42

John 7:25-31 OPPOSITE REACTIONS TO JESUS

Introduction:

Not everybody today believes that Jesus is the Christ,

the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Not everybody who

will acknowledge that He is the Savior has trusted Him as

Savior. A lot of folks are bitterly opposed to the very

idea of Christianity. That is the way it was in the time

which we study about here in the gospel of John.

I. The situation which Jesus faced in our text

As the time approached for the annual observance of the

Feast of The Tabernacles the Jewish leaders at Jerusalem

plotted to kill Jesus as soon as He arrived. They planned

to catch Him before He got into the crowds because they were

afraid to arrest Him when the crowds were around. Jesus was

still very popular with the majority of people and the

Jewish leaders were afraid that they would be mobbed and

killed if they arrested Jesus in the midst of the crowd.

The feast was to last for seven days and Jesus did not

show up until about the middle of the week. When He did

show up He was in the temple right in the midst of crowd of

people before the leaders knew anything about it. The crowd

quickly got bigger when the news spread that Jesus was

there. They were all the more afraid to bother Him there in

the midst of such a huge crowd of people.

There had been contrasting opinions about Jesus even

before He arrived. Everybody knew that the Jewish leaders

were trying to locate Jesus because the leaders had been

inquiring about Him for several days. They were asking if

anybody had seen Him. The people may not have known for

sure that they planned to kill Him, but they surely must

have known that they intended Him no good.

When the leaders were not around the great masses of

common people talked about and the majority of them could

not help but wonder why the leaders would want to make

trouble for a good man like Jesus. They said, "He is a good

man."

Yet there was a minority group, even among the common

people, who were not at all favorable toward Jesus. They

said, "No, He deceives the people."

But when Jesus showed Himself He was already in the

temple in the midst of the people and nobody dared to touch

Him.

In our text last Sunday He discussed with them the Law

of Moses. He inquired whether or not anybody knew that

Moses had given them the Law of Moses. Of course, everybody

knew that Moses had given them the law of Moses. If they

knew about the Law of Moses, they surely did not show it by

their actions. He said, "None of you keep it." He asked

them, "Why then are you trying to kill me?" The Law of

Moses forbid them to kill and if they knew about the Law of

Moses why were they trying to kill Him? Some of the people

in the crowd, who were opposed to Him responded and said,

"You have a devil! Nobody is trying to kill you.!"

Jesus then reminded them that the reason the leaders

were against Him and were wanting to kill Him was because He

had healed a man on the sabbath day. He also reminded the

people that the leaders would circumcise on the sabbath, but

they wanted kill Him because He healed on the sabbath.

I. The reaction of some of the local people toward Jesus

V. 25, "Then said some of them of Jerusalem..." These

were people who had not come from distant places to

Jerusalem for the observance of the feast. These were

locals who lived there at Jerusalem. They were very

strongly under the influence of the Jewish leaders and were

very much in agreement with the Jewish leaders. Now, I

hasten to say that surely not all the locals felt this way,

but these who spoke up were very much opposed to Jesus.

(V. 25), "...Is not this he, whom they seek to kill?"

These people knew full well that the leaders were trying to

kill Jesus. They were not at all surprised at that nor were

they opposed to it. They were just puzzled as to why the

leaders made no effort to arrest Him or even stop Him from

speaking publicly.

V. 26, "But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say

nothing unto him..." They thought surely the leaders would

arrest Him instantly, but they didn't. They thought the

leaders would at least interrupt Him and stop Him from

teaching in the temple, but they didn't. They just stood

there in the crowd and quietly listened and this puzzled the

people.

(V. 26), "...Do the rulers know indeed that this is the

very Christ?" That is, "Have the rulers changed their mind

and decided that this is the very Christ of God?" They were

very much surprised and puzzled by the silence of the Jewish

leaders.

V. 27, "Howbeit we know this man whence he is..." The

word "Howbeit" carries the idea of "However." They said,

"We wonder if the rulers have decided if this is really the

Christ. They said, "However, we know this man whence He is.

We know that He was born in that little old hick town of

Bethlehem. They thought that the promised Christ would take

over the throne of Israel and be the king of Israel. They

could just not imagine anybody from Bethlehem taking over

the kingdom and ruling the nation of Israel.

Furthermore, they knew that He had not only been born in

the little town of Bethlehem, but He had lived in the city

of Nazareth in Galilee. Nazareth was a city with an

exceptionally bad reputation. Even the good man, Nathaniel,

back in chapter one, when Philip told Him that Jesus of

Nazareth is the Christ had said, "Can any good thing come

out of Nazareth." They just could not imagine anybody from

Nazareth being the King of Israel.

Still yet, these people knew that Jesus had grown up in

the home of a mere carpenter and was a carpenter Himself.

They just could not imagine a carpenter becoming the king of

Israel.

There was one more objection. (V. 27), "...but when

Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is." They somehow

had gotten the idea that when the Christ did come, that

nobody would know where He had come from. They thought that

He would just mysteriously show up among them and that

nobody would know where He had come from. They said, "We

know where this fellow came from. Regardless of what the

leaders say, this man cannot be the Christ. Even if the

leaders have changed their mind, we cannot believe that this

man is the Christ. According to secular historians, there

were a goodly number of Jews who held to this idea. This is

the position that some of the leading rabbis held to and a

goodly number of the common people believed them.

This is what some of the people of Jerusalem were saying

and this is, no doubt, what some of the others from other

areas were thinking. This is exactly that some of the

people had said back at Capernaum six months earlier.

Perhaps you will remember that it was about six months

earlier when a great crowd of people had gathered at

Capernaum in preparation for going to Jerusalem for the

Passover that Jesus fed a multitude of people with five

loaves of bread and two fishes. The people were so amazed

at such a miracle that the people wanted to take Him by

force to Jerusalem and crown Him as king. However, the next

day when they heard Him teach in the synagogue at Capernaum

they turned against Him. They said exactly the same thing

that these residents of Jerusalem were now saying. They

said, "We know this man, who He is and where He is from. We

know His parents. This man cannot possibly be the Christ."

V. 28, "Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught,

saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am

not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye

know not." Jesus responded quickly and loudly. He cried

out so that all could clearly hear His response. He cried

out also so that they could know how strongly He felt about

what they had said.

Let me paraphrase what He said and put it in our

East-Texas language. Jesus said, "Yes, that right. You do

know where I came from physically. You know that I was born

in a little town. You know also that I grew up in a city of

very bad reputation. You know that I grew up in the home of

a carpenter and that I was trained to do the work of a

carpenter. But what you do not know is who sent me. You do

not know that it was God the Father in Heaven who sent me."

Let me stop right here long enough to say that those

people knew who He was talking about. When He talked about

somebody sending Him, they knew that He was talking about

God in Heaven. That is was stung. Because He followed up

by saying that they did not even know God. They knew that

He was claiming that God had sent Him, but He said that they

did not know the Person who had sent Him. They did not know

God. V. 29, "But I know him: for I am from him, and he hath

sent me."

V. 30, "Then they sought to take him: but no man laid

hands on him, because his hour was not yet come." That is,

they tried to figure out a way that they could successfully

lay hands on Him. It mattered not to them whether or not

the Jewish leaders still wanted to take Him and kill Him.

Even if the leaders had changed their minds about Jesus,

these people had not. They were still very much against Him

and wanted Him out of the way. They wanted Him dead.

II. The reaction of some who held a favorable view of Jesus

But, thank God, that is not the way that all the people

felt about Him. The great majority still felt that He is a

good man. Out of that majority of people who thought that

He is a good man, a great prophet whom God sent, there were

some who were now persuaded that He was much more than just

a good man. In their view, He was much more than just a

prophet of God. V. 31, "And many of the people believed on

him..." That is, they now believe that He is the Messiah

whom God had promised. They accepted Him as the very Christ

of God. They were now saved. This is just exactly what

Jesus had come to this world to do. He had come to seek and

to save those who are lost in sin.

(V. 31), "...and said, When Christ cometh, will he do

more miracles than these which this man hath done?" They

recognized that the miracles which Jesus had done were in

keeping with the miracles which had been predicted in the

Old Testament that the Christ would perform. The Old

Testament Scriptures said that He would cause the blind to

see, the lame to walk, the dumb to speak. These were

exactly the kind of miracles that Jesus had performed. What

more could He do to show that He is the Christ? They were

now fully persuaded that Jesus is the Christ.

I want you to consider how joyous an occasion this was

for those people. All their lives, they had heard of the

coming Christ. They must have wondered if there was any

possibility that He would come in their life time. Now He

was here. Now they had seen Him with their own eyes. Now

they had accepted Him into their own hearts. Now they were

saved by His mighty power. What a day of rejoicing this was

for these men, women, boys and girls who trust in Jesus as

the Christ that day.

What a day of rejoicing it was for Jesus. This is what

He had come into the world to do -- to seek and save that

which was lost. This is the reason that He would go to the

cross and give His live so that people could be saved.

Thank God that not all the people rejected Jesus as the

Christ. Thank God that some believed in Him and were saved.

III. The same opposite opinions of Jesus today

Today the gospel of Jesus Christ goes out to the world.

There are still a lot of unsaved people in the world that

have a hostile, bitter attitude toward Jesus. There are

still those who think that Christianity ought to be

abolished. There are still those who think that Jesus is

not the Christ.

But, thank God, not everybody has a hostile attitude

toward God and toward Jesus. Thank God that not everybody

has a hostile attitude toward the Bible and toward

Christianity. And yet a lot of those same people are still

unsaved. Some of them, like King Agrippa, are almost

persuaded to believe in Jesus but they have not yet

altogether believed. If they are ever going to be saved,

they must do more than have an absence of hostility toward

Jesus. They must fully believe in Him as the Son of God.

They must believe in Him as the God sent Savior. They must

trust in Him to save them from their sins and keep them out

of the fires of hell. They must call on Jesus and ask Him

to make sure that they make it to heaven.

Conclusion:

There may be somebody here today who really wants to go

to heaven who knows that he is not worthy of going to

heaven. Is that true? Is there somebody here like that?

Is that somebody you?

I have good news for you. You do not have to deserve to

go to heaven. What you do have to do is to repent of your

sin and ask Jesus to save you. You have to trust Jesus to

saved you. You have stop trying to save yourself and let

Jesus save you. Will you come this morning and trust in

Jesus Christ to save your soul?

If you are already saved and you wish to come and give

yourself in service to the Lord, will you come and lead the

way?