In this sermon, Pastor Dave Capoccia examines John 7:10-36 and the account of Jesus’ first round of discussion with his people at the Feast of Booths. John reports Jesus’ first public day at the Feast of Booths to confront your own hesitancy and objections about Jesus so that you might believe and find in Jesus eternal life.
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let’s pray Jesus you are so lovely what a compassionate powerful savior we really did need you to Shield us to absorb the wrath of God on our behalf thank you for giving yourself Lord as we go to your word now Lord Jesus we pray that you’d make it clear to us that you’d speak to this people this morning even using my we Lord let your words come through in Jesus name amen I’ve been thinking this past week about debates have you ever noticed that despite the fact that God made us humans in His image and gave us the capacity for gracious respectful reasoned discussion with one another it seems that we humans seldom use this capacity rather our debates our discussions our arguments are frequently filled with cheap unloving tactics that do nothing to promote Harmony or understanding or Solutions but instead disharmony disinformation and just plain hatred the sad fact about human discourse is not only observable at the highest levels among academics and politicians but also right in the home among families or at the school playground for example one frequent tactic in debate or argument is AD homonym you don’t address what a person is saying but you instead attack the person you denigrate his character you dork what a goody two shoes you’re disgusting related tactic is to attack a person’s credentials you dismiss what a person is saying by asserting that he doesn’t have the proper qualifications to speak what does a girl know try again once you’ve gotten a job you’re too young you’re too old you’re too rich you’re too poor to understand still another tactic is deflection you prevent someone from assigning you blame for your faults by quickly pointing out the faults of the one speaking to you hey you started it well at least I’m not a liar like you well what about you you sin worse than I do of course one other frequently employed tactic is the appeal to force that is you threaten or actually carry out harm against the other person to get him to stop talking if you keep going we won’t be friends anymore don’t make me mad you won’t like that you better stop before I pound you have you heard these kinds of tactics used in conversation have you used them yourselves if so did it lead to a good outcome for you for the other person indeed the true tragedy of resorting to these cheap conversation or debate tactics is not only do they manifest sinful Pride failure to show God’s love and and a disregard for precious relationships but also these tactics fundamentally prevent the one using them from learning or accepting the truth truth that could help a person grow in his life truth that could save him from a self-destructive path truth that could even bring a person to repentance and faith and be saved a person may make himself look good or feel good by resorting to cheap debate tactics but even if he seems to win the argument his soul loses in the end I bring this all to your attention because in our next passage in the Gospel of John we’re going to see people use these kinds of tactics on Jesus rather than listen to the life-giving words that he has to say they find cheap ways to dismiss him or to discredit his message but the truly amazing part of this next passage is not only does Jesus expose his opponent’s tactics as unfair and baseless then turns the tables on his opponents and seems to use their same tactics against them yet this is not Jesus descending to his opponent’s level because where their attempts to dismiss Jesus are born from Folly from Pride from ignorance Jesus uses similar words against them from Divine Authority from omniscience and from a true understanding of what keeps his opponents from believing in him our author John reports this very intriguing conversation so that we might see the Folly of our own objections to Jesus and to Jesus words and then when Once doing so we might and then we might instead be then moved to invite invite Jesus to be our Lord and savior and to do the same for others so please take your Bibles and turn to John chapter 7 John chapter 7:10 as we will examine some surprising Divine apologetics John 710 to 36 is our passage today which you can find on page 1067 now because this is a longer passage than typical I’m not going to read the whole text to start we’re going to read as we analyze as we go through the text we read this earlier in the service do you remember the preceding context though which we saw last time in John 7 1-9 Jesus is in Galilee the Feast of booths one of the three religious feasts at which all law abiding Jewish males must be present in Jerusalem is Drawing Near Jesus Brothers advise him to go up immediately to Jerusalem to the feast so that he might show off his miracles there win disciples and be officially proclaimed Israel’s Messiah but Jesus reminds his brothers that he is bound to God’s agenda not man’s agenda and that the time for going up to the feast is not yet fulfilled he therefore tells them to go up to Jerusalem without him which is what they do narrative picks up again in John 7:10 that’s the beginning of our new section what we’ll see here in John 7:10 down to verse 36 is the first of several rounds of debate or discussion between Jesus and the unbelieving Jews at the Feast of booths here’s the main idea of our passage in John 7:10 to 36 John reports Jesus first public day at the Feast of booths to confront your own hesitancy and objections about Jesus so that you might believe in him and find in him eternal life John reports Jesus first public day at the Feast of boo to confront your own hesitancy and objections about Jesus so you might believe and find in Jesus eternal life The Narrative here proceedes in five parts and our plan will be to look at each part with extra focus on the second part because that’s where the debate is we’ll start with the first part covering verses 10 to 13 where we will see number one the crowd whispers about Jesus the crowd whispers about Jesus like at these verses all together but when his brothers had gone up to the feast then he himself also went up not publicly but as if in secret so the Jews were seeking him at the feast and were saying where is he there was much grumbling among the crowds concerning him some were saying he’s a good man others were saying no on the contrary he leads the people astray yet no one was speaking openly of him for fear of the Jews you’ll notice here that Jesus goes up to the feast only after his brothers do also Jesus does not go up the way that his brothers advised him to do but in the opposite way they advised openness he goes up privately as if in secret wanting to maintain secrecy this was evidently the way that fit the father’s agenda and the son obeyed even in Jerusalem Jesus is committed to keeping a low profile until the right moment for verse 11 tells tells us that even after Jesus goes up the Jews are trying to find him at the feast and asking where is he or more more literally where is that one now remember who the Jews are in John’s gospel that term the Jews these are not merely Jewish people but usually and more specifically they are Jewish people who oppose Jesus especially the Jewish religious leaders so so verse 11 is not simply telling us that Jewish people are seeking Jesus At The Feast but that Jesus opponents are seeking him at the feast why they want to hear what he has to say you want to sit down with him for a nice cup of tea no John 518 and John 71 have already told us that the Jews in Judea are seeking to kill Jesus but right now they can’t because Jesus has arrived quietly and with a low profile in Jerusalem meanwhile verse 12 tells us that the crowd takes a different stance toward Jesus actually the term is you may notice crowds plural in verse 12 indicating masses of people why crowds and not crowd I mean isn’t a whole bunch of people still a crowd well no doubt John our author uses the term crowds to reflect the great influx of Jews arriving into Jerusalem from all over the Middle East and the Mediterranean where the Jews had been scattered since the exile to celebrate the Feast of booths you’ve got crowds coming from all over and forming one extra big crowd a giant crowd you notice in what activity this giant crowd is continually engaged according to verse 12 you see the word grumbling this is a similar Greek word to the one that we saw in John 6 where the people were grumbling about Jesus when he taught them however though grumbling is an adequate translation of the Greek term here betters the niv’s whispering since the basic idea of the Greek term is just conversation in low tones now conversation in low tones is often complaining and grumbling but it may not be that it may just be whispering and that is the case here not everyone is complaining about Jesus in Jerusalem but everyone is talking quietly about him there’s much Whispering among the crowds concerning Jesus and this is notable right you have Jews coming from all over the world into Jerusalem but once they arve there’s one topic on all their minds that Jesus fellow and notice there’s a pretty strong difference of opinion among the Jews in this giant crowd some say he’s good which is not wrong but it’s a pretty low-level endorsement of Jesus he’s a good man While others say definitely not this guy is deceiving and misleading the people but why is everyone whispering verse 13 gives the answer for fear of the Jews hostility and paranoia among Jesus Jewish opponents has reached such a level that if those opponents even hear anyone talking about Jesus whether that conversation is good or bad like big brother or the KGB the Jews have to investigate people don’t want to risk being investigated and perhaps banished from the synagogue so they only whisper about these hottest about this hottest of topics what do you think about Jesus but then at the right time according to the father Jesus launches himself boldly into the public eye which is what we see in the second part of the narrative that covers verses 14 to 29 this is the main part number two Jesus teaches the incredulous crowd Jesus teaches the slow to believe or incred crowd now I’m going to look at this part with you under a number of subheadings three pairs of subheadings each subheading will have to do with a cheap objection raised against Jesus or Jesus answered to one of those cheap objections and the first objection raised appears in verses 14 to 15 and that is 2A objection Jesus is not a qualified religious teacher Jesus is not a qualified religious teacher look at verse 14 but when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach notice that in the middle of the feast Jesus suddenly appears in the temple complex and starts teaching actually in those days Jewish rabbis or religious teachers would often find a spot in the temple if those rabbis were in Jerusalem not in the temple Sanctuary itself but in the temple complex and they would sit down and teach their followers there and also teach whoever was passing by and wanted to listen we see in verse 14 that Jesus assumes this rabinal custom for himself after all he is a rabbi and so he goes up with his disciples to teach in the temple which was assuredly jam-packed with worshippers this bold act however causes some commotion among the Jews as we see in verse 15 the Jews then were astonished saying how has this man become learned having never been educated now first glance verse 15 might sound to you like a positive observation about Jesus but notice who’s speaking verse 15 says the Jews then were astonished these are Jesus opponents the ones who hate him furthermore The New American Standard 95 translation were astonished is a good one because a person could be astonished and either a positive way or a negative way and that that reflects the original Greek verb you could be astonished like that’s amazing and great or you could be astonished like that’s disturbing and wrong and in this case the Jews astonishment over Jesus must be negative thus their question at the end of verse 15 is not a positive Marvel at the greatness of jesus’ teaching but a complaint and a Slam against him for his lacking proper teaching credentials who does this man think he is setting himself up like some great Rabbi in the temple oh sure he sounds learned he can wax eloquent about the Bible but where’s his proper religious training he never sat at the feet of our rabbis he never apprenticed himself to any one of our prestigious teachers that means his teaching cannot be trusted he’s self-taught he’s making up as he goes this is of course a cheap way to discredit Jesus and to not deal with what Jesus actually says and Jesus has a ready answer which we see in verses 16 to 18 our next subo to be answer Jesus self-evidently gets his teaching from God Jesus self-evidently evidently gets his teaching from God look at verse 16 so Jesus answered them and said my teaching is not mine but his who sent me so here you see the wisdom of our savior he will not fall into the Trap of declaring that he is self-taught they will just jump on that but neither will Jesus declare that he relies on man for his teaching because he does not so Jesus declares the truth his teaching is not his own rather he was taught he would he received it from another and who was that other the one who sent him which is one of the ways that Jesus likes to identify God as we see in verse 17 Jesus essentially is telling his opponents you Jews think I’m unqualified to teach as a rabbi I tell you I was given my teaching by God himself this Jesus easily shows the cheap attempt to discredit him has no basis but then Jesus turns the table on his accusers because look at verse 17 if anyone is willing to do his will he will know of the teaching whether it is of god or whether I speak from myself you see what Jesus is saying here he declares that his teaching is self validating that is his teaching self-evidently comes from God and is not merely from Jesus Jesus himself this should be obvious if one fulfills a certain condition there there’s a condition to being able to recognize the true nature of jesus’ teaching and Jesus gives that condition at the beginning of verse 17 if anyone is willing to do his will that is God’s will he will know he will be able to recognize what’s that mean well what Jesus says is just another way of saying anyone truly loves God believes in God wants to obey God’s revealed will that person will recognize Jesus teaching as being from God haven’t we heard this concept before in the Gospel of John John 3:21 John 333 John 537 to 38 you see because God the father has sent the son testifies of the son and speaks through the son no one can say they love God and believe in God and then reject the teachings of Jesus just doesn’t work that way in fact we could State the truth that Jesus is declaring here another way the real problem problem is not Jesus unqualified teaching it’s the Jews unqualified hearing they don’t have the necessary credentials to recognize Jesus teaching for what it really is is because they don’t know God they don’t love God they don’t seek God’s will whatever they might say or do on the outside that’s something Jesus is pointing out to them that needs to change now that’s a bold claim from Jesus though is it unfair is it a cheap shot well no because Jesus is God and he has the authority to make such claims he has the ability but also because what Jesus says should be obvious even to them from another angle which is what he shows in verse 18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own Glory but he who is seeking the glory of the one who sent him he is true and there is no unrighteousness in him here Jesus draws attention to a characteristic of every false teacher every person whose teaching comes which whose teaching comes ultimately from himself and that is that teacher seeks his own Glory he seeks his own reputation seeks his own honor and he seeks what that honor and reputation can bring him which characteristically even the Bible identifies these things money power women the approval of men but quite obviously Jesus is after none of these worldly rewards if he were he’d be giving the people what he want what they want he would be following his brother’s advice do more miracles deliver them from the Romans but Jesus is not doing that that’s because he’s after what God wants and is willing to say what God wants him to say even if Jesus must suffer for it and though Jesus will not deny his own person and position he is the Son of God he’s always seeking the glory and will of his father rather than than his own so what is Jesus getting out of his teaching if he’s really speaking for himself and of himself it’s like a crime investigation a person can’t have committed a crime if there’s no motive there’s no evident selfish motive in Jesus which points to the truth doesn’t it that Jesus isn’t speaking from himself we’re seeking his own Glory but the glory of the one sending him which also means Jesus is as true as God himself is and there is no unrighteousness in him by the way Verse 18 Again exposes Jesus listeners doesn’t it he’s not the one with selfish motives speaking from himself but they are this is just like what Jesus said in John 5:44 the Jews seek the glory of men rather than the glory of God that’s the real issue here so the Jews objection to Jesus is not only basis but it exposes their own hearts and ours too if we think similarly Jesus self-evidently gets his teaching from God but what Jesus says at the end of Verse 18 causes Jesus to anticipate another cheap objection against him and so he brings it up in verses 19 to 20 to see objection Jesus does not keep the law Jesus does not keep the law that’s why you shouldn’t listen to him look at verses 19 and 20 did not Moses give you the law and yet none of you carries out the law why do you seek to kill me the crowd answered you have a demon who seeks to kill you uh what’s going on here well the next few verses will clarify more but Jesus is talking about his healing on the Sabbath an act that the Jews felt like was an obvious violation of God’s law we already learned back in John five when Jesus in fact did heal on the Sabbath and also declared himself to be the Son of God that the Jews therefore wanted to kill Jesus as a law breaker and as a blasphemer we are again reminded that the Jews intent to kill Jesus at the beginning of John 7 so while bringing up this unspoken objection of the Jews that Jesus is a law breaker and therefore whatever he says cannot be trusted Jesus Jesus also is pointing out the irony how can the Jews who receive the law say they want to keep the law and want to kill someone for breaking the law are actually showing that they break the law themselves in their murderous intent wanting to kill Jesus is breaking the law that they say they want to uphold then we have the words of verse 20 in which the people claim that no one wants to kill Jesus and that Jesus must have been in made insane by a demon if Jesus thinks that people are about to get him which is a little bit confusing because we already know as readers that the Jews do in fact want to kill Jesus and if you just glance down to verse 25 we will hear the people say isn’t this the one that the rulers want to kill what’s going on I mean we haven’t even address the fact that they very irreverently and carelessly say that he has a demon say that to the Son of God saying that to the Son of God is a problem but what about this denial that anybody wants to kill Jesus are they just lying are they playing dumb they trying to preserve some sort of facade of righteousness possibly but notice who’s speaking of verse 20 doesn’t say the Jews it says the crowd also you may notice if you glance at verse 25 who’s speaking there it’s not the crowd but the people of Jerusalem what’s most likely Happening Here is that the crowd which is at this point mostly made up of Pilgrim Jews not from Jerusalem do not actually know about the hardened intent of the Jews to kill Jesus they are ignorant but the people living in Jerusalem who make up a minority of the crowd they do know about it so this isn’t necessarily a lie some of the crowd really do believe there’s no reason for Jesus to think anybody’s after him and yet even some of this supposedly innocent crowd will soon try to kill Jesus as we’ll see in verse 30 so even if some people in the crowd are ignorant about plots against Jesus Jesus statement about the people really the people in general wanting to kill him is correct and that is a violation of the law but how does Jesus deal with this objection this cheap shot that Jesus is a law breaker for not keeping the Sabbath therefore don’t listen to him but we see his answer in verses 21 to 24 so here’s 2D answer Jesus genuinely keeps the law even though you do not that’s what he tells his hearers and it’s for us too Jesus genuinely keeps the law even though you do not look at verses 21 to together then he oops there we go Jesus answered them I did one deed and you all Marvel for this reason Moses has given you circumcision not because it is from Moses but from the fathers and on the Sabbath you circumcised them man if a man received circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses will not be broken are you angry with me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath to summarize what Jesus is doing here Jesus presents the crowd with an argument by analogy in verse 21 Jesus refers back to his healing on the Sabbath that one deed or that one work which still in the present causes many of them to Marvel or we could translate that word to become astonished it’s the same word that we just saw previously in the passage and remember astonishment can be positive or negative and it’s negative here they are disturbingly astonished because of that one work that he did yet the Jewish practice of circumcision Jesus says should show that their Disturbed marveling and even their murderous anger against Jesus is completely unjust ified the Jews recognized that it is right and merciful even a proper fulfillment of the law of Moses to give priority to certain commands from God over the command to keep the Sabbath circumcision a gracious right prescribed earlier to the Jews than the Sabbath was is one example thus Jews will circumcise male babies on the eth day of that baby’s life even when that day is a Sabbath and thus requires J to break the Sabbath rule it’s because other priorities make that appropriate Jesus thus challenges the Jews if you recognize the rightness of circumcision on the Sabbath mercifully to make right or make well just one member of a man how can you be angry with me when I follow the same principles and made an entire man well on the Sabbath far from breaking the law Jesus says I was fulfilling the law by accomplishing what should have higher priority loving a neighbor and doing good to him even on the Sabbath now in laying out this argument you may notice that Jesus is also implying something provocative to his hearers in the whole healing episode Jesus wasn’t the one breaking God’s law and teaching others to do the same name it was the Jews who condemned him for what he did they’re the true law Breakers thus Jesus concludes in verse 24 do not judge according to appearance but judge with righteous judgment Jesus once again is showing what the problem really is it’s not with Jesus it’s with the people’s interpretation of Jesus actions even their entire interpretation of God’s law they are judging self-righteously according to Mere appearance according to external criteria but God calls them even in the law itself to judge with righteous judgment literally that phrase appears in the law they are not keeping the law they’re teaching the wrong thing about the Sabbath they want to kill Jesus for doing right on the Sabbath and they won’t even judge appropriately according to what the law requires so Jesus is againi inviting people by exposing the true problem to repent to repent of their proud ignorant externals focused self-righteous kind of judgment and adopt a truly righteous judgment system a type of judgment which should lead them far from condemning him instead to believe in him and us too if you think Jesus doesn’t keep the law and you do Jesus says you’ve got it backwards he generally keeps the law even though you do not there’s one more cheap objection raised against Jesus and it emerges as a result of his bold teaching we see the third and final objection versus 25 to 27 2 e objection Jesus has a known pedestrian origin Jesus has a known pedestrian origin look at these verses so some of the people of Jerusalem were saying is not this is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill look he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him the rulers do not really know that this is the Christ do they however we know where this man is from but what whenever the Christ may come no one knows where he is from so we heard an objection from the Jews before and then from the crowd but now we hear from the people of Jerusalem specifically and in verse 25 the jerusalemites display their inside knowledge they dwell in Jerusalem they’re close to the center of power they’re with the religious leaders most of the time so they know they know that Jesus is the man that they the Jewish leaders seek to kill yet the jerusalemites are surprised by something the fact that these leaders are letting Jesus teach out in the open and saying and doing nothing to stop him that doesn’t seem to make sense for a moment the Jerusalem dwellers wonder if the rulers have secretly come to believe that Jesus is the Christ and that’s why they don’t stop him but they quickly discard the possibility of that being true for themselves that Jesus could really be the Messiah and the reason they’re so confident is because they say they know where Jesus is from they all know about Jesus they all know about his origin but no man will know the true origin or background of the Christ the Messiah whenever he comes you might ask H H how can that be true doesn’t the Old Testament declare that the Messiah will be from the line of David doesn’t Micah 52 say that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem why would the jerusalemites say therefore that no one will know the Christ’s origin no one will know from where he comes that’s a very good question and the answer appears to be it’s all based on religious tradition from a Bible misinterpretation you see based on the fact that the Old Testament foretells very little about the Messiah including his background aside from his birthplace and lineage that basic information and based on the fact that Malachi 31 one talks about God’s messenger suddenly coming to the temple a tradition developed among the Jews that no one would know anything about the Messiah including the Messiah himself until the moment he suddenly appeared in Jerusalem realized he was the Messiah and set up the kingdom now Jesus has had some sudden appearances throughout his ministry even in jerus even at the temple including even here at the Feast of Tabernacles he suddenly shows up in the middle of the feast but we’re already at Jesus third year of public Ministry the people feel like they know Jesus he’s that non-traditional Rabbi from Nazareth that does do some notable Miracles but we know his background we know his parents we know what he’s all about he can’t possibly be the Messiah he’s not mysterious enough he’s not special enough of course there’s a incredible irony in that conclusion isn’t there if you just read John 1 you realize Jesus has an incredibly mysterious and special background you jerusalemites don’t know the half of it but they think they do so Jesus is going to give them an answer he’s going to tell them that they don’t really know and why they don’t really know look at Jesus answer to third objection in verses 28 to 29 it says is 2 F answer you must know God to understand Jesus coming from God you must know God to understand Jesus coming from God verse 28 actually we’ll read both of them together 28 and 29 then Jesus cried out in the temple teaching and saying you both know me and know where I am from and I have not come of myself but he who sent me is true whom you do not know I know him because I am from him and he sent me notice first in verse 28 the verb cried out this is unusual up to this point Jesus has merely taught were spoken but now he lifts up his voice and shouts No Doubt with emotion is Jesus becoming frustrated with the people’s pride and lame excuses is he grieved over their hardness of heart does he feel a kind of desperation to break through to them with the life-giving truth it’s probably something about each of these ideas Jesus cries out and he says first robably sarcastically you both know me and know where I am from actually Jesus Will assert just the in the next chapter John 8:14 that the people in fact do not know where he comes from so if Jesus Jesus is acknowledging anything about the people’s knowledge of him at this point it is that they only know him in a superficial way you think you know me actually some commentators think that these words should be translated as a question do you know me do you know where I’m from Jesus then next alludes to his Heavenly origin with God I have not come of myself but he who sent me is true note that before Jesus called himself true but now he calls God true he’s in another way setting himself at the same bar as God there is a Sublime realness and truthfulness to both father and son I am true he is true but also in this statement Jesus clarifies the no I should say so Jesus declares his Heavenly origin he brings that up again but then right afterwards Jesus clarifies the real reason people do not really know him or recognize his ultimate origin they do not know the one who is true they do not know the one who sent him they do not know God and so we see here that Jesus has once again turned the tables on his opponents they dismiss Jesus because they think they already know him but Jesus asserts that he knows them and he can give the real reason why they don’t really know him they don’t really know God despite living in Jerusalem despite whatever Rel religiosity they have attempted to Adorn themselves with they don’t know God that Jesus again holds out an implicit invitation to his hearers in verse 29 I know the true God because I am from him and he sent me do you want to know God you can through me if you will give up your proud prejudices against me if you will give up your man-centered expectations as to what the Messiah is or will be if you will finally listen to me and will believe in me for real I will show you the true God you will know him and then you will know me and where I’m really from dismissing Jesus based on supposedly well-known and pedestrian Origins is an unjustified cheap shot truth is you must humble yourself to know God through Jesus before you really get Jesus well as you can imagine shooting down the baseless objections and exposing the true issue of proud unbelief and supposedly religious God-fearing people who are there at the feast remember out of religious devotion doing all this is going to provoke a reaction and that’s what we see in part three of our narrative verses 30 to 31 Jesus impact on the crowd number three the crowd reacts to Jesus we’ll read those two verses together verses 30 to 31 so they were seeking to seize him and no man laid his hand on him because his hour had not yet come but many of the crowd believed in him and they were saying when the Christ comes he will not perform more signs than those which this man has will he it’s a two-fold reaction from the great throng of people in Jerusalem to Jesus isn’t it some of the crowd angry over this fresh batch of Spirit-filled words from Jesus keep trying to seize Jesus to kill him yet they ultimately cannot why is that well practically speaking it’s difficult to snatch someone away when he’s in the most public space in Jerusalem surrounded by supporters and very interested listeners there’s something strategic about Jesus being in the temple makes him hard to kill but the more important reason is theological and it’s given in our text because his hour had not yet come not only is Jesus determined to fulfill the divine div agenda but his father is also Jesus cannot be lynched at this Feast of booths because he must die about six months later at the Feast of Passover crucified as a wrath bring substitute for Sinners thus Jesus is both supernaturally and providentially safe at this feast and there’s a principle there for us isn’t it you’ll never be hurt or killed before the time that God determined is right not a hair of your head will fall from your or not a hair of your head will fall God says I’ll protect you until moments that are for my glory and your ultimate good but not all in the crowd are angry we learn that some believe some believe in Jesus on the basis of His abundant signs which is intriguing because what we’ve just read here in John 7 is that Jesus has not done any new signs at this Feast he’s only taught which you may remember that goes against his brother’s advice go to Jerusalem and do signs apparently he hasn’t done any or at least it’s not been recorded by John Jesus has only gone up to teach but nevertheless many in the crowd have assuredly heard of Jesus signs or experienced them previously and not being put off by Jesus new words they believe in Jesus but is this saving faith is this a persevering belief we don’t know John our author always wants us to think about the word believe whenever it comes up what does that really mean is this true Belief John doesn’t clarify for us here maybe some of them are true it is interesting though that in John 8:31 Jesus will speak to those who have believed in him based on the feast and moments later they will try to kill him because he will assert his eternal divinity not all belief is true belief but some believe here and John 6:37 and 39 remains true John 637 to39 all that the father gives me Jesus says will come to me and of all that he has given me I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day but this is just the crowd’s reaction what about the religious leaders of Israel we see that in part four of the narrative which is just verse 32 part four the rulers react to Jesus the rulers react to Jesus verse 32 the Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize him and we see the Pharisees mentioned again in this verse they haven’t actually appeared that much in John but we’re going to see a lot more of them in this book going forward who are the Pharisees again they are the popular religious leaders they’re the scribes and rabbis whose Ministry was centered in the synagogues rather than the temple and we learn despite the efforts of the people to be quiet in their discussions about Jesus only mutter or whisper same word here as before translated grumbling the popularly informed Pharisees realized that more people are believing in Jesus oh did you hear that they just say that they believe in Jesus Pharisees don’t like that so they decide the time to act against Jesus is now and while normally very hostile to the Sadducees or the chief priests as they are called in our text that would be the religious leaders at the temple and in Jerusalem normally the Pharisees and seses could not get along they were opposed forces but both realized that Jesus is a threat so we here in our text they team up they order a group of officers these will be part of the temple guard drawn from the family of Levi they order some officers of the temple God to arrest Jesus so that the religious leaders may put Jesus to death it is as I said earlier one cheap way to win an argument it’s just to arrest and kill the other person the hateful unbelieving religious leaders of Israel are prepared to do that exactly though as we’ll see later in this chapter their efforts will be unsuccessful this time yet Jesus the one with Supernatural knowledge knows about this plot he knows about religious leaders are doing what they’ve ordered and he reacts in a poignant way it’s the fifth and final part of our narrative verses 33 to 36 number five Jesus gives everyone a warning look first at just verses 33 and therefore Jesus said for a little while longer I am with you then I go to him who sent me you will seek me and will not find me and where I am you cannot come notice the therefore in verse 33 Jesus is speaking in reaction to what the religious leaders have just ordered perhaps Jesus can even see some of the temple guard filtering through the crowd and what Jesus says has everything to do with the evil desire of the Jews to be rid of Jesus to be rid of God’s son and notice what Jesus says and this too probably with recognizable emotion for a little while longer I am with you then I go to him who sent me Jesus is foretelling his death isn’t he he’s foretelling his death and is soon returned to the Father’s Side by Resurrection and Ascension in essence Jesus is telling his soon to be murderers his own people that they will win the argument they will win the argument against him eventually he will go away but at the same time he’s revealing to them that they will ultimately lose for soon he says they will seek Jesus and will not find him where he is they will not be able to come understand that Jesus is not merely saying that one day he’ll be Beyond his enemy grasps they won’t be able to kill him anymore no we can’t be saying that because Jesus will speak a similar message to the one here to his own disciples in John 13:33 but in that context Jesus also assures his disciples that though they cannot be with him now they will follow him later in fact he goes to prepare a place for them so that he might come back to get them so that where Jesus is there his disciples will be also but Jesus doesn’t give those guarantees In this passage so what is Jesus saying to the crowd he’s saying that the time to listen to repent and believe is running out soon the speaker speaker of the words of eternal life will go away death and judgment will come for every person and every person whether an angry rejector a confused person with questions and objections or a nominal believer every person eventually will find themselves desperate for Jesus again and for his words of eternal life but it will be too late they will seek Him and will not find him him and where he goes to the father’s side in heaven they will never come as I say to win the argument against Jesus and banish his uncomfortable words from your life is to lose something much more important and to banish your own soul to hell so Jesus words in verses 33 to 34 they are a warning and a plea to come to Jesus before it’s too late as Isaiah 556 says seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near do not hide behind your flimsy excuses your cheap objections there’s a good answer to whatever reason you might raise for not believing in Jesus face the real reason that you do not believe believe as Jes Jesus even exposes in our passage the real reason is not a lack of information a lack of miraculous signs a lack of good apologetic answers it’s your own Pride it’s your self-righteousness your insistence that you are a good person it’s your own rebellious commitment to live the way that you want rather than the way God wants Jesus pleads with his listeners he pleads with you turn from your self-destructive path before it’s too late believe in Jesus take him truly holy fully as your savior and Lord and you will be saved that’s the promise from the scriptures beware the path that Jesus stubborn Jewish opponents take which is what we see in our last two verses verses 35- 36 the Jews then said to one another where does this man intend to go that we will not find him he’s not intending to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks is he what is this statement that he said you will seek me and will not find me and where I am you cannot come notice we’re hearing from the Jews again in these last two verses these are Jesus enemies this these are the religious leaders how do they react to Jesus warning not just with perplexity but probably with mocking where’s he going to go where we can’t find him they even ask does Jesus intend to go across the Middle East to the Mediterranean to all the places that the Jews have been scattered and teach the heniz Jews there and even teach the Gentiles there surely not surely he will not do something so pathetic so Preposterous but then they repeat the question or they repeat their question of where Jesus is going and repeat Jesus statement which is the only time in the whole Gospel of John that someone repeats Jesus statement word for word it’s like the Jews are even as they mock even as they dismiss Jesus warning they are still Disturbed still disturbed by this pronouncement from Jesus even haunted by it I believe our author John wants the discomfort from this warning from Jesus to remain in the minds of his readers which is why he reports the repeating of this statement word for word by the Jews he wants the reader he wants us to be uncomfortable about this statement so that we will not persist in unbelief so that’s the way I will end my sermon today if you’re in Christ praise the Lord that though he went away he has prepared a place for you but if you’re not in Christ hear again the warning from Jesus to all those who wait until it’s too late to come to him you will seek me and will not find me and where I am you cannot come let’s pray oh Lord when I think about this passage and the cut and thrust of the debate Lord we can hide behind a lot of things things we can come up with a whole bunch of excuses as to why we cannot obey why we cannot believe but Jesus you show you know they are only flimsy excuses and the worst part is they only Doom us they keep us away from the one who can save us but I pray that for the people who have heard your word today preach from this passage that they will not know the horror of what Jesus says at the end of his teaching that you will seek me and not find me Lord we are aware that hell is a real place and one of its descriptors is that it is a place of weeping and nashing of teeth why is there so much weeping in hell of course due to the suffering but also due to the bottomless regret why would I not turn when I had the chance why wouldn’t I seek him when he could still be found Lord please don’t let that be true for anyone here today please don’t let that be true for the loved ones in our families Lord who don’t know you who have walked away from you thank you Lord that for us who are in Christ that is not a true statement Lord we have sought you we have found you it was because you sought us first you found us and when we rebelled against you you said I’m going to open your eyes I’m going to give you a new heart I’m going to give you my own life so that you know God and thus you know me and you will believe thank you Lord God there is no regret in following after you thank you for showing such Mercy to us oh Lord there are so many things in this life that can distract us from the seriousness of spiritual reality we can even take to Grant take for granted you and your salvation I pray that wouldn’t be true for me or for anyone who’s heard this message today that we would tremble even as we rejoice and say God how is it that you are merciful to me a sinner how is it that you are preparing a place for me forever how is it that I gain a place in your kingdom thank you Lord for your kindness Lord help us to show that same kindness to others even to one another in this church in Jesus name amen amen let’s stand and sing