Monthly Archives: July 2025

JOHN’S GOSPEL… NICODEMUS THE PHARISEE – 9

Bible Study,

Interest in Jesus didn’t stop with His disciples. Someone else’s curiosity was aroused. A bit of a coward, Nicodemus, or was he earning overtime?

John 3:1-2 NIV
[1] “Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. [2] He came to Jesus at night…”

Why at night? Was this the only time when Jesus was free for a private interview…or was he scared of his fellow Pharisees?

Unlike his colleagues, Nicodemus wasn’t afraid to ask honest questions. Something had piqued his interest.” You are a rabbi… “

John 3:2 NIV
[2] “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

The underlying thought, here, was the issue of authority. Every conflict with the Pharisees had the same core issue, “Who gave you this authority? Where did you get the authority to do what you are doing?”

Mark 11:27-28 NIV
[27] “They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him.
[28] “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”

Authority was a big deal among rabbis. Some who were recognised to have unusual authority were known as rabbis with “sh’mikah”. Other used the authority of rabbis with sh’mikah to back up their arguments. Hence, His opponents asked Jesus a question, about divorce. “Whose authority do you support, Gamaliel, (the liberal) or Hillel ( the conservative)?”

True to form, Jesus replied, “Neither.” His authority came directly from the Father.

Matthew 19:3-6 NIV

[3] Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” [4] “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ [5] and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? [6] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Without saying so, Nicodemus was asking the same question. “Where did you get your authority?”

Jesus cut him short. No need to ask the question… He went for the jugular!

John 3:3 NIV
[3] “Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Jesus, what on earth does that mean? What are you talking about?

Nicodemus lived in one realm, the realm of earth, Jesus in the other, the realm of heaven. The two realms were poles apart. For Nicodemus to have any part in the realm in which Jesus functioned, he had to be born into it.

Nicodemus was nonplussed. How would it be possible to go through the birth process all over again as an adult man?

Jesus continued…this “birth” could only happen through the power of the Holy Spirit, not by any natural process.

John 3:5-8 NIV
[5] “Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. [6] Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. [7] You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ [8] The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

In a masterful presentation of the gospel, Jesus explained to Nicodemus that His origin was from heaven. Nicodemus was not expected to know what only Jesus could know because He came from the other realm.

One thing separated the two realms…faith. Faith in Him was the great divide, now and in eternity. Through faith in Jesus, a great transaction would take place…new birth and a whole new life in the new realm of spirit.

John 3:18 NIV
[18] “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

Nicodemus wanted the truth. He got it straight from the mouth of Jesus. “If you believe in me, you will go to heaven. If you don’t believe in me, you will go to hell.” Could anything be clearer than that?

Why to people go to hell? They choose to go there. It’s that simple.

John 3:20 NIV
[20] “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.”

I wonder if Nicodemus had ever heard God’s message as clear as than that. In all his years as a Pharisee, he had never realised the truth. All his rituals and sacrifices pointed to one person, Jesus, the Messiah, right before him. This must have made a deep impression on him because it was Nicodemus who spoke up for Jesus.

John 7:50-51 NIV
[50] “Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, [51] “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

It was Nicodemus who joined Joseph of Arimathea in burying Jesus’ body.

John 19:38-39 NIV
[38] “Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. [39] He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.”

So, the story of Nicodemus, at least in the Bible, ends here but, in his visit to Jesus at night, Nicodemus believed, and some of the simplest and yet most profound eternal truths of the gospel surfaced. Of all the vesrses in the Bible, surely the most familiar and beloved is John 3:16…

[16] “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

… from the lips of Jesus!

JOHN’S GOSPEL… THE FORERUNNER – 7

Bible Study,

John 1: 6-8,15, 19-27
[6] “There was a man sent from God whose name was John. [7] He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. [8] He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light…
[15] (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”)…
[19] Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. [20] He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” [21] They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” [22] Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” [23] John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ [24] Now the Pharisees who had been sent [25] questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” [26] “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. [27] He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

Enter John the Baptist, a mysterious figure who appeared on the scene, in John’s story, with no history and no credentials, only a voice and a message. This leaves us to examine other sources to find out who this John was and what his claim to fame.

Luke gives us the story of his background and ancestry. He was the son of a Jewish priest, born miraculously to a childless couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth, in their old age. We know nothing of his upbringing except that his father knew that he had a divine calling and must have coached him in his youth to prepare him for his role in Jewish history.

They named him John.

Why “John”? Why not “Zechariah Junior” as tradition demanded? John, Yohanan in Hebrew, means “God is gracious”… a prophetic name for the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets who would be the bridge between law and grace.

John appears on the public scene as a wild man from the desert. Dressed in animal skins and eating off the land, he must have spent many moons in the wild places away from human company, doing what?

Judging by his father’s prophetic message at his circumcision ceremony…

Luke 1:67, 76-79 NLT
[67] Then his father, Zechariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and gave this prophecy:…
[76] “And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord. [77] You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. [78] Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, [79] to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.”

… John knew he had a mission.

Luke 1:80 NLT
[80] “John grew up and became strong in spirit. And he lived in the wilderness until he began his public ministry to Israel.”

Perhaps, then, his strange garb and diet must have been of necessity, not because he was crazy.

It would have taken great sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to recognise the person he was to introduce and to know the moment when his mission would begin. He was to be on the lookout for a man like no other. The sign?

When John was questioned about the identity of Messiah who, he declared, he was not, he had this to say…

John 1:32-34 NLT
[32] Then John testified, “I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. [33] I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ [34] I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Chosen One of God.”

So, until that moment, John was faithful to his mission. His message was not focused on the past and the dismal story of failure but on the future…one is coming who will usher in a new dispensation of grace.

The call to repentance, “Return to the path,” was the necessary preparation for Messiah’s arrival. God’s people had wandered so far from the path of obedience to His covenant, egged on by unscrupulous religious “hirelings”, that they needed a serious about-turn before they would understand Messiah’s role. They were so embroiled in the details of the law that they had lost the message of God’s mercy and the forgiveness of sin.

Before they could ever receive Messiah’s revelation of the real Father through His words and deeds, they needed to understand the nature of their own wicked hearts and the identity of the one who was calling them back to the path.

Who was He?

John’s message was clear and to the point…He was the Lamb of God who would take away, remove from sight and memory forever, the sin of the world. This was radical stuff, not a lamb raised on their own property to be sacrificed for their ceremonial uncleanness but THE LAMB, sent from heaven to remove all the sin of all the people for all time, by His own death, forever.

As we trace John the Baptist’s short but powerful ministry in John’s story, one thing is clear…he knew who he was, just a voice…he knew his message, “Behold the Lamb of God” …and he stuck to his place until his last breath. Popular as he was for a moment in time, his finger always pointed away from himself to the one he was born to introduce to the world.

John 3:25-27, 29-30 NLT
[25] “A debate broke out between John’s disciples and a certain Jew over ceremonial cleansing. [26] So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.” [27] John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven…
[29] It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. [30] He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.”

So, Jesus could cover John’s back during a moment of doubt.

Luke 7:18-20, 22, 24, 26-28 NLT
[18]” The disciples of John the Baptist told John about everything Jesus was doing. So John called for two of his disciples, [19] and he sent them to the Lord to ask him, “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” [20] John’s two disciples found Jesus and said to him, “John the Baptist sent us to ask, ‘Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?’”…
[22] Then he told John’s disciples, “Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard—the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.”…
[24] After John’s disciples left, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. “What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed, swayed by every breath of wind?…
[26] Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. [27] John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before you.’ [28] I tell you, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of God is greater than he is!”

Great though he was, John was the last prophet of the Old Covenant. His ministry lasted approximately six months. When Jesus appeared, John’s work was done. He was eliminated by the unscrupulous wife of Herod. given an ignominious exit by beheading…and Jesus did nothing to intervene!

So, it had to be. Dying violently as a wrongdoer for speaking the truth did nothing to prevent this man of God from receiving his reward for a mission well done, Jesus’ affirmation and, no doubt, the Father’s “Well done!”

JOHN’S GOSPEL… GOD BECAME MAN – 6

Bible Study, ,

God always wanted heaven and earth to be joined as one. He created earth to be a part of heaven, with Himself and His human family living together in unity and harmony.

We know this because, at the end of time when He has dealt with the intrusion of sin and death into His plan, He will finish what He started.

Revelation 21:1-4 NIV
[1] Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. [2] I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. [3] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. [4] ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

He would destroy all the rebels and all the effects of rebellion with the same word with which He brought the earth into being in the beginning.

God’s plan to press the “reset button” was a daring one. He would come to earth in the person of the second person of the Trinity, live as a fallible human with the same temptations as the first man, take on the debt of humanity for destroying His plan, and pay the debt Himself. He would return to the Father in glory, taking with Him all who agree with and become a part of His work. The rest would join His adversary in the punishment He determined for setting the whole mess in motion.

To make this plan workable, He would send His Spirit to earth, after His return to heaven, to power the plan and make it happen.

The whole plan depended on Jesus, as a man, protecting His unity with the Father despite all the odds stacked against Him. One slip and He and all mankind would be lost forever.

Jesus came fully equipped for the task.

John 1:14 NIV
[14] “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

We need to get the full impact of John’s words.

Jesus was fully God, but His glory was veiled in humanity. Jesus was fully man but His humanity was empowered by the grace and truth of His deity. He came in the frailty of human flesh but equipped with the Spirit and with eternal truth to treat sinners with grace, to reveal the Father’s heart and to go the full length of love for them.

This plan was risky because of the scope of the task, to reconcile sinful humans to a Holy God. This plan was workable because of the players involved…God in three persons. This plan was successful because of the character of the one tasked to do it and the power of His equipment.

So, in two short sentences, John shows us how Jesus blazed the trail.

John 1:14, 16-18NIV
[14] “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”…

Not only did Jesus have the equipment to do the job, but He also freely gave His “tools” to believers to live it out in their lives, grace and truth, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

[16] “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. [17] For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. [18] No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

God’s people, up to that moment, only knew God as the God of law. They missed His grace and truth because, through their persistent rebellion, they were always on the receiving end of His discipline. They did not know of His pain when He was forced to act against them.

Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9 NIV
[1] “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. [2] But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. [3] It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. [4] I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them…
[8] “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. [9] I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man— the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities.”

Time and again, despite their wickedness, God chose to forgive and not to destroy them completely. He continually saved a remnant so that the nation of Israel would always endure.

So, Jesus came from heaven with a mission…to reveal God’s grace and truth in all its fullness, a river of divine favour released on all people, Jew and Gentile, because He would deal with the impenitrable barrier of sin. The truth of God’s mercy in all its facets and forms, would flood the human situation and wash away all false notions about Him by the revelation of truth.

What is grace? A marvel and a mystery, too big to define in a single sentence!

Grace underpins everything God does for sinners. It’s the motivation behind His action, the power He releases that drives His intervention, the one-size-fits-all strength He supplies for every occasion.

Let’s look at grace like this… God’s DNA is holy-love. It’s who He is. His DNA is made up of a twisted strand of all His attributes…goodness, kindness, mercy, patience, wisdom, knowledge, power, sovereignty etc…all bound together and expressed through His grace.

Writes Peter…

I Peter 4:10 NKJV
[10] “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

Peter described God’s grace as “manifold”, variegated or rainbow-coloured, and believers mirror that grace by the many-coloured gifts He has given us to serve one another. Isn’t that beautiful? As many as are the colours of a rainbow when light is split, so God’s grace splits into whatever function is needed to supply help. Likewise, our spiritual gifts are split into as many functions as are needed to serve God’s people.

So, truth supplies the reason, and grace the power to meet the need of every person who calls on the name of the Lord. Through Jesus, the one who came equipped with an abundant supply of grace and truth, we can approach the Father and He will rise to every occasion because that’s the God He is.

Hebrews 4:15-16 NKJV
[15] “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. [16] Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

JOHN’S GOSPEL…CHILDREN OF GOD-5

Bible Study, ,

John 1:12-13 NIV
[12] “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— [13] children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

John’s gospel is a book of many themes…light, darkness, new birth…

John’s introduction highlights Jesus as the Word, the Creator, and the source of light. Darkness had invaded the planet but the light came from the Father to overcome the darkness, to separate darkness from light. Those who were of darkness rejected Him and would forever be consigned to realm of darkness where the light of truth never shines and where blackness and torment forever are the consequences of rejecting the light.

However, there are those who hear, listen, believe, and receive the blessing of this new life from the one who came with the message from the Father.

This new life begins, not only with an assent to the truth but also with a spiritual rebirth so radical that it’s almost as though those who believe will go back into the womb and began life all over again.

It’s no wonder Nicodemus, the Pharisee and a religious leader of Israel, could not understand Jesus’ response to his comment…

John 3:1 NIV
[1] “Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. [2] He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Was his question to be, “Why are you so different from us?”

Jesus cut him short. “We belong to two different realms, Nicodemus. Your realm is “flesh”. You are spiritually dead, living in a realm where it is impossible to understand me and my realm. To know who I am, to enter my realm, you need to be born from above by a work of my Spirit.”

Nicodemus was flabbergasted. His very response shows how little he understood, how “in the flesh” he was.

John 3:4 NIV
[4] “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Truly, this “new birth” of which John wrote and Jesus spoke, is as radical as being born a second time into a realm as different as heaven is from earth.

How does this happen?

First, we need to hear the message.

Romans 10:17 NIV
[17] “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

Then, we need to believe the message.

Romans 10:9-10 NIV
[9] “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

This message is clothed in words, but not just any words…God’s Words that have power to work a miracle.

1 Peter 1:23 NIV
[23] “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

Why do we need a miracle?

Ephesians 2:1-3 NIV
[1] “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, [2] in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. [3] All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”

Dead people are dead! They can do nothing! They can hear or believe nothing!

What is the miracle God works through faith in His Word?

Ephesians 2:4-7 NIV
[4] “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, [5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. [6] And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, [7] in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

Believing the message about Jesus, which is what God does for us bevauae He gives us faith, triggers the most amazing, powerful, and miraculous response from God, far more than nodding to our mental assent to what Jesus has said and done. His response is an explosion of action.

Resurrection, new life, a new beginning, a new relationship, a new status, a new direction, a new destiny, a new creation, a new hope…it’s as though we took our first breath in a brand new world.

This new birth is a mystery and a miracle. Our past, with all its sordid behaviour, is rolled up into a bundle, wrapped in the blood of Jesus, and hurled into the depth of the deepest ocean, as far away as east is from west, and forgotten forever…and it all begins with faith in a story!

However, this miracle did not begin in time. Far more wonderful is that God Himself set it all in motion before the beginning of time. He devised the plan in eternity and brought it into time when Jesus came from heaven.

Ephesians 1:3-8 NIV
[3] “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. [4] For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. [7] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace [8] that he lavished on us….”

… And John says, “This is our right…to be children of God through faith in His Son.”

Only one thing stands between our eternal destiny in heaven or hell… receiving or rejecting Jesus as the Son of God. It’s a right, said John, as much as it is our right to breathe air as long as we live on this planet.

John 1:12 NIV
[12] Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – [13] children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

JOHN’S GOSPEL – THE WORD REJECTED – 4

Bible Study, ,

John 1:10-11 NIV
[10] “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
[11] He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

Some of the saddest words ever written …and yet, a continuation of Israel’s tragic history.

Rejection! What is rejection…the implications of rejection?

Rejection is the worst form of insult and cruelty one person can inflict on another. Rejection implies, “You are nothing and worth nothing. What you say is worthless lies. I want nothing to do with you!”

Even worse is the implication, “I am and will always be better than you. I know more than you. You will never meet my standards for you!”

How is it possible that mere humans, made of dust and returning to dust, alive only by God’s mercy, could reject the gracious appearance on earth of their very own God who came to rescue them from the mess they had made? Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

Imagine humans saying that to God! Yet, they did!

How many are the newborn babies, cradled in their mother’s womb for nine months, then dumped as worthless in some trash can or left on someone’s doorstep as worthless!

How many people are violently eliminated because they are rejected and unwanted. Yet, terrible as it is, what His people did to Jesus was far worse. They tried to eliminate Him from time and eternity, to obliterate the God who gave them life, the God who cared for them for many centuries, the God who made a covenant with them to be their God forever, the God who loved them and saved them from eternal death.

It doesn’t seem possible, and yet they did.

Many are the reasons for the Jews rejecting Jesus.

They did not recognise Him. Jesus was not like anything they expected as their Messiah. They expected a powerful, majestic, godlike conqueror, probably breaking into history by arriving on a mighty steed. They wanted one who would act like their God, sovereign and strong, driving out the Romans like frightened dogs with their tail between their legs.

Instead, He came as a frail human baby, grew up as a village kid, and set forth to conquer, not Romans, but sin buried deep in the human heart. He was humble, gentle and kind to all, loving and merciful to sinners…and just too nice to be God.

  1. They rejected Him because their expectation was faulty.

God had promised them a Messiah, one who would deliver them and reign over them, returning them to a peaceful and prosperous life. Deliver them from what?

Uppermost in their minds was the oppression of Roman occupation. They wanted to be free from Rome, so they centred their hopes on a mighty deliverer who would drive the Romans out and set up a kingdom as glorious as David’s kingdom of old. Even His disciples were confused. Just before His ascension,

Acts 1:6 NIV
[6] “They gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Jesus didn’t fit the bill for the religious leaders. He had another purpose far bigger and far more important than their expectations. He came to set them free from their own self-destructive selves, but they failed to understand His purpose and they were blind to their real peril.

John 8:34-36 NIV
[34] “Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. [35] Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. [36] So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

  1. The relgious leaders rejected Him because they were afraid of losing their power over the people.

Of course, power was the crux of their wicked hearts. They were on the payroll of their oppressors. They knew how to play the game. As long as they kept the people quiet by manipulating them through fear, their Roman overlords were happy. So, they punted a seriously strict religious system and an overly disciplinarian God to keep them in fear and stop them from thinking for themselves.

  1. The religious leaders rejected Him because they were hypocrites.

They won the admiration of the people and therefore their loyalty, by posing as, “obedient and holy” leaders. They hated Jesus for reading and exposing them accurately…

Matthew 23:27-28, 33 NIV
[27] “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. [28] In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness…
[33] “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”

… and for getting the better of them in every altercation.

Matthew 22:15-22 NIV
[15] “Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. [16] They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. [17] Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” [18] But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? [19] Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, [20] and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” [21] “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” [22] When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.”

  1. The religious leaders rejected Him because they refused to consider the evidence.

Jesus’ miracles were not primarily a campaign of mercy but a witness to His identity. However, His claims to be God’s Son were met with stubborn unbelief.

John 10:33-39 NIV

[33] “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
[34] Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’? [35] If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—[36] what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? [37] Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. [38] But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” [39] Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.”

So, John’s record confirms the words of the prophet Isaiah, wrieen centuries before the event…

Isaiah 53:2-3 NLT
[2] “My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. [3] He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.”