John 7:25-52

No One Ever Spoke Like This Man

It is quite remarkable to think that temple guards were sent to bring in a man speaking in the temple area; they found Him but didn’t bring Him in. When they were asked why they didn’t bring Him in they did not say, “We couldn’t find Him.” They did not say, “It was too dangerous because of the people.” No, instead they said, “No one ever spoke the way this man does.” No wonder the rulers went ballistic and started babbling nonsense about none of their number believing in Him (except Nicodemus). They refused to answer Nicodemus’ perfectly reasonable question about condemning a man without a hearing. They declared that no prophet comes from Galilee as if that were a fact of Scripture and actually settled anything.

Rarely have truer words been spoken. Occasionally you will hear someone argue that Jesus never claimed to be the Christ our God’s Son. That is more rubbish than the fuming babbling Jewish rulers in this passage. “No one ever spoke the way this man does.”

He told the woman of Samaria that He was Messiah. After He healed the man by the pool of Bethesda He told the Jews, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” He told the Jews after He fed the five thousand, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” He wasn’t trying to hide His identity when He told Nicodemus, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

And in this very chapter He made the audacious statement, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

Did Jesus claim to be the Christ, Messiah, the Son of God? No one ever spoke like this man. And don’t you forget it.