John 7:45-52 / Hope for the Disillusioned

Some of the hardest people to reach with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ are those who have had bad experiences within a church or with those who claim to be Christians. These individuals have been in and around religious communities, only to be left unimpressed, unsatisfied, and unchanged by what they encountered.

In our passage this morning, we will meet three types of people who had seen religion up close and were left feeling disillusioned and longing for more. These individuals, despite their proximity to faith, found themselves yearning for something genuine, life-giving, transformative, and satisfying. Further, what we will see from our passage is that the hypocritical religious leadership of the day, had managed in a few short statements to insult them all!

Let’s read John 7:45-52

John 7:45-52 ¶ The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” 47 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

As Jesus taught in the temple, the chief priests and Pharisees sent the officers, or temple guards to arrest him.

The chief priests and the Pharisees of course represented the Jewish leadership. Their hostility toward Jesus had been ever-growing. His willingness to call out their hypocrisy, correct their interpretation of scripture, contradict their tradition, and challenge their authority had driven them to seek his arrest, and ultimately his death. They were losing their influence among the crowds because of him, and so they were willing to use trumped up charges of blasphemy and law-breaking to stop him.

Jesus spent most of his time teaching and otherwise carrying out his ministry in Galilee, but this was the Feast of Booths, so he was present in Jerusalem. This was an opportune time, the Pharisees thought, to arrest him. So, they sent the temple guards and waited for Jesus to be brought to them as a prisoner. Something unexpected happened however.

John 7:45 ¶ The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?”

The officers, or temple guards, returned empty handed.

Let’s learn a little bit about the temple guards.

THE TEMPLE GUARDS

The temple guards or officers were Levites who were in charge of the security and purity of the temple. It was their task to enforce religious and ceremonial laws that governed the temple operations. They were responsible for ensuring that only ritually pure individuals entered certain parts of the temple, and to ensure that no prohibited items were brought onto the temple grounds.

The temple guards had the power to arrest people, and would take part in judicial processes concerning violations of temple laws.

For the temple guards, the Feast of Booths would have been the busiest time of the year. They would be fully occupied with crowd control and maintaining the order, security, and sanctity of the temple precincts. However, I want us to consider something deeper about the temple guards that might help us understand their response in our text.

Imagine for a moment that you are a man whose duty is to be in and around the temple daily. There would undoubtedly be tremendous privileges. You would witness the work of the priests up close, interact with worshippers day in and day out, and be exposed to some of the best spiritual teachers around. You would experience each pilgrim festival from a unique vantage point. You might even consider yourself privileged because you were constantly near the holy place in the temple proper, where it was said that God’s presence dwelt.

However, I’d venture to say that the allure of these privileges would likely wear off. Why? Think of the other things the temple guards would experience. We would like to think that everyone in and around the temple respected its sanctity, but if that were true, there would be no need for guards at all. Like all law enforcement officers, these guards would have the unfortunate experience of being exposed to some of the worst behaviors of people—day after day after day.

They would deal with conflicts between people on the temple grounds, expel individuals who were not respecting the sanctity of the place, and address blasphemy, heresy, disruptions to temple activities, thefts, vandalism, and trespassers. These incidents would sometimes require expulsion from the temple and other times, arrest. The repetitive exposure to such negative behaviors would undoubtedly take a toll, especially when you consider that they were taking place in the context of the temple and worship.

How can a Levite, charged with serving God in the temple and protecting its sanctity, maintain a reverential spirit toward that holy place when he is exposed to such things in and around the temple every day? It must have been incredibly challenging.

But I think it was probably worse than that. The temple guards would have been privy to almost everything that took place in the temple. While common pilgrims were awestruck by the wonder of the temple grounds during their rare visits, the temple guards saw behind the scenes and were intimately familiar with the inner workings.

They witnessed not only the sacred rituals but also the daily realities. Realities that could potentially tarnish the temple's image for them. The constant exposure to both the profound and the profane could easily erode their sense of reverence, leading them to become jaded or disillusioned over time.

I’ll tell you what I mean.

The guards would watch worshippers come and go, offering sacrifices and saying their prayers. While they would certainly encounter sincere worshippers, they would also continually confront hypocrites—people who performed their ritual obligations only to resume their unspiritual lives.

Despite being charged with maintaining the sanctity of the temple, the guards would witness how the Sadducees had allowed the Court of the Gentiles to become an exploitative marketplace. Pilgrim worshippers were routinely ripped off by exorbitant prices and cheated by unfair money exchangers, turning a place of worship into a hub of commercial greed.

The guards would see the High Priest up close. The office of the High Priest, once a position of profound religious significance, had become more about political power and financial enrichment than religious piety. Individuals lobbied for the coveted position, sometimes resorting to bribery or financial contributions to Roman authorities, who held the power of appointment. Consequently, the High Priest could easily be seen as a collaborator with Rome rather than a spiritual leader of Israel. You can see how this corruption and politicization could lead someone, like a temple guard to develop a growing disillusionment with the religious establishment.

The temple guards, like flies on the wall, would see and hear everything within the temple. On one hand, they would witness sincere worshippers standing in reverence of the sacred space. Yet, behind the scenes, they would see the greed and hypocrisy of the Sadducees who ran the temple. They would hear the heartfelt prayers of genuine believers, but also the political maneuverings of the High Priest with Roman authorities. Charged with protecting the sanctity of the temple, they would watch powerlessly as pilgrims were cheated in the marketplace that had no business being on temple grounds, permitted solely because it enriched the Jewish leadership.

It's little wonder, then, that when Jesus overthrew the money changers' tables and cleansed the temple, the temple guards did not approach Him. Instead, they left it to the temple authorities to question Him later.

The temple guards were witnesses to the inner workings of the temple during a time when religious leadership was corrupt, scriptural truth had been perverted, and the entire system was rife with hypocrisy. All of this had the potential to make a man cynical about the whole endeavour.

Are you here this morning as one who has become disillusioned with religion? Have you been exposed to the worst of people in the context of church? Have you witnessed hypocrisy, corruption, and unqualified spiritual leadership? Maybe you’re someone who was heavily involved in church or ministry and saw things behind the scenes that never should have been. Things which left you disappointed or disenchanted with church, Christianity or religion in general?

If that’s you, I hope you can recognize that just as the money changers, Sadducees, High Priest, and hypocritical worshippers didn’t actually represent God in the temple, neither do the hypocrites who claim to represent Christ and his church.

If you are still struggling, look back at our text and see what helped the temple guards in this passage.

John 7:45-46 ¶ The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

“No one ever spoke like this man!” What were the guards talking about? Jesus’ eloquence? No. They had heard the best Rabbis in the temple. They had heard crowd favourites who were eloquent and captivating. What they were talking about was both Jesus’ message and his authority.

Jesus came with a message of genuine religion. He called out hypocrisy, and called people to genuine righteousness. He called people away from legalism, and to the Spirit. He called people out from under the yoke of condemnation and into the liberty of salvation. He spoke with authority about the kingdom of God, and invited everyone into it.

At a time when the temple guards were likely disillusioned with the state of the temple and their religion in general, Jesus came with an UNPARALLELED MESSAGE would have hit them like a blast of fresh, life-giving air.

1. HIS UNPARALLELED MESSAGE

When asked why they didn’t arrest him, they could only say “No one ever spoke like this man!” Jesus was exactly what they needed and wanted. He was the answer to everything that was wrong with Judaism in their day. More than this, he was the fulfillment of all that Judaism promised.

For some of us this morning who are in danger of becoming disillusioned with Christianity because of things done hypocritically in Christ’s name, we need to become reacquainted with his unparalleled message. He calls out so-called Christian hypocrites just like he did the Jewish. He calls people away from Christian legalism, just as he did the Jewish. He is still calling people out from under the yoke of condemnation and into the liberty of genuine salvation.

As the temple guards returned to the Jewish leadership without Jesus, they were certainly thinking that if the leadership experienced what they experienced of Christ, then arrest would be totally out of the question. Sadly, they were mistaken. All the hypocrisy and corruption that made them starved for someone like Jesus, came out of the Jewish leadership with a vengeance. Look at their response…

John 7:47-50 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

While the temple guards were still reeling from the spirit-empowered, life-giving message of Jesus that they had just heard in the temple, they were jolted back to into the reality of their situation by the angry voices of their leaders. The Pharisees insult them, “are you also deceived?” The guards were trained to be watchful and discerning, and here they are accused of being deceived by Jesus. Then the Pharisees insult the entire pilgrim crowd, “But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

The only reason Jesus is popular with the crowd is that the crowd is ignorant! If the temple guards have believed in Jesus, they are just as ignorant!

We don’t know the hearts of the guards in this moment, but I suspect the contrast between what they just heard from Jesus and how the Jewish leadership were responding to them, might just have pushed them even further toward Christ.

Well, there’s another group of people in our text who, despite their proximity to faith, found themselves yearning for something genuine, life-giving, transformative, and satisfying.

John 7:47-51 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”

Here we find a man named Nicodemus. He’s a man we’ve met before. He steps into the conversation right at a time when the other Jewish leaders are interrogating the temple guards about whether or not any of the authorities or Pharisees have believed in Jesus.

I think at this time its safe to say that Nicodemus is one of those rare Jewish leaders who did believe in Jesus. However, he kept his faith secret for obvious reasons. We know that he became a genuine believer because after the crucifixion of Jesus, he emerges from the shadows and makes his faith public by anointing the body of Jesus along with another member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea.

Nicodemus speaks up and appeals to the scriptures, saying that Jesus should not be arrested unless there is a fair hearing. Of course, appealing to the authority of scripture did no good since the other Jewish leaders were more consumed with a sense of hatred toward Jesus, then they were with sense of obedience toward God.

If the temple guards were drawn to Jesus because of his UNPARALLELED MESSAGE, what was it that drew Nicodemus to him? It was his UNPRECEDENTED MIRACLES.

2. HIS UNPRECEDENTED MIRACLES

We know this from John 3. When Nicodemus met Jesus secretly at night he said,

John 3:2: … “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

I don’t want to go into too much detail here because we have an entire message on Nicodemus that you can look up if you desire. There are a few things we should note however.

Whereas the temple guards may have been on the brink of disillusionment with their faith, leading them to marvel at Jesus’ character and words, Nicodemus was dealing with other issues, preparing him for faith in Jesus.

Nicodemus was a teacher of the law. He was fully immersed in the traditions of his faith. I think, judging by Jesus’ response to him in John 3, we know what affect this had on him.

You can imagine that someone who is immersed in tradition, laws, rules, and regulations, might come to a point where they feel burdened with what they feel is the dryness, or barrenness of their religion. Nicodemus was a meticulous keeper, and capable teacher of the law, yet something was missing from his life. We know this because after being drawn to Jesus by his miracles, Jesus says to him, seemingly out of the blue:

John 3:3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus makes one statement about Jesus’ miracles and Jesus seems to change the subject to this odd concept of being “born again.” Well, it wasn’t a subject change at all.

Jesus knew that what was drawing Nicodemus to him was his witness of the life-giving power of the Spirit of God. While Nicodemus laboured in his self-righteous, legalistic, tradition-laden religion, he felt barren and empty. When Jesus came teaching and performing miracles by the power of the Spirit, Nicodemus sensed that this is what he was missing. He couldn’t articulate it yet, but Jesus knew.

That’s why when Nicodemus focused on the miracles, Jesus redirected the conversation to the Spirit. It’s as if to say, “Nicodemus, I know why you’ve come. You might know fully understand, but I do. You need the Spirit of God.” Jesus continues:

John 3:5-7 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

The cure for Nicodemus’ feelings of spiritual barrenness was the Spirit of God. Nicodemus needed to be saved. He needed to be regenerated. He needed to be born again. Whereas Nicodemus’ religion left him feeling spiritually dead and dry, Jesus said you’ve got to be “born of water and the Spirit.” He was quoting Ezekiel which has this promise regarding the salvation which the Messiah would bring:

Ezekiel 36:25-27 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Jesus lifted the tradition laden veil which was over the scriptures for Nicodemus. He eliminated any idea that one can trust in self-righteousness for salvation. He rejected any presumption that one can enter the kingdom of heaven on the basis of ethnicity or lineage. Nicodemus needed to be made spiritually alive by the Spirit.

If you are here this morning and your experience with religion is a dry, barren slog through rules, tradition, and efforts at self-righteousness, you need the same thing Nicodemus needed. Remember what we read last week?

John 7:38-39 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Give up your dead, dry, fleshly religion for spiritual life, through faith in Jesus!

So, the temple guards were drawn to Jesus due to his UNPARALLELED MESSAGE, and Nicodemus and I think some of the other authorities were drawn to him because of his UNPRECEDENTED MIRACLES. They both had a gaping whole left by their exposure to religion, and saw that Jesus was the one to fill it.

But, just like the Pharisees and chief priests responded to the temple guards with insults, guess how they responded to Nicodemus. Would they show him respect as a fellow member of the Sanhedrin? Nope:

John 7:48-52 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

These religious leaders are on a tear. One insult after an other. The guards are deceived, the crowd is accursed, and Nicodemus is a Galilean!

What’s so bad about being a Galilean? Galilee was a region about 70 to 80 miles north of Jerusalem and had a very poor reputation among the Judeans. It was rural and agrarian, and Jews from Galilee were seen as provincial and far less sophisticated than those from Judea.

Galileans spoke with a distinct accent, that gave away their rural roots (remember the girl who called out Peter for being a Galilean when she heard him speak while warming his hands by a fire after denying Jesus?). Every once in a while a Greek loan word might pop up in their speech, betraying the fact that Galilee was far more influenced by their Gentile neighbours than Judea was.

The Judaism in Galilee was seen by those in Jerusalem as less pure. After all, there was no temple in Galilee, there was a far greater Gentile population in Galilee, and to get to Galilee you had to go through or around Samaria!

Remember how Nathanael scoffed when Philip told him that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah?

John 1:46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

To people in Jerusalem, Galileans were unsophisticated country bumpkins with a funny accent. They rubbed shoulders with Gentiles and were easily led astray by false teaching.

To the Jewish leadership, the fact that Jesus’ disciples were mainly from Galilee made sense. They were dumb, easily deceived, and didn’t know enough about their own religion.

Here in our text, they respond to Nicodemus’ suggestion that they actually obey the law and give Jesus a proper trial, by insulting him with the pejorative – “Are you from Galilee too!?” “Are you as backwards and ignorant as his other disciples?”

The fact is, Jesus spent most of his time in Galilee. He would occasionally visit Jerusalem, but did most of his teaching and miracles in Galilee. And the Galileans flocked to him. Because they were dumb and ignorant? Not at all.

There are other reasons why the Galileans were drawn to Jesus. If the temple guards were drawn to Jesus because of his UNPARALLELED MESSAGE, and Nicodemus was drawn to him because of his UNPRECEDENTED MIRACLES, the crowds, including the Galileans, were drawn to him because of his UNPREJUDICED MERCY.

3. HIS UNPREJUDICED MERCY

Could you imagine following a religion, the leaders of which you knew were prejudiced against you? Here are the chief priests and the Pharisees, the leaders of the Jewish faith, denigrating the crowds and specifically making prejudiced statements against the entire region of Galilee!

Do you not think that the Galileans got vibes from their own religious leaders that they were outsiders? Could you imagine following a religion, the leaders of which are snobby, prejudiced men whom you know hold you in contempt?

Even the most devout of the Galileans had to have known that their own religious leaders were not right. The Jewish leadership’s ill-treatment of the Galileans left them longing for something more.

So that when Jesus came on the scene and instead of responding to the normally marginalized, and ostracized with the same contempt as the other Jewish leaders, the crowds took notice.

Matthew 15:29-31 ¶ Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30 And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 31 so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.

Lame, blind, crippled, mute and many others. People that the Jewish hypocrites in Jerusalem would have written off as unclean and probably suffering due to their own sin, or their parents sin, Jesus welcomed with open arms. More than that, he had mercy on them. He healed them, and rejoiced in their healing. This was the character of his entire ministry:

Luke 4:16-21 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus was the merciful Messiah who healed and saved without prejudice. It’s no wonder that the Galileans, living under the judgmental eyes of the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem flocked to Jesus.

In all of this, Jesus was simply modelling for us the perfect character of God.

Deuteronomy 10:17-18 says:

Deuteronomy 10:17-18 For Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Now let me show you some incredible irony in our passage. Remember what Nicodemus’ fellow Pharisees said to him?

John 7:52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

Certainly no prophet could come from Galilee! Is that true? No. They are blinded by their prejudice.

First of all, a prophet did come from the region of Galilee. His name was Jonah. That was a convenient oversight by the Pharisees. Why would they not, in this moment, want to acknowledge that Jonah came from the region of Galilee?

Do you remember the theme of Jonah? Do you remember the attitude which God sought to remove from Jonah’s heart?

Jonah was told by God to go and preach a message of repentance and deliverance to the Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. These were the dreaded enemies of Israel. Jonah did not want to go. Why? Because he was frightened? That wasn’t the main reason. He did not want to go and call the Ninevites to repentance for fear that they would actually repent and that God would deliver them from judgment!

Jonah hated the Assyrians and relished in the idea of seeing them suffer. Do you think that is an overstatement? This is how Jonah prayed after The Ninevites repented and God turned back his anger.

Jonah 4:2-3 And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

I’d rather die than see you show mercy to my enemies!

No prophet comes from Galilee, eh? Jonah did. The very message of Jonah is that God is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. He responds to repentance with mercy and grace, no matter who is in view.

The attitude of the Jewish leaders in John 7 sounds a lot like the attitude of Jonah. They were prejudiced, and had a narrow view of God’s mercy. Jesus on the other hand came with an UNPREJUDICED MERCY that drew men to him.

Luke 15:1-2 ¶ Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

We see this again in Matthew 9:

Matthew 9:9-13 ¶ As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. 10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

In all their attention to religious ritual, rules and regulations they withheld mercy. Jesus on the other hand came as the friend of the marginalized, ostracized, and excluded outcasts.

Had the Jewish leaders not been blinded by their own prejudice they may have remembered another Old Testament passage which looked forward to the Messiah’s reign. Their hope in a political messiah who would defeat their rivals probably saw them embrace Isaiah 9:7:

Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will do this.

But seemingly, they paid little attention to Isaiah 9:1-2:

Isaiah 9:1-2 ¶ But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

The Messiah would come and bring light to people who dwelt in darkness. Specifically, what does it say? He would be known as one bringing the light of his salvation to Galilee.

Jesus came with an UNPREJUDICED MERCY. In doing so, he was exercising the very character and nature of God, and fulfilling prophecy. Yet, the Jewish leadership, who accused the crowd of not knowing the law, were willingly ignorant of both the true nature of God, and the clear words of scripture.

The crowds, including the Galileans, were drawn to Jesus because while they were on the brink of disillusionment with a religion which left them feeling unwanted and condemned, he came with a message of the mercy of God. He welcomed them in without prejudice. All who repented and believed could enter the Kingdom of God. This was an inclusiveness which would become universal after his crucifixion when he opened salvation further, past Galilee, and even to the Gentile world.

If you are here this morning and you’ve become disillusioned or disheartened with the faith because you’ve experienced prejudice, discrimination, or rejection by those who claim to be following Jesus, know that these are hypocrites who are misrepresenting Jesus.

CONCLUSION

We started by saying that some of the hardest people to reach with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ are those who have had bad experiences within a church or with those who claim to be Christians. These individuals have been in and around religious communities, only to be left unimpressed, unsatisfied, and unchanged by what they encountered.

• Some have been driven away from Jesus by hypocrites who have wormed their way into churches, or even positions of leadership, only to misrepresent Jesus. They’ve become cynical toward church or the faith entirely

• Some have become disillusioned with their faith, because it focuses more on laws, regulations and rules than the Spirit. Their legalistic religion is dry, barren, and entirely unsatisfying.

• Others have been turned off from Christianity because they’ve experienced prejudice, discrimination or condemnation by those who claim to be Christians.

To each of these groups our message this morning is the same. What you need is not some alternative to Jesus. You just need the real Jesus.

• He has an UNPARALLELED MESSAGE. No one speaks like he does. His is a message of genuine faith. He does not smile upon hypocrisy but calls it out and condemns it. His message is a blast of fresh air to anyone disillusioned by a hypocritical, institutional Christianity.

• He is a man of UNPRECEDENTED MIRACLES. Miracles signifying that his is a ministry empowered by the Holy Spirit. If you are disenchanted with your dry, legalistic religion, understand that genuine faith results in being born again by the Spirit of God. The Spirit he says, will reside in you like a wellspring of everlasting water.

• His offer is one of UNPREJUDICED MERCY. Any prejudice or discrimination you’ve experienced on the basis of your race, ethnicity, or even sinful former lifestyle is not reflective of the character of Jesus. He is the friend of all who repent and believe.