STUBBORN DISBELIEF

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

On hearing His words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”

Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. Some wanted to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him.

Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Him in?”

“No one ever spoke the way this Man does,” the guards replied.

“You mean He has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing Him to find out what He has been doing?”

They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

Then they all went home.

John 7:40-53

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

No one is forced to believe in Jesus. No one.

He doesn’t use some form of spiritual mind control to incline a person’s thinking toward accepting Him.

No, a person is allowed to choose. They have a will that they are freely allowed to exercise. They can weigh all the options of things to believe in and then opt for one of them.

Unfortunately, in exercising free will and the right to choose, some set up a mental bulwark that rejects even the notion of believing some things. And as we see in the closing verses of John 7, the Pharisees would definitely fit into this category. Look again at the many thoughts being shared about Jesus in this passage:

On hearing His words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”

Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. Some wanted to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him.

Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring Him in?”

“No one ever spoke the way this Man does,” the guards replied.

“You mean He has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing Him to find out what He has been doing?”

They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

Then they all went home.  John 7:40-53

There is one thing we can say for sure from these verses: the people wanted to believe something.

Some felt Jesus was a prophet, nothing more than a messenger sent from God like Isaiah and Jeremiah. Others believed that He was the Messiah (also known as the Christ) the prophets had foretold would come. Still other challenged this belief because they thought Jesus hailed from Galilee, not knowing that He indeed was born in Bethlehem and carried a lineage to David through His earthly Father, Joseph.

Stating the obvious, the scriptures state that the people were divided because of Jesus but better put, they were divided by what they chose to believe and this division resulted in confusion as to how to handle Jesus. Even the temple guards, sent by the Pharisees to arrest Jesus, were unable to do so because they felt He was someone special, someone unlike anyone else they had ever heard or met.

Unfortunately, we see that the Pharisees were the only ones who were not disoriented when it came to their view of Jesus. This is because their stance was one of stubborn disbelief and it didn’t matter how the facts lined up to show Jesus was who He claimed to be, the Son of the Most High God, the Pharisees refused to consider it. They saw Jesus as a threat to their religious power and someone who needed to be eliminated. In fact, they believed Jesus had the people under some curse which led them to believe in Him as they did. Ironically, it was the Jewish religious authorities who were under the curse, the curse of sin and certain death because they doggedly refused to accept the One God had sent to save them. Most of the Pharisees were destined for doom and didn’t even realize it, blinded by their prideful religious arrogance. But there was one man named Nicodemus who was an exception.

You remember Nicodemus, right?

He was the member of the Jewish ruling council who came to Jesus one night professing his belief that Jesus had come from God. You’ll recall Jesus told Nicodemus that he would have to be born again if he wanted to enter the kingdom of God. The conversation would lead to what may be arguably the most well known scripture verse about salvation, spoken from the very lips of Jesus Himself:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Nicodemus believed in Jesus. He knew who Jesus was and he had the courage to speak up against certain opposition as we see him challenge his peers:

“Does our law condemn a man without first hearing Him to find out what He has been doing?”

Nicodemus was asking a simple justice related question. His Pharisee peers simply wanted to arrest Jesus and kill him without due process. Knowing the law, Nicodemus tried to get them to move beyond their stubborn disbelief but as we see, they were having nothing of it.

“Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

Like many of the people, the Pharisees failed to do due diligence in finding out where Jesus was born for if they did, they too would have known He originated in Bethlehem, the city of David. It was obvious that they had their minds made up and were going to do whatever they needed to do to eliminate Jesus, period. No one was going to change their minds.

This is what happens when we allow Satan to enter into the matter of our free will. For if we decide to not allow the Lord to guide what we believe then the enemy will gladly step in and take over, and he was having his way with the Pharisees as he will with anyone else today who copies their behavior.

So this all leads to a few final questions:

What do you believe when it comes to Jesus?

If you don’t believe in Him, are you willing to at least consider changing what you believe to place your faith and trust in Him as Nicodemus did?

Or are you like the other Pharisees, so stubborn in your rejection of Jesus that you can’t find your way to change your belief, even presented with the truth that He can and will save you?

Indeed, no one is forced to believe in Jesus and therefore no one is forced into receiving salvation if they opt to not believe in Him. And so if you wish to pick eternal destruction and damnation when your life is over, you certainly have the right to choose so.

But why would you want to?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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