“HEADING TO THE FEAST!”
John 7:1-52
Greenmount and O’Leary Churches of Christ
May 16, 2021
Video Link: https://youtu.be/C7Au0CF8tLI
INTRODUCTION:
1.) Today’s text in the Gospel of John is in the final year of Jesus’ ministry.
A.) By this time, the religious leaders had already decided to kill Jesus.
B.) After the feeding of the 5,000 many of the people had also rejected Jesus.
C.) The result of these things is that since the Passover feast about six months before this, Jesus has completely avoided the city of Jerusalem and even Judea itself.
ca.) Today we will pick up our text as the Jews are getting ready to again go to Jerusalem, this time for the feast of Tabernacles.
2.) As we look at John 7 today, I believe our text can easily be divided into three sections; These are:
A.) The Beginning of the Feast.
B.) The Middle of the Feast,
C.) and the end of the feast.
D.) So, let us look at: some
I) EVENTS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FEAST (7:1-13)
1) It has been six months since the Feast of Passover.
A) Jesus has been avoiding Jerusalem because of the depths of hostility against him there.
aa.) John 7:1
2) Jesus’ brothers pushed for Jesus to attend the feast of Tabernacles.
A) John 7:3-5
B) They may have reminded him of his religious obligations.
ba.) Every Jewish male was required to be at Jerusalem for the three major feasts.
baa.) Deuteronomy 16:16
“Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed:
bab.) It was part of the law that Jesus had to go to the feast.
C) It was also the desire of Jesus’ brothers to encourage Jesus to publicly reveal his messianic identity.
ca.) Even though they did not believe in him. (7:5)
caa.) I am not sure if this was mockery on the part of his brothers or not.
cab.) Afterall, if they did not yet believe in him, why would they want him to do this action?
3) Everything about the ministry of Jesus was according to the plan of God.
A) The half brothers of Jesus could not understand that everything had to be done in a certain time frame to meet the plan of God.
aa.) For over six months now Jesus had stayed away from Jerusalem.
ab.) He had to follow the plan and timing of God so he would be sacrificed for man’s sin at the time of the feast of Passover in another seven or eight months of time.
4) Jesus told his brothers to go without him that he would not be attending as it was not the right time.
A.) John 7:9
B.) I want you to notice that Jesus did not say he was not going to the feast, but that he was not yet going up to the feast.
C.) Jesus was not going to the feast with the caravans of Jews but would later go up secretly.
ca.) At this point it was not the right time to draw too much attention to himself too early.
cb.) Jesus would go in the middle of the week when the crowds had already completed their travel, and the religious leaders had concluded he would not be coming to the feast.
5) Our text shows us that people were looking for Jesus at the feast.
A) John 7:11-13
B) There were many people talking about Jesus and looking for him.
ba.) Though there was much talk, most of it was just whisperings because of fear of the Jewish leaders who wanted to kill him.
bb.) Even in their conversations there was a great deal of debate over Jesus.
bba.) Scripture tells us that some felt he was a good (or Godly) man.
bbb.) Others felt he was someone who was deceiving the people.
bbc.) With such mixed views we understand why Jesus had to be so cautious in going up to Jerusalem.
bbd.) Well, that brings us to look at:
II) EVENTS AT THE MIDDLE OF THE FEAST 7:14-24)
1) Jesus comes to the feast. (7:14)
A.) Jesus missed the first half of the feast.
aa.) The feast lasted for seven to eight days, so this would have been somewhere around the fourth day of the feast.
aaa.) Jesus waited long enough that nobody would have been looking for him to come.
aab.) In this way, he would have caught the religious leaders off guard.
.01) Earlier the religious leaders were watching for Jesus in desire to arrest him when he showed up.
.02) By coming after the Jewish leaders had given up looking for him, he was able to go up into the temple and preach and teach.
.03) The religious leaders still had a certain amount of fear for the crowds, as many of them believed Jesus to be the Messiah.
2) The people are amazed at Jesus as a teacher. (7:15)
A) “How did this man get such learning without having been taught.”
aa.) Later, in the book of Acts a similar charge was laid against Peter and John.
aaa.) Acts 4:13 “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
.01) The King James has that “they were unlearned and ignorant men.”
.02) Certainly these are not what we would call complimentary words on these men, but it might not be quite as negative as it sounds to us.
.03) It is simply a testimony that neither Jesus nor these apostles had studied under one of the great Rabbis of the day to be trained in that field.
.031) Jesus would have apprenticed under Joseph to learn his carpentry skills, and these fishermen would have likewise learned their trade through the influence of their father.
B.) In many ways it was more honest questioning, and bewilderment as to how Jesus was so knowledgeable of the Word of God.
ba.) The Gospel of Luke tells us that as a child Jesus grew in wisdom and stature with men, and with God.
baa.) In other words, his physical development was as that of any boy and that he had also grown and developed spiritually.
.01) Right from his youth Jesus had read, studied, and came to know the Word of God.
bab.) Many years after this the Apostle Paul would give the challenge to the church to “present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
(2 Timothy 2:15)
.01) The admonition of the great Apostle was exactly the practice that Jesus had earlier practiced throughout his life.
bb.) Certainly, there was also more to it than that.
bba.) Jesus had a direct connection with God the Father, and his teachings had been directly given to him from his Father in heaven.
bbb.) Jesus went on to testify of that very truth.
.01) John 7:16-18
3) The people accuse Jesus of being demon-possessed. (7:19-20).
A.) Jesus asked them the question “Why are you trying to kill me [for teaching the word of God]?
aa.) Certainly, the religious leaders were wanting to kill Jesus, while the common people were mixed as to whether Jesus should be followed as the Messiah, or persecuted as an imposter.
aaa.) So, Jesus is challenged that he has a demon because he spoke of people wanting to kill him.
.01) I would take this accusation as being from the religious leaders, as all through our text the people were speaking of the leaders wanting to kill Jesus.
4) There is still a focus on Jesus as a lawbreaker.
A.) This hatred went back about six months when Jesus was last in Jerusalem at the Passover feast.
aa.) Knowing this, Jesus himself speaks of healing the lame man on the Sabbath.
aab.) Even though six months had gone by, the religious leaders were still chewing that over with anger.
B.) In rebuttal to this, Jesus spoke of the act of circumcision.
ba.) Circumcision was always performed on the eighth day of a boy’s life, even if it happened to be the Sabbath.
C.) John 7:21-24
ca.) The law required circumcision to be performed on the eighth day, and yet by their standards this working on the Sabbath but was allowed to fulfill the law.
cb.) In the same way, Jesus healed that man on the Sabbath a few months before this.
cba.) Certainly, the religious leaders were not happy at these words of Jesus.
5) The Jewish leaders try to arrest Jesus.
A.) The people are confused over the identity of Jesus.
aa.) John 7:25-26
ab.) The people knew that the religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus, but here he was preaching and teaching in the temple.
ac.) It brought the question, could it be that our religious leaders have accepted that Jesus is the Christ?
aca.) Why else would they allow him to be there in the temple expounding the Word of God?
acb.) It was not that they had accepted Jesus but were afraid to publicly arrest him.
B.) With the religious leaders the straw that broke the camel’s back that day was Jesus’ declaration that he had come from God and that the people there did not know God.
ba.) John 7:30-33
bb.) Well, this brings us to the third section of this text:
III) EVENTS AT THE LAST OR GREATEST DAY OF THE FEAST. (9:37-52)
1.) Jesus declared himself the living water from heaven.
A.) John 7:37-38
B.) At the feast there was a daily ceremony that was likely the moment our Lord made this declaration.
C.) Each morning the priests dressed in their white robes would go down to the Pool of Siloam and draw some water in a golden vase.
ca.) As the priest ascended the steps to the temple and the altar of burnt offering the people would all be singing psalms of praise.
cb.) When he reached that altar, he would pour that water over the western side of the altar.
cc.) While he was doing this another priest would pour wine on the Eastern side of that altar.
cca.) The pouring of these two fluids symbolized the dividing of the Red Sea when Israel left Egypt and begin to dwell in booths.
ccb.) The outpouring of water was also to represent the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God that would take place in the Messianic age.
D.) It was likely at that time when Jesus stood up and made his declaration.
2.) Jesus declared The Living Water is the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit of God that comes in and through Himself.
A.) John 7:37-39
B.) The words of Jesus made a powerful impact on the people gathered to worship.
3.) Jesus was declared by some of the people to be the Messiah.
A.) John 7:40-43
B.) He is called the “Prophet”
aa.) We have already seen that was a title from Deuteronomy 18 referring to the Messiah.
C.) Others said He is the Messiah.
ba.) Though they made a distinction in these titles, we recognize the two terms as the same office.
bb.) Some of the people did not accept this as Jesus came from Galilee, and the Messiah was to be a descendant of David from Bethlehem.
bba.) This was because they did not realize Jesus was both a descendent of King David and had also been born in the town of Bethlehem.
D.) About this time the temple police came back to the religious leaders without arresting Jesus.
ca.) John 7:45-49
E.) As the leaders were looking to arrest Jesus Nicodemus spoke on his behalf reminding them of the law.
ea.) John 7:50-52
eb.) They basically mocked Nicodemus for being so ignorant of the Scriptures as to consider that the Messiah or even a prophet could come from Galilee, but it was they who did not know the Scriptures.
eba.) In stating that no prophet would come from Galilee , they were apparently ignorant of the prophets Nahum and Jonah both coming from Galilee.
CONCLUSION:
1.) As we bring this passage to a close today, I want you to see that at the end of each of the three divisions of our message the people were again divided on Jesus.
A.) Just as there were those feelings then, those same feelings can be present today.
B.) Whenever the message of Christ is preached, there are those who are:
ba.) willing to acknowledge him as the Messiah and look to him for Salvation.
bb.) indifferent to Him.
bc.) And there are also those who are negative or even antagonistic to the message of Christ.
bd.) Every one of us will fall into one of those three categories; In which group are you?
be.) I cannot choose Christ for you or for anyone other than myself, only you can choose.
bd.) What will you decide today?
