Three Important Ouestions(4)

Three Important Questions

Possible Titles

Jesus Goes to the Feast

Seven Questions

Introduction to the Scripture

Three Important Questions

Observations

1. Questions

V.15 How did this man get such learning? -Education

V. 19 Has not Moses given you the Law? -Origin

Why are you trying to kill Me? -Plan

V.20 Who is trying to kill You? - Denial

V.23 Why are you angry with Me for healing the

whole man on the Sabbath? -Authority

V.25 Isn't this the man they are trying to kill?

-Confusion

V.26 Have the authorities really concluded the He is

the Christ? - Doubt

2. Jesus kept a low profile

Analysis

I. V.14- 18 Authority -Who's in Charge

7:14 Time - Not until halfway through the Feast

Person - did Jesus

Act - go up

Specific - to the temple courts

AND

begin to teach

Jesus comes to the Feast at the half-way point and goes to the temple to teach. Teaching in the temple was something done by many Rabbi's but because of the crowds it would not be a very quiet or intimate place.

:15 People - The Jews

Act - were amazed

AND

asked,

Question - "How did this man get such learning without having studied?"

The question is raised because of what people believed was the true pathway to understanding and deeper knowledge. Jesus seemed to know not only the OT but could explain it in ways they had never heard. We should remember here that this is not an argument for no education but rather a questioning of Jesus authority to be teaching. If they could cast doubt on Jesus understanding and how He got that understanding then they believed they could discredit what He was saying and make the people turn away from Him. Ultimately it was this whole idea of authority that lead them at last to send Him to the cross.

V.16 Response - Jesus answered,

Quote - "My teaching is not my own.

Contrast - It comes from Him who sent me.

Jesus answers that the one sending Him has taught Him. In doing so He is asking them to acknowledge He is taught by the Father and that the Father has sent Him. To do so would bring them to belief in Him as the Christ. The question of authority always hinges on who is the source for the authority

:17 Condition - If anyone

Act - chooses to do

Specific - God's will

Result - he will find out whether My teaching

comes from God

OR

whether I speak on My own.

This is more of a faith statement than an abstract concept. To know we must first be in relationship with God in Christ. The world does not know the will of God except in the most general sense. It is the joy of the believers life to discover God's will finding it in the Word and prayer.

:18 Fact -1 He who speaks on his own does so

to gain honor for himself

Contrast - BUT

2 he who works for the honor of the

one who sent him is a man of truth;

3 there is nothing false about him.

See

The truth of this verse is the bases on which Jesus operated His whole life. He was here to honor the Father not to get honor for Himself therefore His words could be trusted because He had no ax to grind for Himself or others. The first two facts support the last one which is the natural conclusion. Since he has nothing to prove about himself but only to glorify the Father there is nothing false in Him.

II. V. 19- 24 Judging - How do you separate Fact and Fiction

:19 Question - Has not Moses given you the law?

Denial - Yet not one of you keeps the law.

Question - Why are you trying to kill Me?

Moses gave them the 10 Commandments one of which said "do not murder" they had already tried to murder Him and failed and they are plotting to to kill/murder Him even now. In this verse there are two question related to each other the first expects a "yes" answer as they all accepted that Moses gave the law. In the second Jesus shows that their attempts to kill/murder Him are against the law because He is innocent.

:20 Claim - "You are demon-possessed,"

Response - the crowd answered.

Question - "Who is trying to kill you?"

The crowd most of whom did not really know what was being said or why are still lumped together here primarily because of the feelings of the Jewish leaders. This is the same accusation they threw at John the Baptist because he lived in the wilderness and dressed funny and preached repentance to them. When people don't like what they hear it is easy to cast it aside with a slur rather that to examine what they are hearing.

:21 Response - Jesus said to them,

Act - "I did one miracle

AND

you are all astonished.

The miracle here refers back to chapter 5 and the healing of the man beside to pool. They were upset because Jesus had the man carry his mat on the Sabbath. They did not find praise for the healing but scorn for what they saw as breaking the law. The law was to provide a way to life not death but these people had turned it into a burden to be carried.

:22 Contrast - Yet

Event - because Moses gave you circumcision

Parenthetical - (though actually it did not come

from Moses but from the patriarchs)

Results - you circumcise a child on the Sabbath

The argument here is not to diminish Moses but to point out that the law of circumcision was older and took presidents over the later law about the Sabbath. As a matter of fact the practice of circumcision was often done on the Sabbath and did not prove to be a distraction either of he practice or the law.

:23 Condition - If a child can be circumcised on

the Sabbath

Reason - so that the law of Moses may not be

broken

Question - why are you angry with me for

healing the whole man on the

Sabbath?

Good question. In 5:14 the suggestion of Jesus is that this man's sickness was connected to his own sin. The circumcision was a make of the covenant that lead them to honor and worship God. In there criticism they were forgetting that the law had a spiritual application as well as a figurative application. If the law of circumcision brings a soul to rest within the covenant people so the healing of the whole person brings them to rest in the knowledge that Christ can heal the body and the soul.

:24 Command - Stop judging by mere

appearances

AND

make a right Judgment

We are not commanded to not judge but not to be judgmental or judge by appearance or by our standards but by the righteousness of Jesus and the words, rightly interpreted, of scripture.

III. V.25- 29 Messiah - Is Jesus the Christ?

:25 Response - At that point some of the people

of Jerusalem began to ask,

Question - "Isn't this the man they are trying to

kill?

The crowd has been segmented in this question to the people that actually lived in Jerusalem. These people knew well what the leaders had in mind.

:26 Surprise - Here He is speaking publicly

AND

they are not saying a word to

Him.

Question - Have the authorities really concluded that He is the Christ?

The people of Jerusalem suspect that their leaders may have concluded through their examination of Jesus that He is the Christ the promised Messiah. There may be some sarcasm in this remark since these people know how the leaders feel.

:27 Contrast - But

Experience - we know

Specific - where this man is

from

Assertion - when the Christ

comes

no one will know

where He is from."

These people were sure they had all the facts and the history that proved Jesus could not be the Christ. However they seemed to only know He was from Nazareth not Bethlehem the city of David. Even so Jesus did not come as they expected from their theology and teachings. Will we miss Jesus' return because He may not fit our predetermined knowledge of His return.?

The disciples were warned not to go seeking for Christ just because they hear rumors of His presence but to be prepared for His coming at anytime.

:28 Time - Then

Act - Jesus, still teaching

Place - in the temple

cried out,

Experience - "Yes you know Me,

AND

you know where I am from

Contrast - I am not here on My own,

BUT

He who sent me is true.

Fact - You do not know Him

:29 Experience - I know Him

Reason - because I am from Him

AND

He sent me."

In these two verses Jesus gives His listener a sharp reproof. They failed to know Him because they did not really know the Father. They knew some things about Him they had believed in a particular theology but the Father was not real in His essence only in a form. Therefore they did not know Jesus either. Whatever we know about the Father has been revealed to us by and through Jesus. He is the "sent" one to show us the Father. This goes back to our question. Is Jesus the Christ? Yes, because the Father said so by sending the Son.