Sermon Tone Analysis

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.