47
John 7:45-47 THE CHANGING OF THE GUARDS
Introduction:
The
expression, "The Changing of The Guard," usually
refers to the changing of one military
guard for another.
That is, one man, who was on duty, goes
off duty and is
replaced by another man who takes over his
post of duty.
Some military units make a very impressive
ceremony out of
the changing of the guard. When I went to
with the mission which our church
sponsored I had
an opportunity to witness the changing of
the guard at
impressive event. If you ever go that direction, I
recommend that you see it.
The
guards that I will be talking about in this message
are the temple guards at
to arrest Jesus. I will not be talking to you about
changing the post of duty. I will not be talking about one
guard going off duty and another guard
taking his place. I
want you to notice the change that took
place in those
guards.
I.
The duty which was assigned to the guards as the time
for the Feast of Tabernacles approached
V.
45, "Then came the officers to the chief priests and
Pharisees...," Perhaps you will recall that as the time
drew near for the observance of the Feast
of Tabernacles at
when Jesus arrived on the scene, that He
should be arrested
and brought to them. It would, of course, be the duty of
the temple guards to make the arrest. All temple guards
were put on the alert and ordered to make
the arrest while
Jesus was on the outskirts of the city
before Jesus got into
the great crowds of people.
II.
The duty which was assigned to the guards after Jesus
spoke in the temple courtyard
Perhaps
you will recall that Jesus did not show up for
the first day of this feast. He did not show up until about
the middle of the week, but when He did
show up He really
got everybody's attention. He showed up right in the middle
of a large crowd of people within the
temple courtyard. He
was already in the crowd before anybody
knew He was any
where nearby. Since the crowd was chiefly made of up of
people with whom Jesus was very popular,
the Jewish leaders
made no effort to arrest Him nor even to
stop Him from
speaking to the crowd.
However,
as Jesus spoke to the crowds an increasing
number of the people began to say that
Jesus is the Christ
and that disturbed the Jewish
leaders. Also, because their
lack of effort to stop Jesus from speaking
to the crowds
caused some of the common people to think
that the leaders
now favored Jesus and that disturbed the
leaders. So,
therefore, the Jewish religious leaders
decided to arrest
Jesus even though He was in a crowd. So they ordered the
temple guards to arrest Him.
The
temple guards marched into that great crowd of
people and took their positions around
Jesus, but they did
not lay a finger on Him. The vast majority in that huge
crowd of people were so enthralled, so
spellbound by the
speech that Jesus was making that those
guards, even though
they were armed, did not dare to lay a
finger on Him.
III.
The duty which the guards maintained throughout the
remainder of the feast days
That
was about the middle of the week. It is
to be
presumed that the temple guards came right
back and took up
their positions around Him each day
thereafter during the
remaining days of the feast. The Jewish leaders would
naturally think that the guards were
simply awaiting an
opportunity to arrest Him with the least
amount of danger to
themselves from the crowds.
I
said that it is to be presumed that they came back
each day and took up their positions
around Him. Actually
John does not give a day by day account of
the events. The
next event that John tells us about took
place on the last
day of the feast. That was the last day in which the priest
would dip water from the Spring of
Siloam. But it is to be
presumed that each day in between Jesus
showed up within the
temple courtyards and that He spoke to the
crowds of people
each day.
It is likewise to be presumed that the temple
guards still took their places around
Jesus each day, just
as if they are anxious to arrest Him and
are still waiting
for an opportune moment to do so.
Even
on that final day of the feast it is to be presumed
that the temple guards were in their
position around Jesus
when the water was lifted from the Spring
of Siloam and when
Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying,
"If any man
thirst, let him come unto me. He that believeth on me, as
the scripture saith, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of
living water." Even then, those guards were right there
around Him.
IV.
The temple guards reporting in after the feast is over
But
in our text today the feast is over, the crowds have
begun to break up, and the Jewish leaders
have gathered for
one last meeting before returning to their
own homes. They
have all been staying in booths or
temporary tabernacles for
a week.
They have spent the entire week trying to arrest
Jesus and now even He is gone and they
have not been
successful. They have called this meeting to try to find
out what went wrong.
The
temple guards who had been ordered to arrest Jesus
were called in. (V. 45),
"...and they said unto them, Why
have ye not brought him?" The leaders asked the temple
guards, "Why have you not arrested
Jesus and brought Him a
prisoner to us?"
I
really do not think it would have surprised the Jewish
leaders if the guards had said,
"Well, frankly, we were just
afraid to arrest Him. We were there every day around Him
and the way those people were carrying on
about Him we were
just afraid to arrest Him. We just did not have a chance at
all to arrest Him. If we had attempted to arrest Him, we
could never have gotten Him out of that
crowd. There were
just too many people. We kept thinking that we would be
able to follow Him in the evening when He
would leave the
temple grounds, but in that great crowd of
people it was
just impossible. Too many people kept pushing in around us
trying to get to Him. They got between us and Him and made
it impossible for us to follow Him. And we had no idea
where He went to spend the
night." I think that this or
something like this was what the leaders
expected.
However,
they were not at all prepared for the answer
they did get from the guards. V. 46, "The officers
answered, Never man spake like this
man." Those temple
guards did not offer one single excuse for
not arresting
Him.
Instead, they raved about what great speeches Jesus
made.
"We've never heard a man speak like this. Boy! We
have heard some great speakers in our
time. We have heard
the top speakers of the Sanhedrin. We have heard the most
famous of the rabbis from all parts of the
land. But
listen, nobody we have ever heard could
hold a candle to
this man.
Nobody we have ever heard comes even near Him as
a speaker."
That,
in effect, was what the Jewish leaders got out of
the temple guard. It seems now as if these frustrated
leaders of the Sanhedrin Council are at
their wits end. V.
47, "Then answered them the
Pharisees, Are ye also
deceived?" The first response that the Jewish leaders
had
to the temple guards was to ask them if
they, too, had been
deceived by Jesus. If these guards had begun to think that
Jesus, indeed, might be the Christ, they
had just been
deceived according to their thinking. Even if they had just
begun to think of Jesus as just a prophet
of God, they were
still just deceived according to their
thinking. If they
were favorable toward Jesus in any
respect, they were just
deceived according to their thinking.
V.
An interesting question of our own
But
this brings up an interesting question in our own
minds:
Had any of those guards believed on Jesus as the
Christ and been saved? I think that this is more than just
a possibility. I think that is very likely that several of
them had been saved during that time which
they spent
listening to Jesus. I hope every one of them got saved. I
am not at all certain that any of them got
saved, but I do
know that a definite change has taken
place in all of them.
There
is an altogether new attitude toward Jesus.
At
first they did not arrest Jesus because
they were afraid to
arrest Him. It would have been too dangerous to arrest
Him.
That danger never decreased as the days
went by, but they
never used that danger as an excuse. Rather, they just
raved about what a great speaker He was.
They
knew that the Jewish leaders, who were their
bosses, hated Jesus and wanted to see Him
dead, but they
still spoke up to them and bragged on
Jesus to them. They
could have just said, "We were afraid
for our own lives if
we had tried to arrest Him" and that
would have ended the
matter, but they said, "Oh, what a
great speaker He is!" I
really wonder if they were not trying to
influence the
thinking of their bosses and trying to get
them to let up on
Jesus a little bit.
I
definitely think that one or more of these men have
trusted Jesus as the Christ and been
saved. I am sure that
they must have been greatly impressed with
Jesus from the
very first speech that they heard. I am sure that each day,
they must have been more and more
impressed with Him as they
heard Him speak each day. But, in my thinking, they must
have been most deeply impressed on that
last day of the
feast, when the priest lifted the waters
from the Spring of
Siloam and Jesus Cried out and invited all
men to come to
Him and drink. He asked simply that they believe on Him and
He promised them living waters if they
would believe on Him.
I
think that one of these days I will get to meet some
or maybe all of those fellows in
heaven. As I said, I am
not certain right now whether any of them
got saved or not,
but I do know that a great change took
place in them and I
would like to think that the change which
took place was
salvation.
If they did get saved, I would like to talk to
them about it in the hereafter and find
out at just what
point they trusted in Jesus and got saved.
VI.
What the power of the gospel message depends on
But
let me tell you something marvelous about the
gospel.
The power of the gospel message does not depend on
the speaking ability of the speaker. I truly believe what
those men said about Jesus. They said, "Never a man spake
like this man." I believe that. As great a speaker as John
the Baptist must have been, John was no
match for Jesus. As
great as other gospel preachers may have
been during the
years, they were no match for Jesus. A few generations ago
Charles Spurgeon, over in England, gained
a reputation as
being one of the greatest gospel preachers
of all time. A
little later here in America Billy Sunday gained that same
kind of reputation. Here in America in our present day
Billy Graham has gained that same kind of
reputation. But
the power of the gospel is not dependent
on the speaking
ability of the gospel preacher.
The
power of the gospel is dependent on the blood of
Jesus Christ to make an atonement for the
sins of the person
who believes the gospel message and upon
the power of the
Lord Jesus Christ to save the soul. It would be great if we
had Billy Graham or Billy Sunday or
Charles Spurgeon to
preach the gospel for us. What would be even better would
be for us to have the greatest of all
preachers and that is
the Lord Jesus Christ. Wouldn't it be great if we could
have Jesus here to preach for us this
Sunday morning and
every Sunday morning. But the power of the gospel is not
dependent on the skill of the
preacher. It is not even
dependent on who the preacher is. If an unsaved person will
repent of his sins and trust in Jesus
Christ to save his
soul, the power of the gospel will
immediately do its work.
Let
me put it another way. If anyone will
trust in Jesus,
the power of he Lord will immediately to
its work. If some
lost sinner in this congregation this
morning will trust in
Jesus Christ, he will be saved. Jesus will save his soul.
Conclusion:
If
there is somebody here this morning who is not saved
wants to be saved then I am going to ask
you to come and to
place your faith in Jesus this
morning. Come and trust in
Jesus for the salvation of your soul. Who will come?
I
am also going to ask that if there is some saved
person here this morning who wishes to
serve the Lord and
you feel that it would be the Lord's will
for you to unite
with this church, then I am asking that
you come today and
present yourself for membership.