Sometimes we can be absolutely convinced in our minds that this or that is true. I wonder if that has ever happened to you? I'm sure it has. You were quite prepared to admit that there are many things that you do not know but with regard to this one particular thing you're convinced you're right! It is not easy to convince somebody who has that mindset that they might in fact be wrong.

Much of the time it really doesn't matter that much. If you were convinced that the plane was due to take off an hour later than it actually did you might have a mad rush through the airport or you may miss the flight altogether but it is unlikely to be a life or death issue. Mostly we will just have the embarrassment of having a nose rubbed in it by other folk less than sympathetic when our mistakes are made evident!

However there are other cases where the outcome could be very serious indeed. Taking the wrong medicine, for example, might entail a swift trip to the hospital and in the worst case scenario even lead to death.

For many people in the world today having an opinion concerning Jesus Christ would fall into the highly insignificant category. It doesn't matter, they say, what you believe. Some simply assume that all will turn out to be "all right on the night" regardless while others think that this life is all there is anyway.

The Bible, however, takes a very different approach indeed! Knowing Jesus is crucial and we can only know him if we know the truth about him. And we must be very careful to take into consideration all of the facts that the Bible presents to us concerning Jesus, who he is, and what it was he came to do.

If we are not careful to search out all the information we can about Jesus or if we prefer to focus our attention upon our personal selection of truths about him then we are in danger. We are not left to make up a Jesus of our own imagination as such a Jesus would be of no use to us – we must put our trust in the real Jesus, the only one there is!

Bemused

Jesus had been causing something of a stir in Jerusalem and the inhabitants of that town were confused about him.

They knew that their leaders were highly opposed to Jesus and that they were indeed trying to put him to death and yet here he was openly teaching and apparently doing so with impunity.

Did their leaders know more than they were letting on? Had the leaders come to the conclusion that Jesus really was the Christ after all? Was that the reason that he was allowed to continue so openly?

And yet at the same time this people thought they knew a thing or two. They certainly knew enough to realise that Jesus could not possibly be the Christ!

What was it that they thought they knew so well?

The answer may be given under two headings:

a) their theological understanding of the Messiah

b) their personal knowledge of Jesus

When they put what they thought they knew together it left them with the real problem – Jesus could not possibly be the Messiah.

It was all a matter of origins.

Already back in chapter 6 Jesus had troubled his listeners by referring to his own origins in the most unexpected way:

Jn.6:41-42 "So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he say ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

Jesus said he came from heaven but they knew his mum and dad!

Now here in Jn.7:27 the crowds were once again declaring with certainty what they knew and what they knew is that Jesus came from Galilee:

"But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.

(compare verses).

7:41-42 "Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”"

To summarise what they "knew":

1. The Messiah was to come from Bethlehem

2. The Messiah was to be of the house of David

3. The Messiah would burst upon the scene with no one knowing exactly where he came from – Pilate would later ask Jesus a related question when he said "Where are you from?" (19:9)

4. Some evidently believed that the Messiah would work miracles v.31

5. Jesus performed many miracles

6. Jesus came from Galilee

7. Apparently they did not believe Jesus to be of the house of David.

Because of this mix of ideas it is hardly surprising that there was division amongst the people concerning him!

Jesus sought to pick up this confused thinking and to challenge those who held it. That is why he put his question which we find in verse 28:

"You know me, and you know where I come from?"

How easy it is for us to make assertions and affirmations without the necessary foundations having first been laid. These people knew a bit of the truth and interpreted it as the whole truth. In doing so they went badly wrong. That has to be careful that we do not make the same mistake.

What are Jesus' origins?

As Jesus goes on to speak to the crowd it is interesting to note that when he speaks about his own origins he does so in terms of source rather than geography.

Jesus does not focus upon a town or a village but rather he focuses upon the fact that he has been sent by someone. Jesus will do this again in the following chapter where again in discussion with those who set themselves against him Jesus insists that he has been sent by his Father:

Jn.8:42 "Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me."

In fact this theme of Jesus having been sent by his Father is an important one in the Gospel of John with references in more than 40 verses spread over 18 of John's 21 chapters. While I had been aware of this idea that Jesus had been sent by his Father, I must admit that I had not appreciated just how significant this theme was in John's Gospel until this afternoon!

In this morning's service we read Jesus High Priestly Prayer which John recorded for us in chapter 17. In that prayer alone Jesus referred five times no less to having been sent by his Father!

Jn.17:3 "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

Jn.17:8 "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 came from you; and they have believed that you sent me."

Jn.17:18 "As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world."

Jn.17:21 "that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me."

Jn.17:25 "O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me."

When we realise just how important this was, not only to John, but to Jesus himself how careful we should be not to jump too hasty conclusions. And that was just what the crowd was doing.

The people in the crowd had been very keen on exhibiting what it is they think they know, now it is Jesus turn to speak of his origins and in doing so he will speak of what he really does know and he will assert that his hearers do not know certain things.

In six short pithy phrases Jesus affirms why he has come:

1. he has not come on his own accord

2. he has been sent and the One who sent him Is True

3. Jesus' listeners do not know this One who is True

4. On the other hand Jesus does know this One who is True

5. Jesus comes from this One

6. This One sent him

A little earlier in John's Gospel we have already been exposed to the idea that lies behind this sending, of this mission:

Jn.3:17 "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

When Jesus spoke in this way calling into question what people thought they knew it provoked quite a reaction. On the one hand someone trying to arrest him while others seem to have been convinced and believed in him. The upshot was that no one laid hands on him at this time.

Later on Jesus would instruct his disciples warning them that to follow him would involve them being hated by the world. This hatred should not come as any surprise to the disciples. Jesus had been persecuted because the Jewish leaders did not know the one who sent him. How could it now be any different for the followers of Jesus?

Application

We must take time to read our Bibles carefully. We must do our utmost to ensure that what we think about Jesus Christ is in line with biblical revelation. It simply will not do to cherry pick as we read about the Lord Jesus Christ. We must rather be suspicious of ourselves when we begin to focus over much on some aspects while underplaying others.

John Cheeseman has recently written an article entitled "The Jesus of Your Imagination". This is the sentence with which he begins that article:

"How often people have said to me – "I like to think of God like this…"; "This is my idea of God…"; "I can't believe Jesus would condemn anyone to Hell, that's not the Jesus I want to believe in".

"Now the basic flaw underlining such thinking is that men and women are actually making a god in their own image, which of course is a breach of the second commandment… Many Christians formed their own ideas of God and Jesus as they would like them to be, and not as they are in fact revealed in Holy Scripture… So there is this tendency to pick and choose what you want to believe. Those aspects of Christ's teaching which are comforting and attractive, such as his emphasis on love and forgiveness – those things are gladly accepted. But when it comes to the more uncomfortable and unfashionable traits – for instance, God's righteous anger against sin, or the claims of Jesus to be the only way to God – such teaching is often rejected."

How clear are we in our thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ?

May the Lord give us all the teachable spirit and, by his Spirit, lead us into all truth to the glory of his own name.

To God be the glory.

Amen.

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