Sermon
What Think Ye Of Christ?
March 17, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

Would you take your Bibles with me today and your sermon notes that are in your bulletin. We're in chapter 7 of the gospel of John, and if you're using the pew Bible, we're at page 719. If you're new with us today, we have been studying the gospel of John now going on two years. We just go from chapter to chapter, verse to verse, sometimes word to word, because we'll only be here till of Jesus comes and so it doesn't make any difference whether in chapter 14 or chapter 7 when He comes. But it is important that we understand what we're reading and that's why we take our time to just go over it verse by verse.

Now beginning in chapter 7 just before we read our text, we noted last Lord's Day that at this particular place in the Scriptures in John's gospel there is a transition. What is taking place -- Jesus has finished His ministry, at least the record that John is going to give to us -- His ministry in Galilee.

The land of Palestine is a very narrow piece of real estate. It's about 70 miles wide and it's about 130-140 miles in length. And the northern portion is called Galilee. It was the unsophisticated, illiterate, back woodsy people. That's where Jesus had ministered, and as a result now His ministry has finished as far as John is concerned. The rest of John's gospel will move us towards the cross.

But in chapter 7 it tells us that there was a feast that was going to take place and Jesus is being urged by his brothers to get down to the feast as soon as possible to demonstrate His power, and in so doing, He can probably get a bigger following for His ministry. They did this with great satire and sarcasm because in reality in verse five it says that Jesus' brothers did not believe in Him.

We learned there were three feast that were conducted annually. There were many more feasts, but these were feasts that the attendance of people that lived within a 20 mile radius; their attendance was required, in fact, it was demanded. So these were great times of fellowship, great times of celebration.

And so Jesus responds to the urgings of His brothers and He said, well fellows, you go on down. I'm not going right now because My timing is different than yours. You're part of the world. That is, you've never believed in Me and therefore you are part of the world and you're going to do what all of the worldlings are going to do. They're all going up there to the feast and have a great time. You go ahead, but I happen to be under a divine time constraint, a timetable set by God in eternity, and My time has not yet come. I'll know it and then I'll proceed.

Now He said, you go on up. They like you, but they hate Me, He says. I'm hated. And as a result of that statement, you could ask the question why was Jesus hated? Well when we trace back through His brief public life -- remember He only had a public ministry of about three and a half years -- and so there our only three occasions that are recorded in all the Gospels where Jesus goes to these feasts, these annual feasts. We only have Him visiting three feasts.

Now the first time He goes to one of the these feasts, He walks into the temple and He sees trading and commerce, deceivery, deception, and thievery going on. Jesus picks up a whip and He chases them out. He said My house shall be a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of thieves. What's He talking about?

Well what had actually happened is those religious leaders had turned their synagogue, the temple, into a profit making endeavor. They dreamed up ideas as to how they could really take money from the people who came to worship, and one of them was this; they made it a regulation that when you brought your sacrifice to Jerusalem if it didn't have the temple stamp on the animal, you couldn't sacrifice it. You had to trade it in for an animal that was stamped with the temple stamp. And that's the background for Jeff's wonderful song.

Here's a dad who leaves wherever he comes from, Alexander, wherever it might have been, North Africa, and he knows that his funds are limited. He doesn't have the money when he gets to Jerusalem to buy those expensive sacrifices. So he has his boys go out into the flock and take the finest lamb and they bring that little lamb, and that was their assignment, Daddy says you take care of that little lamb. And, of course, the story is told in the song.

But in reality, once they arrived in Jerusalem the lamb couldn't be used at the temple for sacrifice because it didn't have a stamp on it. It would have to have been traded in. And what happened is they charged exorbitant fees for these sacrificial lambs. These poor people had spent all they had to get to Jerusalem. These religious leaders would just drain their pocketbooks.

The other problem that they created: say you and I lived in Greece and we're going to travel Jerusalem, and so we've got our little purse full of drachmas. That's the kind of coinage they use in Greece. But when we get to Jerusalem and we start to put in our offering in the temple, because we've got of drachma that is not like temple money, they're going to make me go back out to the money changer, trade my drachma for temple money, and charge me a fee for exchanging my money.

So I couldn't use my lamb because it doesn't have a stamp on it, and I couldn't use my money because it's not temple money. And those priests on all of those transactions took a kick back. They were wealthy. And they made it off of poor people who came to worship. When Jesus walked in there and whipped them, and chase them out of the temple, that disturbed them because that upset the thieves' business. They hated Jesus for that.

And then when He comes back to another feast He goes to a pool and He finds a person that's been ill for 38 years; He heals him -- they don't consider it a miracle. They feel it's a violation of their Sabbath rules. You don't heal people on the Sabbath. There are six other days to work. That's what they said.

So now Jesus is hated because not only did He mess up their business, but He violated their Sabbath rules, so now they've got a contract out on His life. And as a result, He said I can't go right now. I know I'm hated. When I arrive the ultimate will most likely take place. You go on up. I'll be there.

Now on to our notes. That's the background. We're now at verse 8 of John 7. We'll read right off our notes today. "You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come." When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee. But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, "Where is He?"

And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, "He is good"; others said, "No, on the contrary, He deceives the people." However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.

Now here let's take just a few paragraphs from our notes. In his wonderful commentary, Pastor James Boice tells of his experience in preparing to preach from this text which we are studying today. He pastored a wonderful church in Philadelphia. Pastor Boice was there for about 40 years. And he did have a program of recent months on KFAX, but a few months ago he died of cancer. But he left a wonderful legacy of marvelous writings.

I picked up his commentary and he says that a few days before preaching his sermon on this subject, he sent his staff out on the streets of the city of Philadelphia with these instructions: Walk up and down the street, asking as many persons as possible, the following question, "WHO IS JESUS?" Sometimes they asked, "Do you think Jesus is God?" The answers they received were illuminating, for they revealed the confusion that exists in many person's minds about the identity of this remarkable Man from Nazareth.

One young woman responded, as the result of these interviews, she said, "Jesus was a man who thought He was God." Another young woman, who was a biology student, replied, "Jesus Christ is pure essence or energy. God to me is energy, electric energy because it's something that's not known." A man responded when asked, "I think that's something you have to decide for yourself, but He did have some beautiful ideas." Others replied, "He is one that we look up to as a leader"; He is an individual who lived two thousand years ago, who was interested in the social betterment of all classes of people"; He was well liked; He meant well; He was a good man."

But most people asked were just confused. They answered, "I haven't any idea...I don't know." Now I find that amazing folks. We live in America where I've been informed that there are over 1600 Christian radio stations. In almost every city, hamlet, and village there are churches galore, and yet, in our great America there's a spiritual illiteracy when we ask who Jesus Christ is. Doesn't that amaze you? You know, I thought when I read that I thought wouldn't it be something if we put our staff down on the streets of San Bruno and asked the same question. We'd probably come up with the same answers.

Now with that information Pastor Boice went ahead and preached his sermon. Who is Jesus Christ? This is a question that men and women have been asking ever since Christ's time and it needs to be asked and answered again and again in each generation.

Throughout chapter 7 of John, he highlights the various opinions the Jews had about Jesus. Before Jesus appeared at the feast, opinions about Him were swirling through the visiting crowd. Some of these Jews many have seen Jesus' miracles or heard Him teach; others may have only heard of what He had done both in Jerusalem and in Galilee. At this particular year, Jesus was the hot topic of conversation during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now here are some of the opinions. Here's what people thought of Jesus. Now He's walking into a den, because here's what they're saying about Him -- some say He's a good man; others, no, He deceives the crowd into thinking; verse 15, no, He's a good teacher, a great teacher; verse 20, no, He's demon possessed; verse 31, no, He's a doer of miraculous signs; verse 40, no, He's a prophet; verse 41, He's the Messiah. And so you can see that the opinions varied tremendously.

Jesus knows He's hated. He's going to select the proper time and He arrives, but when He arrives in town all of these opinions are being muffled. In your Bible, verse 12, it says: And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, "He is good"; others said, "No, on the contrary, He deceives the people." However, no one spoke openly of Him.

Now when we go back in our text we find that Jesus did leave after the feast is four days in progress, so He goes in the middle of the feast. But He doesn't go up to celebrate, He goes up to teach. He didn't join with the Pilgrims in the feast. And it says He didn't go publicly, but He went secretly. What does that mean?

Well, and those days the poor people up in Galilee, when it's time to go down to Jerusalem to the feast, most of them didn't even have a mule. They had no way of transportation other than walking. So what they would do is agree with a number of folks throughout the village and say, look at, we'll all meet at a certain place at the crossroads. We'll all gather there and we'll have a walking caravan, and we'll all walk together. We'll have time to share and the kids can throw rocks and play games, and we're just going to have a walking caravan and we'll make our way down to Jerusalem.

Josephus tells us that some of those caravan had hundreds and hundreds of people in them. They were massive groups of people just having a wonderful time and conversing. You remember when Jesus was taken to the temple at the age of 12 His parents had traveled with this large group, and when they arrived -- they finished their work in Jerusalem. They're going home and after one day out in the travels, they realize it's time to tuck little Jesus into bed and He's not to be found. You say, how did they get by a whole day without knowing their son was gone?

Well when you're traveling with hundreds of people, the kids are running around, it wasn't a major concern. They didn't have anything to fear. Thus, Jesus got lost in the crowd is a little boy. Here is Jesus' point: if I join one of these big groups everybody will know I'm there. You go on up. I'll come quietly by Myself. In four days He starts His journey.

He arrives, but He knows that in town all of these opinions about Him: He's a liar; He's a deceiver; no, He's demon possessed; no, He's a good man; no, He's a prophet, no. Jesus realized that everybody had an opinion about Him, but they couldn't speak it out. It says that they quietly -- they could not -- for fear of the Jews they couldn't talk about it even in public conversation. Because they were afraid that if they were to get together in groups maybe those religious readers would have some kind of inspector coming around, and if they heard anything said positively about Jesus, they really put their neck in a sling. Because those Jewish leaders had an arrangement whereby if you say anything good about Jesus, we're going to excommunicate you from the synagogue.

You say, what's that? Well if they heard anybody say something positive about Jesus; first of all they marched them into the temple, openly cursed them, forever denied them the privilege of ever coming back to the temple again, and then Ezra tells us they confiscated all of their property. That's the way they controlled these people. You say anything good about Jesus and we'll kick you out of church. You'll never be able to come back. We'll cursed you publicly and then we'll take all of your property. That's why they're quiet. They don't want to be excommunicated.

So Jesus walks into town and everybody is muttering. Nobody can talk. The officials are saying, where is He? We want Him. And they couldn't express their feelings for Jesus. Now time moves very quickly so I've got to bring my short lesson to some culminating thoughts. But as Jesus walked into that temple, or into that city, He realize the vast variety of opinions, most of them against Him. You have to know He was deeply concerned as to what people thought about Him.

Again, if we went to our city and said what you think of Jesus? We would all be surprised what some people think of Him. A few years ago Josh McDowell, a brilliant student, wrote a book entitled 'The Evidence Demands A Verdict'. A brilliant man, he's probably lectured in over 800 universities across the world; a religious man who has touched more universities students than any other man of our time. He wrote this book and what he wanted to do is build the case to prove who Jesus was -- a brilliant attorney's mind.

When you get a chapter 7 he gives an interesting title, he says, Trilemma: Lord, liar or a lunatic. Who is Jesus? And the premise is, some said He's a liar, He's a deceiver. Others said no, He's demon possessed, He's a lunatic. Dr. Josh McDowell says you got to come to a conclusion about what your opinion of Jesus is, what's think ye of Christ?

Now if you take the position that He's a lunatic, you reason from the point that what He said was absolutely absurd in human understanding. He said before Abraham was, I am. In other words, I'm older than Abraham. The words of Jesus would only be the words of a lunatic if they were not true. If somebody walked up to you and said, I'm Jesus, you'd say, he probably belongs in the psychiatric ward. And that's exactly what they said of Jesus in that day.

In fact, on one occasion His own family got disturbed and upset about His claims and they went to get Him because they thought that Jesus was insane -- His own family. And yet, when you listen to what He says, He's either God or He's crazy. It's hard for me even to say that about Jesus, but you've got to come to a conclusion -- either what He said is true, or what He said is a lie.

McDowell, in his book, references a writing by C. S. Lewis. C. S. Lewis was an agnostic who taught in Cambridge University. He was an agnostic for much of his life, but in the later part of his life he turned to being a devoted Christian -- a brilliant mind, C. S. Lewis. Here's what He wrote. I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus, that is, I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That's one thing we must not say. A man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic, on the level of a man who says he's a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice; either this man was and is the Son of God or else he's a madman and something else.

If he was a liar he told the worst lie a man could tell, because he told us if we believed in Him, we would have eternal life. And if the human race places their confidence in him as the savior, and he lied to us, we'll all miss heaven.

Then he goes on. The impossibility of considering Jesus as merely a good man is impossible. He's not a good man -- He's God, incarnate in human flesh. He's the God-Man. Just to say, Jesus, He's a good man, that's patronizing Him. That's not saying very much. And those people up in Jerusalem said yeah, yeah, He's all right, He's a good man. No, He's not a good man. He's God incarnate in human flesh. He is the Lord of the universe. He's more than just a good man.

And then he comes to the conclusion. I'm still referring to Mr. McDowell's book. He says, someone who lived as Jesus lived, taught as Jesus taught, and died as Jesus died, could not have been either a liar or a lunatic -- and there's only one other alternative, and that is, He was God.

And then he quotes, and I found this one interesting, a man by the name of J. S. Mill, who was a philosopher, a skeptic, and antagonist to his dying day of Christianity. Now here's a man -- he doesn't like Christianity, he doesn't like Jesus -- doesn't want to have anything to do with it. But he has this to say, this is what He writes in his philosophy book: about the life and sayings of Jesus there is a stamp of personal originality combined with profundity of insight in the very first rank of men of sublime genius of whom our species can boast. When this pre-eminent genius, so he's chosen to call Jesus a pre-eminent genius, when this genius is combined with the qualities of probably the greatest moral reformer and martyr to the mission who ever existed upon earth, religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice in selecting him to be their representative. Now here's a cynic. Here's an antagonist to Christianity and he said well there's one thing for sure that if Christianity wanted to select a leader, they got the best, and that's Jesus. And we all agree. Amen.

Jesus walks into Jerusalem -- the opinions are many -- He's good, no, He's more than good He's God. He's not a liar because everything He said was true. And there's only one way we can deal with Jesus, you have to accept Him as the Lord of the universe. That's who He is. And if He's the Lord of the universe then He requires my love and my obedience and my following Him. And there's something about Jesus, neutral you cannot be. He didn't leave any options. That's the interesting thing. Jesus said I either am who I am, or I'm not, and there are no options.

I often tell you of the song I heard sung years ago was a little boy. It went like this: Jesus is standing in Pilate's Hall. Friendless, forsaken, despised by all. Hearken, what meaneth the sudden call, what will you do with Jesus? And here's the chorus: What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be, because someday your heart will be asking, what will He do with me? We'll all someday stand before Him, and Jesus said if you denied Me before men, I will deny you before the angels of heaven. You've got to do something with Jesus. Let's bow our heads.

Lord Jesus, we've made our choice. We believe that You are everything You said You were. We believe the Bible from cover to cover, and we believe, Lord Jesus, that You're the divine Son of God, the Savior of the world, God incarnate in human flesh in the person of Jesus. You're our Lord, our Master, our King, and our Savior. And our opinion of You is, Lord Jesus, You're worthy of our love and our worship, and we worship You. And everybody said, amen. God bless you. © Copyright 2002 Church of the Highlands