Jesus Teaching with Authorit..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. John chapter seven from verse one. After this, Jesus went about in Galilee.

He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews feast of booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, leave here and go to Judea that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world for not even his brothers believed in him.

Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but he hates me because I testify about it, that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I'm not going up to this feast for my time has not yet fully come. After this, he remained in Galilee, verse 10.

But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but private, The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, where is he? And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said he's a good man, others said, no, he's leading the people astray. If a fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.

The Jews therefore marveled saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? So Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but he is who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether I'm teaching, whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 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. Has not Moses given you the law?

Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? The crowd answered. You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill you?

Jesus answered them. I did one work and you all marveled at it. Moses gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers. And you circumcised the man on the Sabbath. 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?

Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Well, brothers and sisters, Continuing our study through this gospel, the fourth gospel, according to John in the seventh chapter. And in previous weeks, we've considered the first 13 verses of our chapter.

And by God's grace, this week, the text for our consideration will be from verses 14 through 18. Now I know we read through 24 but our our verses will be from 14 to 18. Our reading was extended so that we can get a grasp of the concept or the context I should say of our passage. Now church we've been in chapter 7 for a few weeks now so the context should still be quite clear in our minds that the chapter comes off the back of chapter 6 when our Lord Jesus was at the very heart of his popularity in the in the region of Galilee. Because at the beginning of chapter six, our Lord had several thousand tracing his footsteps, multitudes following after him, after witnessing his supernatural signs and his wonders from healing those with various diseases who had come to him and were all made well.

And of course, all the way to the spectacular sign at the beginning of chapter six, known as the feeding of the 5,000. Sadly, we know that the height of the Lord's popularity was very much shortly lived because by the end of that chapter, after our Lord had a chance to teach the true meaning of the sign they all witnessed the day before, they could not hear him any longer. They were okay to eat and digest the Lord's provision of material bread, okay to satisfy their physical needs with physical bread that is here today and will one day perish along with their physical bodies. But when Jesus spoke of far more important and a far more desperate need of the spiritual blood for their eternal souls, they refused to receive his words. They refused to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood.

Now these were no doubt provocative words and only for those who had ears to hear, only those could hear or receive what our Lord was saying. Because Jesus was not promoting a form of cannibalism. I mean, the Jews were disgusted at his words, but that's not what the Lord was doing. Rather, using these shocking metaphors to teach his hearers that nothing less than the whole of Christ is to be believed upon for the forgiveness of their sins and for them to enjoy eternal life in his name. only those who hunger and thirst for Christ.

Those who have been drawn by the Father are able to recognize him as the bread from heaven, the bread of life, who indeed satisfies the deepest longings of the soul. And so by the end of the chapter, many, if not most of his followers and to the so-called disciples turn their backs and abandon our Lord. Why? Because they did not believe his teaching. And that's because they did not have an appetite for Jesus flavored bread.

This account makes it, makes at least two things clear, that our Lord did not seek popularity or glory for himself. The multitudes end up abandoning him and he is unfazed. But also he shows us that no matter how much physical evidence one has, the Galileans had plenty, beloved. Unless a work is done in the heart of a man or a woman, one cannot, cannot believe the teachings of Christ. Now, why have I taken you back to chapter six, back to texts that we, a lot of these texts we started some six months ago.

Why have I taken you back so far in my intro, beloved? It's because both those two points I just made are instrumental in the verses that we're about to examine this evening from verse 14 through 18. The glory that Jesus sought after was not his own. it was not a glory after his own and also no one is capable of believing his words unless a divine work has taken place in their hearts. So now moving forward we're six months later The context of chapter 7 takes us to a different region, the region from Galilee to Jerusalem at a time of the Feast of Booths.

Now from the onset of the chapter, John brings to our attention the fact that the Jews were seeking to kill Christ. This hostility and this fierce antagonism will become the backdrop over the next two chapters as the religious leader's tension mounts greater and greater against our Lord. The religious leaders in Jerusalem had enough of Jesus. This wasn't a simple case of a difference of opinion between one group of people and another, a difference of opinion or grudge that could possibly be resolved or settled. That was not the case here.

These pious men were determined. They were determined to eliminate Jesus Christ and get rid of him once and for all. So last week, we considered the fact that these Jews were searching for Christ. They no doubt anticipated his arrival to the Holy City with a caravan of Galileans, but to their surprise, Jesus wasn't among the pilgrims. So they began to actively search after him during the feast, asking around with the people of his whereabouts, has anyone seen him?

Where is he? They were crying out, where is this Jesus? Now, despite knowing full well their intentions to kill him, Jesus makes the journey to Jerusalem anyway, but he does so discreetly and privately. arriving about halfway through the festival's celebrations. And what he finds when he arrives is a division among the people.

Now it was hush hush. It was quite low key. They were whispering among each other. If you remember, that's what we said last week. Because of the fear of the Jews, there was an oppression by the religious leaders.

But nonetheless, John tells us that there was no consensus or agreement among the people about who this Jesus actually is. Some were saying he was a good man, and others were saying, no, no, he's not a good man. He was leading, or he is leading the people astray, literally calling him a deceiver. Now, he certainly was no deceiver. Our Lord said it as it is.

He never pulled the wool over anyone's eyes. Our Lord is, is one who where no deceit is found in his mouth. He's never told a lie. He is certainly not a deceiver. And last week we also considered the profession of those who said that he's merely a good man.

And we said that they definitely also missed the point. They missed the mark. Because if you take Christ at his word, he's either a very, very bad man, or he is the God man. because there is no disputing that he claimed equality with God. They saw this man, Jesus, claiming equality with God in his teaching, equality in the work of God, equality in his power, equality in his authority, and equality in the honor due to his name.

One is given no middle ground, beloved brothers and sisters, no third option. Either you believe all of his claims or you reject him at one's own peril. But either way, both groups lacked conviction because neither group were willing to express their view in public for the fear of the Jews, we're told. In other words, they were likely holding their views about Jesus Christ lightly. Neither were willing to suffer for what they believed.

Neither were willing to be singled out or ostracized for the sake of their so-called faith. it would be much easier for them, they probably would have thought, and far less pain to reserve their own judgment about who this Jesus is until the religious authorities had made an assessment, an official assessment on Jesus, because at that point, to agree with them would be the best way to preserve harmony and to save their skin from much persecution. Beloved brothers and sisters is a far cry of our Lord's teaching when he said, if you deny me before men, I also will deny you before my father who is in heaven. Either, as I said earlier, either you are all in for Christ or you're not in at all. This brings us to the text of our evening.

Five verses we'll be considering together. The verses would be from verse 14 through 18. Now, before we meditate upon these verses, just a quick word on the structure and the outline of this chapter. From verse 14 through the end of chapter seven, we have what seems to be roughly two cycles of narratives. one after the other, each with three consecutive points.

This means each of the points is repeated twice as we work our way through the two cycles in chapter seven. The first cycle of narrative is from verses 14 through to 36. And the second cycle continues to repeat the same points in the same order, but from verse 37, The first point in the cycle is a section where Christ teaches the crowd at the feast very important Christological truths. This is the teaching of Christ. Now this is found in verse 15 through to 24 in the first cycle and 37 through 39 in the second.

Then immediately after his teaching comes the second point, which is a section revealing the response of his hearers to his hearing, or to his teaching, I should say. This is where we read of the discussions among the people and the speculation among them in response to what they've just heard Jesus speaking about. This section is found in verse 25 through 31 in the first cycle. and from verses 40 through 44 in the second. And the third point in the cycles is the response from the religious leaders to our Lord.

And beloved, we know already. It is always, always hostile. This section is found in verse 32 through 36 in the first cycle and from verses 45 to 52 in the second. Now that's just a rough outline and I have to say that some of these points do indeed overlap one over the other but I But I hope this will give those of us who like to have an outline or a structure, I hope this will give you something to work with. Now this week we'll consider a portion of the first teaching section in the first cycle.

So let's look and begin at verse 14. About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple and began teaching. Now, we can't be sure exactly when the Lord made it to Jerusalem for the feast, but we're told that he didn't begin to teach publicly until about halfway through the feast. Now, this festival, as we've said on different occasions, consists of seven days of feasting and joyful celebration. However, on the eighth day, the people would also gather for a solemn As this feast is eight days from beginning to end, it's likely that Jesus began to teach, or publicly at least, about four days into the feast.

And he didn't teach discreetly, but at temple grounds. Now, it wasn't uncommon for rabbis or religious leaders to teach at the temple. And it most likely, it was most likely the huge area, which was called the Court of the Gentiles, which was the place that they would teach. That's the place that fit the most people, and people would flock into the temple grounds and listen to the several rabbis teach. Now, considering the time of year that it is, right in the middle of the Feast of Booths, our Lord would have had no doubt a huge audience.

The population in Jerusalem at this time was swelling at the seams and the grounds or the temple grounds was the central location for their locate or their gatherings. The Jews looking for our Lord, those who were calling out earlier on in it saying, where is he? Where is he? Would have absolutely no trouble right now finding where this Jesus is because he's right in the central location in the temple teaching the people but it would be extremely difficult for the Jews to arrest him right now because there was huge amount of people a huge crowd but what was especially true and we'll see this later is that some were actually sympathetic to the cause of Christ and so if the Jews weren't careful their zeal to arrest Christ if their timing was wrong would end up in a riot. So having said that before the chapter is up, we will come to see that they will actually attempt to capture our Lord by sending some of the officers to arrest him only to have their plan backfire when the same officers that the Pharisees send to capture Jesus and bring him and arrest him and bring him back to them when those same officers come back empty handed.

Why? Because they were all struck at the teaching of Christ. As far as Christ was concerned, being found by the Jews was no longer a concern. Even though from what we know already, the delay in him coming to the feast is most likely a result of the threats made by the Jews. But we have to get something clear.

He didn't delay because he was afraid of the Jews. He wasn't fearful that the Jews were looking to kill him. That wasn't why Jesus delayed. It was because of the father's timing, remember. All along, Jesus' primary concern, as he has on more than one occasion reiterated already in this book, in the fourth gospel, according to John, is obedience to his father's will.

And it is now his father's will and now his father's timing that his son would be in Jerusalem in the temple grounds to publicly teach the crowds of people who have come to be present at the feast. And since it's our Lord's food to do the will of a father, then what is he going to do? That's exactly what he'll do. And that's why we find Christ in our passage, in the middle of the temple grounds, preaching and teaching to what would no doubt be swarms of people. And as always, his teaching demands a response.

Let's put our eyes down in verse 15. The Jews therefore marveled saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? What Jesus taught these people on this day, we actually don't know. The spirit of God found it best to conceal that information from us as we have no record of what was being taught, no record of what scripture he expounded or anything else. But according to the response of the Jews, we know it was profound.

Actually, any time our Lord has spoken, we know it's profound. Our Lord always spoke with such authority. He spoke with such deep understanding that those who were listening could do nothing other than marvel. Why? Well, it's the question they asked.

It's found in the question they asked. And they asked this question, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied. Now, it's a rather strange construction of words, to be honest. The term translated for us, learning, which is gramata in the original, refers to letters written down. Now, without a context, it would be possible for one to interpret these words as referring to the surprise of these Jews at Jesus because he's able to read words without being taught how to read in the first place, as though he should be illiterate.

But of course, that's not what's being said. The context here and how this word is used elsewhere, in particular, I'm thinking of chapter five, where it refers to the writings of Moses, Then this tells us that the reason for their surprise and their amazement is because our Lord's profound and deep understanding of scripture. And they continue when he has never studied. And that is to say the course of amazement was Christ's superior knowledge and his commanding and authoritative teaching of scripture, despite knowing for sure that he had not had any formal credentials from any known rabbinical schools. In other words, Jesus didn't have a master's degree in theology from an approved seminary, as far as they were concerned.

It was common knowledge, brothers and sisters, in Jerusalem that the religious leaders disallowed a person to teach in a public setting unless that person had received formal training under a recognized rabbi. And that training lasted many, many years. The pupil would vow to full submission to his teacher and his teacher's authority. The pupil would follow his rabbi, listen to his discourses, ask a plethora, many questions. He would recite scripture and he would commit to memory the oral traditions.

and also a selection of preserved interpretations from previous well-respected rabbis because there was a history of them. A student was always in a posture of learning, essentially imitating everything about his own rabbi. Only when the rabbi was confident that the pupil is ready to teach would the pupil be given a platform to do so. Only then was it okay for a pupil to teach in public. and only because of the tutelage of a recognized rabbi.

You see, the Apostle Paul, remember, was educated at the feet of one called, he was a great Jewish rabbi called Gamaliel. He gave him great, and because he was trained under such a well-known, respected Jewish rabbi, this gave the Apostle Paul, or at least before he's converted amongst the Jewish community, it gave him a greater deal of credibility amongst the Jews. But here we have Jesus. Standing in the midst of the temple, teaching, amassing a massive crowd with no formal education and no supervision, that's not okay, according to the Jews. Imagine for a moment the jealousy that may have been experienced by these young pupils, those who were patiently waiting their turn under the education of their own rabbis for many years now, only to see that Jesus has jumped the queue and is amassing a huge following without waiting his turn.

And also to add to that without a formal education. Now, although our Lord spoke with an authority and understanding that cannot be denied, the Jews were not at all happy with his audacity. They weren't happy with his audacity. Definitely some in the crowd were amazed. in a good way, they were amazed with the teaching of our Lord in a good way, but we know that the religious leaders, beloved, weren't.

Seeing Christ teach in this way would only fuel their hostility towards Him and their amazement wasn't one to be seen as positive. In fact, their amazement was rooted in contempt. They would have thought it an atrocity for a self-taught rabbi to command such attention and speak with such authority and boldness. This was appalling as far as they were concerned, especially because they had control over what is and what is not or what does not be, is not taught in Jerusalem. And Jesus didn't get their permission.

And they certainly did not, did not for a moment recognize him as a rabbi at this point. Some did like the, like Nicodemus who came and said, we acknowledge that you're a teacher from God, but many did not. How do we know this? Well, this point is made so clear for us in Acts chapter four, where you might remember when Peter and John are brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council, you remember what they were accused of? They were accused of lacking formal education.

They had a rabbi, all right, and his name was Jesus, but this Jesus was not recognized. by the Jews, and therefore everything they had learned in the three plus years under his ministry was not seen as formal education, as though one who would be taught under their approved rabbis. Now, as I said before, we don't know on this occasion what Jesus taught or what passage of scripture he expounded, but what we do know is that the Jews were angry. We also know from the testimony of the people in the crowds on previous occasions when our Lord had spoken that the common folk had a real amazement. They were astounded at the teaching of our Lord.

This Jesus was unique in his teaching. and that uniqueness was rooted in the authoritative manner that he taught. They could see he was different to the rest. He spoke with what at least seemed to them to be the authority of God. Surely they were used to seeing rabbis teach and expound sections of scripture before large crowds.

They were used to seeing this in the streets of Jerusalem, but we know that these teachers that they used to see speaking and teaching would struggle to teach at length. any lengthy discourses without referring to other men. Remember, they were taught according to the rabbinical traditions. And therefore, they would support the discourses, their interpretations, and the religious arguments by quoting other rabbis. We know this for sure, in the extra biblical material, this rabbi said this, and that rabbi said that is what they would always refer to.

And of course, the more reputable the rabbi being quoted, the more weighty is their argument in their teaching. This is not This is not what they heard from the mouths or the mouth of our Lord. He didn't cite any of their rabbis nor did he cite any of their traditions, the traditions of men to gain weightiness to what he said. He taught the scripture and he did so with absolute authority. It wasn't the case of this man said this or that man said that, but rather Jesus Christ spoke as one who was intimately united with God, as one who knows the very heart of God, as one who knows the very mind of God.

If they had ears to hear when Jesus spoke, they would have to say that this is God speaking through God. Such was his understanding. Such was his authority. Beloved, whoever spoke like Jesus. Think about the fourth gospel alone.

Our Lord has on no less than 10 occasions begun his teaching on weighty subjects, mind you, with these words. Truly, truly, or verily, verily, I say unto you, think about those words. I say unto you, who speaks this way? How is it that he's able to speak with such commanding words? He leaves his hearer compelled to make a critical choice, having to decide either this Jesus does in fact possess supreme authority of God, or he's a man out of his mind.

That's it. He speaks in such a way that one must choose between the two. There is no middle ground. Let's go a little further. Think about how our Lord's teaching about the law of God in contrast to the traditions of man in the Sermon of the Mount.

No less than six times he says, you have heard it said, but what does it go on to say? But I say to you, you have heard it said, but I say to you, See what he's doing? He's elevating his own words to be weightier than those men, even great men, the great rabbis of the past and those who formed traditions that were passed down many generations. He elevates his own words over and above them all, asserting his word and his authority to be equal or on equal footing with the very word of God. Such was the authority that our Lord spoke with.

And this was witnessed by every single person who ever heard him speak. This is why everyone took notice when he opened his mouth. Think about, think about what the stunned crowds at the conclusion of the Sermon of the Mount said. And when Jesus finished these sayings, The crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, not as their scribes. Listen to the similar words in the other gospels in Mark chapter one, verse 21.

And they went into Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath, he, that's Christ, entered the synagogues and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. Luke 4, and they were astonished at His teaching, that's the teaching of Christ, for His Word possessed authority. And as I said earlier, the officers, the Pharisees will send at the end of this chapter, chapter 7, the Gospel according to John, that we will consider today, they will come back empty-handed and they will say, no one ever spoke like this man. That's their declaration over and over and over again.

What is on everyone's mind when I hear Jesus speak is this, who is this man? Who is this man? Why? Because he spoke with such understanding. He spoke with such authority.

And it was no different here in Jerusalem on this day, I believe on the Feast of Booth. The crowd were genuinely amazed and the Jewish leaders were amazed too, baffled, baffled of how this Jesus was able to speak with such knowledge, with such power. But sadly, sadly, the Jews' amazement wasn't the type that brought them to humbly sit at his feet and learn from his wisdom as ought to be the case. No, their amazement only made them angrier. How can it be that this self-taught unlearned rabbi would have the audacity to stand in this temple and command such a crowd with his teaching?

This was a violation of their little system. Until now they had complete control, but now Jesus has come along. How dare he, was their thinking. Now they couldn't refute any of his words, we know that for sure because of the his discourse among the same people back in chapter five and and no doubt the fact that he couldn't refute his his wisdom would have been an immense amount of frustration that these learned men could not even refuse or refute or make make a defense against the words of Christ that would have frustrated them to no avail no doubt so if you can't refute his teaching what do you do well they did the only thing they could do they'll try to under mine, his credibility, by making known to the crowd the lack of his formal credentials. Perhaps thinking that if the crowd heard this, they would think twice about hanging around this self-proclaimed rabbi.

Because this self-proclaimed rabbi has no letters beside his name on his business card. No rabbis to endorse him, no references from any of the known scribes. Perhaps the plan to discredit him would work and the crowd would think of him as a medical practitioner operating a practice without a license. I mean, who would sit, who would in their right mind would sit under the operating table of a self-proclaimed doctor who doesn't have a medical degree on his wall? Our Lord's teaching.

beloved, is of matters of uttermost important. We know you wouldn't go to a doctor or a surgeon who hasn't been trained formally, but this is far more critical because the things that are being taught on this day, from the lips of our Lord, are matters of life and death, and they are matters of all eternity, not just the here and now. If Jesus hasn't sat at the feet of a well-trained rabbi, does this not place a question mark on the veracity of his teaching? Would that not mean that his teaching and his discourses are a product of his own fabrication? These are probably the things running through people's minds.

Now that this has been brought up, could his confidence be misplaced? Is his teaching of God's truth, or is he only capable of giving his own personal opinion while espousing his own new ideas? Who in their right mind would trade generations of reputable scholarship or the opinion of but one man? Well, that may have been the thinking. But that's the same damning error of those who are in verse 12 that we discussed and meditated upon last week.

Those same people who professed him to be merely a good man. You see the profession falls desperately short of who he is. You see, as I said last week, these people who professed him as a good man failed to recognize the fullness of Jesus' identity because that makes a world of difference. that he is no mere man, but the God man, God in flesh. Anything short of this profession would make him a blasphemer, beloved, and render any person who follows after him an absolute fool.

So too is the fatal error of the Jewish leaders in their assessment of Jesus' teaching because the logic may seem sound. When comparing a mere man over and again, several generations of tradition and quality scholarship, a man like that would be the epitome of arrogance, right? A man who stands on his own. But the fatal error is to remove or disattach the words being taught from the identity of the person doing the teaching. The person doing the teaching is no mere man.

He's the son of God, the one sent by God to do the work of God and to speak the very words of God. Listen to what Jesus has already told the religious leaders on a previous trip to Jerusalem back in chapter five. Truly, truly, I say to you, The son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing, for whatever the father does, that the son does likewise. That the son does likewise. Beloved, that includes signs and wonders, yes.

That includes the healing of various diseases, yes. That includes the liberating of demon possessed people, yes. It includes what he does and when he does it, And it also includes what he says and when he says it. The teaching of Jesus is not the opinion of a mere man, but the inerrant, infallible word from the heart of God, breathed out by the mouth. Verse 16, so Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.

Yes, you are right. I wasn't taught by any of your recognized rabbis, nor have I graduated from the Jerusalem school of theology, but here's where you got it wrong. My words and my teaching are not the product of my own invention. For all that comes out of my mouth has been directly given me from the heart of him who sent me. God, my father, who is in heaven, gave me all my words.

He gave them to me, Jesus is saying. He's the one who sent me to give those words to you. You see, the question of authority has always been in the back of these Jews' minds. Over and over again in scripture, Jesus is asked, by what authority do you do these things? He's always asked through the Gospels.

By what authority do you say these words, they will ask? Well, here it is. Jesus has just given them the answer. It's by the supreme authority of God, the Father, because all my words belong to him, says Jesus. Listen to how our Lord puts it, only in a few pages over in chapter 12.

Go on to say, for I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak. And now back to verse 50. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, I say as the Father has told me." They're incredible words.

That's an incredible statement that our Lord is making. But when they ask, okay, what's the difference? Didn't the prophets of old, who were mere men, and we agree they were mere men, didn't they also speak the very words of God? And that would be a very good question to ask. And at that I would have to answer, yes, yes, they did speak the word of God, but there was a difference.

Now listen carefully. The prophets declared when they spoke on behalf of God, you remember how they start their words? They declared, thus says the Lord. Thus says the Lord. People of Israel, hear what I have to say, because what I'm about to say, I'm saying on behalf of God.

Thus says the Lord. However, no prophet, no prophet would ever assert that his every word and his every deed was divine. There are moments they spoke as the mouthpiece of God, but not every moment of their life and everything they did, they would not claim that to be divine. However, as I quoted you earlier in chapter five, that's exactly what Jesus declares of himself. That his every deed and his every word is divine and from God.

And beloved, he is so, so united to God. So one with the Father that he's able to say with complete authority, not thus says the Lord, but I tell you the truth. There is such a oneness in Christ and the Father. And beloved, the only way you and I can understand this transcendent truth that really does blow our minds if we contemplate about it, is to recognize that in Christ, God the Father speaks through God the Son. You will hear that, hear that again, that in Christ, God the Father speaks through God the Son.

That is the oneness that the Father and the Son have. And that's why Jesus is able to say that His words are the words of the Father and His works are the works of the Father. Hebrews chapter one says it best. Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, He spoke to us by His Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. You see, God speaks finally and definitively through his son. Beloved, hear this, son language is the only language God speaks. Jesus is the eternal logos. the eternal word of God.

This means that to refuse Jesus would be to refuse God. To refuse Jesus's words is to refuse God's words. To reject Christ is to reject God. Said another way from the mouth of our savior, whoever receives me, him, whoever receives me receives him. who sent me, Matthew 10 40.

Church, the rejection of the Galileans in chapter six and the rejection of the Jewish leaders right now here in this chapter is an outright rejection of God himself. So now the question of authority has been answered by our Lord. You want to know by which authority? It's by the authority of God, because what I teach is the teaching of the father. He speaks the words of the Father and He speaks in His words because they are the words of the Father, the words of God themselves, they carry with them the supreme authority of God.

But of course, our Lord knows that He is staring in the face of a sea of unbelief. You see, His truth claims of His teaching and His authority are objectively true, but that doesn't mean that everyone who hears Him will actually believe Him. That's a big point. His truth claims are objectively true, but not everyone who hears him will believe him. So now our Lord lays out what is necessary in order for one to make the right assessment about the origin of his teaching and by whose authority it is taught.

In other words, how one is able to believe the words of Jesus Christ. He gives two proofs, which will be evident to some people. The first is in verse 17 and it's in the teaching and it tells you that his teaching will be acknowledged to be from God by those who desire to do the will of God. That's the first in chapter 17, verse 17. And the second proof is in verse 18.

And that proof is in his motive, in the motives of Jesus Christ to do what he does. Because if one recognizes that he seeks no glory for himself, only the glory of his father then it should be concluded that this Jesus can be trusted and his teaching is indeed from God. But we're going to start on the second point first. See even a cursory look at the gospels and in particular what transpired already and what is yet to come in the fourth gospel only what one can only He cannot deny that the Jewish authorities were bent on discrediting our Lord. We've seen that in our verse.

Even the contemptuous words in verse 15, this man has no formal studies, a purpose to accuse our Lord of espousing his own agenda. In their minds, if he was concerned with teaching truth, they thought if Jesus was concerned with teaching truth, then he would have joined with their great traditions of rabbis and received formal education before he opened his mouth in a public space. As far as they were concerned, this Jesus was rogue. As far as they were concerned, this Jesus was a lone ranger. He hadn't been trained by the rabbinical schools or the rabbis, and he has no endorsements.

So as far as they're concerned, they probably thought in their minds he has an ego problem. And what is characteristic of one who is a lone ranger, beloved? A lone ranger, the one who does things on his own, normally does things on his own because he doesn't want to assimilate with others. Why? Because he would seek to receive all the attention and all the glory for himself.

You see, it makes sense. It makes sense for these self-righteous men to be thinking this way, because that would be their motive. Beloved, that's how their own hearts would work. And if you're honest, and I'm honest, we know that in the flesh, that's how our own hearts work also. Because a natural man desperately hungers for attention and applause.

Christ has already rebuked these people. Remember back in chapter five where he said you seek the glory of one another and not the glory that comes from God. But that's not Jesus. And in verse 18 he dispels this type of thinking and gets it out of their mind where he says 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. It's a matter of the ultimate goal for Christ.

Why does he do what he does? That's the question. Well, he, he tells us in this verse to bring glory to his father. And if he's totally committed to the sole purpose of honoring the one who sent him, then he seeks no glory for himself. His ego has no part to play.

Therefore he can, he can be trusted. A few weeks ago, we considered the accusations of some in verse 12, who said of our Christ, he's leading the people astray. The charge is that he's literally a deceiver. I said that before, a charlatan. They saw him as a con artist saying one thing and really meaning another.

The thinking the crowd had was that the teaching that he was teaching and the crowds that he drew were seen as a ploy by Jesus to gain honor and glory for himself. But Jesus in this verse sets all these people who think this way straight. He's not come to blow his own trumpet. He's not come to receive his own glory. He's not concerned with the pomp.

He's not concerned with the prestige or the popularity. He attributes His words and His authority to the Father and His desire above all is to also give all honor and glory to the Father. Weren't the events of the previous chapter evidence of this? Surely if our Lord was seeking to gather a crowd to blow wind under his sails, to satisfy an ego hungry for attention or a desire to be applauded amongst the people, he would have quite easily tickled the ears of his followers with self-esteem building pep talks and retain tens of thousands of followers. But he has zero interest in these things.

Pride has absolutely no part in the life of our Lord. Why? Because his food, the very desire of his soul, is to do the works and speak the words of his father, John 4, 34. All for the glory of his father. And if this is the soul and overarching purpose in his incarnation, to bring glory to God, then as one who seeks no honor for himself, he can be trusted to be true.

And in him not even will be found a hint of deceit and not even a hint of falsehood. One would have to be either willfully dishonest beloved or at best carelessly ignorant to read the gospels and conclude anything contrary to Christ seeking above all his father's will and his father's glory. You see Jesus makes this point because he knows that his accusers have the opposite mindset. As I said earlier, he's already rebuked them in chapter five for seeking glory from men above glory from God. These religious leaders, we know, love to walk the streets with their flowing robes and their tassels, looking all pious and holy.

They love the attention they received when they raised their voices and with long, sophisticated prayers in the public space. When they taught their discourses and everyone was looking at them with awe, they loved that. When they were seen as righteous because they refrained from anointing their heads with oil so that it would be evident that they were fasting. They loved the respect and the honor bestowed to them as they were seen and acknowledged as the learned ones, the educated ones among them. And they absolutely absorbed the gratitude they received from the common folk who considered them as the guardians of true religion.

Now they conducted themselves in all these things with a false humility, claiming to give all glory to Yahweh, but under the surface was a heart of pretense seeking its own glory and honor. from the lens of their own eyes, then yes, it's understandable to infer that Jesus was seeking his own honor. It's understandable to think that Jesus will be seeking his own glory, but beloved, they fail to see that what they are looking at and the one who stands before them is the sinless, perfectly righteous heart of the Lord Jesus Christ that is incapable of deceit. What you see is what you get with Jesus. Beneath the surface is a heart of Christ.

And in his heart, what's pure heart was or is a son who sought above all things to praise and honor his glorious father. He can be trusted. He says his teaching is from God. Therefore his teaching is from God. He says that he seeks only the glory of God.

Therefore, he seeks only the glory of God. Beloved, there is no falsehood in Christ, only truth. His motive to bring glory to the Father is one of the proofs. Our Lord gives another in verse 17. And this proof necessitates a right disposition of the heart, because without this Christ cannot Beloved, I left this point last because it's critical that we understand what our Lord is saying here.

Because this verse separates the wheat from the chaff. This verse separates the sheep from the goats. This verse, beloved, separates the genuine believer from the counterfeit. I believe we're all meant to examine our hearts as we read and identify which of these we are. Verse 17, If anyone's will is to do God's will, you will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

Now, let's be clear. This verse is by no means giving a person or any person the right to stand as a judge over whether or not Jesus' claims are true. Remember, truth is objective. It is true whether you or I believe it or not. Truth is truth no matter what anyone believes.

It's true because God said so. But the words of our Lord in verse 17 is to inform his hearers, that includes you and I, beloved, of what it takes to recognize this truth. In other words, a careful examination of verse 17 will help us answer the question, how do I know if I've come to truly believe in the veracity of the words of Jesus Christ? How do I know if the truth or this truth abides in my heart or if it simply bides in my mind? And beloved, there is a difference.

Let's take a look. Let's take a careful look at this verse. If anyone, it begins. if anyone's will is to do God's will. Now it may help us to understand in the original, the word translated will literally means desire.

So if anyone's desire is to do God's will or to do what God desires, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. So Jesus is basically saying, Now this is really important and it's very important that we get this brothers and sisters. Jesus is basically saying that the litmus test for a person to genuinely acknowledge the objective truth that that's all his teaching, that all his teaching and his authority is indeed from God. Now that includes everything he's taught, both the things that he's taught about himself, the claims he's made of himself, as well as all his teaching from everything in all spheres from sin to salvation. The test to identify that you really believe is not found, hear this, merely in the confession from your mouth, but the disposition of your heart.

I'm going to say that again. The test to identify that you really believe is not found merely in the confession of your mouth, but in the disposition of your heart. To truly believe, a heart must have a loving disposition for Christ with a genuine desire to do God's will. That's what Jesus is saying. In other words, if a person truly desires what God desires, that is to have one's heart aligned to the heart of God.

Only then is one able to recognize and acknowledge. Hear those words, beloved. Recognize and acknowledge, not determine. Remember, truth is truth. If you see it or not, it's still true.

But one can recognize and acknowledge what is already there Only if your heart is united with the heart of God and you have a deep ingrained, genuine desire to do His will. This fruit must be evident. Do you see what our Lord's words are getting at? Now, this is important. Right here, beloved, is a profound theological truth and we cannot understand this fully or put it together unless we harmonize these words with the rest of scripture.

Why do I say this? Well, because if you're not careful, you can easily misinterpret the words of our Lord to mean some sort of works. righteousness. As though one needs to strain really hard with all their effort to do God's will to produce a certain amount of fruit before one receives the revelation that Christ's teaching is from above. This is a serious error and a perversion of the gospel that is taught throughout the Bible.

Jesus is not saying the natural unsaved man must begin to clean himself up and reach a certain level of morality before the truth of Jesus' teaching is seen for what it is. That's not what he's saying. Verse 17 is not a prescription, brothers and sisters. It's not a prescription. Verse 17 is rather a call for inspection.

discernment, for one to examine his own or her own heart, because those who desire to do God's will, they are the ones who know without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord's teaching and authority is divine. They're the ones who have placed their trust in him. And who is it, I ask, that desires to do God's will? Only the one who has had a saving encounter with the Spirit of God. Only those with genuine saving faith.

You see, the natural man does not desire to do the will of God. He is self-centered and only desires to please self. He only desires to satisfy the sinful desires and the lust and the passions of the flesh. No one, none is righteous. No, not one.

No one understands, no one seeks after God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Romans 3, 11 through 12. And the same apostle only a few chapters later writes these words, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed, it cannot hear this. Those who are in the flesh cannot, cannot please God. Beloved, they cannot please God. They cannot do the will. The natural man cannot do the will of God.

So a natural person, an unredeemed person, a person who has not been saved by grace through faith, he can hear our Lord's teaching a thousand times over and still not believe unless unless God, by His grace, takes the initiative and does a heart transplant. Old stony heart removed and replaced with a new heart of flesh. because our Lord made it very, very clear in the previous chapter. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And when God through his spirit draws a person unto Christ through the gospel, they are given to see what sort of wretched person and evil person they are and understand and acknowledge their desperate state that they're in.

With that, they're given true saving faith and a repentant heart. And beloved, we know they are taught by God. John chapter 6, 45, to believe and receive the teachings of Christ and the salvation in his name. That's what it takes to believe. You must be drawn by the father through the spirit and taught by God to believe in Christ.

Beloved. We all know the parable of the soils. And it's called the parable of parables for good reason. Understanding this parable is critical to understanding verse 17. And I'll end with this.

The soils are a representation of man's heart. And all humans are born naturally in sin, we know that. So all human beings are born naturally with a heart that's symbolized with either the pathway, the rocky ground and the thorny ground. That's three from four, right? That's it.

That's it. And the seed scattered is the word of God, the teachings of Christ. And no matter how much the farmer scatters on these three soils, it will, that seed will not produce fruits. They cannot. they cannot these people cannot please God they cannot desire him nor can they do his will because the seed will never penetrate far enough to produce good fruits never it might look like it's beginning to grow but beloved if we examine those passages we know that there is never good Exposure to Jesus's teaching every single day for a thousand years will not bring about an increase if the heart remains corrupt and unable to receive it.

It's not the seed that is corrupt, but the ground, not the teachings of Christ that are faulty, but the corrupt heart that is unable to recognize it for what it is. But, but when the father draws a person to the son, in that moment, beloved, he creates within that person a new heart, a heart of good soil. only now after the divine encounter is the good soil capable of receiving the seed that is Christ's teaching and the true knowledge of God through the spirit while simultaneously producing within one's soul a love for the Savior and here is an unquenchable desire and readiness willingness readiness to do the will You see? You see what this is? You see what this means?

To know Him is to love Him. And to love Him is to obey Him. Only then do the words of our Lord in John 14 verse 15 make sense. If you love me, you will keep my commands. Only then can we come to understand what Jesus means when he says, but my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

You see the heart inspection prescribed by our Lord in verse 17 is simply this. If you truly love him, you will desire to be obedient to God's will. It's real, it's genuine and it's deep and it's been implanted in the soul of a man by God himself. And this proves, unlike the unbelieving Jews that are before our Lord and the unbelieving Jews that will come to recognize over the next few chapters, that you have had an encounter with the living God of the universe. And as a new creature in Christ, You cannot but acknowledge the truth of Christ.

You cannot but acknowledge the words of Christ. You cannot but acknowledge that he is indeed sent by the Father with the authority of the Father to speak the words of the Father because he is united with the Father for he is God. Beloved, if God has done this in your soul, then you have faith and you just know. that Jesus is Lord. And you can't but love Him.

And you cannot but desire to do His will. That is the saving work. the triune God upon a dead wretched sinner and beloved we were all born in that state and so what Jesus is saying in this verse is this simply this to acknowledge me and my words, and my claims, and my teaching, and my authority, you first must have had an encounter with the living God. Because only those who have been touched by God have inside of them a desire to do his will. Because their heart, beloved, is now united with the heart of God.

And together we seek the same things as our Savior, to bring glory and honor and praise to His holy name. Question is, is that you tonight? I hope and I pray that everyone in the sound of my voice can confirm. Amen, brother. Jesus has done a saving work in my heart.

And I do indeed seek to do the father's will. Let's pray.