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Please turn your Bibles to John
chapter 7, the gospel of John chapter 7. We will be reading
verses 14 through 36 this morning. John 7 verses 14 through 36. Hear now the word of the Lord. But now, when it was now in the
midst of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple and began to
teach. The Jews then were astonished, saying, how has this man become
learned, having never been educated? So Jesus answered them and said,
my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone is
willing to do his will, he will know of the teaching, whether
it is of God or whether I speak for myself. He who speaks for
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. 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? 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 circumcise
a man. If a man receives 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? Do not judge according to appearance,
but judge with righteous judgment. So some of the people of Jerusalem
were saying, is this not the man whom they are seeking to
kill? Look, he is speaking publicly and they are 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 whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where
he is from. 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. 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? The Pharisees heard the crowd
muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and
the Pharisees sent officers to seize him. 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."
The Jews then said to one another, where does this man intend to
go that we will not find him? He is 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. Thus concludes
the reading of God's Word. Let us go to the Lord in prayer
and ask Him to bless the preaching of His Word. Heavenly Father,
we do ask you, Lord God, we pray that you would be with us this
morning, teaching us, instructing us. Please bless the preaching
of your word, that we may know you rightly, that we may worship
you rightly. All this for your glory, Lord
God, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So last week we saw, we
began to see the narrative of Jesus at the Feast of Booths.
And there we saw the opposition of Jesus by his own brothers
at home. And we began to see the opposition
that Jesus faced by the religious leaders and the crowds as he
secretly went to the Feast of Booths. Our text this morning
continues that event, and we see now that it was well into
the feast, or in the middle of the feast, as the text says. And Jesus is no longer there
as a private spectator, but he begins to teach and to preach
publicly. Throughout the narrative, we
find four verbal exchanges between Jesus, the religious leaders,
the crowd, and the people of Jerusalem. And the irony in all
of this is that the reason why the opposition comes is that
they have entirely missed the point of Jesus' teaching. Jesus
tells them, you've missed it. And the reason for this is because
of their own supposed knowledge. What they thought they knew about
God, about Christ, clashed with the true knowledge of God and
His Christ. The true knowledge that Jesus
Himself taught And so, what we will begin to
look at this morning, the main focal point here, is the opposition
of the people towards Christ, His work, and His teaching. Why? Because they are unwilling to
do God's will as Christ reveals it. They do not know God because
They do not desire to know His will. That is the reason, that
is the evidence that we have. That the reason why they do not
desire to do God's will is because they don't know Him. The one
whom they profess to know, and the one whom they profess to
serve, this one God, they do not know. And therefore, they
do not desire to do His will. because of our sinful state,
because we are in darkness. We too, all of us, all of mankind
is not willing to do His will as God has revealed it. Rather,
we want to do our own will. Even if it's in the context of
religion, we want to worship as we want to worship. Yet this
only proves that we do not know God or His teaching through Jesus
Christ whom He has sent. And so this is what we're going
to be looking at this morning. And how do we see this opposition
and what is this teaching that the religious leaders, the crowd,
and the people of Jerusalem did not know and had rejected? Well,
first, we see that the authority and origin of Jesus' teaching
is from God. The authority and origin of Jesus'
teaching is from God. Second, the nature of Jesus'
work is consistent with God's law. Thirdly, the origin of Jesus
and his mission is heavenly. And then fourthly, the trajectory
of Jesus' mission is heavenward. So let us look at our first point.
The authority and origin of Jesus' teaching is from God. So we see
initially that the Jews, the religious leaders, as John calls
them, were astonished. They were astonished at Jesus'
teaching. They were amazed and marveled
at His teaching. And usually, this is a good thing.
When someone comments to you on something that you've done,
and they said, wow, I was amazed, astonished at what you did. It's
typically a good thing. In Matthew 8, Jesus is astonished,
marveled at the centurion's faith. In Luke 9, the people were astonished
or amazed at the work of Jesus. There is bewilderment, surprise,
but an excitement at seeing such a great thing. However, this
is not the case. This is not what we see here
in our text. They were astonished for a very different reason.
Their astonishment was negative, not positive. And what was the
cause of their astonishment? Well, we see two things here
in our text. In verse 15, they couldn't deny
that Jesus was a learned individual. He had great knowledge and he
spoke, as Matthew tells us, as one having authority and not
as the scribes. He spoke not as the scribes.
He spoke with one having great authority and confidence. He had knowledge. Secondly, they
could not explain how he had become such a learned individual
if he had not received formal training, if he had not been
educated as they had. Often the enemies of Christ,
the enemies of the Christian faith, of the church, will bring
accusations against us, claiming we have no formal education in
matters of science or philosophy or of new pseudosciences or pseudoscience
studies such as gender studies and the like, in order to try
to discredit what we say, what the Bible teaches. Not only Christians,
but anyone who speaks truth, whether from a Christian standpoint,
from a special revelation standpoint, or even from general revelation.
But as has been pointed out by so many, that formal training,
a degree from some university, does not make one right. It does
not make one an expert in what they are saying. It all depends
on the university or on the seminary. There are many good seminaries,
good, not many, but there are some good universities, I'm sure
still left. But by and large, so many universities,
so many higher forms of education, even seminaries have gone astray
and are promoting things, supposed knowledge that is not true knowledge. that is contrary to what God
has revealed in his scriptures and even in the world. And oftentimes they will criticize
us and say, well, you have no formal education in this, what
do you know? And in one sense, this is what
the religious leaders were doing. How is this man so smart? He has no formal education, but
yet this angered them. It was an excuse to not listen
to him, to not submit or obey to what he was saying. The kind
of astonishment that they had was fueled by their hatred for
him. And we see this also in verse
15 as they say, how has this man become learned? This man,
it was a derogatory word. This nobody of a man. How is
this poor nobody who has no formal education. How has he become
learned? So it was a derogatory term. They hated Jesus Christ,
and therefore they hated his teaching. And in this way, the
religious leaders then initiate this first verbal confrontation
with Jesus, and they challenge his teaching. Who are you to
teach us, you unlearned individual? But then in verses 16 through
19, we see Jesus' respond. This is what makes Jesus' response
so brilliant and important, what we see here, what he says. In
his response, he admits to no formal education as a religious
leader. Even so, his education is far superior to theirs. Why is that? Because we learn
that his knowledge, his teaching, is from the Father, is directly
from God the Father. He did not learn it from a man,
who could err, His teaching is that which is from the Father.
And He knows it because He is from the Father. And we've seen
this already in chapter one, verse 18. He is the Word becoming
incarnate, the only begotten Son who is in the Father's bosom. He alone can explain God. He
alone can tell us what God the Father wants His will. His teaching, again, is directly
from the Father. It is unlike that of the religious
leaders, or even, as we saw in chapter 3, John the Baptist.
His teaching was true. But again, what does John the
Apostle tell us about John the Baptist? That he was earthly. As good as his teaching was,
and God used him, he was a great prophet, that he was earthly. But Christ is heavenly. He comes
from above. He is the one who descended from
above. He is the bread from heaven,
the true bread from heaven. He comes from the Father and
therefore He knows the Father's will and He is able and He alone
is able to explain Him and His will to His people. So His education,
though not formal like the Pharisees, like the scribes, yet His education,
His learning, His knowledge was far superior than the religious
leaders. And then we also see in this
statement that Jesus is rebuking the religious leaders. Why don't
they just know who He is, where He is from, and that His teaching
is from God? Why don't they know these things?
Because they are not willing to do His will. We see this in
verses 18 and 19. First, they sought their own
glory. The one who truly speaks the
truth of God speaks for God. that is for God's glory. We see
this in everyone who has ever been a true spokesman of God.
We see that in the prophets. They never sought their own glory.
In famine, in persecution, when the nation would not listen to
them, they continued to preach. They continued to tell the people
what God had revealed to them. Because ultimately, they were
doing what they were doing for God's glory, not their own. We
see the same thing in John the Baptist. We see the same thing
in the apostles, and evangelists, and missionaries. We'll read
the biographies of people who gave up so much to go to places
where they would eventually be killed, persecuted. Their families,
their wives, their children be killed, dying. They gave it all
up for the Lord. Because they weren't seeking
their own glory, they were seeking the glory of God. And here we
see Christ, the one true prophet, the Son of God, the Word of God.
He comes from God, and He was not seeking His own glory, but
that of His Father's. Now, He would receive glory,
eventually. But it is in glorifying the Father
that the Son would then be glorified. And He would glorify the Father
through His suffering. Through His perfect obedience.
Even the death on the cross. But He says this here to rebuke
the leaders. To hint that, no, you guys are
seeking your own glory. And that's why you are not willing
to do the will of God. Because you want your own glory.
You want your own fame. And so whatever clashes with
what they think they know, with their glory, they reject. They were supposed to be the
keepers of the law. Those who studied it and taught
the law of God, they had received the law. And then Jesus says,
but you do not carry it out. And what is his proof? They were
trying to kill him. Where was the proof or the evidence
that he had done something unlawful? Now, they're going to accuse
him of Sabbath-breaking, but even then, Jesus defends himself
by showing their hypocrisy. But where was the proof? They
wanted to kill him. They hated him, which was a violation
of the Mosaic law. So they had been given the law,
and they had not kept it. and the teaching of Christ they
rejected because they were not willing to do God's will. But rather than having the religious
leaders defend themselves at this point, we are introduced
to another group that does this for them. And we see this in
verse 20, as John designates here, the crowd. And in this
second verbal exchange, we see the second truth of what Jesus
has been teaching. Namely, that Jesus' work is the
will of God the Father, and therefore consistent with God's law. The nature of Jesus' work is
consistent with God's law. In verse 20, the crowd challenges
Jesus' statement that the religious leaders, or anyone for that matter,
was trying to kill Him. In this new dialogue, we see
more clearly than last week how the crowd was opposing Jesus.
They say, you have a demon. Who's trying to kill you? They
were calling him, in essence, they were calling him a madman.
You're crazy. Who's trying to kill you? Nobody's
trying to kill you. And what we see here between
the religious leaders and the crowds is the lines, the lines
between these two groups. are being erased. Because sometimes,
or up to this point, we would see the crowds following Christ,
sympathetic for Christ, and then we started to see a shift last
week where the crowd was divided. Some were saying, no, he's leading
people astray. Others, no, he's a good man. But here the crowd
is actually defending the religious leaders. And so what John is
doing is he's slowly showing us that these two groups are
slowly becoming one group until eventually we see this one unified
group that kills our Savior, that has Him crucified. And Jesus responds by pointing
to the religious leaders and He explains to them why they are being hypocritical. He says, for one deed, you are
trying to kill me. So that was his response. For
one deed, you are trying to kill me. Now, what is this one deed?
This one deed is referring back to the paralytic man that Jesus
healed in John chapter 5. If you recall, after he heals
the man, he goes and presents himself to the religious leaders. They're saying, you know, who
did this? Who told you to take up your pallet and walk on the
Sabbath? He didn't know who it was. Later on, he's in the temple
and he finds Jesus again. And so he finds out, okay, it's
Jesus. So he goes back to the religious leaders and says, it
was Jesus the one who told me to pick up my pallet and walk.
And in verse 18, it says, for this reason, therefore, the Jews
were seeking to kill, or all the more to kill him, because
he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but was also calling
God his own father, making himself equal with God. So these were
the charges against him. But what Jesus here is alluding
to, the one deed was that he had healed a man on the Sabbath.
And he's saying, for this one deed, you are trying to kill
me. And so in this then, Jesus takes
the opportunity then to show their hypocrisy. He brings up,
he does this by bringing up the law and current practice of two
Old Testament laws, the Sabbath and circumcision. The laws on
the Sabbath prohibited any work on that day. However, the law
of Moses instructs the people to circumcise the male children
on the eighth day. But there's a problem because
sometimes a child was born and the eighth day landed on the
Sabbath. So what do you do? And Jesus
brings up here that it was permitted. It was permitted for somebody
to do the work of circumcising a child on the Sabbath. So they
were doing work. And so Jesus brings this up and
says, look, you are allowed to do this one thing that affects
a part of a body. on the Sabbath, you're allowed
to do this. Yet I made a man whole, I healed
him completely, and for that you wanna kill me? So he's showing
here their hypocrisy. And at the core of their misunderstanding
was their misunderstanding of both the Sabbath and circumcision. God had instituted the Sabbath
to point to Christ's work of bringing in true rest for His
people, spiritual rest. The Sabbath is a day to rest
in Christ. How? By worshiping Him, by engaging
in activities as much as is possible, engaging in activities that promote
worship, whether the public worship or private worship at your home
with your family. And it is a day also to do good
toward your fellow neighbor. Because after all, this is a
day of rest. And this is the day where Christ offered himself
up for the good of his people. He did a good deed for his people. And so on this day, we are to
rest in Christ. Spiritually, we do this every
day, but we get one day in seven to focus our energies on worshiping
Christ and really experiencing that rest. But also, just as
Christ did good for us when possible, to do good to others, when our
fellow brethren are in need, to help them as Christ helped
us. It is His day given for us for
spiritual rest and enjoyment. So there was a huge misunderstanding
about the Sabbath and its nature and its purpose. But that wasn't
the only law they misunderstood. They also did not see the meaning
behind circumcision. Circumcision dealt with only
part of the body, the male body, and yet this was allowed to do
on the Sabbath. And what Jesus had done, what
He underscores, is that He had healed not just part of the man,
but the whole. man on the Sabbath. So while
circumcision affected one part of the body and yet was permissible,
how much more would it also be permissible if the whole man
is made well? But there is yet something more
going on here that the religious leaders and the crowd did not
understand about circumcision. There is a close relationship
between circumcision on the one hand and the Sabbath on the other.
Circumcision was a type, a picture of what? Of regeneration, of
spiritual birth, being born from above. Physical circumcision
of the flesh pointed to spiritual circumcision of the heart. We
see this in Deuteronomy 10.6. Moses is exhorting the people
to fear and serve the Lord, to walk in His ways and to love
Him. And he reminds them how the Lord set His love on their
fathers. And then he says to them, so,
because of this, because God has set His love upon you, Circumcise
your heart and stiffen your neck no longer. For the Lord your
God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the
mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor
take a bribe. Circumcise your hearts and stiffen
your neck no longer." They were stubborn. They were hard-hearted. Over and over and over, God had
proved Himself, one sign after another. And yet they continue
to harden themselves, to rebel against the Lord. And so He says,
look, the Lord has set His love upon you. Circumcise your heart. Jeremiah 4.4, the Lord is warning
the people through the prophet Jeremiah because of their disobedience. And this is centuries later. And he says, "...circumcise yourselves
to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and
inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else my wrath will go forth like
a fire and burn with none to quench it because of your evil
deeds." So again, He's calling them to circumcise themselves,
to circumcise their heart. In Acts chapter 7 verse 51, we
see there Stephen, before the council, before the religious
leaders, and after giving this wonderful exposition of God's
mercy, of God's work among the people, He rebukes them and he
says, you men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just
as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did
your fathers not persecute? They killed those who previously
announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers
you have now become. You who have received the law
as ordained by angels and yet did not keep it. This is the
exact same charge that Jesus is giving to the religious leaders.
The religious leaders were acting like their forefathers, not Moses,
not Abraham, their forefathers, those that killed the prophets. Those that murdered the prophets
because they did not like what they said. They were resisting
them because they were not circumcised in heart. They were not regenerate. They were not born from above.
And that is why they resisted the Holy Spirit. And here again, Jesus did more
than just heal the paralytic man. He gave him spiritual birth. He heals him, and as a result
of that physical healing, the man believes in Christ, and is
made not just well in his physical body, but in his spiritual as
well. He is made whole, physically
and spiritually. And this circumcision of the
heart, this spiritual regeneration, is something that was foretold
in the Old Testament. We see it in Ezekiel 36, 27-27,
that it wouldn't be the people doing it, but it was foretold
that God would do it. Ezekiel says, moreover, or the
Lord says through Ezekiel, moreover, I will give you a new heart and
put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of
stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will
put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.
And you'll be careful to observe my ordinances. And that is the
huge difference between the old covenant, the Old Testament,
and the new covenant in Christ. is that in the old covenant,
yes, God called them to regeneration. He called them to faith, but
that was not part of the covenant. It was not part of the deal,
we can say, or the commitment between God and the people that
He would do that. No, He told them, you do this
and I will do this. But of the things that God would
do, it was not regeneration. And so he called them to circumcise
your hearts, circumcise your hearts. And they didn't because
no one ever can. We cannot circumcise our own
hearts. We cannot cause our own spiritual
rebirth. And that is the beauty and glory
of the new covenant. That in this covenant, God says,
I will do it. I will give you a new heart. And so He does. All those that
are in the New Covenant, that have believed in Christ, have
received the spiritual circumcision by God. He has done the work
for us. So true Sabbath rest can only be enjoyed through spiritual
circumcision. Spiritual Sabbath rest can only
be enjoyed through spiritual circumcision. And that is how
these two are related. And this is exactly what the
Pharisees, the scribes, the religious leaders missed. They saw the
law as just the law. They were following the law by
the book. They didn't see what the law pointed to. They didn't
see what the law signified, God's intention in the law. And so he says to them, don't
judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Don't judge based on what you
think my actions look like, as if I was breaking the law, but
judge righteously. Know the law's purpose, its goal,
its fulfillment, that it is in Christ. Not only was his teaching and
his authority greater than the religious leaders, but his work
was greater and in line with the true meaning and fulfillment
of God's law. But they did not know this because
they did not truly desire to do God's will. They knew the
law and sought to do the law for the sake of the law, but
did not give a thought to God's will in the law. And sadly, as
I mentioned, many who call themselves Christians in the church fall
into this kind of legalism, rather than rejoicing in the freedom
we have in Christ, because he is the fulfillment of the Old
Testament laws concerning worship, the dietary laws, religious feasts,
They get so enamored with the law and all the traditions that
they would rather follow the law for the sake of the law,
thinking that this pleases God, rather than follow where the
law leads us to, where the law points us to, where the law has
its goal, and that is Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of the
law. Jesus' teaching therefore is
from God and thus he has greater teaching authority. His works
are from God and in fulfillment and in line with the true meaning
of the law of God. And this is what we see. But
thirdly, what Jesus' teaching tells us and that we must know
about his teaching is that the origin of Jesus and his mission
is heavenly. The origin of Jesus and his mission
is heavenly. As we have seen, when we judge
an appearance without true knowledge, we don't judge rightly. And in
verse 25, we are introduced to yet another group. So far, the
religious leaders wanted to kill him. The crowd called him crazy
for thinking that someone was trying to kill him. And then
now this crowd, This crowd, the people of Jerusalem, they know,
according to themselves, they know where he is from, but they
didn't really know. Their misunderstanding of where
he was from led them to misunderstand who he really was. And this new
group, the people of Jerusalem, make three observations about
him. Three things that they supposedly know about him. First, they say
this is the man that the religious leaders are wanting to kill.
It was obvious to them, but somehow the other group, the crowd, called
him crazy for thinking that anyone was trying to kill him. Who's
trying to kill you? You have a demon, they said.
So this is the man, then, that the religious leaders wanted
to kill. But then secondly, they notice, they know that he was
speaking publicly. This word publicly can also mean
confidently. This makes sense if we recall
that it had already been observed that Jesus spoke as one with
authority. Because of this, they wondered
if the religious authorities had come to believe he was the
Christ. If they believe, then maybe He is, was their thinking. They were curious, and they considered
the thought that He might be. But the problem is that they
were relying on the authorities, and this is a great danger. We
do need to heed the teaching of those God has placed over
our lives. But to do it to such an extent
that you simply believe what they believe without confirming
it in the Word of God is dangerous. We see this with the Bereans
who heard Paul. They heard his words, they rejoiced,
but yet they went back and checked it, compared it with Scripture.
We are called to do this. And God has placed teachers over
us to teach us, to instruct us, but never to not think about
what they're saying, to just accept anything that they believe
and say, well, they believe it, it must be right. No, God has
given us a Holy Spirit and he's given us his word and he will
teach us as well. So he does use teachers, but
we need to compare things with scripture. And these people were
just curious, well, do they really think he's the Christ? They were
considering it on the basis of what the religious leaders believed.
But then thirdly, the real deal breaker here for them was that
they knew that the Christ, or they knew something about the
Christ. They knew about the origin of the Christ. And it was this
knowledge that was actually false knowledge that led them astray.
So what did they believe about the Christ or what they thought
they knew about the Christ? We see this in verse 27. They
say, however, we know where this man is from, Jesus, we know where
he is from, but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows
where he is from. So that was their knowledge.
That was their great argumentation. We know where he is from, but
the Christ, when he comes, nobody's gonna know where he's from. But
was this true? No, it wasn't. We see this in Micah 5, too,
in the Old Testament. But as for you, Bethlehem, Ephrathorah,
too little to be among the clans of Judah. From you, one will
go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are
from long ago, from the days of eternity. So not only do we know that the
Messiah would come from Bethlehem, but that His goings forth are
from long ago, from the days of eternity. We see that He's
not just Christ the man, but He's also the Son of God. He's the Word. He's the eternal
God Himself. And so they have this wrong. They start off with the wrong
premise and then argue from there. And because of that, they did
not believe in Christ. How important it is then for
us to have right doctrine and theology? So many people have
been led astray by one false doctrine. By that one false doctrine,
other doctrines get built upon that, and pretty soon you have
this whole system, but it's all false. Now, this is not to say
that if we hold one thing falsely that we're gonna necessarily
go astray. I mean, I don't think anyone
here can claim that we have perfect, perfect doctrine. I'm sure there
are things that I believe, that hold dear, that I think are true
that might be wrong. I studied at a Presbyterian seminary. They taught infant baptism. I
disagreed with that. Who's right, who's wrong? I could
be wrong. I don't think so. I'm pretty
confident that I'm correct. They're wrong. So there are some
things that Christians will get wrong, but we need to be careful.
We need to really make sure that what we are believing, the teaching
that we are receiving, is biblical, is theologically right, that
our doctrine is right. Because if we are not careful,
we will be susceptible to be led astray. the more that we know, the more
that we are able to discern right doctrine from bad doctrine when
we hear it. So if we are not studying, if
we're not learning God's word, God's truth, it will become more
easy for people to deceive us, and it will become easier for
us to be led astray. Now as believers, God will eventually,
I believe, bring us back. There has been true believers
that have been led astray for a season, but they will be brought
back, especially if it is damnable doctrine. But again, it is a
warning, an exhortation for us to study God's word, to know
who God is, to know what he has said about himself, about us,
about salvation, about Christ, so that we are not led astray. And so how does Jesus respond
then to this, what these people were saying about the Christ
and why Jesus was not the Christ? in character, in the character
of the true prophet. The text tells us, John the Apostle
tells us, that Jesus cried out in the temple. He was crying
out. And this is very emphatic and
it may indicate that Jesus spoke with just with great emotion.
He was crying out in the temple at seeing just all the darkness,
all the misunderstanding, these people who think they know what
they're talking about, yet they're so blind And he cries out in
the temple. And what he says is also a rebuke
to these people who argued against him being the Christ, because
they supposedly knew where he was from. All along, Jesus has
been teaching that he is from heaven. Again, that He is the
Word who is with God. He is the Son who is in the bosom
of the Father. He is the One who descends from
heaven, the Bread who comes down from heaven. And here are these
people who claim to know where He is from. And His response
then is more of a rebuke. You can almost hear this statement
as a question that ridicules their supposed knowledge of His
origin. So, you both know me and where
I am from, do you? You really think you know where
I'm from? That's his response. But his teaching has always been
the same. He had not come of his own separate will from the
Father, but he came in accordance with his Father's will. He had
been sent from heaven. He is true, unlike the people
who speak falsely. And they did so because they
did not know God. We see this in verse 28. But
Jesus did know him because he says in verse 29, I am from him
and he sent me. That is my true origin. That
is the true origin of the Christ, as we saw in Malachi. His goings
forth are from long ago, from eternity. That is my origin. I am from the Father. From Him, when He says, from
Him, this is not only speaking of location, from where God is,
but of nature. Jesus knows God because He is
of the Father. He is from the Father. He is
of the very essence of the Father, the very essence and nature.
He is eternally begotten from the Father. As a son, He is from
His Father and shares the same essence of His Father. So this is who Jesus is. His
origin is heavenly. His origin is divine. He is from
Him who had sent Him, the Father. Again, this is His origin. And
He was sent to carry out the Father's work, to accomplish
the work of salvation for His people by going to the cross
and dying on their behalf, by taking upon Himself their punishment. The mission then came from heaven,
from the Father. And this mission would conclude
in heaven with the Father. And this brings us to our fourth
and final thing that we see Jesus teaching. The trajectory of Jesus'
mission is heavenward. The trajectory of Jesus' mission
is heavenward. Jesus' fourth verbal dialogue
really stumps the religious leaders and everyone else, I'm sure.
But in his statement in verses 33 through 36, Jesus now emphasizes
that the heavenly mission he had been sent to accomplish has
a heavenly trajectory. Look at verses 33 and 34. He
says, 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." Jesus had come from the Father to do His will
and was going back to the Father. The trajectory of His mission
was heavenward. This pointed to the glory that awaited Him.
The glory that his brothers sarcastically asked him to show to the world.
If you recall last week, when his brothers were opposing him,
they were exhorting him to go to the feast and make himself
publicly known. Because that's what you want,
right? You want to show yourself to the world? Go do that at the
feast. Everyone's there. Everyone's
watching. But what was his response? He
says, my time is not yet. The time for his glory, to reveal
his glory to the world was not yet. First, there was something
else he had to do. And so in this statement, Jesus
is not only referring to the glory that awaited Him, going
back to the Father, but the means by which He gets there. And how
does He get there? How does He receive His glory?
By glorifying the Father in His obedience, even to His obedience
on the death of a cross. So that was the way that He obtained
all the glory, was to go to the cross, to suffer, to suffer the
shame and die as a criminal, though
innocent. And because he needed to do that,
he needed to be the Passover lamb, No one could take Him. No one could seize Him. No one
could kill Him. Until it was the Father's time.
As I said last week, Jesus was on a schedule. The Feast of the
Old Testament gave us a picture of His schedule of redemption.
And before the glory, the joy, and the celebration of the Feast
of Booths, first had to come the Passover. And that was the
first thing He had to do. He had to go and lay his life
down as a sacrifice for his people. And until then, no one could
seize him. And this is why he says, for
a little while longer I am with you. Just a little while I am
with you. But then I will go. Then my hour
will come. I will be taken away and I will
go back to my father. And this, beloved, is something
that we, as believers, can read and rejoice in. That here in
Jesus, we see His faithfulness. We see His dedication. We see
His love for the Father and His love for us, for you and me.
That He is determined to fulfill the Father's will, to do the
Father's will. But this statement, as it is
pronounced to his audience, is actually a warning. I am with
you a little while longer, and then I go to him. You will seek
me, and you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come.
Because you have rejected me, because you have rejected my
words, where I'm going to the Father, you cannot come. You
cannot come into the presence of the Father, into the eternal
kingdom that he has for us, because you have rejected me. And one
day you will seek me, but it will be too late. The day of
grace will be long past. And so he's warning them. And
this is a warning to all those who have not yet trusted in Christ.
Our time is now, here, while you're alive on this earth, to
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe in Him, to hear His
word, receive it as the words of eternal life, as the words
of the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and to believe.
Because if you don't, one day you will want to seek Him, and
it may be too late. The day of grace may be long
past. And rather than grace, there
will be only judgment. So trust in Him. Trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Today is the day of salvation.
No one is promised another day, another hour. So believe in Him. And for those of us who have,
rejoice that our Savior is faithful. That He has withstood the opposition. He obediently, lovingly went
to the cross for you and for me. Because He loves you. He died for you. And so let us
rejoice in that and have the hope that one day He will return
and we will celebrate the end of the harvest, the completion
and consummation of God's salvation for his people. Let us rejoice
in that.
Jesus at the Feast of Booths Pt. 2
Series The Gospel of John
| Sermon ID | 71242230313204 |
| Duration | 50:04 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | John 7:14-36 |
| Language | English |
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