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Sermon

Divine Apologetics

Speaker
David Capoccia
Scripture
John 7:10-36

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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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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

John 7:10-36 reveals how people use cheap objections and debate tactics to dismiss Jesus rather than honestly engage with his life-giving words. We are confronted with the reality that our objections to Jesus—whether about his credentials, his law-keeping, or his origins—are ultimately baseless and expose our own pride and unbelief rather than any deficiency in him. Jesus self-evidently receives his teaching from God, genuinely fulfills the law, and possesses a divine origin that we can only recognize when we humbly know the Father.

Key Lessons:

  1. Cheap debate tactics—attacking credentials, deflecting blame, appealing to force—prevent us from hearing truth that could save us.
  2. Jesus’ teaching is self-validating: anyone who truly desires to do God’s will can recognize that Jesus speaks from God, not from himself.
  3. The real barrier to believing in Jesus is never a lack of evidence or information, but our own pride, self-righteousness, and rebellious commitment to live on our own terms.
  4. Jesus’ warning that ‘you will seek me and will not find me’ reminds us that the window for repentance and faith is not open forever.

Application: We are called to examine our own excuses and objections to Jesus honestly, to stop hiding behind flimsy reasons for unbelief or half-hearted faith, and to come to Christ fully as Savior and Lord before it is too late. We should also extend grace and truth to others rather than resorting to cheap tactics in our own conversations.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What ‘cheap debate tactics’ do you tend to use when confronted with uncomfortable truth—whether from Scripture, a sermon, or another believer?
  2. Jesus says that anyone willing to do God’s will can recognize his teaching as divine (v. 17). How does a genuine desire to obey God change the way we read Scripture and listen to Jesus?
  3. How does Jesus’ warning in verses 33-34 create urgency for sharing the gospel with people in your life who have not yet believed?

Scripture Focus: John 7:10-36, with key connections to John 5:18, John 5:44, John 6:37-39, John 8:14, Isaiah 55:6, and Micah 5:2. These passages collectively teach that Jesus’ authority comes from the Father, that unbelief stems from not knowing God, and that the time to seek the Lord is now.

Outline

Introduction

Let’s pray. Jesus, you are so lovely. What a compassionate, powerful savior we really did need. You shield us, you 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 me. Lord, let your words come through. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Cheap Debate Tactics

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. Instead, they produce disharmony, disinformation, and 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 hominem.

“One frequent tactic in debate or argument is ad hominem—you don’t address what a person is saying, but you attack the person.”

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.”

A 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.”

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 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.

“A person may seem to win the argument, but his soul loses in the end.”

Setting the Scene: John 7:10-36

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, once doing so, we might instead be moved to invite Jesus to be our Lord and savior, and to do the same for others.

Please take your Bibles and turn to John 7:10. As we will examine some surprising divine apologetics, John 7:10-36 is our passage today, which you can find on page 1067.

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. The 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 7:10-36: 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 Booths to confront your own hesitancy and objections about Jesus.”

John reports Jesus’ first public day at the Feast of Booths to confront your own hesitancy and objections about Jesus so you might believe and find in Jesus eternal life.

The narrative here proceeds 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.

The Crowd Whispers About Jesus (vv. 10-13)

We’ll start with the first part, covering verses 10 to 13, where we will see number one: the crowd whispers about Jesus.

Look 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.

“Jesus does not go up the way his brothers advised, but in the opposite way. This was the Father’s agenda, and the Son obeyed.”

Verse 11 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 literally, “Where is that one?”

Remember who the Jews are in John’s gospel. That term, “the Jews,” refers not merely to Jewish people, but usually and more specifically to Jewish people who oppose Jesus, especially the Jewish religious leaders.

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 5:18 and John 7:1 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 “crowds,” plural, in verse 12, indicating masses of people. Why “crowds” and not “crowd”? 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.

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, better is the NIV’s “whispering,” since the basic idea of the Greek term is just conversation in low tones.

Conversation in low tones is often complaining and grumbling, but it may not be. 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 arrive, there’s one topic on all their minds: that Jesus fellow.

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’ 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.

“Hostility among Jesus’ opponents has reached such a level that people only whisper about this hottest of topics.”

People don’t want to risk being investigated and perhaps banished from the synagogue. So they only whisper about this hottest of topics: “What do you think about Jesus?”

Jesus Teaches the Incredulous Crowd (vv. 14-29)

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.

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’ answer to one of those cheap objections.

Objection: Jesus Is Not a Qualified Teacher (vv. 14-15)

And the first objection raised appears in verses 14 to 15, and that is: 2A. Objection: 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. In those days, Jewish rabbis or religious teachers would often find a spot in the temple complex. If those rabbis were in Jerusalem, 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 rabbinic custom for himself. After all, he is a rabbi. 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?’”

At 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 in either a positive way or a negative way, and 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.”

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 it up as he goes.”

“This is a cheap way to discredit Jesus and to not deal with what Jesus actually says.”

This is a cheap way to discredit Jesus and to not deal with what Jesus actually says. Jesus has a ready answer, which we see in verses 16 to 18.

Answer: Jesus Gets His Teaching from God (vv. 16-18)

Our next subheading: 2B. Answer: Jesus self-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.’”

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.

Jesus declares the truth: his teaching is not his own. Rather, he was taught. 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.

“Jesus declares the truth: his teaching is not his own. He received it from the one who sent him—God himself.”

As we see in John 7:17, 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.”

Thus, 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.”

The Condition for Recognizing Jesus’ Teaching

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 himself. This should be obvious if one fulfills a certain condition.

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 does that mean? Well, what Jesus says is just another way of saying: anyone who truly loves God, believes in God, and wants to obey God’s revealed will will recognize Jesus’ teaching as being from God.

Haven’t we heard this concept before in the Gospel of John? John 3:21, John 3:33, John 5:37-38. 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. It just doesn’t work that way.

“No one can say they love God and believe in God and then reject the teachings of Jesus. It just doesn’t work that way.”

In fact, we could state the truth that Jesus is declaring here another way: the real 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, 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. 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.

No Selfish Motive in Jesus

“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 ultimately from himself seeks his own glory. He seeks his own reputation, his own honor, and what that honor and reputation can bring him—which characteristically, even the Bible identifies: 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 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’s the Son of God—he’s always seeking the glory and will of his Father rather 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, seeking his own glory, but the glory of the one sending him. This also means Jesus is as true as God himself is, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

“There’s no evident selfish motive in Jesus, which points to the truth that he isn’t speaking from himself but from God.”

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 baseless, 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.

Objection: Jesus Does Not Keep the Law (vv. 19-20)

2C. Objection: 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?’”

What’s going on here? The next few verses will clarify more, but Jesus is talking about his healing on the Sabbath, an act that the Jews felt was an obvious violation of God’s law.

We already learned back in John 5 that when Jesus healed on the Sabbath and declared himself to be the Son of God, the Jews wanted to kill Jesus as a law breaker and as a blasphemer.

We are again reminded of 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 is also pointing out the irony.

How can the Jews, who receive the law and say they want to keep the law and want to kill someone for breaking the law, actually show 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.

“How can the Jews who say they want to keep the law break the law themselves in their murderous intent?”

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 made insane by a demon if Jesus thinks that people are about to get him. This is a little confusing, because we already know as readers that the Jews do in fact want to kill Jesus.

If you glance down to verse 25, we will hear the people say, “Isn’t this the one that the rulers want to kill?” We haven’t even addressed the fact that they very irreverently and carelessly say that he has a demon. Say that to the Son of God? That is a problem.

But what about this denial that anybody wants to kill Jesus? Are they just lying? Are they playing dumb? Are they trying to preserve some sort of facade of righteousness? Possibly.

But notice who’s speaking in verse 20. It doesn’t say “the Jews.” It says “the crowd.” Also, 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, 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?

Answer: Jesus Genuinely Keeps the Law (vv. 21-24)

We see his answer in verses 21 to 24. 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 24 together: “Then 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 a 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 unjustified.

The Jews recognize 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 rite prescribed earlier to the Jews than the Sabbath was, is one example. Thus, Jews will circumcise male babies on the eighth day of that baby’s life, even when that day is a Sabbath, and thus requires them 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.”

“Far from breaking the law, Jesus was fulfilling the law by accomplishing what should have higher priority: loving a neighbor.”

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. No, it was the Jews who condemned him for what he did. They’re the true law breakers.

Judge with Righteous Judgment

Thus, Jesus concludes in John 7:24: “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.

Jesus is again 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.

“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

If you think Jesus doesn’t keep the law and you do, Jesus says you’ve got it backwards. He genuinely 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 in John 7:25-27.

Objection: Jesus Has a Known, Pedestrian Origin (vv. 25-27)

2E. Objection: Jesus has a known, pedestrian origin.

Look at these verses: “So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Is not this 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 when the Christ may come, no one knows where he is from.’”

We heard an objection from the Jews before, and then from the crowd, but now we hear from the people of Jerusalem specifically. 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 that Jesus is the man that 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 that possibility for themselves—that Jesus could really be the Messiah.

The reason they’re so confident is because they say they know where Jesus is from. 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: “How can that be true? Doesn’t the Old Testament declare that the Messiah will be from the line of David? Doesn’t Micah 5:2 say that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem? Why would the Jerusalemites say that no one will know the Christ’s origin, no one will know from where he comes?”

That’s a very good question. The answer appears to be: it’s all based on religious tradition from a Bible misinterpretation.

Based on the fact that the Old Testament foretells very little about the Messiah—aside from his birthplace and lineage—and based on the fact that Malachi 3:1 talks about God’s messenger suddenly coming to the temple, a tradition developed among the Jews. They believed 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 Jerusalem, even at the temple, including 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 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 an 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.

“If you just read John 1, you realize Jesus has an incredibly mysterious and special background. They don’t know the half of it.”

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.

Answer: Know God to Understand Jesus (vv. 28-29)

Look at Jesus’ answer to the third objection in verses 28 to 29. It says: 2F. 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, verses 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 or 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, probably sarcastically: “You both know me and know where I am from.”

Actually, Jesus will assert, just in the next chapter, John 8:14, that the people in fact do not know where he comes from. So if 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.

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.”

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.

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 religiosity they have attempted to adorn themselves with, they don’t know God.

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.”

“You must humble yourself to know God through Jesus before you really get Jesus.”

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.

The Crowd Reacts to Jesus (vv. 30-31)

Well, as you can imagine, shooting down the baseless objections and exposing the true issue of proud unbelief in 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.

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. It 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 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-bringing 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, God says. “I’ll protect you until moments that are for my glory and your ultimate good.”

“You’ll never be hurt or killed before the time that God determined is right. Not a hair of your head will fall.”

But not all in the crowd are angry. We learn that 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, 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 6:37–39: “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.”

The Rulers React to Jesus (v. 32)

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.

Number 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.”

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.

We learn that despite the efforts of the people to be quiet in their discussions about Jesus—only mutter or whisper, the 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. 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 Sadducees could not get along. They were opposed forces.

But both realized that Jesus is a threat. So we see here in our text that they team up. They order a group of officers—these will be part of the temple guard, drawn from the family of Levi—to arrest Jesus so that the religious leaders may put Jesus to death.

“One cheap way to win an argument is just to arrest and kill the other person. The unbelieving religious leaders are prepared to do exactly that.”

It is, as I said earlier, one cheap way to win an argument: just arrest and kill the other person. The hateful, unbelieving religious leaders of Israel are prepared to do that.

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 what the religious leaders are doing, what they’ve ordered. And he reacts in a poignant way.

Jesus Gives Everyone a Warning (vv. 33-36)

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 34: “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.

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.

Notice what Jesus says, 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 his soon return 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 against him. Eventually, he will go away. But at the same time, he’s revealing to them that they will ultimately lose.

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’s grasp, that they won’t be able to kill him anymore. No, we can’t be saying that, because Jesus will speak a similar message 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.

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?

The Urgency of Believing Now

He’s saying that the time to listen, to repent, and to believe is running out. Soon, the speaker of the words of eternal life will go away. Death and judgment will come for every person.

Every person—whether an angry rejector, a confused person with questions and objections, or a nominal believer—will eventually 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. 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.

“To win the argument against Jesus and banish his uncomfortable words from your life is to banish your own soul to hell.”

Jesus’ words in verses 33 to 34 are a warning and a plea to come to Jesus before it’s too late.

As Isaiah 55:6 says: “Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.”

Isaiah 55:6: “Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.”

Do not hide behind your flimsy excuses and 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.

As Jesus even exposes in our passage, the real reason is not a lack of information, a lack of miraculous signs, or a lack of good apologetic answers. It’s your own pride. It’s your self-righteousness. It’s 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, wholly, as your savior and Lord, and you will be saved.”

That’s the promise from the scriptures.

The Jews’ Mocking Response

Beware the path that Jesus’ stubborn Jewish opponents take, which is what we see in our last two verses, verses 35 to 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. 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 Hellenistic 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. 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, still disturbed. Still disturbed by this pronouncement from Jesus. Even haunted by it.

“Even as they mock and dismiss Jesus’ warning, they are still disturbed—even haunted—by his pronouncement.”

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 us to be uncomfortable about this statement so that we will not persist in unbelief.

Final Appeal

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.”

“If you’re not in Christ, hear again: ‘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. We can come up with a whole bunch of excuses as to why we cannot obey, why we cannot believe. But Jesus, you show 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, preached from this passage, that they will not know the horror of what Jesus says at the end of his teaching: “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 gnashing of teeth. Why is there so much weeping in hell? 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 God and thus 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 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.

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