We have been studying the reactions of the people to Jesus’ claims for the past 3 studies. Tonight, we are going to look at a fourth reaction.
The fourth reaction to Jesus’ claims comes from the religious and civil authorities. It paints a clear picture of men in every generation who reject or oppose Jesus. That’s because what Jesus says is tragic for all unbelievers.
READ v. 32. The religionists or the Pharisees took the lead in opposing Jesus. Let’s put ourselves in the place of the Pharisees for a minute to see why. The leaders’ conflict with Jesus over religious beliefs and rules is sometimes thought by us to be petty and harsh, or else these conflicts are just misunderstood. There are three basic reasons why the conflicts happened and were life-threatening, ending in the murder of Jesus.
1. The Jewish nation had been held together by their religious beliefs. Through the centuries the Jewish people had been conquered by army after army, and by the millions they had been deported and scattered over the world. Even in the day of Jesus, they were enslaved by Rome.
Their religion was the binding force that kept Jews together, in particular their belief that God had called them to be a distinctive people who worshipped the only true and living God, their rules governing the Sabbath and the temple, their laws governing intermarriage, worship, and cleansing, and their rules governing what foods they could and couldn’t eat.
Their religious beliefs and rules protected them from alien beliefs and from being swallowed up by other nationalities through intermarriage. Their religion was what maintained their distinctiveness as people and as a nation. Jewish leaders knew this. So, they opposed anyone or anything that threatened or attempted to break the laws of their religion and nation.
2. The second reason was that many of the religionists were men of deep conviction, strong in their beliefs. So, they became steeped in religious belief and practice, law and custom, tradition and ritual, ceremony and liturgy, rules and regulations. To break any law or rule governing any belief or practice was a serious offense, because it taught loose behavior. And loose behavior, once it had spread enough would weaken their religion. So, in their minds Jesus was committing a terrible offense by breaking their law. He was weakening their religion and threatening their nation.
3. The third reason was that the religionists were men who had profession, position, recognition, esteem, livelihood, and security. Anyone who went contrary to what they believed and taught was a threat to all they had. Some religionists undoubtedly felt that Jesus was a threat to them. Every time Jesus broke their law, they felt He was undermining their very position and security.
They apparently approached the chief priests and persuaded them that Jesus was a threat. The chief priests were primarily leaders among the Sadducees who held most of the high offices of Jewish government under Roman rule. When Rome became dissatisfied with a chief priest, he was removed and another one was placed in authority. This removal from office was a common occurrence, so there were quite a few chief priests surviving. In the eyes of the people, they were still honored despite being removed from office. The people blamed Rome for their removal, not the chief priests.
In the 4 gospels, when the Pharisees, chief priests, and Scribes are mentioned as standing together against Jesus, it means that the ruling body of the Jewish nation has taken action. In this present situation, the Sanhedrin had apparently met and dispatched the palace or temple police to arrest Jesus. From what follows it seems that they were told to watch for an appropriate moment so they wouldn’t cause a riot among Jesus’ supporters.
Note that it was the whispering of the people that disturbed the religionists, in particular the fact that so many were putting their faith in Him as we saw in v. 31. He was a threat to their security and position and authority. They didn’t want anything to do with Jesus. They wanted to get rid of Him as soon as possible.
Think about it. Isn’t that exactly why people of today oppose accepting Christ—because Jesus is a threat to their way of life? Because someone doesn’t want to change their life, Jesus is a threat to them.
READ v. 33-34. Jesus’ reply was puzzling and tragic both to the unbeliever of His day and to the unbeliever of today.
1. First of all, He foretold His destiny. He foretold His death when He said, “I am with you for only a short time.” He foretold His resurrection and ascension when He said, “Then I go to the one who sent me.”
Two questions: What did the death and resurrection have to do with those who opposed Jesus? Why did Jesus predict His destiny in answering those who wanted nothing to do with Him?
He was saying that those who opposed Him could get rid of Him. They could reject and have nothing to do with Him. They didn’t have to worry about getting rid of Him; they would be allowed to do that. He would go away.
He was also saying, however, that He would not cease to be; He would not be annihilated and cease to exist. His life wouldn’t be extinguished. He would be killed because men would try to stop Him from living as a man on earth. But He would arise and return to His Father, who sent Him. He would experience glory and give great hope to all those who have believed and do believe in Him.
2. Not only did Jesus foretell His own destiny, He foretold man’s destiny. He predicted a tragic future for those who opposed Him and wanted nothing to do with Him. He said that the day is coming when they will look for Him but not find Him and that’s because where He is they will not be allowed to come.
What Jesus meant was just what He said. The person who rejects Christ will face the day when they will seek Christ. People need to open their eyes.
In this life, God’s Spirit doesn’t always strive or contend with man. When a person is in church or anywhere else and feels pulled to make a decision and puts the decision off for an hour or two or a half a day or a day at most, the pull fades and eventually dies completely.
God’s Spirit doesn’t continue to strive or contend with them. Most of us have experienced such movements and killed the Spirit’s contending within us. In the next life, at the Day of Judgment, the unbeliever will seek Christ. (Jesus said so.)
But the tragedy is that the unbeliever will not find Christ. It will be too late. The unbeliever has never known Christ nor what it is to walk in the Lord’s kingdom on earth, so they won’t know Christ or His kingdom in that day.
As Christ and heaven are unknown to the unbeliever today, so will Christ and heaven be unknown to the unbeliever in that day. Unbelievers will not be allowed to come where Jesus is, that is, to live in God’s presence. Jesus said, “here I am, you cannot come.”
READ 35-36. And here’s the reaction of the rulers and authorities. Very simply, they were puzzled, questioning what Jesus meant. The scattered or dispersed refers to the Jews who were scattered all over the world that I talked about a minute ago. They thought Jesus meant He was going to leave Israel and go to some foreign nation, preaching to the Jews there.
Those who opposed Jesus were puzzled by His death and resurrection and ascension. It was hard for them to grasp its meaning and to believe in Him. In fact, it was offensive to them. This was exactly what Jesus had said.
In Jn. 6:62 Jesus said, “Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
If a person accepts the ascension and exaltation of Christ, he had to surrender the control of his life to Christ. He can no longer control his life and do the things he wishes. The Pharisees would have nothing to do with that. So, for all these claims that Jesus was making, the Pharisees saw Him as nothing more than a rabble-rouser.
