The Jesus Verdict
John 7:1-24,
After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers believed in him. 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After saying this, he remained in Galilee.
10 But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 11 The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” 12 And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” 13 Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.
14 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” 16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 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. 18 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. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” 20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” 21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 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? 24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (ESV)
Hey brothers, man, am I excited about the Gospel of John. It’s my hope that throughout this series, our attention will keep coming back to John 20:31, which reads: “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.
The point of John’s gospel, in other words, isn’t just believe, full stop, then go on with your life. Rather, the point is “have life” in him. The point is new life, abundant life, life even now leading to eternal life in, with, and for him. Believing, in other words, is not the end, but the means to real life in Jesus.
Well, it’s been a while since our church was last together in the book of John. In fact, the text message that I just read to you was one that I received from one of the other pastors back in December of last year, just prior to us first starting out in this series through John.
Since that point, we, as a church, have been the glad recipients of much of John’s eye-witness testimony of Jesus, up to the end of John chapter 6. And that testimony includes:
The fact that Jesus is God. John 1:1,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
And, as God, Jesus also became man. John 1:14,
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
And, as the God-man, Jesus came here, John 3:17, “[not] to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Saved in the sense of John 20:31 — the receiving of life, having life, in Jesus.
We want that life, Cities Church. More than we want food in our stomachs, or air in our lungs, we want that life, that true life, that real life that can only ever be found in Jesus. But, we didn’t always want it.
See, because John has also shown us John 1:10, that though Jesus “was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.” And that, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” And that, “This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people [just like you and me] loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”
And it’s that last part — the fact that people, comfortable in their sin and content to dwell in darkness, didn’t like being exposed by the light’s entrance into the world — that Jesus is getting at here in John chapter 7, and most obviously verse 7.
It’s there where, talking with his brothers, Jesus says,
“The world cannot hate you, but it hates me [it hates me. The world that was made through me. The world that I uphold by the word of my power, the world that I love and came to save, hates me] because I testify about it that its works are evil.”
I testify to the world that they are not in the light, but darkness. That they are not basically good, but sinful. That they are not in right standing before God, but active rebellion to him.
I tell them this because it’s true. I tell them this because I love them. I tell them this because they are all, every last one of them, on a train bound for Hell and I want them to get off of it. I left Heaven to come and tell them this, and they hate me for it.
Cities Church, friends who are visiting with us this morning, we must take care how we hear Jesus. In this text, Jesus is going to expose our darkness and show it to us in four different ways. These four ways can either serve as four more reasons to hate Jesus because we prefer our darkness, or they can serve as four more opportunities to recognize the darkness yet remaining in us and turn from it in order to pursue even greater intimacy with Jesus.
So, with that, let’s pray together once more…
So, four marks of darkness. And they offer four opportunities to recognize it in ourselves and turn from it. Those four include: Un-belief, self-will, law-breaking, and wrong-judgment.
1. The Evil of Unbelief
Look with me at verse 2:
Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 So his brothers [as in, his biologically related brothers] said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing.”
Works like turning water into wine in John 2, healing an official’s son in John 4, feeding the 5,000 in John 6, and then walking on the water in John 6. It’s works like those that Jesus’ brothers are saying, “Go, that your other disciples will see them to.”
And it’s difficult to tell what exactly their motivation is. But from the context, I’d argue that it’s something along the lines of desire to maintain a following — maintain popularity. After all, if you look back with me to John 6, you’ll see that just prior to this moment, Jesus’ ministry had taken quite a hit in terms of numbers. Following the feeding of the 5,000 — Jesus had upped-the-ante by calling himself the Bread of Life. He then upped it again by saying,
“Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before!” (John 6:61-62)
And for many of Jesus’ followers at that time, well, that was just too much. Verse 66 reads,
“After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”
Imagine being the sibling of the guy who draws thousands. Till, suddenly, you’re the sibling of the guy who now only draws hundreds. Well, regardless of the brothers’ motivation, their word to Jesus is essentially “Jesus, get back into the limelight.” Verse 3,
“Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.”
And now, if it weren’t for John’s comment in verse 5, we’d likely just dismiss these words as relatively harmless. Perhaps well-intentioned, but a bit misguided. As it is though, John jumps in and tells us flat out. Verse 5,
“For [as in, the reason they said this to Jesus, was because] not even his brothers believed in him.”
Do you see the unbelief of the world present in Jesus’ own brothers?
And now, to clarify, I don’t take “not even his brothers believed in him” to mean the brothers didn’t believe anything about him. Like, didn’t believe Jesus was anything other than a completely ordinary guy without any special qualities whatsoever. I don’t think that’s what John is saying here.
Rather, I think he’s saying that the brothers’ unbelief matched that of the crowd’s back in chapter 6. Look back with me at John 6:14 for a moment. Chapter 6, verse 14. You can see that the crowds there called Jesus a prophet, right? That’s a big claim. To call someone a prophet is to declare this is a person who speaks the very words of God.
And, in fact, they were so impressed by this prophet that they even wanted to make him king. In John 6:15, it tells us that they were even ready to make him king by force if they had to. So clearly this crowd believed Jesus was special.
They believed he was an unusually impressive, and godly person. But, did they believe he was the Bread of Life? Did they believe he’d ascend back into heaven? No, because when Jesus said he would, they left! They believed some things about Jesus, but those some things had a limit. And, for them, Jesus had just hit it.
Friends, the fundamental question that we must all ask ourselves — the question that ultimately separates those who belong to God from those who don’t — is not whether we believe some things about Jesus, but whether we believe Jesus and what he says about himself.
He says he is the Son of God sent from heaven. He says he is the giver of eternal life who himself has existed eternally with the Father.
Do we believe him? His brothers didn’t. The crowds didn’t. Do we? Do you?
First mark of darkness and evil: unbelief (Jesus, I don’t believe what you say about yourself).
Well as we can see in verse 8, Jesus will deny his brothers’ request. He’ll hang back in Galilee for a bit longer. And in verses 10-13, we’re given a brief look into how Jesus was being perceived in that moment by the crowds in Jerusalem: “He’s a good man,” or “He’s leading the people astray.”
Importantly, we’re also told in verse 10 that Jesus does end up going to the feast, but not in the way his brothers wanted him to. In fact, verse 14 shows us that he doesn’t even appear till halfway through the feast.
And this is where the table is set for our second mark of darkness: Self-will. And here we’ll begin to pick up the speed a bit.
2. The Evil of Self-will
Look there with me, verse 14:
About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews 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 his who sent me.”
And now, the litmus test. Jesus is going to give a litmus test and, spoiler alert, everyone’s going to fail it... Everyone.
See it with me, verse 17:
“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.”
In other words, “You’re confused about where my teaching comes from, yes? Well, here’s how you can know whether my teaching comes from God or not. Ready for it? You must will what God wills.”
Again, verse 17:
“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.”
Of course, no one in that crowd knew whether his teaching came from God or not. Which of course means that no one in that crowd actually willed what God willed. You see it? Their lack of ability to understand Jesus, to hear and recognize the Divine origin of Jesus’ words, betrayed the fact that God’s will was not their own.
That’s the second mark of darkness — self-will. Living a my will, not thy will life. A life that says, “hey, listen God, I call the shots here. You can help me with the pains of life. You can be my therapy. You can be my provider. I’ll let you do those things. But I steer.”
It’s self-will. And as you can see in this text, it blinds people from knowing Jesus. It makes it impossible to find life in Jesus. Self-will is self-destructive because it creates a wall between you and Jesus’ teaching. Jesus says you will not understand the unique authority of my words till your will conforms to God’s.
So we have (1) unbelief, (2) self-will, and here’s the third mark: Law-breaking.
3. The Evil of Law-breaking
Jump with me down to verse 19:
“Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law.”
That’s quite the sweeping statement.
“…none of you keeps the law.”
None. He’s addressing a massive, festival-sized crowd, packed in like sardines to the Temple courts of Jerusalem. And he’s saying across the board, with no exceptions, no outliers, “…none of you keeps the law.”
And if you are familiar with the Bible, you’re probably not surprised by this. From the Old Testament to the New, the Bible is consistent in terms of what it has to say about mankind on our own.
Psalm 14:3, says,
“There is none who does good, not even one.”
Jeremiah 17:9,
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick;”
Romans 3:23,
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
1 John 1:8,
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,”
The Bible is clear — no one, by nature, keeps the Law. We know this from the Bible, and if we’re honest, we know this from our lives. Sure, the way we like to say it is “I know I’m not perfect” but the fact is, that means we’re sinful. That means we’ve fallen short.
The fact that we’re sinful and break God’s Law is no small thing. It is the reason we’re here rather than Eden. It is the reason many are headed to hell, not heaven. Our standing before God’s Law is of eternal consequence.
Now, if those in the crowd weren’t convinced, Jesus goes one step further. Verse 19:
“Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”
You know they are seeking to kill Jesus, right?
John 7:1 says they’re seeking to kill Jesus. Here, verse 19 says they’re seeking to kill Jesus.
In verse 13, the crowds are so aware of the murderous intentions of the religious leaders they don’t even want to be caught with Jesus’ name in their mouths. And going all the way back to John 5:18, John notes,
“This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him.”
You don’t follow the Law. You think you do. You even think you do while you simultaneously plot my murder. Third mark of worldliness: law-breaking.
Now, fourth and final mark of worldliness: Wrong Judgment.
4. The Evil of Wrong Judgment
Now, think back to what happened in chapter 5 because it’s going to come up again here. Back there, in chapter 5, Jesus healed a man who’d been paralyzed for 38 years. He healed him with words: “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
The religious leaders did not celebrate that moment. Rather, when they saw the man walking with his mat, they said, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” Can you imagine? Wow, today is the best day of my life. I’ve been healed by a miracle. Look, my legs work! Look, my hands work! Look… and then all of a sudden, “Put your bed down. How dare you carry your bed on the Sabbath.”
And now, just to clarify, you can check your Old Testament. There is no such Law from God saying you couldn’t take up your bed on the Sabbath. Jewish rabbis came up with that rule. It was man’s rule, not God’s rule. And, here, Jesus is saying it was a bad rule. Why?
Well, judge for yourself. Chapter 7, verses 22-23. Again, the idea here is wrong judgment. John 7:22-23,
“You circumcise a 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 man’s whole body well?”
Jesus asks, are you angry with me? I gave the ability to walk to this man. The ability to swing his arms, turn his hands, go from one place to the other without having to be picked up and carried there. That man could now work. Could make money. Could buy a home. Could make a life for himself. And you’re angry at me for telling him to pick up his bed?
Look, we need to be so careful here because, to us, this looks just so obvious… “How foolish of those religious teachers? How dull did they have to be?” We read this and envision ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with Jesus rolling our eyes along with him, saying, “can you believe it?”
But, here’s the thing, we are the religious leaders in this scene. We are those who get things wrong.
We make wrong judgments.
We put up laws where there are none.
We disregard and ignore where there are laws.
We are not, by nature, good judges when it comes to life, when it comes to Law.
Even as believers, we can read some of the things Jesus said and did and think, “Man, if that’d be me, I’d not have done it that way… Not have been as patient here. Not have been as direct there. Not have waited for three days. Not have left to go to the next town. Not have spent time up in Galilee. Not have sat down with prostitutes and tax collectors.
And we would not have done it because often we’re simply judging things by outward appearance, just calling things as we see them. That’s what Jesus is saying in verse 24:
“Do not judge by appearances.”
Don’t simply look at the outward form of something and go from there. Don’t judge through the eyes of the world, but through Jesus’ eyes. Through the lens of Scripture. Judge, verse 24, “with right judgment.”
Cities Church, we have to humble ourselves here. We have to recognize our need, our incredible need, for God to take us by the hand and show us through his word by his Spirit with the help of godly counsel, how to judge. We need his direction. This is why we ought to pray more often than we do:
“Father, Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
God, you do all that is right in glory. Do it here, through me, in this world. Use me, use us, to assess the world in the way you’d want us to.
So there’s four marks, four assessments of the darkness yet remaining in us. And these four, of course, relate directly to the baptismal waters out in front of me.
I Believe Jesus
In baptism, we say, “I believe what Jesus tells me about himself. I confess he is the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and the Giver of life eternal.”
In baptism, we say, “My self-will is no more. It’s gone down into the waters. It’s been buried. I follow God’s will for my life. I obey him including his command to be baptized in his name.”
In baptism, we say, “I am a breaker of God’s Law. I’ve sinned. I need forgiveness. I must not be clothed in my own righteousness — I have none. I must have Jesus’ name put upon me. I must have Jesus’ righteousness cover me.”
And, in baptism, we say, “Jesus, you are the one who can make my whole body, even my soul, well. And you’ve seen fit to do so in a way I’d not expect. In a way I’d not, of my own accord, judge as right — by sending your Son to die in my place and allowing me to receive forgiveness not by my own working, or earning, but by believing in yours for me.
In just a moment, five individuals will come to proclaim this belief.
Let’s pray…
