Pride and Prejudice - John 7:14-24

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

John 7:14-24

Introduction: Healthy Christianity is marked by a hunger for the truth and a growing discernment of right doctrine, but we are a work in progress. John 7 reminds us that our fallen nature will often skew our discernment. We’ll see in John 7 and 8 controversy as Jesus presents truth to religious leaders that they are not prepared to receive.  It is a myth to think that humans are neutral, ready to honestly listen to the truth of Scripture and to give it unbiased consideration. Once we are born again, we are in the process of “putting off the old man, and putting on Christ.” It is not instant maturity and discernment, it is a path, growing to think more like Jesus, learning to think His thoughts after Him.

     The title for this message, “Pride and Prejudice,” has nothing to do with the Jane Austen novel (I’ve never read it, though I have read all of Tom Clancy’s books!).  I used this title to highlight two elements we see in this context that became obstacles to the Jewish leaders and ultimately the Jewish multitudes, obstacles that we can only overcome through God’s gracious intervention in our lives: Pride and Prejudice. “Pride,” self-exaltation, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought, seeking our glory and not God’s glory. “Prejudice,” literally “pre-judging” a person or situation, allowing our faulty presuppositions to determine what we will accept as truth. Jesus didn’t have the credentials, he was saying things the leaders had never heard, and attacking other things they had valued so highly such as keeping the Sabbath. Besides, He was, they thought, from Galilee! No, they would not listen, they would not give him an honest hearing; their minds were made up. Where did this carpenter’s son come off thinking he could preach to them? They would not have this man to be their king.

Big Idea: Human hearts corrupted by sin won’t receive the Truth of God, but those drawn by the Father have their hearts opened and believe. We’ll look at that from three perspectives, 1) Jesus is the Revelation of God, Truth Incarnate; 2) Pride blinds us to the truth; and finally, 3) Prejudice, is an obstacle to seeing the truth.

I. Jesus is the Revelation of God, Truth Incarnate (7:14-16).  That is a fact, and it is the great presupposition of everything that John writes. We’ve titled this series in the fourth Gospel, Jesus: The Revelation of God in Christ. We see that here…

¹⁴ About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.  ¹⁵ The Jews therefore marveled, saying, "How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?"  ¹⁶ So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 

       As Jesus presented himself to the world, people had a decision to make: would they believe Him or not?  It is the same decision that people are faced with today. Their response does not change the facts: He is the Truth! The first chapter of John reminded us that “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son [the one of a kind God], who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). In Jesus we know the Father. Later in this Gospel Jesus will say to Philip, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father…” (John 14:9). That is the truth, even so, “He came unto his own, and his own people did not receive Him…” (John 1:11). Why? What happened?

          In 7:14 we are told, “…in the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the Temple and began teaching…”  Though he did not follow the urging of his brothers and make an early, public, “triumphal entry” at the beginning of this feast, in his own time, in his own way, he did go, and He even made a public appearance, in the middle of the Feast, going into the Temple to teach. Twice before in this Gospel the Temple has directly been mentioned, in John 5:14, the man who had been healed at the pool of Bethesda was found by Jesus in the Temple, and told to go his way and sin no more.  Ironically it was that healing that still is the point of controversy in this chapter.  Before that in Chapter 2 Jesus cleansed the Temple, and was challenged to show a sign that he had authority to do such a thing. He confounded his adversaries by saying, “Tear down this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up…”  John explains he wasn’t talking about the building, but about his death and resurrection. Think about this: The temple was the house of God, the meeting place between God and men, it was the Holy Place sanctified by the presence of the Holy One. In this scene, Jesus, the eternal Word who was made flesh and “tabernacled for a while among us,” now, at the Feast of Booths, stood in the Temple of stone and wood, and taught, but most did not recognize Him!

       “How is it this man has learning, when He has never studied?” (7:15). His speaking with obvious knowledge of Scripture and with such authority amazed the crowd. How could this be?  Jesus hadn’t studied with one of the prominent rabbis of his time, he hadn’t gone to the best “seminary.”  He didn’t need to study about God in order to have something to say, He is God, the eternal Word who was made flesh and dwelt among us.  He could not only speak the truth, and show the way to life, HE is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man come to the Father but by Him! It is hard to read this and not think of the disciples in the Book of Acts, about a year or so after this event, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus…” (Acts 4:13). It’s not education or training that ultimately qualifies someone to speak for God, but rather speaking from a transformed heart, submitted to God. Jesus uses ordinary people like us to carry out His mission in the world.

     ¹⁶ So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” (7:16). Jesus makes an extraordinary claim that relates back to his teaching in John 6, He came from heaven, but now he adds, the teaching he brings comes from the Father who sent Him.  Remember Sgt. Friday from the old Dragnet TV series, “Just the facts ma’am, just the facts.” Jesus simply came to reveal the truth and speak the truth, but…  Jesus said, “My doctrine is not my own, but His who sent me…”  All truth is God’s truth.  This is one reason I am convinced that we need systematic, expository preaching through books of the Bible. By working through books of the Bible we come face to face with doctrines and texts that we might rather avoid, that perhaps I for one would not choose to preach. But there it is, and it is God’s Word to me, to us, this week. His Word is Truth! The Big idea is that * Human hearts corrupted by sin won’t receive the Truth of God, but those drawn by the Father have their hearts opened and believe.

II. Pride blinds us to the Truth: A humble heart, seeking the truth of God, will recognize Jesus. Rejecting Him is to Reject the Truth (7:17-20).  

¹⁷ 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.  ¹⁸ The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.  ¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?"  ²⁰ The crowd answered, "You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?"

       G. Campbell Morgan said, “When men are wholly, completely consecrated to the will of God and want to do that above everything else, then they find out that Christ’s teaching is divine, that it is the teaching of God.” Those who desire to do the Father’s will discern the truth of Jesus’ words. The attitude of obedience will lead to a discerning heart. Think about this: it is not that we come to Scripture, seeking to see what it says to decide if we are going to believe. Rather, we should come with a desire to know the truth. We come praying, “open the eyes of my heart, Lord, show me your truth and I will follow!” We want to hear, so that we can live in obedience to the truth. We are committed to obeying God’s Word. If that is our attitude, we will hear His voice, He will lead us to discernment and understanding.

       The attitude of Jesus was to bring glory to the Father. He came in humility, as a Servant. Our sermon title is, “Pride and Prejudice.” Pride is at the heart of sin. We think so highly of ourselves that we are convinced we know what is best, what will make us happy, what will give us the fulfillment and purpose we desire. This passage is telling us to reject that attitude, to know that God knows best, His way is right. Our will is to do His will. One pastor said “The deepest obstruction to know Jesus as He is, is our will, our heart, our love for glory… Our heart needs to be changed…” We need divine intervention. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again…”  We need a new heart. We need the Father to draw us to the Son, to give us ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart to understand. That doesn’t leave much room for boasting and pride, does it? If we are really seeking God’s will, then we need to know that all truth is God’s truth, and God alone deserves the glory for giving us eyes to see His truth.

Jesus asked in 7:19, “Why are you trying to kill me?”  Jesus knew the hearts of the leaders who had already made up their minds about Him. Even in making this statement, Jesus is again revealing something of his attributes: He is omniscient.  He knows things that humanly speaking he could not know. Nathanael was stunned by Jesus’ knowledge of him in the first chapter (Jn 1:49-51). “How do you know me?” His response brought from Nathanael an unexpected confession of faith: “You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel!” Who else could have such knowledge? The more we see the truth about Jesus, the more our pride will give way to humility. *Human hearts corrupted by sin won’t receive the Truth of God, but those drawn by the Father have their hearts opened and believe.

III. Prejudice: Those who have “pre-judged” Jesus will not see the truth: The Signs that he did, and His teaching with authority only confirmed the truth for those whose will is to do God’s will (7:21-24). We’ll see later that they thought He was from Galilee. Remember the response of Nathanael to Philip when he said Jesus was from Nazareth (in Galilee): Can anything good come from Nazareth? He came from the wrong side of the tracks! And in this context, they were also bothered that He lacked formal rabbinic training. Who was He to teach them?

²¹ Jesus answered them, "I did one deed, and you all marvel at it.  ²² Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.  ²³ If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well?  ²⁴ Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

       The sign that He did evoked a strong reaction, they “all marvel,” but not in response to the sign. They were indignant that it was done on the Sabbath! Much time had passed (the “feast” in John 5 was unidentified, could it have been the previous year, also at the Feast of Booths?), recall that this conflict started in response to Jesus healing the man who had been paralyzed for 38 years on the Sabbath:

¹⁶ And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.  ¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."  ¹⁸ This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God... (John 5:16-18).

       Jesus argues in John 7:22-23, that if the sign of the covenant that sets a man apart from the world is to be done on the eighth day, even if that day falls on the Sabbath, what’s the problem with completely healing a human, made in the image of God? They were legalistically focusing on the Law as an end in itself, when the Law was intended to be a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. In fact, as He said in v.19, “Moses gave you the Law, but none of you keeps the Law!” The Law exposes sin, and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… there are none righteous, not even one!

       Jesus says in 7:24, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” Don’t look merely on the surface, think about the purpose of the Law –to show men their need and to turn them toward God. Remember when God was directing Samuel to the future king: “…the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart’" (I Sam 16:7).  Jesus is saying that if your heart is right, if you desire God’s will, you’ll see that I speak the truth. John has told us repeatedly that Jesus knows the hearts of humans, He knows that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Cyprian expressed that when in AD 258 he wrote a letter to His friend Donatus…

It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world.  Yet in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people.  They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasures of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world.  These people, Donatus, are the Christians — and I am one of them.”

That “overcoming” victorious living comes when God gives us a new heart, when the Father draws us to the Son. The leaders rejected the possibility that Jesus could be from God, much less the idea that He was the promised Messiah. The rejection of Jesus can be more subtle today. People will often view Him as a good man, an example of compassion, a wise teacher. But they have a presupposition, that denies that God intervenes in human affairs. So, revelation, the Word of God, and miracles, acts of God, are rejected or explained away. The feeding of the 5000? They were embarrassed by the boy giving up his lunch, and so the people began sharing the food that they were hoarding in secret… Jesus walking on the water? He was walking along the shore in the dark, and the disciples were confused. No. The Bible is clear.

      The truth is, the God who is, has spoken, He has given us His Word. And He acts in history. And He did it in the most amazing way, He sent the Son… Jesus is the revelation of God. His Word is Truth, and He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Our response reveals our heart, it shows we are His sheep.

What is God saying to me in this passage? Human hearts corrupted by sin won’t receive the Truth of God, but those drawn by the Father have their hearts opened and believe.   

What would God have me to do in response to this passage?

1) Have you heard His voice and come to the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life? Are you willing to confess your need and come to God on His terms? Remember from John 1:12, “…but those who received Him, who believed on His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” You can’t earn it, you believe, and receive Him…

2)  Have you determined to seek the truth, not based on your ideas, but on God’s Word (see Prov 3:5-6)? We must be careful not to let Pride (or Prejudice!) interfere with our receiving the Truth that God is setting forth in His Word. Do you ever find yourself saying I know that’s what it says, but…  There should be no “BUTS”!  Some doctrines are hard, we’ve seen some of that recently. They seem to make so much of God and we seem so small. Does grace really mean it is all about Jesus and what he has done?  Does grace mean all the glory is His? Yes! Paul said, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Gal 6:14). To God be the glory, great things He hath done, so loved He the world that He gave us His Son…   AMEN.