Now some of them from Jerusalem said, “Is this not He whom they seek to kill? But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.” . . . And many of the people believed in Him, and said, “When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?” . . . Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” So there was a division among the people because of Him. John 7: 25-27, 31, 40-43, NKJV.
Most Gracious God. As we seek to know You better, and to lead others to a saving knowledge of You, please reveal Yourself to us , we pray in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
You will notice that we have a rather lengthy portion of Scripture for discussion today. That is because it is made up of several supposedly distinguishing outward signs of the Messiah. We will not talk about all of them today, but I thought it would help if we kept them all together as we studied.
Christ has always been considered a controversial figure: Son of God – Son of man. King of heaven – born in a manger. Sinless – yet keeping company with publicans and sinners. Perhaps we consider these attributes and behaviors controversial because we are only human, and see things from our limited perspective. But from a divine perspective, this is who the Messiah was supposed to be. After all, one of His prime missions was to make of the two, one (Ephesians 2: 14). For the scribes and Pharisees, it was all about an outward show. As far as heaven is concerned it is all about the heart.
Our Scripture under consideration makes reference to Christ’s mysterious origin, the signs which He performed, and what city He was from. It was all status quo. Just a word of warning: status quo limits, and subjects, and defines. Because Christ is “Lord of all,” He will not be subject to the status quo! That is why He prayed that we would get to “know Him”(John 17: 3). When we know Christ, the status quo will not be able to control us.
Today for a few minutes we will look at the portion of Scripture that deals with, His mysterious origin: “However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.” How mistaken we can be about people! We see them, we even get close to them; some times we make their acquaintance; but we really do not know anything of substance about them. Here they are speaking so authoritatively about knowing where Christ was from, while being completely in the dark about His real origin!
If they had been studying the Scriptures, they would have realized that the Messiah’s place of birth, had been foretold, ” ‘ “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” ‘ ” (Micah 5: 2). They obviously believed that the Messiah would come according to their expectations. The things they said about Christ, clearly shows that they were completely ignorant to who the Messiah was, and what would be His mission. Listen:
” ‘ “The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, ‘ “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” ‘ And they said, ‘ “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’ ” ‘ ” (John 6: 42)?
“Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, ‘ “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?” ‘ So they were offended at Him” (Matthew 13: 53-57).
“They answered and said to Him, ‘ “Abraham is our father.” ‘ Jesus said to them, ‘ “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.” ‘ Then they said to Him, ‘ “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God” ‘ (John 8: 39-41).
Their knowledge of the Messiah was so limited, that they were rude and sacrilegious in speaking to Him! When we base our service to God on what others think about us, be very careful! Any foundation that shallow, will not be able to sustain us when the going gets rough – for meaningful service is not with outward show!
We will continue.