Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Dial In - John 7:14-36 (Ep. 20)

Episode Date: April 24, 2020

Dial In is a devotional series with the intention of helping followers of Christ understand God’s word and love Him more. Jonny seeks to communicate the profound depth of scripture in a digestible and condensed format each weekday. The goal of the podcast is that our “minds would be renewed” as we behold who God is in His word. In this series, Jonny is walking sequentially through the Gospel of John.In this episode, Jonny covers John 7:14-36 where we see that the crowds are amazed by the teaching of Jesus. Jesus deflects His message and the glory that he receives to His father. Unlike other Rabbi’s Jesus doesn’t quote other men to boost His credibility, He only teaches the words of His Father. Jesus teaches us that our wills need to be transformed in order to truly desire the glory of God instead of our own. Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis, and this is Dial In. Today we're in John chapter 7, verses 14 through 36. These are the words of God. Let's view them as such and dial in. John chapter 7, verses 14 through 36. 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 his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know 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

marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers, and you circumcise a 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. Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is speaking openly. And they said nothing to him. Can it be that the

authorities really know that this is the Christ, but we know where this man comes from. And when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. 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. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me. So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Jesus then said, I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me, and you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come. The Jews then 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? You know, the quest of brevity is a difficult challenge. For every 10 minutes that I'm talking on a podcast, there are hours that go into studying and understanding the passage. And as I've been able to study the Gospel of John, I just see Jesus Christ on every single page, and it's all pointing to him, and every single passage is important. So every single time I go, I should condense this, I want to get through this maybe more rapidly, it's difficult to do that because each passage tells us something about who Jesus is, and consequently something that we need to understand. Now, the claims of Jesus are truly astonishing. They're shocking, really. This was a man who was indistinguishable from

every other Galilean man. He looked like a normal Jewish man, but the average guy doesn't make claims that Jesus makes. He said that he was the eternally existent son of God sent from heaven. He said he was the only savior of the world. He said he was the only one who could offer life to the world. He claimed to be the only way to God. He claimed to be one with God. He claimed to be the Messiah. He claimed to be the theme of scripture.

And he did and showed that he had authority over diseases, over demons, and he has authority over sin. This is a brief list of claims made by a man who the prophet Isaiah says has nothing special physically about him. These are claims made by a five foot four Galilean carpenter. And that's what we're studying in the gospel of John. And all of these claims made the Jewish leaders mad. They thought that he was a blasphemer. They said that he was demon possessed, that he was an agent of Satan, that he was a maniac, that he was a Samaritan. They hate him.

And at the end of chapter five, we see that they want to kill him. And here in chapter seven, we still see that they want to kill Jesus all because he healed a man on the Sabbath in chapter 5 and because he continues to claim that he is God. And so here we are at this feast. We're at the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths and Jesus' brothers encouraged him to go to the feast early to display his power and Jesus says to his brothers at the beginning of chapter 7, I'm not going to go.

But he ends up going in secret a few days later. And we see in verse 11 that the Jewish leaders are looking for Jesus at this feast. Where is he? Where is this guy? Should we ambush him and kill him? Let's push him off a cliff. Let's run this dagger through him. He's a blasphemer.

And Jesus knows all these things. And he shows up to the feast. And he doesn't hide in obscurity. He doesn't have underground meetings. Where does he go? It reads that he walks directly into the temple, the most visible place in all of Israel. And he goes in there and begins to what?

He begins to teach. He doesn't show up and start doing miracles. He always starts with preaching and teaching. Maybe you're wondering, what was he teaching about? He was teaching about the same thing he always starts with preaching and teaching. Maybe you're wondering, what was he teaching about? He was teaching about the same thing he always teaches about, the kingdom of God, the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders, and about the shallowness and superficiality of their faith, that they didn't actually know God and that there was a great need to be born again and to repent and turn to him as the one and only savior of the world. So he begins to teach in the temple

and we read in verse 15. I love this. It says that the Jews marveled at his teaching and they asked themselves the question, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? And they look at him and they go, who trained you? Where did you go to seminary? Maybe you remember in the gospel of Luke that Jesus was a child prodigy at the age of 12, and he was amazing scholars with what he knew. But they're asking him, where did you get your MDiv, Jesus? Who taught you? Now, typically, rabbis would go to the yeshiva, where they would be trained by other rabbis. But Jesus has far more depth than any other rabbi, and he never went to any of these institutions. He doesn't go knock on Nicodemus' door and say, dude, help me out.

Teach me some theology. He knows it already, and they have never heard anybody in their life that was so articulate, so profound, and so powerful. He was impressive. But the sad reality is they were not touched spiritually. They were merely amazed academically. Who are you, Jesus? And how do you do this? Verse 16, Jesus responds. He says, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. These rabbis in these Jewish communities were constantly quoting other rabbis

to provide for themselves credibility and in order to boost their power and their influence. But Jesus doesn't show up on the scene quoting other rabbis. He doesn't quote anyone. He speaks for God and he doesn't need to validate his teaching by another human source. And they are blown away by him. And we see at the end of the Sermon on the Mount that they were amazed at his words and said, no one has spoken with this type of power and this type of authority. And so they're going, who taught you these things? Because they can't attack his message. So they try to discredit his background and his training. They are desperate. And Jesus says, my teaching is not mine. It's from someone else. It is from God. Despite their academic credentials,

these Jewish leaders are fools when it comes to who God is. It was the intellectual community of Jesus's day that was most antagonistic towards him. Jesus says, this isn't my knowledge. I'm quoting God. I'm not quoting other rabbis. You're right. This teaching is different. This teaching is the truth and it doesn't come from other men. It comes quoting God. I'm not quoting other rabbis. You're right. This teaching is different. This teaching is the truth, and it doesn't come from other men. It comes from God. This has to be every single preacher's priority. My knowledge, my truth, my message comes from God, and I have nothing to say unless it comes from God.

We value so much human wisdom, but Jesus says it only matters what the Father says. And this is something that we will see him repeat over and over and over again throughout the scriptures. A couple examples, John 17 verse 8, Jesus is praying out loud to the Father in front of his disciples. And he says, for I have given them the words that you gave me and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. In John chapter 12, verse 49, I didn't speak on my own initiative, Jesus says, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to what to say and what to

speak. I know that his commandment is eternal life. Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me. Jesus is not coming up with his own content. He is a messenger for God the Father, and he speaks exactly what God gives to him. Verse 17 says, if anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. What Jesus is saying here is that you will discern that Jesus is a reliable spokesperson for God when your will is transformed so that what you want to do is God's will. You will understand who Jesus is

when your desires are aligned with God's desires. And what draws people to the gospel, what draws people to Christ is a desire to do the will of God. And this is what Jesus is saying in verse 17. That's what he's talking about. Our natural love for our own glory makes it impossible to follow someone who demands and deserves all of the glory. And this is what has to change in our own will. And here's what Jesus is referring to in verse 17. This is a change that has to happen before you and I can know Jesus and love his words. A non-transformed will hates Jesus or loves him for the wrong reasons. There is a deep, deep blockage, and that blockage is not intellectual. It is volitional. It is our human will, and our human will craves self-exaltation, not God-exaltation. And that is

what Jesus is saying in verse 17 and why throughout the Gospel of John, we see a clear emphasis on the need to be born again because we need our wills to be transformed. We need to love making much of God more than we love people making much of us. Let's move on. In verse 18, it says that 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. Jesus, listen here, had no personal glory for himself. While he was on earth, he only did that which brought glory to the Father. Jesus was never on a quest to display his own glory. And the only glimpse of this we get in John 17, where Jesus is praying to the Father

and he says, restore to me the glory that he emptied himself of while on earth. And Jesus contrasts this throughout the gospels by saying that these Jewish leaders were after their own glory. John chapter 10, they seek their own glory. They are false shepherds. They want attention for themselves. Luke 16, 14, these people are lovers of money. They wanted power and prestige for themselves. They want nothing to do with glorifying God. And this is what must be true of every single person in ministry today. They are zealous for God's glory as Jesus was. Now we need to wrap this up.

Main takeaways. We need to realize that our deepest obstruction to knowing the truth of Jesus is in our hearts and not in our minds. Jesus says that you need your will to be transformed because intellectually, the claims of Jesus make sense. He is who he says he is, but our hearts are hostile towards a God

that demands glory. Our natural will is self-exalting, not Christ-exalting, and we need God through his spirit to transform our wills so that what we crave is the glory of God. And that's why Jesus teaches us how to pray. Hallowed be your name.

God, make your name glorified. Make your name treasured in my life. And that's what Jesus teaches us how to pray, hallowed be your name. God, make your name glorified. Make your name treasured in my life. And that's what we see Jesus do at every single moment during his time on earth. He goes before us as an example of one who seeks the glory of God in everything that he does. Stay dialed in. Thank you.