Confusion and Conspiracy
John 7:25-36
Let me begin by reminding you of the context of our passage today: knowing that the Jewish authorities are seeking to kill him, Jesus privately enters into Jerusalem from Galilee, during the Feast of Booths. There are thousands of Jewish people that have come as pilgrims for this great eight day celebration and He goes straight to the temple, and begins to speak and teach publicly.
Imagine the scene: being the incarnate Word of God, His omniscient grasp of Scripture is compelling, authoritative, and it astounds the listeners. So the angry and jealous authorities tried to undermine Jesus’ teaching by attacking His credentials, suggesting He was just merely speaking from Himself and for His own glory, an argument Jesus destroys with compelling force.
Then He goes on to expose their religious hypocrisy because they have indicted Him as a law breaker for healing a man previously on the Sabbath and yet He demonstrates to them that they also violate the Sabbath and for good reason when a child needs to be circumcised and that eighth day falls on a Sabbath. Moreover, He exposes their evil hearts when He asked, “Why are you trying to kill me?”
So for this reason, He exhorts them in verse 24, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment,” in other words, stop judging based on your own self-righteous legalism that is obsessed with externals but ignores the inner man. They were condemning Jesus for healing a man on the Sabbath while hypocritically ignoring the murder in their own hearts.
So today we start with verse 25.
25 Now some of them from Jerusalem said, “Is this not He whom they seek to kill?
26 But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?
27 However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.”
28 Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, “You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.
29 But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.”
30 Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.
31 And many of the people believed in Him, and said, “When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?”
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.
33 Then Jesus said to them, “I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me.
34 You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come.”
35 Then the Jews said among themselves, “Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him? Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?
36 What is this thing that He said, ‘You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come’?”
I want to focus our attention on four primary categories as we look at this text today. First we’re going to see the confused opinions about Jesus; second, His model of bold proclamation; third, the sovereign power of God’s eternal purposes; and fourth the urgency of believing in Jesus.
1. The confused opinions about Jesus. (7:25-27)
To understand what is going on Jerusalem in chapter 7 and 8, we need to recognize that there are at least three different groups of religious Jews who are confused about Jesus. First, there is the group that John calls “the Jews” (7:1, 11, 13, 15, 35). When John uses this term he usually is referring to the Jewish religious leaders, the Pharisees and chief priests (7:32). These groups were often rivals, but they viewed Jesus as a common enemy. So they joined together to send officers to try to seize Him (7:30, 44, 45). But they knew that many in the crowd liked Jesus. They also remembered Jesus’ disrupting their business by cleansing the temple. So they had to proceed cautiously.
Second, there is a larger group whom John calls “the people” or “the crowd” (7:12, 20, 31, 32). This group included Jewish pilgrims who had come up to Jerusalem for the feast from all over Israel and from other countries. Many of them were not aware that the Jewish leaders were seeking to kill Jesus, so when He mentioned this, they accused Him of having a demon (7:20).
Then there is a narrower group that John calls “some of them from Jerusalem” (7:25-27). They were confused both about who Jesus was and about why their religious leaders were not arresting Him. Because of misunderstanding both about the origins of the Messiah and Jesus’ origins, they concluded that He could not be the expected Messiah.
You see it in verse 25, “Now some of them from Jerusalem said, “Is this not He whom they seek to kill?” Obviously, some of the people in Jerusalem knew that their authorities wanted to murder Jesus. The confusion shows up in verse 26 when they say, “But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?” They are bewildered as to why the authorities aren’t arresting Jesus. They even wonder out loud if the authorities were privately considering that maybe Jesus was indeed the Messiah. The sense of their question carries with it its own denial, “The rulers do not really know that this is the Messiah, do they?”
But John tells us in verse 27 that they immediately dismissed that idea, “However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.” They reject the possibility of Jesus being the Christ based on their faulty understanding of where He is from and from a mistaken popular view that the Christ would just suddenly appear out of nowhere.
These people mistakenly thought that the Christ would suddenly come on the scene unannounced, with a dramatic flash. They may have based this on Malachi 3:1, where the Lord 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, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,’ Says the LORD of hosts.” Jesus actually fulfilled that prophecy when He went into the temple and cleansed it at the beginning of His public ministry (John 2:13-16). But all these Jerusalem residents knew was that Jesus was from Nazareth and He had been around for some time, which didn’t fit their ideas of how the Christ would come and from where He would come.
So the overall feeling in the chapter is that a lot of people are confused about who Jesus really is. People still are, as I said last week. That is why we need to be clear and to be bold in our proclamation of Jesus Christ. And Jesus is our example of that. So our second point today is:
2. Jesus’ model of bold proclamation (7:26-29)
Look back to the beginning of verse 26. Notice what they say, “But look! He speaks boldly.” That word “boldly” is the same word that Jesus’ brothers used in verse 4 when they urged Him to show Himself “openly.” In verse 13 John used that word to say, “no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.” can also be translated “plainly” or “confidently; with authority.”
Can you see Jesus standing in the temple and the Jewish authorities there with their veins bulging and their teeth gritting? They’re shaking their heads. They’re seething with rage and Jesus is still speaking boldly. Why? Because wasn’t speaking on His own. He was doing the Father’s will (7:16-17). He was seeking the glory of the One who sent Him (7:18). And He was confident in the Father’s sovereign timing (7:6, 30). This is the kind of heart that the Spirit endows with power and boldness and confidence.
So in light of their foolish insistence that he couldn’t be the Messiah because, “After all, we know where you’re from,” Jesus boldly speaks out in verses 28-29, “Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying.” Notice that “Jesus cried out” which means that He cried out with a loud commanding voice. He had something that they needed to hear. Literally verse 28 says “Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying.” Teaching carries the idea of imparting knowledge, doctrinal truth, and saying carries the idea of application.
And here’s what he says to them, “You both know Me, and you know where I am from;.” I think that Jesus must be speaking with the voice of irony here in order to expose their ignorance. He’s saying this, “So, you really think you know me and you know where I am from. Is that what you think?” The implication is that they were too ignorant to even know they were ignorant which is inevitably true of those duped by a false religious system.
Then he makes this stunning indictment in verse 28, “and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.” Oh, my goodness. Talk about boldness. Basically, what He’s saying is, “You don’t know God.” The Jews prided themselves on knowing God. If they didn’t know God, how could they know Jesus and His origin? In John 8:19, Jesus will tell them, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”
Jesus is indicting them. He is saying, “You pride yourselves in knowing the law, you’re experts in the law and you boast of your ability to be able to spot the true Messiah when He comes and here I am standing right before you and you don’t recognize me.” The implication of what Jeuss says here is profound. If you can’t recognize Jesus as the Christ then you can’t know the Father, you cannot possibly know God.
Although Jesus’ hearers did not know God (7:28), Jesus plainly stated (7:29), “But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.” Jesus had a unique and thorough knowledge of the Father because He is one with the Father (10:30) and He alone existed with the Father from all eternity. Thus Jesus can uniquely reveal the Father to us. As John said (1:18), “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
In Luke 10:22, Jesus makes this profound statement: “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” The only way that we can know the Father is through the Son when the Son wills to reveal Him to us. Are you asking the Lord Jesus to reveal the Father to you so that you might know Him more deeply?
And if you know Him, are you following the example of Jesus and boldly proclaiming who He is to others? Bold proclamation marks those who truly know God. You see it here in Jesus. We see it throughout the New Testament as the apostles and other believers boldly proclaim the good news about Jesus. For example in Acts 4:18, the Jewish authorities commanded Peter and John “not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.” To which they replied in verse 20, “… we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” But they never assumed they could do this on their own power so they met with other saints and together they prayed in verse 29, listen to this, “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word.” In verse 31, we see the results of that prayer, “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” Think of the power that our church could have if we had more that would pray like that.
This bold proclamation of Jesus about their unbelief and about His identity is more than they can handle. See their reaction in verse 30, “Therefore they sought to take Him.” In fact in verse 32 we see that “the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.” This might have been the end except for one thing: they were not in charge. God was.
So that leads us to the third point of my outline for you this morning and that is the sovereign power of God’s eternal purposes.
3. The sovereign power of God’s eternal purposes. (7:30,32)
Verse 30 concludes, “but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.” They try to seize him but somehow they are restrained by an unseen hand. The time for Him to be seized and crucified according to the Father’s sovereign will had not yet arrived. You see, my friends, neither man nor devil can ever thwart the sovereign purposes of God who works all things after the counsel of His will, Ephesians 1:11. We will see this more and more as we go through John, nothing happens to Jesus outside of God’s sovereign plan.
In eternity past, God decreed an eternal plan for the salvation of His elect. That plan included the very hour Jesus would go to the cross. In fact, Peter spoke of this at Pentecost. In Acts 2:23, he talked about Jesus, who was “being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.” Folks, I hope you find great comfort in this truth, in the sovereignty of our God and His eternal purposes. Think about it: even as an angry crowd could not seize Jesus until His appointed time, neither our enemy nor death can seize us until our hour arrives. Job says in chapter 14, verse 5, “Man’s days are determined. The number of his months is with You; And his limits You have set so that he cannot pass.” So friends, take courage. Take courage in this. Don’t be afraid. The unseen hand of divine providence cannot be shackled.
God is in charge. But we are responsible for our choices. And when it comes to Jesus, the issue is eternal life. Will you believe in Him?
That leads us to point number four:
4. The urgency of believing in Jesus. (7:31-36)
Look at verse 31, “And many of the people believed in Him, and said, “When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?”” Did these people have true saving faith? I don’t know. The might be like those in John 2:23-25 who only believe because of the signs but Jesus did not entrust Himself to them. Their believing seems to have been based on somewhat shallow reasoning: “This guy seems to be doing enough signs to qualify as the Messiah, so we’d better believe in Him.”
But it seems to me that the Lord takes most of us at a pretty shallow level and then graciously deepens our faith as we come to understand more of who He is. I trusted Christ as a young man because I saw a the difference it made in my mother’s life and in the lives of some friends in college. I thought, “If Christ can give me that kind of life, I need to follow Him.” It was pretty self-centered and immature! But, He took me in at that point and helped me to grow. The important thing is truly to believe in Christ as Savior and Lord while you have the opportunity.
But some miss the window of opportunity and end up facing God’s awful judgment for rejecting His Son. In 7:33-34, Jesus tells them, “I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come.” Jesus knew that His hour was rapidly approaching. But then, after He was gone, they would seek Him, but not find Him. And they could not come where He had gone. They would not be able to go to heaven because they missed the day of their salvation.
In typical fashion, the Jewish leaders misunderstand Jesus’ statement. In 7:35-36, they seem to be mocking what Jesus said, “Then the Jews said among themselves, “Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him? Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? They are sick and faithless fools who mock the son of God with blasphemous words. It’s all sarcasm based on stupid ignorance and rejection, willful rejection. But then that statement haunts them, “What is this thing that He said, ‘You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come’?” That statement is very similar to what Jesus says later in chapter 8, “Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.”” That applies both to the confused and the rejecting. There’s no difference. It’s the same end, whether you rejected Christ out of confusion or out of hatred. The end is the same. You will die in your sins.
Jesus does not respond to their confusion, but leaves them wondering about what He means. It’s a terrible thing to walk away from the day of salvation and then be left in your confusion about Jesus or your rejection of Him!
Listen, if today you are not really sure if you truly belong to Christ, I would plead with you believe in Christ today. As God to examine your heart. Repent and believe before it is too late. God has given you a measure of light, even through this message. He says (2 Cor. 6:2), “Behold, now is ‘the acceptable time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of salvation.’” Don’t miss the opportunity to trust in Christ as your Savior and Lord today Call out to God saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner. I cannot save myself. I am in desperate need of your mercy and your forgiveness. I place my faith in the living Christ, my only hope of salvation.”
