Read John 7
Jesus Goes to the Festival of Tabernacles
1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.
10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”
12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”
Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.
Jesus Teaches at the Festival
14 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
20 “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”
21 Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”
Division Over Who Jesus Is
25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”
28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”
30 At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
33 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36 What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By 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.
40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
41 Others said, “He is the Messiah.”
Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42 Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders
45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51 “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]
53 Then they all went home,
Go Deeper
This chapter jumps ahead a few months in the timeline of Jesus’s life and signals the beginning of the end of His public ministry on earth. He has gained quite the reputation and everywhere He goes it seems like a crowd of fans and foes follow Him. The Jewish religious leaders have it out for Him and are constantly looking for ways to bait Him. Time after time Jesus exposes their flawed logic and theology, but the Pharisees and the Sadducees have had enough of His ways and His words. Allowing Jesus to continue doing what He’s been doing will only undermine everything they have worked for.
Through it all, Jesus never backs down or strays away from the purpose God gave Him. He sums it up perfectly in verse 16: “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.” God sent Jesus with a message of Good News to proclaim to all who would listen. Some people left everything they had to follow Jesus. They got it. It clicked. Some people were confused by Jesus. How was He doing all of these miracles? As cool as those miracles were, He was doing them on the Sabbath. What were they to make of that? And others were desperate to silence this man who was turning the world upside down.
It’s easy for us to look at the Pharisees and Sadducees and shake our heads in disappointment. But really, we should look at them as a cautionary tale of what can happen to us if we aren’t careful. Spiritual blindness is a real thing and it can prevent us from seeing and experiencing the works of God all around us if we’re too caught up in tradition, our own self-righteousness, or our own ignorance. The Pharisees and Sadducees were in self-preservation mode. They wanted to protect the authority and control they had, so they tuned out the Messiah who was right in front of them because they had too much to lose. With the exception of Nicodemus, their hearts were cold and their attitudes were cynical.
We have two options: We can either optimistically look around us to see where Jesus is changing lives or we can let ourselves become cynical.
Questions
- What do you notice about the different responses Jesus gets from others in this chapter?
- Are you naturally optimistic or cynical?
- Have you found yourself struggling to see God at work around you? What are some steps you can take today that will help you not lose sight of what God is doing?
Listen Here
Listen to JP’s sermon from November 2018 “Gospel Driven Optimism” to learn why believers can be the most hopeful, optimistic people on the planet.
2 thoughts on “John 7”
I noted the responses of the people, mainly the Pharisees, who were the religious leaders of the day, to Jesus. These behaviors included scoffing, unbelief, hate, hostility, embarrassment and pride. The One who stirred the waters brought into question their authority & power, and their response was ugly. We might expect this from the Pharisees, but v5 says “even his own brothers didn’t believe him.” The One who had moved into their neighborhood was despised, rejected, a Man of Sorrows the prophet Isaiah spoke of hundreds of years before his arrival. John eluded to this in chapter 1:11 as he declared, “He came unto his own, but his own received him not.” Today, we have every reason to believe as we have the full record of Christ’s miracles, death, burial and resurrection plus accounts of countless lives who have witnessed his saving power. We are without excuse. Let’s fully embrace Christ and bring the good news to others.
I don’t know about y’all but I have “searched” for the meaning to life, my whole life. I thought I needed to find the perfect man, marry, to have kids, have college education, a job that paid big bucks, a house with a white picket fence. Searched for love in all the wrong places, looked to the “man” to fulfill my life. Quit college (but did go back and complete). Found a great man, who also loved God, married, had children, got the house (no picket fence), but still unfulfilled. All the while on this journey I knew in my knower (God’s spot) that I was searching for Him, God. I knew that is what would fulfill me, make me “happy’. BUT GOD also knew that I would need lots of reminders along the way, which He kindly gave and is giving.
This chapter is sad in that his “earthly” family did not even believe Him. But that happens with ours as well. Freedom of choice. You can help people know who Jesus is but you can not make them follow Him, which is a heart breaking situation. BUT GOD knows and in His timing, just like with mine. We/I/they wander all over the place looking for that “THING” when all the time He is right there waiting!!!!!
God thank You for loving me, Hesed, so much that You never give or gave up on me. Thank You that You are enough, that You are what my heart has longed for, You are what I have been searching for in this world but thankfully You are not of this world. God thank You for the rest You give me deep in my soul, when I allow myself to give it all to You. God I am soooooooooo thankful, grateful and blessed in Jesus name amen.
WOOHOO!!!!!!!