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Intro
I have been in all of one fight in my life, and it didn’t go my way.
It was 5th grade on the blacktop basketball court during recess.
Matt Frenkel and I went toe-to-toe over who knows what, and the next thing I knew I was on the back with the breath knocked squarely out of me.
In our passage this morning, Jesus is going to show us what it looks like to fight, as he steps up, toe-to-toe with some of his greatest adversaries.
Jerusalem and the Temple Mount
Body
Last week we saw Jesus’ brothers exhorting him to go up to the feast with them, to make his grand entrance, and to do more miracles in order to gain a bigger following.
In John 2 we had seen Jesus’ mother entreat him to act when the wine ran out at a family wedding.
And in both of these circumstances, Jesus responded by telling them that his time had not yet come.
With the brothers, it appears that it had to do with the inevitable conflict that awaited him in Jerusalem going all the way back to John 5 when Jesus had healed the man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath.
After a brief exchange between Jesus and the Jews, John provided this bit of commentary for us...
So Jesus knew what would happen if he went back to Jerusalem.
He knew that the Jews were still upset and still looking for ways they could destroy him.
So he didn’t go with his brothers at that time.
But later we read he went up privately (John 7:10), and now our passage this week opens with him going up into the temple to teach!
Jesus wasn’t avoiding the Jews because he was afraid.
Jesus was not shying away from his opposition out of a fear of what they might do.
Jesus wasn’t going up to the feast in private because he wanted to avoid an uncomfortable situation.
Rather, Jesus, following the Father’s lead and will, was in perfect control of his circumstances every step of the way.
P1: See God’s Plan Unfolding in His Timing (v.
14)
We talked about this a little bit last week.
“God’s never early, but he’s always on time.”
And we talked about our need to trust his unfolding plan and to wait on his timing.
Now I want to pivot a bit to focus on those times we see that plan unfold before our very eyes.
Illustrate: How I got to Compass
When God gives us these moments to look back at the events of our lives and to see how he was in control the whole time even when we weren’t sure, it is a great source of comfort and confidence for us.
Think about Daniel 9 for a minute.
In Daniel 9, the prophet launches into a grand prayer of national repentance.
He confesses the sins of his people and pleads for the mercy and forgiveness of God to fall on them in spite of their sin.
But what brought that prayer about?
Daniel was reading about what God had told Jeremiah the prophet he planned to do with his people, and it involved 70 years of exile.
Guess what was fast approaching at the time Daniel prayed in Daniel 9? Israel was nearing the end of those 70 years.
So Daniel prayed, asking that God would do as he had prophesied through Jeremiah and to return the people to the Promised Land.
But what gave Daniel such confidence to pray this way?
Think of everything Daniel had seen God do in his life.
Think of all those times Daniel had witnessed the perfect plan of God unfolding right before his eyes.
Do you think that helped him pray with confidence and boldness in Daniel 9, trusting that God would once again work his perfect plan according to his will and his time?
What have you seen God do in your life?
Think of some of the times you have looked back and seen God’s perfect plan unfold in your life.
Sometimes it’s looking at past events, but other times we see it happening in real time.
Illustrate: How God has orchestrated this church plant
Jesus was not hiding or holding back, and he was never out of control of his circumstances.
He was always walking in perfect accordance with the unfolding plan of his Father.
And whereas it was not his plan for him to accompany his brothers to the temple when they asked, the time for Jesus to reengage his opposition had arrived.
END P1
We don’t know what Jesus was teaching in verse 14, but it was enough to cause a stir
“marveled”
This may seem like a good thing, like in Mark’s gospel when it says that the crowds were amazed at Jesus’ teaching, but unfortunately this wasn’t that kind of marveling
This word will show up later in our passage in John 7:21 where Jesus says, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it.”
The word means “astonished” or “astounded.”
Illustrate: Have you ever been driving and seen someone driving along the shoulder in heavy traffic just to get ahead?
The Jews marvel and take a shot at him grumbling among themselves: “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”
They’re incensed at the audacity of Jesus taking such an authoritative role and position!
This time, Jesus stood toe-to-toe and answered his opposition.
Though they grumbled against Jesus, he held fast to the reality their problem was ultimately with God if they took offense at him
This was no new message from Jesus.
He was holding firm to the notion that he was from God, and thus his teaching was from God.
This was both an encouragement to his followers and a veiled indictment against the Jews.
To believe Jesus was to believe the Father.
Jesus didn’t need a pedigree boasting the top Jewish rabbinical schools.
He didn’t need a resume of having served in the finest of synagogues.
He wasn’t interested in self-exaltation the way the Jews were.
He was instead there to exalt the Father.
P2: Recognize God as the Source of the Gospel (vv.
15-18)
Islam, Mormonism, Hinduism, Buddhism…Do you know what all of those have in common?
They’re all works-based religions that trace their origins back to a human being.
The Koran was produced by Muhammad over multiple years after he claimed to receive its contents while in a drug-induced trance.
The Book of Mormon was produced by Joseph Smith after he claimed to have found golden plates containing its contents.
These other religions come from the minds and thoughts of men, and what’s interesting is the best we can come up with whether Muslim, Mormon, Hindu, or Buddhist, is “try harder and hope you’ve done enough.”
We preach a gospel that says we can never do enough.
We preach a gospel that says it’s not possible for us to move toward God.
We preach a gospel that says that Jesus did enough.
We preach a gospel that says that God came to us.
When the world despises us for what we believe, we must remember that they are not attacking our wisdom, they are not attacking our best guess about the afterlife, they are not undermining our intelligence.
You don’t need to second-guess or feel shaky about your resolve.
The message we follow is from God, delivered through this book, to us.
When Jesus was asked for his resume, he simply pointed to the Father.
Our confidence in the gospel is not a confidence in a philosophy or religion developed by men.
It is a confidence in the message of God delivered to us through the Son of God.
END P2
Here Jesus goes on the offensive.
Their obsession with the law of Moses was going to prove to be the foundation of his indictment against them.
Having just deflected their efforts to hear his earthly pedigree, Jesus now pulled the curtain back on their true motives and desires.
Jesus was a threat to their system.
He was a threat to their authority and their power.
He was a threat to their status, their position…their glory.
And so great was their vitriol against him that they were ready to kill him!
Jesus:
Jesus: “Remember chapter 5?”
Then he continued calling out their hypocrisy...
Circumcision was supposed to be done on the 8th day of a boy’s life (Lev 12:3)
If that day fell on the Sabbath an exception was made to the command to rest in order that the boy might be circumcised.
Jesus hadn’t just cared for a single part of that man’s body but the entire body, and they were angry enough to kill him for this?
The Jews had such a superficial understanding of the Scriptures that they missed the real point.
They had missed Jesus because they hadn’t understood what he was doing.
Their hostility was blinding them.
So here, Jesus urged them to look deeper.
This is where we can learn from our Savior.
It’s easy for us to call out hypocrisy and to condemn our opponents.
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