Making a Difference
Dr. Mike Hall
Michael Hall is the Vice President at Providence Baptist College in Elgin, Illinois.
Take your Bibles and turn to John chapter seven, verses11-12. “Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he? And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people.” Who’s being spoken of here? The Lord.
Now go to verse number thirty. “Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.” And that right there is a message of itself. The Lord dictated every aspect of His life, including when He would be crucified. There’s a lot of information that you can check as you go through scripture which indicates that the religious leaders of the time actually tried to put a halt to them crucifying Him at this time, because it was a huge religious observance going on, and they were afraid it would cause riots and issues. But the Lord just kept on poking them till they had no choice and so they crucified Him, when He chose to be crucified. So that’s where this phrase comes from. “...his hour was not yet come.” Verse thirty one. “And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him.”
Now, go to verse 40. “Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; (these are the guys that arrested Jesus) and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,)Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And every man went unto his own house.”
So, what we’ve got here in this particular passage is that it has been discovered that Jesus is coming to the feast that’s taking place. There are people who believe Him. There are people that don’t. The verse said there was a division among them. Because of that division, the crowd was even stirred up a little bit. But the religious leaders are really getting upset because of the influence that Jesus is having at this time. So as we take a look at verse number 40 of this passage, we see three groups of people that reflect, I think, even what’s going on today.
Look with me again at verse number forty, “Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet.” This idea of a Prophet is the idea of a good teacher. Now, a lot of Americans in the world today believe Jesus was a good teacher, but that’s as far as it goes. Unfortunately, there is no room in the life of Christ, or there is no room in any of His teachings, for Him to simply be a good teacher.
In my apologetics class, we put together a little reference type thing, and we said, “Well, if Jesus said He was God, but knew He wasn’t, what is He? He would be a liar.” By the way, if that were the fact, He’d be the most notorious liar in the history of the world, because He convinced millions and millions of people to follow Him. So if Jesus said He was God, thought He was, but He really wasn’t, then what would He be? He’s crazy.
So that only leaves one option. Jesus Christ said very clearly that He was God, believed He was God, and He is God! See, there’s no room for just being a good teacher! He is only one of those three. But those people, like many Americans, said, “Of a truth this is the Prophet.” He is a good teacher.
Others said, “This is the Christ.” This seems to be an acknowledgement of their belief that Jesus was the Messiah. They claimed that He was the Christ. But then it says, “...some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”
So, we’ve got one group of people that said Jesus was a good teacher. We’ve got another group of people that said He was the Messiah. And then we’ve got a group of people who were also His great critics. Those who were openly antagonistic toward the Lord. Let’s see what they said. “Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee?” This is a reference to the prophecy in Micah that said the Messiah was going to be born where? Bethlehem! Which is in what region? Judea. Which is the southern part. “But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2)
Now when Jesus was younger, what was His nickname, if you will? Jesus of Nazareth. Where is Nazareth? Up in the northern part, up in Galilee. So what they’re saying is, “Shall Christ come out of Galilee?” “This guy can’t be the Messiah. He’s from Galilee.” And they are referencing where the scripture says, “...that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” This is a reference to Micah 5:2 where it says the Messiah would come out of Bethlehem. They are ignorant of the fact of where Jesus was born. They assumed because He grew up in Nazareth that He had been born there, too. They said, “Well, this guy’s from Nazareth, so he can’t be the Messiah.” So, they are antagonistically going after him, criticizing him, and arguing against His deity.
We continue down through here, and it says, “So there was a division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him.” So, those three groups were present, and we find those groups of people manifest in the world today. There are people out there that would claim Jesus was a good teacher and the Bible is probably a good book. But they don’t claim deity to Christ or the fact that the Bible is God’s word. They would pick and choose what part of scripture they pay attention to. They would pick and choose how much they are going to be obedient to Christ, because if He’s not God, then we’re not obligated to follow Him and do what He says to do. So, they’re okay with the good stuff He had to say and teach, but they probably didn’t like some of the other stuff that was in the preaching.
The same thing is true of Americans today. There’s all kinds of people out there who would say, “Oh, well, He taught some good stuff,” but they’re not willing to surrender their life to Him. Folks, the bottom line is, you have to be willing to accept the deity of Christ and His absolute authority over His creation in order to surrender to what He has to say. Otherwise you’re not going to have any victory in this life, and certainly not the life to follow. Around the world today, we have people who grudgingly admit that Jesus was okay, but they’re not willing to follow Him.
A lot of times out soulwinning, you’ll run across that person, and you’ll give them a good presentation of the Gospel message, and they’ll understand everything, but they are not willing to pray and trust Christ. Why? Usually there is something in their life that they are not willing to give up. Most of the time, if you dig far enough, there’s sin, there’s something in there that they are not willing to give up. And that’s completely natural for somebody that doesn’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
But then there’s another group of people represented here, and those are people that are believers. Some said, “This is the Christ.” Across our country, there are saved people. Listen folks, I’m an independent Baptist because I believe this is the closest thing to the New Testament Church. But please don’t think we’re the only Christians on the face of this earth. We’re not.
You heard the story, the guy dies, he goes to Heaven, and Peter’s taking him on a tour. He says, “Hey, there’s a group of people over there. Who’s that?”
And Peter says, “Oh, that’s the Lutherans. Some of those made it.”
“Who’s that group of people over there?”
“Those are the Methodists. A lot of those made it in, actually. Especially the older ones.”
“Who’s that two or three there?”
“Well, that’s the Catholics. A few of them got in.” Then he goes along and says, “Man, who is that huge group of people over there?”
“Oh, those are the independent Baptists. They think they’re the only ones up here.”
The fact of the matter is that doctrine matters! Truth matters! And I’m not saying anything other than that. But there are people who are going to get to Heaven one day and find out they made a mistake in terms of who they tied their horse to denominationally. Just like some of us who are going to get in trouble because we know the truth and don’t do it. There are people out there that are Christians. Unfortunately, at this day and time, many are not saying much about it. Some are making a difference, some are not.
Then we have the third group here that is mentioned, and that’s the scoffers. Boy, aren’t we faced with that today? Yo u can’t turn in a newspaper, you can’t listen to a news report, I don’t care how conservative it is, you can’t be aware of what’s going on in the world today, and not know that there is a designed method behind what’s going on, and Satan is at the root of it. There are people in key places like governors, and mayors, and \ sheriffs out there who are pawns, and they’re being maneuvered in a direct affront to what Bible believing Christianity is all about, which includes moral basis for the way to live life.
The Bible is God’s plan for us. God’s rule book. His love letter. His statement of health for a moral existence here on this earth. There are absolutes that the Bible specifically mentions in here, and scoffers are individuals that speak in spite of those truths.
You know, I could take the rest of the evening and talk about moral absolutes that are under attack today. The Supreme Court just passed a decision saying that the whole LGBT transgender thing falls under the civil rights act, as you can’t discriminate on the basis of sex. The problem that really is, and where it could get pushed to its ultimate end, is that they are now combining the definition of “what is your sex or gender,” male or female, they’re combining that with, “What is your sexual preference or identification.” See, there’s a huge difference between, “Are you a man or a woman,” and “What do you want to be today?”
What’s happening because of the “what do you want to be today” crowd is guys in girls locker rooms, guys competing in girls’ sports and winning with record time. Those who started the movement of giving women equal opportunity as men did not intend for gender identity to become a part of it. It’s going to destroy women’ s sports. It is tearing at the fabric of our country right now. It was very disappointing that the Supreme Court made that ruling. Now, pray, because that’s not the final word in this whole arena. That was just a piece of this thing they went after and it can be modified, and it’s going to take a lot of prayer for that to take place. I could go on and on.
The whole abortion thing. At one time, people were arguing about whether abortion should take place in the first trimester or second trimester. And now their argument is can abortion take place outside of the womb, after the moment of birth. That’s insanity! You’re talking murder here! What they are saying is, you can attempt to have an abortion on a baby, and if it’s still born alive, doctors can remove themselves from their Hippocratic oath, which says to do all you can to preserve life. Doctors are being told now, “Just keep your hands off. If the parent decides they don’t want the baby, then just let it die.” Murder. There is no other description for it. We are so far away from what was being argued and promoted just a little while ago, and you see how society is shoving us in that direction. It’s the skeptics and scoffers that refuse to believe there are moral absolutes and they’re outlined in the word of God. So just like in New Testament times, there are those groups of people in these times also, in the times that we live in today.
Verse 43. “So there was a division among the people…” Boy, does that describe today, or what? A division. “So there was a division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him.” Now, that’s a reference back to verse 30 where it says, “...but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.” They would’ve taken Him, but they couldn’t. He always just slipped off, or honestly, He may have just disappeared. It will be kind of cool in Heaven to find out all that He did.
“And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees;” So they send out a band of their most trusted military people. Special forces. They have one job: go get this guy and bring Him back because we’re going to kill Him, with no trial or anything. They’re just going to kill Him.
So they send the officers out. We don’t hear anything from them until we get to verse 45. “Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him?” “How come you’re back here and you don’t have Jesus? “
What did the officers say? “The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.” “Look, you never saw Him. We did, and I’m telling you…” this is what the officers said to the religious leaders. “We’re telling you, you better take it easy on this. We’re warning you.”
“Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.” “Are ye also deceived?” So, what’s happening now is they’re attacking these officers for being stupid, uninformed, uneducated, easily influenced, backside of the tracks, low intelligence, easily manipulated, believers. It’s called an ad hominem argument. Ad hominem argument means that you don’t have a good argument, so you just insult people. Have we heard any of that going on these days? Oh my!
So these officers, special forces, these most highly trained, trusted guys they could’ve gotten their hands on, they came back and said, “Listen, we’re telling you, you’ve got to be careful.” And they were told, “Oh, you’re just dummies. You’re just stupid.” “Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived?” Folks, do you understand that’s what’s happening today also, right? We’re being marginalized. We are being thrust to the other side of the tracks. We are being called unsympathetic, uncaring, misinformed. We are being called ignorant because of stands we take that are Bible stands.
The battle that was fought and lost a long time ago over evolution. I read an article, and it was talking about how one of the well-known scientists of today has relegated those of us who believe in the Bible account of creation to that of being flat-earthers, which is stupid, and other ignorant type of things. That was the first thing mentioned. Creation. By the way, I would challenge you to read and be informed about creation. The whole idea about this message here, is being prepared to push back a little bit. There are some great magazines out there that you could get monthly or quarterly and you can read and be informed on God’s creation and how all the proven facts only support the Bible. Then when somebody asks you about it, you can give an informed answer.
I have a message out of Kings, where Ahab is the king at the time, Elijah is the prophet, and of course, they go back and forth, back and forth. Finally, Elijah comes before Ahab, and what does Ahab say? “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” That’s what Ahab says to Elijah. Elijah is that representative of godliness, of everything that made Israel great and strong. Then you have Ahab, the representative of everything wicked and vile and that was contributing to the ruin of Israel. Ahab says to Elijah, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” And folks, that’s what’s happening to us today. We’re being pointed at as the problem in this country, and it’s time to stand up about this and point out the truth.
Let’s go on to John 7:47, “Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived?” “Boy, are you one of the ignorants also? Did they finally get to you?” “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?” “Do you know of any educated people that believe him? Do you know of anybody that’s anybody that believes on this Jesus? It’s nothing but a crutch.”
By the way, folks, everybody has a crutch. I just prefer to lean on the One that rose from the dead. That’s kind of a nice crutch. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.” “These uneducated people. We expect them to believe in this Jesus. But we don’t expect you guys . Come on! You’re supposed to know better. You’re educated. You’re trained. How could you fall for something like this Jesus guy?”
“But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,)” Who is Nicodemus? He’s one of the Pharisees. By the way, I think I’ve said it before, but sometimes Nicodemus gets a bum rap. “He was a chicken. That’s why he came to Jesus in the night.” I’m not so sure that’s the case. I personally think Nicodemus came to Jesus in the night because there was such a huge crowd in the day that he couldn’t get to Him, so he said, “Listen, I’ll just come back later.”
Here’s Nicodemus, “being one of them.” Where else do we know of Nicodemus? We know of him because he came to Jesus by night, but we also know of him because he was one of two guys that were willing to be identified with the Lord after the crucifixion. No others, none of the disciples. Sorry, guys, but the ladies were far more willing to be identified with the Lord than the men were. Who was the other one? Joseph of Arimathea, whose tomb it was. They came and asked for the body of Jesus so they could prepare it for the burial. That doesn’t sound to me like a guy that’s all that afraid for his life. That doesn’t sound like a coward to me.
So here’s Nicodemus. He’s a Pharisee, he’s one of them, he’s part of the group and has been proudly for years and years and years. He is one of them. “Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?” He says, “Wait a minute! What do you guys think you’re doing? You can’t do this! The law says you can’t find someone guilty without going through the legal process. You can’t do that!”
So, what happened? “They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.” “Nicodemus, did He get to you too? Are you one of those stupid people? We thought you were an educated man. We thought you were somebody that knew something.” What was that argument? Ad hominem. They’re insulting him.
Nicodemus stands up in the crowd and says, “We’re not doing this!” And they said, “Well, you’re just stupid.” “Art thou also of Galilee?” By the way, that’s back to erroneous understanding of that prophecy and who Jesus was in relation to it. “Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And every man went unto his own house.” That’s the punch line. You’ve got all these religious leaders who are all worked up and wanting to kill Jesus and have been trying and trying and trying to get Jesus. And you’ve got the crowd out there, some are for Him, some are against Him, some are in the middle. “So there was a division among the people because of him.” All this stuff was going on and it was getting whipped into a feverish tempo. Then Nicodemus stands up and says, “Hold it.” They said, “What are you, stupid?” And then they went home. Folks, what happened? One man stood up and said, “It ain’t going to be this way. It’s not right.” He shut it down, and they went home.
There is something worth noting in this. This wasn’t some fisherman talking to the Pharisees. This wasn’t some sheepherder. There’s nothing wrong with noble working man occupations. Please don’t misunderstand. But those Pharisees would’ve never listened to somebody that wasn’t one of them. But when one of them stood up and said, “No, it ain’t gonna be that way,” they thought to themselves, “Whoa, Nicodemus is standing up and saying this?” Their answer was, “Well, you’re just stupid!” And they left. Guess what the message tonight is? Nicodemus.
At your place of work, at your place of business, at your home, at your public school, there are going to be people who are going to be completely contrary to the direction that the Bible teaches people to be. There are going to be skeptics. There are going to be scoffers. They are going to be accusing Bible believing Christians of being the problem. The reason that they’re able to do that is because there are not enough Nicodemuses that are willing to stand up in the workplace and say, “No, it ain’t gonna be that way!”
One thing I appreciate about college students: they can be pretty stupid at times, but they’re just dumb enough to stand up and say, “I don’t believe that. Here’s what I believe.” You’d be surprised at the number of stories we get where offices are changed because of that. But what’s wrong with the rest of us?
There are three of us Majors working in an office. We had a Lieutenant Colonel as a boss, and he was a good boss. Sharp guy. But because of his background, every third word was a cuss word. The sad thing was, he was such a great guy. And so, on one of those days, another Major was there who went to the church that we had. So the two of us went into his office and we were just chatting about something and he was cussing away, and we just very politely asked if he would mind watching his language because we were Christians. He apologized. The problem was, for the next period of time, any time he’d come out and try to talk to us, he’d say a couple of words and then pause and then put another word in there and keep on going and then pause, and put another word in there. Why? Because somebody that he trusts, he couldn’t discount us. We weren’t just some little privates, brand new in the Army. We had been there for fifteen years and we were successful. And by the way, he was a quality enough individual to know that we were right about it.
It made a difference. If somebody outside of our office had tried to come in there and say something to that man, it would never work. Somebody outside of your office comes in and tries to say something to your coworkers, but it doesn’t work. But because you’ve been there for 20 years and you’ve been there faithfully working with them and they know you, they may not agree with you about everything, but they like you and respect you. You’re a coworker there. You stand up and make a statement and they’re gonna go, “Huh?”
So many Americans are just waiting to follow the first newscaster off the cliff. The loudest voice, the last one to say something. But you know what, when there’s a dissenting voice, often quality individuals will stop and go, “Well, I really always did kind of believe that, but I didn’t think anybody else did.” So the challenge for us may be more in this day and time than ever before in American history.
Every one of you needs to become a Nicodemus where you are. And by the way, Christian school kids, there’s a call for it there, too. We have people who don’t want to do what they’re supposed to be doing. They don’t have the right attitude, the right spirit, or whatever. When someone is mouthing off or leading things in a wrong directions, you can just stand up and say, “No, we’re not doing that.” But those of you who are in public school, those of you in public universities, those of you that work out in the secular work place, just by making a comment, you don’t know how many people might all of a sudden start thinking, “You know what? They’re right. I never was for this abortion stuff. I just thought everybody else was. I always felt like there was something wrong with this transgender thing.” And if you don’t think something’s wrong, then there is definitely something wrong.
There was a news report where a guy trans and a girl trans ended up getting pregnant before the surgery took place. They had the baby and finished the transformation. So when that poor little kid grows up they say, “Whose your mom?” And she goes, “Well, he is. Kind of.” And they say, “Well, who’s your dad?” “She is.” Talk about confusion! “But you are unkind and unsympathetic because you don’t realize that’s just the way they were born.”
You might be surprised at your work place if you said, “No, I don’t think so. You know what, for thousands of years now, it’s been men and women and it’s worked out just fine and I don’t see this other stuff in there anywhere.” You might be surprised at your office. Cause like I said, our college kids are just dumb enough where they’d do something like that, and people come up to them later and go, “You know, you’re right. I always thought that was the case.”
But they’ve got to have that Nicodemus. And it’s time as conservative, Bible believing Christians that we speak up and take a stand. Now, I’m not trying to minimize soulwinning, folks, but let me tell you, people respect people who take a stand and who stand on what they believe, and they will listen to you. And not just on social issues. All of the sudden now, they’ve got problems in their life, and guess who they’re going to come to. If they want to be prayed for, who are they going to ask? All the sudden now, they’re starting to wonder, “What happens when I die?” Guess who they’re going to come to? Why? Because you were willing to stand up for truth, it didn’t matter how it was regarded in your work place.
So how is it? What kind of a Nicodemus are you? That’s the heart of the message tonight. Are you willing to make a stand? Are you willing to stand up? What’s going to happen for the next generation and the generation after that? Sadly, as we’re out there traveling, I sometimes ask prospective college students, “What are you going to do with your life?”
“I don’t know.”
“Going to college?”
“I don’t know.” Why? Because they’ve got real good teachers. They’ve got Americans that are satisfied. “Don’t bother me. As long as everything is okay with me, I’m okay with it. I don’t want to tip the boat. I don’t want anybody to think badly of me.” Why do you think teens are like that?
But it’s time for us to stand up, and I don’t care how old you are, you have a sphere of influence that you traffic in also, and you can make a difference in this world for truth and right just as well. You can make a difference by taking a stand.
So, are you Nicodemus, or are you not? If Nicodemus had not stood up, the story would’ve been different. know God’s in control, but humanly speaking, that crowd would’ve kept being whipped up and whipped up, until they got a hold of Jesus, and would’ve tried to have a trial. That was their plan, anyway, and that’s what they would’ve tried to do. But because one man stood and said, “No, that ain’t how it is going to happen.” He shut the crowd down and they went home.
Are you a part of the crowd of believers, who know that Jesus is the Messiah and Savior and have received Him as the Gift of God into their hearts? Are you willing to take a stand for what is right and true, no matter who may disagree, no matter how they might insult or accuse? Will you be a Nicodemus in the place where God put you?
Now go to verse number thirty. “Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.” And that right there is a message of itself. The Lord dictated every aspect of His life, including when He would be crucified. There’s a lot of information that you can check as you go through scripture which indicates that the religious leaders of the time actually tried to put a halt to them crucifying Him at this time, because it was a huge religious observance going on, and they were afraid it would cause riots and issues. But the Lord just kept on poking them till they had no choice and so they crucified Him, when He chose to be crucified. So that’s where this phrase comes from. “...his hour was not yet come.” Verse thirty one. “And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him.”
Now, go to verse 40. “Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; (these are the guys that arrested Jesus) and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,)Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And every man went unto his own house.”
So, what we’ve got here in this particular passage is that it has been discovered that Jesus is coming to the feast that’s taking place. There are people who believe Him. There are people that don’t. The verse said there was a division among them. Because of that division, the crowd was even stirred up a little bit. But the religious leaders are really getting upset because of the influence that Jesus is having at this time. So as we take a look at verse number 40 of this passage, we see three groups of people that reflect, I think, even what’s going on today.
Look with me again at verse number forty, “Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet.” This idea of a Prophet is the idea of a good teacher. Now, a lot of Americans in the world today believe Jesus was a good teacher, but that’s as far as it goes. Unfortunately, there is no room in the life of Christ, or there is no room in any of His teachings, for Him to simply be a good teacher.
In my apologetics class, we put together a little reference type thing, and we said, “Well, if Jesus said He was God, but knew He wasn’t, what is He? He would be a liar.” By the way, if that were the fact, He’d be the most notorious liar in the history of the world, because He convinced millions and millions of people to follow Him. So if Jesus said He was God, thought He was, but He really wasn’t, then what would He be? He’s crazy.
So that only leaves one option. Jesus Christ said very clearly that He was God, believed He was God, and He is God! See, there’s no room for just being a good teacher! He is only one of those three. But those people, like many Americans, said, “Of a truth this is the Prophet.” He is a good teacher.
Others said, “This is the Christ.” This seems to be an acknowledgement of their belief that Jesus was the Messiah. They claimed that He was the Christ. But then it says, “...some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”
So, we’ve got one group of people that said Jesus was a good teacher. We’ve got another group of people that said He was the Messiah. And then we’ve got a group of people who were also His great critics. Those who were openly antagonistic toward the Lord. Let’s see what they said. “Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee?” This is a reference to the prophecy in Micah that said the Messiah was going to be born where? Bethlehem! Which is in what region? Judea. Which is the southern part. “But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2)
Now when Jesus was younger, what was His nickname, if you will? Jesus of Nazareth. Where is Nazareth? Up in the northern part, up in Galilee. So what they’re saying is, “Shall Christ come out of Galilee?” “This guy can’t be the Messiah. He’s from Galilee.” And they are referencing where the scripture says, “...that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” This is a reference to Micah 5:2 where it says the Messiah would come out of Bethlehem. They are ignorant of the fact of where Jesus was born. They assumed because He grew up in Nazareth that He had been born there, too. They said, “Well, this guy’s from Nazareth, so he can’t be the Messiah.” So, they are antagonistically going after him, criticizing him, and arguing against His deity.
We continue down through here, and it says, “So there was a division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him.” So, those three groups were present, and we find those groups of people manifest in the world today. There are people out there that would claim Jesus was a good teacher and the Bible is probably a good book. But they don’t claim deity to Christ or the fact that the Bible is God’s word. They would pick and choose what part of scripture they pay attention to. They would pick and choose how much they are going to be obedient to Christ, because if He’s not God, then we’re not obligated to follow Him and do what He says to do. So, they’re okay with the good stuff He had to say and teach, but they probably didn’t like some of the other stuff that was in the preaching.
The same thing is true of Americans today. There’s all kinds of people out there who would say, “Oh, well, He taught some good stuff,” but they’re not willing to surrender their life to Him. Folks, the bottom line is, you have to be willing to accept the deity of Christ and His absolute authority over His creation in order to surrender to what He has to say. Otherwise you’re not going to have any victory in this life, and certainly not the life to follow. Around the world today, we have people who grudgingly admit that Jesus was okay, but they’re not willing to follow Him.
A lot of times out soulwinning, you’ll run across that person, and you’ll give them a good presentation of the Gospel message, and they’ll understand everything, but they are not willing to pray and trust Christ. Why? Usually there is something in their life that they are not willing to give up. Most of the time, if you dig far enough, there’s sin, there’s something in there that they are not willing to give up. And that’s completely natural for somebody that doesn’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
But then there’s another group of people represented here, and those are people that are believers. Some said, “This is the Christ.” Across our country, there are saved people. Listen folks, I’m an independent Baptist because I believe this is the closest thing to the New Testament Church. But please don’t think we’re the only Christians on the face of this earth. We’re not.
You heard the story, the guy dies, he goes to Heaven, and Peter’s taking him on a tour. He says, “Hey, there’s a group of people over there. Who’s that?”
And Peter says, “Oh, that’s the Lutherans. Some of those made it.”
“Who’s that group of people over there?”
“Those are the Methodists. A lot of those made it in, actually. Especially the older ones.”
“Who’s that two or three there?”
“Well, that’s the Catholics. A few of them got in.” Then he goes along and says, “Man, who is that huge group of people over there?”
“Oh, those are the independent Baptists. They think they’re the only ones up here.”
The fact of the matter is that doctrine matters! Truth matters! And I’m not saying anything other than that. But there are people who are going to get to Heaven one day and find out they made a mistake in terms of who they tied their horse to denominationally. Just like some of us who are going to get in trouble because we know the truth and don’t do it. There are people out there that are Christians. Unfortunately, at this day and time, many are not saying much about it. Some are making a difference, some are not.
Then we have the third group here that is mentioned, and that’s the scoffers. Boy, aren’t we faced with that today? Yo u can’t turn in a newspaper, you can’t listen to a news report, I don’t care how conservative it is, you can’t be aware of what’s going on in the world today, and not know that there is a designed method behind what’s going on, and Satan is at the root of it. There are people in key places like governors, and mayors, and \ sheriffs out there who are pawns, and they’re being maneuvered in a direct affront to what Bible believing Christianity is all about, which includes moral basis for the way to live life.
The Bible is God’s plan for us. God’s rule book. His love letter. His statement of health for a moral existence here on this earth. There are absolutes that the Bible specifically mentions in here, and scoffers are individuals that speak in spite of those truths.
You know, I could take the rest of the evening and talk about moral absolutes that are under attack today. The Supreme Court just passed a decision saying that the whole LGBT transgender thing falls under the civil rights act, as you can’t discriminate on the basis of sex. The problem that really is, and where it could get pushed to its ultimate end, is that they are now combining the definition of “what is your sex or gender,” male or female, they’re combining that with, “What is your sexual preference or identification.” See, there’s a huge difference between, “Are you a man or a woman,” and “What do you want to be today?”
What’s happening because of the “what do you want to be today” crowd is guys in girls locker rooms, guys competing in girls’ sports and winning with record time. Those who started the movement of giving women equal opportunity as men did not intend for gender identity to become a part of it. It’s going to destroy women’ s sports. It is tearing at the fabric of our country right now. It was very disappointing that the Supreme Court made that ruling. Now, pray, because that’s not the final word in this whole arena. That was just a piece of this thing they went after and it can be modified, and it’s going to take a lot of prayer for that to take place. I could go on and on.
The whole abortion thing. At one time, people were arguing about whether abortion should take place in the first trimester or second trimester. And now their argument is can abortion take place outside of the womb, after the moment of birth. That’s insanity! You’re talking murder here! What they are saying is, you can attempt to have an abortion on a baby, and if it’s still born alive, doctors can remove themselves from their Hippocratic oath, which says to do all you can to preserve life. Doctors are being told now, “Just keep your hands off. If the parent decides they don’t want the baby, then just let it die.” Murder. There is no other description for it. We are so far away from what was being argued and promoted just a little while ago, and you see how society is shoving us in that direction. It’s the skeptics and scoffers that refuse to believe there are moral absolutes and they’re outlined in the word of God. So just like in New Testament times, there are those groups of people in these times also, in the times that we live in today.
Verse 43. “So there was a division among the people…” Boy, does that describe today, or what? A division. “So there was a division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him.” Now, that’s a reference back to verse 30 where it says, “...but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.” They would’ve taken Him, but they couldn’t. He always just slipped off, or honestly, He may have just disappeared. It will be kind of cool in Heaven to find out all that He did.
“And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees;” So they send out a band of their most trusted military people. Special forces. They have one job: go get this guy and bring Him back because we’re going to kill Him, with no trial or anything. They’re just going to kill Him.
So they send the officers out. We don’t hear anything from them until we get to verse 45. “Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him?” “How come you’re back here and you don’t have Jesus? “
What did the officers say? “The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.” “Look, you never saw Him. We did, and I’m telling you…” this is what the officers said to the religious leaders. “We’re telling you, you better take it easy on this. We’re warning you.”
“Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.” “Are ye also deceived?” So, what’s happening now is they’re attacking these officers for being stupid, uninformed, uneducated, easily influenced, backside of the tracks, low intelligence, easily manipulated, believers. It’s called an ad hominem argument. Ad hominem argument means that you don’t have a good argument, so you just insult people. Have we heard any of that going on these days? Oh my!
So these officers, special forces, these most highly trained, trusted guys they could’ve gotten their hands on, they came back and said, “Listen, we’re telling you, you’ve got to be careful.” And they were told, “Oh, you’re just dummies. You’re just stupid.” “Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived?” Folks, do you understand that’s what’s happening today also, right? We’re being marginalized. We are being thrust to the other side of the tracks. We are being called unsympathetic, uncaring, misinformed. We are being called ignorant because of stands we take that are Bible stands.
The battle that was fought and lost a long time ago over evolution. I read an article, and it was talking about how one of the well-known scientists of today has relegated those of us who believe in the Bible account of creation to that of being flat-earthers, which is stupid, and other ignorant type of things. That was the first thing mentioned. Creation. By the way, I would challenge you to read and be informed about creation. The whole idea about this message here, is being prepared to push back a little bit. There are some great magazines out there that you could get monthly or quarterly and you can read and be informed on God’s creation and how all the proven facts only support the Bible. Then when somebody asks you about it, you can give an informed answer.
I have a message out of Kings, where Ahab is the king at the time, Elijah is the prophet, and of course, they go back and forth, back and forth. Finally, Elijah comes before Ahab, and what does Ahab say? “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” That’s what Ahab says to Elijah. Elijah is that representative of godliness, of everything that made Israel great and strong. Then you have Ahab, the representative of everything wicked and vile and that was contributing to the ruin of Israel. Ahab says to Elijah, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” And folks, that’s what’s happening to us today. We’re being pointed at as the problem in this country, and it’s time to stand up about this and point out the truth.
Let’s go on to John 7:47, “Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived?” “Boy, are you one of the ignorants also? Did they finally get to you?” “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?” “Do you know of any educated people that believe him? Do you know of anybody that’s anybody that believes on this Jesus? It’s nothing but a crutch.”
By the way, folks, everybody has a crutch. I just prefer to lean on the One that rose from the dead. That’s kind of a nice crutch. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.” “These uneducated people. We expect them to believe in this Jesus. But we don’t expect you guys . Come on! You’re supposed to know better. You’re educated. You’re trained. How could you fall for something like this Jesus guy?”
“But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,)” Who is Nicodemus? He’s one of the Pharisees. By the way, I think I’ve said it before, but sometimes Nicodemus gets a bum rap. “He was a chicken. That’s why he came to Jesus in the night.” I’m not so sure that’s the case. I personally think Nicodemus came to Jesus in the night because there was such a huge crowd in the day that he couldn’t get to Him, so he said, “Listen, I’ll just come back later.”
Here’s Nicodemus, “being one of them.” Where else do we know of Nicodemus? We know of him because he came to Jesus by night, but we also know of him because he was one of two guys that were willing to be identified with the Lord after the crucifixion. No others, none of the disciples. Sorry, guys, but the ladies were far more willing to be identified with the Lord than the men were. Who was the other one? Joseph of Arimathea, whose tomb it was. They came and asked for the body of Jesus so they could prepare it for the burial. That doesn’t sound to me like a guy that’s all that afraid for his life. That doesn’t sound like a coward to me.
So here’s Nicodemus. He’s a Pharisee, he’s one of them, he’s part of the group and has been proudly for years and years and years. He is one of them. “Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?” He says, “Wait a minute! What do you guys think you’re doing? You can’t do this! The law says you can’t find someone guilty without going through the legal process. You can’t do that!”
So, what happened? “They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.” “Nicodemus, did He get to you too? Are you one of those stupid people? We thought you were an educated man. We thought you were somebody that knew something.” What was that argument? Ad hominem. They’re insulting him.
Nicodemus stands up in the crowd and says, “We’re not doing this!” And they said, “Well, you’re just stupid.” “Art thou also of Galilee?” By the way, that’s back to erroneous understanding of that prophecy and who Jesus was in relation to it. “Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And every man went unto his own house.” That’s the punch line. You’ve got all these religious leaders who are all worked up and wanting to kill Jesus and have been trying and trying and trying to get Jesus. And you’ve got the crowd out there, some are for Him, some are against Him, some are in the middle. “So there was a division among the people because of him.” All this stuff was going on and it was getting whipped into a feverish tempo. Then Nicodemus stands up and says, “Hold it.” They said, “What are you, stupid?” And then they went home. Folks, what happened? One man stood up and said, “It ain’t going to be this way. It’s not right.” He shut it down, and they went home.
There is something worth noting in this. This wasn’t some fisherman talking to the Pharisees. This wasn’t some sheepherder. There’s nothing wrong with noble working man occupations. Please don’t misunderstand. But those Pharisees would’ve never listened to somebody that wasn’t one of them. But when one of them stood up and said, “No, it ain’t gonna be that way,” they thought to themselves, “Whoa, Nicodemus is standing up and saying this?” Their answer was, “Well, you’re just stupid!” And they left. Guess what the message tonight is? Nicodemus.
At your place of work, at your place of business, at your home, at your public school, there are going to be people who are going to be completely contrary to the direction that the Bible teaches people to be. There are going to be skeptics. There are going to be scoffers. They are going to be accusing Bible believing Christians of being the problem. The reason that they’re able to do that is because there are not enough Nicodemuses that are willing to stand up in the workplace and say, “No, it ain’t gonna be that way!”
One thing I appreciate about college students: they can be pretty stupid at times, but they’re just dumb enough to stand up and say, “I don’t believe that. Here’s what I believe.” You’d be surprised at the number of stories we get where offices are changed because of that. But what’s wrong with the rest of us?
There are three of us Majors working in an office. We had a Lieutenant Colonel as a boss, and he was a good boss. Sharp guy. But because of his background, every third word was a cuss word. The sad thing was, he was such a great guy. And so, on one of those days, another Major was there who went to the church that we had. So the two of us went into his office and we were just chatting about something and he was cussing away, and we just very politely asked if he would mind watching his language because we were Christians. He apologized. The problem was, for the next period of time, any time he’d come out and try to talk to us, he’d say a couple of words and then pause and then put another word in there and keep on going and then pause, and put another word in there. Why? Because somebody that he trusts, he couldn’t discount us. We weren’t just some little privates, brand new in the Army. We had been there for fifteen years and we were successful. And by the way, he was a quality enough individual to know that we were right about it.
It made a difference. If somebody outside of our office had tried to come in there and say something to that man, it would never work. Somebody outside of your office comes in and tries to say something to your coworkers, but it doesn’t work. But because you’ve been there for 20 years and you’ve been there faithfully working with them and they know you, they may not agree with you about everything, but they like you and respect you. You’re a coworker there. You stand up and make a statement and they’re gonna go, “Huh?”
So many Americans are just waiting to follow the first newscaster off the cliff. The loudest voice, the last one to say something. But you know what, when there’s a dissenting voice, often quality individuals will stop and go, “Well, I really always did kind of believe that, but I didn’t think anybody else did.” So the challenge for us may be more in this day and time than ever before in American history.
Every one of you needs to become a Nicodemus where you are. And by the way, Christian school kids, there’s a call for it there, too. We have people who don’t want to do what they’re supposed to be doing. They don’t have the right attitude, the right spirit, or whatever. When someone is mouthing off or leading things in a wrong directions, you can just stand up and say, “No, we’re not doing that.” But those of you who are in public school, those of you in public universities, those of you that work out in the secular work place, just by making a comment, you don’t know how many people might all of a sudden start thinking, “You know what? They’re right. I never was for this abortion stuff. I just thought everybody else was. I always felt like there was something wrong with this transgender thing.” And if you don’t think something’s wrong, then there is definitely something wrong.
There was a news report where a guy trans and a girl trans ended up getting pregnant before the surgery took place. They had the baby and finished the transformation. So when that poor little kid grows up they say, “Whose your mom?” And she goes, “Well, he is. Kind of.” And they say, “Well, who’s your dad?” “She is.” Talk about confusion! “But you are unkind and unsympathetic because you don’t realize that’s just the way they were born.”
You might be surprised at your work place if you said, “No, I don’t think so. You know what, for thousands of years now, it’s been men and women and it’s worked out just fine and I don’t see this other stuff in there anywhere.” You might be surprised at your office. Cause like I said, our college kids are just dumb enough where they’d do something like that, and people come up to them later and go, “You know, you’re right. I always thought that was the case.”
But they’ve got to have that Nicodemus. And it’s time as conservative, Bible believing Christians that we speak up and take a stand. Now, I’m not trying to minimize soulwinning, folks, but let me tell you, people respect people who take a stand and who stand on what they believe, and they will listen to you. And not just on social issues. All of the sudden now, they’ve got problems in their life, and guess who they’re going to come to. If they want to be prayed for, who are they going to ask? All the sudden now, they’re starting to wonder, “What happens when I die?” Guess who they’re going to come to? Why? Because you were willing to stand up for truth, it didn’t matter how it was regarded in your work place.
So how is it? What kind of a Nicodemus are you? That’s the heart of the message tonight. Are you willing to make a stand? Are you willing to stand up? What’s going to happen for the next generation and the generation after that? Sadly, as we’re out there traveling, I sometimes ask prospective college students, “What are you going to do with your life?”
“I don’t know.”
“Going to college?”
“I don’t know.” Why? Because they’ve got real good teachers. They’ve got Americans that are satisfied. “Don’t bother me. As long as everything is okay with me, I’m okay with it. I don’t want to tip the boat. I don’t want anybody to think badly of me.” Why do you think teens are like that?
But it’s time for us to stand up, and I don’t care how old you are, you have a sphere of influence that you traffic in also, and you can make a difference in this world for truth and right just as well. You can make a difference by taking a stand.
So, are you Nicodemus, or are you not? If Nicodemus had not stood up, the story would’ve been different. know God’s in control, but humanly speaking, that crowd would’ve kept being whipped up and whipped up, until they got a hold of Jesus, and would’ve tried to have a trial. That was their plan, anyway, and that’s what they would’ve tried to do. But because one man stood and said, “No, that ain’t how it is going to happen.” He shut the crowd down and they went home.
Are you a part of the crowd of believers, who know that Jesus is the Messiah and Savior and have received Him as the Gift of God into their hearts? Are you willing to take a stand for what is right and true, no matter who may disagree, no matter how they might insult or accuse? Will you be a Nicodemus in the place where God put you?
