Gospel of John: Life in Jesus’ Name
John 7 – Jesus, the Matchless One
This week I was reading in the Book of Acts. Chapter 17. The Apostle Paul traveled to a city called Thessalonica. (The city still exists today.) He went there to spread the message of Jesus. It started well. Some people believed. A new church was formed. But a short time later, some of his own people, the Jews, became jealous at the attention being given to these new Jesus followers. So they gathered some evil, troublemaking men, formed a mob, and set the city in an uproar. So Paul had to flee the city.
That type of story is common in the Book of Acts. Trouble was regularly stirred up because of what Jesus Christ did in various cities in the Mediterranean world.
And actually, that same story is occurring today all over the world. In Nepal. India. Sudan. Syria. Believers in Jesus in many countries are filled with the joy of their salvation in Christ. But at the same time, they are literally risking their lives by following Jesus. Some of them are threatened even by their own family members: parents and siblings who are actually willing to kill their own son or daughter or brother unless they turn away from Jesus.
What is it about Jesus Christ that he provoked people back in the 1st century and even today? Some loved and adored him. Many others despised him.
What is it about Jesus? There is no one like him. No one. Ever.
We are in a sermon series reading through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, penned by his disciple, John.
In this book, as much as any other NT book, we see the controversy surrounding Jesus.
We read remarkable statements by Jesus.
We see astonishing miracles, called signs.
We study OT prophecies that point to Jesus.
We see eyewitnesses who testify that he was real.
We see a few people who followed him and loved him.
We see many who absolutely despised him.
Jesus Christ is the Matchless One. There has never been anyone like him.
We will read through a Chapter in John, but more than studying the chapter, I want us to study the Person of Jesus. What he did. What he said. Who he is.
John 7
We’ll read John 7 today.
As you are turning there, I will mention that for the following 3 Sundays, we will press PAUSE on our Gospel of John series.
1. Next week, our newly ordained pastor, Mike Anderson, will share the impactful story of his 45-year journey with the Lord. Up close and personal.
2. Then for the 2 weeks after that, we will talk about where Stonebrook is heading. What we are about, what is our Vision, what are our Values. What core truths are guiding us.
3. We will RESUME in the Gospel of John on August 12th.
Let’s read John 7.
FEAST OF BOOTHS
1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.
Galilee is the northern part of Palestine. Judea, where Jerusalem is, is the southern part of Palestine.
2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand.
This is an annual Jewish feast commanded by God through Moses. It was a week-long time of celebration and worship in Jerusalem to worship the Lord in community, and to celebrate the harvest God had given them. Thousands of Israelites would descend upon Jerusalem. More on this later.
UNBELIEF
3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing.
4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”
5 For not even his brothers believed in him.
Here is a sad commentary: Even his own family—the brothers who were with him for years while growing up—even they did not believe that he was the long-awaited Messiah. Just a few months earlier in Mark 3:21, his family said, “He is out of his mind.” Later on some of them did believe. His brother James went on to be the leader of the church in Jerusalem and author the epistle we call, “James.”
But for now, they were antagonistic.
6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.
Multiple times Jesus says, “My time…my hour…has not yet come.” By this he means that the hour of his arrest, torture, and death is not here yet. Then he tells his unbelieving brothers, “Your time is always here.” Your time to go to Jerusalem to the Feast or really to almost anything is always here.
Then in vs. 7, he explains more:
HATRED
7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.
8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”
9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee.
Jesus Christ is the most polarizing figure in all of human history. Some love him. Many hate him. And the reason they hate him is that he tells the world that its deeds are evil. This is important to understand. People react to Jesus because he tells them that judgment is coming.
None of us likes being told we’re wrong. We hate hearing, “You have sinned, and sinned against God.” The word “Gospel,” means good news. The good news of salvation. But before the “good news” becomes “good news,” we need to hear the “bad news” of our sin. And we will ALL be tempted to hate the messenger of that bad news.
POLARIZING
10 But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.
Wait. Jesus just told his brothers it was not his time yet to go. But now he goes. Was he lying? Did he change his mind?
No, he simply meant that he wasn’t going yet. He was going to go in his own timing, not on the command of his unbelieving, antagonistic brothers.
11 The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?”
12 And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.”
13 Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.
Jesus was so polarizing. There seemed to be no middle ground.
The people were “muttering.” Whispering. They were fascinated and curious. Jesus was the “talk of the town,” but the people were afraid to be on his side, for the leaders of the people would not tolerate Jesus nor any of his followers.
We learned back in Chapter 5 that the leaders hated Jesus so much they were seeking ways to kill him.
GREAT LEARNING
14 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.
15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”
They were astonished that Jesus knew so much about the things of God, for he hadn’t gone to “rabbi college,” being trained by a famous rabbi. How could he have such a command of the Scriptures? How could he speaking with such authority?
16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
The short answer: All that he spoke and taught was directed by God the Father. His teaching and his words came straight from heaven. He made that quite clear in Chapter 5.
GOD’S WILL
17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.
18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.
19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”
Vs. 17 is fascinating and profound.
If we want to know if Jesus’ words are legitimate, we must not approach them with a critical, judgmental eye, as if Jesus is on trial before us… as if God is on trial in the courtroom and we are on the judge’s bench, waiting to slam the gavel and declare God’s innocence or guilt. His truth or his lies.
Nor should we approach God and the Bible with a casual eye simply to find interesting stories and facts. The things of God are far too serious and impactful for such a casual view.
Here in vs. 17, Jesus says, “If you want to know if my teaching—all my words—are from heaven, you will discover that only if you have a heart to do God’s will.” He is NOT saying that you must attain to some moral level of perfection.
He is simply saying, “You must be willing to obey what you hear.”
Parents understand this with their young children.
When our daughters were young, I would give them a command, and not infrequently would they quickly reply, “WHY?”
95% of the time that “WHY” was not based on a basic curiosity and desire to learn. The “WHY” was to give themselves more time and ammunition to declare why they would NOT obey. So usually I would say, “Tell Daddy you will obey first, and then I will tell you WHY I want you to do this.” I did not want to waste my breath explaining “my will” when they really didn’t want to do “my will.”
So Jesus’ words in vs. 17 are profound. He is offering both a warning and comfort.
The WARNING: If we are unwilling to listen and obey, we will never understand God.
The COMFORT: is the promise that if we are sincere, and truly want to know what is the truth, God will reveal it to us.
If we really want to “get Jesus”— to understand him and to know if he is legitimate—we have to approach him with a humble, willing heart.
We think approaching Jesus is purely an intellectual decision. It obviously includes the intellect. We are to use our minds.
But Jesus is saying there is a moral component to this: Are you willing to do what God says, even before he shows you the truth?
APPLICATION
Be willing to obey.
Whenever we approach God’s Word, we must have a willing heart to hear and even to obey. When we come on Sunday morning. When we read our Bibles each morning. When we discuss the Bible at Life Group.
We want to know God and if what he says is true. So we must start with a heart to obey whatever he shows us.
In chapter 8, we will see a similar statement by Jesus to some stubborn antagonists:
John 8:43 ESV “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.”
If we are unwilling to obey and unwilling to hear what Jesus has to say, we will never understand.
This is not an intellectual issue. This is a heart issue. A moral issue. This is an issue of the will.
Now let’s read of more opposition:
OPPOSITION
20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”
21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it.
That “one work” is probably the healing of the handicapped man in Chapter 5.
22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.
23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well?
24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
Here the crowd judges Jesus to have a demon! A few months later in John 10:20, they repeat this and add, “He is insane!”
This is a staggering accusation. They call the Holy Son of God, the Logos of God, the Lamb of God sent from heaven to earth to die for the sins of the world….they call him demon-possessed…and insane.
CONFUSION
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.”
The people were confused. They had heard the leaders wanted to kill Jesus. But here Jesus is, speaking openly and boldly in the temple, and the leaders are doing nothing. Maybe the authorities changed their mind. Maybe they think he really is the Messiah, the Christ.
FROM HEAVEN
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.”
He is saying that he was sent from heaven by God the Father.
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?”
So just like in Chapter 5, the leaders were appalled by Jesus’ bold statement that he came from heaven. This apparent blasphemy against God. So they decided to arrest him. But somehow they couldn’t. His hour of suffering on the cross was not yet, so God the Father made sure they didn’t arrest him yet.
So he came from heaven.
Now in these next few verses, he is saying he is going back to heaven.
TO HEAVEN
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 in vs. 33-34 he speaks of going back to heaven, but with veiled words that they simply don’t comprehend.
LIVING WATER
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
A few months earlier farther north in Palestine in a region called Samaria, Jesus spoke to a non-Jewish woman at a well. And to her he spoke of living water. Now to these Jews in Jerusalem, he speaks metaphorically again.
I love this metaphor of Living Water. It is so descriptive.
Jesus’ words about living water have several implications.
First, numerous OT prophecies speak in a variety of ways about Water from God.
It’s unclear what specific Scripture Jesus was referring to, but there are many that speak of water. They speak of water that cleanses us from sin. They speak of water that refreshes eternally. Water that symbolizes the coming age of the Messiah.
For example,
Isaiah 55:1 ESV “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
God is the Thirst Quencher for our souls.
So Jesus’ words have powerful implications. He is really saying, “I am the Living Water from heaven that brings cleansing and refreshment and life.” A bold claim.
Second, Jesus’ words of Living Water related powerfully to the Jewish Feast of Booths that he spoke at.
For at least several hundred years (but not articulated in the Mosaic Law), the Jews had as part of the Feast of Booths/Tabernacles a “water ceremony” (a water rite).
In this ceremony, the High Priest would fill a golden container with water from a pool called Siloam. Then he along with hundreds, even thousands of people from Israel, would march in in a procession back to the temple. And the temple choir would sing praises to the Lord. The High Priest would offer up this water in worship to the Lord.
So Jesus’ reference to himself as “living water” would have powerfully caught the attention of the people. They would have participated in this water ceremony that very day.
So instead of drinking water from this Feast, Jesus tells them to drink of him, for he is the fulfillment of all that the Feast anticipated and all that the OT prophecies point to.
They were to drink of Jesus, that is, believe in him. And when they did, rivers of living water would flow out of them, that is, the Holy Spirit.
So last week in Chapter 6, we looked at Jesus, the Bread of Life. Today in Chapter 7, he is the Living Water. We are to metaphorically eat and drink of Jesus. Just as we find physical life through food and water, so we find SOUL life….ETERNAL life…through Jesus.
APPLICATION
Here’s an application.
Seek first and foremost in your life Jesus, the Living Water. Put him first above all other things.
We search to satisfy our soul hunger and thirst in so many ways. Through entertainment, our careers, alcohol, drugs, materialism, family. Even through church activity. But NONE of those things are reality. They cannot satisfy the soul and bring real life.
Over and over again in this Gospel, Jesus points us to himself.
One key way he does that is through NAMES and METAPHORS that describe him:
Bread of life.
Living water.
Lamb of God.
Good Shepherd.
True vine.
Jesus calls us to himself. Not to church activity. Not to feeling good about some moral standards we are achieving (or probably NOT achieving). No, Jesus is calling us to himself.
If I were to ask you, “Define Christianity,” what would you say? How would you describe it?
Would we describe it primarily about activity—going to church, reading our Bible, serving people, doing good?
Jesus is essentially calling us to describe our Christian life to be about the Person of Jesus.
To eat of the Bread of Life.
To drink of the Living Water.
To follow the voice of the Good Shepherd.
To abide in the True Vine.
To know him. To trust him. To love him. To obey him. To abide in him.
DIVISION
40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.”
41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee?
42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”
43 So there was a division among the people over him.
44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
The people were confused, ignorant, and divided.
CONFUSED: They thought “the Prophet” (from Deuteronomy 18) and the Christ (the Messiah, which means, Anointed One) would be two different people.
IGNORANT: They didn’t understand two prophecies concerning the Messiah’s heritage. He was to be from both Galilee and Bethlehem.
DIVIDED: The people of Jerusalem couldn’t agree who Jesus was or what to do with him. Was he really the Messiah? Was he a false prophet? Was he really from heaven as the Son of God, or was he blaspheming and worthy of death?
Now we catch up with the results from vs. 32 when they sent officers to arrest Jesus.
MATCHLESS
45 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?”
46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”
47 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived?
48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”
50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them,
51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”
52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Back in vs. 32, the Pharisees sent out these temple police officers to arrest Jesus. A little later those officers come back empty handed. Why? I love their words: “No one ever spoke like this man!”
What if this happened today? Say city government officials sent 10 Ames police officers to arrest Jesus, who was speaking at Stonebrook that day. Jesus is up here speaking. The officers are lined up against the wall. But they don’t come up. They’re a bit shocked. And amazed. He is no criminal. He is no mad man.
There is something about him. They’ve never seen anyone like him. How could they arrest him? Why would they arrest him?
And a couple hours later, they simply leave.
These Jewish temple officers are not hired thugs. They are religious men. From the Jewish tribe of Levi. And they hear Jesus speak to the crowd, and they are amazed by his words. His wisdom, his authority. Apparently they wonder why they would arrest someone like this? Is he from heaven, as he says he is? Is he the Living Water, that if we drink of him we will have real life, and living water will flow out of our hearts? We’re not told if they truly believed in Jesus, but at a minimum they hesitated enough that they couldn’t and wouldn’t arrest him.
What is it about Jesus that he impacts people to react, one way or another? For or against?
So let’s look at several statements made by the people in this chapter:
“When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
“How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”
“This really is the Prophet.”
“This is the Christ.”
“No one ever spoke like this man!”
Some of the people were astonished by Jesus. They knew something was different.
There is something about Jesus that caused many people to marvel at him. The miracles he performed. His strong, authoritative words. His courage. His love. His wisdom. And ultimately his claims. He claimed to be the Living Water, that if we drink of him, we will have real life. He claimed to be the Bread of Life, that if we eat of him, we will live forever.
APPLICATION
Be in awe.
We call ourselves “Christ”-ians, which means we are followers and worshipers of Christ.
As we read Chapter 7, our awe and worship ought to grow, for we see in Jesus someone remarkable, amazing, heavenly, authoritative, wise, and bold.
“Where did he get such learning?”
“No one ever spoke like him.”
“Will the Christ do more signs than this?”
He fulfilled prophecy (from Bethlehem and Galilee).
Jesus Christ is the Matchless One. There is no one like him. He is worthy of all our trust. All our worship. All our love.