John 7:16-24
Jesus is at the Feast of the Booths in Jerusalem…it’s one of seven religious feasts that the Jews celebrated and still celebrate today…it’s one of the three mandatory feasts in which all males were supposed to appear before the Lord.
It was a weeklong celebration when families lived in makeshift booths made of branches and leaves (Lev. 23:40-43). Sort of like camping out to remember Israel’s 40-year journey in the wilderness on the way from Egypt to Canaan under Moses.
Jesus is in Jerusalem where He will return just six months later to be arrested and crucified…but for now He enters the city about mid-way through the eight-day celebration where He unexpectedly shows Himself publicly to the crowds in the temple [7:14].
He begins teaching in the temple and creates a certain awe in what He says…John reveals the reaction of those in the Temple to Jesus’ claims…some believed…some are indifferent…others just flat out rejected him…but it seems everyone has an opinion…there’s an open debate going on among them…some say ‘He is a good man’ …others saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads people astray.” [7:12].
The debate about Jesus continues today…a man sent by God…who taught God’s truth…sought God’s glory…did miraculous works but was and has been rejected because people then as now value the wrong things.
- Some people don’t think they need a savior…they consider themselves to be “basically good” and don’t realize that they, like all people, are sinners who cannot come to God on their own terms.
- Some people don’t accept Christ because they are caught up in the cares of the world…what’s going on in their life at that time is more important than being tied down to religion…they love life as it is and don’t want to change.
- The fear of social rejection deters some people from receiving Christ as Savior …people are more concerned with their status among their peers than trusting in Jesus…they’re like the Pharisees who loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.” [John 12:41]
- Many people are simply resisting the Holy Spirit’s attempts to draw them to faith in Christ…like the people Stephen talked about who were about to murder him, “You always resist the Holy Spirit!”
John records that Jesus makes the claim that ‘He is true’ [7:18] an interesting statement…it’s used only two other times in John’s entire Gospel and both times only when referring to God [3:33 / 8:26].
John wants us to make it known that Jesus alone shares this quality with God.
They are immediately amazed at His teaching and His wisdom…how can anyone who has never been exposed to the teachings of the religious leaders…having no formal training… ‘having never been educated’ [7:15] have such a commanding knowledge of Scripture?
There are two kinds of emotions on display in this text…one is displayed by Jesus’s brothers who are excited about his miracles …they’ve seen some of them and they want other people to see them as well…in essence they’re saying…show yourself to the world so ‘Your disciples may see your works which You are doing’ [3].
Notice they say ‘your’ disciples indicating they were not Jesus’ disciples because they didn’t believe in Him…BUT they are excited about what He can do…they believed in His miracles but not in His messiahship…that’s one kind of unbelief… believing in the idea that there is a person named Jesus…being excited about what He can do…but not believing in Him as Savior.
Then there’s the second kind of emotion displayed by many of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem who were not excited by Jesus’s miracles…they are threatened by them and want to see him dead.
What you really have in both instances is unbelief masked behind two different emotions…the Jews’ unbelief is the same as Jesus’s brothers’ unbelief…so how are these two responses to Jesus both unbelief…there’s a common denominator for these two unbelieving responses.
On the one hand the brothers are excited about His miracles…in fact they want Jesus to do more miracles…to be more public…get exposure…they love it and they want Him to make an appearance in Jerusalem to win more followers.
Jesus’ brothers sought acceptance of people in the miracles Jesus performed…who wouldn’t want to be identified as being part of Jesus’ family…seeking the praise of people…that’s why Jesus did not go to Jerusalem with them.
It’s like hanging out with the popular kids in school so you can be seen with them.
It’s like people who only attend big churches…they like the prestige of letting people know they attend that church…they attend a church that has a big building …a huge sanctuary…they like to be associated with a church that has countless programs…probably none of which they’re involved in…and most likely attend only when it’s convenient…but they like to be associated with it through its name.
Then on the other hand you have the anger of the Jews that Jesus is doing too many miracles and want them stopped… even if it means killing Him.
For the Jews they sought the praise of people as well…with the brothers it was being associated with Jesus…for the Jew it was through their keeping of the law… their prideful attempt to keep the Law gave them prestige…that was more important than identifying with Jesus even though some of people wondered how could they not believe in Jesus and recognized that he was the Messiah.
[v. 26] indicates that may have been the case
The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they?
They’re really asking…how is it the leaders can’t believe…there’s that negative participle μή inserted in the question that expects a ‘NO’ response…meaning…no the leaders really don’t believe this is the Christ…because Jesus is completely upsetting their whole concept of the Law of Moses.
In fact…Jesus is accusing them of being law-breakers…His response is; ‘none of you keeps the law’ [17:19].
Jesus is calling their whole understanding of law-keeping into question…they sought approval of the people by their keeping of the Law but their whole life was a sham…their trust is in the Law, not in some carpenter’s kid.
For the brothers, the miracles of Jesus got them human praise…for the Jews, the miracles of Jesus threaten their human praise.
In [v. 15] they raise the question of His competence as a teacher. ‘how can this man become learned, having never been educated?’ …but in [v. 17] Jesus turns the tables…He raises the question of their competence as hearers.
I want to share the importance of verse 17 because unless you lived 2000 years ago and were a Rabbi the original intent has a meaning that is not what we think it means today.
“If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.
There’s a modern-day application of this verse which is not exactly what this verse meant 2000 years ago…the modern-day application is anyone who is obedient to the teaching of God will know that what you’re doing is the will of God.
How do we know that…how do know that what you’re doing is the will of God…you test it.
You can be assured that what it is you’re doing is from God when what it is you’re doing lines up with the Word of God.
As opposed to what you want to do…or what others want you to do…or how much your emotions…your feelings…or circumstances want to do the opposite.
God will never speak to us or tell us to do something that is contrary to His Word.
The work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a believer who has a teachable spirit and a desire to know the will of God is one that will be taught by Him.
Now the meaning as it applied to the Rabbis…this is further proof that Jesus is keenly aware of what they were thinking…Jesus is specifically responding to all the Rabbis who were there listening to Him.
They could relate to what [verse 17] meant from the many years of their own personal experience…it made perfect sense to them, but unless we understand a little history, we miss the true meaning of Jesus’ comments.
What Jesus is reflecting on is their own personal life-story…He’s reading them like a book…each one of them, at some point in their life, wanted to become a rabbi… each one completed the required schooling necessary to be qualified.
Upon completion he chose a particular rabbi that he wanted to be like…he goes to that rabbi and asks him if he could be one of his disciples…by making this request he is telling the rabbi that he wants to be like him, and will gladly do everything the rabbi tells him to do without questioning it.
The intent was that these rabbis, after several years of submitting to their teacher and learning only his teachings…would become a rabbi who thinks…acts…and teaches just like his teacher.
See where Jesus is going with this…Jesus is making a contrast in how He was taught to how they as young rabbis were taught…the rabbi thinks, act, and teaches just like his teacher…and Jesus is saying I’ve done the same…‘My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me’ [16] see the similarity.
The comparison Jesus is trying to make is the authority these rabbis had was not their own…they are emulating the rabbi who taught them…their authority came from the one who taught them…not from themselves… their willingness to submit to their own individual rabbi is how they learned.
If the rabbi becomes convinced that this young man has the potential of becoming like him, the rabbi will approach him and say to him, “Follow me” …again…Jesus takes a phrase they would have been familiar with and uses it in the same way to call them.
The phrase ‘Follow me’ is used countless times in the New Testament to mean now as well as then… “Come with me as my disciple and submit to my authority and my teachings.”
Jesus is drawing a parallel between how these young rabbis were called and how He calls people today…using the same words ‘follow me’ to call His disciples.
By the teacher telling the disciple to ‘follow me’ He means your authority as a rabbi will not be your own, but the authority of the rabbi who discipled you.
When we make the decision to follow Jesus we’re committing to His authority…but in the case of these rabbis their motivation was pride, not humility…the attitude of these rabbis was proof that their teachings was not from God.
Jesus is challenging them to learn by putting His words into practice the same as they did the Rabbis who taught them.
[V. 18] He begins to focus on motives
“He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory.”
Jesus is telling them about two different kinds of teachers…the first kind is the worst kind…the teacher who “speaks from himself”.
We see this in the Church today…we see this in the large number of cults who speak from themselves…Jesus is contrasting Himself with the teacher who speaks from himself…who speaks by his own authority…teaching his own ideas and opinions that are not based upon nor consistent with the Word of God.
This person does not represent God…on the contrary…he represents himself and “seeks his own glory”. …such a person is not a teacher but is in a popularity contest…his reward is the recognition and praise of others.
4 SIGNS YOU’RE SEEKING YOUR OWN GLORY AND NOT GOD’S
1. YOU’RE MORE CONCERNED WITH YOUR PERFORMANCE THAN YOUR IMPACT.
2. YOU’RE DISAPPOINTED WHEN OTHERS DON’T MENTION YOUR EFFORTS.
3. YOU MAKE SURE TO LET PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THE SACRIFICES YOU’RE MAKING AND HOW COMMITTED YOU ARE.
4. YOU’RE IN COMPETITION WITH THOSE AROUND YOU DOING SIMILAR MINISTRIES.
Jesus uses Himself as an example of the second kind of teacher who seeks the glory of God…He says, “but He who is seeking the glory of the one who has sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
For Jesus, life was not a popularity contest…it was a quest to know and obey the truth…such a person is not an impostor…there is no falsehood nor deception in him. Instead of deception there is transparency…this is the description of the perfect teacher.
Jesus is telling them…you like to follow rabbis…follow the kind of teacher I just mentioned…that’s the kind of teacher you want to follow and learn from.
So Jesus gives them a contrast…
Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? [19]
What?? …hey Jesus in case you didn’t know…we are the experts and keepers of the Law…none of us keeps the law?? here’s what Jesus meant by that…Israel had gotten so obsessed on how the Law should be interpreted that they lost the spirit of the Law…instead of following what God said, they took away from what God wanted and turned it into what men decided it should be.
So Jesus gives them a scenario:
When Moses gave Israel the Law, one was the law concerning circumcision…the law decreed that male babies should be circumcised on the eighth day… [Lev 12:3] but what if that eighth day fell on the Sabbath…now you have a quandary.
Their interpretation of the Law is that you can’t do any work on the Sabbath…so do you wait until the next day and break the law regarding circumcision on the eighth day… or do you circumcise on the eighth day and break the law that is commanding you to not work on the Sabbath?
Jesus reveals their foolish logic…He goes back to their anger at His healing a man on the Sabbath…it’s permissible to perform circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses would not be broken…but it was wrong to completely heal a man on the Sabbath (John 5:8-9).
Jesus reminds them that what He did was a miracle…but they’re offended it was done on the Sabbath…but it’s fine for them to do circumcision on the Sabbath… Jesus reminds them that the Law wasn’t broken, their tradition was! Then Jesus closes out His teaching with this thought… a statement that applies to all of us:
Do not judge according to appearance [24]
This goes back to one of the most often misquoted and mis-understood scriptures in the Bible…behind Romans 8:28… “Do not judge least you be judged” [Matt. 7:1] …this phrase is not always correctly understood or applied.
Both these verses… [John 7:24 and Matt. 7:1] point to a tendency inherent in human nature…judging is universal…the term ‘judge not’ is one of the most over-used clichés in Christianity…and almost always used out of context.
Here’s how this normally works…people will judge others for committing sins that they deem “worse” than their own.
The emphasis is on the idea that when an individual or a group of people develop their own standards of religious conduct…or their own morality…or their own personal standards, they inevitable judge everyone else by those self-made beliefs and standards…and everyone else is lowered accordingly.
Now admittedly…and to some extent…Christians have become fairly good at focusing on the moral failings of others while completely ignoring their own.
Whenever we condemn people or pass judgement on someone because they don’t do something the way we think it ought to be done…or… because we believe their motives are wrong…we’re passing judgment on them.
Notice Jesus says… ‘judge with righteous judgment’ which is vastly different than how we often judge…it’s like God’s righteous anger or God’s wrath…people confuse God’s anger and wrath by putting them in human terms… ‘someone has wronged me, and I am making every effort to hurt them as much as I can.’
That is not how God operates…God gives us the freedom to make the choice in how we will live…and each of us will have to give an account for that decision… here’s the key…in whatever decision we make we must be aware that there are consequences to those choices.
It’s not God getting even…it’s God judging us fairly according to His standards based on our choices.
With respect to righteous judgment it is God seeing sin for what it is…we too should see sin for what it is and not be afraid to point it out …but this judgment becomes unrighteous judgement when it stems from a “holier-than-thou” motive or when it seeks to condemn rather than to restore.
Jesus is saying…don’t judge like the Jewish leaders do…they’re seeking revenge based on tradition…but judge using righteous judgment…that includes a spirit of gentleness…seeking restoration and helping that person back into fellowship with God…not condemning them.
This whole discourse…these verses we have been studying for the past four weeks, all center around trusting in Jesus.
Last week’s sermon centered on the reason to ‘wait upon the Lord’ because when we run ahead of Him, we limit Him to our human strength and power.
The week before that it was realizing there is no place we can go….no other person we can go to…no other book we can read who has the words of eternal life.
Today’s lesson is about tradition versus Scripture…the importance of understanding God’s Word rather than listening to those who would want you to believe in and keep traditions over Scripture.
The rabbis were saying this is the way we’ve always done it because it’s the Law… and Jesus was insisting…on the contrary…it is the teaching of God that has priority.
The exact reason for being in Church…for reading your Bible…for being in Sunday school…for being in a Bible study…so you don’t become like those who would have you believe in human traditions…customs…rituals…and observances.
Here’s the danger in believing in traditions…customs…and folklore…and the devastation that occurs when people fail to accurately interpret God’s Word.
We are living in exciting times…we are witnessing Bible prophecy being fulfilled before our very eyes…but for an entire nation of people they’re still clinging to the erroneous teaching of thousands of years ago regarding Christ’s return to earth.
Substituting God’s Word for oral traditions that has resulted in the loss of countless numbers of people because they failed to do exactly what Jesus Himself said 2000 years ago ‘these are the very Scriptures that testify about me’ [John 5:39].
In addition, there are hundreds of thousands who have listened to false teachers over the years who have either re-written the Bible…added their own commentary on the Bible…or have denied the authenticity of the Bible.
Nothing has changed in 2000 years…the people in Jesus’ time mistakenly put their confidence in the religious leaders whom they trusted to tell them the truth…today people are still trusting in modern day rabbis to tell them the truth…but unlike the rabbis…Jesus is stating He speaks for God…He is speaking for the One who sent Him.