You may remember this Sunday as the Sunday that Church was no longer safe. (Use video camera). Once in a while, for special occasions and things, we have video taped our worship time and there has been a camera on my face up here. What would happen if we took the focus off the front of the auditorium and turned it around? (Proceed with camera into crowd - most effective if it would live feed on screens up front)
All you ladies should know that you automatically add 20 pounds when you’re on camera. It also highlights blemishes, I’m told!
I owe my obnoxiousness behind a camera to 2 crazy uncles. They’d bring their video camera to our Thanksgiving family reunions. That was a big deal 20 years ago. They’d tape all day, and we’d watch the videos that evening. What fun! My family and I are going to watch this one tonight!
Isn’t it interesting how some people respond to having the camera put on them?
You see, it’s too easy to make ourselves “the audience” in the gathered church setting. Isn’t that kind of the way we position it? It’s a lot like some sports event. We come and assemble as an audience to watch some people up front perform, and they ought to be good performers because God is their Coach. Then, over lunch, we critique them. Actually, what’s going on here from week to week is that God is our audience, the people in this crowd are the performers, and the people up front are really more like cheerleaders.
What if we started seeing all that we do here from God’s perspective? What if we started hearing a voice that said, “C’mon! You can do it! It’s time to get your game face on! Time to get to action!” What would change? What would we do to prepare for Sunday mornings? What would our conversations over Sunday lunch sound like? Where would we direct our praise and thanks; our criticism; our suggestions?
There are no miracles recorded in John ch7. The evidence is in now. Up to this point, the camera has been mostly on Jesus and you’ve been the observer. You’ve watched Him change water into wine, change the life of a Samaritan city, heal a sick boy and a lame man, feed a multitude with 5 loaves and 2 fish, and walk on water. But now John backs up the camera a bit and begins to pan the audience. It’s time to look at them - to take a look at their different responses. In fact, John points out in ch7, count them, 19 different responses to Jesus. And just by this change in perspective, John makes an important point that we’re going to spend some thought on this morning: There must come a point of godly division of those who accept and those who reject Jesus. That’s why we read in
John 7:43
Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.
You read correctly – “divided because of Jesus.” Jesus said that His life on earth would bring division
Luke 12:51-53
Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
The life of Jesus is powerful enough, the demands of Jesus go deep enough, the evidence for Jesus’ claims is strong enough that He can’t just be ignored. There are going to be some opinions formed about Him. It’s interesting to see the different reactions of people to Jesus. That’s what John is going to have us do this morning.
(I. Some People Need More Info about Him)
It’s festival time in Jerusalem. In fact, it’s about this time of year, and the Jews have gathered for the harvest festival known as the Feast of Tabernacles/booths. Everyone will camp out in little temporary shelters as a reminder of the days when the Jews were a wandering nation living in tents in the desert. It’s like a Jewish Oktoberfest, without the beer tents!
Jesus travels up in the middle of the feast and joins the teachers hanging around in the temple. Even before He gets there, people are talking about Him. And one of the reactions John shows us are some people there who need more information about Him. They’ve heard something, whether it’s true or not, and just from that they’re trying to draw some conclusions.
We’re good at that. I saw a sign in an office: “We don’t have an office exercise program here. Everyone already gets enough exercise jumping to conclusions and flying off the handle!” That’s us, isn’t it? We get some piece of information, true or not, and we take off with it. So, not a lot has changed with people in 1,988 years. There were people there who were simply short on information:
Interestingly, Jesus’ brothers, the other sons born to Mary, are one group like that:
v5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him. (James, Joseph, Simon, Judas)
v15 The Jews were amazed and asked, "How did this man get such learning without having studied?"
v27 But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from."
v35 "Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36 What did he mean when he said, ’You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and’ Where I am, you cannot come’?"
v42 Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”
Do you hear the grasps for conclusions here? These are some people who have some information, but who don’t have enough to get to accurate conclusions about Jesus. Let’s learn from that.
A. People need good information to believe in Jesus
Some people are on the edge of accepting Jesus. They’re just looking for some carefully presented facts to convince them. We need to be there with the answers, or to get them where they’ll get the right answers. No one ever accepted Jesus until they simply get the facts about Him.
B. The world needs the Gospel!
There are nations of people ready to hear the gospel! They would receive the good news if it were just available to them in their own language. While that may not mean you personally go over and learn it and teach, it does mean we at least show interest and involve our prayers and support in the work of people like Pioneer Bible Translators in New Guineau, or Bibles for the World who was just here through the India Children’s Choir.
C. Your friends need to see that following Jesus isn’t just religion, it’s a relationship with Jesus!
Christian, everyday, all around you, at school, at your job, there are people watching you who are waiting for information. They’re waiting to see that being a Christian means more than attending some worship time once or twice a week. They’re waiting to see that you have a relationship with Jesus and that that relationship affects everything you do. They’re waiting. They’re watching. They’re gathering information from your life. And once they see it consistently lived out, once they see that Jesus is real, they’ll be believers too!
How many people sitting here this morning first came here largely because they saw reality of Christ in the way a friend acted? Some people simply need more information about Him.
II. Some People Refuse to Accept Him and Try to Crush Him, because He doesn’t fit Their Plans
v19 “Why are you trying to kill me?"
v25 some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, "Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?
v30a At this they tried to seize him…
v32 the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
v44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
By this time, the Pharisees were especially ready to crush Him - because He didn’t fit their plans.
We should expect it! There are going to be some people who see the evidence, but who still refuse to accept Jesus. We can say all the right words, show all the right evidence, but there will still be some who refuse. That’s because believing in Jesus is an act of will!
v17 If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.
We haven’t seen much in the way of persecution in our country, but stop and think about it. There will be more. The reason there’s an ACLU and a PAW, the reason there are pro-abortion groups and homosexual groups is because accepting Jesus’ agenda would interfere with their plans.
Even after the evidence is in, some still shun accepting Jesus because it would mean giving up too much: control; sex; wealth; independence; status; fun.
You have to sympathize with them. Yeah, there are a lot of people who would be giving up a lot if they were to follow Jesus. They’d have to give up Saturday morning hangovers, DUI’s, sexually transmitted diseases, damaging relationships of no commitment, trying to keep up with the Jones’; constantly looking over their shoulder; being unable to trust anyone; futile efforts to never grow old; worrying about death. No wonder there are some people who just refuse to accept Jesus. It would mean giving up just too much.
Ill – C.S. Lewis wrote: ”The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says "Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours."
Maybe you’re one of those people this morning who haven’t accepted Jesus because He doesn’t fit your plans, and what you’re concerned with is what you will have to give up. If I were you, I’d be concerned about what you’re giving up too. The longer you wait to accept Jesus, the longer you’re choosing to give up what really matters and lasts, and to hang onto what really stinks.
III. Some People are Afraid to Believe Because of Pressure From People around Them
vv12-13 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews.
v32 “The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him.”
v46 "No one ever spoke the way this man does," (temple guards)
Now as you read those verses, I want you to note to facts about the people there:
A. The people were all in the same crowd
Some openly believed; some were too afraid.
Which one are you this morning? We’re all in the same crowd; just different parts of it. Where are you? Do you let the rabble decide for you what you’ll believe? Is that what you’re doing here this morning? Are you here to let a crowd decide for you what you believe?
Jesus never encouraged people to believe in Him or reject Him because of what everyone else believes. What do you believe about Him?
B. The people who believed spoke up
It was the people who were afraid that remained silent or skeptical. Those who believed said so. And I challenge you and me this morning,
Psalm 107:1-2
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say this
Some time back, I wrote down a quote from Paul Butler that really hit me:
“There comes a moment of truth in every Christian’s life - and more than once - when he must openly and boldly witness for Jesus or be reduced to an uncomfortable and ashamed silence.”
At the end of Ch7, Nicodemus chose to not be bold – not yet. And you and I can relate to the times we failed to say what later we wished we had said. Look again. The people who believed are the ones who speak up.
-Ill - Lee Bracey was a friend of mine in IN. His personality bent was to be somewhat outgoing and outspoken. Lee was in the mall with his wife, and he saw a guy wearing a T-shirt that said something filthy on the back. So, Lee told his wife to go on ahead to a store, he’d be along. He went and stared this guy in the face. "What do you want?" Lee said, "I just wanted to see what kind of a jerk would wear a shirt like that!" "Free speech." "This one’s not costing you anything: You’re wrong for wearing that!"
Maybe that’s “not your style.” OK, but when everyone else is afraid to speak, we have an example to follow here – the people who believed were the ones who spoke up.
Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying, “To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards out of men.”
IV. Some People Believe the Best That They’re Able
v31 Still, many in the crowd put their faith in him. They said, "When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?" (It’s a rhetorical question. A question that’s really making a statement. The answer is NO. In other words, this man is the Christ
v40-41 On hearing his words, some of the people said, "Surely this man is the Prophet." Others said, "He is the Christ."
In the parable of the different kinds of soil, Jesus said there would be many who would reject but also some who would accept Him. In the crowd that day were a number of people who reached some important conclusions about Jesus. In spite of the peer pressure; in spite of the potential to be ridiculed or hassled, they came away believing in Jesus. Maybe their faith wasn’t very mature yet. Maybe they still had a lot to learn. Maybe they still had some doubts. But with what they knew, they reached some important, life-changing conclusions about the person of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion:
Do you realize what John has done here? He’s turned the camera around! He’s made reading his gospel no longer “safe.” Now you’re a participant. Now the questions about Jesus must be answered by you. Now, some godly division must take place.
And I can picture John, up in heaven, saying, “Yes! Yes! C’mon! Make a decision! Quit being a casual observer. Stop being a sideline Christian! You can’t sit in the crowd anymore! Make your decision!”
So I want to do the same. Take the focus off of “up here.” Close your eyes, bow your head. Look where the camera is pointing. Look inside your heart. What do you believe about Jesus? -- whether you’ve accepted Him or not. What do your actions say about you and the Savior?
There are some who need to renew that commitment this morning -- some who need to make it for the first time. Now is the time...
