John 7:25-52 What Kind Of Disciple Are You?

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What Kind of Disciple Are You

John 7:25-52

Introduction: Please consider the above question. It is the question of John’s treatise. John has certainly presented to us the enemies of Jesus and their arguments, but he has primarily presented different types of disciples – different kinds of believers. Crowds repeatedly are said to believe in him only to be later identified as lacking in the kind of belief Jesus requires of his disciples.

Therefore, what kind of disciple/believer are you? That is the primary question of John 7. The chapter immerses us with various partial believers, doubters, accusers, mockers, and enemies. John does this in such rapid fire that we can easily become confused about his purpose.

1. Speakers and Accusers
   1. The brothers: Why don’t you proclaim yourself?
   2. Jewish residents: “Where is he? … He’s a good man” – but for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him (11-13).
   3. The Jewish leaders: “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” (15)
   4. The crowd: “You have a demon!” (20)
   5. Some of the people: “Is this not the man whom they seek to kill?” … “Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? … but we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears no one will know where he comes from.” (25-27)
      1. (So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not come (30). [Cf. vs. 6])
      2. (Yet many of the people believed in him …when the Christ appears, will he do more signs that this man has done?” (31)
   6. The Pharisees, chief priests, sent officers to arrest him (32)
      Jesus: “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me” … “If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink…”  (33, 37)
   7. Some of the people: (40-41) “This really is the Prophet” –– Others: “This is the Christ” –– But some said: “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? … Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem?” 
   8. The officers: “Never man spoke like this man” (46, KJV) 
   9. The Pharisees: “Have you also been deceived? … Have any of the authorities believed in him” (47)
   10. Nicodemus: “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” (51)
   11. The Pharisees: “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” (52)
2. Initial Observations and Lessons
   1. Throughout the text we see foolish statements that call Jesus into question. John is urging a 1st century reader to see these weak objections and know that if that is the best they have, their unbelief is truly to be pitied. From the brothers, to the people, to the leaders of the Pharisees and chief priests, it is amazing that they cannot present legitimate arguments against his claims that he was sent from God and is the Messiah. Jesus has connected the miracle of 38-year invalid to his plain claims that they know who he is and that he will soon return to the Father. Are you listening? No!
   2. But before we get too aggressive in our condemnation, John has also illustrated the difficulty in changing long held beliefs. 
      1. How difficult would it have been for you to change if you grew up Muslim and never knew anything about Jesus?
      2. How difficult would it be for a person to change whose parents and grandparents never worked, but only took money from the government and sold drugs?
      3. Judaism had become completely corrupted for hundreds of years, and had passed down their corrupted beliefs to each following generation. Not only were these teachings corrupted, but even the teachings about the coming Messiah were mostly incorrect. In their view, Jesus was advocating for a complete upheaval of all they had known. 
      4. Therefore, what we are witnessing in this text is defensiveness in order to justify their present lifestyle. Easy to do? Absolutely! Can any of us say we haven’t done it? Absolutely not! It is all about who is going to be God in your life.
   3. The root flaw of the responses lies in the carnal argumentation, or as Paul would say, “waging war according to the flesh.” This is how Paul exposed the Corinthian false preachers: “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5).
   4. Notice examples of these fleshly arguments:
      1. 25-27: “But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” So funny – they argue: the authorities may not understand, but we have him figured out; when the true Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. Brilliant! Your lack of knowledge is amazing!
         40-43: this is the Prophet. No, this is the Christ. No, the Christ can’t come from Galilee, he will come from Bethlehem. Again, as a reader, we just shake our heads. 
      2. Notice what they don’t do: ask Jesus! Verse 28: Jesus’ answer – “You know me and where I come from…” In other words, I have clearly shown you who I am and where I am from. See verse 21: “I did one work and you all marvel at it.” But you are so hung up with it being on the Sabbath that you cannot see who I am.
      3. Verses 30, 32, 44 “They were seeking to arrest him…the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him…some of them wanted to arrest him.” Think about who is really doing this? Who is Jesus really battling? This is Satan’s tactics. Satan cannot defeat Jesus either in words or actions. He cannot engage him because he will lose. Therefore Satan’s only hope and people who follow him, is to arrest him and kill him. He must be silenced!
      4. Nothing has changed. When we know his words and are bold to use his teachings, Satan can be defeated. John said, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 Jn. 4:4-6).
3. The Supreme Message
   1. Now before we think everyone in this chapter is simply hopeless, you may have noticed there were two who could see past all the false arguments: the soldiers and Nicodemus.
   2. The Pharisees and chief priests had sent soldiers to arrest Jesus, but they returned without him. When asked why, the officers said, “Never man spoke like this man.” 
      1. How amazing. These soldiers do not fall for the foolish statements of where he came from or whether he did enough signs. They just listened to him. That’s it! That is the same as the Samaritans. That’s the answer to every objection (vs. 17). Someone says, show me the evidence! Well, there is evidence, but it isn’t the evidence that will convince you any more than Lazarus raising from the dead and testifying to the rich man’s brothers would have changed them. No, just listen to him! 
      2. How many Christians have excused their doubts with some question that is answered as easily as Jesus to the Sadducees on the resurrection – “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” No, evidence is not the problem. The problem is, you don’t listen to him. What did Jesus say? “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority” (vs.17).
   3. Then there is Nicodemus, “who was one of them.” Are you going to judge him without giving him a hearing and learning what he does? Well duh. How many people live in unbelief, partial belief, inactive belief, mediocre belief, convenience belief, but never hear him and learn what he does beyond an intellectual and superficial knowledge of the story? Such a person is the most dangerous of all disciples. They not only comfort their own conscience, but proclaim to the world that their lifestyle is all that Jesus requires.
   4. Finally, verses 37-38: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Now, who is going to come to Jesus? Who will be a true believer, a true disciple? It is those who thirst for living water, which means they know that their inner thirst will not be satisfied by anything or anyone but Jesus. 
   5. All the rest in this chapter failed the test of becoming a true disciple, a true believer, because they were not thirsty for God. The problem is, if we are not thirsty for God, we are trying to quench that thirst some place else.

Berry Kercheville