God’s Sovereignty, Our Flawed Thinking (7:25-36)

Nothing in your life is outside the purview of God’s control. Not only is everything within His purview, everything is under his active and ongoing control. Paul writes in , God “works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Nothing in your life is outside the purview of God’s control. Not only is everything within His purview, everything is under his active and ongoing control. Paul writes in , God “works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Nothing in your life is outside the purview of God’s control. Not only is everything within His purview, everything is under his active and ongoing control. Paul writes in , God “works all things according to the counsel of his will.

The Context

Jewish confusion (7:25-26). Just moments before (7:20) the crowd treats Jesus as if He is out of His mind, thinking that they were trying to kill Him. These people on the other hand know the truth. They realize that this is the man that they were seeking to kill and yet now they weren’t doing anything about Him.

This is where their confusion begins. First, they are trying to kill Him, and now they are letting Him publicly teach in the temple. They conclude that possibly the religious leaders had found out some more information about Jesus being the Messiah, and that is why they were leaving Him alone.

No one will know where he comes from (7:27). In this statement they are not saying that the lineage or the birthplace of the Messiah was unknown, but instead that the Messiah would be unknown until fully revealed. “[I]t was well known that the Messiah was to be of the lineage of David and that his birthplace was to be Bethlehem (42; /). The Jerusalemites thought they knew where Jesus came from, for he was commonly thought to be from Nazareth (1:45; 18:5, 7; 19:19), the village in which he grew up, but not where he was born.”[1] Jesus on the other hand was known and had been known. According to a Jewish saying (‘Sanhedr.’ 97 a) “three things come wholly unexpected, Messiah, a god-send and a scorpion.”[2]

They knew where He was from and in their minds that didn’t fit their expectations of the coming of the Messiah. Based on some OT passages, they concluded that the Messiah would be unknown until He appeared to redeem Israel.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? ().

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. ().

And he said unto me, Like as thou canst neither seek out nor know the things that are in the deep of the sea: even so can no man upon earth see my Son, or those that be with him, but in the daytime. ( KJV Apoc).

Trypho, the Jewish opponent of the second-century apologist Justin Martyr, said, “But Christ—if He has indeed been born, and exists anywhere—is unknown, and does not even know Himself, and has no power until Elias come to anoint Him, and make Him manifest to all.”[3]

Jesus responds about his origination (7:28-29). That first statement, “You both know Me and know where I am from,” is viewed in some other versions as a sarcastic question. “You know ME? And know where I am FROM?” I don’t think he’s agreeing with them as to where he has come from. A few reasons. (1) He makes where he comes from more about a person than a place. He doesn’t talk about a place but instead that he came from the Father. Clearly, they don’t get that. (2) They also don’t know where he came from geographically. In verses 41 & 42, they say, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee?” They don’t’ realize or remember that he was born in Bethlehem

“He who sent me is true” (7:28) provokes them. “True” can refer to the idea of correctness and dependability. If this is the case, the term would be communicating that God’s communication is accurate and true, and his integrity is dependable. God speaks truth and as a result He is trustworthy, and therefore we can depend on him.

While this concept of truth is accurate of God, this is probably not the nuance being used here in John. Instead, John emphasizes that God is genuine and real. He is the true thing, the real thing, the “real deal.” This statement inflames the religious leaders.

Piper. You, the most religious, the most privileged, the most well-taught people in the world, the people with the very oracles of God, the Jewish Scriptures — you do not know God. This is why you want to kill me. I know God. I am from God. God sent me. And since you don’t know him, you can’t recognize me.[4]

The Jews prided themselves in thinking they had the corner of the market in regard to access and knowledge of God. Jesus simply tells them that they’re a sham. This didn’t go over well.

Message Outline

Purpose Statement. Every aspect of our lives falls within the purview of God’s divine, beautiful, and exclusively Christocentric redemptive plan.

God’s plan is exclusively Christocentric. Jesus informs the religious elite that since they don’t know him, they don’t know God. This is a common theme in John’s gospel.

that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. ().

But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. ().

It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— ().

They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” ().

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. ().

There is no acceptable or effective way to God other than through Jesus. While it may appear gracious and winsome to not be definitive about Christ, to acknowledge him as “your way,” to believe and proclaim that there are many paths to God; it is not gracious. It not only affirms another’s destructive and damned path; it makes Jesus out to be a liar. Jesus said he was the only path to God. Either he is the only true path, or he is a liar and not a path to God at all. Everyone’s eternity hinges on their understanding of Jesus.

God’s plan is divinely and sovereignly orchestrated. Multiple times throughout the text we see God’s sovereignty displayed.

1. I have not come of my own accord (7:28-29). In no way do we diminish the Son’s co-equal attribute of sovereignty in acknowledging this, but even the son submitted and obeyed the sovereign will and plan of the Father. He was sent by the Father.

2. No one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come (7:30). We can only speculate as to the human reason for this reality. Maybe Jesus’ followers hid him. Maybe he was lost in the crowd. Who knows? From the divine perspective, Jesus was not seized because God had so chosen.

3. Pharisees sent officers to arrest him (7:32, 45). We are not told immediately why the officers did not bring Jesus, but a couple paragraphs later we are informed. When the officers go back to the chief priests and pharisees (7:45), John informs us that the officers did not obey the command of their leaders because they were mesmerized by Jesus’ teaching.

4. Jesus would god on his own (the Father’s) time (7:33). Jesus told the leaders, “I will be with you a little longer and then I am going to him who sent me.” What boldness and confidence in the Father, amid demands for him to be arrested. Simply put, he said, “I’ll leave when I’m ready to leave and nothing you plan or attempt will change that.”

God has designed a plan. No one can thwart his plan. He will skillfully control all the circumstances and people so that his plan will be successful. And his plan will be accomplished in the time that he has so ordained.

God’s plan is often hard to accept. We struggle to accept and/or be encouraged by God’s sovereignty. For instance, if God is in control of everything, why does he allow x, y, or z?

We struggle being encouraged by God’s sovereignty after a year out of work . . . in the midst of divorce . . . at the loss of a family or friend . . . following ridicule, embarrassment, or bullying by others . . . failure of any kind . . . ongoing sickness and pain.

Let’s pause for a moment to learn a lesson from the logic of the people of Jerusalem.

1. Confusion presented itself. The treatment of Jesus in the temple was confusing to them.

2. They were certain about some “facts.” No one would know where the Messiah comes from. They “knew” where Jesus was from.

3. They couldn’t imagine that their thinking was flawed. They were wrong on a number of levels, but that never occurred to them.

4. They drew the wrong conclusion that Jesus could not be the Messiah.

Our flawed logic. We do the same thing.

1. God works or communicates in a way that produces or results in our confusion. Circumstances occur in life that don’t fit with our view, or our hopes of God, or God communicates something in his Word that results in our confusion.

2. We come to the circumstances, this event, or this biblical statement thinking we know certain things.

a. If God is love he wouldn’t do x, y, or z.

b. If God cared about me he wouldn’t have allowed x, y, or z.

c. If God loves everyone, why does he condemn anyone?

d. If God is all powerful he would stop evil.

3. Like the Jews we can’t imagine or accept that our thinking is flawed or ill informed.

4. We draw wrong conclusions about God.

We often start by defining all the terms, according to our thinking. And then, we assess God according to our terms. When He doesn’t match up to our terms, sadly too often, we judge him instead of reassessing our thinking according to who he is.

God’s plan extends to every aspect of our lives.

Compassion. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” ().

God’s awareness over little things. “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows” (). “And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin . . .” ().

Everything for our good. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” ().

Seemingly random things[5]. “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD” ().

The heart of the most powerful person in the land. “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” ().

Our daily lives and plans. “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. . . . Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ().

Salvation. “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (). “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” ().

Life and death. “The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up” ().

Disabilities. “Then the LORD said to [Moses], “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” ().

The death of God’s Son. “Jesus, [who was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” ().

Evil things. “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things” (). “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips” ().

All things. “[God] works all things according to the counsel of his will” (). “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (). “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” ().

[1] Kruse, John, 187.

[2] Brooke Foss Westcott and Arthur Westcott, eds., The Gospel according to St. John Introduction and Notes on the Authorized Version, Classic Commentaries on the Greek New Testament (London: J. Murray, 1908), 120.

[2] Brooke Foss Westcott and Arthur Westcott, eds., The Gospel according to St. John Introduction and Notes on the Authorized Version, Classic Commentaries on the Greek New Testament (London: J. Murray, 1908), 120.

[3] Justin Martyr, “Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew” Roberts et al., ANF1, 1:199.

[3] Justin Martyr, “Dialogue of Justin with Trypho, a Jew” Roberts et al., ANF1, 1:199.

[4] John Piper. “Out of Your Heart Will Flow Rivers of Living Water.” Desiring God, February 20, 2011. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/out-of-your-heart-will-flow-rivers-of-living-water

[4] John Piper. “Out of Your Heart Will Flow Rivers of Living Water.” Desiring God, February 20, 2011. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/out-of-your-heart-will-flow-rivers-of-living-water

[5] The rest of this list was taken from Justin Taylor’s brief article on the Gospel Coalition site. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/what-is-god-sovereign-over/

[5] The rest of this list was taken from Justin Taylor’s brief article on the Gospel Coalition site. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/what-is-god-sovereign-over/