Where Are You Going?
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Where are you from?
We were on a road trip last year as a family, and I pulled into a gas station in Lincoln, NE and started filling up.
A guy pulled into the pump next to me and we struck up a conversation.
He saw the Colorado license plate and, said, “So you’re from Colorado, where in Colorado are you from?”
I told him Greeley, and he immediately was interested. He said that he had played football for UNC, and so we talked about Greeley for a minute.
He asked where we were going, and I told him, Lake Okabojee in IA.
We finished filling up and parted ways.
Those are common questions we ask when getting to know someone.
Where are you from? If they seem like they’re going somewhere…where are you going?
He knew a small part.
The guy got a small piece of knowledge about me, and I got the same about him.
He didn’t know where I was really from…He didn’t know that I actually grew up in Albuquerque…but my family is from Illinois.
So, he sort of knew where I was from…but he didn’t really know.
Can I come?
imagine this…he asks where I’m going, I tell him: Lake Okabojee. And he says can I come?
I’d say what are you talking about?
That’s creepy man…we just met like a minute ago at a random gas station.
Of course you can’t come
As Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths
He’s teaching in the temple...
And over the course of Jesus’ interaction with this group they wonder.
Where he’s from
They think they know…but they don’t really.
They also wonder where he’s going.
He’s going to a place that on their own initiative they can’t just come with…there’s only one way for them to get there.
Feast of Booths
Jesus challenged by brothers to show himself to the world.
Jesus eventually goes to the feast…in the middle, he begins teaching in the temple complex. Teaching from God:
Is powerful.
Has God’s glory as its focal point.
Faces opposition.
Rightly understands the law.
Exercises accurate judgment.
Today:
Jesus continues his conversation in the synagogue in Jerusalem during the feast of booths.
Outline
Outline
Point 1: Where is Jesus from? (v.25-31)
origin stories
king sent him
Point 2: Where is Jesus going? (v.32-36)
Point 1: Where is Jesus from? (v.25-31)
Point 1: Where is Jesus from? (v.25-31)
Some of the people in Jerusalem talk (v.25-27)
There’s a wrestling match in their minds as they try to figure out who Jesus is.
They’re going back and forth.
Argument For Jesus As the Messiah: Aren’t the Jewish leaders seeking to kill him?
25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?
Isn’t this the guy they want to kill
He’s speaking openly, and they aren’t trying to kill him.
He’s not in hiding…he’s literally in the temple teaching right now.
If they really thought he deserved death…wouldn’t they step up and kill him?
So what’s going on…why aren’t the religious authorities doing something?
You can see the veil begin to be lifted from these peoples’ eyes...
They’ve been told something for a while…we’re going to kill this man because he’s a blasphemer, a law breaker, and he’s a danger and threat to God’s people.
Yet, when the opportunity comes…they don’t act...
And so the people begin to see that what’s happening in the world around them doesn’t match up with what’s being said.
Illustration: Inflation:
Have you ever experienced that?
What’s you see happening in the world around you doesn’t match up with what you’re being told by those in authority.
Let me paint a very hypothetical scenario to illustration this point.
Let’s say you were living somewhere where it seemed like inflation was happening.
You hear from the authorities…Nope…There’s no inflation…
You say...it really seems like our gas prices are a lot higher…nope…
Man, I had to put in a fence, and it really seemed like the lumber was more expensive…it wasn’t....
What about those nice Ribeyes I used to eat…if I can find them, they really seem like they’re costing a lot more than they used to. Not true.
Here take some more money and be quiet…
Where is that money coming from? Is it maybe contributing to inflation?
No…stop thinking…and be quiet.
And you think to yourself: Could it really be that they know inflation is actually happening, and they’re just denying it right now publicly…
And you think…why would they be doing that?
Again…I know it’s hard to imagine a real life scenario…but…hopefully you get the point.
Relation to Passage:
These people in Jerusalem…are beginning to have the veil lifted.
The veil put there by these religious authorities…and even by their own sinful natures.
They start thinking and asking each other:
Could it really be that these religious authorities know Jesus really is the Christ, yet they’re denying it right now publicly.
Maybe they have other reasons for wanting to kill Jesus.
Maybe they want to kill him, not because he’s a blasphemer and law-breaker...
Maybe they want to kill him so that they’re not taken out of power?
Maybe they actually think he’s the Christ and they don’t want to submit to him, and so they desire to take him out.
Maybe their pride is getting in the way, and is following them around like a black cloud.
For these people: Hypocrisy is being exposed.
Curtain is being pulled back just a little as to the true identity of these religious authorities and to the true identity of Jesus.
They’re not fully there, but they’re getting little snippets.
Application:
I want you to see some things from this passage:
Hypocrisy exposed in our lives is a blessing
When we respond rightly.
When hypocrisy is exposed…we can do one of two things...
We can double down on our position…dig our heals in and try to prove to others why we’re not being hypocrites.
And I know this for a fact: I can come up with all kinds of reason for myself as to why I’m not being a hypocrite…and it’s sad when I actually start believing them.
Or we can repent…and praise God for exposing us.
When was the last time you saw your exposure as a blessing from God? When was the last time you owned up to your own hypocrisy and didn’t double down in your position or in your self justification?
How to identify hypocrisy? Often times when you’re
Jesus is speaking openly and courageously.
Think of the disciples in Acts.
We can’t obey man we have to obey God and continue declaring the truth.
27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
33 When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
Trust in a good and Sovereign God and his plan frees us to be courageous in this life.
Discussion continues: Argument against: I thought we wouldn’t know where the Messiah was from
argument for: Jesus is teaching publicly and they’re not trying to kill him.
In v.27—we see an argument this group makes against Jesus being the Christ.
27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
Not just birthplace and place where Jesus grew up
Born in Bethlehem…grew up in Nazareth
V.27— “No one will know where he comes from.”
There was a Jewish tradition that developed saying that when the Messiah entered Jerusalem to rescue God’s people, he would be totally unknown.
He would appear suddenly. He would act swiftly. And he would establish his kingdom immediately.
The argument these people are making is this:
We know this guy. He’s been to Jerusalem before. He’s been ministering in Galilee. He’s had some sort of public ministry for a couple of years. Therefor he can’t be the Messiah.
Application: Misinterpreting God’s Word
These people misinterpreted God’s Word.
Be on guard from letting traditions develop that effect your beliefs in such a way that you miss what God is doing.
Continue to go back to the Scriptures with an open mind and an open heart.
And if you encounter something that doesn’t square with a belief you’ve held.
Ask honest questions…don’t just immediately explain it away by making it fit into your neat and tidy theological box.
Be willing to change your opinion on something if you see it in God’s Word.
Jesus responds (v.28-29)
Jesus responds by talking about where he really came from.
28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”
Yes…you know where I’m from in the earthly sense.
humorous and ironic…what Jesus says here.
You have no idea where I really came from
You don’t know that I was in heaven with the Father and the Holy Spirit
You don’t know that I set aside my heavenly glory to come here…You have no idea!
And you don’t know my mission!
But you don’t know that I’ve been sent from God the Father.
You don’t know me because you don’t know him.
Jesus is an Ambassador for the Father
Jesus came with a Mission and a Message
Sent from the Father as his ambassador
As God in the flesh here on earth.
But these people didn’t know God and therefore they didn’t know HIs Son.
Application: We are ambassadors
We too are sent by God.
Ambassadors for Jesus (2 Cor)
Representatives with a mission and a message.
We don’t speak on our own authority…we speak on the authority of the king.
We also don’t get to live however we’d like to live.
Look at your mission and message
The way you live and the purpose of your life.
And the words that you are saying to others.
What is on repeat in your conversation?
Is it Jesus or something else?
Application: Truly knowing Jesus
They knew him in an earthly sense…but they had no idea who he was spiritually.
That’s true today…and could even be true for some of you.
You may knowJesus and different things about him…but you don’t have a personal relationship with him. You don’t know him spiritually.
The people want to arrest Jesus (v.30-31)
30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
They want to arrest him but they’re too scared to lay a hand on him.
Many believed…and they saw the great works he was doing.
V.31—When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?
It’s a rhetorical question…they knew the Messiah was going to do amazing signs.
They’ve seen Jesus do some amazing things.
Healing people…turning water into wine…feeding 20,000 people…walking on water.
He’s clearly done many signs.
And these all were signs predicted about the Messiah in one way or another.
About the one who would come and be a new and greater Moses.
Focus in on one phrase
V.30—no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
Sovereignty of God
Why did the people not lay a hand on him?
human perspective: They were afraid…They were being hypocritical and cowardly.
Why did the people not lay a hand on him?
God’s perspective: Because his hour had not yet come.
In God’s sovereign plan…worked out before the foundation of the world…the time had not yet come.
20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
Foreknowledge of God isn’t just looking into the future at some undetermined plan.
The foreknowledge of God has to do with him working out his specific plan.
Application: God is at work
Encouraging to know God’s saving Work. Many believed.
Today, many believe…when they know and see the power of Jesus.
Transition to Point 2:
Transition to Point 2:
Point 1: Where is Jesus from? (v.25-31)
He came from heaven…He was sent by the Father.
Point 2: Where is Jesus going? (v.32-36)
He will return to His heavenly glory.
Point 2: Where is Jesus going? (v.32-36)
Point 2: Where is Jesus going? (v.32-36)
The Pharisees hear the crowds (v.32)
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
The crowds are muttering about Jesus
The Pharisees and chief priests want to squash the conversation
Unlikely friends
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Illustration:
Story of enemies setting aside grudge to attack common enemy.
North Carolina fan could join forces with a Kentucky fan in routing against the Duke Blue Devils.
They joined forces together against Jesus.
JMac— “The Pharisees and the chief priests historically did not have harmonious relationships with each other. Most of the chief priests were Sadducees, who were political and religious opponents to the Pharisees. John repeatedly links these two groups in his gospel in order to emphasize that their cooperation stemmed from their mutual hatred of Jesus. Both were alarmed at the faith of those indicated in v.31 and, in order to avoid any veneration of Jesus as Messiah, attempted unsuccessfully to arrest him.”
So they sent in officers to arrest him.
HCSB— “The chief priests and Pharisees, representing the Sanhedrin, deployed the temple police to arrest Jesus. The police were drawn from the Levites and were charged with maintaining order int he temple precincts.”
Observation
The Jewish religious leaders want Jesus gone.
Why?
They claim it’s because: He is a law breaker and a blasphemer.
This may be partly true.
But what unfolds in the gospel is that there is a darker motive behind their actions.
He is a threat to their power & authority & pride.
When their power is threatened…they want to silence the source.
They want people to get back in line.
Application: Our World
The world around us operates in this way.
When power is threatened…the source must be silenced.
Be cautious of any group or organization that wants to squash conversations that they deem as threatening.
Illustration: 1984
Ministry of truth 1984-George Orwell
determine what truth is…they silence anyone who is opposed to their version of the truth...
Jesus responds to the Pharisees (v.33-34)
33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.”
I am only here for a little while.
Jesus set aside his heavenly glory
And came to us:
Accomplish the plan of redemption developed by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before time began.
You will seek me and not find me
Where I am, you cannot come.
Observation
Jesus will return to his place of origin.
He came from heaven (that’s where he’s from)
He will return to heaven (that’s where he’s going)
He was a sojourner and exile here.
He will return home.
Application: Can we get there?
Why can’t we get there?
In an earthly temporal sense…we won’t be able to find Jesus and walk over to where he is going.
In an eternal sense…we can get there.
The question is how:
How can we get there?
Who gets to go?
What will it be like?
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
The thief on the cross made it
It’s not reserved for some elite group
It’s reserved for all who would trust in jesus.
Even the thief on the cross made it.
41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Inheritance that comes with the new birth.
New birth into the family of God.
Part of being his children is that we get an inheritance.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
We live now as aliens here, but citizens of heaven.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Application: Fight For a Heavenly Perspective.
maintain a heavenly perspective
store up for yourselves treasure in heaven
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
We too are sojourners and exiles here. We too will arrive at home one day.
Quotes:
Reformation: Seek me and you will not find me, “This is not a contradiction with Matt. 7:7. There Jesus is speaking about a thirst for God (cf. v.37) that only the Holy Spirit creates in someone; but here He is referring to an effort to find Him geographically, which would be futile since He would be in heaven. Note the contrast between unbelievers (v.34) and believers (14:3).”
The Jews are curious about what Jesus just said (v.35-36)
35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
Where is he going that we won’t be able to find him?
To the dispersion among the Greeks (Hellenists)
And to the Greeks themselves.
HCSB: “Ever since the exile, many Jews had not returned to Palestine but continued to live in the Dispersion (Gk. diaspora). Greeks is synonymous with “Gentiles.”
ESV: “The Dispersion was a common Jewish expression to refer to all the Jewish people scattered throughout the Roman Empire, and even beyond the bounds of the empire, but not living in Palestine itself.”
And teach the Greeks.
The irony: the gospel is for all nations!
That’s exactly what he intends for his people to do…to bring the gospel to the nations!
Conclusion
Conclusion
Where was Jesus from?
heaven.
Where was Jesus going?
heaven
What is our hope
heaven...
New heavens and a new earth…the eternal kingdom and inheritance that we read about at the end of the book of Revelation where the dwelling place of God and of man become one!
Illustration:
JMac: Our earthly tent is being torn down. I remember reading that when someone asked John Quincy Adams how he was doing, Adams replied something to the effect of, “John Quincy Adams is well, sir, very well. The house in which he has been living is dilapidated and old, and he has received word from its maker that he must vacate soon. But John Quincy Adams is well, sir, very well.” Indeed our earthly tent is being torn down, but when it’s gone, we’ll have a building from God, eternal in the heavens.
Extra Quotes
Quotes
JMac: “Only information regarding Messiah’s birthplace was revealed in Scripture (Mic. 5:2; Matt 2:5,6). Beyond that, a tradition had developed in Jewish circles that Messiah would appear suddenly to the people based on a misinterpretation of Isaiah 53:8 and Malachi 3:1. In light of this, the meaning of this phrase most likely is that the identity of the Messiah would be wholly unknown until He suddenly appeared in Israel and accomplished Israel’s redemption. In contrast, Jesus had lived His life in Nazareth and was known (at least superficially) to the people (v.28).”
Carson: “The Messiah would be born of flesh and blood yet would be wholly unknown until he appeared to effect Israel’s redemption.”
ESV: “Since the Messiah would be a prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15, 18) and Moses performed many miraculous signs at the exodus (Exodus 7-11), the Messiah was expected to perform miracles as well (cf. John 6:30-31). In any case, it would have been natural for people to wonder, after witnessing Jesus’ miracles, if he was the Messiah.”