John 7:14

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Matthew 11:28-30
• Hymn — O Worship the King (#1)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Westminster Shorter Catechism (on Baptism)
• Sacrament of Baptism — James Davis Ethridge
• Hymn — Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me
• Prayer of Confession
• Offering
• Prayer of Dedication
• Hymn — Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
• Sermon
• Hymn — Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

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Sermon Title: Judging by Appearances or by Right Judgment

Scripture: John 7:14-24

I. The Credentials of Foolish Judgment

A. Jesus teaches in the temple at the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, astonishing the crowd

1. The Jews ask how he has learning when he has never studied — literally, "How does this man know his letters?"
2. Jesus was not merely quoting scripture but teaching it with extended exposition, as only trained rabbis did

B. Rabbinic legitimacy in the first century depended on formal schooling and citation of prior rabbis

1. The Babylonian Talmud disparages those who learn scripture without attending upon rabbinic scholars
2. Jesus accommodates himself to their concern: his teaching is not self-originated but comes from his Father in heaven

C. The background is the credentials of a true prophet from Deuteronomy 18

1. Unlike kings (from the tribe of Judah, line of David) or priests (from the tribe of Levi, line of Aaron), prophets arose from no fixed lineage
2. The prophet's credential is simply this: has he been sent by God, and is what he says true?
3. Jesus is all three offices — prophet, priest (after the order of Melchizedek, Genesis 14, Hebrews 7, Hebrews 10), and king after the line of David

D. The miracles of John's Gospel are signs — signposts pointing to the truth of Jesus' message

1. The Jewish leaders fixate on his lack of formal credentials rather than attending to the message and the signs
2. Paul, trained under Gamaliel, once took offense at Stephen's unlearned preaching; after his conversion he rejoiced whenever Christ was proclaimed, however imperfect the messenger (Philippians 1:15-18)
3. Christians are a people obsessed with truth in Christ regardless of the earthly credentials of the one speaking it — whether a tinker like John Bunyan or a scholar like John Calvin

II. The Commitments of Foolish Judgment

A. Jesus does not merely say he speaks true things — he says he is true (John 7:18)

1. He does not seek his own glory but the glory of the Father who sent him
2. Romans 3 says all have fallen short of the glory of God; Jesus alone does not, and therefore truth itself resides in him

B. Genuine pursuit of God's glory and will inevitably leads to Christ

1. There is no authentic seeking of God that does not end in Jesus Christ
2. Romans 10:1-4 — Israel had zeal for God but not according to knowledge; being ignorant of God's righteousness they sought to establish their own and did not submit to Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes

C. Knowing the attributes of God or the content of scripture is insufficient without Christ at the center

1. Knowing God's goodness, holiness, and all his omnis will only show you how far short you fall — and drive you to Christ
2. The Jewish leaders marveled at Jesus' knowledge of scriptural truth but did not pause to marvel at the Truth who stood before them

D. The most important question: can you articulate the gospel and your desperate need of Christ?

1. Head knowledge of scripture without a grasp of the gospel is spiritually empty — it is the unlearned tax collector, not the learned Pharisee, who walks away justified
2. Jonathan Edwards preached the gospel to himself daily before he studied
3. Apart from Christ, a person falls into either self-righteous pride or hopeless despair; the remedy to both is Christ alone

III. The Contradictions of Foolish Judgment

A. First contradiction: possessing the law while breaking it (John 7:19)

1. The Jews prided themselves as recipients of the Torah, yet they were seeking to kill Jesus — breaking the sixth commandment
2. Paul makes the same argument repeatedly in Romans: having the law and not keeping it turns its blessing into a curse and condemnation
3. The crowd's response ("Who is seeking to kill you?") reflects the pilgrimage population unfamiliar with the leadership's plot; Jesus addresses the Jewish authorities specifically

B. Second contradiction: circumcision on the Sabbath (John 7:21-23)

1. The leaders sought to kill Jesus for healing the paralyzed man at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath (John 5)
2. Yet Jewish law permitted — indeed required — circumcision on the eighth day even when it fell on the Sabbath (Genesis 17, Leviticus 12:3)
3. Jesus employs the classic rabbinic lesser-to-greater argument: if circumcision of one limb overrides the Sabbath, how much more the healing of a whole man? - Rabbi Eleazar: "If on account of a single limb they override the Sabbath, is it not logical that one should override the Sabbath on account of the whole man?" - Rabbi Azariah makes the same point regarding the 248 members of the body

C. The deeper meaning they missed

1. Circumcision signifies the consecration of the whole body and soul to God; Jesus healed the whole man, fulfilling that very meaning
2. The Sabbath was meant to bring restoration and peace to body and soul; Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath rest
3. Like an atheist scientist who studies the intricate signs of God's creation yet rejects the Creator, the Jewish leaders gazed at covenant signs — circumcision, Sabbath — and missed the one to whom all those signs pointed: Jesus Christ
4. If Christ is not at the center of our lives, we too will miss the forest for the trees — clinging to signs while missing the thing signified

D. Closing application: John 7:24 — "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment"

1. Put Christ at the center; let every sign, every sacrament, every scripture point you to him
2. The waters of baptism seen this morning are a sign — cling not to the sign but to the blood of Christ it signifies and the Spirit he pours into souls