The Crowd Responds to Jesus

Introduction

Illustration: How many of you are familiar with C.S. Lewis? Smart man. Wrote “Chronicles of Narnia,” was friends with J.R.R. Tolkien, wrote “Mere Christianity. Came up with the “trilemma.”

Although Lewis was the one to formally come up with the idea of the “trilemma,” these questions about Jesus have actually been around for a long time. Since the time that Jesus was still walking the earth and doing ministry in fact. The people of Jesus’ time generally didn’t know what to do with Him. He was saying outrageous things, making outrageous claims, and in case you wanted to dismiss Him entirely working miraculous signs as well. So the people questioned who Jesus really was. That’s what chapter 7 of John’s gospel is really all about.

Now this is a long chapter, which is out of the ordinary for this series considering I preached four times on chapter six. But I really think the whole thing works best as a unit that we can look at all at once, because it has one uniting theme. Who is this Jesus, really? We see the crowds and Jesus’ family reacting to His ministry and we hear from Jesus to defend Himself and give the true answer to who He is. So with that in mind, let’s take a look at John 7.

John 7 CSB

After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee, since he did not want to travel in Judea because the Jews were trying to kill him. The Jewish Festival of Shelters was near. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see your works that you are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he’s seeking public recognition. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” (For not even his brothers believed in him.) Jesus told them, “My time has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand. The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me because I testify about it—that its works are evil. Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” After he had said these things, he stayed in Galilee. After his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but secretly. The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?” And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He’s a good man.” Others were saying, “No, on the contrary, he’s deceiving the people.” Still, nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews. When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How is this man so learned, since he hasn’t been trained?” Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me. If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Didn’t Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?” “You have a demon!” the crowd responded. “Who is trying to kill you?” “I performed one work, and you are all amazed,” Jesus answered. “This is why Moses has given you circumcision—not that it comes from Moses but from the fathers—and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses won’t be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath? Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.” Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 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? But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.” 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; I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.” Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. 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?” The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to arrest him. Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time. Then I’m going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” Then the Jews said to one another, “Where does he intend to go that we won’t find him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Jewish people dispersed among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does he? What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’?” On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David’s offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David lived?” So the crowd was divided because of him. Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the servants came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?” The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!” Then the Pharisees responded to them, “Are you fooled too? Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.” Nicodemus—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them—said to them, “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?” “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” [Then each one went to his house.

So then, who is Jesus? Let’s take a look at the options we have before us and compare them with the Scripture that we just read.

Is Jesus a Liar?

Illustration: The more you catch someone in a lie, the more you know them as a “liar.” The longer someone demonstrates honesty, the more you trust their word.

So then it is very important that we know whether or not Jesus was an honest person. Why? Because Jesus makes some really big claims during His ministry. We’ve already seen multiple places in the Gospel according to John where Jesus claims to be God, though He often does so in subtle ways that require a knowledge of Jewish context to really understand. He also makes claims about what it means to be righteous and about how we are saved and about how to get eternal life. So how do we know if we can trust Him? Does Jesus demonstrate a life of honesty or of dishonesty? Is He a liar, or does He speak the truth?

Some would claim that today’s passage is an example of catching Jesus in a lie. His brothers ask Him if He’s going up to the festival in Jerusalem and He says He’s not going to the festival. Then He goes in secret. Did He lie to His brothers? The people who question Jesus’ honesty here aren’t the first in history to do so. In fact after this incident we read about the crowds wondering if Jesus is a good person, or if He’s a “deceiver.” In other words they were wondering if Jesus is a liar. Let’s read verses 2 to 18 again.

John 7:2–18 CSB

The Jewish Festival of Shelters was near. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples can see your works that you are doing. For no one does anything in secret while he’s seeking public recognition. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” (For not even his brothers believed in him.) Jesus told them, “My time has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand. The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me because I testify about it—that its works are evil. Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” After he had said these things, he stayed in Galilee. After his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly but secretly. The Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying, “Where is he?” And there was a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He’s a good man.” Others were saying, “No, on the contrary, he’s deceiving the people.” Still, nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews. When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How is this man so learned, since he hasn’t been trained?” Jesus answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me. If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own. The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

So what’s the answer? Is Jesus a good man, or is He a liar? The first thing I want to ask you to consider is out of all the recorded speech of Jesus, how many times does Jesus say anything that people might consider a lie? As far as I can tell, this is the only passage of scripture where people accuse Jesus of lying. So then what is more likely, that Jesus almost never lied but one of His closest disciples decided to tell one of the rare stories where He did during His gospel where He openly declares Jesus is God and is therefore sinless, or that those who think He is lying are misunderstanding Him?

If we give John the apostle just a little bit of credit we would assume he’s smart enough not to contradict Himself. And we’d be right. What does Jesus tell His brothers? He says He isn’t going to the festival because His “time has not yet fully come.” This I think is another of John’s sayings of Jesus that have two meanings at once. The deeper spiritual meaning is that Jesus is turning down their advice to make Himself more publicly known because it isn’t time for Him to be crucified yet and that’s what’s going to happen when He confronts the Spiritual leaders. The mundane meaning is that Jesus is telling them that it isn’t time for Him to go to the festival because He’s going on His own later. Jesus didn’t lie, He just withheld information from His brothers, probably so they wouldn’t spread word around that He was coming.

So then we haven’t caught Jesus in a lie here. So when the crowds are wondering whether He is a good person or a liar, what does Jesus tell them? He tells them not only that He isn’t a liar, but that He speaks the very words of God, and because He speaks the word of God that makes Him “true.” Verse 18 says “he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true,” and Jesus is talking about Himself. So then Jesus declares emphatically that He is not a liar.

So then we cannot dismiss the claims of Jesus as the claims of a liar because the Scriptures testify to His truth and He has proven Himself honest and good in all His ways. We take an honest person at their word. How could we not take the most honest person in all of history at His word?

Is Jesus a Lunatic?

Illustration: Who you are affects the meaning of what you say. If I were to go around claiming to be King of England, you would call me crazy. If Charles were to do it, than that would just be an obvious fact.

So what about when someone goes around claiming to be God? You would be right to be skeptical. Most people who claim to be God are not right in the head. How do we know this? Well these people we can tell are clearly and obviously ordinary flawed human beings without the power that only God could have.

Some try to dismiss Jesus as this sort of crazy person. Not many, but some do. The reason not many accuse Jesus of being crazy is because He didn’t go around raving about being God. His claims to deity are subtle and nuanced and don’t give the impression of a lack of sanity. Just like the last claim that Jesus was a liar, this claim also was around at the time of Jesus, though because of the subtlety of His claims to deity not usually centered around that. In today’s passage the people claim He’s crazy because He claims that they are trying to have Him killed. The phrase “you have a demon,” is the first century equivalent to calling someone crazy. Let’s read about this accusation and Jesus’ response in our passage today.

John 7:19–36 CSB

Didn’t Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?” “You have a demon!” the crowd responded. “Who is trying to kill you?” “I performed one work, and you are all amazed,” Jesus answered. “This is why Moses has given you circumcision—not that it comes from Moses but from the fathers—and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses won’t be broken, are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath? Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment.” Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 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? But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.” 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; I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.” Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. 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?” The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to arrest him. Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time. Then I’m going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” Then the Jews said to one another, “Where does he intend to go that we won’t find him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Jewish people dispersed among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does he? What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”

So when they claim He’s crazy, how does Jesus respond? He doesn’t get defensive or argumentative. Instead He invites them to think more deeply about things. He brings up His healing and justifies it by Mosaic law. He invites them to reflect on the fact that though they know His earthly origin He was sent by God to them. This causes the people to think about His record and the miracles that He’s done which are evidence of what He is saying.

He’s not crazy because what He is saying is true in other words and we can see that if we reflect on what He has said and done through His life. If a peasant claims to be King he’s crazy. If a King does so he’s not. If a normal person claims to be God he’s crazy. If God does so, He is not.

So then we cannot dismiss Jesus as a liar or as a lunatic. The words of Scripture show how smart and logical Jesus was and demonstrate by His works, or as John calls them signs, that He is not some crazy person we can ignore. So then I believe that leaves us with only one option.

Is Jesus Lord?

Illustration: You treat people with a position of authority different. A father, a police officer, the Prime Minister.

Jesus wasn’t born as a prince by earthly terms. He wasn’t trained as a Scribe as the people remarked earlier. He called Himself a rabbit but wasn’t endorsed or trained by a prominent Rabbi, which was very much the expectation of the time. By all observable metrics Jesus was a man with no authority over anyone but Himself. But then when Jesus spoke people heard a teaching like no other. He spoke as one with authority as Matthew says in Matthew 7:29

Matthew 7:29 CSB

because he was teaching them like one who had authority, and not like their scribes.

So what is this supposed authority that Jesus is claiming to have by the way that He speaks and acts? If He’s not a Liar or a Lunatic, than what is He? Does He have the authority to tell us how we ought to live? Can He tell us the difference between what is wrong? Can He ask for our allegiance and back up His promises of eternal life? These must be the questions the crowd is asking themselves after these speeches by Jesus during the festival.

Yet the festival continues as everyone sleeps in their tents and builds excitement for the last and most exciting day. Let me set the scene for you: The priests go to the pool of Siloam with their golden pitcher and fill it to the brim with water and begin their march towards the temple. The crowd cheers and sings as the procession continues, trumpets blast as they go. They celebrate the provision of water from the rock in the desert, the coming rainy season, and perhaps most exciting of all the promises of a Messiah to come, who will bring days as Isaiah 12:1-3 says where

Isaiah 12:1–3 CSB

On that day you will say: “I will give thanks to you, Lord, although you were angry with me. Your anger has turned away, and you have comforted me. Indeed, God is my salvation; I will trust him and not be afraid, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation.” You will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation,

And again as Zechariah says in Zechariah 14:8

Zechariah 14:8 CSB

On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea, in summer and winter alike.

This is the moment where Jesus stands up and cries out. Let’s take it from there in our Scripture passage this morning.

John 7:37–52 CSB

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David’s offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David lived?” So the crowd was divided because of him. Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the servants came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?” The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!” Then the Pharisees responded to them, “Are you fooled too? Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.” Nicodemus—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them—said to them, “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?” “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

It’s understandable that the words of Jesus sent ripples through the entire city, especially when you understand the context of His statement at the height of the festival. Jesus is claiming to be the one who will bring springs of living water, which John explains means the Spirit. This would have been clear to any among the crowds who knew the Scriptures that this ritual was referencing.

So let’s ask ourselves a question here. In all those prophecies about the coming of the Messiah and the Spirit being poured out on the people, who is the one who does the pouring, the provision of the Spirit? Though the Scriptures say that this is the age the Messiah will come, it is the Lord who is the one who pours out the Spirit on the people. So what authority is Jesus speaking with when He makes this claim?

If we look at the claims and the actions of Jesus we cannot claim He is a Liar, we cannot claim He is a Lunatic, we must instead bow down to Him as our Lord.

Conclusion

Although at first glance this Chapter of John’s gospel can seem back and forth and a little all over the place it is unified by a single theme. That theme is the reaction of the people to the ministry of Jesus. First we have the brothers of Jesus and the crowds bringing up the question of whether or not Jesus can be trusted. Is He the good person He seems to be, or is He a liar? Jesus answer is that He speaks the very words of God and that proves that He speaks truth. Then the crowds wonder if He’s lost His mind, to which Jesus replies that they must judge with righteous judgment, and that His works show that He’s from the Father and will be going back to Him. Finally at the end of the festival Jesus stands up and promises living water to the crowd, meaning the gift of the Spirit, declaring through this promise to be their Lord that they must believe in to have eternal life.

So what’s the point of all this? The thing is many people all over the world are confronted with the words and deeds of Jesus. Every year more and more civilizations are hearing the gospel and receiving the Bible in their mother tongue. Yet just hearing His words is not enough. At some point we need to decide what to make of them. When Jesus called out to the crowd He didn’t say “you all won’t be thirsty because I’ll give you living water.” He says “come, you who are thirsty, and receive living water.” We need to come to Him. We need to drink this water. We need to receive the Holy Spirit in order to truly be born again and receive eternal life. And then we need to remain in Him and continue to pray for the guidance of the Spirit to live the lives that God intends us to live.

So go now in confidence that Jesus is your Lord, and knowing that He promises you living water if you will come to Him. And go with God’s help to spread the word that anyone out there who is thirsty to live life right and to know God and enjoy Him forever that they only need to come to Jesus.

Let us pray.