Well, if you have your Bibles, please open them back up to John chapter 7. And if you will, just stand with me for the reading of God's Word. As you're standing up and perhaps turning to your page, I just want to say I love that song we just sang. I can't wait until we can sing all eight verses confidently, which might be some time. That is a tricky one. But that is a good, good word. I love singing rich music that our fathers sang many, many centuries ago. All right, today we'll be in John 7 verses 40 through 53. John 7, 40 through 53. This is the word of the Lord. 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. Now, some of them wanted to take him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the officers came to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who said to them, Why have you not brought him? The officers answered, No man ever spoke like this man. Then the Pharisees answered them, Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. Nicodemus, he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them, said to them, Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? They answered and said to him, Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. And everyone went to his own house. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this wonderful word that you have laid before us today to feast on. God, we thank you that it is true what these officers said. No man spoke like you. Lord, even today, as we hear your word read, we must say no one has spoken like you, Lord. Not in 6,000 years, Lord, no one has spoken like you. And I pray, God, that today you would speak to our hearts, that you, through the power of your Holy Spirit, Jesus, would speak directly to our hearts. Lord, open the minds and hearts of each person sitting here under the ministry of God's Word. Lord, open my mouth to declare what you would have me say. Lord, this morning, especially, I feel weak in my body, God, but I know that your power is made perfect in our weakness. I pray that we would see your power on display here today in this church. We ask your blessing in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. This is our last Lord's Day looking at Jesus's last time observing the Feast of Tabernacles during his earthly life. The apostle John gives a lot of his gospel devoted to just the last year, really even the last six months of Jesus's life is most of what the gospel according to John is devoted to. And so we are nearing the end, even though we'll probably be in this book for quite some time. And the first things that I wanna highlight for us as we look at this text today are the different responses to Christ's preaching and how Jesus and his word bring division. The different responses to Christ's preaching and how Jesus and his word brings division. Our text for this morning opens with the word, therefore. And as I've said before, and it might sound trite and silly, but you won't forget it if I keep saying it. Whenever we see a therefore in the Bible, what do we do? We need to go back and see what it's there for. What is the apostle John referring to when he writes, therefore, many from the crowd, when they heard this saying said, truly, this is the prophet. What saying is John talking about here? Well, John is referring back to the preceding three verses, verses 37 through 39 that we discussed last week at some length, but they bear repeating, so I'm gonna read them once more now. beginning in verse 37, on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. John is telling us that when Jesus proclaimed to the crowd that He is the one who could eternally satisfy their thirsty souls. At that moment, John says, when they heard those words, after they had seen that water rite performed for a whole week, after they had been called to mind that great wonder of God bringing water from a rock in the wilderness for their fathers, it was at that moment that many people said, truly, this man is the prophet. This is not the first time in John's gospel that people have brought up this term, the prophet. The first time we saw this title appear is in John 1, when the priests and Levites ask John the Baptist if he is the prophet. He says very clearly, no, no, no, I'm not the prophet. I'm just the voice. I'm the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. Then later in John 6, we see people beginning to apply this title to Jesus, perhaps for the first time. After he multiplied the loaves and fishes and fed the 5,000, many of the people said, this truly is the prophet who is to come into the world. There were, of course, many prophets in Israel's history, but there would be only one man who is the prophet, the one that Moses spoke of, the one to whom God's true people would listen, the greater lawgiver, the ultimate deliverer, And though there was likely confusion in many of the minds of these people here, though most of them were not yet true disciples of Christ from the heart, they were right. This man is the prophet. But this was not the only response to Jesus's wonderful sermon on the promise of the Holy Spirit. Many did say that he was the prophet, correctly. But as verse 41 tells us, others said, this is the Christ. Now reading this today, you might think, well, isn't that the same thing? We know Jesus is the Christ. That's what we call Him, Jesus Christ. And as we've established, He is the prophet. So why are these two things being represented as two different responses or as two different groups of people? Why is this happening? Well, although Old Covenant Israel had true revelation, from God. And although those Israelites who were the elect children of faith had a true belief in the Savior who was to come, it's also true that for thousands of years, there was a great mystery surrounding the person and work of the Messiah. God had revealed many things about himself to our old covenant brothers and sisters. And then other things, He had shown them, but not quite so clearly. He had revealed them, but only in types or sometimes just in dark shadows, waiting until the coming of Christ to put them on brilliant and glaring display. And one of those things is the fact that the prophet and the Messiah are the same man. Further dialing back into our text today in John 7, not only do we know that our old covenant brothers and sisters did not have the full revelation of Jesus Christ in the flesh, but we're also reminded that the Holy Spirit had not yet been given. And one of the chief things that the Spirit does is He teaches us. He leads us into understanding of God and His Word. He opens our hearts and minds. He lets us see clearly the truth of spiritual mysteries. So even God's true children, like the apostles and some others who really believed in Jesus, Still, many of them were confused about some important things about who Jesus was. So it shouldn't surprise us that many people at this point still don't understand that the prophet and the Christ are the same man. They're both trying to honor him. They're both saying great things. And they think, some of them, that maybe they're talking about two different people. And they were just confused. The term Christ, means anointed one. Similar to how there were many prophets in the Old Testament, but only one who was the prophet. So also there were many anointed ones in the Old Testament, but only one who is the anointed one. Kings were anointed, priests were anointed, prophets were sometimes anointed. This was not an uncommon or unheard of practice to have an anointed one in Israel. Anointing is a setting apart by God through the pouring of oil on someone's head. And an anointed one, therefore, is someone who has been set apart for a special mission from God, who speaks on God's behalf, who leads God's people, who represents, as it were, God to his people. And while there are many people in the Old Testament who met this description to some degree or another, They were also all our old covenant brothers and sisters waiting on the anointed one, the Christ. When is he coming? This anointed one was prophesied over and over throughout the pages of the Old Testament. Think of that most famous psalm that even many unbelievers might have written on a coffee mug at their homes, Psalm 23, where David, who is a great picture of Christ to come, says, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Or recall when Jesus was just beginning his public ministry, he went into the synagogue in Nazareth on the Sabbath and he opened the scroll of Isaiah and he read these words. He said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then after he read these words, Jesus closed the book of the scroll of Isaiah and he gave it back to the attendant and he sat down and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed upon him. And he began to say to them, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So these people are right. Jesus is the Christ and he is the prophet, same man. He's also the suffering servant. He's the Prince of Peace. He's the King of Kings. Jesus is the fulfillment of so many Old Testament titles and prophecies. And these people, they just haven't connected them all together yet, but they're on the right track. However, not everyone has a positive or accurate response to Jesus's preaching. Picking back up in our text in John 7 41, we read this, 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. It's interesting to read here that some of the Jews were publicly alluding to scripture about how the Christ will be from Bethlehem, when just a little bit earlier, At the same feast, also in response to people thinking that Jesus might be the Christ, there were also some Jews publicly stating that when the Christ comes, no one knows where he is from. Do you remember that? It was just a couple of weeks ago. Same chapter, John 7, same feast. Jesus preaches at the Feast of Tabernacles. A crowd gathers to hear him. People start wondering, could this one be the Christ? Could he be the anointed one? The first day this happens, a bunch of people say, no, no, no, no, no. This man can't be the Christ because we know where he's from. This Jesus of Nazareth, everyone knows that. And when the Christ comes, no one will know where he's from. Obviously he can't be the Christ. And then a few days later, he's still preaching at the same feast. People are saying again, he may be the Christ though. And then people start shouting again, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This man can't be the Christ. We know where he's from. This is Jesus of Nazareth. And when the Christ comes, he'll be from Bethlehem. Everyone knows that. We have to say, well, which is it, unbelieving Jews? Do we not know where the Christ will be from? Or do we know that he'll be from Bethlehem? And of course, in their mind, neither apply to Jesus. It's amazing how the lost man and especially the lost religious man, will grasp at anything in an attempt not to acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And now he will latch on to even the vaguest hints of proof to support his position, even if a quick examination shows that there's no real proof at all. Now, could there have been some genuine confusion here? Of course. I don't think that everyone who doubted that Jesus was the Christ had some premeditated vindictive plot against our Lord. But it is clear that there were many people who were actively opposed to Jesus at this feast. The rulers are very clearly opposed. We've already established that. But it seems that there are probably some people of lower rank who are opposed to him and his message as well. Verses 43 and 44 read like this. So there was a division among the people because of him. Now, some of them wanted to take him but no one laid hands on him. So it's not only that the rulers are opposed to Christ, but the people, this is the crowd of people, not the priests, not the Pharisees, the general people, the crowd, some of them are opposed. They are divided as well. Some even, our text says, wanted to take him. And the context tells us that this is not the same type of taking him that John tells us about earlier, where he fed the 5,000 and they wanted to take him to make him king. This was like a bad type of taking, like these people wanted to take him and imprison him, stone him, throw him out of the city, something bad, not a taking because they loved him, a taking because they heard his message and they hated him in their hearts. We can learn a number of things from this divided crowd. First, it is impossible to be truly neutral about Jesus Christ. It is impossible to be truly neutral about Jesus Christ and his claims of Lordship. People may pretend to be neutral at times, or they might on the outside appear to us to be neutral. but either you acknowledge Christ as Lord or you do not. It's that simple. There is a line set down in concrete regarding the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And this line cannot be straddled. Some people today think they're not actively rejecting Christ. That Jesus and Christianity and the church, that's all fine and good and well and probably has done some great things for society and gives people some meaning in their lives and I'll go to Christmas service and I'll go to Easter service and that's all well and good. But there's no heart religion. But make no mistake, if you are not submitted to Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are against him. There's no neutrality. Secondly, and this is really just the same thing stated in a different way. Secondly, we learned that division is inevitable. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus says, do you suppose that I came to give peace on the earth? I tell you not at all, but rather division. Jesus came to bring division. We cannot be friends with the world We can and should, of course, try to live at peace with all men. We can even seek to honor our fellow men who are unbelievers. But we cannot have true and lasting unity with the world. We must be divided from the worldlings. Now, it's true that Christ is the Prince of Peace. That's absolutely true. He's not opposing. He's not saying something contradictory to that here. but the peace of Jesus is a conquering peace. It is a peace made through war. It is not a peace which papers over all our differences and pretends that everything is all right and we can just all hold hands and sing Kumbaya and everything will be okay. And though we will see peace advance slowly over time, we must also realize that division is inevitable. even to the very end of time and on into eternity. Division is an eternal reality. Even on judgment day, Jesus himself personally will be about the work of division. He'll be dividing the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, his children from the damned. So we should not be surprised when division over Christ happens in this life. We should in fact welcome some division. especially division from sin and idolatry and all of it is opposed to Christ. We are to come out from among the worldlings and be separate. Division is inevitable. The next thing that I want to look at is the importance of being humble before God and His Word. The importance of being humble before God and His Word. We see people here in our passage today using scripture in an attempt to back up their claims against Christ. This is a tale as old as time. In the garden, Satan successfully deceived Eve by challenging and perverting the word of God. That was his weapon of choice to deceive our mother, Eve. In contrast, in the wilderness, Satan unsuccessfully tempted Christ to sin by quoting scripture to him. But he's using the same weapons both times. During the Reformation, many of our fathers in the faith were burned to death by the Roman church. because they twisted, the Roman church twisted the word of God and demanded that faithful Christians go along with their wickedness. They were using the word as a weapon against the faithful Christians. We see things like this, not that extreme usually, but even in our culture today, it's still happening. People using the word of God as a weapon against the truth. What politician when he or she is running for president doesn't quote the Bible in some campaign speech. They may want to advance any type of abomination imaginable, but when they go to the Southern states and when they visit the rural towns, they're gonna have a Bible and they're gonna quote from it. Why is this? Why do wicked men seek to pervert the word of God? Why not just let it alone and forget it? Why even engage with this? It is because it is the most powerful weapon in existence. We talked recently about how the Word of God is a hammer. Word of God is a hammer which smashes to bits the hearts of stone and the vain imaginations of man. How the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. and how the Word of God is like a fire that cannot be contained, but must burst forth in conquering power, consuming everything it touches. Even the unbelieving mind and heart can see some glimmer of the power of the Word of God. Sadly, sometimes the world seems like they know more of the power of the Word of God than Christians do. May we never be afraid of planting our flag in the ground and simply stating, thus saith the Lord. Here I stand, I can do no other. That's the approach we have to have to the word of God. Whatever the word of God says, that's what I believe. Even if you haven't read all of it yet, you start with that belief. This word is authoritative and powerful. But unbelievers, instead of wanting to submit to this power and be ruled by this power, they want to wield it for their own evil purposes. By God's grace, even though wicked men may sometimes appear like they have won the day though, we know from his word that they will lose in the end. No matter how intently evil men may seek to use God's holy word for their evil ends, the word of God cannot be broken. It can be abused for a time or appear to be abused would be a better way to say it, but the word of God cannot be broken. God will not be mocked. The truth of God will stand and all the kingdoms of the world will one day come under the yoke of his word. Until that day comes, there will be division and warfare about the Word of God. And it is our duty to proclaim God's Word clearly and truthfully. We must continually, day by day then, submit ourselves to God's Word anew. The Bible tells us that if the bugle makes an indistinct sound, who will prepare for battle? God will win, that is true, that's absolutely true, but he wins through his church. And it's not just through his church exerting some type of worldly force, it's through his church using the weapons that he gave us. What is the weapon that he's given us? It's the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. That's our weapon. It's not the sword of the spirit to advance fleshly desires. That's what the evil men use it for. It's not the sword of the spirit which we somehow use to seek conversions by the edge of a physical sword also. This doesn't mean that we'll never stand our ground and take up physical weapons. We very well may be called to do that. Perhaps even some of us in this lifetime will have to raise swords of steel to slay the enemies of God. But what it does mean is that we always humble ourselves under the sword of the Spirit. We need to, as scary as this sounds, and this isn't just rhetorical flourish, but we need to ask God, we need to ask Him that He would take His hammer and smash us when we become hardened and stony to the call of the Spirit. Do that preemptively, ask Him now, because when you're becoming hardened stony, you're not gonna want to ask. But pray God every day, Lord, if I become hardened you today, take your hammer and smash me. Like David prayed in Psalm 51, let the bones which you have broken rejoice. David's glad that God took the hammer of his word and smashed him to bits so that he could be bound up whole and new with a clean heart. We need to plunge ourselves head first into the fire of God's word that it might burn away our impurities. We need to receive the sword running through our hearts to kill our old man so that we can rise again imperishable in the power of the Holy Ghost. These are not things that we just do once when we begin the Christian life and then we're done. No, it's like Martin Luther said in the first of his 95 theses, when God commands us to repent, he means that the entirety of the life of the Christian is to be one of repentance. Our entire life is to be smashed and then built back up. In glory, we won't need to be smashed anymore. We won't need to have the sword run through us anymore. We will be like him when we see him. We will be glorified. We'll have full adoption. But right now we're in a time of refining and purging away all the evil. And these actions, these aren't just private, personal, prayer closet practices only. No, we need to humble ourselves privately, yes. But we also must call on our families to humble themselves. Fathers and mothers, declare over your families, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Whatever God's word says, we believe and we will seek to obey it and we will never, ever be ashamed of it. Can you say that you are not ashamed of a single thing written in God's word? I certainly hope that you can. We need to call on our churches to humble themselves before the word of God. We at King's Cross want to be correctable by God's word. We want to be shaped by God's word. I don't ever want this pulpit to become a hobby horse or a platform for me or anyone else to advance his own kingdom. I once heard someone tell a story about a little boy who was disciplined in school when they actually had discipline in schools. And he was disciplined by being made to go sit on a stool in a corner away from the rest of the class. And as he angrily marched over to his stool, he said under his breath, he said, I may be sitting on the outside, but on the inside, I'm still standing. He was still standing up. Well, in quite the reverse manner, John and David and I, and everyone here, We might stand up here and we might speak God's word over you. We might speak God's word over our families. But in our hearts, I pray that we are always sitting under the ministry of God's word. Nothing is over top of the word of God. Everything is underneath. humbly submitting to the word of God. We call on our communities and our cities and our institutions and our state and our nation to humble themselves before the word of God. Remember those unbelievers, they realize that the word of God is a weapon. Do we realize that the word of God is a weapon and we have the hands to wield it because we have the spirit within us. We need not to be afraid to wield the word unashamedly to all the powers of this world. That's why we're working hard right now to persuade our congressmen here in North Carolina to pass a bill of equal protection under the law for unborn children. We need to make real moves of bringing the word of God itself to bear on public life. This humble submission, you can see it's not, just because it's humble and submission, it does not mean it's passive or weak or just something that we do in private. As Abraham Kuyper said, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ who is sovereign over all does not declare mine. There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, mine." Kuyper believed this truth. He lived it out. If you don't know much about this man, just listen to what he was. Abraham Kuyper was a pastor, a published theologian, a journalist, He founded a university, he founded a political party, he founded a newspaper, he founded a Christian denomination, and he was the prime minister of the Netherlands. You can see right there how he lived out that every square inch belief. There was no sector of society that he thought, God's word doesn't have a role here. He believed that Christ was in charge and he wanted to do everything he could to see the society he lived in submit to Jesus and his word. You might think, wow, a guy that accomplished must've been cocky as the day is long. And to be frank, I don't know much about Kuyper's demeanor or his interpersonal relations or his devotional life. But I do know that anyone who says Christ is absolutely sovereign over every aspect of his existence cannot consistently be arrogant or cocky. It is impossible. It takes a humble man to joyfully, energetically, and wholeheartedly live out the truth that he, at the end of the day, is in charge of nothing and that Christ is in total control. Now, someone might say here, well, I hear what you're saying, but how does all this come into play in John 7? Well, there's a lot here in this passage that points us to the great need of humbling ourselves and leading others to humble themselves under the Word of God. First, this is precisely what we see Christ doing. Jesus is the King. He is God himself. He could have come to earth riding that milk white horse, banners flapping in the wind with an angel army at his heels. But he doesn't do that. Not the first time. He comes as a baby. And all throughout his life, we see this humility that he began with, lived out consistently. Here at the Feast of Tabernacles, we see it yet again. Why is it that Jesus goes to the feast? He begins by saying, I'm not gonna go yet, it's not yet my time. But why does he go to the feast? It's because he is humbly submissive to the law of God. The law said, all your males have to come to this feast. And Jesus was born under the law and he was obedient. So he went to the feast. He obeys God's requirement. And when he goes, even though he's Lord of the feast, he doesn't seek fanfare. He goes to worship. But does this humility mean that he is quiet and introspective and only focused on his personal relationship with his Father in heaven? No. Instead, he stands up and boldly preaches to the crowds. Not made up doctrine that draws attention away from God the Father and onto himself. Not funny stories or elegant words that will make everyone like him. No, Christ proclaims and explains the word of God to his hearers, and he applies it directly to their lives. He sees the word of God being abused around him. He sees will worship. He sees people honoring God with their lips, though their hearts are far from him. And he says that despite all of that, despite all of that, anyone who humbles himself before the Lord will be accepted. That's one way we see the importance of humbling ourselves before God and his word in our text today and calling on others to humble themselves. It takes a humble man to say, I'm thirsty and I need you to give me a drink of water. That is embarrassing even today to go up to someone and have to ask them for food or water. It takes humility to do that. And that's what Christ is saying. If you are thirsty, come to me and drink. He's saying you need to be humble. Another way we see this call for humility to God's word in our text today is through the responses of the people. Now, like we've discussed before, we don't know who all was saved here. Jesus is clear throughout the gospels that not everyone who says something positive about him or even theologically correct about him is his true disciple. But we can still learn both good and bad examples of how we relate to the word of God from the people here in John 7. First, we have the people who assert that Jesus is the prophet or the Christ. Now, like we said, these seem like different groups of people, But they're both hearing Christ, who is the Word of God Himself. They're hearing Christ preach the Word, and they're lining up Jesus on one side with all these promises and prophecies they've read in the scripture. They line them up and they say, these seem to go together. This man fulfills what I've read. This man fulfills what my fathers have told me about. And they are willing to believe. They're willing to step across that line and say, I believe you are the Christ. As wild as it may seem to some of them that the prophet or the Christ that their fathers have been waiting for for centuries and centuries is finally here, they see the evidence and they are willing to follow whatever it leads them to. And they don't just think privately in their hearts either. I think this might be the Christ, but I'm gonna wait till I get home, and I'm gonna talk to my rabbi, and discuss this with my wife, and I'll figure it out there. No, no, no, they see God's word coming true before them, and they stand up and publicly say, even amidst opposition, Jesus is the Christ, even in defiance of their wicked and very powerful rulers. They don't submit to their wickedness. No, they rather humbly submit to the word of God. Then we have the officers. This is another example we can learn from. The officers here that are mentioned in chapter seven are essentially like the police who work for the powerful religious leaders of the day. They're sent to arrest Jesus, and they're on their way to do that. And as they're walking up to take this man by force, they are struck by the power of his preaching. See, no man ever spoke like this. These men listened to the word. They came with murderous intent, we could even say like Paul. They heard the word of Christ and they humbled themselves. And they returned to their earthly masters empty-handed because they had met a greater authority, which they had to submit to. Then we have the Pharisees and the other rulers of the Jews. These are the men that have all the professional biblical and theological education that money and noble birth can afford. And they use all of these wonderful resources for their own wickedness. Instead of humbling themselves under the word of God, they seek to use their religious power and influence to lead others astray. Listen how they talk down to their officers, whose minds and hearts are beginning to open in the gospel. Verses 47 and 48 of our text. Then the Pharisees answered them. This is after the officers say that no man ever spoke like this. Then the Pharisees answered them, are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers of the Pharisee or the Pharisees believed in him? The Pharisees are essentially saying, look, if any of this Jesus nonsense were true, we would have figured it out first. We're the ones that God would have revealed this to. We're the ones who've done all the studying. We have all the degrees behind our name. If Jesus was to be believed in, we would have told you that that's what you needed to believe. So arrogant. Little do these Pharisees know that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. These men want Christ arrested and executed. They pronounced the crowd before them accursed and ignorant of God's law. And they even challenged Nicodemus with some made up claim, telling him that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. And thus Jesus couldn't possibly be anyone special. So these are, this is the bad example. Don't be like the Pharisees here. And then finally, we can look to Nicodemus himself. This is a man who has massive power and influence among God's people. He is a teacher and master of Israel. He is a member of the Sanhedrin. He is likely a great celebrity, but he is not a monarch or a dictator. He does not have absolute authority to decide which way things are going to go here. And it appears that the rulers of the Jews that of the rulers of the Jews, he may be the only one who is not actually opposed to Christ. If he is to stand for Jesus, he will have to stand alone, humanly speaking, and he realizes that. So he makes the appeal to his fellow elites. He says that regardless of how you feel about Christ, we have to obey God's word. Certainly we can all agree on that, my fellow Pharisees. We have to obey God's word. In the face of violently angry peers, he says, does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? Instead of getting carried away in some flight of emotional hysteria, Nicodemus proposes, we just humbly submit to the word of God and we go wherever it leads us. And regardless of how angrily his followers, fellow rulers, I'm sorry, snap back at Nicodemus, it seems that his suggestion must have carried some force here. They're angry at him. They're irritated. They say, oh, you must be deceived. You're just like the crowd. But his suggestion carried some force. Our passage ends with these words. Right after this interchange, John tells us that everyone went to his own house. Now, could it have been that God, apart from any human means, restrained the Pharisees from arresting Christ? Absolutely. Something of that nature was already at work during the week-long celebration, where the enemies just couldn't seem to put their hands on Jesus, no matter what they tried. But God also works through means. He works through his people. And we can see that here in John 7. God restrained the Pharisees from taking Jesus at first by leading Jesus to delay coming to the feast. And then he led Jesus to enter secretly when he did come to Jerusalem. And then he led Jesus to stay quietly in his tent and with his friends for a few days before he stepped forward to preach. Then while Jesus was preaching, God the Holy Spirit kept the Pharisees at bay so that Christ could continue to call people to a living faith in him without interruption. And I think that God may also have chosen to use Nicodemus' brave words to put a final stop to the Pharisees' plots here at the end. It was the end of the feast. People were starting to disperse. Jesus no longer was preaching to a vast crowd. It probably from a human perspective would have been easy at this point to just grab him and arrest him. Fewer people would have noticed than if they did it while Jesus was still preaching. But Nicodemus stepped up and he said, this is not how we're going to do things today. And it seems like these words from Nicodemus carried great weight among his fellow rulers. Now, before we close, I want to make one more note about Nicodemus and what we can learn from him. The rulers of the Jews are consistently and constantly presented in the Bible as opposed to Christ. Just en masse, as one big group together, they are all against Jesus. Whenever the New Testament, it seems, whenever the Gospels say something about the Jews or the Pharisees, you can just almost absolutely guarantee that it's going to be something bad. Just that is the way we can have an operating hermeneutic here. But then we have Nicodemus, a man who came to Jesus alone by night, a man who is now standing up to his peers, asking for Christ to receive a fair hearing according to the word of God. We can see here a lived out example of Jesus' saying that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Out of all the wealthy and powerful men in Israel, we really only see a couple prior to Christ's death, owning him as their Lord. We have Nicodemus, we have Zacchaeus, possibly we could say maybe Matthew. It's not clear. And that's really it. All the other powerful people oppose Jesus. Now, why do you think this is? Why is it hard for rich and powerful people to enter the kingdom of heaven? Is it that God just arbitrarily hates the rich and powerful? Why did he bless them with riches and power then we might ask? No, he doesn't arbitrarily hate them. It is because it is hard for someone who has wealth and influence and authority to part with his earthly treasures, humble himself and follow someone else. To say that someone else is totally in charge. It's easy for a child to lay aside his strength and know that he needs someone to help him. That's easy. It's easy for a poor man to lay aside his possessions and know that he needs someone to provide for him. But for a rich and powerful man, it is very hard. In fact, with man, Jesus tells us that this is more than hard. It is impossible. But with God, Jesus says all things are possible. Now we can learn from this. because we are a rich congregation and we are living in a wealthy society. We have been blessed in many ways and we must never let that prevent us from being humble, especially humble towards God and his word. If any man thinks he stands, take heed lest he falls. We must use our time and talents and treasures, not for the furthering of our own kingdom like all the other Pharisees did. but we must use them like Nicodemus for the furthering of God's kingdom. And the second and last thing that we can learn from the example of Nicodemus here is that God is very patient with us. I mean, I've been talking this guy up here, I feel like. Nicodemus, he's the man. He stands boldly against the crowd and speaks up for the truth. He's humble, he's brave. He submits to the authority of God's word even in the face of evildoers. But if we're being honest, when we read the text, he also just kind of took like a half measure here. He just kind of made a suggestion. He didn't, Nicodemus doesn't actually declare his loyalty to Jesus. He doesn't directly rebuke the Pharisees. He doesn't show them why they are wrong from the scriptures about no prophets coming from Galilee. He doesn't even directly or clearly say that Jesus shouldn't be condemned. He's like, I know you want to condemn this guy. Maybe we should give him a trial first. How about a trial? Doesn't even say he's innocent. He just says, this is how the law would have us proceed. We might even think as we're reading something like this, come on, man, I would have done better than that. Sometimes we read these stories in the Bible, we think I could have, I could have done better than that person did. I would have just laid out the truth in living color. This man is the Christ. He is my Lord. You must submit to him. But in reality, we may very well have been like Peter, who when he came up against public opposition, he denied Christ three times. So I can agree with those sentiments that Nicodemus could have done so much more here. But I can also rejoice with God that he is patient with us and he gives us examples like this. It would be discouraging and depressing if all of the examples of God's people and God's word were just superstars. and they never sinned, and they always did the right thing, and they always stood up in all the right ways. Instead, we just see a bunch of people, crooked sticks that God uses to draw these straight lines. Bunch of sinful, confused, scared people that God uses to turn the world upside down. He is very patient with us. He's patient with Nicodemus' half measures here. I love that song. He's still working on me. That's a good one. If you haven't heard it, it goes like this, or the refrain goes like this. It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars, how loving and patient he must be. He's still working on me. Think of that. Just a week to make the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How many years has he been working on you? He is a loving and patient God. He doesn't save us and then immediately demand our perfect and complete sanctification. Otherwise he cast us out. Nicodemus is a great example here. He comes weak and afraid in the middle of the night. Then sometime later, we see him making this half measure and we see him honoring Christ after his death. He's not sanctified all at once in one day. So be comforted. when you fail Jesus, that he still loves you. No loving father disowns his son when he makes a mistake. And when you see others in a position to stand up for Christ, and they end up giving what you feel is some limp-wristed half-measure, don't go straight to self-righteous judgment and think, ah, God, if only I could have been on that Senate floor. If only I could have been in that public square, I would have done better. No, rather thank God that they took the steps they did. That's what God ordained for them. This was the good work that God had laid out for Nicodemus in this moment. And ask God that he would make you faithful and brave when your time to testify to him comes. Ask him that he would use his gentle fatherly hand to keep you humble, lest you get self-righteous over your brother. And ask him that you would always remain teachable and correctable by the word of God. Let's pray. And we thank you for your wonderful word. We thank you that you are patient with us. We thank you. that you just call us to ask you, Lord, to call on you, to long for you, to beg for your aid, that we don't have to work for your love, that we just have to humbly submit to you, Lord, we thank you for this. God, we thank you for your love with us, even when we fail you. And we ask your blessing on us now as we seek to return praise and honor to you. In Christ's name, amen.