Text: John 7:40-43

Does it seem like just about everyone is a spiritual expert? Maybe I am overstating that a little bit. Let me explain. I have noticed that there are many people who have thoughts about religion which are not truly Scriptural thoughts. If you try to point out their error, they get very upset. They say something like, “Who are you to judge me?” Or they defend their sins with some phrase like this, “I believe that God wants me to do what makes me happy.” When we try to point out the problems people are creating by not following the Bible, they might even say, “Well, it just depends on your interpretation.” Basically it comes down to the fact that the devil has done his work to confuse many people. There are many divisions in the world over what the Bible truly says. Today, I ask, How do we respond to divisions?

Part 1: Lack of knowledge leads to these divisions

When we look back on the people at the time of Christ, we wonder how they could have missed the truth about Jesus. It seems so obvious to us. Jesus performed all those miracles. He fulfilled so many prophecies. He was perfect in his obedience to the law. He was the promised Messiah. And yet, many people didn’t see it. In Israel, there were several different kinds of people. There were many who were looking for the promised Messiah. Among those people there were those who had a genuine faith in God. They looked to him for forgiveness. However, there were also many who had a weak faith or no faith at all.

People were confused about the true nature of the Messiah. They had heard some of the prophecies, but they did not understand the meaning of forgiveness. They had been pointed in the wrong direction by the false teachers. The Pharisees, Sadducees and others had been pointing people away from true forgiveness of sins. They had been teaching people to earn forgiveness through their own good works rather than through the mercy of God. These false teachers had corrupted the truths of God’s Word and led many astray. Because of their work, there were many in Israel who did not believe in the true God.

In our text, we see examples of different attitudes. Some thought that Jesus was the Christ. Others thought that he was just a prophet. Others thought that there was no way that he could be the Christ because he didn’t fit with what they knew. They remembered the passage from Micah. They remembered that the Messiah should be from Bethlehem. However, they failed to recognize that Jesus had been born in Bethlehem. They could have easily discovered that if they had just asked him but they decided that it was easier to just talk among themselves. Earlier in this chapter Jesus had pointed out that he was sent by God but these people did not actually know God. He was rebuking them for their lack of faith.

Verse 43 tells us, “The people were divided because of Jesus.” Because of a lack of faith, there were divisions because of Jesus. Why did this happen? It happened because the devil and the sinful nature of certain people prevented them from seeing the truth. They wanted to believe their own opinions rather than believing the truth. They didn’t like the message that Jesus was proclaiming so they came up with reasons to not listen to him. They didn’t like that he rebuked them for their sin. They didn’t like that he said that he was the only path to heaven. The world really hasn’t changed since the time of Jesus. People are still divided because of him.

There are a few other scripture passages which remind us of this. Jesus himself said in Luke 12:51-53, “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Here Jesus is talking about the division that will be caused between believers and unbelievers. Jesus came to bring the peace of forgiveness. However, that forgiveness would divide people into two camps – those who believe in Jesus and those who don’t.

Jesus even warns that there will be divisions between Christian churches here on earth. The reason for this is that here on earth, our sinfulness will lead certain people to teach falsely. Many will be led astray just like people were led astray at the time of Christ. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). We need to be on guard so that we avoid these false teachings.

We need to be careful as we follow Jesus. We need to be careful that we are not led astray from the true Jesus of Scripture. This is difficult because our sinful nature doesn’t always like the Jesus that we see on the pages of God’s Word. We don’t like it when he rebukes us for our sin. We don’t like it when he gives us teachings of Scripture that are hard to understand or which put us at odds with other Churches in our community. We would like to gloss over those areas of Scripture. We would rather follow a Jesus who lets us indulge in our sins. Our sinful nature wants us to indulge those urges toward worldly pleasure and greed. The devil wants us to be apathetic toward the pure word of God. He wants us to be spiritually lazy.

When it comes to those teachings of Scripture that disagree with the gospel, he doesn’t want us to understand that. He wants us to ignore the points where other churches are teaching incorrectly. He doesn’t want us to point out the problem with the idea of works of penance to make up for sins. But works of penance take the glory away from Christ. They make us responsible for earning forgiveness. The devil wants us to disregard the problem of decision theology. He wants us to think that we can use our human reason to consciously decide to believe in Jesus. Because then we will take the glory away from God. Then the Holy Spirit will no longer be responsible for creating faith. If we are able to decide to follow Jesus then we get the credit for earning our eternal life. 

The devil wants us to ignore these divisions because he is ultimately using such things to point people away from Christ. We need the help of Jesus to see these problems and to be pointed back to pure grace.

Part 2: Growing in knowledge overcomes divisions

It is comforting to know that there were some believers in the crowd that day. Even if their faith was weak, there were people who acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah. Verse 41 says, “Others said, ‘He is the Christ.’” In spite of all the false teachings and confusion that was floating around about Jesus, some people saw him as the Christ. The power of God worked in their heart so that they saw the truth. They remembered the portions of Scripture that predicted the Messiah and they saw how Jesus was the fulfillment of those passages.

That is a sign of God’s grace. God preserves his people even in a world that threatens to take our faith away. Whether it is the unbelieving world around us or false teachers amongst Christian congregations, there are many false ideas that are trying to destroy our faith. Galatians 5:9 says, “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” This is a reminder that a little bit of false teaching can utterly corrupt the whole church. That is why it needs to be removed. And yet, even amongst all the false teachings out there, God still preserves his believers. He helps us to see the truth about Jesus. 

We grow in our scriptural knowledge and in our faith so that we can continue to see the truth. We should never think that any deviation from the truth of Scripture is a small thing. When Martin Luther met with Ulrich Zwingli, they agreed on many points but they could not come to an agreement on the Lord’s Supper. Zwingli thought that it was impossible for the body and blood of Jesus to truly be present in the sacrament. It didn’t make sense to his rational mind. Even though it is difficult to understand, Luther stressed that the body and blood had to be present with the bread and wine because that it what God’s Word says.

That might seem like a small difference but it is a big deal because it ultimately attacks the inspiration of Scripture. It also attacks the divine characteristics of God. He says he is present in the sacrament, therefore he is present. God has that ability. If we question what he says about the Lord’s Supper and his ability to be present there, might we also start to question his ability to forgive our sins through the cross? It is a slippery slope to start doubting the plain words of Scripture. That was one difference between Luther and Zwingli. It didn’t take long for other difference to become evident. It was important that those differences were pointed out. 

It is important for us to grow in our faith so that we can see the truth about Jesus and our forgiveness. It all starts with the basic message that he is our Savior from sin. But we keep growing in that faith so that we can see when people are trying to rob us of our forgiveness. Hebrews 10:25 tells us, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” It is beneficial that we gather together around the Word of God so that we can encourage each other with the truth. We need this encouragement so that we hold strong to our forgiveness.

The Holy Spirit working in our hearts urges us to desire spiritual growth. We want to know more and more about our Savior so that we can grow closer to him throughout our lives. 1 Peter 2:2-3 tells us “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.” We crave the food of God’s Word. We want to grow stronger. We want to see the truth. We appreciate God’s forgiveness more and more each day. We love him for forgiving all the times that we have wandered from his truth.

Conclusion

When it comes to all these various spiritual opinions in the world, the only solution is to go back to the Word of God. God’s Word is very clear that the truth needs to center on the message of forgiveness found only in Jesus Christ. The Bible is clear and easy to understand. It is not a book that needs to be examined under a microscope for all kinds of hidden meanings. When we encounter divisions based off of disagreements about the Word of God, it is important to discuss those items. We examine the Scripture so that we can see what it truly says. We watch out for teachings that can take our focus off of the forgiveness that Jesus won for us. For this reason, we remain students of God’s Word throughout our lives. We see the joyful message of God’s grace.