Where Jesus Comes From and Where He Goes

Open your Bibles to John chapter 7, please. John chapter 7. With all due respect to Pastor Tim, fourth place is not a good place. Number one is the only thing. So we've got to do better. New Path is a wonderful ministry, though if you don't know about them, please ask and get to know them.

They do wonderful work for people in need. But it turned out very great. There was a lot of people there. It was wonderful. All right, we're in John chapter 7. I'll read verses 25 to 36, and we'll go to the Lord in prayer.

The Gospel of John, chapter 7, verse 25. So 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 say 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 cried out as he taught in the temple you know me and you know where I come from but I have not come of my own 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 Jesus 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 Jesus and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. And Jesus then said, I'll be with you a little longer and then I'm going to him who sent me.

You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come. So the Jews 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? What does he mean by saying, you will seek me and you will not find me in where I am? You cannot come.

Let us pray. Oh, Father, we thank you so much for your goodness and kindness in our lives. Lord, each one, everyone in this room has experienced your goodness to one degree or another. You've given us our physical well-being. You've brought us here and you have proclaimed or have your word right here before us. But God, we know, Lord, that there's some people spiritually blessed beyond anything we can imagine.

There are those before me who have been awakened by the Spirit to see where they came from and where they're going and to rely upon the Christ who's offered us life in his name. Lord, we know that there's also people before me who have not come to be blessed in this way. So I ask, Lord, that you would open up their hearts to receive the word, that they would turn from their sins and come to know Christ Jesus, the Lord. and for those who know him I pray God that you would grow them in the knowledge and understanding and image of Christ for we know Lord to look like him is life indeed so Lord would you help us not because of anything good in us not because we are good of ourselves but because of Christ Jesus the Lord we know Lord that you blessed us and you have promised us very good and wonderful things in him by the Spirit.

And so, Lord, we rely upon him now, and we grab hold of those promises now. Thank you, in Jesus' name. Amen. Where someone comes from and where someone is going are two very important details in that person's life. Think about yourself growing up, how many times you had to say where you came from. Think about how many times, especially as a youth, as you went through schooling, how many times you had to tell someone what you planned on doing with your life or where you were going.

Where you come from and where you're going are questions a police officer will ask you when they think you're up to no good. And imagine right before you are about to be cut open for surgery, you hear the surgeon say they just came from the bar and had a little bit too much to drink, and they are going to go to prison in a little bit because of fraud. That wouldn't be good.

Where we come from, where we go, it matters. Where we come from and where we are going matters, and this is something Jesus teaches the crowd at the Feast of Booths that we're at right now. In fact, he teaches it's so important, it's actually at the root of proper and full belief in him. If you remember, the Feast of Booths have started. here in John 7, a feast that celebrates God taking care of his wandering Israelite people in the wilderness.

And what the people would do to celebrate it is they would make these tents, these booths, and they would live in it for a week. And each day there was a light ceremony, which we'll get into another week why it's important. There would be a water ceremony. It was a great time of celebrating the fact that God can take care of his people even when they are wandering in the desert.

And if you remember, Jesus came in late to the feast to avoid the murderous plans of his enemies. Remember, his religious leaders wanted to kill him. He came in late to avoid their murder. Yet he came not to avoid conflict, but he came to actually proclaim and teach in the temple. And in this teaching, as we saw last week, he set his aim at his enemies and declared that he was Messiah.

And the reason why they didn't recognize that is because they did not want to glorify God above all else but they wanted to glorify themselves which is revealed in the fact that they wanted to kill him as opposed to the law of Moses And so Jesus not afraid of conflict started it in his teaching in the temple in the middle of the feast. But we must see now, moving forward in these verses we have before us, Jesus is not just interested in hammering down his enemies and winning in these arguments. There is a large crowd around Jesus in Jerusalem filled with all sorts of shades of belief and unbelief in who Jesus is.

And as that is manifested in light of his teaching at this feast, Jesus reveals exactly what makes for good and proper belief. And that is understanding where Jesus came from and where he is going and understanding where you come from and where you are going. And of course, this will challenge us. Am I believing in Jesus in this way, as I see here in scripture?

And am I believing what he says that's true about me? Or is your belief a certain shade that we recognize here that will not last through the droughts and trials of tribulation? So let's look at that. Let's see what Jesus says here about good and proper belief as we look first where Jesus and the crowd come from. Where do Jesus and the crowd come from?

Look again at verse 25. The text says, some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, is not this the man whom they seek to kill? Now, of course, that word therefore is important. It's describing what has already happened. And as we've already said, Jesus went up in the middle of the feast and he started to teach and he started to cry out he started to preach now again what's amazing about this that we have to kind of settle on which is what the crowd is amazed by is the fact that this is the man that they want to kill and not only does he go and he proclaims in public and cries out and teaches in the temple which again if someone wanted to kill you you probably would want to keep your mouth shut for a while but he goes up and he preaches and not only does Jesus do that but he preaches against the very same powerful religious leaders that wanted to kill him it's one thing to teach it's a whole nother thing to say and these people are trying to kill me they don't want to glorify God at all they want to glorify themselves the fact is is that Jesus not only taught but he taught against the very same powerful people that wanted to kill him and then furthermore not only did he do that but he did it in a convincing and powerful way.

And so in light of this teaching that the people of the city, if you notice, it's the people of Jerusalem that they say in light of this teaching, they say, is not this the man whom they seek to kill? You remember the other crowd earlier, they were like, you're crazy for thinking they want to kill you. That's because they were coming in from out of town.

They didn't know the inner politics, what was going on. But these people from Jerusalem, they've been hearing the talk. They've been hearing, what is it, the scuttlebutt? What's going around, right? they know that, hey, this guy has a hit on him. The religious leader want him dead, and yet here he is preaching in public and actually throwing shade, as one might say if you're born after 2010, on the religious leaders.

This is amazing, powerful, unbelievable. So they say, is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, it says in verse 26, speaking openly. And they, as religious leaders, say nothing to him. Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ, and therefore we should know that as well? And so here we have a certain shade of belief here.

It's a certain kind of belief that we have where they're amazed by him. And they're like, hey, maybe we should believe in him. Maybe the religious leaders believe in him, and that's why they're not trying to kill him right now. And we see a certain shade of belief that you see. and it's very fascinating you know this sort of they're amazed by the fact that Jesus taught openly and powerfully in light of religious leaders in light of the leaders trying to kill him right and this sort of powerful teaching has happened in Christianity throughout time right and and it's caused a wonder from the people we think of oh I wrote it down because I knew I would forget the names here.

We think of Bishop Ambrose of Milan in the late 300s. There was a time in which actually the emperor of Rome, Emperor Theodosius I, he actually made Christianity legal in the empire. And so he was on, so to speak, the Christian side. But what happened was, is he actually, there's a lot of story here, but he actually allowed a massacre of the Thessalonians.

And so when this emperor, after he allowed that thing, came into his church, he did not serve him communion. And he said, you are not to do such sin. And it was amazing because here is a religious leader pointing out against an emperor who's very powerful saying, you did wickedly. I'm not serving you communion. And it was quite a stir. And we have even in our own age, certain leaders not acting right.

And the Christian's duty is to speak out against it. We think of COVID and all the terrible stuff that happened there. We think of John MacArthur in California, how he spoke out against this idea that the government can tell him not to worship God. It was powerful. It was rich. People were amazed by it.

It created quite quite a stir. But here's the thing. If your belief is rooted in just simply a powerful teacher speaking against leaders who aren't acting right, then your belief isn't very well rooted. And the fact is, is it won't come across. It won't be able to withstand trials and hardships. It will go away because your belief needs to be a deeper root.

And this is exactly what we see here in chapter seven They are amazed by Jesus He speaking against the religious leaders and their falsehood They say nothing They say maybe he is Messiah but then they quickly get distracted by a contrary misunderstanding that they have And look what that is in verse 27. They say, but we know where this man comes from. And when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.

You see, a deep-rooted belief will say, yeah, there's just something here that I don't quite understand how Christ could be Messiah because of this thing that I think I understand. And they would then challenge that and say, well, I must be wrong in some way. I need to seek Christ. I need to seek the answer. Well, when it's not deep-rooted, when you're just amazed by a teaching and that's it, you'll come across something that doesn't make sense in your head, and you'll say, and this guy doesn't fit the bill.

There is something wrong with him. And that's exactly what we see here. The fact is, there's a very good explanation. There's a very good way to answer their heartburn here. There's a very good way to answer that. And there's many times in which I've seen people come to Christ in some kind of belief, and then they get hung up on things that are very easy to answer, but they don't have a deep-rooted belief.

They don't seek it, and they fall away. And here, this is what's going on with this crowd. They have a certain belief, but as soon as they consider something that goes against what they understand, they are quick to not have that belief again. In verse 27, what they say is, we know where this man comes from. And when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.

And they're really wrong on both accounts, aren't they? Do they actually know where Jesus came from? The fact is, is they thought Jesus came from Galilee. Did Jesus really come from Galilee? No, he came from Bethlehem. But they thought that.

If they had a belief that was deeper than an inch, they would seek that out, find that out. Or they're also wrong on their other thing that they're getting hung up on. And that is, they're saying that when Messiah comes, no one will know where he comes from. Well, that's not true either, is it? We think of the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, remember?

Herod is freaking out. There's this young baby, or baby that's supposed to be Messiah, and he says, where is he at? Remember what they're told? He's going to come from Bethlehem. And we actually see later on in this chapter, people understanding he's going to come from Bethlehem. And so that was the dominant understanding of where Messiah would come, and here they are wrong about it when they say, well, no one's going to know where he comes from.

But one thing I want to grab hold of as we transition into Jesus' teaching and preaching is that in a way, this crowd is actually kind of right. What I mean by that is in a way, no one really would know where Jesus came from. And that is, they would know humanly speaking he came from Bethlehem, where he came from. But they actually, because Jesus is truly God and he comes from the Father, and they don't know the Father.

They don't know his eternal origins. And so really what they say is no one will know where Messiah comes from. They're actually kind of right about that without trying to be right about that. No one actually knew where Jesus came from because he came from the Father and they don't know the Father. And this is what Jesus holds on to as he then furthers his teaching and preaching in the temple.

Notice in verse 28, Jesus proclaimed. And that proclaimed there is he cried out. Jesus yelled this out as he's teaching, right? He's preaching in the temple and he's crying out. This is a new sermon in light of what they just said. He says, he cries out in the temple and he says, look at your text.

You know me and you know where I come from. Now, there's a couple of ways you can read that. Now, I think what's going on there is that Jesus is being sarcastic. He's saying, yeah, you know me and you know where I came from. Okay, but you actually don't, is what he goes on to say. Or he could say, yeah, okay, you know that I was raised up in Galilee, and you know my family.

Okay, but you actually don't know who I am. Either way, Jesus is making a point is that you think you know me, but you actually don't. This is where I actually come from. And what does he say? Where does he say he comes from? Well, look at what he says in the text.

He says, you know me, and you know where I come from. But look what he goes on to say in verse 28. but you actually don't. I have not come of my own accord. There's really no Greek word there. It's just he's saying I haven't come of myself, of my own. 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 what is Jesus saying there? Jesus saying is that you think you know me but the fact is is I came from my father. He sent me and the further the reality is, is you don't know him, and so therefore you do not know where I come from. They don't know the Father. They don't know who he is.

So the fact is, is that he came as the Son of God from the Father. Since they didn't know the Father, they don't know him. So what is Jesus saying? I come from the Father, and you're ignorant of the Father, so therefore you don't know where I come from either. The fact is, and this is an important aspect of true belief, if you want to have true, well-rounded belief.

You cannot just be amazed by some powerful teaching, even if it's true, against falsehood. It needs to go deeper rooted in the fact that you know where Jesus comes from, and you know where you come from. And what does he say there? Jesus comes from the Father and knows him. And he says, and you do not know the Father, i.e. you do not come from the father and that could be said the same thing about everyone of all time you want true belief you need to understand where jesus comes from and you need to understand where you come from you do not know the father because you're in sin jesus knows the father because he comes forth from him if your belief does not start with that basic first step in the gospel that i don't know god but he does So I'm going to follow him.

You will not have deep rooted belief. This is what Jesus is teaching us here. To know God to know the father is true is obviously mentally knowing him Right And if you do not know the Father you cannot really know anything You be ignorant generally speaking But it's also when Jesus says, you don't know him and I know him, and it's an intimacy, an obedience, a loving, a following, an obeying, a being close to.

So Jesus is saying, I come from the Father, I obey him, I know him, I love him, I have a relationship with him and you do not. I got to catch up where I'm at. I really got to catch up where I'm at. So this is what we need to hold on to for what proper belief starts with. knowing that we do not know God and knowing that Jesus came and does know the Father.

Now, if this crowd had such a belief like this, they would assume their understanding is flawed when it comes to the origins of Jesus. They would start that way. This isn't quite making sense here. And then they would go to Jesus humbly, ready to learn. And they would assume that they are in desperate need for Jesus since they come from a place of not knowing God, and Jesus comes from God the Father. but the fact is jesus says that you aren't even at the starting race the starting line for the race you're you don't even come from the father you don't even come from a right place start at the right place imagine if you're about to start a race and you believe you are at the right starting point and have a chance you might rely upon your ability to win and run the race but jesus is telling the crowd here, you aren't even at the starting line.

You have no hope. You need help. And the only hope that makes sense is it comes from the one who is from the Father and knows it. That is the heart of true belief. But Jesus can't finish his sermon here because he gets interrupted by certain reactions. He's going to finish it in a few verses, but he gets interrupted by a few reactions.

The first reaction that he has so far in his sermon is from the enemies or the religious leaders look at the reaction of the religious leaders there in verse 30 so in light of what he just said about where he comes from and where they do not come from they were seeking to arrest him that is Jesus but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come and of course we can assume that they that is the religious leaders and in verse 32 it goes on to say how they react the pharisees heard that the the the crowd muttering these things we'll see what that is in a second about him and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. And so we see the reaction of the religious leaders, the enemies of Christ. That is, they want to arrest them.

They want to destroy him, which shouldn't surprise us by now. This is how they react. But one thing I want to point out, and I think it's interesting to note, is that notice why they aren't successful in doing that thing right now. Notice what John says. He says, yet many people, I'm sorry, in verse 30, they were seeking to arrest them, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.

And so there is John saying that Jesus at this time, at this feast, was protected by the Father because his time to be given into the hands of religious leaders and to be killed wasn't yet. That would be in six months when he was murdered on the cross. But right now at this feast, it wasn't his time to endure that. And so now they cannot arrest them. They cannot make good on that plan.

And so here we have this conflict, an argument taking place. And this isn't like the main thrust of this whole, of this section of scripture of where Jesus comes from and where he goes. But I want to spend a moment on that aspect right there. That the father did not have in his plan for Jesus to be taken in yet. And that's why he was protected. And what's fascinating about that is there's God's sovereignty right there.

That's why he was protected because of the father. But what had we been talking about the last couple of weeks is that Jesus went out of his way not to be arrested by the religious leaders. You remember, he didn't go to the feast of Passover six months ago. He went late to this feast because they were seeking to kill him. He was going out of his way to ensure that he didn't act foolishly and get killed by the religious leaders.

Yet in that there is God's sovereignty at play to protect him, to ensure he doesn't get killed. What's my point? It's that God expects us to act in a way in which we use our responsibility well, while then and fully relying upon the sovereignty of God. So in other words, we can't say, well, God's sovereign and he'll do what he will, so I'm just gonna act like a foolish idiot.

No, we need to be responsible with what God has given us to be responsible. And then we give ourselves to the sovereign plan of God and leave it there. And I think a lot of our anxieties are, is we think we can do everything we can do. We try to do everything we can do and we deny the sovereign God and we get ourselves in an anxious mode and we actually turn into cowards for God.

Jesus went out of his way to protect himself, but he gave himself to the sovereign plan of God, which caused him not to be a coward here, but to faithfully proclaim the truth, even in the midst of a lot of people wanting to kill him. So there's a nice balance that we should have as people of the Lord. We know that we are to act not in a foolish way, yet we give ourselves to the sovereignty of God, which drives out anxiety and drives courage in us, as we see Jesus does here.

He ensures that he doesn't put himself in harm's way needlessly, yet he gives himself to the sovereign plan of God, which promotes courage. Now, what's the reaction, though, of the people? We saw the reaction of the religious leaders. They want to kill him, yet he's protected by the father. And here in verse 31, we get the reaction of the religious, or I'm sorry, of the crowd.

Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, appears, will he do more signs than this man has done? So you see another show of belief, right? There was that show earlier. Man, this guy's really teaching and he's letting the religious people, leaders have it. And here's another shade of belief.

But again, I don't think it's really right for us to grab hold of that and say, yeah, this is definitely salvific, the full rooted belief it could lead to it but i don't think there's any reason to think that because a certain crowd says um when when the christ appears will he do more signs than this we should assume this is a full belief that is salvation the fact is notice what the belief is rooted in it's rooted in the miracles christ would do so therefore what happens if christ don't doesn't do those miracles for a while will their belief stay what happens when christ is no longer doing all these miracles all these signs that are causing them to say man this will the christ when he comes to any more than this and the fact is is jesus just taught these hard words that i come from the father and you do not know the father and so a proper belief would have been like wow he just told us that we don't know the father. And he just told us that he does know the father. We need him.

In other words, a proper belief would say, look at what he said, look at his teaching. What does he proclaim? I'm going to believe what he said. But instead, they kind of seem to ignore that and they say, man, he's doing a lot of miracles. You know, we see in John a proper belief. You remember the Samaritan woman?

We talked about this before. Remember what she was amazed by? This guy has told me everything about me. and it wasn't good. And that's what amazed her. We have a reason to believe that that's probably true belief there. Or you think of the disciples at the end of John 6, whenever everyone's going away because Jesus is not performing the miracle of the bread anymore and he's teaching and it's offensive.

Remember what the disciples say when he says, do you want to go away as well? And they say, no, you're the ones who have the words of life. And we come to believe that you are the Messiah. And so here, Jesus just taught, just semi-offended them by saying, you don't know the Father. I know I'm from him. And they say, wow, he's doing a lot of miracles.

Maybe he's the Messiah. I don't think it's true, well-grounded belief. And then moving forward, though, after this reaction, we have we have jesus finishing his sermon the remember are the pharisees here the crowd speak positively say man maybe he is messiah with a certain shade of belief and it freaks them out so in verse 32 in chapter 7 the pharisees heard the crowd saying this so they send officers to arrest him now these officers are like the police for the for the temple and we talked about how they probably had a really good plan to arrest Jesus if he had come on time, but he came late.

They couldn't do that plan. And so here's like a half-baked, okay, let's just try to arrest him real quick. And as we'll see later on, not today, but we'll see it next time, it's not going to work out very well for them. But nevertheless, we see them try to arrest him. And when the officer seemingly gets there, Jesus continues his sermon, and he talks about not just where he came from, but also where he's going.

Not just where the crowd came from, so to speak, but where they're going. He says in verses 33 and 34, look at your text, Jesus then said, I will be with you a little longer, and then I'm going to him who sent me. You will seek me, and you will find me. Where I am, you cannot come. So there Jesus not only says, I came from the Father, and you do not know the Father, but he says, and I go back to the Father.

I'm going to the Father, and you are not welcome to go to the Father, to go to God. You see, Jesus not only comes from the Father, but in six months when he dies on the cross, he will rise up and go back to the Father who sent him. So what we have in our minds is like an unbroken fellowship Jesus has with the Father. He came from him, and then he'll go back to him.

And so everything in between is just unbroken, beautiful fellowship and love and obedience he has with the Father. And it contrasted with the fact that the crowd does not know him and they can go to him because they are in sin You see the son did not get kicked out of heaven like Satan got kicked out never to return The son did not get kicked out of heaven like Adam got kicked out of the garden, never to return. The son was sent from heaven to obey all the will of the father who he knew intimately and to return back to him in full love and unity.

And this is where the son goes. He comes from the father and he goes back to the father in full obedience and love. And it is contrasted heavily again in verse 34 when he says, you will seek me. You will not find me where I am. You cannot come. So what's the next vital aspect of true belief in Jesus?

Knowing where he came from and knowing we do not know the father as he does. and also knowing where we will go without him and where he is going. He's going to the Father, and we are not welcome to go to the Father because of our sin. If we do not have that formula, that important aspect of true belief in Jesus, it will not be a true, full-rooted belief in him.

He comes from the Father. He goes to the Father. We don't know the Father, and we're not welcome to go to the Father. Now, I'm not done. I'm not done. But this is where Jesus is at thus far with this teaching.

One thing that we should point is, what does he mean when he says in verse 34, you will seek me and you will not find me? What does he mean by that? I mean, we've got to imagine he's talking to the religious leaders and the crowd who do not believe. What does he mean that they're going to seek him but not find him? And then he says, you cannot go where I'm going to the Father.

Well, most likely what he's referring to is whenever the Jews, the Israelites, are judged by God. In 70 AD, when Romans came and destroyed Jerusalem as an act of judgment against the Jews. And in that time, the Jews were seeking Messiah. They were seeking help. They were seeking, we need salvation from the Romans. In fact, so much so that instead of going to the mountains to be saved, they went to the temple to try to be saved because Messiah might come. and protect us.

And what happens is everything was completely sacked, destroyed, and they were destroyed. And so it seems most likely what Jesus is referring to is you'll seek me when you need me, but you won't get me. You'll get judgment instead. You cannot be with the Father. You cannot have his presence. And there's, in our own day, a very similar thing, right?

When we die, all the world, when they die, in some ways they'll seek some help from the eye of the holy and pure Father, who will see them in judgment. You must understand that when someone who does not know Christ and is outside, does not know God intimately, when they die, they will feel the entirety of that when they are before the throne of God. And they will seek any way to get out of that state.

And I think Jesus, what he will say to them here, same thing. You will seek some kind of help and you won't get it. You cannot be where I'm at because you don't know God like I know God. And so true and proper belief is knowing that we come from sin, but Jesus came from the Father. And Jesus returned to the Father, but yet in our sin we cannot follow him.

That's sad. In fact, when you're preaching the gospel to someone, yourself, consider the sadness of that reality. Of eternal cannot be where God is. Only judgment, only wrath. If that does not fill you with an awe and fear and all sorts of emotions that are hard to explain, check your spiritual pulse. The fact is that there is no hope for someone outside of Christ because they don't know him, and so they cannot be with God.

But, praise be to God, that's not the end, is it? Now, here it's the end for where we are in the teaching here because then the Jews interrupt again while they say to each other, we'll get to that in a moment. But the fact is, is we know that that's not the end. That is reality, but that's not the end. In fact, go to John 14, 1 through 7. And here Jesus is talking to his disciples who truly know him, who have true belief. and here we have a beautiful ending to this teaching here that we cannot go to god we cannot go where jesus is going because of our sin yet Jesus did something amazing when he came and where he went look at John chapter 14 verse 1 may our hearts be troubled first let me say this when we consider our state without Christ may our hearts be troubled whenever we consider what our position is without the Lord It is terrible, awful.

If you're relying upon yourself right now, you should be scared and awfully afraid. And so when you read this text here, let this fill your heart with awe and worship that Jesus says this. Notice Jesus doesn't say, ha ha, losers, I came down and I did it. I'm going back to the Father. You guys stink. No.

He says, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. if it were not so would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you so in your head think about he's telling unbelievers where I go you cannot come and now he's telling the believers who believe upon him I'm going to a place where I prepare you room and if you think that he's going up to build like a mansion like a carpenter and he's like it's going to be awesome that's not what he's referring to Jesus is saying that by my blood by my resurrection I'm going to make room for you with the Father.

Whereas just a second ago, he says, in your sin, you cannot go where I'm going to the believer. He says, do not let your hearts be troubled. I'm going to make room for you. He says, if it were not so, I wouldn't have told you because he's not a liar that I go to make a place for you. In verse three, he says, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself.

That where I am, you may also be. Do you see the contrast there? The beautiful contrast. Jesus telling the unbeliever, you cannot come where I'm going. You'll seek some help. It won't come for you.

But to the believer, in the intimacy of talking to the disciples in the upper room, he says, where I'm going, you will go. You will be there. and he says in verse 4 of chapter 14 he says in verse 4 and you know the way where i'm going thomas said to him lord we do not know where you're going how can we know the way and jesus said to him i am the way the truth the life no one comes to the father except through me and if you had known me you would have known my father also from now on you know him and have seen him. So here Jesus in conflict with the religious leaders in chapter 7, in conflict with the crowd, with all sorts of different shades of belief, and what Jesus is saying is, in your sin you do not know the Father, you do not know me, and you will be lost forever in that state.

And the call is for us to then realize that, recognize that with true and full belief and say there is no other way except for this Jesus here. So I will not just be enamored with the solid teaching, the powerful teaching. I won't just be enamored with the signs and the miracles that he does and may not do. I will be enamored by his teaching. I am a lost wretch, but yet he has went to make a place for me, and I will follow him wherever he tells me to go.

This is true and full belief. But this crowd and these religious leaders don't have it. and so they continue in their ignorance and unbelief. In fact, we see a display of that, we'll finish here, in verses 35 through 36, back in John 7. The Jews, again, when we see the Jews, it's probably talking about the religious leaders. They're probably saying this in a mocking tone, because he says, I'm going away, and you can't come.

And so the Jews probably mockingly say, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? The answer is, heaven. But he says, does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? And what they're saying is, does he plan on leaving Israel and going to the Jews who are dispersed across the world? Hey, and while he's at it, maybe teach the Greeks while he's at it.

They're making fun of him. Who wants to go and teach the Greeks? They're a bunch of goofball Gentiles. The dispersion, they're a bunch of Jews who are pretty much liberals. We don't want anything to do with them. So I think it's very clear they're mocking Jesus.

Jesus is saying, imagine, your eternal destiny is at stake here. And he telling you you not going to come be there where I at You can come And they mock him by saying oh he must be going to the dispersion the silly liberals and the goofball Gentiles What a silly stupid ignorant thing to say that shows their unbelief and the fact that they do not know God. Say, what do they mean?

You will seek me and you'll not find me. And where I am, you cannot come. What's very ironic about that statement though is that Jesus would go to the dispersion. Jesus would go to the Greeks through his church. He would do the work. He would go back to the father where he's welcome having done the work needed to bring the Greeks and the dispersion to the fold of Christ in which beloved me and you are a happy recipient of that blessed thing that he's done.

So what's ironic about this is that he actually does do that, just not in quite the same way that they're mocking him with. But where we need to settle our hearts and minds now as we finish this text is we need to again ask yourself, do I have true belief in Christ? Not as a way to constantly ask if you're actually truly saved, which some people need to do that, but even for those who are well rooted in Christ, ask yourself, am I practicing true and full belief in Christ today?

Am I understanding my position outside of him is one of knowing sin and not the Father? And do I know that without Christ, I am not welcomed into the kingdom of heaven, but I will be kicked out? But do I know that Jesus went and made room for me, that he died, rose again, and he stands as my high priest at the right hand of the father and he is going to welcome me into paradise himself and it's to him that i rely upon if that is your belief you will not be able to but help live for christ right now to have such a help in heaven that promises you i will bring you to heaven myself how can we not then conclude i will do everything for this loving savior this is true belief rooted that will get you through the hardest of times, the greatest of droughts, that will get you through the darkest of times.

Let us pray and praise our God for this salvation. God, thank you for Christ. Lord, we thank you for the truth. We live in an age of lies, and we know that one of the lies is that we are fine, that of ourselves we're not that bad. Lord, I've heard it several times, even this past couple weeks, someone thinking that they are fine because they are good enough.

Lord, what a lie. What ignorance. We know from Jesus here that all we know is sin. And we do not know the Father like Jesus knows the Father. We do not come from the Father like Jesus came from the Father because we come from the kingdom of darkness. And Lord, what a truth it is that Jesus returned to be with the Father in full unity and love.

But we know, Lord, that he's done this great work of salvation when he came. And that salvation continues as he is our high priest in heaven. And so help us to believe these true things about him and about ourselves. That our only hope is found in Christ Jesus the Lord. Let us follow him. Let us obey him.

Not by our own strength, but by love that he's first shown to us. Lord for those people before me who are continuously hearing the truth but yet denying Christ making up excuses as we've seen here in this text would you cause them to turn away from those excuses would you cause them to see that it's all foolishness the only thing that makes sense is to believe upon the one who knows the father intimately and may you grant them salvation because of that faith and trust. And Lord, for those who know Christ already, may you, Lord, remind them of what true belief looks like.

Help them not to look for different things that Christ will do, different miracles or good things he'll do for us circumstantially. Sometimes he does, sometimes he decides not to. Help them to be rooted in the fact that Christ Jesus is made a way for me and with this I'll be satisfied. And may it encourage them to serve Christ all their days because Christ has served them.

We thank you and we praise you in the powerful name of Jesus, our high priest. Amen.