Below is the manuscript to this Sunday’s sermon. Chances are, you will encounter grammatical errors. Please be gracious. I pray this will be beneficial to you as you study the Word of God that is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17).”
Two weeks ago, at the start of chapter 7, John tells us an important detail for us in our passage today. In verses 1-2 we saw that Jesus had been walking about in Galilee because the Jews in Jerusalem were seeking to kill Jesus.
Now, given everything Jesus said in chapter 6, he’s not avoiding the Jews out of fear. He’s avoiding them out of obedience to the Father. He’s aware of his pending death on the cross. It’s just simply not his time to die.
Two weeks ago, we also saw that the Feast of Booths was at hand. This was one of three pilgrimage feast. Therefore, Jesus would be required to journey to Jerusalem (the place where his persecutors reside) to observe this feast. This feast was a week long celebration, celebrating God’s complete provision of the harvest; it was a time to pray for a good rainy season; and it was a time to celebrate God’s faithfulness to provide for his people, by dwelling with his people, in the wilderness. While they observed this feast, they would dwell outside in booths. This would have been a nationwide campout.
Well, leading up to this feast his brothers told Jesus to go up to Jerusalem and do his miracles in public. They weren’t submitting to Jesus as Lord here. They wanted Jesus to act on their timing, not God’s timing. They were demanding Jesus to do what they wanted in order to get what they wanted. However, we see Jesus continue to submit to the Father’s will. Jesus submits not to the will of man, but to the will of the Father.
His brothers go up to the feast by themselves, and Jesus sits back and waits. Then, after his brothers go up to the feast, he went up in private.
Well, going back to Jesus’s exchange with his brothers (vs.6-8), he says something interesting. He says, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.”
We saw that statement ring true in our passage last week. While teaching publicly in the temple, none of the religious leaders recognized the source of Jesus’s teaching. They’re asking, “How is this man educated without any formal education? Where did he learn all of this?”
Well, in response to these questions, Jesus testifies against the religious leaders. He tells them that the source of his teaching is the Father, and they do not recognize this because “their will is not to do God’s will.”
He’s saying to the religious leaders, the very people who know God’s law, teach God’s law, and “live out” God’s law, “You do not recognize me because your will is not to do God’s will.”
What a convicting truth. It’s possible to study and teach God’s word and not know God.
The religious leaders are hypocritical “shell-gazers” and they do not judge with right judgment. Their assessment of Jesus is 100% wrong because their relationship with God is nonexistent.
So, ironically and tragically, during a feast that celebrates the presence of God in their midst, they were unable to recognize God in their midst.
Well, we will see that unfortunate reality ring true once again in our passage today. One rejects Jesus because they reject God. The issue for the crowd today is not a lack of information. Their issue resides deep in the depths of their hard hearts.
Let’s dive into our passage for today.
“25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” 30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. 33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
Now, if you’re closely reading through John 7, you may be a little discombobulated over the apparent confusion of the crowd in verse 25.
In last weeks passage we saw that part of Jesus’s audience was oblivious to the religious leaders plan to kill Jesus. In verse 20 the crowd exclaims, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”
But, now we see a group of people aware of the religious leaders plan to kill Jesus. “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?”
So, on a surface level it seems like the crowd is confused and suffering from some type of memory loss. Their actions seem to resemble the actions of a blue fish name Dori. At one moment the crowd is unaware of the religious leaders plan to kill Jesus, and the next moment they’ve been aware of it the whole time.
What’s going on here?
Well, when you begin to dig into who it is that’s speaking, you will notice that this is two different groups of people here in the crowd. The crowd speaking in last weeks passage would likely be the large crowd who traveled into Jerusalem from out of town for the feast of booths. Since they didn’t live in Jerusalem, they would be unaware of the religious leaders plan to kill Jesus. We come to this conclusion because those speaking in this weeks passage are from Jerusalem.
“Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, ‘Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?’”
This is therefore a group of people who live in close proximity to the religious leaders. They remember seeing Jesus heal the invalid man on the Sabbath (5:1-9). They remember watching the religious leaders get frustrated with Jesus (5:10-17). They remember hearing about their plans to kill Jesus (5:18). They’re aware of the fact that the religious leaders are now actively seeking (7:1) to kill him.
Which leads the crowd to say,
“Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
So, again, they remember Jesus heal the invalid on the Sabbath. They remember the religious leaders getting frustrated because Jesus claimed to be God. They remember the plan to kill Jesus.
But, now, strangely enough, Jesus has returned and he’s teaching publicly, throwing more jabs at the religious leaders, and claiming all the more to be one with the Father. And the religious leaders aren’t doing anything.
So, the crowd is scratching their head trying to reconcile everything that’s transpiring before their eyes. This math equation isn’t adding up.
On one hand, death threats have a way of weeding out falsehood. But, rather than shrink back, Jesus continues to speak openly. The threats of death do not deter the faithfulness of Jesus.
But, on the other hand, more specifically, the crowd can’t comprehend why the religious leaders aren’t doing anything. If Jesus is lying, why aren’t they doing anything? If Jesus is falsely claiming to be God, then he must be punished. If there’s an arrest warrant out for the guy, why aren’t they arresting him? Why are they letting him preach openly? Take this man’s microphone! What’s the reason for their idleness?
Maybe the religious leaders know something that the crowd doesn’t know. Maybe Jesus is telling the truth. Maybe Jesus is the Christ.
“Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?”
The question they ask here is one of the most important questions anyone could ever ask. Is Jesus the Christ?
Now, I want us to stop here for a moment, because I don’t want to assume that we all know what the term “Christ” means. In fact, I would be willing to bet that some of us are thinking, “Isn’t Christ Jesus’s last name?”
The term Christ isn’t Jesus’s last name. Rather, it’s a proper title. Matthew uses the title Christ 17 times; Mark uses it 7 times; Luke uses it 12 times; and John uses it 19 times.
So, the title “Christ” is foundational to the gospel of John. If you remember, the purpose of this gospel is given to us in chapter 20. John tells us that he’s writing this so that we might “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have life in his name.” John is seeking to show us that the answer to the crowds question here is, “Yes.” Could Jesus be the Christ? YES! Jesus is the Christ.
But, what does the title Christ mean?
Well, the Hebrew word Messiah is translated Christ in the Greek and it means anointed one. Anointed one means to be set apart and empowered by God for a specific task.
In the OT you would see God anoint (set apart for himself) prophets, priests, and kings. Well, there’s prophecy after prophecy in the OT speaking to this coming Messiah who would be greater than all of the prophets, priests, and kings in the past. This would be an eternal king, one who would rule for all eternity. This would be an eternal prophet, the true word of God. This would be the eternal priest, who would be set apart by God to purify and redeem his people for all eternity.
Israel was anxiously waiting for this Christ to come and establish an eternal kingdom. So, their question here is monumental!
They’re asking, “Could the authorities know that Jesus is the one that the OT spoke about? Could Jesus be the anointed one who was set apart by God to redeem and purify us, his people? Is he, Jesus, the one we’ve been waiting for?”
This is one of those moments as a reader that you want to scream with a resounding, “YES!”
Jesus is the greater set apart, anointed prophet, who came to proclaim good news to the poor. He has come to those who have been bankrupt by their sin and he extends to them a hope of being reconciled with God.
How can this be? How can one be reconciled with God?
One can be reconciled with God because Jesus is also the greater set apart, anointed priest. He is the only sufficient mediator between man and God, and he was anointed “to offer a (once for all) sacrifice to remove the guilt of sin.”
But, how could he do this? How was his death on the cross sufficient to remove the guilt of our sin?
His death was sufficient because Jesus is the set apart king, the supreme LORD over all, the one that all things were created by, through, and for, the one that in him all things hold together. He is the one who has been anointed with all authority and all power to defeat our greatest foes: sin and death. And we, as readers, are certain of this because of the empty tomb.
You’re on the right track, crowd!
But, unfortunately, this hopeful moment for the crowd is short lived. The idea of Jesus being the Christ was short lived because, “…we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
So, we see in verse 27, they quickly dismissed the idea of Jesus being the Christ because they knew where he came from. Now, I was honestly confused when I first read this because I thought, “Well, aren’t there OT prophecies stating that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, which is where Jesus was born?”
The answer to that question is, “Yes, there are OT prophecies stating that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem.” Micah 5:2 says,
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days (Micah 5:2).”
So, that led me to ask, “Wouldn’t knowing where Jesus came from give you more evidence to believe that Jesus is the Christ?”
Why do they write Jesus off here? Why do they dismiss the idea of Jesus being the Christ because “no one will know where the Christ comes from?”
Well, during this time there was an idea that the Messiah would be born of flesh and blood in Bethlehem, yes. But there was also an idea that he would remain unknown until it was time for him to act and rule as king.
They came to this conclusion from passages like Malachi 3:1, which says, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple…”
They therefore believed that the Christ was going to remain unknown and then supernaturally arrive at the temple ready to reign as king. This was going to happen instantly.
So, this crowd is looking to Jesus and they’re saying, “He’s far too human to be the Christ. I know his mom and dad. I watched him grow up. Sure, he’s said and done some miraculous things, but the son of a carpenter can’t suddenly arrive as king in the temple.”
Jesus didn’t fit the mold of what they thought the Christ would look like. Therefore, they wrote him off.
I think there’s some application for us here. Have you, like the crowd here, written off Jesus because he doesn’t fit into the mold of what you think he should be like? Or have you humbly come to God’s word, allowing God to teach you who Jesus is?
Now, Jesus could easily correct their false interpretation of passages like Malachi 3:1. He could easily walk them through the OT, showing them how “knowing where he comes from” should affirm the idea of him being the Christ. But, he doesn’t correct their false understanding. Rather, as we see in verse 28, he proclaims (yells, shouts, exclaims, he gives a public announcement), as he taught in the temple,
“You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”
So, sure, they possess an understanding of where Jesus came from. They’re aware of his hometown. They know his mom and dad. But, that’s all they know. They’re blinded to the truth about Jesus because they do not know God, the one who sent him. Jesus personally and intimately knows the Father, and he came not on his own accord.
These have been points that have been continually reiterated throughout the gospel of John. The Father and the Son are one. The Father sent the Son. If the world knew the Father, then they would know the Son. But, they are unable to recognize Jesus as the Christ because they do not know God.
Now, again, Jesus could have easily corrected their misinterpretations of the Scriptures, but he doesn’t. He could have easily said, “Hey, Micah 5:2, the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem. I was born in Bethlehem. The Christ was to be a descendent from David. I’m a descendent of David.” But, he doesn't.
This tells us that the crowds biggest issue isn’t found in a lack of information. Their biggest issue is found in not knowing God.
Jesus is crying out, “You think you know and understand what the Christ is going to be like, and you think you know and understand me, but you don’t rightly understand either because you don’t know God.”
Regardless of what the crowd thinks, Jesus really was the one who was sent down from heaven by the Father. And, similar to the religious leaders, they don’t recognize this truth because they do not know God.
There would be no confusion over who Jesus was if they knew God. But, they don’t. They don’t know the one who sent him.
So, similar to what he’s previously said to the religious leaders, he’s now saying to the crowd. You don’t recognize me as the Christ because you do not know God.
This is a strong rebuke against the crowd. Jesus is taking his flashlight and shining it into the dark depths of their corrupt hearts, exposing their true need of the Messiah.
Where the crowd believed that the Messiah was going to come as a militant king with a sword drawn, ready to redeem his people from Roman domination, Jesus came with his sword drawn, ready to defeat sin and death, setting sinful hearts free from sin.
Well, as a result of this rebuke, you see two different responses from the crowd. You see part of the crowd stiffening their neck to his words, responding in hatred and hostility. Then, you see another part of the crowd responding in trust and belief.
Look at verses 30-31,
“So, they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, ‘When the Christ appears, will he do more signs that this man has done?’”
So, in response to Jesus’s words, part of the crowd sought to arrest him. The exposure of sin is never pleasurable. Rather than reflect on Jesus’s words, confessing their need for a savior, they stiffen their necks and reject his message. They say, “Who are you to say that I don’t know God? And who are you to say that you are God? Arrest this fool!” As Jesus told his brothers, "The word hates Jesus because he proclaims that their works are evil.”
So, they sought “to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.” Their malicious attempt to arrest Jesus fell short of being effective.
The first question I asked here was, “How?” How does Jesus escape a crowd that’s made up its mind to arrest him? Well, John doesn’t tell us how. Which means the “how” isn’t important.
John does, however, tell us “why.” When the hostile crowd made up their mind to arrest him, no one laid a hand on him. Why? “Because his hour had not yet come.”
What does this tells us?
It tells us that no persecution falls outside of the sovereign hand of God. The crowd didn’t lay a hand on him because it wasn’t in God’s timing for them to do so. Yes, Jesus would eventually be arrested. But, not yet. Jesus was not to be arrested and crucified during the Feast of Booths. It was God’s plan for him to be arrested and crucified as the passover lamb, six months later during passover.
Church, I hope and pray that this somehow offers us comfort and spurs us on to be bold in our faith.
Let me be transparent for a moment. One of my greatest fears as a young father is that pain or harm will come on my children or wife. So, being bold in my faith is crippled sometimes by a fear of my family being harmed or put in danger. Another fear of mine is just rejection in general. The simple thought of people not liking me is paralyzing. Therefore, the fear of man will lead me to shrink back from sharing my faith.
But, here’s the deal: if we’re faithfully sharing the gospel, persecution and rejection will come.
May this verse therefore comfort and embolden us! No one was able to lay a single finger on Jesus because it was not his time to die. In this instance God protected Jesus from harm.
I think we could safely conclude that no persecution or harm that we face falls outside of God’s sovereign hand. We should never seek out harm or persecution. But, if and when we do encounter persecution for our faith may we delight in knowing that a good and gracious God allowed it to happen and he will use it for his glory! The enemies greatest attack against the church will fall under God’s sovereignty and will be used for his glory. “The crowd was seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.”
So, on one hand the crowd responds to Jesus’s message with fire and pitch forks. But, on the other hand, part of the crowd responds in belief.
Look at verse 31,
“Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, ‘When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?’”
They’re looking at Jesus, remembering the OT prophecies, remembering the works he’s done, and they respond in belief. They’re saying, “If Jesus isn’t the Messiah, then what more could the Messiah do? Where else would we go? We believe that Jesus is the Christ.”
This is what we long for and pray for. We long to see men and women see Jesus for who he truly is. We long to see men and women come to Jesus in faith. And for this we will endure persecution.
Now, before we move on, let me ask this: What does this crowd do following their belief?
They proclaim, they speak. They go to those who do not believe and say, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
They immediately become apologist. They go to their peers, those who do not believe, and they seek to persuade them to Christ. They’re saying, “Guys, what are you waiting on? Think logically about who this is standing before you. Jesus is the One we’ve been waiting on!”
Church, proclamation is a natural response to belief. When you taste and see that the Lord is good, you then long for others to taste his goodness, as well. May we not shrink back from sharing the hope of the gospel with our neighbors.
Let’s continue reading,
“The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priest and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.”
John does an exceptional job of building suspense here. The Pharisees hear the crowd begin to speak positively about Jesus. They hear the crowd’s belief. So, they send the officers to arrest him. And, rather than run, Jesus continues to preach.
“I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.”
Once again, we see this reality that Jesus is aware of his pending death. But, he knows that his death on the cross is not the end of the story.I will be with you for a little longer, but then I will be crucified; I will rise from the grave; and I will ascend back to the one who sent me. Through his death on the cross, Jesus will be returning to where he came from. He will be returning to the Father. He will be going to a place that they cannot go to or find because of their disbelief.
In John 6 we see Jesus allude to his ascension by asking his disciples, “…What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” Well, now, we see for the first time Jesus explicitly say to the crowd that he will be returning to where he came from.
Death is not the end for Jesus. Their efforts to arrest, kill, stop, and destroy Jesus’s ministry will fall short. And, tragically, there will come a point in time where some will seek him for salvation but it will be too late because they have died in their sins (8:21). he warning here by Jesus is crystal clear. Do not tarry. Come to Jesus before it’s too late.
His audience will die in their sins without believing in Jesus, and at that point it will be too late. They will seek him, but they will not be able to find him. Hell will be where they reside for all eternity. And there will be no second chance at this point to make things right. Where Jesus is, they will not be able to come. There is an urgency that comes with the gospel.
But, the Jews sarcastically and bitterly say to one another,
“Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
You sense a bit of sarcasm here. Where’s this guy gonna go that we can’t go? Is he going to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? In other words, is Jesus going to go to the cities outside of our country where the Gentiles live and teach them?
The only place they could fathom not going is to the nations. Heaven? No, they were not concerned about not being able to make it there. He has to be talking about the Gentile nations because there I will not go.
As gentile believers in a land far from Jerusalem, I hope we see the irony in their question here. Jesus is speaking to his returning to the Father in heaven after his death, resurrection, and ascension. His audience is mockingly thinking of a physical location that is so repulsive that they would never go to.
But, ironically, following Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension, this message that Jesus is proclaiming, by the power of the Holy Spirit, will spread to those very people.
Through belief, the whole world will be blessed by the faithful work of Christ on the cross. May our hearts, therefore, long to take this hopeful message into all places. May there not be a single place or group of people in Mobile that we are repulsed to go to. May we long to see the thirsty “come to Jesus and drink.”
In returning to the crowds initial question, Jesus is the greater set apart, anointed prophet. He came to proclaim good news to the poor. He has come to those who have been bankrupt by their sin and he extends to them a hope of being reconciled with God.
How is that possible? How can sinners be reconciled with God?
Sinners can be reconciled with God because Jesus is also the greater set apart, anointed priest. As the book of Hebrews tell us, he is the only sufficient mediator between us and God, and he was anointed “to offer a (once for all) sacrifice to remove the guilt of sin.”
But, how is that possible? How was his death on the cross sufficient to remove the guilt of our sin?
His death was sufficient because Jesus is the set apart king, the supreme LORD over all, the one that all things were created by, through, and fo. He is the one that in him all things hold together. He is the one who has been anointed with all authority and all power to defeat our greatest foes: sin and death. And we’re certain of this because of the empty tomb.
So, church, if you have trusted in the Christ as your LORD and Savior, then this hopeful reality should catapult you into imitating Christ in all that you do. May we day in, day out, cast our eyes on Jesus. May we cling to the hope of the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah. May we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, glorifying God is everything that we do. May we, like Jesus, humbly serve others in both our words and actions, proclaiming good news of the gospel.
Who are you sharing the gospel with?