The Conflict Begins at the Feast of Booths

Well, thank you for your singing. If you'd open up your Bibles to John chapter 7, please. To the Gospel of John, chapter 7. It's always nice to be back after missing. Being here, you always realize how awesome your church is whenever you're gone, so it's always good. So it feels good to be back here.

We are, Lord willing, going to cover verses 1 through 24 this morning in John chapter 7. So let's read the text and we'll go to our Lord in prayer. John chapter 7, verse 1. After this, Jesus went about in Galilee. Jesus would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of booths was at hand.

So his brother said to him, leave here and go to Judea that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come, but your time is always here. the world cannot hate you but it hates me because i testify about it that its works are evil you go up to the feast i'm not going to this feast for my time has not yet fully come after saying this jesus remained in galilee but after his brothers had gone up to the feast then he also went up not publicly but in private the jews were looking for him at the feast and saying where is he and there was much muttering about him among the people while some said he's a good man Others said, no, he's leading people astray.

Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. About in the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews then therefore marveled, saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? So Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but it's his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking on my own authority.

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true. And in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? The crowd answered, You have a demon.

Who's seeking to kill you? Jesus answered them, I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision, not that it's from Moses, but from the fathers, and yet you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. So if on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well?

Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. Let's pray. Oh, Father, help us, Lord. Help us now to grab hold of your word and respond rightly, Lord. So often we're so burdened and heavy laden with distractions and stray thoughts. I just pray, God, that you would help us now by your spirit to focus our hearts and minds upon your word, to grab hold of it, Lord, and to be convicted of it and to be encouraged and to be led to look closer to Jesus Christ, the Lord. help us, God, to have the faith and trust in his promises that the Spirit works in us to know and understand the truth and worship in light of the truth.

And we know it's only possible because of the good work that Jesus has done, dying on the cross and rising again on the third day, conquering death, conquering sin, and giving us that victory as we put our faith in him. So let us celebrate that. Even now, as we look to your word, let us be amazed and overwhelmed that we can actually pursue you in a way that is pleasing to you because of the good things Christ has done for us.

Lord, we thank you. We praise you. Let us rejoice in you now. In Jesus' name, amen. So I'm not a big fan of contemporary Christian music. radio stations of contemporary music. I think there's like three around here.

And I'll just turn it on for like a week straight. Indeed, there will be, but God uses it for his glory. But here, as we look at the text, we look at the beginning of that conflict. Really, what we're looking at at chapter 7 is we're seeing the setup of the great conflict that we're going to see at this Feast of Booths that's going to last three chapters.

And with the setup of this conflict, we're going to see something that's very important for us to grab hold of. Is that Jesus knew when to go into conflict and he knew when to avoid conflict. That as we can say that there's going to be conflict, we can also say that there's a time to avoid conflict. That we don't like conflict just for conflict's sake.

And so there's a ditch on either side and Jesus shows us how to take that middle path. And we see that as the preparation for this great conflict. It happens here in the early chapter 7. We'll see Jesus treading that line knowing when to take the conflict and when not to go into conflict, which is going to be helpful for us. But then as we see that happen as a preparation for the conflict we see the tension before the storm begins And then we see the unleashing of the conflict later on in this text And in that we going to see really the start of this conflict and the heart of it So let begin Let see these things play out Let look at the preparation for this conflict that we see before us in chapter 7.

This conflict is going to last these next three chapters. Let's see the preparation for it here in verses 1 through 10. And again, I want you to notice how Jesus is not afraid of conflict, but he knows when to avoid it as well. Look at the text again. Look at chapter 7, verse 1. After this, Jesus went about in Galilee.

Now, what does it mean? What does John mean when he says after this? Well, after this means after what happened in chapter 6, of course, and that was when Jesus fed the 5,000. Jesus fed the 5,000 in the north. And we see that that was during the Passover feast. During the Passover feast, Jesus stayed in the north.

He didn't go into Jerusalem. He stayed in the north and he fed the large crowd. Now, why didn't he go to the Passover feast? It's a very common thing for everyone during these great feasts to go into Jerusalem. Well, why didn't he? Well, we see in in chapter 7, verse 1, why he didn't.

The text says he would not go into Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. And so the reason why Jesus would not go into Judea is because the Jews, and when you see Jews there, that is the Jewish leaders, that is the religious leaders of the Jewish system, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, those guys, they wanted to kill Jesus. There was great conflict between Jesus and these religious leaders, and they wanted to kill him.

And if you notice, throughout the beginning of the Gospel of John, we heard kind of like the rumblings of a storm throughout. You know how like when there's a big storm, we're about to experience a big storm here in 7, 8, and 9, and 10. And when that big storm is coming, the first beginnings of it, you'll hear like the rumblings in the background, right?

You'll hear the early rumblings. And we have heard that in the Gospel of John, the early rumblings of a conflict brewing that's going to come in tuition here in 7, 8, 9, and 10. And this is what John is referring to here, is that these Jewish leaders were seeking to kill him. And so Jesus was staying in the north. Remember, this began, this kind of early rumblings of this conflict began earlier in John after the feast of the Passover.

Remember the beginning of Jesus's ministry, probably the first or second year, you had a feast of the Passover. And what we see from John at the conclusion of this Passover feast, after he talks to Nicodemus, if you look in chapter 4, verse 1, now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize but only his disciples, he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. So we see that the Pharisees saw that Jesus was getting popular.

And so at the very beginning, they didn't like his popularity. they hated it and so they started to hate Jesus and this conflict actually starts growing the thundering starts getting a little bit louder as the storm is coming whenever Jesus goes to another feast after this time period and he heals a man on the sabbath day in chapter 5 of John if you remember that this is another feast afterwards and he heals a man on the sabbath day and if you remember how they responded to that conflict in chapter 5 verse 16 John says and this is why the Jews were seeking to persecute Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath but Jesus answered them my father is working until now and I am working this is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was even calling God his own father making himself equal with God so there we see the rumblings getting louder right The Jews are actually now at this point, the religious leaders are wanting to kill Jesus. It's getting worse and worse. And so here in chapter 7, a couple years later, we have Jesus avoiding the Passover feast because they're trying to kill him.

And we have now, a couple months later, something going on where he's staying in the north, but something happens here in verse 2. Now the Jewish feast of Booth was at hand. And so again, there's another time where everyone is supposed to go to Judea. Everyone's supposed to go to Jerusalem. Everyone's supposed to go where the religious leaders are who hate Jesus.

And usually what would happen is when these feasts come up, everyone would get together as a town. They would get all ready as a town, and they would leave for these feasts as a town. But here, Jesus seemingly isn't getting ready with everyone else. Seemingly, again, he's already avoided the last feast because the Jews are trying to kill him. And now the Feast of Booths is coming, is at hand, and he's not getting his stuff together.

He's not packing his bags. He doesn't look like he's going with his family or anyone again. He looks like he's avoiding Judea again. And his little brothers have an issue with this. In verse 3, his brothers, you see in verse 3, those are his blood brothers. Those are his little brothers.

They said to him, leave here and go to Judea. You've got to imagine, they're thinking, why aren't you going to Judea? Why aren't you going south? You didn't go for the Passover. You stayed up here around a bunch of hick people for some reason. And here you are, you're about to not go again.

What's the deal here? They're saying, go down there. Go to the feast. There would have been a ton of pilgrims. They're saying, go down, leave here, and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly, if you do these things, show yourself to the world.

It actually makes a lot of sense what they're saying there, right? Jesus is doing amazing works. He's doing amazing miracles. He's doing things to help people out. He's healing diseases. He's feeding people.

He's doing amazing things. And Jesus brothers are thinking man if you were to do this in Judea you would get a massive following You get a massive crowd much bigger than up here So it really good business sense right Go to where people want your goods. If I had like a snow shovel, there it is, a snow shovel, let's say it's AI-powered and it can just do the work by itself, right?

And it's cheaply made, I can make it cheap. It'd be silly for me to sell it in Brazil, wouldn't it? I wouldn't get much business. So I would have smart people say, hey, why don't you go up to Ohio and sell this? It's cheap and it does great work. This is really what Jesus' brothers are saying.

They're saying, why don't you go to Judea and do these things? You're going to make it big. You're going to make it big. But then we get a commentary from John, which is very helpful. We get the commentary in verse 5. It says, for not even his brothers believed in him.

You see, what John is saying there, is he's saying that Jesus' brothers did not believe Jesus who he was and what he came to do. See, in their mindset, Jesus came to not have conflict with the world. He came to really edify the world and not contradict it, not make a stir, not create any controversy, just help them out, give them food, give them healing.

They'll love you for it. It'll be great, right? And this is what they believe Jesus came to do. They were not believing who Jesus was and what he came to do. He did not come to not bring conflict. Jesus came to bring conflict.

And they were not believing that. And the reason why that's important to label there is that you know Jesus was teaching. You know that his brothers were around his teaching. And you know that he taught this. But they didn't want to hear it. They just wanted to hear, hey, you're doing great things.

Go down to Judea. Do that and build a huge crowd. but they did not believe who he was and what he came to do and Jesus underlines this in verse 6 when he says he said to him my time has not yet come but your time is always here what he means by that is it's always right for me to go down to Judea and get a huge crowd the time is always right for that if Jesus all he ever came to do no conflict just help people out the time is always right go and do it there's no issues but you see Jesus didn't come to simply again confirm people he came to bring conflict to people. And so what he's saying is that there's a certain time and place for me to go in public down to Judea.

And what he says in verse 7, he says, the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You see there Jesus is saying that the world cannot hate you because you don't work against the world. You're for the world. You're fine with the world. You don't work against it. But he says, my purpose to be here, the whole reason why I'm here, is to testify against the world.

Therefore, the world hates me, so I can't just go willy-nilly down to Judea anytime I want. You see, because Jesus had great conflict with the world, with the religious leaders, he couldn't go down to Judea anytime he wanted. But notice how he says that there is a time and place to do it. Notice how Jesus says that his time isn't yet here. And so what Jesus is saying is that there will come a time where it will be appropriate for me to publicly go down to Judea.

It will happen, it's just not right now. And what is Jesus referring to there? Well, he's saying that when I go publicly to Judea, it will be to die. It will be to speak against and testify against the world and its evil, and to actually receive that evil, and to die for evil people. And we see this, real quick, it's worth looking at. Go to John chapter 12 real quick.

Go to John 12. This is when Jesus and his hour has come to publicly go down to Judea. And this is the triumphal entry. If you notice in chapter 12, verse 12, the next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard, this is the feast of the Passover, this will be six months from now, from where we're at in seven, heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. right there's a public display where his glory is revealed right just like his brothers wanted so they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him crying out hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord even the king of israel and jesus found a young donkey and sat on it just as it was written fear not daughter of zion behold your king is coming sitting on a donkey's you can imagine his brothers would be like that's more like it you're going publicly everyone knows it now do your thing and you're going to get a huge crowd it's going to be great it's going to be wonderful but then notice jesus says uh and again in chapter 12 notice he says uh we're going to have to skip a little bit to 23 jesus said the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified so the hours come to be glorified right but will his glory be to affirm the the world to give the world what it wants and get this huge movement and crowd no absolutely not and he says that in verse 31, he says, now, look at verse 31, he says, now is the judgment of this world, now will the ruler of this world be cast out, and I, when I'm lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

The point I want to get at that here is that there is a time where Jesus would publicly go to Jerusalem, but it was not for any other purpose but to be in conflict with Jerusalem, in which he would be murdered by Jerusalem, in which he would actually use that to then overcome evil. And this is what Jesus is getting at back at our text in chapter 7. His brothers are saying, go, go there.

And he's saying, I am in conflict with the world. And he says in verse 7 again, the world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. Everything Jesus did was to testify against the evilness of the world and to die for the evilness of the world by receiving that evil. And so he's saying, I can't just go whenever I want.

Instead, I rely upon what my father has told me. He would go six months later and be murdered by the world And so with that in mind he tells them in verse 8 you go up to the feast I not going up to this feast for my time has not yet fully come Again six months he be there but not today, he says. So after this, he remained in Galilee. So his brothers, disappointed, of course, finally, you want to stay up here in Hicktown and have no following?

Go ahead and do that, right? So they gather up their stuff and they leave with the town, but Jesus stays behind because he knows that his time is not yet. But notice in verse 10, after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, but it wasn't publicly, but in private. So a lot of people get heartburn over this. Is Jesus lying? He just said, I'm not going up to the feast.

And all of a sudden, he goes up to the feast. Some people think that Jesus just changed his mind. He's like, ah, maybe I will go up to the feast after all. But I think it's really important to see what John is saying. He's saying he didn't go up publicly. Jesus says, I'm not going to go up publicly because it wasn't his time to receive the hatred of the world and be murdered by the world yet because the world hated him because he spoke against it.

But he's saying he is. He didn't say it out loud. He is saying, I will go up privately, though. I will go up privately in a way in which I will not receive the murder from the world because there'll be a surprise to them. So when we read in the text, Jesus say, I'm not going up to this feast. He means I'm not going up publicly with you.

But yet he always had a plan to go up privately. And so there we see Jesus. He knows when to confront. He knows when to have conflict and when not to. He knows that going up in public will bring that kind of conflict that the father wasn't ready for yet. But notice Jesus was ready to go up and have conflict, going up privately, to have conflict with the religious leaders that we're going to see in 7, 8, 9, and 10.

So Jesus knew when to have conflict. He knew when not to have conflict. And there Jesus makes sure that that great conflict of his death wasn't going to happen, but he would be able to confront the world and speak of it against it and have that kind of conflict that we're going to see in 7, 8, 9, and 10. And it's really helpful for us. There's times in which we need to embrace conflict as Christian people, and there's times in which we need to know when to avoid it, is what we're learning from Jesus here.

And so that is really the start of the preparation of the conflict that's about to happen before us. And next, what we see here is kind of a transition into the beginning of the conflict. And really, when you read 11 and 12 and 13, this transition period, it's kind of like, you know, again, it's like a coming storm coming in which there's going to be all this arguing and fighting, right?

And there's this coming storm, and this is kind of like the transition, where it's kind of like that calm before that storm begins, right? If you think about it, when you know a big storm is coming, right? You see it on the radar, a big storm's coming, and then all of a sudden you'll notice everything gets kind of quiet around you, and there's like a weird, I don't know, like a brownish or maybe like a greenish hue around, right?

It's very eerie, isn't it? It's a very eerie feeling. And here we have Jesus comes privately to the feast, and then we have like a calm before the storm that's about to happen, in which there's great conflict between religious leaders and Jesus. And it's like that moment where it's like a calmness, but it's an eerie, very eerie calmness before it. So let's read that in verse 11.

The Jews then, remember Jesus privately went up, so they don't know he's there. The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, where is he? And there was much muttering about him among the people, while some said, he's a good man. Others said, no, he's leading people astray. Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. So there we see the religious leaders.

Again, when you see the Jews, most of the time it's the religious leaders. And notice what they say. They say, where is he? And this isn't like, man, where is he? I really want to get his autograph and say hi to him. This is like an angry, where is he at?

Because again, what are they wanting to do? They're wanting to kill Jesus. And so they have these plans to kill him. And they're saying, where is he? He's not coming with the normal Galileans. And they had some kind of plan to take him out.

And so when you see the Jews say, where is he? They're saying, where is this guy at? So we can get him and fulfill our plan to kill him, right? So there's the religious leaders, what they're saying before this conflict starts. And then notice that there's this differences of opinion that we'll see in this great conflict narrative of 7, 8, 9, and 10. There are some people that say he's a good man.

And others said, no, he's leading people astray. And it's like they want to talk about it. They want to discuss this Jesus figure, this guy who says he's Messiah and everything, these great claims, but yet we see in verse 13, no one really talked about for fear of the Jews who spoke, I'm sorry, yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. So it's a tragic thing really, is that the Messiah is here and there should be joyful conversation about it, that this man has come to fulfill the law and the prophets to fulfill the promises to Israel.

And instead what you have because of the religious leaders that hate Jesus, you have a bunch of muttering and quiet talking about it. You have a bunch of people want to talk about it, but it's kind of low-key, and people are just kind of whispering, instead of joyfully saying, what are these things that Jesus has brought to us? And so it's kind of like a weird tension in the air.

You could feel it, right? It's a weird calm before the storm. Nothing's happening yet, but yet you know there's a tension. Everyone wants to talk about it, but there's a big hush on it. Kind of like at a holiday meal when your parents, if you grew up with non-Christian parents, especially when you know that they are very angry at each other, right? And they're fighting at dinner.

And it's supposed to be a joyful time, but yet you know that if anyone talks, there's probably going to be mayhem. And that's kind of the feeling here, right? Is that they're saying, where is this Jesus? The crowd want to talk about it, Hush, hush, and it's just kind of a strange, weird calm before the storm is about to go off. And then all of a sudden, the storm goes off.

Why? Because look at what happens in verse 14. About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. And so now, just imagine, that's like the biggest boom, and now it's off to the races. The conflict has begun, right? The setup has been there, and now here it is.

Jesus goes up to the temple and begins to teach. Now you can think in your head, you're like, why? Jesus was just worried about his life. Concern. Let me say concern. Concern for his life there.

And he doesn't even go to the feasts in public because of that. But now all of a sudden he's happy to go in public and teach. What gives here? It can be kind of confusing. But notice how it says that he, in the middle of the feast, he then goes and he teaches. This feast is a week long.

And so we're looking at three days later, Jesus then goes up to speak publicly. And so at first, the Jewish leaders are like, where is he at? Let's get him. Three days go by, and it's kind of like, hush, hush, don't talk about it, a weird, eerie feeling. And then Jesus uses that opportunity to then go up and teach. And what we're going to see later on in this chapter are the religious leaders are going to try to grab him.

But it seems like their plans are just kind of half-baked, because they weren't expecting Jesus to just show up halfway, and their plans are going to fail. And so it seems like Jesus knows that now I can go up and teach. Their plans of getting me right away can't happen. And so this half-baked plan of trying to get me in the middle of the feast isn't going to work.

And so he's free to go up, teach, and then let the conflicts come. Does that make sense? That's what's happening here. Jesus, in the middle of the feast, goes up and he begins to teach. And now what we're going to see for the next three chapters is not the conflict of Jesus dying on the cross. That's going to come the next feast, the Passover feast.

What we're going to see is Jesus teaching, and the religious leaders constantly arguing with him over and over and over again. But again, I want to highlight that even in that, even in that incessant conflict that we see that Jesus brings, there is a display of who Jesus is and what he's came to do that is actually highlighted in this great conflict that we're going to see over and over and over again. Jesus knows when to have conflict.

Jesus knows when not to have conflict. And here Jesus goes up full well knowing that this is about to bring a huge thunderstorm of a conflict, but yet it is for the good of his people, it's for the glory of God. He goes up and he starts to teach. Now in verse 15, the Jews, therefore, again, when you see the Jews, think of religious leaders, they marveled, saying, how is this man, how does he have learning?

When he has never studied. Now, you should read it. I didn't even read it right there. I think I read it better when I first read this text. This isn't like, man, how is this guy so well learned? This is amazing.

That's not the kind of marvel that is being said there. Marvel, the word marvel that you see there is a very neutral word. So therefore, it could be a positive marveling, but it also could be a very negative marveling. It depends on the context. and the Jewish leaders are not positively marveling at Jesus saying, wow, this guy's amazing, isn't he? They're not saying that.

They're angry. They don't like him. Basically what they're saying is, how does this guy know his letters or know anything when he's never had learning before? And so it's a certain sense where they can see that he has ability to teach, but what they're saying is it's not an ability from God, it's an ability from himself. How can he know anything when he's never really learned from the divines, from the religious leaders?

You see what's being said there. They're marveling at the fact that he is speaking like this and drawing a crowd, but he's saying that it comes from his own authority, his own power, his own understanding, because he's never received the proper learning from us, is what they're saying there. So they're accusing Jesus of being a teacher that is rooted in his own authority outside of God.

And they're saying that this man cannot have proper learnings since he didn't learn it from us. Saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? He never been to seminary so to speak And what we see the way Jesus responds to here at the very beginning of this conflict that going to last we going to see the very heart of this conflict And that is that Jesus is who he says he is from God And the reason why people don't receive that is because they don't have a motivation to glorify God.

And it's very important for us to understand that at the beginning of this conflict, that there's a reason why people do not believe Jesus. And it's not because Jesus isn't from God, it's because they do not have a motivation to glorify God. That is the very heart of the conflict that we're seeing on display. In fact, that's the very heart of any kind of conflict that Jesus brings to the world.

It is a, anyone who has conflict with Christ, it is because they do not want to glorify God above all else, but they want to glorify self. And this is what Jesus says. In response to what they say, he gives the heart of the conflict. He answers them, my teaching, in verse 16, is not mine. but it's his who sent me. Basically what he's saying there is he's saying, I'm not some rogue guy who's never studied and just had my own thoughts and opinions, like you want to say I am.

What he's saying is, I am from the Father. The Father has sent me, and the teaching is directly from the Father. What Jesus is saying is, I am the Father's son, and I came to directly give teaching from him to you. And if that's true, if Jesus is truly sent from the Father as the divine son, it would be most inappropriate for him to go to human learning, human seminary from these religious leaders, wouldn't it?

If Jesus is truly God, he does not need man to teach him the things of God. It would be actually inappropriate for him to do that. And that's what Jesus is saying here. He's saying who he is. He's saying, I am a man who came from the father. I'm sent from the father to give you these teachings directly from the father.

So quite contrary to what they just said, this guy is a rogue. He's saying, no, I am sent from the Father himself. And then he says that you can receive his teaching as truth, but it's a condition that you seek God's will first, or you seek God's glory first. Look at verse 17. He says, if anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true and in him there is no falsehood. Jesus is very getting very much getting to the heart of the conflict here. So all the arguing, all the fighting that we're about to see, it all comes down to do you want to glorify God above all else or not?

And if this religious leaders, if they wanted to glorify God above all else, they would see the son coming from the father and they would see his teaching. They'd say this is Messiah. This is who we've been waiting for? Here he is. But what he's saying is, and what he's saying is, is positively speaking, if that is your goal, you will see that I am truly sent from the Father.

But the problem, the conflict, why there's conflict, is because the religious leaders did not desire God's glory above their own. They desired their own glory. And so this is what Jesus then goes on to say. He then goes on the attack and he says, you do not seek the glory of God first. That is the issue here. The conflict that I come and bring is because you don't desire God's glory.

You desire your own. And this is what he goes on to say. And when he goes on the attack against them, he says in verse 19, has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? Basically what he's saying is, you say that you're the teachers of the law.

You're saying that I need you're learning in order to be counted credible you don't even keep the law you don't even know the law what does he mean by that though when he says that has not Moses given you the law yet none of you keeps the law why do you seek to kill me what is he referring to there well if you remember in chapter five this was a couple feasts ago this is a bit ago now like a year I'm forgetting the time frame but this is a while ago the last time he was in Jerusalem during a feast you remember he healed a man on the sabbath you remember that in chapter five and they wanted to kill him for it We already went over that with the brewing of the storm, right? They wanted to kill him for that. And what he's saying is, why are you seeking to kill me contrary to the law of Moses?

Why are you seeking to murder me contrary to the law of Moses? He's saying, you think that you are a teacher? You think I need your teaching in order to be legitimate? You don't even know the law of Moses. You want to contradict the law of Moses You want to kill me You want to break the commandment to murder me is what he saying there He says you not keeping the law Why do you seek to kill me Now, he gets interrupted in what he's trying to say here, and the point that he's trying to make, that they're not trying to glorify God at all.

In verse 20, the crowd answered, you have a demon. Who's seeking to kill you? So notice the difference there. We're not talking about the religious leaders now. It's the crowd that answered that. So the crowd would be people, pilgrims coming in from all over the world to worship during the Feast of Booths, right, in Jerusalem.

The crowd would be, because we'll notice another group of people, that is the people from the city. And so when John says the crowd, he most likely is referring to people, pilgrims from all over coming to worship. And these people all over coming to worship, they are saying, you're crazy. You have a demon. No one's trying to kill you. What are you talking about?

Now, they're not going to know the inner politics going on here. In fact, we'll see later on, not today, but we'll see later on that there's people in the city saying, aren't they trying to kill this man? And yet here he is teaching. So the people in the city know that the religious leaders are trying to kill him. But the people without, the crowds, they're saying, you're crazy.

No one's trying to kill you, even though they surely are. And then he goes on to continue what he's saying in verse 21. Jesus answered them, I did one work, And this is going back to what he's saying. Contrary to the law, you're trying to kill me. And this is what he's referring to by how they're breaking the law. He says in verse 21, I did one work and you all marvel at it.

Moses gave you circumcision, not that it's from Moses, but from the fathers. And you circumcised the man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a whole man's body well? So there Jesus is getting to the heart of their reasoning skills.

And he's saying that you wanted to kill me because I did one work on the Sabbath and made this man whole, wholly well. And you're saying that I'm working on the Sabbath and I deserve to die and I need to be killed. And what he's saying is you circumcised a man on the Sabbath to make him well, so to speak. And so if a man should be circumcised on the Sabbath to be made well, doesn't it make sense that I would make him fully well like this on a Sabbath?

And so if you do not get mad when someone gets circumcised on the Sabbath day, why would you get upset if I make a whole body well on the Sabbath day? He's saying it makes no sense that you would be angry and want to kill me. So the question is, why are they angry and why do they want to kill Jesus? It is not because he's breaking the law. It is not because he's going against Moses. is because they hate the glory of God and they see Jesus as uplifting that as against their own glory and they want to kill Jesus because of it.

That is essentially what Jesus is saying. He's saying that this whole conflict between me as Jesus and you religious leaders is because you hate God and you hate his glory. So when I come to glorify him by making a whole person's body well on the Sabbath, you absolutely hate it and you want to destroy me. So at the beginning of this conflict, Jesus is getting at the heart of the conflict, that the religious leaders hate God's glory.

And so whenever someone comes and reveals it, shines a light on it, it goes against their own glory and they have a murderous rage against it. And so again, we go back. Jesus says, if you had the glory of God on your heart and mind, you would believe me. But the fact is, is you don't. And it's revealed in the fact that you're trying to kill me for making a whole person well on the Sabbath, even though you dress it up as me breaking the law of Moses, which is not true.

So he concludes what he says with, do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. He says, do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. There Jesus is saying is don't just look on the outside and quickly come to a conclusion, but consider. Think about it a little deeper and you'll see that you are completely wrong and you have ill motives.

That your reasoning is not good. So he says think about it consider it and judge rightly and you see that you are wrong and I am right and so there with the beginning here the first several verses we get the start of this and what we going to see moving forward is we going to see jesus proclaim who he is as truly from the father and then we're going to see what he provides to the people that comes to him but then surrounding this in the next few chapters as he does this we see all this conflict that the religious leaders hate what he says and fights against them in light of what he says but yet god uses that to shine a light to who Jesus is and what he has came what he's come to do so we need to understand that there's time for conflict we cannot be like um the the so easy to fall into like any kind of conflict is bad like any time where we're having to argue or go back and forth it is a bad thing but we also got to see Jesus how he knew when to avoid it and he knew when to enter into it. And it's important for us to see, again, the heart of a conflict.

Whenever you are at conflict with someone, whenever you are defending Christ to someone, you need to understand that there is a deeper rooted issue at play here. That when they deny the things of Christ, when they deny his teaching, when they say different things that are not true about him, you need to understand what's actually at play here, is that they hate the glory of God, and they want their own glory. And that's essentially what sin is.

Sin is a desire for my own glory to be on display, for my own way and not God's way. And so whenever that gets confronted with someone who is not changed by Christ, they hate it and they want to work against it, even whenever their line of reasoning does not make any sense. And that is what's going on here with the religious leaders, and that's what's going on with the world.

So in conclusion, we need to be in conflict. We need to know when to be in conflict. And really that conflict with the world, that conflict with the sinful system, that conflict with glorifying self over glorifying God, that starts within our own hearts. If you're not in conflict within your own heart that I would want to glorify myself over God and I need to repent and I need Jesus who can heal me from this.

If that doesn't start within your own heart, you surely will not conflict well with the world. We will conflict with the world and pride like a keyboard warrior. So that conflict with the world needs to start within your own heart. As you fight sin, as you fight your own pride, you fight your own glory, and you say all glory belongs to Christ. And then we need to recognize that it is rightful for someone who claims Christ to then go to the world and be in conflict with the world.

As we proclaim their evil, but also the one who has taken on evil upon himself and can eradicate the evil if you'd only believe upon him, turn away from such pride and believe upon Christ Jesus. That is the way we conflict with the world. Let us pray. Oh God, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for the good things that he's brought. Lord, if he were to come and never be at odds with the world, we know that we would not have salvation.

We know, Lord, that if Christ came and never spoke against it, we know that there would be no healing. We know, Lord, that the greatest conflict he had with the world is when he was murdered by the world. And we're so thankful that by his murder, by his death, he has rose again, and we can have, because of that, our own evil vanquished. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to recognize our own evil, our own desires for our own glory, and we would see our need for Christ Jesus the Lord. who would see our need, Lord, not to fight against Christ and his teaching, but rather to submit ourselves to him.

And I pray that as we do that, we would see the way that Christ conflicts, and we'd see the way he enters into conflicts. We see he knew when to avoid it, but he knew when to go up and teach in the temple and invite it. But we know that wasn't so that he can have conflict for conflict's sake, but instead so that he could tell the world of their evil and tell the world they need to rely upon him to have their evil forgiven. and vanquished.

So I pray that we would learn, we would know, we would see when it's appropriate to follow in Jesus' steps to do the very same thing. And we would do it in the same way that Jesus did. We would see the heart of it, the heart of the matter. And we would learn how to be a faithful witness to Christ and to God, to this world. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen.