CONTINUED.

(3) Authoritative.
Jesus was able to say with calm assurance: "The man who sent me is with me, he has not left me alone." v29.

The temple guards sent to arrest Jesus recognised his authority. They informed the Jewish leaders: "No-one ever spoke the way this man does." John7v46.

Sometimes an expert will speak authoritatively outside his sphere of expertise. This is what Sir Roy Meadows the paediatrician did at Mrs Clark's trial for murdering her babies. He strayed into the field of statistics in which he was no expert and calculated erroneously that there was only a 1 in 73 million chance of two children in a family succumbing to cot death.

Jesus never strayed outside his sphere of expertise. He passed on to men what the ever-present Father told him. He had nothing to say about politics, medicine, history or science. Remember how Jesus reacted to the member of the crowd who said, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." That is classic Jesus. He would not be distracted from the task God gave him to do. He was briefed to declare the dangers of greed.

Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God. He conveyed the will of God to men. "If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. John7v17. See comments on the authenticity of Christ's teaching.

(4) Elusive.
Jesus did talk in riddles or mashals. He didn't give a straightforward account of his birth. The Master didn't boldly assert that he was the Messiah. All through his ministry people failed to understand him and his opponents were scarcely an exception. "They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father." v27.

It sometimes irritates me that Jesus did not state unambiguously that he was the Messiah and then argue his case. But Jesus had a serious problem. The Messiah the people wanted was not the Messiah he was sent to be. Jesus most unexpectedly came in the sacrificial tradition. He was not the warrior king but rather the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. The popular misconception of the Messiah's role in the national life of the Jews is what accounts for his elusive teaching.

Sometimes the wrong-headed views of Christians make it impossible to teach them in a straight-forward way. I cannot give my church the benefit of my views on creation or the Genesis flood because of their deeply ingrained fundamentalist beliefs.

(E) Conclusion.

It easy to overlook John's observation in v30: Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him. This is a repetition of what John wrote in chapter 7 v31: Still many in the crowd put their faith in him.

It is wrong to think that on the Day of Pentecost 12 months later 3000 were won for Christ by the Holy Spirit without any preparation. I have no doubt that many of the converts were among those who listened to Jesus on the preceding Pentecost and put their faith in him then. Jesus did the hard, gruelling, unrewarding work as he debated with his opponents in the temple courts. Peter reaped the harvest. We should never despair when we face opposition in Christian work - we may be preparing souls for the reaping by someone else.