42. Honest Investigators: Jesus and John's Gospel Part 11

G'day and welcome to stories of a faithful God for kids.

Dave here.

Have you ever been talking with someone and

you suddenly realize that they don't care about the truth?

They're not interested in what's actually right and wrong?

They're going to keep saying what they're saying no matter what.

Maybe it goes something like this.

Hey Bob, did you take the last doughnut?

Uh, no, I think it was Maryland, but Mary lives in Antarctica trying to work out how to

talk to penguins.

Oh, uh, then I think it was George.

But George only ever eats carrots.

Oh, then I think it was Candace.

But Candace is stuck up on the international Space Station.

Well you must have eaten it then.

But I've been living in the Amazon jungle

trying to get accepted into a colony of ants.

Well it wasn't me.

But you've lived on your own here for five years with all the doors locked.

You're the only one who's been here all that time and you have pink icing all around your

lips and donut crumbs on your fingers.

You must have eaten the doughnut.

Yeah, well you smell funny.

So there.

I couldn't have eaten the donut.

That's a bit silly.

But when people don't want to admit the truth they'll say silly things.

That's especially true when it comes to thinking about Jesus.

Some people are honest and really want to understand who Jesus is.

They look carefully at what he says and does.

They look at the evidence about Jesus and they

think about what that must mean.

Other people don't care about the evidence.

They don't want to believe in Jesus, so they'll think and say anything.

Which type of person are you? It's time for our next episode of stories of a

faithful God for kids.

At the end of our last episode, heaps of

people gave up on Jesus.

They liked his miracles, but they didnt like

him.

His twelve special disciples knew it was worth

sticking with Jesus.

After all, he has the words of eternal life.

But thousands of other people didnt care about his words.

They just wanted more miracles.

Now Jesus brothers say, hey, there's a big

festival coming up in Jerusalem.

Jesus, you should go and do more miracles.

Then more people will follow you.

They haven't learnt the lesson at all.

Jesus miracles are great, but they're there to do a job.

They're there to help people know who Jesus is.

If people don't care about that, it doesn't matter how many miracles he does, people won't

believe in him.

In fact, John tells us in chapter seven, verse

five.

Even Jesus brothers did not believe in him.

Jesus knows that.

He knows that his brothers are still on the

sinful world's team.

Not on his team yet, he says to them in verse

six, the right time for me has not yet come.

But any time is right for you.

The world cannot hate you.

But it hates me because I tell about the evil

things it does.

So you go to the feast.

I will not go now.

The right time for me has not yet come.

After saying this, Jesus stayed in Galilee.

So the brothers leave Galilee and head off to

the feast without Jesus.

After they've left, though, Jesus also heads

to Jerusalem, but in secret.

He's not going to go.

How his brothers want him to go.

Making a big noise with lots of miracles.

It's worth remembering the last time Jesus was in Jerusalem, the leaders wanted to kill him.

I wonder what'll happen this time in Jerusalem.

Everyone's talking about him.

In verse eleven, we're told.

At the feast, the Jews were looking for him.

They said, where is that man?

There was a large crowd of people there.

Many of them were whispering to each other

about Jesus.

Some said, he's a good man.

Others said, no, he fools the people.

So there are different ideas about Jesus.

That's okay, as long as people are honest enough to check what Jesus is actually saying

and doing to see if their ideas are right or if they need to change their mind.

Unfortunately, the jewish leaders don't want to think carefully and honestly.

In fact, they don't want anyone to do that.

They want to stop people thinking and talking.

They believe that Jesus is evil, and they don't want to let anyone think differently.

And so when people talk about Jesus, they do it quietly.

They're afraid of getting in trouble.

About halfway through the festival, which goes

for a week, Jesus stops being secret.

He heads up to the temple and starts teaching

people.

As the people listen, they're amazed.

They don't understand how Jesus knows so much when he hasn't been to a special school for

Bible teachers.

And Jesus is like, easy.

I got it all from the one who sent me.

In other words, God the Father.

In verse 16, he says, the things I teach are not my own.

My teaching comes from him who sent me.

If anyone chooses to do what God wants, then

he will know that my teaching comes from God.

He will know that this teaching is not my own.

Jesus is giving them a challenge.

He's saying, if you really want to listen to

God, if you're honest about that, you'll be able to work out that I'm speaking God's

words.

Unfortunately, there are lots of people there

who aren't honest and Jesus knows it.

So in verse 19, he challenges them.

He says, moses gave you the law, but none of you obey that law.

Why are you trying to kill me? Have you ever been caught doing something

really naughty, but instead of owning up to it, you just get angry and try to make it

sound like you haven't done anything wrong? Maybe you even blamed the person who caught

you.

Well, that's exactly what these people do.

In verse 20, they say a demon has come into you.

We're not trying to kill you.

That right there is a lie.

Back in chapter five, we were told that they want to kill Jesus after he healed a man on

the Sabbath.

They thought he'd broken God's law.

And it turns out everyone knows the leaders want Jesus dead.

It was silly when the people said, no one's trying to kill you.

So in verse 25, we read then some of the people who lived in Jerusalem said, this is

the man they're trying to kill, but he's teaching where everyone can see and hear him

and no one's trying to stop him.

Maybe the leaders have decided that he really

is the Christ.

Even if the leaders are thinking that, which

they're not, these people still aren't convinced.

They say, but we know where this man is from.

Yet when the real Christ comes, no one will

know where he comes from.

Where they think he's from is Nazareth.

And sure, that's where he grew up.

But he came from somewhere far more important.

Before that, John told us right at the start of his gospel, Jesus came from God.

He says to them in verse 28, yes, you know me and you know where I'm from, but I have not

come by my own authority.

I was sent by the one who is true.

You don't know him, but I know him.

I am from him and he sent me.

Hmm.

How could you respond to that?

If you're in the crowd, you could say, well, jesus, help us to know him.

You could say, prove that you're from God.

You could ask him to explain more.

But these people aren't interested in the truth.

So instead they just try to grab Jesus.

They can't, though.

God won't let them.

It isn't time for him to be killed yet.

In the crowd, there are some people who are a lot more honest and a lot less angry.

People who haven't just seen or heard about the miracles.

They've recognised them for what they are, signs showing that Jesus really is who he says

he is, john tells us in verse 31.

But many of the people believed in Jesus.

They said, when the Christ comes, will he do more miracles than this man has done?

The Pharisees, they're starting to panic.

They don't want people to believe in Jesus.

They don't want people to believe the evidence about Jesus.

So they send some guards to arrest him.

A few days go past, though, and he still

hasn't been arrested.

It's the last and most important day of the

festival.

It's a day when there's a special water

ceremony.

When everyone cheers.

As the high priest pours water out on God's altar.

They're celebrating the water that God's given them to make all their food grow.

The water that gives them life.

And as all the people in Jerusalem are

thinking about how water gives life.

Jesus offers them even better water.

The same water he'd talked about with the woman at the well a few episodes ago.

He stands up in the crowd of thousands.

And yells out in verse 37.

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

If a person believes in me, rivers of living water will flow out from his heart.

This is what the scripture says.

He is using water to talk about the Holy

Spirit.

If you believe in Jesus, God will put his holy

spirit inside you.

To help you trust and obey him.

Some people have been listening carefully and honestly.

They've been thinking about all the things Jesus has said and done.

And so, verse 40 says the people heard these things that Jesus said.

Some of them said, this man really is the prophet.

Others said he is the Christ.

Other people haven't been thinking carefully,

though.

They say the Christ will not come from

Galilee.

The scripture says that the Christ will come

from Davids family.

And the scripture says that the Christ will

come from Bethlehem.

The town where David lived.

Now, if you know anything about Christmas.

You know that Jesus actually was born in

Bethlehem.

Just like the old Testament said he would be.

He was then raised in Nazareth.

But maybe they're just making a simple, honest

mistake.

They don't celebrate Christmas.

They think Jesus is from Nazareth.

If they were being honest, though, they'd try

harder to find out where Jesus is from.

Right back in chapter one, Nathaniel had heard

that Jesus of Nazareth might be the Christ.

And his first response was to say, that's

ridiculous.

Nothing good comes out of Nazareth.

But then, because he's honest, he went to find out more about Jesus.

And even though he didn't immediately find out where Jesus was born.

He saw and heard enough to start believing in Jesus.

These people aren't like that.

They don't care about the truth.

They just try and arrest Jesus.

There's a problem, though.

The guards who were sent to arrest Jesus, they've been listening to him.

They've thought about him honestly.

They're like, hey, he's really great.

And so they go back without having arrested him.

Can you imagine how frustrated the Pharisees are?

They don't care about how good Jesus is.

They don't care that his words are right.

They don't care that he can do miracles that must have come from goddesse.

They just want to keep sinning.

Thankfully, there's one Pharisee who's more

honest than that.

We've actually met him before, back in chapter

three.

It's Nicodemus.

He really does want to look at the evidence for Jesus.

He wants to think about him honestly.

He says to the other Pharisees in verse 51,

our law does not judge a man without hearing him.

We cannot judge him until we know what he has done.

But the other Pharisees don't want to hear about it.

They don't want to carefully check if what Jesus is saying is true.

That would mean they'd have to change.

Change what they think, change how they live.

Much easier to just get rid of Jesus.

What about you?

Do you want to know the truth? Some of you, even if you've grown up going to

church and with a christian family, might still not be sure what to make of Jesus.

Is he true? Can he be believed?

That's ok.

Nicodemus and Nathaniel and lots of other

people didn't work it all out in one go.

It took a while.

The most important thing, though, is that they were honest.

They really wanted to work out the truth.

Even if it took a while.

Even if that meant changing their minds.

Even if it meant changing how they lived.

They knew that finding the truth is the most important thing.

If you have questions about Jesus, ask someone around you who knows their Bible.

Or ask me.

Send in a question@faithfulgod.net.

id love to answer.

Questions arent bad or naughty.

They're really, really good.

As long as you want to know the answers.

If you do believe the truth about Jesus, you're going to find that there's lots of

people who don't care about the truth.

They'll say things that don't make any sense,

just so they don't have to believe in him.

Don't panic.

Just keep telling the truth about Jesus and some people will really want to hear.

Back in Jerusalem, the Pharisees and other leaders are about to start a really big

argument with Jesus.

They're going to show just how much they hate

him and how much they hate the truth.

But that's a story for next time.

Don't forget to send in your questions.

Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.