One of the first AND final things I will do when preparing a message is to read and dwell on the text in a regular, plain ole Bible. That means no study notes, no helps, no Greek, Hebrew or Aramaic influence—just the text. Sometimes I find the notes in study Bibles such as the NLT Study Bible or the NIV one or the ESV one, etc, etc, to be a crutch preachers go to too soon and too often. So, for me there is a precious time alone with the text at the beginning and a slightly different one right before I preach. In between the study Bibles reference books, commentaries and favorite preacher’s podcasts are a blessing, but not until…
Some athletes don’t change socks when they are on a winning streak—I use the same Bible. But I have to confess something.
It isn’t clean.
No, there are actually notes in it—lots and lots of notes. It’s just that they’re mine—added over the years—kinda the Rob Singleton Study Bible. And no, it’s not for sale. You won’t find it in any bookstore even though there have been several editions over the years. It would be little more than gibberish to most people, but to me, each note represents a special word form the Lord. If He doesn’t speak—I don’t make a note. But that rarely happens—truth is, He’s always speaking. So ,maybe I should say, ‘If I’m not listening—I don’t make a note.’ 
Yeah, that’s more accurate.
So, yes, I’m one of those freaks who likes to write in God’s Word—sue me.
And that brings me to the point of this rambling blog post. You see, I was reading back a little bit in my pre-read time because we return to our “Divine” series this weekend and I needed to re-familiarize myself with the text. And I came across this curious little incident in John 7:37–44:
37On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as[a] the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
40On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
41Others said, “He is the Christ.”
Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? 42Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family[b] and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
Do you see it? A little background might help.
Thus far in the book of John we read about Jesus healing the blind, stumping the Pharisees continuously, feeding the 5,000, walking on water, healing a paralyzed man and calming a storm among many other things. Add to this His teaching with authority like no other and you have the most extraordinary personality to ever walk the face of the earth. So…
Why, “43Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.?”
What’s there to be divided about? He’s doing exactly what their Torah (our Old Testament) said He would do. Who else would He be but the promised Messiah. But that’s not what caught me. What’s bizarre is that this crowd allowed themselves to be divided over a bunch of misinformation! They missed God because of hearsay! Bypassed the Saviour of the world simply because they were misinformed.
Look, I’ll show you…
Some said, “How can the Christ come from Galilee?” What’s wrong with that you say? Only this, Who said Jesus was from Galilee? Is this guilt by association? He’s not called Jesus of Nazareth for nothing!
And what about this, “42Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family?”
Why yes, yes it does, so what’s the problem?
Oh! Guilt by association again. How could Joseph the carpenter or Mary the ‘pregnant out of wedlock girl’ have anything to do with the great king David?
What’s odd about that? Well, for one, the Jews were notoriously meticulous about lineage! No people in the history of the world know more about where they came from than the Jews—they can trace stuff back to Methusala for goodness sake! So the chances that Joseph and Mary did not know who their great, great, great grandparents were would have been somewhere around…zero. And anyone who knew them would have known as well. So again, what’s the problem?
What was their lineage BTW?
Well, the book of Matthew traces Jesus’ lineage from Abraham to emphasize Jesus’ Jewish heritage (although His father was not really Joseph, but rather, God Himself). And the book of Luke traces it all the way to Adam in order to emphasize that Jesus is the fulfillment of the hops of ALL peoples! In addition, Matthew emphasizes Joseph’s connection back to King David while Luke traces Mary’s connection to the once great king. In other-words, 42Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family?” can be answered, “yes, yeas it does say that—and Jesus is from the line of David. All ya had to do was ask!”
Here’s one last one, “and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” So, the Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem, the city of David, right?
Right.
Well, correct me if I’m wrong please, but isn’t that where Jesus was, in fact, born?
You know it was. And so did a lot of them. But someone is throwing out bogus information in this sharp debate, and they are doing it with gusto.
So, people latch on to the lies and reject Jesus because of it.
What a tragedy. It would be like someone rejecting Southbrook because they heard, “behold the pastor of Southbrook will hail form the land of the fruits and nuts (that’s code for California in case you didn’t know). and they heard me say, ‘ya’ll’ once so they assumed I’m from Alabama instead.
So they leave in a huff. All because of a decision made from an assumption based on misinformation.
Sad.
But, there are a lot of great churches, so it isn’t the end of the world. But in the case of Jesus, misinformation can be the difference between life and death—eternal life and death.
So you might want to check your facts before coming to a final conclusion about the Son of God—or anything else for that matter—facts are our friends! 
Besides, you wouldn’t want to be misinformed.