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Intro
Intro
We return this week to John Chapter 7 and verse 25 to begin.
But, first, let’s get caught up on the big events that led us up to this moment in our study and remember the context here as well.
Jesus is the Logos
Wedding at Cana
Woman at the Well
Lame man at the Pool of Bethesda
Jesus makes Himself equal to the Father
Jesus feeds 5k+
Jesus walks on water, calming storm, instantly brings them to shore
Jesus is Bread of Life, giving life to all who believe and raising them up on the last day.
Feast of Booths
Jesus didn’t go to festival with His family
Could This Be?
Could This Be?
25 Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”
What are your thoughts on the reaction of the people?
Do you think they were being honest? Do you think, maybe, they were also against Christ? Did they, at this point, believe at all?
It may be that they were deriding the religious officials in a way. It may be that they were genuinely shocked at the fact He was freely speaking and they were reasoning with themselves why He could not be the Messiah of God even if the officials believed it so.
Either way, the people at this point have seemed to dig their heels in, and refuse Christ yet again.
I’m reminded of the introduction John gives to his gospel — in his writing on the Logos, he says that Jesus came to His own when He took flesh, and His own didn’t know Him, didn’t recognize Him.
To Know, or Not to Know
To Know, or Not to Know
28 As he was teaching in the temple, Jesus cried out, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me is true. You don’t know him; 29 I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.” 30 Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.
Jesus, in the Temple, spoke all the more boldly and loudly in the face of all this tension. Saying that He “cried out” here is not that He was weeping or even necessarily emotional, but that He raised His voice and shouted as He taught.
Why would He have spoken more loudly here?
Perhaps to be heard by His accusers and disbelieving people
One commentator said that the Jews wouldn’t come close enough to hear, so He raised His voice for them.
Does anyone’s v 28 read any differently than mine?
Many scholars believe this verse is better punctuated as a question, “Do you know Me, or from where I came?” And in this ironic question the insinuated answer is “No”.
Yet, even in the statement form as many translations have it, Jesus is saying possibly:
Some of them knew He was from the Father, for He had given enough proof of such yet they did not know God.
That they knew His earthly dwelling, being from Galilee and they knew Him as the human Jesus, yet they did not know the deeper truths of the Christ or the Father.
What do you think Jesus means by “know” here, seeing as He uses the same word multiple times?
OIDA — to see, metaphorically to understand something.
The people did not understand God. This could definitely be applied in a relational sense I believe, but broader than that these were the covenant people of God! These were the ones who were supposed to get it! And time after time we see that they didn’t, and that hasn’t changed here.
“I know Him … I am from Him … He sent Me”
Remember what Jesus said in chapter 5?
19 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.
37 The Father who sent me has himself testified about me. You have not heard his voice at any time, and you haven’t seen his form. 38 You don’t have his word residing in you, because you don’t believe the one he sent.
43 I have come in my Father’s name, and yet you don’t accept me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.
Jesus’ words here are nothing new to us. He said these same things on His last trip to Jerusalem when He spoke to Pharisees after healing the lame man!
Jesus again tells them He has not come on His own, but He came from the Father Himself, and They are in total unity together.
“I know Him,” Jesus says, “because I came from Him!” Jesus knew, understood, had seen the Father because He, the Son, was sent from Him.
Why would Jesus say these same things again, when He’d already said them before? These are the same comments which aroused the murderous intent in the officials...
I can’t help but recall John’s purpose statement: These things are written that we may believe in the Son!
Jesus is telling the people that God is True, and there is no falseness or guile in Him, therefore, He being from the Father was the same! He is trying to arouse faith in those who would hear to understand and believe.
At the same time, it seems also He is calling out the faithlessness of the people as they did not know God even as they professed to! Paul told Titus there are those who profess to know God but deny Him in their actions, and this is exactly what the Pharisees were up to. Jesus calls them out, saying they betray that they have no understanding of God! … But He does!
Do you think there are any other implications to this statement?
Perhaps that those who would desire to know God must come also to the Son? (Jn. 6.44
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
23 so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
Jesus again is claiming Deity, as being from the Father and having seen Him (which no mere man ever has or can as was said to Moses). These are very deep statements made by Jesus, both calling to faith and condemning unbelief and wicked hearts.
30 Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. 31 However, many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t perform more signs than this man has done, will he?”
And after all this, they were aroused again to take Him. Yet they had no power to do so, yet, because it was not His time.
This fascinates me in a way, showing that God was always sovereign over even when the Pharisees took Jesus!
Conclusion
Conclusion
No real “go and do” this week from this text, except to encourage that we not be like the Pharisees who claimed to know God yet denied Him in our actions! The only way to know the Father is through the Son, and He calls each of us to Himself for salvation and freedom and redemption and transformation! Let’s be sure we really know Him. Let’s be sure we more than believe IN Him, but BELIEVE Him.