40
John 7:11-18 A SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF JESUS
IN THE
Introduction:
In
our previous text Jesus refused to go in a large
caravan of people from
waited until after the caravan had already
left and then
went secretively to
The
reason that Jesus did not travel with the caravan
was because He did not want to stir up
more opposition from
the Jewish leaders at that present
time. It was not yet
time for Him to be crucified.
Even
after arriving at
make Himself known. John does not tell us just how He kept
His presence a secret. It could be that He did not actually
go into the city of
could have been that He used His
supernatural powers to hide
His identity so that He could go right
into their midst
without them knowing who He was.
As
you might expect, the Jewish leaders were watching
for His arrival. They had plotted His death and planned
that as soon as He arrived they would
quietly arrest Him off
away from the crowds and put Him to
death. They would not
succeed.
The reason they would not succeed is because it
was not yet time for Him to die.
I.
The effort of the Jewish leaders to locate Jesus at the
feast
V.
11, "Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said,
Where is he?" They not only watched for Him personally
themselves, but they had others scattered
throughout the
city watching for Him. If any of their spies should see
Jesus His arrival would be immediately
reported to the
higher authorities. They also inquired among the common
people to find out if any of them had seen
Jesus, but no one
had.
II.
The discussion of common people about Jesus
All
of the hubbub and inquiry about Jesus got the masses
of common people to talking about
Him. It is very likely
that they would have discussed Him some
anyway, because of
the great miracles which He had done back
in
all of this inquiry trying to learn of His
arrival just
stirred up their interest in Jesus all the
more.
V.
12, "And there was much murmuring among the people
concerning him..." The word "murmuring" as used here
does
not mean that they were complaining about
Jesus. Rather, it
means that the common people were very
quietly discussing
Jesus among themselves. Their answer to the Jewish
authorities who inquired of them was
simply, "No, we have
not seen Him." But after the authorities moved out of
earshot, they quietly discussed among
themselves the fact
that the authorities were after Jesus and
they knew that the
authorities wanted Jesus so that they
could make trouble for
Him.
They probably did not know at a that time that the
authorities planned to kill Jesus, but
they surely knew that
they planned to make trouble for Him one
way or another.
(V.
12), "... for some said, He is a good man..." That
is, they said in effect, "We don't
see why they would want
to bother Jesus. Jesus is a good man!" The majority of
people did not yet recognize Him as the
Christ, but they did
recognize that He is a good man. Most of them had not seen
Him perform miracles, but they all knew
about the miracles
and some of them had witnessed them. Many of them could
say, "He performed a miracle on
me. I am one of those whom
Jesus healed." All of these agreed that Jesus is a good man
and did not deserve to be treated as an
enemy by the Jewish
authorities.
Others
even among the common people did not have such a
favorable attitude toward Jesus. (V.
12), "...: others
said, Nay; but he deceiveth the
people." No doubt these
were the people who felt a strong loyalty
the Jewish
leadership. They, like the Jewish leaders, felt that
Jesus
was an imposter. They knew that the majority among the
common people considered Jesus to be a man
sent from God,
but these did not feel that way. They thought that Jesus
was a deceiver who had hoodwinked the
majority of people and
they said so.
V.
13, "Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of
the Jews." Nobody among the common people discussed
their
feeling about Jesus openly. They knew that the Jewish
authorities were after Jesus to make
trouble for Him and
they just did not want to get involved one
way or another.
Those who favored Jesus discussed Him
quietly among the
common people, but they did not say
anything favorable about
Him in the presence of the authorities
because they feared
what the authorities might do to them.
Even
those common people who were unfavorable toward
Jesus did not speak out against Him before
the authorities.
They knew that if they did, the
authorities would likely
demand that they help them in their cause
against Jesus and
they just did not want to be involved. They did not want to
get caught in a struggle between the great
masses of common
who were favored Jesus and the authorities
who were against
Him.
They just wanted to stay out of it altogether.
After
all the searching for Jesus by the authorities and
the quiet discussion about Jesus by the
common people none
of them knew where Jesus was. They did not know for sure
whether or not He had come to
nobody had seen Him and nobody knew where
He was.
III.
The sudden appearance of Jesus in the temple
V.
14, "Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up
into the temple, and taught." All of a sudden Jesus just
appeared in the midst of the people in the
temple. The
feast lasted for a week and about half of
it had already
gone by without any sign of Jesus, but all
of a sudden He
appears in the temple teaching the
people. Nobody saw Him
as He entered the city. Nobody saw Him in the streets
coming toward the temple. Nobody saw Him enter any of the
temple gates. The first the authorities heard about Him was
that He was in the temple teaching the
people.
His
presence was no longer a secret. We can
be sure
that this news swept throughout the city
of Jerusalem like
wildfire.
Soon there was a huge crowd of people gathered
around Him. Great numbers of common people were there.
Many of the Jewish officials were
there. In that crowd He
was safe from the leaders who wanted to
kill Him. They did
not dare to touch Him in a crowd.
There
was no mention of any miracles at this time, but
He was teaching. He was teaching the people the truths of
God.
We are not told the subject matter, but we can be sure
that He was saying something that would
enable them to be
saved if they wanted to be saved.
IV.
The people marvelling at His great knowledge
V.
15, "And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this
man letters, having never learned? The people marvelled at
His teaching. They were greatly impressed that a man who
had no formal education and could know so
much. They knew
that He had not attended any of the
schools of the rabbis.
Yet He spoke with far greater knowledge
than any of the
rabbis.
Jesus
knew their thoughts and what He said would answer
their question. V. 16, "Jesus answered them, and said,
My
doctrine is not mine, but his that sent
me." In effect,
Jesus said, "God is the One who sent
to preach and teach and
what I say to you is from God. God is the One who gave me
this information."
V.
Jesus putting the people to the test
But
what Jesus said to them did more than just answer
their question. It would put them to the test. I talked to
you a couple of Sundays ago about Jesus
putting the twelve
apostles to the test. Now He puts the whole multitude of
people to the test.
Jesus
said to them that His message did not originate
within Himself. Rather it originated from God the Father in
heaven.
What God in heaven says is the absolute truth.
Whatever God says ought to be
believed. It is to be
believed fully without any reservation.
Now
here comes the test. V. 17, "If any
man will do his
will, he shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God,
or whether I speak of myself." Jesus said, in effect, "You
are under no obligation to believe me if I
do not speak the
truth of God. But if I speak the truth of God, you are
under obligation to believe me." Further He said, "If you
want to do the will of God, you will find
out whether I am
telling you the truth or not. If you really want to do the
will of God, you will go to the Holy
Scripture and study
them to find out if I am telling you the
truth. This is
what the church at Thessalonica did about
the Apostle Paul's
preaching and teaching. They searched the Scriptures daily
to see if those things were so.
You
will also go to God, Himself, through prayer, and
ask God to help you to find out if I am
telling you the
truth or not. So if you want to do God's will, you can and
you will find out whether or not I speak
the truth of God."
Jesus
then gave additional evidence that He is from God
and speaks the truth of God. V. 18, "He that speaketh of
himself seeketh his own glory: but he that
seeketh his glory
that sent him, the same is true, and no
unrighteousness is
in him." In all of the things that Jesus had said and
in
all of the miracles that Jesus had done,
He never sought to
take the glory for Himself. He always sought to glorify God
the Father in heaven. He had always sought to lead the
people to follow the will of God. He had never sought
wealth.
He sought only to help the cause of God.
Any
self-seeking man who had the speaking
ability which He had
and had the miracle working power which He
had would have
used those powers to seek to gain wealth,
fame and power for
himself.
But Jesus had always sought only to do good for
the people and to bring glory to God who
had sent Him to the
world.
Now
if any man was interested in finding out the truth
of God so that he could do the will of God
could and would
find out from God if Jesus was telling the
truth or whether
He was just seeking glory for Himself.
VI.
The problem and the answer for the unsaved today
There
is a problem for the unsaved today who wants to
learn how to get saved. The unbeliever is faced with so
many different messages about Jesus Christ
and about God.
The unbeliever is faced with so many
different ideas about
what is necessary in order to go to
heaven. How in the
world can the unsaved know what to
believe? It is a
perplexing situation.
Some
orientals say that there is no heaven.
They say
that after death the spirit just floats
around is some kind
of oblivion. One is in neither bliss nor torment. He just
knows nothing after death. Thus they teach that the best
that one can hope for in the hereafter is
to be in oblivion.
Other
orientals say that the spirit of man returns to
this life again in some kind of
animal. They say that the
kind of animal is determined by the works
that a man does.
If he lives a righteous life, he will come
back as a good
animal, but if he lives an unrighteous
life he will come
back as some bad animal.
Even
in the Christian world, there are some who tell us
that Jesus is not the Son of God. They say that Jesus is an
illegitimate son of a German soldier who
was stationed near
Nazareth.
There
are some who acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of
God but deny that His death on the cross
of Calvary has
anything to do with the salvation of
souls. They say His
death was a tragic mistake. They say that there is no such
thing as blood bought salvation. They say that one's
eternal destiny depends entirely upon his
own efforts and
not upon the saving grace of God through
Jesus.
There
are others who tell us that in order to get to
heaven one must be a member of a
particular kind of
religious denomination. When we lived at Jacksonville, a
man died and the preacher who preached his
funeral told the
family that their loved one would not be
in heaven because
he had not joined the kind of denomination
to which the
preacher belonged.
While
I was at Longview, I personally heard one
prominent radio and television speaker say
something to this
effect: "Some folks tell you that if
you repent of your sin
and trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior
that you will go to
heaven." He said, "I am here to
tell you that there is not
one word of truth to that statement. If you are ever going
to make it to heaven, you have got to keep
the Ten
Commandments."
As
a child, I grew up under the influence of my
grand-daddy, who was a preacher. He preached that nobody
knows whether or not he is saved and going
to heaven. He
said that the only thing that one can do
is to live good and
hope he is in the number that God had
already chosen to go
to heaven.
Now
what I want you to see is that from the human point
of view, it would be extremely difficult
for an unsaved
person to learn how to get saved so that
he can go to
heaven.
In fact, it would seem almost impossible for a lost
sinner to find the truth and know what God
requires in order
to get to heaven.
But
from the heavenly point of view, there is an answer
for every honest inquirer. Jesus said that if one wants to
do God's will, he can know the truth. If one really wants
to know how to get saved so that he can do
what God requires
and get saved, he can know the truth.
The
first thing one must do is to look to the word of
God and let God tell him from the Bible
what is necessary
for salvation. I want you to compare what all others say
about salvation to what Jesus has to
say. In John 3:14-15
Jesus said, "And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be
lifted up: That
whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have
everlasting life." In verse 16 Jesus said, "For God so
loved the world that He gave His only
Begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish but have
everlasting life." In John 5:24 Jesus said, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my
word and
believeth on Him that sent me, hath
everlasting life, and
shall not come into condemnation; but is
passed from death
unto life." In John 6:37 Jesus said, "...him that
cometh
unto me I will in no wise cast
out." One must be willing to
believe what God has to say about the
matter.
Yet
even after being willing to look to the word of God,
there is still one problem. One must allow God to help him
to properly understand what the Bible
says. Even those who
maintain that you have to belong to a
particular
denomination or that you have to keep the
Ten Commandments
or that you have to be baptized or that
you have to take the
Lord's Supper claim to get their message
from the Bible.
But they certainly do not understand the
Bible to teach what
I believe the Bible teaches.
What
I want to point out to you that the lost sinner
should not say, "I chose to believe
what this preacher says
because I like him." That would be a good way to miss out
on heaven altogether. One just might chose to believe the
wrong man.
It is not a matter of believing a man.
It is a
matter of finding out what God teaches and
believing God.
When
the lost sinner is confused about who to believe,
what he needs to do is to go right to the
One who really
knows and ask Him for the truth. He should go right
straight to God and ask God to show him
the way. If he
really wants to be saved, that is what he
will do. He will
not take a chance on being misled by a
preacher, no matter
how sincere that preacher might be. He will go right to God
and depend of God to show him from the
word of God how to be
saved.
If a lost man will do that, he will learn the truth
about salvation. He will learn the truth about Jesus the
Savior.
He
may not get his answer the very instant that he asks,
but he will get his answer. He just needs to be patient and
wait on God and God will give him the
answer. God will help
him to understand the word of God
sufficiently well to learn
how to be saved.
So
it is not really so hard after all to learn the
truth.
Just turn to God with a sincere heart and with a
desire to do what God requires and let God
show you how to
be saved.
Somewhere along the line, God will open up your
understanding so that you will know what
to do. It will
then be up to you to do what God has shown
you that you must
do in order to be saved. It may be during a preaching
service.
It may be in a Sunday school class.
It may be
while you are in bed at night. It may be when you are
driving down the highway.
But
when you do learn the truth, you will then need to
do what God has shown you that you must do
in order to be
saved.
Conclusion:
There
may be someone here this morning whose
understanding has already opened up and
you now understand
that you cannot gain salvation by working
for it. You may
have already learned that you are a sinner
and need to
repent of your sin. You may have already learned that Jesus
Christ is the Savior and that what you
need to do is to
place your faith in Jesus Christ and ask
Him to save your
soul.
If you have already learned this and you are now
ready to do something about it then we
invite you to come
forward during the invitation hymn and
place your faith in
Jesus Christ. Come and ask Him to be you Savior and trust
Him to save you.
There
might also be someone who is already saved who
wishes to come forward in order to commit
yourself to doing
the will of God in your live now that you
are saved. You
may wish to be baptized or to move your
membership to this
church.
If so, will you come?