John 7:40-44 - Lesson #80

On the last day of the Feast Jesus stood and cried out to those who were gathered; "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). John then helps our understanding by writing that Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit who would be given, to all who believe.

John 7:40-44
"Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, 'Truly this is the Prophet.' Others said, 'This is the Christ.' But some said, 'Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?' So there was a division among the people because of Him. Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him."

The crowd would not have understood that Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit, but they had a sense His words were claiming He was someone special. We have seen people wrestle with the identity of Jesus before. After witnessing the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, many said; "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world" (John 6:14). Now, because of His words, many said the same; Jesus was the Prophet greater than Moses as promised by God (Deuteronomy 18:18).

But others argued that Jesus was not the Prophet but the Christ, which means God's Anointed (Psalm 2:2) and refers to the promised king from the line of David; "I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom forever" (2 Samuel 7:12). This was to be the Messiah who would free God's people from oppression. But Jesus was known to be from Galilee and the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Jesus did not fit neatly into their predefined box so some tried to arrest Him.

Today we know that the promised Prophet and the promised King were both fulfilled in Jesus. But when Jesus walked the earth the Jewish people were looking for two different people - one who would speak for God and one who would establish the kingdom. Today, with all the written scripture we can see that Jesus was indeed from the line of David, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, and One who truly spoke the words of God. And yet even today many reject Jesus as the One who came to die for the forgiveness of sin because He does not fit into their predefined box.

The issue of trying to fit Jesus into our idea of who He should be - stuff Him into our box - is more of a problem than we realize. There are many who are making themselves available to help you create a box and then affirming you when your Jesus fits so neatly. We gather together, all carrying the same box. We smile, sing, and then we go home to put our box on the shelf until next week. But this is not the Jesus of the Bible! Jesus is not in the box!! Let's stop trying to package Him and carry Him around. Let's accept and seek to understand the complete Jesus of God's revealed Word, the Son of God who gave His life so we can live.