No one Ever Spoke Like This Man!

John 7:37-53

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Who Is He?

40 Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, "Truly this is the Prophet." 41 Others said, "This is the Christ."

But some said, "Will the Christ come out of Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?" 43 So there was a division among the people because of Him. 44 Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.

Rejected by the Authorities

45 Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why have you not brought Him?"  46 The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!"

47 Then the Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived? 48 Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed."

50 Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, 51 "Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?"

52 They answered and said to him, "Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee."

53 And everyone went to his own house.

Jesus spoke as no other man has ever done.  No other leader or philosopher or great man comes close to the only one who can forgive sins and satisfy spiritual thirst with God’s own eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14) given to us for understanding of all things and guidance (John 16:13) for godliness!  He spoke words which penetrated men’s hearts and minds to reveal all hidden there (Psalm 44:21, 1 Corinthians 14:25) because He knows everything we think (Matthew 9:4, Luke 5:22, John 2:25).  He therefore loudly cried out at the feast for all to hear how faith and trust in Him for who He is (John 1:1, 10:30) would be given this same Spirit of God’s very presence within them as told before in Isaiah 12:3, 44:3, Joel 2:28, and told again in John 6:35 after Jesus ascended back into heaven after coming to the lower parts of the earth so He could send His Spirit to all who believe and receive Him.  After these sayings, the crowd began asking who this man was and if He could truly be the long-awaited Hebrew Messiah we call the Christ in the vernacular Greek of the day.  Some called Him the Prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18) and others the Christ (John 4:42) but they all saw He was much more than a mere man.  They argued and reasoned Him away for the most part because they recalled how Micah 5:2 predicted that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem out of the lineage of king David (2 Samuel 7:12, Isaiah 9:7, Jeremiah 23:5) and they assumed Jesus came from lowly Nazareth where He grew up.  If they had all the facts of His actual birthplace they might have been quicker to believe, but God obscured them until He arose from death to life according to His plan to test their hearts.  Even some of the chief priests and Pharisees heard Him and the officers who did also exclaimed, “No man ever spoke like this Man!”  Yes, the truth of all Jesus said rang true down to their spiritual bones and they were in awe of the impact of all He taught.  The Pharisees derided them as being deceived and thought to prove He was wrong just because they themselves refused to believe all they had heard.  They assumed knowledge of the law was required according to their interpretation (2 Peter 1:20-21) and considered the hearers of truth to be deceived instead of themselves.  But the Pharisee Nicodemus hear and had believed about the new birth and warned his fellow religious leaders not to be so quick to judge to condemn the message or the man.  The others reverted back to their lack of knowledge in pointing out the Messiah could not come from such a place as Nazareth in Galilee.  May we all be willing to hear what Jesus said and not judge by our standards or private interpretations without all the facts gleaned from the scriptures.  Hearing Him, we also will be led to exclaim, “No one ever spoke like this man!”