Trinity 13
Dear friends in Christ. Go into any bookstore or library and you will see lots of books about Christ. Turn on the television or radio and eventually you are bound to hear someone talking about Christ or Christianity. Talk to many people on the street and they will have some idea, opinion about Christ. Go into churches and you will surely have Christ and Christianity presented. Certainly there is a lot of talk about Christ, but is all this information correct and accurate? Certainly people have an idea of what Christianity is all about, but is it correct? Is it really what Christianity is all about? With all this information about Christ and Christianity floating around, are we really all the better off for it? With so much information and disinformation about, isn’t Satan really muddying the waters in an attempt to destroy faith or hinder people from that one true faith that alone saves?
The one truly vital question is the one that Jesus asked His disciples [Mt. 16.16]: But who do you say that I am? He also asks us that question today and how we answer that question, answered in faith or without faith, determines for us heaven or hell. Yes, Jesus, and what we think of Him, of who He is, is the great divide between true, historic Christianity and every other religion of the world.
As we examine our text this morning, we will see that already in Jesus’ day there were people who thought they knew all about Jesus, all about what the prophets had written about the Messiah—but didn’t. They thought they knew all about who Jesus is. But when it comes to knowing Jesus aright and growing in faith in Him, an attitude of pride and knowing-it-all shut the heart, but an attitude of simplicity and humility open the heart.
1. Our text: Now some of them from Jerusalem said, "This is He whom they seek to kill, is He not? But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. It isn’t possible, is it, that the rulers realize indeed that this One is the Christ? However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from."
The Jerusalemites had a little bit of knowledge and therefore they were the know-it-alls. Here is an example of the cliché being right: a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. They perhaps toy for a moment with the idea that Jesus really is the Messiah but they quickly again dismiss it because of their little bit of faulty knowledge that when the Messiah comes, no one will know where He’s from. Since they know that Jesus is from Nazareth in Galilee, they figure He cannot possibly be the Messiah.
Precisely here is where a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing for a know-it-all. These know-it-alls had knowledge of some writings outside of Scripture and they perhaps knew bits of a few verses from the prophets. For example from Micah 5.2 they may have heard that the Messiah’s goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting; from the last OT prophet, Malachi 3.1, they heard that the Messiah would suddenly come to His temple. From these verses they may have cobbled together the notion that when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.
And here is the sad thing: these people had a few verses about the Messiah they thought they knew and they stopped there; they didn’t try to learn more about the coming Savior. They figured they had enough and that’s all they needed; they were the theological experts and there was nothing more to learn; they knew it all so now they can move on to other things.
The sad thing is, is that this is also a description of many today calling themselves Christians. They know a few bible verses, whip them out when they think the pastor or somebody else should hear them to be convinced they are Christians and that’s the extent of it; they whip out a few bible verses maybe to prove a point. By this they think they’re experts. Very often these are verses of Gospel they use to give comfort to their consciences bothering them over their sin—not that they are sorry for their sin-- but just so they have peace: Let God’s grace abound all the more. But theirs is a false hope and comfort. Such will remember Jesus’ words to the woman caught in adultery and brought before Him, John 8.11: Neither do I condemn you; but they conveniently forget what Jesus says in the very next words: go and sin no more.
As we see with the Jerusalemites in our text, their notions of the Messiah were indistinct and hazy. Yet because they were know it all’s, they rejected Jesus. They could not answer in faith Jesus’ question: But who do you say that I am? At the same time, though, it is not that the prophets were that obscure that no one could figure them out. Just a few verses later, some of them are arguing from the prophets: Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was? These know it all’s who rejected Jesus on the basis their incomplete and faulty understanding of a few verses are contradicted by others who said that the Messiah’s origins would be known—He would be born as a Descendant of David in Bethlehem. The scribes said the same thing when Herod, prompted by the Wise Men, asked them where the Messiah would be born.
These people’s “knowing it all” and so not delving further into the Scriptures shut their heart to the word and preaching of Jesus. This is nothing but sinful pride—I know all there is to know. But they had been so richly blessed; they had the Scriptures—the OT prophets and Moses whom they heard being read. But since they thought they knew all they needed to know, they did not study and ponder the word they heard. But notice, this is an attitude of law—I just want to know what I have to know, and nothing more! The attitude of the Gospel says—this is the word that tells me about my God, my Savior, and my salvation! I want to know more and delve more deeply into the word of God to learn more. Notice how Satan is working, using sinful human pride—I know all I need to know—to keep people from the true and right knowledge of Christ Jesus our Savior and God by giving them a little of Scripture in order to keep them away from Scripture.
The ultimate result of this pride and knowing it all, even though nothing is really known, is rejection of Christ. Again our text: Therefore they were trying to take Him, seize Jesus by force to kill Him.
So the call for us today is clear: How is it with my heart and life? Do I want to delve deeply into the word of the Lord or am I content and think I know it all because I think I know a few things the Bible says about Christ—which may or may not be right—like this Jerusalem crowd? Am I a theological know- it- all, full of pride? And by this, am I shutting my heart to the word of the Lord and growth in knowledge and love of Him? Always in the background is Christ’s question, the ultimate question: Who do you say that I am?
2. This does not mean, though, that we become some theological, Scriptural basket case, forever unsure what we believe, wringing our limp hands in uncertainty. Doubt is never a virtue in Christianity. The Lord calls us to certainty in matters of faith. And it is precisely by delving all the more deeply into God’s word that we grow in faith and in the certainty that what we believe is true. But this is not know-it-all-ism. If we, in sinful human pride, think we know it all, we shut our heart to the things of God. But true Christian certainty in matters of faith comes as a result of simplicity and humility. These open the heart to delve deeply into the word of God. And the Holy Spirit will always bless our study as He makes us more and more certain of the truth; and this doesn’t end our study and pursuit but merely whets our appetite that we want to learn more and more.
The Christian, from a Spirit-worked Gospel motivation, is and always wants to be a student of the word. We recognize that it is God’s word. With that in mind, how can we ever think that we have fully understood it or ever can? That attitude of simplicity and humility is faith in action that takes and receives what God tells us in His word; in that simplicity and humility we marvel over it, ponder it and are drawn all the more deeply into it. That’s why we want to be in church to hear that Word proclaimed and why we want to study it in Bible Class and read doctrinally pure devotion books at home.
In our text, Christ rebukes the know it all’s while giving encouragement to the simple and humble to open their hearts to receive greater mysteries and blessings: Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from? But I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me". To those who thought they knew it all, Jesus says: you boast that you know where I’m from, but sadly it’s a knowledge that you should and could know better. In other words: you stopped learning of Me and now your knowledge, your faith is wrong! You merely thought I had an earthly origin. But the word/prophets tell you more.
But how blessed is the one who in simplicity and humility continued on delving into the word. Such a person said, Lord, it’s Your word, a word far above my understanding. But I come to you in simple faith asking You to teach me more from Your holy word and so strengthen and confirm what You have already taught me and lead me deeper into Your holy, saving truth.
The know-it-alls in the crowd did not have either knowledge or saving faith although they boasted they did. Their pride and arrogance shut their hearts. With their shallow knowledge they never knew Jesus’ Person, true origin or mission. If they did not know Jesus, the Son, they also then did not know the Father. To know who Jesus is and why He has come is to know God aright, as He revealed Himself. But the hearts of the simple and humble ones were open to the word of God. What glorious things they learned!
Jesus here proclaims the great mysteries of who He is, the mystery of God: I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me. With the simplicity and humility that we are always students of God’s holy word, seeking to know Him and our salvation all the fully, we are blessed to know the deep mysteries of the Person and work of Christ. Not only is Jesus mere man born of the virgin in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth in fulfillment of prophecy, but He is also true God, eternally begotten of the Father, who at the right time was sent by the Father into the world to be our Savior. Jesus, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity who became also true Man, knows God the Father fully, rightly, completely because He together with the Holy Spirit are one God with Him. I know Him, for from Him I AM. He is eternally the Son of God. Not only does Jesus know the Father aright because He is true God, but the [Father] sent [Him]. The Son, Jesus, was originally, eternally with the Father but the Father sent Him, commissioned Him, to become true man, to be born in Bethlehem, to bring about the salvation of the human race by His life, suffering and death and to rise again from the dead and ascend into heaven to give us the blessed fruits of His work—forgiveness of sin, life, salvation. That’s the great mystery of the Person and work of Jesus! That’s the glorious news and proclamation that awaited all but could only come to those who didn’t know it all but in simplicity and humility delved into Scripture; to those whose hearts were opened to the voice of God speaking in Scripture and in Christ. That worked a bold faith—not a prideful, know-it-all-ism—that, as we read in our text: And many of the people believed in Him, and were saying, "When the Christ comes, He will not do more signs than these which this Man has done, will He?"
The same blessing awaits us as we in all humility keep hearing, studying, reading, pondering Scripture. We will be led deeper into the true knowledge of our gracious Lord and His saving work for us, and so into faith and love of Him. The deeper we go, the more Spirit-worked humility and simplicity will open our heart. We can never know too much of our Lord and His love and work for us. INJ Amen.