July 28, 2026 • 23 mins
Pressure can come from every direction at once: leaders who want you silenced, crowds who want you to perform, and even family members who think faith should always be loud and public. John 7 drops us right into that tension as Jesus stays in Galilee because the religious authorities are plotting his death, then faces a pointed challenge from his own brothers right as the Feast of Booths approaches. We talk through why this feast mattered, what it celebrated, and how the setting sharpens the conflict around Jesus’ identity and mission.
We also slow down on a line that explains so much of the hostility Jesus faces: the world hates him because he testifies that its works are evil. That’s not abstract theology. It’s a clear reason why truth-telling often brings pushback, why spiritual darkness resists exposure, and why following Jesus can feel costly. As the festival unfolds, we track the rumors swirling through Jerusalem and the fear that keeps people from speaking openly, especially when religious leaders hold real social power.
Then Jesus steps into the temple and teaches, and the focus turns to authority and discernment. How does he speak with such clarity without formal rabbinical training? Jesus answers by pointing to the Father as the source of his teaching and by tying spiritual understanding to a willing heart to obey God. We close with Jesus confronting legalism and hypocrisy through the Sabbath controversy and his command that still challenges us today: do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. If this deep dive into John 7 helps you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. What part of Jesus’ timing or his call to right judgment do you need most right now?
Email: nathan@nathandietsche.com
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SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Thank you once again for joiningme for the mysteries of God's
Word.
Today we are in John chapterseven, and we will start at
verse one.
After this, Jesus went about inGalilee.
(00:36):
He would not go about in Judeabecause the Jews were seeking to
kill him.
Now the Jews' feast of boothswas at hand.
These first two verses ofchapter seven give us this new
setting for Jesus' ministry.
It begins after this.
Well, after what?
(00:58):
Well this is at least six monthsafter Jesus spoke at the
synagogue in Capernaum.
And back there in chapter six,we were told that the time of
the Passover was at hand.
But here, now in the beginningof chapter seven, we are told
that the feast of booths is athand, which tells us there is a
(01:20):
six-month gap.
If I were to summarize the endof chapter six, I would say that
Jesus had made it clear to thecrowds that he was not here to
feed their physical desires, butrather called them to repentance
and eternal life.
In addition, the Jewish leadersfrom Judea had become so enraged
(01:43):
with Jesus and his claims ofdeity that they were plotting
now to kill him.
Therefore, over these last sixmonths, Jesus spent this time
teaching the twelve, as well asministering throughout Galilee,
as he kept Capernaum as his homebase.
(02:04):
And again, as we see, the Jewsare seeking to kill him.
Not only did Jesus impose on theJewish leaders power and
authority by growing his ownpopularity and his own teachings
against their extra rabbinicallaws on the Sabbath, but he was
also claiming to be equal withGod.
(02:26):
In the eyes of the Jewishleadership, Jesus was committing
blasphemy of the highest order,and it deserved the death
penalty under the Mosaic Law.
And again we see that the feastof the Booths is at hand.
The Feast of Booths is alsocalled the Feast of Tabernacles,
(02:46):
or the Feast of Tents, or theFeast of Ingathering.
It is celebrated in lateSeptember or early October.
It's called the Feast of Boothsbecause this is when the
Israelites would set up smallshelters from branches of trees.
They would live in them foreight days, and this was to
remember God's faithfulness toIsrael as they wandered through
(03:09):
the wilderness with Moses.
It was also a time ofcelebrating the olive and grape
harvest and giving thanks to theLord for his provision.
It could be comparable to how wecelebrate Thanksgiving, but this
celebration of the feast of theBooze went on for over a week.
(03:30):
Picking up in verse three.
So his brothers said to him,Leave here and go to Judea, so
that your disciples also may seethe works that you're doing.
For no one works in secret if heseeks to be known openly.
If you do these things, showyourself to the world.
For not even his brothersbelieved in him.
(03:55):
And Jesus said to them, My timehas not yet come, but your time
is always here.
The world cannot hate you, butit hates me, because I testify
about it that its works areevil.
You go up to the feast.
I'm not going up to the feast,for my time has not yet fully
(04:18):
come.
After saying this, he remainedin Galilee.
Here in verses three throughnine, we see a reference to
Jesus' brothers.
These are Jesus' naturally bornbrothers that came from Mary and
Joseph.
In Matthew thirteen, fifty five,it also makes a reference to
(04:39):
Jesus' naturally born brothers.
When it reads, Is this not thecarpenter's son?
Is not his mother called Mary?
And are not his brothers Jamesand Joseph and Simon and Judas?
When we start to think deeperabout Jesus' naturally born
brothers, we start to realizethat neither Joseph nor Mary
(05:03):
physically contributed to Jesus'DNA.
While Joseph and Mary wereconsidered Jesus' natural
family, Jesus was not theproduct of man, but Jesus was
the Immaculate Conception.
He came from God.
He was created as the HolySpirit came over Mary.
(05:25):
The Greek word that's used forbrothers here carries the
natural and ordinary sense of anatural brother.
At this point, I believe thatit's important to recognize that
while the Catholic Church makesa claim that Mary somehow
remained a virgin and had noother children, this is not at
(05:46):
all what Scripture teaches.
In addition to this verse herein John 7 3 and Matthew 13 55,
which we've already listed, theScripture also teaches in
Matthew 1 25 that Joseph knewher not until she had given
birth to a son, and she calledhis name Jesus.
(06:10):
And in Luke 2 7, and she, Mary,gave birth to her firstborn son
and wrapped him in swaddlingclothes.
One last notation about Jesus'brothers is that the book of
Jude is historically known to bewritten by Jesus' brother,
Judas.
(06:30):
Now that we've talked aboutJesus' brothers, let's get back
to our text.
Jesus' brothers were egging himon, so to speak.
They didn't believe who he wasyet, or who he had claimed to
be, so they're sarcasticallysaying to him that he's hiding
himself.
He should go show himself to theworld.
(06:53):
Their motivation came from theirunbelief, not from genuine
encouragement.
It's also been suggested thatperhaps like other Jews, they
wanted to see a political andsocial Messiah.
Perhaps they wanted to see Jesusdo more miracles and test the
genuineness of Jesus.
(07:14):
Because as the scriptures tellus here, Jesus' natural brothers
did not believe that he was theMessiah, and they did not
believe until after hisresurrection.
Jesus' reply to his brothers ismy time has not yet come.
Jesus is waiting on the Father'stiming to reveal himself.
(07:38):
But Jesus says your time isalways here.
Because Jesus' brothers did notbelieve in him, they were part
of the world.
Those who are of the world canwalk openly in the world because
they belong to the world.
The time is always here for thepeople of the world who do
(07:59):
worldly things and belong to theprince of the power of this age.
Jesus says the world cannot hateyou.
The world couldn't hate Jesus'brothers because they belonged
to it.
The system of the world lovesits own.
The system of the world are allwho reject the word of God and
(08:23):
the Messiah.
They live and lie in the powerof Satan.
But Jesus says that the worldhates him.
The reason the world hates Jesusis because of who he is.
He is the light of the world,and he testifies to the truth of
(08:45):
man's sinful condition, as Jesussays, because I testify about it
that its works are evil.
Jesus testifies that man needsto repent and believe in him.
Picking up in verse ten.
But after his brothers had goneup to the feast, then he also
(09:08):
went up, not publicly but inprivate.
The Jews were looking for him atthe feast, and saying, Where is
he?
And there was much mutteringabout him among the people.
While some said, He's a goodman, others said no.
He's leading the people astray.
Yet for fear of the Jews no onespoke openly about him.
(09:32):
In verses ten through thirteenwe see that after Jesus'
brothers had gone up to thefeast, later Jesus himself goes,
but he does so in a discreetmanner.
The will of the Father herestands in direct contrast to the
will of his brothers.
His brothers demanded he showhimself publicly when the feast
(09:57):
began, and the will of theFather directed Jesus to go up
privately, to go up discreetly.
And then in verse eleven we seethat the Jews are looking for
him, and we see this contrastbetween the Jews and the people.
It again shows us in the Gospelof John how that phrase the Jews
(10:19):
refers to the Jewish religiousleaders, not the Jewish people.
And during this feast of thebooth, Jesus was the hot topic
of conversation.
Some of the people here inJerusalem would have seen Jesus'
miracles.
They would have heard histeachings in the synagogues.
(10:40):
Others at this festival wouldhave seen the miracles in
Galilee, including the feedingof the five thousand.
This festival is a year and ahalf into Jesus' public
ministry, and we see now thatsome people consider Jesus a
good teacher, or good man, butothers thought he was a false
teacher, leading the peopleastray.
(11:04):
The Jewish leaders were workingto make Jesus out to be a
deceiver, and they were tryingto put him to death according to
the Jewish law.
These Jewish leaders had a greatdeal of power over the common
people.
They could use excommunicationfrom the synagogue as a
consequence for not followingtheir teachings or rules.
(11:27):
And the Jews considered removalfrom their church community as a
severe punishment.
So when the Jewish leaders toldthe people not to believe in
this Jesus and that Jesus was adeceiver, it created a great
power tension between thereligious rulers and the crowds
that heard Jesus' teachings andsaw his miracles.
(11:51):
Picking up in verse fourteen.
About the middle of the feastJesus went up into the temple
and began teaching.
The Jews therefore marveled,saying, How is it that this man
has learning when he's neverstudied?
So Jesus answered them, Myteaching is not mine, but his
(12:15):
who sent me.
If anyone's will is to do God'swill, he will know whether the
teaching is from God or whetherI am speaking on my own
authority.
The one who speaks on his ownauthority seeks his own glory,
but the one who seeks the gloryof him who sent him is true.
(12:37):
And in him there is nofalsehood.
Has not Moses given you the law?
Yet none of you keeps the law.
Why do you seek to kill me?
In verses fourteen throughnineteen we see Jesus stop being
discreet and come out and beginteaching.
(13:00):
In the Father's perfect timing,Jesus comes out from his secrecy
and into the synagogue.
The Father's timing here forJesus making himself public may
have been to avoid a prematuretriumphal entry, to avoid people
forcing him to be the politicalMessiah.
(13:21):
According to the local customsof that time, it was appropriate
for Jesus to begin teaching in avery public and visible
location, the temple courts.
It was common for prominentrabbis to expound on the
scripture as crowds were sittingin the courts.
(13:42):
And while Jesus is speaking tothe crowd, he directs his
teaching towards the Jewishleaders, because it is the
Jewish leaders that areattempting to discredit him.
The Jews are marveling, they'reasking, how is it this man has
learning?
He's never studied.
This verse is very insightful ofthe times of Jesus, and I
(14:07):
believe also of our times.
Jesus never received formalrabbinical teaching, neither had
his disciples.
And the people, particularly therabbis that had been formally
trained, were questioning howcould Jesus have such
understanding of the scriptures?
(14:28):
But from what I see inScripture, Jesus' teaching
ability came from three primarysources.
One, as a man, he studied thescripture.
Jesus grew in wisdom and instature.
Second, as God in the flesh, hisjudgment was always correct.
(14:50):
He was without sin.
And third, at his baptism Jesuswas empowered by the Holy Spirit
for ministry.
And in verse sixteen, Jesusanswers, My teaching is not
mine, but his who sent me.
(15:10):
The accusation from the Jews wasthat Jesus was coming up with
these teachings on his own,because he'd never been
schooled.
To put it in other words, if youdon't accept the teachings from
our school and our accreditedprograms, then you don't have
(15:31):
real education.
But the source of Jesus'teaching was the Father who gave
it to him.
Jesus is contrasting himselfwith the rabbis, the rabbis who
learned these traditions.
They learned different schoolsof thought from other men or
traditional school programs.
(15:52):
But the teachings of Jesus wereauthoritative because they did
not originate with men, but theyoriginated with God the Father
Himself.
And then Jesus tells theseJewish leaders that true
followers of God have a willingheart to obey God's will.
(16:13):
If you have a willing heart andyou know that Jesus is the way,
the truth, and the life, youwill follow him.
If Jesus were speaking on hisown accord, or out of some kind
of human genius, he would beseeking to exalt himself.
But Jesus did not come to exalthimself, rather, he came as a
(16:35):
servant.
The Son of God is the only onewho fully sought the glory of
God the Father.
It is in Christ that there wasno falsehood.
However, for those today whoseek the glory of God, the Holy
Spirit will affirm the truth ofwho Jesus is, and they will
(16:59):
affirm the truth of his message.
The Jewish leadership wouldboast in their knowledge and in
their obedience to the law ofMoses.
They assumed that they werekeepers of the law, and through
the law they became righteousbefore God.
And Jesus attacks their selfrighteous religion because their
(17:22):
hearts are full of evil.
And then Jesus begins to addresshow the Jews use a double
standard.
They are attacking him over theSabbath in the law of Moses and
trying to condemn him.
Yet none of them keep the law.
Jesus says, Why do you seek tokill me?
(17:45):
While the plot to kill Jesus wasnot public yet, Jesus knew the
hearts of these Jewish leaders.
Their plans had already begun ayear prior to this feast.
Picking up in verse twenty.
The crowd answered, You have ademon who is seeking to kill
(18:06):
you?
Jesus answered them, I did onework, and you all marveled at
it.
Moses gave you circumcision, notthat it is from Moses, but from
the fathers, and you circumcisea man on the Sabbath.
If on the Sabbath a man receivescircumcision, so that the law of
(18:29):
Moses may not be broken, are youangry with me because on the
Sabbath I made a man's bodywhole again?
Do not judge by appearances, butjudge with right judgment.
In verses twenty through twentyfour, after Jesus had called out
(18:49):
the sin of the Jewish leadersand exposed their plot to kill
him, what is the response?
You have a demon.
The crowds, the multitude hereat the temple, again are
ignorant of the leader's plot tokill Jesus.
It is likely out of fear of theJewish leadership that the
crowds join them in insultingJesus.
(19:12):
And they see Jesus' statementsnow as evidence of a paranoid
man that's demon possessed.
We see Jesus being accused ofdemon possession throughout many
of the gospels.
In fact, John the Baptist wasalso accused of having a demon.
Jesus says, I did one work andyou all marveled at it.
(19:35):
The one work Jesus is describingis the healing of the lame man
at the pool of Bethesda, whichhe did here in Jerusalem.
Jesus at this point has donemany miracles, but the one that
the Jewish leaders are soworried about is this healing of
the man on the Sabbath.
(19:57):
The Jewish leadership isoutraged that Jesus would dare
heal on the Sabbath.
And in verses 22 through 23,Jesus makes a logical argument
against these Jewish leaders,exposing their hypocrisy and
double standard usingcircumcision.
The rules for circumcision camefrom the time of Abraham,
(20:21):
although it became part of theMosaic covenant at Sinai, and as
such, it precedes the Sabbathlaws, and circumcision takes
precedence over the Sabbath.
The Jews would circumcise maleinfants on the eighth day, even
if that eighth day was aSabbath.
(20:44):
Therefore, the Jews consideredit legitimate to do something to
make holy or make one part ofthe human body right before God
on the Sabbath.
And Jesus shows how the Jews arebreaking their own standard by
circumcising on the Sabbath, andhe exposes their hypocrisy.
Jesus healing a man on theSabbath and making his whole
(21:08):
body well is better than justone part of a man.
And Jesus rebukes them bysaying, Do not judge by
appearances, but judge withright judgment.
Jesus doesn't want us to judgeother people with harsh,
critical judgment.
(21:28):
He doesn't want us to judgepeople with judgment that
promotes legalism orself-righteousness.
And these Jewish leaders areblinded by their traditions.
They understood the scripturesonly superficially, and they
misunderstood the entire intentof these passages.
(21:48):
In their own darkness and intheir blindness, they were
judging their own Messiah bywhat appeared to be right to
them.
God demands that we exercisegood moral and spiritual
judgment, but he does not wantus to sit in judgment or
condemnation of other people.
(22:11):
While he wants us to recognizewhat is right and wrong and make
good judgments for our ownlives, but he does not want us
to look down on other people,but to lift them up toward him,
towards health, towards what isright.
(22:32):
Ultimately, this is a call fromJesus to the Jewish leadership
to repent.
Thank you for joining me todayas Jesus came into the festival
of the booths and spoke to usabout where true teaching comes
from and how to make rightjudgments.
(22:55):
God bless you this week.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Thank you once again for joiningme for the mysteries of God's
Word.
Today we are in John chapterseven, and we will start at
verse one.
After this, Jesus went about inGalilee.
(00:36):
He would not go about in Judeabecause the Jews were seeking to
kill him.
Now the Jews' feast of boothswas at hand.
These first two verses ofchapter seven give us this new
setting for Jesus' ministry.
It begins after this.
Well, after what?
(00:58):
Well this is at least six monthsafter Jesus spoke at the
synagogue in Capernaum.
And back there in chapter six,we were told that the time of
the Passover was at hand.
But here, now in the beginningof chapter seven, we are told
that the feast of booths is athand, which tells us there is a
(01:20):
six-month gap.
If I were to summarize the endof chapter six, I would say that
Jesus had made it clear to thecrowds that he was not here to
feed their physical desires, butrather called them to repentance
and eternal life.
In addition, the Jewish leadersfrom Judea had become so enraged
(01:43):
with Jesus and his claims ofdeity that they were plotting
now to kill him.
Therefore, over these last sixmonths, Jesus spent this time
teaching the twelve, as well asministering throughout Galilee,
as he kept Capernaum as his homebase.
(02:04):
And again, as we see, the Jewsare seeking to kill him.
Not only did Jesus impose on theJewish leaders power and
authority by growing his ownpopularity and his own teachings
against their extra rabbinicallaws on the Sabbath, but he was
also claiming to be equal withGod.
(02:26):
In the eyes of the Jewishleadership, Jesus was committing
blasphemy of the highest order,and it deserved the death
penalty under the Mosaic Law.
And again we see that the feastof the Booths is at hand.
The Feast of Booths is alsocalled the Feast of Tabernacles,
(02:46):
or the Feast of Tents, or theFeast of Ingathering.
It is celebrated in lateSeptember or early October.
It's called the Feast of Boothsbecause this is when the
Israelites would set up smallshelters from branches of trees.
They would live in them foreight days, and this was to
remember God's faithfulness toIsrael as they wandered through
(03:09):
the wilderness with Moses.
It was also a time ofcelebrating the olive and grape
harvest and giving thanks to theLord for his provision.
It could be comparable to how wecelebrate Thanksgiving, but this
celebration of the feast of theBooze went on for over a week.
(03:30):
Picking up in verse three.
So his brothers said to him,Leave here and go to Judea, so
that your disciples also may seethe works that you're doing.
For no one works in secret if heseeks to be known openly.
If you do these things, showyourself to the world.
For not even his brothersbelieved in him.
(03:55):
And Jesus said to them, My timehas not yet come, but your time
is always here.
The world cannot hate you, butit hates me, because I testify
about it that its works areevil.
You go up to the feast.
I'm not going up to the feast,for my time has not yet fully
(04:18):
come.
After saying this, he remainedin Galilee.
Here in verses three throughnine, we see a reference to
Jesus' brothers.
These are Jesus' naturally bornbrothers that came from Mary and
Joseph.
In Matthew thirteen, fifty five,it also makes a reference to
(04:39):
Jesus' naturally born brothers.
When it reads, Is this not thecarpenter's son?
Is not his mother called Mary?
And are not his brothers Jamesand Joseph and Simon and Judas?
When we start to think deeperabout Jesus' naturally born
brothers, we start to realizethat neither Joseph nor Mary
(05:03):
physically contributed to Jesus'DNA.
While Joseph and Mary wereconsidered Jesus' natural
family, Jesus was not theproduct of man, but Jesus was
the Immaculate Conception.
He came from God.
He was created as the HolySpirit came over Mary.
(05:25):
The Greek word that's used forbrothers here carries the
natural and ordinary sense of anatural brother.
At this point, I believe thatit's important to recognize that
while the Catholic Church makesa claim that Mary somehow
remained a virgin and had noother children, this is not at
(05:46):
all what Scripture teaches.
In addition to this verse herein John 7 3 and Matthew 13 55,
which we've already listed, theScripture also teaches in
Matthew 1 25 that Joseph knewher not until she had given
birth to a son, and she calledhis name Jesus.
(06:10):
And in Luke 2 7, and she, Mary,gave birth to her firstborn son
and wrapped him in swaddlingclothes.
One last notation about Jesus'brothers is that the book of
Jude is historically known to bewritten by Jesus' brother,
Judas.
(06:30):
Now that we've talked aboutJesus' brothers, let's get back
to our text.
Jesus' brothers were egging himon, so to speak.
They didn't believe who he wasyet, or who he had claimed to
be, so they're sarcasticallysaying to him that he's hiding
himself.
He should go show himself to theworld.
(06:53):
Their motivation came from theirunbelief, not from genuine
encouragement.
It's also been suggested thatperhaps like other Jews, they
wanted to see a political andsocial Messiah.
Perhaps they wanted to see Jesusdo more miracles and test the
genuineness of Jesus.
(07:14):
Because as the scriptures tellus here, Jesus' natural brothers
did not believe that he was theMessiah, and they did not
believe until after hisresurrection.
Jesus' reply to his brothers ismy time has not yet come.
Jesus is waiting on the Father'stiming to reveal himself.
(07:38):
But Jesus says your time isalways here.
Because Jesus' brothers did notbelieve in him, they were part
of the world.
Those who are of the world canwalk openly in the world because
they belong to the world.
The time is always here for thepeople of the world who do
(07:59):
worldly things and belong to theprince of the power of this age.
Jesus says the world cannot hateyou.
The world couldn't hate Jesus'brothers because they belonged
to it.
The system of the world lovesits own.
The system of the world are allwho reject the word of God and
(08:23):
the Messiah.
They live and lie in the powerof Satan.
But Jesus says that the worldhates him.
The reason the world hates Jesusis because of who he is.
He is the light of the world,and he testifies to the truth of
(08:45):
man's sinful condition, as Jesussays, because I testify about it
that its works are evil.
Jesus testifies that man needsto repent and believe in him.
Picking up in verse ten.
But after his brothers had goneup to the feast, then he also
(09:08):
went up, not publicly but inprivate.
The Jews were looking for him atthe feast, and saying, Where is
he?
And there was much mutteringabout him among the people.
While some said, He's a goodman, others said no.
He's leading the people astray.
Yet for fear of the Jews no onespoke openly about him.
(09:32):
In verses ten through thirteenwe see that after Jesus'
brothers had gone up to thefeast, later Jesus himself goes,
but he does so in a discreetmanner.
The will of the Father herestands in direct contrast to the
will of his brothers.
His brothers demanded he showhimself publicly when the feast
(09:57):
began, and the will of theFather directed Jesus to go up
privately, to go up discreetly.
And then in verse eleven we seethat the Jews are looking for
him, and we see this contrastbetween the Jews and the people.
It again shows us in the Gospelof John how that phrase the Jews
(10:19):
refers to the Jewish religiousleaders, not the Jewish people.
And during this feast of thebooth, Jesus was the hot topic
of conversation.
Some of the people here inJerusalem would have seen Jesus'
miracles.
They would have heard histeachings in the synagogues.
(10:40):
Others at this festival wouldhave seen the miracles in
Galilee, including the feedingof the five thousand.
This festival is a year and ahalf into Jesus' public
ministry, and we see now thatsome people consider Jesus a
good teacher, or good man, butothers thought he was a false
teacher, leading the peopleastray.
(11:04):
The Jewish leaders were workingto make Jesus out to be a
deceiver, and they were tryingto put him to death according to
the Jewish law.
These Jewish leaders had a greatdeal of power over the common
people.
They could use excommunicationfrom the synagogue as a
consequence for not followingtheir teachings or rules.
(11:27):
And the Jews considered removalfrom their church community as a
severe punishment.
So when the Jewish leaders toldthe people not to believe in
this Jesus and that Jesus was adeceiver, it created a great
power tension between thereligious rulers and the crowds
that heard Jesus' teachings andsaw his miracles.
(11:51):
Picking up in verse fourteen.
About the middle of the feastJesus went up into the temple
and began teaching.
The Jews therefore marveled,saying, How is it that this man
has learning when he's neverstudied?
So Jesus answered them, Myteaching is not mine, but his
(12:15):
who sent me.
If anyone's will is to do God'swill, he will know whether the
teaching is from God or whetherI am speaking on my own
authority.
The one who speaks on his ownauthority seeks his own glory,
but the one who seeks the gloryof him who sent him is true.
(12:37):
And in him there is nofalsehood.
Has not Moses given you the law?
Yet none of you keeps the law.
Why do you seek to kill me?
In verses fourteen throughnineteen we see Jesus stop being
discreet and come out and beginteaching.
(13:00):
In the Father's perfect timing,Jesus comes out from his secrecy
and into the synagogue.
The Father's timing here forJesus making himself public may
have been to avoid a prematuretriumphal entry, to avoid people
forcing him to be the politicalMessiah.
(13:21):
According to the local customsof that time, it was appropriate
for Jesus to begin teaching in avery public and visible
location, the temple courts.
It was common for prominentrabbis to expound on the
scripture as crowds were sittingin the courts.
(13:42):
And while Jesus is speaking tothe crowd, he directs his
teaching towards the Jewishleaders, because it is the
Jewish leaders that areattempting to discredit him.
The Jews are marveling, they'reasking, how is it this man has
learning?
He's never studied.
This verse is very insightful ofthe times of Jesus, and I
(14:07):
believe also of our times.
Jesus never received formalrabbinical teaching, neither had
his disciples.
And the people, particularly therabbis that had been formally
trained, were questioning howcould Jesus have such
understanding of the scriptures?
(14:28):
But from what I see inScripture, Jesus' teaching
ability came from three primarysources.
One, as a man, he studied thescripture.
Jesus grew in wisdom and instature.
Second, as God in the flesh, hisjudgment was always correct.
(14:50):
He was without sin.
And third, at his baptism Jesuswas empowered by the Holy Spirit
for ministry.
And in verse sixteen, Jesusanswers, My teaching is not
mine, but his who sent me.
(15:10):
The accusation from the Jews wasthat Jesus was coming up with
these teachings on his own,because he'd never been
schooled.
To put it in other words, if youdon't accept the teachings from
our school and our accreditedprograms, then you don't have
(15:31):
real education.
But the source of Jesus'teaching was the Father who gave
it to him.
Jesus is contrasting himselfwith the rabbis, the rabbis who
learned these traditions.
They learned different schoolsof thought from other men or
traditional school programs.
(15:52):
But the teachings of Jesus wereauthoritative because they did
not originate with men, but theyoriginated with God the Father
Himself.
And then Jesus tells theseJewish leaders that true
followers of God have a willingheart to obey God's will.
(16:13):
If you have a willing heart andyou know that Jesus is the way,
the truth, and the life, youwill follow him.
If Jesus were speaking on hisown accord, or out of some kind
of human genius, he would beseeking to exalt himself.
But Jesus did not come to exalthimself, rather, he came as a
(16:35):
servant.
The Son of God is the only onewho fully sought the glory of
God the Father.
It is in Christ that there wasno falsehood.
However, for those today whoseek the glory of God, the Holy
Spirit will affirm the truth ofwho Jesus is, and they will
(16:59):
affirm the truth of his message.
The Jewish leadership wouldboast in their knowledge and in
their obedience to the law ofMoses.
They assumed that they werekeepers of the law, and through
the law they became righteousbefore God.
And Jesus attacks their selfrighteous religion because their
(17:22):
hearts are full of evil.
And then Jesus begins to addresshow the Jews use a double
standard.
They are attacking him over theSabbath in the law of Moses and
trying to condemn him.
Yet none of them keep the law.
Jesus says, Why do you seek tokill me?
(17:45):
While the plot to kill Jesus wasnot public yet, Jesus knew the
hearts of these Jewish leaders.
Their plans had already begun ayear prior to this feast.
Picking up in verse twenty.
The crowd answered, You have ademon who is seeking to kill
(18:06):
you?
Jesus answered them, I did onework, and you all marveled at
it.
Moses gave you circumcision, notthat it is from Moses, but from
the fathers, and you circumcisea man on the Sabbath.
If on the Sabbath a man receivescircumcision, so that the law of
(18:29):
Moses may not be broken, are youangry with me because on the
Sabbath I made a man's bodywhole again?
Do not judge by appearances, butjudge with right judgment.
In verses twenty through twentyfour, after Jesus had called out
(18:49):
the sin of the Jewish leadersand exposed their plot to kill
him, what is the response?
You have a demon.
The crowds, the multitude hereat the temple, again are
ignorant of the leader's plot tokill Jesus.
It is likely out of fear of theJewish leadership that the
crowds join them in insultingJesus.
(19:12):
And they see Jesus' statementsnow as evidence of a paranoid
man that's demon possessed.
We see Jesus being accused ofdemon possession throughout many
of the gospels.
In fact, John the Baptist wasalso accused of having a demon.
Jesus says, I did one work andyou all marveled at it.
(19:35):
The one work Jesus is describingis the healing of the lame man
at the pool of Bethesda, whichhe did here in Jerusalem.
Jesus at this point has donemany miracles, but the one that
the Jewish leaders are soworried about is this healing of
the man on the Sabbath.
(19:57):
The Jewish leadership isoutraged that Jesus would dare
heal on the Sabbath.
And in verses 22 through 23,Jesus makes a logical argument
against these Jewish leaders,exposing their hypocrisy and
double standard usingcircumcision.
The rules for circumcision camefrom the time of Abraham,
(20:21):
although it became part of theMosaic covenant at Sinai, and as
such, it precedes the Sabbathlaws, and circumcision takes
precedence over the Sabbath.
The Jews would circumcise maleinfants on the eighth day, even
if that eighth day was aSabbath.
(20:44):
Therefore, the Jews consideredit legitimate to do something to
make holy or make one part ofthe human body right before God
on the Sabbath.
And Jesus shows how the Jews arebreaking their own standard by
circumcising on the Sabbath, andhe exposes their hypocrisy.
Jesus healing a man on theSabbath and making his whole
(21:08):
body well is better than justone part of a man.
And Jesus rebukes them bysaying, Do not judge by
appearances, but judge withright judgment.
Jesus doesn't want us to judgeother people with harsh,
critical judgment.
(21:28):
He doesn't want us to judgepeople with judgment that
promotes legalism orself-righteousness.
And these Jewish leaders areblinded by their traditions.
They understood the scripturesonly superficially, and they
misunderstood the entire intentof these passages.
(21:48):
In their own darkness and intheir blindness, they were
judging their own Messiah bywhat appeared to be right to
them.
God demands that we exercisegood moral and spiritual
judgment, but he does not wantus to sit in judgment or
condemnation of other people.
(22:11):
While he wants us to recognizewhat is right and wrong and make
good judgments for our ownlives, but he does not want us
to look down on other people,but to lift them up toward him,
towards health, towards what isright.
(22:32):
Ultimately, this is a call fromJesus to the Jewish leadership
to repent.
Thank you for joining me todayas Jesus came into the festival
of the booths and spoke to usabout where true teaching comes
from and how to make rightjudgments.
(22:55):
God bless you this week.
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