Is This the Christ?
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Is This the Christ?

 (ID: 1205)

Even the most diligent driver will get lost without an accurate map. So it is with faith: many people around us are seeking salvation, but their guides are faulty. In this message, Alistair Begg takes us through Jesus’ interaction with a crowd that was divided by conflicting presuppositions about the Messiah. Jesus’ words remind us that Christians are the means through which the world encounters truth.


24wDo not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

Can This Be the Christ?

25Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom xthey seek to kill? 26And here he is, yspeaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that zthe authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27But awe know bwhere this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, cno one will know where he comes from.” 28So Jesus proclaimed, das he taught in the temple, a“You know me, and you know where I come from. But eI have not come of my own accord. fHe who sent me is true, gand him you do not know. 29hI know him, for I come ifrom him, and jhe sent me.” 30kSo they were seeking to arrest him, but lno one laid a hand on him, mbecause his hour had not yet come. 31Yet nmany of the people believed in him. They said, o“When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

Officers Sent to Arrest Jesus

32The Pharisees heard the crowd pmuttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent qofficers to arrest him. 33Jesus then said, r“I will be with you a little longer, and then sI am going to him who sent me. 34tYou will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 35The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? uDoes he intend to go to vthe Dispersion among wthe Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36What does he mean by saying, x‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

Copyright © 2024, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.

Alistair Begg
Alistair Begg is Senior Pastor at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Bible teacher on Truth For Life, which is heard on the radio and online around the world.