaking about Jews, God having first, having raised up his servant,.
Jesus,.
Sent him to bless you and turning away every one of you from your iniquities. Only those people of Israel who believe and submitted to the authoritative teaching of Jesus Christ, the promised prophet, Messiah, would be permitted to continue as members of God's covenant people.
All others were cut off from the people of God. And by the way, here again, we see the true people of God are not so because of physical birth, they're only allowed to continue as the people of God through saving faith in the Messiah.
This is what qualifies them to be a true member of spiritual Israel, God's covenant people. So this really reinforces everything that we were saying earlier, how the church is to be comprised of regenerate people only.
Well, we next read of the officers returning to the Jewish leaders who had sent them to arrest Jesus. And so we read of the failure of the officers to take Jesus. And then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees.
Who said to them,.
Why have you not brought him? The officers answered, no man ever spoke like this man. And then the Pharisees answered them, are you also deceived? If any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in him, but this crowd that does not know the law is a curse.
Now we had read earlier last week, I think that these officers had been sent by the Jewish Sanhedrin to arrest Jesus. Yeah, verse 35 records, the Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning him.
And the Pharisees and chief priests sent officers to take him. And here we read of their return reporting back to the Jewish leaders and they came back without Jesus. It was seen by John's description and depiction of these men that they had failed to arrest Jesus, not because they were unable to do so, but because they were unwilling to do so after they heard Jesus teaching and preaching.
All they could say to the Jewish leaders was no man ever spoke like this man, which calls forth for their rebuke and reproof. By the Jewish leaders, FF Bruce wrote of the witness of these Jewish temple officers.
Although the actual terminology of witness is not used here, these police officers add their contribution to the cumulative witness born to Jesus and recorded in the gospel. The words which they heard speak made such an impression on them, they could not bring themselves to execute their commission and arrest him.
No one ever spoke like him. Such authority, such grace, they had never found in any other speaker. Their testimony was expressed in a few simple words, but it has stood the test of 19 centuries. No man ever talked like this man.
I'm reading this year through the newly published Spurgeon's Study Bible in which the editors interspersed Spurgeon's notes and the sermon notes throughout the Bible and there's a full page here at John 7, 46.
Where on the left hand, you have Charles Spurgeon's handwritten sermon notes and then on the right hand, it's all typed out in regular font so you can read it clearly. And I included this outline here just to help broaden our appreciation of the preaching and teaching of Jesus.
And so Spurgeon's sermon, he called it the eloquence of Jesus based on verse 46. The officers answered, never man speak like this man. And Spurgeon says, the testimony is more valuable as coming from enemies.
No man ever spoke like this man. It relates both to his eloquent manner and his sacred matter. And there you have the two points of his sermon. As to his manner, the qualities of the speaker, incorruptible truth,.
Fidelity,.
Boldness, zeal, prudence, wisdom, humility, love and the characteristics of his style, simplicity, seriousness, no smile or joke, earnestness, directness. And then as to the matter, the content of his teaching, it was all important.
He spoke about the soul, sin, God, holiness, heaven, hell. His preaching and speaking was joyful, speaking about pardon, redemption, restoration, liberty. And then Spurgeon said, if we compare Jesus to others,.
He excels.
Moses could preach law but not gospel, terror but not love. Noah, preacher of righteousness but not full gospel. Nathan's personality, Jesus excelled him in other things. Elijah needed a little gentleness and love.
Jeremiah was all pathetic. Jesus sometimes rejoiced. Jesus concentrated the marrow of all styles, the jewels of language and the solemnities of eternity. And yet his small success, Jesus' relative small success when you look at the end of his ministry sets forth our current dependence upon the spirit while Jesus' character is the model of a minister.
And again, that's just his, he would go into the pulpit with just a handful of notes that he would often write Saturday night. He'd preach a number of times throughout each week but oftentimes it was a Saturday night before he even considered what he was going to preach the following day.
Well, we read in verse 47 the reaction of the Pharisees to these officers and the Pharisees answered them, are you also deceived? These Jewish leaders of the Pharisees associated these officers with the common people whom they assumed had been deceived by Jesus.
And so what we have revealed here, suggested to us as an attitude of contempt on the part of these religious leaders for those who are not as educated or informed as they were. There is a spiritual arrogance here.
This contemptuous spirit was characteristic of the Jewish leaders toward people who had embraced Jesus or even of those who had been somewhat persuaded that Jesus was a man of significance. And this is often true of religious leaders that are void of true life in Jesus Christ.
They are arrogant, patronizing toward the common people. And you think back at the Reformers and what they experienced from Rome. The attitude, the patronizing attitude that was manifest in oppression and repression.
One of the most prominent Jewish rabbis of the century before, a generation before Jesus and Rabbi Hillel said this of the common people. No member of the common people is pious. And he was one of the leading Jewish leaders at the time.
You know, that's the attitude and action of a legalist. And the response of these Pharisees toward the Jewish temple officers reflects this contemptuous spirit. They similarly dismissed the report of the officers that Jesus was very impressive and pervasive in his speaking.
Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in him? And to them that settles the matter. Officers just looked. Can you see any of the rulers? Any of the Pharisees?
They're the ones who know.
They're the ones who are informed. They're the ones who can tell you authoritatively what to believe and what not to believe. And then they further spoke disparately of the people. But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.
This is their attitude toward the common people. As one wrote from the Pharisees' point of view, the common people could easily be misled by any plausible teacher because of their shocking ignorance of the true interpretation of the law.
This was their attitude. Can you imagine? These were your religious leaders. And some of you have experienced that, haven't you? And it's a sad thing. But actually, these religious leaders were the ones who were ignorant, weren't they?
They were ignorant in assuming that none of the rulers of the Pharisees believed on him. The fact is, there was at least one, and he was standing right there with them. He was both a ruler and a Pharisee, Nicodemus.
And apparently, he believed on Jesus. And so Nicodemus then speaks up on behalf of Jesus. And he appeals in verses 50 to 52. These Pharisees had said that none of the Jewish rulers or Pharisees had believed on him, but they were wrong.
There is one standing right there with them. And then he speaks up. Nicodemus, and then John describes him, he who came to Jesus by night being one of them, he was a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews, John 3, said to them, does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he's doing?
This is incredible when you consider what Nicodemus said and challenged them. Nicodemus clearly spoke up on behalf of Jesus. Granted, it was not an overt confession on his part, but it does suggest that Nicodemus had been responsive to our Lord's time, concern, and instruction that he had given him back recorded in John 3.
And so here was a man who is not of the people, those common people who don't know the law,.
They're accursed.
None of them are pious. Here is a man not of the people who did indeed know the law, who appealed to the law that they had been dealing unjustly with Jesus by condemning him without a formal hearing from him.
Whatever might be said of the ignorance of the common people, here is a man who knew the law and concited authoritatively as befitted the teacher of Israel. And so here's Nicodemus who basically stands up, you people here advocating the law and everybody's ignorant of the law and you're not dealing with Jesus according to the law that you say you agree to.
He is pointing out their hypocrisy. One described this quite well, apparently there was no dissenting voice and this provoked Nicodemus into saying something. There's something dramatic in the way that John introduces this.
The leaders denied that any important person believed on Jesus and Nicodemus immediately spoke up. They condemned the multitude for not knowing the law and Nicodemus puts his fingers straight away on their own disregard for the law.
John characterizes Nicodemus in two ways as having formally come to Jesus and as being one of the Pharisees. It is his double character which causes him to speak in this situation. But though he speaks up in defense of Jesus, it is a very cautious line that he takes.
He does not commit himself, he does not bear witness as do many in this gospel and yet the temper of the meeting must be borne in mind. Playing testimony to Jesus would undoubtedly have enraged the majority further.
Nicodemus may have judged that Christ's cause would best be served by pointing these angry men to a legal weakness in their position. His question looks for a negative answer. In other words, in the Greek text, it's a rhetorical question.
When Nicodemus asked this question, he was expecting and implying a negative answer. No, you're not dealing with Jesus according to the law. He is sure of his point. He reminds them that according to their law, the accused must first be heard in person.
The judges must know what he does. The implication is clear that these judges do not really know what Jesus does. Nicodemus is of the opinion that they ought not to give sentence until they do. He was clearly confronting them.
And here's another assessment of the situation, the role of Nicodemus, put forth by Herman Ritter Boss. He wrote a theological commentary of John's gospel, which is quite good. It's not verse by verse, but he conveys the theological themes that are set forth in the gospel.
He wrote this, but the gospel does not thus write Nicodemus off. In other words, with John 3, it doesn't end with Nicodemus there. Because the evangelist is silent about Nicodemus' departure and reaction, as in John 3.
This first appearance in chapter 3 is open-ended, which becomes clear from his return in John 7, 52. In other words, in John 3, he just kind of drops off. There's not a finality in John 3. And then he's reintroduced here in John 7, 52.
Even then, the evangelist makes no judgment concerning Nicodemus' faith. Admittedly, there is an indisputable and very significant connection between these two appearances. Again, Nicodemus is on the stage as a leader in Israel, this time not just as a scribe, but also as a member of the highest court.
The idea that with being one of them, he's described as one of the secretly believing members of the Sanhedrin, or even as the man who was and remained one of them, fails to appreciate the entire thrust of the dialogue in the Sanhedrin and Nicodemus' part in it.
It's clear that the evangelist's aim is above all to expose the hypocrisy of the members of the Sanhedrin, who as the designated upholders of the law and of justice, trampled on one of the most rudimentary principles of the law, judged no one unheard.
In that conflict, Nicodemus was the one who, as one of them, hence as one who is responsible for the administration of justice, became an advocate of Jesus' rights at the place where justice was to be administered.
In that position and on that issue, appealed to universally valid law and not to his personal relationship to Jesus, which can hardly be explained by lack of courage, that of the crypto-believer, supposedly attributed to him by the evangelist.
The issue is not faith, but justice. And that was Nicodemus speaking up. But it was to angry men that Nicodemus was making this appeal. And angry men are often unreasonable men. They believe their opinions are unassailable.
However, they lack humility. And humility is necessary in order to have a true desire and ability to question and examine one's own opinions reasonably in the light of scriptural truth. And as we've so many times stated, it's much harder to unlearn than it is to learn.
And it's because of pride and the impulse or desire to want to be right, what we already believe to be right, and therefore we defend it. We assume what we believe is what the Bible teaches. And so to defend what we believe is to defend the Bible.
And that's why so often people are unteachable. They were angry men. And so what was their response? Their reaction to Nicodemus, verse 52, the answer said to him, are you also from Galilee? He wasn't from Galilee, but they were insulting him.
Search and look for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. So the Jewish leaders respond to Nicodemus with a question that expects a negative answer, serving to mock his idea. And by implication, the person who said it, the sharp rebuke is significant in two ways.
First, by drawing a preposterous connection between Jesus and Nicodemus in relation to the place of origin. Oh, you're from Galilee too, just like he is. You know, that itself, you know, means we shouldn't give him any regard.
The Jewish leadership heaps upon Nicodemus' cultural shame. Since by implication, his comments were interpreted to be favorable toward Jesus. This is clearly a combative rebuke, a comment befitting a social challenge.
And in this way, Nicodemus is separated from the Jewish leadership by his fellow authorities. And there's no reason to surmise that Nicodemus intended to do, what Nicodemus intended to do, for the Jewish leadership interprets his intentions for the reader.
In his first appearance in the gospel, John 3, Nicodemus was a challenger of Jesus. In this appearance, he's a challenger of his own Jerusalem colleagues, the Jewish leadership. Clearly there's movement in this man's life.
I think he's a disciple, perhaps a secret disciple, but he was defending Jesus. In the way he best could. And of course, we know that their argument was wholly invalid because Jesus was from Bethlehem, wasn't he?
We know that from Matthew 1, Luke 1. And then after he was born, the family moved to Nazareth, back to Galilee. And so their whole argument was invalid, wasn't it? But they were so convinced that their position was a true one, according to the scriptures.
And so they discredited Nicodemus. They dismissed Jesus because they thought that they had a corner on the truth. Few words of application quickly and we'll close. Beware of our own proneness to be unteachable.
There's that spirit of the Pharisees in each of us, if we don't watch it. The attitude and action of these leaders were not unusual in the religious world, even among those professing to be Christian, even supposedly solid, well-taught Christians.
Pride is a major sin. Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. When pride comes, in comes shame, but with the humble is wisdom.
We could be wrong.
And therefore, when somebody challenges, we should listen carefully. We should be noble as the Bereans when Paul came to them. And they went to the scriptures. They didn't go to the scriptures in order to prove Paul wrong.
They went to the scriptures to determine whether Paul was right in what he was saying. They had a teachable spirit and they had a healthy skepticism.
Of themselves.
And we should have a healthy skepticism of ourselves so that the scriptures alone are our true source of authority, not what we believe the scriptures, but what the scriptures themselves declare. And anger, by the way, is often a warning signal that one is not capable of assessing matters rightly, objectively.
Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. Anger is a real indicator you're not seeing things objectively. Secondly, do not be surprised when you experience injustice, even from those who should be defenders and promoters of justice, and even in the church.
That happens, doesn't it? And some of you can testify to that. It happens. It's a sad, unfortunate thing. But again, when you have maybe well intentioned, but rather zealous and maybe characteristic of some pride, a person in religious authority, there's that danger.
And it happens sadly, unfortunately. And the scriptures say that it should. And we shouldn't be surprised when it does happen. And then thirdly, let us be as Nicodemus. Let's be willing to speak up for truth and justice, regardless of whom we're speaking with.
This was an intimidating crowd, you can imagine. And I suspect these people were Nicodemus's friends, comrades. Now he was in the minority. He was a Pharisee. The others were Sadducees, mostly on the Sanhedrin.
But he had to speak up, but he was courageous in doing so. And so we should be courageous to speak up, even in the face of what might appear to be the majority position. If we've been convinced that this is what the word of God says, let God be true and every man a liar.
The truth must be asserted and affirmed. And lastly, let us value those brothers and sisters with whom we share a common life in Christ. Those in whom dwells the blessed Holy Spirit. There's a kinship that we have.
Again, not simply because they run with us and have the same conviction, say, as Reformed Baptists or whatnot, but they're in Christ. And you meet them,.
You encounter them,.
And it's clear that the Holy Spirit has been given to them. They love holiness. They love Christ. They desire other people that know Christ. That's a brother or a sister. And we should not have a party spirit.
We can stand strong for the faith and not compromise in any way on truth and doctrine. And yet we can be congenial. And we can recognize a brother and sister in Christ with our common life in Christ, even though we may have some things uncommon with them in our belief system.
Is that not right? May the Lord help us in this. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you, our God, for the illustrations that we have. We pray that you would spare us, Lord, or deliver us from attitudes, our God, that are not biblical, that are unwholesome.
We pray that you would help us, Lord, to be humble before you and courageous. Help us, our Lord, to be open and attentive to the truth that's in Jesus Christ, the truth set forth in your word. Give us clearer, better understanding, our God, and help us, our Lord, to work through some of these issues of difficulty that we might be purveyors and promoters of the truth of your holy word.
For we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
