14 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15 The Jews therefore marvelled, 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.”
As we continue with John 7, Jesus is now in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles, and He begins to teach in the temple. We are not told specifically what He taught, but we do know that it was full of Godly wisdom. The people were amazed that someone who had grown up in His father’s carpentry shop, and had no theological training, had such a deep insight into the Scriptures.
The tragedy is that the people rejected Him and the religious leaders continued in their quest to have Him put to death. This brief account of Jesus’ teaching at the temple shows us why the Jews did not receive Him, and also teaches us what is necessary if we are to understand our need to accept Him and His teaching.
To the scribes and Pharisees, it was unthinkable that a man who had not passed through their education system could have such a deep insight into the Word of God. They refused to accept that Jesus was who He claimed to be, but they could not deny His understanding of the Scriptures. They said in verse 15, “this man has learning.” They could not deny what they had heard, but in their determination to reject Him outright, they refused to listen to Him.
The people asked the question among themselves in verse 15 - “How is it that this man has learning, when He has never studied?” They didn’t ask the question to Jesus directly, but He answered them anyway. “My teaching is not mine, but 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 am speaking on my own authority.” (John 7:15-17)
Jesus’ answer was important, because He continued to assert His authority. When He said “My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me,” He was not denying His divinity. Instead, He was making the point that His teaching was direct from God, who had sent Him into the world. Any time that we faithfully and Biblically share the true Gospel message, we are doing the same. The message is not ours, and it is not up to us to modify or tone down the truth in order to make it more appealing. As Paul wrote to Timothy, “Preach the word.”
Whether it be from a pulpit, or a one-on-one sharing of the Gospel, we should be sharing the full counsel of God. It is not our message. It is not something that comes from ourselves, but from God Himself, and if Jesus taught the Word of God, how much more should we?
Only God, through His Word has the authority to speak about life and death, heaven and hell, salvation and eternity. Why is there so much confusion in the world today about these important issues? Because sinful human beings have taken the absolute truths of God’s Word, and have modified and watered down what God has said in order to make the Bible less offensive. The reality us that the Bible is offensive, because it condemns us all. With the one exception of Jesus Himself, when read and understood correctly, no-one escapes the conviction of God’s Word.
Jesus, as the second Person of the Trinity, was in constant communion with the Father, so He understood the Word of God perfectly, and whenever we see Jesus teaching from the Word, He drew out the true meaning of the text. He was the consummate expository preacher, as He taught its true meaning.
He began His public ministry in the synagogue at Nazareth with a reading from the prophet Isaiah. “He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’” (Luke 4:16-19)
We’ve heard that text often, but look at what happened immediately after that, and what Jesus said: “And He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:20-21)
“Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” That has been called the shortest recorded sermon ever. When Jesus taught the Word of God, He read it, and then explained its true meaning.
You’ll remember from chapter 6 that His sermon on the Bread of Life came out of the explanation of the Bible’s teaching on the manna that came through Moses. Jesus can and did impress His followers by performing miracles, but His true authority was based on His teaching the truth of the Scriptures. The 17th century Puritan preacher Thomas Watson once said, “In every sermon preached, God calls to you; and to refuse the message we bring, is to refuse God Himself.”
You’ll also recall the term Sola Scriptura from our series on the five solas of the reformation. The Word of God is our absolute and final authority. The reformer John Calvin wrote in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, “Scripture is needed as both guide and teacher for anyone who would come to God the Creator. God bestows the actual knowledge of Himself upon us only in the Scriptures. By His Word, God rendered faith unambiguous forever, a faith that should be superior to all opinion.”
This flies directly in the face of, “well, this is what I think it means, and we must remember that the Bible was written a long time ago, and after all, times have changed.” How often do we hear that?
It doesn’t matter what we might think or feel. What matters is what God says through His Word, and as Calvin wrote, by His Word, God rendered faith unambiguous forever. The opening verses of the book of Hebrews says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.” (Hebrews 1:1-2) As we read in the opening verses of John’s Gospel, Jesus is the Word made flesh, so when He says something, He says it with divine authority.
Jesus continued in 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.” What He meant here is that those who seek to do the will of God will know God’s truth when the Word is preached. Each time Jesus taught the Word of God, there were one of two reactions from His listeners: Firstly, those who were prepared to listen and learn, and secondly, those (like the Pharisees) who contradicted Him and argued with Him.
We need to decide which camp we fall into, because there are many Biblical truths which we find both hard to understand and hard to accept, but it is not up to us to decide which parts of the Bible we will believe, and which parts we will reject. The question is, are we are willing to submit ourselves to God’s Word, or are we going to argue with Him?
St Augustine once said that whenever he found something in the Bible he disagreed with, he came to the conclusion that he was the one who was wrong. This is what it means to will to do God’s will, in that we become teachable and willing to believe and obey what the Bible teaches, even, and especially when it might need a change in our thinking and opinions. The opposite of that is to say, “I refuse to believe in a God who…”
We mustn’t miss the promise that Jesus makes in verse 17. When we are willing to embrace the will and the truth of God as it is revealed in the Bible, we will know what is taught by God. Jesus says, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God.” In other words, the Bible authenticates itself as the truth. It is far more than a collection of historical and poetic writings with teachings of wisdom.
As Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
This explains why the vast majority of the people Jesus taught, as in John 7, did not receive Him in faith. It wasn’t that His teaching was wrong. They simply were not willing to be taught by God’s Word, something which continues in our day.
The Bible teacher Joel Nederhood wrote in one of his books, “Those who trust in Christ and are trying to do His will should realise that the people around them who reject Christ are doing so because they have not chosen to do God’s will. Those who choose their own will or the will of others who oppose Christ, will simply not be able to recognise the truth the Christ has come to bring.”
We need to make the choice. Either the Bible is God’s Word or it has no authority at all. We believe all of it, or none of it. The crowds in John 7 resented Jesus’ words because they were not willing to be corrected by God’s truth. Nederhood also wrote, “If we drift away from the way He wants us to live, we will find that His voice grows ever fainter. Other voices intrude. But as we, who have Christ’s Spirit, live in obedience to Him, we find our lives enriched immeasurably as Christ’s teaching takes deeper root in our hearts.”
Jesus certainly knew how to get a reaction from the crowd. He said in verse 19, “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” Their reply shows just how far their hearts were from Him. “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” The belief in those days was that anyone who was not mentally sound was demon possessed. Essentially, they were saying to Jesus, “Are you mad? Who on earth would want to kill you?”
John has already told us that the plot to kill Jesus was common knowledge, but they simply refused to acknowledge it. Jesus had just exposed what was really in their hearts, but instead of admitting their guilt, they resented Him.
How do we react when God’s Word exposes us? Do we resent Him, or do we confess and repent?
If we do repent in humility, God will forgive and restore us, but when we arrogantly reject correction from God’s Word, we simply prove that our hearts are false. Remember St Augustine - whenever he found the Bible disagreeing with him, he was humble enough to accept that he was the one who was wrong, not God.
We must also remember the context of Jesus’ teaching in John 7. He was teaching in the temple, during the Feast of Tabernacles. The crowd failed to see the truth about Him, even though He taught in the temple in the middle of a feast that was given in order to teach about Him. As He said in 5:39-40, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” These people, and the Pharisees in particular, were not willing to obey God’s will, and they were not seeking God’s glory. And when Jesus did confront them with the truth of what they were really plotting for Him, they had the nerve to claim that He was demon-possessed!
But as Jesus continued, we come to another reason for their unbelief, which was their inability to exercise right judgment.
Verses 21-24. “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and 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? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
The one work He is referring to was the healing of the lame man on the Sabbath at the Pool of Bethesda some 18 months earlier, which John records in chapter 5. Despite their religious posturing, the teachers of the law did not understand God’s Word. Their hearts were far from God’s truth, and this is proven by their wrong judgment or understanding about the meaning of the Sabbath.
The fourth commandment proclaimed that no work was to be done on the Sabbath, but the circumcision law was very specific, so in order to not violate circumcision, Jewish baby boys were circumcised on the eighth day, whether it happened to be on the Sabbath or not. (Simple maths teaches that the odds were one in seven, so they would have performed the rite of circumcision on the Sabbath quite regularly.)
Jesus did not have an issue with Sabbath circumcisions. Rather, He took issue with their hypocrisy when He healed a lame 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?”
At the root of their hypocrisy was their complete misunderstanding of not only the Sabbath, but the whole of God’s Word. They had turned the Sabbath, a day given to the people as a day of rest, into a legal minefield with all kinds of ridiculous do’s and don’ts. In Mark 2:27-28, Jesus said to the Pharisees, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
But they just could not and would not see it. This day of rest was far more than just a day off from physical labour. It was meant to serve as a reminder that we can rest from our feeble efforts at working our way to salvation, because Jesus has done the work for us. It points to Jesus as our true Sabbath.
The Christian website GotQuestions.org puts it this way: “By saying, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’, Jesus was restating the principle that the Sabbath rest was instituted to relieve man of his labours, just as He came to relieve us of our attempting to achieve salvation by our works. We no longer rest for only one day, but forever cease our labouring to attain God’s favour. Jesus is our rest from works now, just as He is the door to heaven, where we will rest in Him forever.”
That’s the true meaning of the Sabbath. Jesus Christ is the true Sabbath, and if these learned scholars (who were so offended that Jesus had not received the same high education they had), had not hardened their hearts, they would have treated the Sabbath as a day of great celebration, instead of threatening anyone and everyone who dared to break their precious man-made Sabbath laws.
Jesus’ point was that while they correctly, in accordance with Jewish customs, circumcised baby boys on the Sabbath, this precedent made it all the more irrational for them to condemn Him for healing on the Sabbath. What they failed to see was that both healing and circumcision were expressions of God’s redemptive work, and so is the Sabbath, when observed correctly. Jesus was telling them to stop worshipping the day and to worship the God who gave them the day.
What this means for us is that if we want to honour God and do His will, we need to learn how to judge rightly, and we do that by getting into the Word, and asking God to teach us its true meaning by His Spirit. Jesus said in verse 24, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” In other words, as we are taught by God’s Word, He will give us the wisdom and discernment we need to make right judgments or decisions in our daily lives.
Jesus’ teaching both confronted and explained the hostility of His listeners. This is what the truth of the Bible continues to do today. People who are not seeking to do God’s will will not recognise sound teaching, even when it is staring them in the face.
You often hear people saying that the Bible is too complicated to understand. Granted, there are many deep mysteries in the Word of God, but the vast majority of what it teaches is very simple to understand. It’s not that they can’t understand - they won’t understand. They refuse to accept what it teaches. Those who reject God’s truth are not seeking God’s glory but their own, because their hearts are hardened, and that is not a good place to be.
St Augustine once famously said, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it finds its rest in Thee.” You will only find purpose and meaning in your life in Jesus Christ. Without Him, you have no way of being redeemed and reconciled to a Holy God. It is only through Christ that you can receive forgiveness for the sins which have cut you off from God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says it best. “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Don’t make the same mistake those people made in the temple all those years ago, but instead commit yourself to doing God’s will, seeking His glory in all things, and learn to judge rightly according to the Bible.
Those who oppose and reject Jesus and His Gospel have decided they have no need for Jesus, but those who do accept His message quickly realise their need for the forgiveness that only Jesus brings.
When we learn to judge rightly, we learn our great need to believe in Jesus Christ as the only means by which we can be saved.
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 7:14-24
What do you think Jesus meant in verses 16-18?
Discuss this statement in your group: Knowing God’s will depends upon knowing God’s Word.
There has been much debate over the authenticity of the Bible for many years. In general, the world rejects its teachings, but this is also creeping into the Church.
What are the dangers we face as Christians when we don’t accept and believe the full counsel of God’s Word?
It is always a good idea to ask how the Bible applies to our lives today, but there is a fine line between applying what it means and reading into the text what we would like it to say. How do we guard against this?
St Augustine said that whenever the Bible disagreed with him, he learned to admit that he was wrong.
What do you do with passages of Scripture which directly oppose your beliefs or opinions?
Read verses 21-24 again.
What was Jesus really teaching them here?
What does it mean for us to “judge with right judgment?”