Christ goes to a festival in Jerusalem and teaches there
7
📚After these things Jesus went about in Galilee, for he did not want to go about in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.2 📚Now the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.
7:2 Notes at Lev 23:33-43. This feast took place annually in Jerusalem.⚜
3 📚So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so your disciples can also see the deeds you are doing. 4 📚For no man does things secretly while he seeks to be known publicly. If you are doing these things, reveal yourself to the world”. 5 📚For not even his brothers believed in him.
7:3-5 They knew He could do miracles, but they did not yet believe He was the Son of God or the Messiah. So they vainly imagined they could give Him advice. The advice was that He should go to the center of Jewish life (Jerusalem in Judea) and openly try to assume the leadership of the Jews. At this time they completely misunderstood His purpose and work. Later on at least two of them, James and Jude (Judas – Matt 13:55) became His true followers (Acts 1:14; Jam 1:1; Jude 1).⚜
6 📚Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but for you the time is always right.
7:6 This means that it was all right for them to go to the feast any time they wished, but it was better for Him to wait a while (v 8).⚜
7 📚The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its deeds are evil.
7:7 For the first time Jesus plainly stated that the world (unbelieving men in general) hates Him (see also John 15:18, 23, 24), though He had implied it in John 3:20. And He gives the reason for the hatred – men do not like to be told their actions are evil. They hate to be exposed for what they are. The world could not hate His brothers because at that time they still belonged to the world, and so could not stand against it.
The word “world” is used more than 70 times in John’s Gospel, more than in any other book of the Bible. Christ revealed that the world is lost (John 3:16), in darkness (John 3:19), hates God (John 7:7; 15:18, 23), is ruled by Satan (John 8:44; 12:31), is unable to receive God’s Spirit (John 14:17), and is sinful and unbelieving (John 16:8-11). In two verses of his first letter John described the world (1 John 5:19). See also notes at Rom 12:2; Jam 4:4; 1 John 2:16.⚜
8 📚You go on up to the feast. I am not going just yet to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come”.
9 After he said these words to them, he stayed in Galilee. 10 📚But after his brothers had gone, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but secretly.
7:10 Jesus always knew just when to do something and how it should be done.⚜
11 📚Then the Jews looked for him at the feast, and said, “Where is he?”
7:11 Christ’s enemies expected Him to come and were puzzled at His absence.⚜
12 📚And there was much grumbling among the people concerning him, for some said, “He is a good man”; others said, “No, on the contrary, he deceives the people”.
7:12 Here are two totally differing opinions about Jesus. If He was good He would not deceive people; if He deceived people He was not good. If He was good and therefore did not deceive people then His teachings are true. His enemies said He was a deceiver (Matt 27:63). But they could not offer any evidence whatever for that statement. There is massive evidence to show He was good and no deceiver (compare John 5:31-40).⚜
13 📚However no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jews.
7:13 Others (even Christ’s disciples) sometimes showed this same fear (John 9:22; 12:42; 19:38; 20:19). Such fear is bondage. Compare Prov 29:25.⚜
14 📚Now about halfway through the feast Jesus went up to the temple and taught.
7:14 He openly began to teach when He knew it was the right time to do so.⚜
15 📚 And the Jews were astonished, saying, “How does this man understand the writings 📖, never having studied?”
16 📚Jesus answering them, said, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
7:16 Jesus did not invent His teaching and it did not come from other men. It came from God the Father who sent Him. See also John 12:49; 17:8. Since Jesus was honest we should believe Him about this and accept His teaching as the very words of God. Forty times in this Gospel Jesus insisted that He had come into the world from God the Father (John 3:16-17; 4:34; 5:24, 37; 6:39, 44, 57).⚜
17 📚If anyone chooses to do his will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God, or whether I speak on my own.
7:17 Here Jesus gives a way whereby any person can find out whether He spoke the truth of God. Sincere commitment to do the will of God, the Creator of the universe, is the only way to obtain true spiritual knowledge. And anyone, anywhere who does so will come to know that Jesus taught the very truth of God. People sometimes express doubts about the possibility of knowing the truth because there are so many different religions, sects, and teachings in the world. But in this verse Jesus gives us an infallible way to find the truth. Compare Matt 6:22.
The problem with men is not what they call intellectual difficulties, but with their will, their purposes. It is because they do not wish to do God’s will that they remain in spiritual ignorance (John 3:19-20). Do we really want to do God’s will no matter what it is, or where it leads us? If our answer is “no” we should not be surprised if the truth continues to elude us. If our answer is “yes” we will learn the truth and the truth will set us free.⚜
18 📚He who speaks on his own is seeking his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
7:18 Jesus is speaking about two different kinds of religious teachers. They who seek honor for themselves will not be concerned about the truth of their teaching. They will teach man-invented doctrines if that pleases people and causes people to honor them. But other teachers will seek the honor of the God of truth (Ps 31:5). Their whole concern is to teach God’s truth whether people like it or not. The Lord Jesus knew that He was the second kind of teacher (John 8:49-50).⚜
19 📚Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you keep the Law? Why do you seek to kill me?”
7:19 These Jews prided themselves that they kept the law of Moses, but not one of them actually did. They showed their utter failure to do so by plotting to kill the Lord Jesus. This was breaking one of the chief commands of the law (Ex 20:13). Jesus is saying that the reason they did not receive the truth He taught was that they were not willing to do God’s will even in the most basic matters.⚜
20 📚The people answered and said, “You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill you?”
21 📚Jesus answered and said to them, “I did one deed, and you are all amazed. 22 📚Therefore consider this: Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 📚If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry at me because I have made a man completely well on the Sabbath?
7:21-23 The Lord here refers to the miracle recorded in John 5:1-9. These Jews complained bitterly against Jesus because He had healed a man on the Sabbath (John 5:10, 16. See also Matt 12:9-14). Yet they themselves practiced circumcision on the Sabbath if it fell on the eighth day after the birth of a boy (see Gen 17:9-14; Lev 12:3). They thought it all right to wound on the Sabbath but not to heal.⚜
24 📚Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment”.
7:24 They were quick to condemn because they were faulty in judgment.⚜
25 📚Then some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Is not this the one whom they are seeking to kill? 26 📚But, look, he is speaking openly, and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers really know that he is the Christ? 27 📚However we know from where this man is. But when Christ comes, no man will know from where he is”.
7:25-27 These ordinary people were uncertain about the Lord Jesus. It seems His teaching had made a good impression on them and they wondered whether the Jewish leaders had abandoned their plan to kill Him and were about to accept Him as the Messiah of Israel. But they themselves could not accept this because they knew Jesus had come down to Jerusalem from Galilee and they thought that no one would know from where the Messiah would come. But in this they were mistaken (see Micah 5:2; Matt 2:1-6).⚜
28 📚Then Jesus cried out in the temple as he was teaching and said, “You both know me, and you know from where I am. And I have not come on my own. But he who sent me is true. Him you do not know. 29 📚But I know him, for I am from him, and he sent me”.
7:28-29 Jesus took this opportunity to tell them the truth about His origins. They would have said Galilee or Nazareth. He insisted once more that He came from God. If they had known God they would have recognized this, but they did not.⚜
30 📚Then they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time was not yet come.
7:30 Jesus came from heaven to die, to give Himself as a sacrifice for man’s sins. Not only so, the very time that He should do so was fixed, and that time had not yet come.⚜
31 📚And many of the people believed in him, and said, “When Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs 📖 than the ones this man has done?”
32 📚The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him, and the Pharisees 📖 and the chief priests sent officers to seize him.
33 📚Then Jesus said to them, “I will be with you only a little while, and then I will go to him who sent me.
7:33 Verse 16.⚜
34 📚You will look for me, and will not find me, and you will not be able to come where I am”.
7:34 In other words, their day of opportunity would come to an end. Compare Prov 1:24-28; Hos 5:6, 15; Amos 8:11-12. He meant He would be in heaven and they could not go there.⚜
35 📚Then the Jews said among themselves, “Where does he intend to go, that we will not find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks 📖? 36 📚What kind of statement is this he has spoken, ‘You will look for me, and will not find me, and you will not be able to come where I am?’”
7:35-36 As usual the unbelievers did not understand His words. They could think only of things related to this world.⚜
37 📚In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 📚He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his innermost being streams of living water will flow”.
7:37-38 Compare John 4:10, 13, 14. This wonderful promise is to all, and it was spoken loudly and emphatically. Here by comparing v 37 with v 38 we see that “drinking” is believing in Christ (apply this to John 6:53-56). The Scripture mentioned in v 38 does not mean a single verse, but a truth implied by several verses – Isa 44:3; 55:1-2; 58:11. In Jer 2:13; and 17:13 the Lord says that He Himself is “the spring of living water”. We see the streams of living water flowing from within the apostles and servants of Christ in the book of Acts. We can read of these streams in the history of the Church. And we can experience them ourselves if we “drink” of Christ. See Luke 11:13; Acts 5:32; Eph 5:18.⚜
39 📚(But he spoke this about the Spirit, whom those who believe in him would receive; for the Holy Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.) 📖
7:39 Notes on the Holy Spirit at John 14:16-17. He is the flow of spiritual life from believing hearts. The Holy Spirit was active in Old Testament days and in the days of Christ on earth (Gen 1:2; Ex 31:3; Num 11:25; 24:2; Jud 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 1 Sam 16:13; 2 Sam 23:2). But the Father and the Son sent Him in full measure after the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ (John 14:16-17, 26; Acts 1:4-5; 2:1-4). One name we might give to this era since Christ is “The era of the Holy Spirit”.⚜
40 📚Therefore, many of the people, when they heard this statement, said, “Surely this is the Prophet”. 41 📚Others said, “This is the Christ”. But some said, “Will Christ 📖 come from Galilee? 42 📚Has not the Scripture said that Christ will come from the seed of David, and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”
7:42 They were correct (Micah 5:2), but they were ignorant of the fact that the Lord Jesus had been born there (Matt 2:1; Luke 2:4-7).⚜
43 📚So there was a division among the people because of him.
7:43 The Lord Jesus is still the cause of division among people everywhere. Those who trust Him will be divided from those who do not. Compare Matt 10:34-36.⚜
44 📚And some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him. 45 📚Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why haven’t you brought him?”
46 📚The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man”.
7:45-46 Verse 32 records the sending of these guards. They were unable to obey the Pharisees’ orders because they were overwhelmed by the power of Christ’s teaching. Compare Matt 7:28-29.⚜
47 📚Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived?
7:47 Verse 12.⚜
48 📚Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him?
7:48 These hardened unbelievers actually thought that their unbelief was evidence that Jesus was a deceiver! That Jesus could not be speaking the truth because they had not put their stamp of approval on Him!⚜
49 📚But this people who do not know the Law are accursed”.
7:49 They thought that only people ignorant of the law of Moses could possibly believe in Jesus! Little did they know that the law and the whole Old Testament pointed to Jesus (John 5:39, 46; 1:45; Luke 24:27, 45, 46), indeed that it was He who gave the law to Moses and caused the whole Old Testament to be inspired. They were the ignorant ones.⚜
50 📚Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus at night, being one of them) said to them,
7:50 They thought no Pharisee or Jewish leader had believed in Jesus, but they were wrong in this also. Here was one – see John 19:39-42 (also John 12:42). The other Pharisees did not know this because Nicodemus had not been a bold witness.⚜
51 📚“Does our Law judge any man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”
7:51 The question was reasonable and in harmony with the law itself. Though he did not stand very boldly yet he did stand and was willing to stand alone. However, it only provoked the ignorant scorn of these arrogant unbelievers (v 52).⚜
52 📚They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and see, for no prophet arises out of Galilee”.
53 📚And every man went to his own house.
7:53 They saw they could do nothing at the time against Jesus and so dispersed.⚜