JOHN - Chapter 7 - Jesus Teaches in the Temple
JOHN – Chapter 7 – Jesus Teaches in the Temple
Tuesday, April 11, 2017, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Five months have passed since the feeding of the five thousand. When the Lord multiplied the loaves it was Passover. It is now October and the Feast of Tabernacles was drawing near. Jesus remained in Galilee because the Jews sought to kill him.
Jesus’ brothers saw that He was not preparing to go up for the feast. By law all males were required to attend this feast at Jerusalem.
John 7:3-5: His brethren said to Him, Depart from here and go to Judea that your disciples may see the works that you do. For there is no man that does anything in secret, and he himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For neither did His brethren believe in Him.
That Jesus had brothers and sisters is recorded by Mark and Matthew.
Mark 6:3: Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
When we are called into the ministry, we must overcome the rejection and offense of our family. It is the second separation of the seven separations that we must walk through:
- Country – A prophet is without honor in his own country and his own family.
- Family –
- World (kosmos).
- Carnal Friends.
- Desire to get wealth.
- Ishmael – man made effort to bring forth the promise of God.
- Isaac – The Promise of God must also be laid on the altar.
Jesus did not rebuke his brothers. Instead he instructed them. After the resurrection, the Lord’s brothers became His apostles, preachers, kingdom hierarchs, and bore witness to Him as martyrs. It is indisputable that they saw Him with the eyes of the Spirit after the resurrection.
7: 6-8: Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but it hates Me, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this feast. I am not going up yet. My time is not yet fully come.
If we speak the words of God, the beast system will hate us. Jesus refers to the unbelief of his brothers, calling them men of the world. Since the kosmos cannot hate itself, it will not hate them. Jesus’ presence is a mirror and an indictment of evil. It still is. Those who do not want to separate from the world system will not receive the words of Jesus, nor will they receive the messengers. Many try to water down the Word to be complicit with the world. Jesus says, it cannot be.
1 John 5:4: Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world (kosmos); and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.
Later when His brothers had already gone up to the festival, He too went up, but not as a member of a caravan. He went by Himself, traveling secretly.
7: 11-13: Then the Jews looked for Him at the feast, and said, Where is He? There was much murmuring among the people concerning Him, for some said, He is a good man: others said, Na; but He deceives the people. Yet no man spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.
The Sanhedrin still had an arrest charge against him for healing the cripple at the pool on the Sabbath. The sentiment of the city was against the Lord. Those who were in favor of Him, dared to only say, “He is a good man.” The fear of man will cost us when time comes to defend Jesus Christ or one another.
It was not until the feast was half over that Jesus went into the temple and began to teach. So startling was his appearance, everyone was caught off guard. Before the priests could get into motion to confront him, he delivered a lengthy teaching. John doesn’t tell us exactly what He taught. But whatever he said astonished the Jews.
7:15-16: The Jews marveled, saying, How does this man know letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine (teaching) is not Mine, but His that sent Me.
This brings us to the thesis of John’s Gospel, the Logos which is particular to John’s writing. The Word of God is living and active. It is Jesus Christ.
John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God… (14) And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Jesus Christ is the eternal Word, the sum total of everything that the Father wanted to say to humanity. Jesus is the Logos, the fullness of the living Word. His doctrine/teaching is the Rhema within the entirety, the totality of the Word.
Without a doubt the Jews had never heard or experienced anything like they heard that day.
(That they were amazed that Jesus knew “letters;” is probably referring to the letters of the Hebrew Old Testament. Jesus would have spoken Aramaic; but those who were learned knew the Hebrew “letters.”)
The Pattern Son is the express image, the very character of the Father revealed.
7: 17-18: If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God, or whether I speak of Myself. He that speaks of himself seeks his own glory; but he that seeks his glory that sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him.
This brings us full circle to: we who do His will are also impregnated with the living Word. We, who do His will bear the prophetic burden of the Lord, to declare the works of Him who sent us, not to promote name or fame.
We the multi-faceted Body of Christ display His manifold wisdom. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God, or whether Jesus speaks of Himself.
There is God’s will, His place, and His time. If we are in His will, we can discern truth from evil.
If we are in His will, we will never promote or defend our own ministry. All of our words will magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. All of our worship will be toward Him.
The seed of God, His sons and daughters, are spread throughout the nations. In every place and among all peoples, there is a chosen company of worshipers who will only magnify the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anyone who brings forth a teaching on his own initiative is concerned for his own reputation. He seeks to enhance his stature by means of his message. But He who is concerned only for the glory of the One who sent Him, is detached from self-interest, and free from the desire for self-aggrandizement. Consequently there is no unrighteousness in him/her.
The mark of a man who speaks for himself is ambition and arrogance.
7: 19-20: Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keep the law? Why do you want to kill Me? The people answered and said, You have a demon. Who is trying to kill you?
As was Jesus’ method of operation, he turns the tables on the people. They charged Jesus that he broke the law on the Sabbath by healing the cripple man. It is not a matter of authority at all, but of submitting to the will of God. With wisdom he exposes the secret design of His enemies to publicity. Jesus’ reply to their charge that he was crazy with a demon was, “I do just one work on the Sabbath and it shocks everyone. Moses gave you the Law of circumcision (actually it originated with the fathers, not Moses) and you are willing to circumcise on the Sabbath. If a child is cut on the Sabbath to avoid breaking the Law of Moses, why are you angry with Me for making a man’s body completely whole on the Sabbath?”
The Jews have made a religion out of the Law. The Law was never intended to be worshipped as a religion, but was given that man could approach the heart of God with holiness.
“In the same way King Jeroboam built the royal residence in Bethel. He made a clear decision to build a spiritual position apart from Jerusalem and on someone else’s altar. It was an attempt to settle near the “root” of Jacob rather than the heart of God. (Jacob wrestled the angel here and had his name changed to Israel.) Amos laid the ax to those roots. In doing so, he greatly angered the high priest of Bethel.” (C. R. Oliver, Sealed Unto His Coming) (Amos 1: 1-11)
King Jeroboam was worshipping Israel and the heroes of Israel instead of worshipping God. Likewise, the Pharisees were worshipping the Law given by Moses rather than worshipping God, who gave the Law to bring the people to His Heart.
Jesus is revealing the heart of God is to heal and bring the people to Himself; not to the Law.
7: 25-27: Then said some of them in Jerusalem, Is not this He, whom they seek to kill? But, lo, He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed this is the very Christ? Why do we know this from where he came; but when Christ comes, no man knows where he comes from?
Whereupon Jesus, continuing His teaching in the temple, emphatically replied to them, (28-29) “You know Me, and You know where I am. I have not come of Myself, but he that sent Me is true, Whom you know not. But I know Him; for I am from Him, and He has sent Me.
Every true servant will stand up and declare the Word of the Lord. Like the Pattern Son, every son of God must create and adjudicate the eternal design and desire of Him who has sent us.
Like that crowd that day, we have come to a critical moment where all we hare for our support and stay is His unchanging Word. His immutable promises, brought to life by His grace are enough for these critical times. His Kingdom has come. We like the people Jesus was preaching to on that day do not get a vote. This present season upon the Church is not for the half-hearted or double-minded.
Jesus is telling that crowd regardless of their worshipping at the feast, their laws and their sacrifices, they do not know God; nor do they recognize Him; and so it is today.
They had a symbolical God, camouflaged sins, and phony forgiveness. They did not know the true, the living God.
Consequently they were of a mind to seize Him, yet none laid a hand on Him for His time had not yet come. For many in the crowd had come to believe in Him, saying, “Can Messiah, when he comes, be expected to do more miracles than this man has done?” When the Pharisees heard that the crowd were whispering such things about Him, both they and the chief priests dispatched temple police to arrest Him. Upon seeing them, Jesus said, (Vs. 33-34) Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go to Him that sent Me. You shall seek Me, and shall not find Me; and where I am there you cannot come.
The Jews began inquiring among themselves, “Where is this He is about to go so that we cannot find Him? Do you suppose He means to go among the Jews scattered about the Gentile world? Maybe He even means to teach Gentiles? But what can it possibly mean when he said, “You shall seek Me, and shall not find Me; and where I am you cannot come?”
His death would not be the end of His work. It would be, as Luke puts it, only an exodus (Lk. 9:3).
Christ is essentially with the Father always, in Spirit. But shortly He will return there bodily. The Jews sought Him now in anger. The time is coming when they will seek Him in anguish.
To go to the Gentiles was bad enough, but they ironically add “and teach the Greeks?” The real irony, of course, lay in the fact that they were speaking the truth and did not foresee Christ’s mission to the Gentiles in the Body of His Church. So now Jesus openly makes a universal invitation on the eighth and the last day and greatest day of the Feast.
7: 37-39: In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believes in me as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This he spoke of the Spirit, which they that believe in Him should receive for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
We know that some of prophets of the Old Testament had the Spirit within and others are described as the Spirit came upon them. The prophets most assuredly gave utterance by the Spirit.
God held back this grace for 400 years before the time of John the Baptist. When Christ walked the earth, the Holy Spirit was in Him. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at His baptism at the Jordan. Grace no longer overshadowed the temple and their sacrifices. After His resurrection, the Lord breathed the Spirit on the disciples and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. (John 20:22). The Holy Spirit was poured out at the Feast of Pentecost on all who will receive Him.
The power of the Holy Spirit was present before the Cross, but not in such abundance as a mighty rushing river. Here John speaks of the Cross as the glorification of Christ. By the Cross the Lord cast down the tyrant and gained dominion over him. Before the Cross was fixed in the earth, neither had sin been annulled. Nor had our nature---in Christ---conquered the world, nor had it been reconciled to God.
It was necessary that we become God’s friends through the Cross, then we could receive His gift. Thanks be to God who has bestowed grace upon us in greater abundance than the Old Testament saints. The prophets possessed the grace of the Spirit, but could not bestow it on others. The apostles multiplied that grace ten thousand fold.
To be continued.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of C. S. Lovett’s Lights on John; Most Blessed Theophylact; and C. R. Oliver. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors.