41

John 7:19-24 JESUS DISCUSSING THE LAW OF MOSES

Introduction:

Jews had come to Jerusalem from all over the land of

Canaan and from several foreign countries to observe the

Feast of Tabernacles. This was an annual event.

The Jewish leaders at Jerusalem had planned to quietly

arrest Jesus and kill Him upon His arrival at Jerusalem.

They had men watching for His arrival and when He did not

show up, they began to inquire among the common people

whether any of them had seen Him.

The feast lasted for a week and about half the week

passed by before Jesus was seen by anyone. When word did

come that He had been spotted, He was already in the temple

teaching the people. A great crowd quickly gathered around

Jesus and the crowd stood in awe at the great knowledge

which Jesus displayed as He taught the people. Because of

their fear of the common people, the leaders did not dare to

lay a hand on Him. They still fully intended to kill Him,

but they would have to wait until some other time when they

could arrest Him somewhat privately.

Jesus explained to the people how He came by such great

knowledge. He explained that His knowledge was not mere

human knowledge. He explained that God the Father in heaven

had sent Him and that God had revealed to Him the things

that He wanted Him to teach and preach.

I. The question which Jesus asked concerning the Law of

Moses

We are not told what subjects He has dealt with in His

speech up to this point. However, we are told that at this

time He began to discuss with them the Law of Moses. He

started out with a question. V. 19, "Did not Moses give you

the law..."?

Now keep in mind that the crowd was made up of four

groups of people. First of all, there were the majority of

the common people with whom Jesus was still very popular.

These were the people who earlier in the week had said, "He

is a good man." Then there were the common people who did

not favor Jesus. In response to those who had said, "He is

a good man" they had said, "Nay, He deceiveth the people."

Some of the Jewish leaders were also present along with some

of the temple employees. Finally, there was a group of

local people from Jerusalem and from the immediate area

around Jerusalem. These were not Jewish officials, but they

were under a strong influence from the Jewish officials.

They were pretty much in agreement with the Jewish officials

in their attitude toward Jesus.

The question was directed to them all. "Did not Moses

give you the law?" The answer, of course, was obvious. Of

course, Moses had given them the law. They took great pride

in the fact that God had given His law to them through

Moses. They also took great pride in their claim that they

had kept the law of Moses. On another occasion, when one of

them approached Jesus asking about salvation, Jesus asked

him about the law of Moses. That man proudly said, "These

things I have done from my youth up." All of the scribes

and Pharisees and almost all of the people of Israel felt

the same way. They most certainly knew that Moses had given

them the Law of Moses and they prided themselves in having

kept the Law of Moses.

II. The accusation which He made concerning the law of Moses

They must have been somewhat baffled that Jesus would

ask such a question. They must have been somewhat stung by

what He said next. (V. 19), "...and yet none of you keepeth

the law..."! Boy! How that must have stung! They would

not hesitate to tell anybody that they had kept all of the

law from their youth up. They prided themselves on having

kept the Ten Commandments and now Jesus tells them bluntly,

"None of you have kept the law! Not one! Not one of you

has kept the law!"

Did you know that this is what lost sinners must realize

before they can ever be saved. As long as a lost sinner

thinks that he is alright in the eyes of God, he will never

be saved. Until he is aware that he is a sinner in the

sight of God, he will never repent of his sin. Except he

repent, he will perish. He will never seek forgiveness

until he realizes that he is a sinner. He needs to know

that he is a lost sinner.

III. Another question which He asked which involved the law

of Moses

Without waiting for a response from the people, Jesus

continued. (V. 19), "...Why go ye about to kill me?" One

of the Ten Commandments says, "Thou shalt not kill."

That means, "Thou shalt not commit murder." Yet that is

just exactly what had been planned for Him upon His arrival.

The Jewish leaders had planned to murder Jesus.

Jesus wanted the common people to know what their

leaders had planned for Him. He wanted to expose them to

all of this great crowd of people. But He wanted more. He

wanted each and every one of them to realize that he is a

sinner and that he needs to be saved. Jesus wanted these

people to be saved. He was willing to save even the leaders

if they would just repent and trust in Him for salvation.

So He had accused them all of breaking the Law of Moses.

Now let me ask you a question? How do we usually

respond when somebody accuses us of something? We usually

respond by accusing them of something. Don't we? Instead

of answering the accusation made against us, we hurl an

accusation right back at them.

IV. The response of the people to His accusation and

question

That is what the people did with Jesus. He had made an

accusation against them and so they responded by making an

accusation against Him. V. 20, "The people answered and

said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee?"

The Jewish leaders, knew who was trying to kill Him.

Most of the local people in and around Jerusalem knew who it

was that was trying to kill Him. However, most of the

people from distant places did not know. They were in the

dark about the plan to kill Him and most likely they were

the ones who spoke up denying that anybody was trying to

kill Him. Those who did know just kept silent or joined in

with the others denying any effort to kill Him.

I suspect, also, that it was some of those people who

already thought that Jesus was a deceiver who made this

accusation against Him. They said, "Thou has a devil!" I

cannot imagine that this came from any of those who looked

with favor on Jesus.

V. An earlier incident concerning the law of Moses that had

turned the Jewish leaders against Jesus

V. 21, "Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done

one work, and ye all marvel." Jesus was directing this

statement especially to the Jewish leaders and to all others

who had joined forces with those leaders. He was talking

about an event which had taken place at Jerusalem during an

earlier trip their. Back in John chapter 5 we read about

Jesus healing a man at the pool of Bethesda. He had healed

a man who had been afflicted with a disease for 38 years.

What had angered the Jewish leaders was not that He had

healed the man, but that He had healed him on the sabbath

day. They contended that Jesus had broken the Law of Moses

by healing on the sabbath. This was one of the reasons they

were so determined to kill Jesus was because He had healed

this man on the sabbath day. They thought that He was

worthy of death because He had healed on the sabbath day.

They thought that He had broken the Law of Moses.

VI. The fallacy in the thinking of the Jews about Jesus

V. 22, "Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not

because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the

sabbath day circumcise a man." Jesus pointed out that those

same Jews who accuse Him do something very similar on the

sabbath day. They circumcise on the sabbath.

The law of Moses, which gave the law of the sabbath in

the Ten Commandments, also gave the law of circumcision. It

was not one of the Ten Commandments, but it was in the law.

Circumcision had originated earlier and had been given to

Abraham long before the law of Moses was given. But when

Moses gave the law, he also gave the law of circumcision.

The law of Moses required that a male child be

circumcised on the eighth day. Many times the eighth day

fell on the sabbath day. So when the eighth day fell on the

sabbath they circumcised on the sabbath. What Jesus was

pointing out to them was that if He broke the sabbath by

healing a man on the sabbath, then they also broke that same

law by circumcising on the sabbath. V. 23, "If a man on the

sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of

Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I

have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day?"

Jesus pointed out to them that they were not judging Him

fairly. V. 24, "Judge not according to the appearance, but

judge righteous judgment." If what He had done was breaking

the law of the sabbath, then what they were doing on a

regular basis was also breaking the law of the sabbath.

They were not judging Him fairly.

VII. The thing that Jesus is most interested in today

But the thing that I want to point out to you is that

Jesus was interested in more than just getting those people

to judge Him fairly. The number one thing that Jesus had

come to this world to do was to save sinners. The main

thing that Jesus wanted to accomplish was the get these

people to realize that they were sinners. They were lost

sinners. They were guilty before God and they needed to

repent of their sin. They needed to repent of their sin and

trust in Him for the salvation of the soul.

That is just exactly what Jesus is chiefly interested in

today. Jesus is very much interested in our worship service

here today. Jesus is still interested in people knowing

that they have sinned against God so that they can turn to

God in repentance and be saved. That is why the Bible

states so clearly that we have all sinned. In Romans 6:23

the Bible says, "For all have sinned and come short of the

glory of God." That lets us know that none of us have kept

the law of Moses. None of us have kept the Ten

Commandments.

A lot of people still say that in order to get to heaven

you must keep the Ten Commandments. But the truth of the

matter is that those who say this have not kept the

commandments themselves.

In order for a man to get to heaven by keeping the Ten

Commandments he must first keep them. He must keep them all

from start to finish. He must never in all his life break

one of the commandments. And there is just not a man on

earth who keeps them. The only man to ever keep them was

Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus kept the commandments,

but nobody in all the whole history of mankind has ever kept

them.

So what Jesus is interested in today is that you

recognize that you have sinned against God, that you repent

of your sin and that you call upon Him and trust Him to save

you from your sin.

Conclusion:

If there is anybody here today who is aware that he

needs to be saved, I am going to ask him to turn to God and

confess that you are a sinner. I am going to ask you call

on Jesus Christ who can save you from your sin. I am going

to ask that you call on Him now in this service and get this

matter settled while there is time.

Furthermore, if there is some saved sinner here today

who wishes to come and get your life straightened out with

God I am going to ask you to come. If you wish to unite

with this church and give your life in service to God, then

I am going to invite you to come.