Sermon On the Net

YOU WILL KNOW

 

John 7: We see Jesus in Galilee walking and talking to His brothers, who as yet, did not believe Him. They wanted Him to go up to Judea for the annual festival that was called the Feast of the Booths. Jesus didn’t want to go with His brothers at this time because He was not ready and He knew the Jews wanted to kill Him. One could almost detect a bit of jealously in His brothers, because they wanted Him to show Himself more and more so as they put it, ‘they will believe you’. This was not an act of encouragement. He declined and they went up to the feast by themselves. John 7:8, “You go to the feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.” Later Jesus went up by Himself in secret, as it were.

 

The Jews were relentlessly seeking Him at the feast, asking everyone if they had seen Him or knew where He might be. The crowd was mixed as to whether or not Jesus was a good man or a troublemaker. However the people were afraid to talk about Him for fear of the Jews.

 

At midpoint of the feast Jesus went into the Temple and began to teach, impressing the crowd with every word. They were amazed and wondered where this man gained this knowledge, especially since He had not been educated in their schools. Jesus told them that His teachings were not from Him, but from the Father, and if anyone would do the work of the Father they, too, would know of the teaching and its origin. John7:16-17, “My teaching is not on my own. It comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.” He reminded them that Moses gave them the law and yet none of them were adhering, no not ever. John 7:19, “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me? Jesus asked them if it were okay to circumcise a man on the Sabbath. Why then, are they condemning Him because He healed a man on the Sabbath? By now, the crowd began to wonder why the Jewish rulers and Pharisees were not doing anything to Him. They were assuming that they really didn’t know who He was. The crowd knew where Jesus, the man, had come from, but was under the impression that no one would know where Christ would come from. Jesus told them that the Father sent Him and the reason they didn’t believe Him was because they didn’t know the Father, “…You do not know him), which infuriated the Jews even more. Consequently they were trying to seize Him to kill Him but they couldn’t. Many people in the crowd began believing Jesus, so the Pharisees, again, sent officers to capture Him, and again failed to do so. Jesus told them He would be with them a little while longer and then He would go back to the Father. Jesus said to them in verse 34, ”You will seek me and will not find me, and where I am going you cannot come.” They thought He was going to go to some other area.

 

On the last day of the feast Jesus told them that if anyone wanted to be saved they should go to Him. John 7:37-38, “…If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” He used a metaphor of living water in describing the Holy Spirit whom those who believed were to receive, on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit became active in the lives of the believers.

 

The crowd continued in confusion, some saying He is the Christ, while others were saying He was a Prophet. They were saying that Christ was not going to come from Galilee, but from Bethlehem. Apparently they did not know that Jesus did indeed come from Bethlehem; that is where He was born, as the Scripture had prophesized. Micah 5:2, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel.” Again the officers failed in their attempt to seize Him, and they went to the rulers and explained to them they never heard a man speak as Jesus did. The rulers sarcastically replied and asked them if they were beginning to believe in Him. At that point, Nicodemus appeared on the scene, ( the one who had met Jesus in the garden in John 3), and reminded them that their law did not provide for pre judging a man unless he was heard from first to tell his side of the story. The leaders told Nicodemus that no prophet would come from Galilee. At that point the crowd dispersed and each went to their own house.

 

The teaching of this chapter shows the difficulty Jesus had trying to make the crowd believe Him, which simply demonstrates the result of a hardened heart. When a person has a closed mind it will be very difficult to try to teach anything. Jesus certainly gave the world every opportunity to accept Him. As He said, ‘if anyone would be willing to do the will of the Father then that person would know the truth, (verse 17). This chapter is loaded with the ignorance of man. We should always be aware of the lack of knowledge is what leads to ignorance and closed minds. Verse 38 tells us that when one believes and accepts Jesus as Savior, that person will receive the Holy Spirit and will then know the truth. This happened on the day of Pentecost when the disciples were speaking to a very large crowd. (We’ll cover that in Acts). 

 

The meaning to me is that the words of Jesus are true and emanate from the Father, as He said so many times. When I received Jesus as my Savior I knew the Holy Spirit came into my very being. There was a dramatic change in my life. All I need to do is give Him control of my life, to realize that He is with me now and always. The Holy Spirit is no longer a resident in my heart; He is now the President.