John 7: 1 – 24
Dark Cloud Ministry
1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. 3 His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him. 6 Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.” 9 When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee. 10 But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. 11 Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, “Where is He?” 12 And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, “He is good”; others said, “No, on the contrary, He deceives the people.” 13 However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews. 14 Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. 15 And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?” 16 Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. 18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. 19 Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” 20 The people answered and said, “You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?” 21 Jesus answered and said to them, “I did one work, and you all marvel. 22 Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the Law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? 24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
Almost from the start of His Ministry The Lord Jesus was aware of the plan to kill Him. We read back in chapter 2 verses 23 to 25 this, “23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. 24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, 25 and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.”
Please notice again the statement that our Lord ‘knew what was in man’. He knew not to trust men due to the underlying evil that sin has caused all mankind. In fact even His own family was against Him. He cared for them and they did not hold the same feelings toward Him.
Now you might be thinking that I speak to harshly about our Lord’s family. Really? We will read shortly how the religious men in Jerusalem were planning to kill our Lord Jesus. They had also made the pronouncement that anyone associated with our Lord had the penalty of being excommunicated from the nation of Israel. These facts were known all around Israel but we will see shortly how our Lord’s half brothers were pushing Him to go there anyway.
In this chapter it will be stressed that the threat of death was now hanging over Him continually. It is indeed a main theme of the first part of the chapter. Thus He is going forward from this point on ever aware of the cloud hanging over Him. Perhaps He could give His Ministry the name –‘Dark Cloud Ministries.
For your thoughts and understanding we need to be reminded that we see a jump in the years of our Lord Jesus’ ministry from the beginning years to now towards the end of His earthly time.
1 After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.
His words to the religious zealots that we learned in chapter 6 had increased their determination to put Him to death. But they did not dare to touch Him in Galilee, where their influence was less, for He was too popular, and the result was that He was able to walk openly there.
2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.
The Feast of Tabernacles was the feast celebrating the end of the year’s harvests, and took place around September/October. It was one of the main feasts celebrated by the Jews, being one of the three that were commanded to be celebrated at their central Sanctuary (initially The Tabernacle, and then the Temple) from ancient times. In Exodus 23.16 it is called the Feast of Ingathering, while in Leviticus 23.3 and Deuteronomy 16.13 it is called the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths).
The other two main feasts were the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread (celebrated in March/April), and the Feast of Weeks, also called the Feast of Harvest and Pentecost, which was celebrated 50 days after Passover. The former celebrated the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and was distinctive in that every household would sacrifice a lamb at the Temple, and partake of it in the place in which they were staying in Jerusalem, in memory of that deliverance, but it was almost certainly a feast before that for it was during this week that the reaping of the standing grain commenced (Deuteronomy 16.9) and a sheaf of the first fruits was waved before the Lord (Leviticus 23.10-11). It was thus both a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt and an acknowledgement by the nation of their dependence on God for their harvest.
From the day on which the first fruits were offered in March/April, 49 days were counted (a week of weeks, hence the name the Feast of Weeks) during which the grain harvest would be gathered in (Deuteronomy 16.9-12). Then the Feast of Weeks (or Harvest) would be celebrated (May/June) and a cake of the first fruits of the gathered harvest presented to God. This was later called the Feast of Pentecost.
Following this the grapevines would be pruned, the figs (summer fruit) gathered in, and this would be followed by the general ingathering of grapes, olives and citrus fruits. Finally around September/October the Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering would celebrate the complete gathering in of the year’s harvest. It was a feast of thanksgiving for a good harvest (Deuteronomy 16.15), and was especially associated with fruitfulness, with the ‘fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook’ (Leviticus 23.40). During the feast the people would live in booths or ‘tents’, remembering how the people who had followed Moses out of Egypt had lived in tents in the wilderness.
The feast, which was now approaching, was a joyful one, and had become especially associated with the expected coming age of plenty as described by the prophet Zechariah 14.16-19, so that at this time the minds of people would be directed towards thoughts of the coming age. The celebration of it was also looked on as a way of seeking to guarantee the pouring out of rain in the coming months. This was presumably why The Lord Jesus chose it for the purpose of proclaiming the coming ‘rain’ of the Holy Spirit.
3 His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him.
It was to this feast then that Jesus was urged to go up to Jerusalem by His brothers. Now, many teachers say that the brothers were encouraging Him. I do not see this as happening. In fact, I think just the opposite is happening. When I read that - even His brothers did not believe in Him – they are in a way mocking Him. Again remember that we are now looking at the end of our Lord’s time here on earth and still not one of His half brothers believed that He Was the Messiah, the Anointed Holy One. In a way they are saying to Him, “Hey You are suppose to be the Messiah so why don’t You go up to Jerusalem during this holiday where the men of this nation will be gathering and let them all in to Who You Are.’
6 Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.
In chapter 5 verse 30 we learn that our King and Master Jesus Christ let everyone know that He Is totally guided by the Father in all that He does, “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. So, He had not received word from Adoni Yahweh to go to Jerusalem.
I want to comment on this point. Some antagonists try to accuse our Lord of being deceitful. They say that He told His brothers that He was not going up to Jerusalem deceitfully then after they left He goes on up. As I just explained this is not so. After the brothers left on their trip, then Father God guides Him to now go up to Jerusalem. We will shortly learn that after He arrives fearlessly He goes to the Temple and teaches the people.
7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.
He points out to his brothers that they had given the world no reason for hating them, so that they had nothing to beware of and nothing to fear. No one wanted to arrest them. But it was different with Himself. While He had simply been doing good and healing He had been popular, but once He had begun to reveal men’s sinfulness and hypocrisy, especially that of the religious leaders, and once the common people had begun to respond to His teaching, the world had begun to hate Him. For one thing that the world cannot stand is to be shown up for what it really is. It does not like the light as John pointed out in chapter 3.17-21. This was especially true of those who had a high opinion of their own goodness, like the Jewish leaders and teachers. They wanted to be commended and praised, not shown up. But His words did show them up, which was the main reason why they hated Him and wanted to get rid of Him, something of which He was well aware. His brothers could go to the feast safely, but He knew the hatred that there was for Him and His teaching, and that He Himself must be more careful.
8 You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for My time has not yet fully come.” 9 When He had said these things to them, He remained in Galilee.
Besides our Lord waiting to hear from His Father please notice the words ‘I am not yet going up.’ We know that all Jewish men were required to go up to the 3 required feasts. If our Lord did not go up to this feast then He could be accused of disobedience. So, He was saying to His half brothers that they should go on to the feast without Him as He would be going there later.
10 But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
Again some skeptics will say, ‘aha, gotcha! See He did deceive because He went up ‘Secretly.’ You got to be kidding. Think this out. If all your brothers go up then the religious leaders have spies out looking for Jesus. Since He Is not with His brothers it is natural to others that it appears that He came secretly yet in fact all He did was come by Himself.
11 Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, “Where is He?”
True to form the religious leaders had their spies out. There was no doubt that they had been looking for Him and had evil intentions towards Him. And when it was seen that He was not with His brothers and His family all were puzzled.
12 And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, “He is good”; others said, “No, on the contrary, He deceives the people.” 13 However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews.
Huge crowds would arrive in Jerusalem and its surrounding districts for the Feast of Tabernacles. It is clear that The Lord Jesus’ ministry had been going on for some considerable time, and indeed was approaching its end, and He was now well known everywhere. As we read there was a lot of debate of those for Him and those against Him. Some, on the basis of His works and teaching declared that He was a good man. Others, probably on the basis of what they had been told in the synagogues, declared that He led astray the people. Everyone was talking about Him.
It is clear from this that the decision had been made by the religious authorities that He was a dangerous man, and unacceptable to them. Their agreed position was that He must be put out of the way. And to consort with Him, or even to approve of Him, risked punishment from the synagogue. He was a marked man.
14 Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.
While our Lord Jesus was taking every precaution He knew, He could not allow His own safety to hinder the proclamation of His message. He went openly to the Temple in order to teach the people. He knew that they would not dare to arrest Him while He was preaching in the Temple. He was popular with the masses who gathered there and also because any major disturbance would be dealt with severely by the Roman soldiers. There He called on men to be righteous when making their judgments about Him, and about the things of God.
15 And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?”
As they listened to Him even His enemies were impressed. They were amazed. They could not understand how He had such wide knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures when He had never been through the Rabbinical schools. His wide knowledge of the Scriptures and of current ideas about them impressed them and for a while held them back from acting against Him.
In thinking about this verse it reminds me of two words – sent and went. In my lifetime I have observed the importance of these two words in being a servant of the Lord. You see there are those who ‘went’ into ministry, but were never sent by our Lord. Then there are those who were sent by our Lord and never went. And lastly there are those who were sent and they went.
I have personally witnessed over many years all three groups. I one time witnessed this one guy who obtained a doctorate in theology and didn’t have a lick of the anointing from our Holy Lord. He ultimately went into business as a carpenter. Then there was another guy I know who was kicked out of high school and who has a hard time with the English language. However, when he comes to town the building is overflowing with people to hear him. When he gives the gospel and challenges the people to give their lives to Jesus the pews empty to come forward to receive Christ.
One such man whom the Lord used mightily and was also never an achiever of academic credentials was Charles Haddon (CH) Spurgeon 19 June 1834 – 31 January 1892) who was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, among whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers".
Spurgeon had no formal education beyond Newmarket Academy, which he attended from August 1849 to June 1850, but on his own he was very well-read in Puritan theology, natural history, and Latin and Victorian literature. His lack of a college degree was no hindrance to his remarkable preaching career, which began in 1850, when he was only fifteen years old. A few months after his conversion to Christianity, he began preaching at Teversham. The next year, he accepted his first pastorate, at the Baptist Chapel in Waterbeach.
Spurgeon was a prolific author of many types of works including sermons, an autobiography, commentaries, and books on prayer, devotionals, magazines, poetry, hymns, and more. Many sermons were transcribed as he spoke and were translated into many languages during his lifetime. Spurgeon produced powerful sermons of penetrating thought and precise exposition. His oratory skills held his listeners spellbound in the Metropolitan Tabernacle and many Christians hold his writings in exceptionally high regard among devotional literature
16 Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.
Our Lord Jesus answered their amazement and explained the source of His teaching. He wanted them to know that it was Father God Who had taught Him, with the result was that His teaching was such that those who really wanted to know and do God’s will would recognize it for what it was. If they were really of God therefore they would recognize that what He spoke was of God. He stressed that He did not speak on His own authority, but on God’s, and that His teaching was such that, to those who judged fairly, it revealed God’s truth. So if they wanted to understand Him and know the truth let them set their hearts right towards God, and then they would genuinely know the truth of what He was saying.
It is significant that while in John’s Gospel our Lord Jesus constantly spoke in such a way as to point to His teaching as evidence of His Son ship, comparatively little of that teaching apart from in chapter 5 has until now been given to us in the Gospel he wrote. It is quite clear therefore that John is expecting his readers to have read or heard that teaching elsewhere. He assumes a wide knowledge of it. Do not forget that John was the 4th or last one to pen a Gospel. And while it was, of course, true that there was the oral tradition, those who had known Jesus had almost all died out. Thus it can be assumed that the writer was depending on the other Gospels (which he would know about) and the tradition in the churches, as having given the details of Jesus’ teaching necessary to back up His claims.
18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.
Here our God and Master pointed out that the one whose authority we claim is the one whose glory we seek. Thus those who speak in their own name or the name of their group are seeking their own glory. But Jesus did not do this. He spoke only in the Father’s name. This made it clear that He was seeking the Father’s glory. Thus He could only speak what was true and abhor falsehood; otherwise the Father would be displeased.
Those who sought their own glory have already been shown to be are the prominent religious rulers. They had become so proud of their teaching and their body of knowledge that it had become more important to them than recognizing the truth. They wanted people to look to them and their own brand of teaching, rather than thinking freely about the word of God. They saw themselves as the authorities and required all to submit to that authority. So what was once a genuine attempt to solve problems (their own body of teaching, ‘the traditions of the elders’) had become something to be protected and defended at all costs, resulting in much false flattery and hypocrisy. I experience this way first hand even as a young boy. I was an inquisitive kid who wanted to know the answers to things left out in no man’s land. For example, we were taught that sins gather into two categories – Mortal [which were the most offensive] and venial [like misdemeanors] Now, I do not think this question I asked was offensive but it got me a beating by the religious teacher. I asked how many venial sins equal a mortal sin.
The Precious Holy Son of God our Lord Jesus on the other hand is saying that He Is not seeking to defend anything. He is only seeking the glory of the One Who sent Him, and speaking directly from God. Thus what He is saying is true without any dissimulation or insincerity.
It is always dangerous to consider yourself an authority. This is why the Jewish teachers would give reference to other well known and respected teachers. Once a person is seen as an authority, and speaks as thus, he always has his own reputation and glory in mind. Everything he says is said with a view to maintaining the hard earned reputation of himself and of his group. And on top of this he is bound by the decisions of those of similar status so as to maintain the reputation of the whole. So when he speaks he has to do it in the light of the group wisdom and of previous decisions which are seen as binding. This is necessary in order to maintain his own status in the group, and to maintain the status of the group. Thus all the time he has an eye to his own glory. But such a position can only be the enemy of truth, for there is then no room for another viewpoint to step through.
Furthermore those who communicate the decisions of these great men are also bound by them to an even greater extent, for they receive their own reflected glory from them. Thus they know that if they were to take up another attitude or view, all their reputation for ‘learning’ would be lost. They would no longer be recognized as ‘sound teachers’. This was the case with the Jewish teachers. In order to maintain their own authority they taught by constantly referring to the decisions of their own Rabbis. And these Rabbis looked to the sayings of past Rabbis. They gloried in their own status, and would defend their authority to the last. Truth thus had to become secondary to maintaining the common tradition.
But Jesus pointed out that that was the problem. They had got themselves into the position whereby they even sometimes had to defend the indefensible so as to save their own honour and maintain their own glory, and at the same time had to refuse outside truth because it might undermine what they taught. They were bound by the decisions arising from their own corporate authority, and had to maintain them at all costs in order to be accepted as wise teachers. They were thus no longer truly free to think for themselves. Their minds had become rigid. They were caught up in the past. That is why they were unlikely to listen to Him. They were hidebound by tradition.
Look around you as some very dedicated religious people who have committed their whole lives to a false religion. Suppose you were like them and have given your all to a certain religious movement. Somehow you hear the truth that you have been in a phony religion not a true relationship with our Great and Holy Lord Jesus. Do you think it would be easy to acknowledge that you invested all your life into something worthless or would you as the Scripture encourages you to come out from amongst them.
19 Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?”
He points to Moses in order to reveal one of the cracks in their position. The Jewish teachers constantly proclaimed Moses as their chief authority, the one who showed them the will of God. Well and good. But let them consider what Moses had said. He had declared that it was wrong to kill innocent men. Yet they were seeking to kill Him. They were thus demonstrating that with all their pretence they rejected Moses’ authority, as shown by their behavior in being ready to break the law of Moses by seeking The Lord Jesus’ death. So they were not genuine in the claims that they made. They were seeking only to protect their own glory and to protect their own position. They were not really concerned to obey Moses.
20 The people answered and said, “You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?”
Please place yourself at this situation. You still have the people were gathered around along with the religious instigators. This remark by our Lord upset the people who were listening and were not aware of the dark overtones that were in the air. They thought that He was exaggerating. But the evil murderers knew exactly what He meant. They were uncomfortably aware that He was right. ‘You have a demon’ was probably the equivalent of our use of ‘you’re mad’, not intended to be taken literally, but as a dismissive comment.
21 Jesus answered and said to them, “I did one work, and you all marvel.
This work that our Lord points out looks back to the man at the pool who was healed on the Sabbath. This was the incident that above all had turned the religious people against Him. By it He was seen not only as a Sabbath-breaker but also as One Who had encouraged others to break the Sabbath. And to make matters worse, in His defiance He had claimed God as His own Father.
22 Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the Law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?
He is informing them that He has told them that Moses gave them a law of circumcision, which involved breaking the Sabbath, in order to demonstrate that the Sabbath law should be interpreted to allow for activities related to God (such as healing and its consequences).
So we see here that our Lord Jesus Is now challenging their view of the Sabbath. Moses gave them circumcision, He says, (although, He adds, it was in fact practiced by the fathers long before Moses), and in order to keep the law of Moses they would circumcise a man on the Sabbath, because it had to be done on the eighth day. They thus saw circumcision as overriding the Sabbath. Was it then right to circumcise a man on the Sabbath, but wrong to make him whole?
In the Mishnah Shabbath 18.3; 19.1, 2 and Nedarim 3.11 all hold that the command to circumcise overrides the command to observe the Sabbath in order that the Law be kept. (The Mishnah was Jewish oral law gathered together by 200 AD by Rabbi Judah the Prince).
Again they were seen as not being honest with the law of Moses. It is clear that the arguments against Him had included that of healing a man on the Sabbath and His telling the man to take his mattress home. The Pharisees allowed minimum emergency assistance on the Sabbath in health matters in as far as it was necessary to save life, but what Jesus had done went beyond that in their eyes. He had made a man whole by the power of God and then told him to take home his invalid mattress. But, asks Jesus, was this really less important than the carrying out of circumcision?
They were in fact so tied down by their views on circumcision that they would probably have said, yes. This too was evidence of their blindness. But Jesus was saying that ceremonial rites can never be more important than mercy and compassion.
24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
Our Holy God and Lord Jesus acknowledged their right to judge, but stressed that it was incumbent on them to ensure that their judgment was righteous, and not superficial. Those who claimed the right to judge had a special responsibility to ensure that they judged fairly. But they had overlooked the principles of compassion and mercy. As He says in Matthew 23.23, ‘You tithe (give a tenth to God of) even such trifles as mint and cummin, yet you have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith’.
Perhaps we could paraphrase this verse as, ‘Do not judge by what appears to you to be right, but by what is truly right’. Their judgment was superficial. They constantly failed to consider the deeper implications.
