John 7:25-36 - The Crowd Can’t Decide - The Mysteries of God's Word

A murder plot is already circulating in Jerusalem and somehow Jesus is still teaching in public. That contradiction sparks the question we lean into today: if the religious authorities think He’s a fraud, why can’t they stop Him and what does that reveal about who He is?

We’re in John 7:25-36 at the Feast of Booths, where the the thoughts of the crowd are split. Some wonder if the leaders quietly know Jesus is the Christ. Others dismiss Him because they think they “know where He comes from.” We unpack how that argument works, why a popular tradition about the Messiah’s mysterious origins shaped public opinion, and how familiarity can become a mask for spiritual blindness. Knowing details about Jesus’ life isn’t the same thing as knowing Him.

From there we follow Jesus’ own words as He presses the issue: He did not come on His own, and the Father who sent Him is true. That takes the debate from hometown facts to divine origin, the relationship between Jesus and the Father, and the gospel claim that to know Jesus is to know God. We also explore the line “his hour had not yet come,” the failed attempts to arrest Him, and why His signs lead many to believe.

If you’ve ever felt torn between opinions, pressure, and the pull of truth, this passage will meet you there. Subscribe for more Bible teaching, share this with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway or question.

Transcript

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Welcome And Scripture Setup

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Grace and peace to you. Thank you again for joining me for the mysteries of God's Word. Today we are in John chapter seven, and we will begin at verse twenty five. If you were with me last week, Jesus showed up about the middle of the feast, and that was the feast of the booths, and he began teaching at the temple. Shortly after he began, he was confronted by the Jewish leaders about how he could have such knowledge when he'd never formally studied. And Jesus went on to confront them, teaching them where true knowledge comes from, and to make right judgments, not to judge just by outward appearances. Picking up in verse twenty five of that same chapter, some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly,

The Plot Becomes Public

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and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the authorities really know he is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from. And when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. Here in verses twenty five through twenty-seven, that the plot to kill Jesus was becoming known publicly. The people in Jerusalem knew about the plot. And Jesus boldly teaching in public and calling out these religious leaders for their hypocrisy really began to make people question just who Jesus was. They're asking, do they know that he is the Christ? There was great debate and there was conflict amongst the people at this feast. Some believed he was the Christ. Others believed he had a demon and was a false teacher. But the question in everyone's mind was why are they not arresting and silencing Jesus if he's really a fraud? Could it be that the religious leaders do believe that he is the Christ? The scripture does tell us that some of the rulers like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea did come to believe. That tells us that there must have been at least some debate and confusion even amongst the leaders of the Jews. One of the arguments that was often leveled against Jesus being the Messiah was that people knew him. They knew him his whole life. They knew his earthly father Joseph, and they knew his earthly mother Mary. His father was a carpenter who lived in Nazareth and was known in the region of Galilee. The scriptures only reveal the birthplace of the Messiah to be in Bethlehem, and there was a tradition that had developed amongst the Jews that the Messiah would suddenly appear, that his origins would be unknown, and he would suddenly bring salvation to the nation of Israel. The Jewish leaders, of course, were quick to point out that they knew Jesus and they knew his father. They were using that tradition to try and destroy Jesus' credibility. As I pointed out last week, if they would have investigated the matter with due diligence, they would have discovered the virgin birth and the incarnation. Picking up in verse twenty eight, so Jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple You know me and you know where I come from, but I have not come of my

Jesus Claims His True Origin

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own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me. In verses twenty eight and twenty nine, Jesus responds with more teaching, and as he teaches, he addresses their concerns about knowing him and knowing where he comes from. But this statement Jesus says is a little bit sarcastic. Some translations actually render the statement, you know me and you know where I am from as a question, rather than a statement, because these words stand in direct contrast to what Jesus says later when he says, You neither know me nor my father, because if you knew me, you would also know my father. While the people knew where Jesus was from in an earthly sense, they were blinded to his true origins. And Jesus is calling out this superficial knowledge of him, and he is declaring his true origins. Jesus says, I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true. Here Jesus begins to declare his divine origins and his relationship with the Father. But then Jesus says Him you do not know. These Jewish leaders thought they were so spiritually minded and spiritually oriented, but Jesus is telling them you don't know the Father, because you don't recognize that I am from the Father. As Jesus has said many times, I and the Father are one. To know Jesus is to know the Father. As Jesus says in verse twenty nine, I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me. Jesus speaks about the foreordained plan of God to send his only Son into a rebellious, condemned world, to reveal the nature and truth of who the Father is and bring salvation to all who would believe. This is the eternal covenant between God the Father and God the Son. The Son of God came to do the will of the Father, and to show mankind the exact representation of the Father, sacrificing himself in our place for our sin. Picking up in verse thirty. So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in

His Hour Has Not Come

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him. They said, When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done? We see in verse thirty that they're looking to arrest Jesus. There were actually multiple times during the ministry of Jesus that the enemies of Jesus sought to put an end to what they considered blasphemy and false teaching. However, God the Father was always sovereignly in control, and he kept the enemies of Jesus from touching him until his ministry on earth was complete. As it reads, because his hour had not yet come. Jesus often spoke of his hour or his time, which he used to describe the Passion Week and His crucifixion. And at this time in Jesus' ministry, many people were believing. The crowds themselves were divided. Many wanted to arrest Jesus, but yet some genuinely came to believe in him as the Messiah. Throughout all of history there has always been a remnant of believers that existed amongst the crowds. People were saying, When the Christ appears will he do more signs than this? In the Old Testament prophecies, the Messiah was expected to be a prophet like Moses, to perform many miraculous signs. Jesus had already healed the sick, driven out demons, he had fed the five thousand. Clearly, the Messiah could not do greater signs than Jesus was doing. And we learn later in the Gospel of John that one of the main reasons for Jesus performing miracles is so that people would recognize him as the Messiah. John chapter twenty, verses thirty through thirty one read Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Picking up in verse thirty two. The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.

Rival Leaders Unite Against Jesus

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In verse thirty two, the crowd, wondering if this might be the Christ because they're not arresting Jesus, prompts the chief priests and the Pharisees to send officers to arrest him. Just a little note on the chief priest and the Pharisees. Historically, those two groups, the chief priests and the Pharisees, don't get along. Most of the chief priests were Sadducees, and they were the political and religious opponents of the Pharisees. You could consider the Pharisees the hard right and the Sadducees the far left in the Jewish political system. Yet here in the Gospel of John, we see them repeatedly linked together out of their mutual hatred for Jesus. Both of these groups, the chief priests and the Pharisees, feared those who were putting their faith in Jesus as the Messiah, because they were leaving the Jewish traditions behind. They wanted this put to an end. So the Jewish leaders sent officers to arrest Jesus, so that the people would again begin to respect them and not him. However, as we will see, their attempts will be unsuccessful because his hour has not yet come. In verse thirty three we pick up Jesus then said, I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me, and you will

Seek Him Before It’s Too Late

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not find me. Where I am you cannot come. The Jews said to one another, Where does this man intend to go that we can't find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion amongst the Greeks and teach to the Greeks? What does he mean? You will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am going you cannot come. In our last four verses for today Jesus says I am going to him who sent me. Jesus speaks of his future ascension into heaven. Jesus is saying that he will return to the place from which he came, the right hand of the Father. This is a prophecy to the unbelieving Jewish nation that they will one day long for and weep for their Messiah. The time to believe on Jesus for salvation is today, but there will come a time when it is too late. Jesus says where I am you cannot come. Jesus says this because unbelievers cannot come to heaven. Unbelievers die in their sin, and they are sent to eternal punishment. The Jews, of course, do not understand this. They see things only in terms of the flesh. They mock Jesus, asking if he's going to go amongst the dispersion amongst the Greeks, which simply meant, are you going to go outside of the Jewish people? Are you going to go to the Roman Empire and beyond? But my friends, seek Jesus while he can be found. Trust on him. Believe on his name for eternal life. For if you confess him as your Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Thank you for joining me today. And God bless you this week.