Wednesday in the Word: John 7:14-18 - A Pat On The Back

Today's Wednesday in the Word covers John chapter 7 and verses 14 through 18, which read,

v.14 - But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. 

A reminder that Jesus' half brothers wanted Jesus to make a grand entrance to the festival in Jerusalem.  They wanted Him to show what He could do and gather even greater crowds and popularity.  The motive here could be for their benefit also.  Jesus sends them on without Him.

There would be a time in the future when Jesus would make a grand entrance, the Palm Sunday scene at the festival of the Passover, but now was not the time for this kind of attention.  Jesus comes into this festival secretly, so secretly, that the crowd and His half brothers didn't know He had arrived.  Jesus makes His way into the temple and proceeds to teach rather than perform some miracles.  Jesus is often called "Rabbi" so He takes the position of a rabbi and starts to expound on the Old Testament to those around Him.

v.15 - The Jews then were astonished, saying, "How has this man become learned, having never been educated."

Jesus was expounding on the Scriptures so well that the crowds were amazed at someone from the north, from Nazareth of all places, who wasn't schooled in their famous rabbinic schools, could know so much.  They would have seen this ability as supernatural, as supernatural as the miracles that Jesus has performed.  In preacher terms, 

"Jesus was hitting grand slam home-runs with His sermons and the congregation was on their feet cheering Him on."  

*Just a note here, this is not common practice when I preach.

v.16 - So Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me."

Jesus tells His listeners two things.  The first is that what He is teaching is coming from God and the second is that God has sent Him to teach them these things.  The teaching Jesus was giving didn't come from a famous rabbinic school but from God Himself and His diploma, per say, was given to Him by God who was sending Him out into the world.  It is as if Jesus was saying, 

"If you are amazed and astonished at My teaching, then you need to be amazed and astonished at God because it is from God and God loves you so much that He sent Me to deliver it to You."  

Jesus continues with,

v.17 - "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself."

Jesus continues with a common theme of His.  "If you have ears to hear, listen."  If you understand what is being said and you acknowledge this is from God then you will put it into practice.  You will be willing to do God's will.  You will recognize that God has spoken through His Word and it demands our surrender and submission.  

In summary so far, Jesus says that these are God's words; that God has sent Him to give them God's words; and that God's words would be understandable to those who are willing to follow what God says on how we are to live to glorify Him.  Jesus goes on to say,

v.18 - "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him."

Jesus has something else to share with them and this is something more about Himself.  He was not only sent by God to give them God's words but He did this for God's glory, to fulfill God's plan, and to be obedient to God.  He did not come for the glory of self but for the glory of God.  

When one speaks the words of God for the glory of God, what we hear is the truth in the right framework.  The words of God are not for personal gain of the speaker like fame or money.  They are given in a humble sense to point to God rather than ourselves.  The speaker is true in his motive and there is no unrighteousness or falsehood about what he is doing.  This needs to be the attitude that I have every Sunday when I stand behind the pulpit.

When I open up the Scriptures, am I zeroed in on sharing with the congregation God's words so they see God as even greater than when they arrived?  Or, am I using God's words to redirect their amazement to me rather than the One who wrote the words?  How true is my motive?  How evident is it that I am not doing this from my glory but for the glory of God?  

We can take Jesus' words deeper here than we can for ourselves because Jesus is true and there is no unrighteousness in Him.  He holds that position perfectly and therefore the only one qualified to bring redemption to us from the wrath of God.  We mimic Him in practice.  We follow after Him as the pattern.  We continue to speak God's words, sent into the world to do so by the Great Commission, and we need to struggle against doing this for a pat on our backs.  May we be on our knees in submission with our motives so that God is not robbed of His glory.  Let us pray.

"Heavenly Father, You have such beautiful words.  Help me to keep the glory on You rather than on myself.  Thank You for sending Your Son to share Your love through Your words and His very self.  Thank You Jesus to being the true and righteous One who was obedient to the Father, even to death, death on a cross.  Lord, help me to check my motives today.  Amen."

Pastor Adam