Christ: The Scholar (John 7:14–31) — A Sermon by R.C. Sproul

SPROUL: This morning we will be reading  again from the gospel according to St. John,   from the seventh chapter, beginning at verse  fourteen, reading through verse thirty. Hear   then the Word of God. “Now about the middle of the  Feast Jesus went up into the Temple and taught,   and the Jews marveled, saying, ‘How  does this man know letters, having never   studied?’ And Jesus answered them and said,  ‘My doctrine is not mine but His who sent me.   And if anyone wills to do His will, he shall  know concerning the doctrine whether it is   from God or whether I speak on my own authority.  He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory,   but He who seeks the glory of the one who sent  Him is true and no unrighteousness is in Him. Did   not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you  keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?’ “The people answered and said, ‘You  have a demon. Who is seeking to kill   you?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘I  did one work, and you all marveled. Moses,  

therefore gave you circumcision – not that  it is from Moses, but from the Father – and   you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man  receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that   the law of Moses shall not be broken, are you  angry with me because I made a man completely   well on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to  appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.’ “Now some of them from Jerusalem said, ‘Isn’t  that He, whom they seek to kill? But look! He   speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do  the rulers know, indeed, that this is truly the   Christ? However, we know where this man is from;  but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He   is from.’ And then Jesus cried out as He taught in  the Temple saying, ‘You both know me and you know   where I am from; and I have not come of myself,  but He who sent me is true, whom you do not know.   But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He  sent me.’ Therefore they sought to take Him,   but no one laid a hand on Him because His hour had  not yet come. And many of the people believed in   Him and said, ‘When the Christ comes, will He do  more signs than these, which this man had done?’” He who has ears to hear the Word of God, let  them hear. You may be seated. Let us pray. “Now,  

O Lord, as we continue our study of  this gospel, which in its riches,   reveals to us so much of the person and  work of your dear Son. We pray that every   Sabbath day that we hear the reading of this  gospel, our understanding of Him will increase   and our love for Him may be magnified. For  we ask these things in Jesus’ name, amen. When I was a child going to elementary school,  my favorite grade was the third grade. A lot of   that had to do with Mrs. Macaraw because she was  the most fantastic teacher I had in those days;   but third grade was fun. But there was  this little cloud of fear that hung over   us when we were in third grade, when we  would hear the testimony from the fourth   graders because they would say to us,  “Just wait until fourth grade. In fourth   grade school really gets hard because  in fourth grade you’re going to have   to learn to study geography and history and  much more difficult multiplication tables.” So I remember trembling as I entered  into the fourth grade, but somehow,   through the grace of God, made it through  the fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade,  

seventh grade, eighth grade, ninth grade,  and then we heard, in fear and trembling,   of that huge leap in difficulty, in moving  from junior high school to senior high school,   where the homework assignments would be  so much more plenteous and that we’d have   to study arcane science such as physics  and chemistry and things of that sort. And again, through the grace of God –  and I can bear witness this morning,   only through the grace of God – I made it  through high school and actually got into   college. And when we had our first convocation –  chapel – at our college the president stood up,   and he said, “Look at the person to your right,  and now look to the person on your left. One of   these two people will not be here next semester.”  That was in the days when it was customary for   colleges to flunk out fifty percent of  their freshmen class; and fortunately I   was converted that semester and made an “A”  in Bible, which kept me from flunking out.

But each one of these different experiences  in school came with greater fear about the   level or plateau of difficulty that they  involved. And then I remember, of course,   after college going to seminary and making  another adjustment. But probably the biggest   adjustment academically in my life was when I  enrolled in doctoral studies in the Netherlands.   I had no idea how rigorous the academic  discipline at that level would be, and I believe   only people who have been through that rigorous  experience know what it is I’m talking about.   But as I finished that, I also realized that there  were many of us who had been educated well beyond   our intelligence. That is a problem with upper  levels of education – that once we go through   it we have a tendency to think that we actually  know far more than we do, and we have a tendency   to tilt the nose a bit and look down at those who  have not gone through such rigorous training. And   we wonder where people’s degrees are from and  whether their credentials are really credible.

Well we’re not unusual in that regard because  no man’s credentials were ever more seriously   challenged by the established academic community  than were the credentials of Jesus of Nazareth.   We read in the text this morning about this  response from the people as He was teaching   during the Feast of the Tabernacles: “And the  people marveled, saying, ‘How does this man know   letters, having never studied?’” And again, the  Pharisees and the scribes, the doctors of the law,   who had studied under Gamaliel or in the school  of Hilael or of other rabbinic traditions,   looked askance at Jesus asking for where His  sheepskin could be found. “Who did you study   under, Mr. Jesus? How many credit hours in  theology do you have? As far as we know,   you don’t even have a baccalaureate degree,  and you do you, then, come into the Temple   and have the audacity to presume to teach  us?” This was the question brought to Jesus.  

This was the same Jesus, who when He was  a boy, was a child prodigy who absolutely   amazed the scholars in the Temple, when He  was only twelve years old, at His depth of   understanding of the things of theology. So the  question is, where did He get His education? Well He answers that question for us. He  said, “My doctrine is not mine” – that is,   it’s not of my invention, not of my origin.  “But my doctrine is His who sent me,   and if anyone wants to do His will, He shall know  concerning the doctrine whether it is from God,   or whether I speak from my own authority. He  who speaks from himself seeks his own glory,   but He who seeks the glory of the one who sent Him  is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” Now I think there’s a lot of confusion about  this because if we were to have a pop quiz   this morning and I asked you, “Where did  Jesus get all this knowledge that He was   displaying?” I suspect that many of you would  give the answer that’s prevalent out there.   “Well He’s God!” And if He’s God, then He must  have all knowledge, He must be omniscient,  

and certainly one who is omniscient has no  need to go to school or study under anybody   else because He is the source and fountain of  all truth. Well let me ask another question.   Did the Jesus who was lying in the manger during  the nativity know that the world was round? What   do you think? Frankly, if somebody asked me  that question – did Jesus know that the world   was round when He was a baby in the manger – of  course I’d want to make some distinctions, but   I would say basically the answer would be no. Of  course not – at least touching His human nature. The human Jesus had to grow in His knowledge  and understanding of the things of God.   The human nature of Jesus did not come equipped  with the divine attribute of omniscience,   and when we think that the human nature of  Christ possessed these divine characters,   we slip into a very serious and ancient  heresy by which the divine nature swallows  

up the human nature, and we fail to  recognize the limits of Jesus’ knowledge. Now this has been a very controversial matter  historically. You think, for example, when the   disciples asked Jesus, as it’s recorded in Mark’s  gospel, about the day and the hour of His return,   what does He say? He said, “Of the day  and the hour knows no man – not even the   Son – but only the Father knows it.” Now in  that response to His disciples Jesus Himself   clearly put a limit to His own knowledge about  the future. Now that has really, really puzzled   the greatest minds of church history. Saint  Thomas Aquinas, for example, who arguably   was the most brilliant theologian of all time,  stumbled all over the place over that question.   Thomas scratched his head and said, “Jesus had to  know the day and the hour! He was God incarnate!   There was a perfect unity between the human nature  and the divine nature, so how is it possible that   Jesus didn’t know something?” So Aquinas  developed what he called his “accommodation  

theory,” where he said, “Jesus really did know,  but the knowledge was too holy. It was too high;   it was too wonderful. And so He didn’t want  to go into a lengthy explanation as to why   He couldn’t reveal the day and the hour at  that point, but He cuts the Gordian knot,   gives shorthand by accommodation, and  just simply tells them He doesn’t know.” That’s a nice way out, except that what  He said would be false. It would be a   lie – maybe a little one, just a fib – but just  enough to tarnish His perfection and make Him   a lamb with a blemish and incapable of being  our Savior. So I would prefer not to go into   all these gymnastics to explain why Jesus said  there was something He didn’t know and simply   take our Lord at His word and believe  that there was something He didn’t know.

Now obviously when Jesus says  there’s something He doesn’t know,   He’s speaking of His human nature. Now lest  anybody think for a minute that the preacher   this morning is a Nestorian, whatever that is  (especially my Lutheran friends who are here),   let me take a moment to explain this. In church  history the church has fully embraced the dual   nature of Christ, that He is vera homo, vera  Deus – truly man and truly God – one person,   two natures. And the reason for that  formula was that we not obscure that   at the same time we do have two distinct  natures coexisting within this one person.   And if we’re going to have a correct understanding  of Jesus, we have to understand that the divine   nature has all of the attributes of deity, and the  human nature all of the limitations of humanity.

Now again, we distinguish the two natures,  but we don’t separate them. Let me explain   that. If I say that you, as a human being, are  made up of a body and a soul, I can distinguish   your two natures – your physical side, your  non-physical side – without doing you any damage;   but if I separate your body from your soul, I’ve  just killed you. So there’s a big difference   between a distinction and a separation. When  Jesus is hungry, that’s a manifestation of   His human nature, not of His divine nature.  When He sweats, that’s a manifestation of His   human nature, not of His divine nature; and  likewise, when He says, “There’s something   I don’t know,” that is a manifestation of  His human nature, not His divine nature.

Then you say, “Well wait a minute, preacher – you  never say that. You don’t call me “preacher” –   but how’s come it is that throughout the Bible,  and even in John’s gospel as we’ve been reading,   we see Jesus manifesting supernatural knowledge  all over the place?” Way back at the beginning   of His public ministry when He sees Nathaniel,  He tells Nathaniel everything about Nathaniel,   and He’d never even met Nathaniel. He reads what  is in people’s minds; He knows what they’re going   to say before they say it, and He gives all these  evidences of supernatural knowledge. Where does   that come from? It comes from the communication  of the divine nature to the human nature. Now there were things that Jesus didn’t know,  but whatever He taught was impeccable because   He never taught on the basis of His own human  insight. So the Christian church has understood   for centuries that touching His human nature,  Jesus is not omniscient, but He is infallible   because if He comes and He teaches something  that isn’t true, then He’s held accountable.

Let me give an example of that. The biggest  argument for the integrity of sacred Scripture is   this argument: that the Bible is the Word of God  quite simply because Jesus says it was. And the   critics will say, “Well wait a minute! He wasn’t  omniscient, so it’s okay if He made a mistake   when He taught His disciples that the Bible was  the Word of God and that Moses wrote of Him in   the Pentateuch and all that. We can’t hold Him  responsible for knowing things that He couldn’t   possibly know. Oh yes we can because if a teacher  walks into your classroom and says before class   begins, “Let’s get a couple of things straight.  First of all, I’m not going to say anything in   here by my own authority because everything  that I teach you comes from God Himself.”   Now if I said that to you and then you found me  making an error, what would you think about my   claim of teaching only what God gives me? Not only  that, suppose I came into this pulpit, and I said,   “Ladies and gentlemen, this morning when you  listen to me preach, I want you to be aware that   what you will hear is the plain, unadulterated,  unvarnished truth because I am the truth.” If you  

didn’t call for the little guys with the white  suits and the nets, then there’s something wrong   with you because we are warned in Scripture that  those who teach face a greater judgment, and that   judgment is that those who teach are never to  claim more knowledge than they actually have.   Now in His human nature, Jesus does not have  omniscience, but when Jesus declares that the   Scriptures are the Word of God, if He’s  wrong about that He has transgressed His   own principles for teaching, and thereby  would disqualify Himself as our Savior. And this is what’s going on here in this debate  with the Jewish authorities. “Where’d you get   your degree?” “I brought it with me from  heaven. I don’t teach anything on my own,   but my doctrine comes from the Father;  and if you people really wanted the truth,   and if you people really wanted knowledge,  and if you people really cared about theology,   you would believe every word that I tell you  because the only words I give you are from   Him. And if you wanted to do the will of God, you  would hear my voice, and you would listen to me.”

You remember one of the times when God  spoke audibly to the crowds about His Son:   “This is my beloved Son. Hear Him.” God Himself  attests to the authority of the teaching of Jesus,   that His doctrine is true, and as He claims here  there is no mixture of unrighteousness in it. And   then Jesus turns the table on His enemies. You  go around here, you question my credentials,   and you hide behind the law of Moses. You keep  telling me that you are disciples of Moses and   that you’re students of the law. Well where did  circumcision come from? It didn’t come from Moses;   it came from the patriarchs before  Moses. It came from Abraham, Isaac,   and Jacob. So Moses didn’t invent circumcision.” Now why is He bringing this up? He says, “Because  under the law of Moses, the law requires that   every infant boy is to be circumcised  exactly so many days after birth, right?   Well what if the day of circumcision falls  on the Sabbath? Does Moses require that you  

postpone it? Oh, no. Not only does the law of  Moses allow circumcision on the Sabbath day,   the law of Moses requires  circumcision on the Sabbath day.   Now if the law of Moses requires that the sign of  a person’s wellness be given on the Sabbath day,   how can you object when I heal a man completely  on the Sabbath day?” This is classic ad hominem   argumentation, not in the abusive sense but in the  logical sense where Jesus takes the foolishness of   His critics to its logical conclusion and shows  that He’s not the one that’s violating Moses,   but that they are. And in so doing, exposes  that despite their great knowledge and their   academic credentials, they have remained  fools and ignorant of the things of God.

The church is in tough times. We’ve seen the  seminaries go into radical liberalism, denying   the central tenants of the Christian faith. We’ve  seen Christian colleges, one after another, deny   Christianity altogether after a certain period of  time. Why does that happen? I once read an essay   by an Anglican scholar, and it was entitled  fittingly, “The Treason of the Intellectual.”   I mean many Christians, unfortunately, have fled  from serious study of the things of God because   they can’t trust their teachers anymore,  because it’s the intellectual leadership   of the body of Christ that has committed  treason. Is there anything new about that?   It was the intellectual community of Jesus’  day that was most antagonistic toward Him,   because you see when perfect knowledge manifests  itself, perfect truth comes in the door,   that which is muddled, that which is  blemished is exposed for what it is.

No wonder these men sought to kill Him, when  Jesus said, “Moses gave you the law, yet none   of you keeps the law. Why, then, do you seek  to kill me?” And the people said, “You have a   demon.” What does that mean? That’s – what they’re  saying is, “You must be nuts! You must be out of   your mind! This guy is demon possessed! Nobody’s  trying to kill you.” Jesus said, “I did one work,   and you all marveled. Moses, therefore gave you  circumcision, but I made the man completely well.   Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge  with righteous judgment.” And then in verse   twenty-eight He said, “You know me. You know  where I’m from. I have not come of myself, but   He who sent me is true, whom you do not know. But  I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent me.” I said to Vesta last night, I said, “You know  I don’t know about the long-term value of   preaching every week from one book of the Bible  because it takes so long to get through it,   and maybe I should be jumping all over  the place in John’s gospel to get this   thing through.” But I said, “You know,  I don’t want to do that because each   tiny little passage that we look at in  this gospel sheds more light to us and   to our understanding of who He is, and I  would hate for us to miss any of that.”

Now let me just finish by these last  few statements that Jesus says. “I know   Him. I am from Him, and He sent me.” Jesus  said, “I know the Father. I know my stuff.   You want to give me a doctoral examination  in theology from the most rigorous test   that Gamaliel has ever thought of? Give me the  test. I know Him, and not only do I know Him,   I don’t know Him from a distance, but I’m from  Him. And I’m from Him, and the reason I’m here is   because He sent me.” Do you hear the warning?  “If you won’t hear the one whom God sends,   who in the world will you hear?” That’s what  Jesus is saying today. “You think you hear Moses,   but your ears are deaf to Moses. You claim  Abraham; you have nothing to do with Abraham.   You think that you’re committed to God, but  yet you reject the very one who comes from   God and whom God sends into your midst.” When  we hear Jesus speak, when we hear Jesus teach,  

like Samuel in centuries past, our response  should be, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.” Let’s pray. Father, how easily impressed we  are with earthly honors, with earthly diplomas,   and yet we won’t even respond to the truth when  we hear it. Oh, Father, anything that we say   that is true is not from ourselves, but we live on  borrowed capital. There’s nothing true that we’ve   ever learned that doesn’t come from somewhere  else, and ultimately from you. And so teach   us to have Jesus as our rabbi and as our master,  for He alone has the words of eternal life. Amen.