John, Part 30
Series: Discipleship Will Cost You, Part 4 Passage: John 7:19-24
FOCUS: Continuing our focus on Discipleship and its personal cost
Discipleship is the process of becoming like Jesus; changing our wants to His
This means giving up what you desire to follow the One who is discipling you
SETUP: Jesus’ brothers chall. Him to go to festival: NOT my time/NOT a show
He was not going to go to perform; nor to be famous or be seen by people
Jesus does go - in secret - Purpose: teaching to correct bad doctrine; bad practices
ASK: Why do we come to church? To draw closer to the One who died for you?
TRUTH: Whenever we open God’s Word, we can have our proximity challenged
Do we come to hear from God; to be challenged to be like Jesus; or for ourselves?
“If you’re always searching for the next emotion/feeling, you’ll never truly find God!”
YES emotions can motivate; truth is MORE powerful if we allow it to change us!
Challenge of what we’ll unpack today is: “Discipleship requires a Response”
Read John 7:19-24 & Pray ? “Lord, teach me today.”
TR: Many are hearing this for the 1st time: Jesus is confronting their preferences
These are pilgrims; not residents of Jerusalem (visiting for festival); so this is NEW
His question v19 is jarring – so their reaction is … natural (they are curious)
Point 1 – The People Respond to Jesus
Need to remember what Jesus was opposing; it causes their feather ruffling v20
• Their “religion” was well settled & became their national identity
• Same religion founded by forefathers: their “godly men of the faith”
• MISSED: Jesus was opposing their religious institution & leadership
So, their natural conclusion about Jesus’s teaching is:
• Only a man who hated God would oppose their comfort zone!!
• If He would say these things He must be disturbed, crazy, possessed, etc.
RE: The religious leaders had no accountability; the worst thing for humanity!
PEOPLE THINK: Surely, our religious leaders would never:
• Act unrighteously – they’d never make immoral decisions/policies
• They’d never be undisciplined, corruptible, or even act irresponsibly
But … doesn’t false churches allow our “leaders” to act in the same way?
• Of course we do … this is EXACTLY how cults become so appealing!
• This is all that Jesus is speaking against … and yet, they get offended by it!
APP: This is how false teaching becomes accepted: Not enough biblical literacy!
OT Warning: Jeremiah 14:14 NT Confirmation: Matthew 24:24
KNOW: Jesus came to point out inconsistencies like this! v19
• He came to correct their behavior and draw people to God!
• It is true … He came to forgive their behavior and to offer grace
• BUT – He also came to pronounce judgment on those who refused God!
SEE: Religious believed they were above that; that they were “good” with God
REACTION: Thought, “Surely, our “god” would not judge us like this, right?”
CHALL: Do you see how the ego can quickly take over and lead someone astray?
REM: Our options are really simple: We’ll either submit to God or refuse Him!
This is exactly the point Jesus makes; which naturally sets the people against Him!
Point 2 – Jesus’s First Response to the People
Jesus’s responses are a plea to them – a plea to draw them TO God! v21
• He appeals to them: examine the work He has done
o RE: He healed a crippled man at the pool in Bethsaida
o A man bed-ridden for 38 years was suddenly restored to health!
• But (problem) it was the Sabbath and “work” was not “allowed”
• Pieces: He healed a man, on God’s “day”, and they are mad about it?
To the Jew this was a SERIOUS offense against “their beliefs” (i.e., their prefs)
• It was strictly forbidden to “work” on the “day of rest” (even God’s work?)
• They had determined that they were in charge of enforcing who worked
Yet despite their own hypocrisy (circumcise on Sabbath) – this is a problem? v22
• Kind of like what we do when we judge people who sin differently than us?
• RESULT: They needed correction, He gave it, they wanted Him dead for it
We need to insert ourselves, our preferences, here; this is where it gets painful!
CONSIDER: Do we hold others to a standard we prefer versus God’s words?
Jesus responds by inquiring of them why they are so mad that a man was healed?
RE: He is confronted with a “mob mentality”; v19, “you are demon-possessed”
SEE: He attempts to draw their attention to their own duplicity & correct it
• Circumcision was actually mandated under Abraham (Gen 17)
• It was further instructed as part of the Law given under Moses (Lev 12)
• SEE: This has more to do with the religious leaders' pride than the Sabbath
• Leaders believed: were the only ones “wise enough” to speak on the Law
• WARN: This is where correction can turn into self-justification quickly
GET: Jesus wanted all – even the “religious” – to know God’s WHOLE truth!
APP: We must know this; shapes the rest of the book: He is trying to show them:
? He was not a Law breaker (He was the Son of God)
? That His life was to be a sacrifice (To demonstrate God’s love)
? He is not out to ruin their worship of God (He was there to rescue mankind)
EVEN if it meant being brutally honest with them Ref: Matthew 23:27
So, He appeals to people to live & judge rightly – but not by their desires v24
• CHALL: Jesus instructs them to judge correctly and not by appearances
SEE: (tough) Jesus is actually underscoring their own legalism!
• They are devoted to some things but not to others … and now Jesus is bad?
• Why? B/C He does something contradictory and they can’t see the good?
• This is where life can quickly spiral out of control and became about us!
BIG IDEA
- Jesus tells them NOT to judge according to what they “THINK” is correct
- Instead, judge based on what God is saying … EX: Isn’t healing a man, good?
- Is Jesus not doing exactly what God has sent Him to do? John 5:36
CHALL: How we respond to truth really emphasizes how we respond to God!
- Is this not the example you and I also have today? Cont. next week! (INVITE)
- What is keeping us from knowing Him, and putting down our own preferences?
- How do we respond to correction of our behaviors? It does matter!
Pray
