John 7:25-36 “Searching For Clues”

1:00It is God's word to us. I hate playing board games. Hate might be a strong word. I vehemently dislike playing board games. Most of the time, families and friends can gather around the table and enjoy hours of enjoyment and bonding. But every time I sit down to a board game, something in me clicks. And I have to win at all costs. I wish I was that type of husband or dad, friend that can just enjoy a friendly board game and bond with those around the table, but I can't. You can ask my family. They'll tell you that I will win any way I can. Sometimes it's by playing fair, and sometimes.

2:04But I really dislike playing games that depend on the random toss of a dice or random cards, drawing of cards. I'd rather play a game that takes a little bit of strategy and skill. Games like Clue. The game Clue was invented by a British man named Anthony Pratt. And he was stuck in the boredom of bombing raid blackouts during World War II, and he read a lot of murder mystery novels and came up with this board game. And if you've ever played the game, then you know that the object of the game is to discern who killed Mr. Body in what room and with what weapon.

2:48So the answer would sound something like this: well, it was Mr. Colonel mustard in the study with a lead pipe. And you would get this answer by collecting clues. You played the game. It's a popular game. It was so popular, Hollywood made a movie by the same name in 1985, and it became something like a cult classic. This morning, when we step into John's narrative and see many people trying to guess whether Jesus was truly the Messiah, we'll see that they're gathering clues and trying to reason whether Jesus is the promised Christ.

3:28And we'll see that Jesus is leaving those clues. He teaches in the temple and he says things like, My teaching is not mine. He claims to be the bread of life. He heals people. Some thought he had a demon, and others still had questions. This morning, we'll see that Jesus was clear about who he was and what he was going to do. We'll see that Jesus is always clear, but not always understood. John chapter 7 takes place in the fall, a few months before Jesus was to be crucified. We know this because Jesus is at the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Booths.

4:23Now, there are three pilgrimage feasts or major feasts in the Jewish calendar. There is the Pastoral. Passover, which is the spring, that's why Easter is always in the spring, because the crucifixion and resurrection happened during the Passover. There's the Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of the First Fruits, which coincides with the wheat harvest. So this happens around May or June. And incidentally, this weekend, that is what they are celebrating, is the Feast of Weeks. It also coincides with Pentecost.

5:00It's held 50 days after Passover. And again, this is when Passover or Pentecost happened, and we celebrate that to this day. But then there's the Feast of Booth. The Hebrew name for it is the Succot. This feast was held in the fall of every year at the time of grape and olive harvest. Let's look at Leviticus 23:39 through 43. If you want to turn there, you can. If not, we'll have it on the screen behind me. It says, On the 15th day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And you shall take on the first day the fruit of the splendid trees. Branches of the palm trees and the boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

6:19You shall dwell in the booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. So the Hebrew people would gather in Jerusalem and get branches and trees, palm leaves, and leaves, and they would build for themselves booths to live in to remind them that their forefathers stayed in makeshift homes or tents while wandering in the desert.

6:59The entire city would move it outside for a camp out for a full seven days. Now, this is not like camping that my amazing wife likes. It's not glamping. The purpose of these booths were to remind a person that following God required a person to give up comfort and to trust solely in his provision. Rich or poor, everyone. Lived in a booth made of sticks. And this feast was extremely important to the Jewish people. When Nehemiah brought back the nation from exile and rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and the temple, they read the law out loud and they realized that it was during the time that they should be celebrating the Feast of Booths.

7:52So the first act of obedience to the law after exile was to build booths and remember what God had done for them. So the feast was not just a time of remembrance, but a time of joy and hope. And this is where we are in John's Gospel. So let's go to our text, John 7, starting in verse 25. Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him.

8:29Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. 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 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. Now keep in mind that this is a pilgrimage. Feast.

9:01So there are people from all over Judea, and many had heard about Jesus, and some had seen the miracles he had done. They had heard him teach, and now they are seeing that he is boldly teaching in the open with no fear of being arrested. And this led many to guess that he might actually be the long-awaited Christ. To them, it was a clue. When we say Christ, Jesus' last name is not Christ. Christ means Messiah, the coming one, the one that was sent to deliver them.

9:38But we also must consider one other clue and look at that. Those celebrating this feast were already in the mindset of looking for the Messiah. The Feast of Booth meant to remind the people of God's provision in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt. But as I mentioned, it's also a time of hope. It's hope for the coming of the Christ. Let's look at Zachariah 14, verses 16 through 21. Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, There will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain. There shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the feast of booths. This shall be the punishment to Egypt, and the punishment to all nations that do not go up to keep the feast of booths. And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, holy to the Lord, and the pots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be traitor in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day. See, today, Christians believe in what we call the second coming of Christ.

11:29At the end of days, we believe that Jesus lived a perfect life. He went to the cross, and he died a sinner's death, a death that we deserve. He was buried and rose again on the third day, conquering both sin and death. And being the only pure and righteous sacrifice for us, he imputed his righteousness to us. And he returned to the Father, which we'll talk about a little bit later. But we also believe that he will return to claim his bride, the church. The book of Revelation is all about the return of Christ and the end of our age and the beginning of our glorification and eternity with Jesus. But that was not the Hebrew belief of the end of times.

12:21They believed that the Messiah would come and restore Israel into a great nation. So when the Jewish people celebrated the Feast of Boost, they believed it would happen just like it is described in Zachariah. You can see that it would make sense to those at this week-long celebration to be expecting the Messiah during the Feast of Boost. The Messiah was on everybody's mind. But one thing didn't add up to them. Everyone knew who Jesus was, or at least they knew where he came from and his family origins.

12:59For the most part, the Jewish people believed that the Messiah would just appear. He would not be known. And he sure wouldn't come from a little town called Nazareth. It'd be like somebody coming from Hearn or Cash, Oklahoma. So they're looking at this whole situation, and they see that Jesus is boldly teaching, and the chief priests and the Pharisees are not saying a word. Or at least to their face, and they seemed to be letting him get away with it.

13:37And we know that the reason for this was because it was not yet the time for Jesus to go to the cross. But they didn't know that. It was happening during a feast that looked with anticipation to the Messiah, but they knew this Jesus and his origins, so there was some doubt. But Jesus answers them in an emphatic way, a way that caused the chief priests and the Pharisees to want him silenced immediately. Jesus tells them, You know me, and you know where I come from, but I have not come of my 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. If there's any doubt that the people did not know that Jesus was claiming to be the one sent from God, the Messiah, just look at the reaction in verse 30 and 31. So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Yet many people believed in him. They said, When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than he has done?

14:53Some wanted him silenced, and others believed in him. These are the reactions. That still happen today, are they not? When the gospel is preached, when people are faced with a decision concerning who Jesus is, it is either a yes or a no. We either want it silenced or canceled, or we come to faith and repentance because only Christ can deliver us. Though Jesus is the Messiah, he did not come as expected. In truth, all the clues fit, but how they fit was altogether different than anyone ever anticipated.

15:41They still couldn't quite see how Jesus would deliver them, nor what he came to deliver them from. Let's go to verse 32. The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things, and the chief priests, and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. I want to point this verse out for just a second, and I want to call attention to it. The Pharisees and the chief priests were often at odds with each other. They were not friends, but they sure joined together to try to arrest Jesus and silence him.

16:25Brothers and sisters, when you speak the truth, when you tell others, About the gospel of Jesus. Do not be surprised when others try to silence the message. Don't be surprised when enemies will join together to try to do that. I know we live in a place where we can freely worship God and we have a right to free speech. That is until you offend the wrong person with a message that tells you to die to yourself so that you might live for eternity.

17:06At that moment, you will be canceled. You'll get taken to your boss, told not to speak about your faith in the workplace. People you thought were friends will want nothing to do with you. And you will often feel lonely and discouraged. In this case, you have the very people who were to serve the house of the Lord want to silence the one in whom the house was built. So, fair warning. They did it to Jesus, they'll do it to you.

17:47Later on in John 15, verse 18, Jesus says, If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. Let's pick it back up in verse 33. 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 not find me. Where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said to one another, Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, You will seek me and will not find me, and where I am, you cannot come?

18:34Jesus tells them that he is with them for a bit longer, but will then go where they would not find him, where they could not come. And this confused the people even more. Now, we have the benefit of knowing the end of the story, don't we? So we know that Jesus is talking about his ascension. But let's remember where these people are at and put this in context. They're in the middle of a pilgrimage feast. There are many people from outlying areas in the Greek-speaking world, those areas not within Judea. So when Jesus says he's going to a place they can't follow, this is about as far as their minds could go.

19:28The people are thinking, maybe. Maybe he's going to go back with these people to live in these Greek-speaking areas and teach them. They were trying to use the circumstances, the people, and the things in front of them to determine what Jesus was talking about. And that should teach us something. How many times have we had it all planned out? We had all the I's dotted and the T's crossed, and we ended up completely in a completely different place than where we thought we would end up.

20:07Do we have finite minds and we serve an infinite God whose ways are not our ways? He knows all, and we do not. We have our five senses, and God has infinite wisdom and knowledge. You see where I'm going with this? We know it, but when something doesn't go our way, when we have a loved one die, when we don't get that job, when we break up with that boyfriend or girlfriend, when we get that one phone call that changes everything we plan.

21:00In our life. What do you say? How do we act? Do we blame God? Do we wail why God? So many times we act just like these folks in this passage. What does he mean? And getting meaning becomes more important than our obedience. But like I said, we know the end of this story. Jesus is talking about his ascension after his resurrection. R.C. Sprull makes a great point on Jesus' ascension. He wrote: Jesus spoke about his departure from earth by way of his ascension. I am convinced that the most neglected dimensions of the life of Jesus in the church today is his ascension. Without the ascension, both the cross and the resurrection are meaningless. The climax of Jesus' earthly ministry came when he ascended to heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. This was his investiture, his coronation, when the Father crowned him as king. Of kings and Lord of Lords. It was at that moment Jesus' glory was restored to him in his heavenly kingdom.

22:43Honestly, we don't talk much about the ascension of Jesus. We talk a lot about his incarnation at Christmas time, him becoming fully flesh and living among us. We talk about his perfect life and his obedience. We talk about his death every Easter hanging on the cross. We talk about the tomb and we talk about his resurrection, but we don't much talk about his ascension. I think we do that because it's a sad thing for us. Jesus was here with us, then he left us. And now we are waiting on him to come back.

23:26And some of that is true. Some of that is valid. I mean, Jesus said in Matthew 9: Can the wedding guest mourn as long as their bridegroom is with them? The day will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. So there's some sadness involved here, and we don't like to talk about sad things. But the ascension also ushers in something that is amazing. Look at Acts 1, verses 6 through 11.

24:01So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come to you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into the heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into the heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

24:54So for those who believe in Jesus, you will, or you have, received the power of the Holy Spirit, so that you might be a witness for him. But in order for that to happen, Jesus must first be glorified. He must first ascend to the Father. Ephesians 1:20-23 says that he works in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. Above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

25:49Church, during a feast that celebrated God's provision and was full of hope for the coming Messiah, Jesus shows us that he is the fulfillment of all that the feast of booths was pointing to. He is God's provision, and he is the Messiah. Everyone was looking at clues, and they were trying to decide whether Jesus was true or false. Either he is the Christ or He is a liar. And Jesus was always clear about who he was, but he was not always understood. And perhaps you're still wondering who Jesus is.

26:43Maybe you have doubts because this Jesus doesn't fit into your vision of a Savior. Maybe you are dissuaded when you step into a church and see all the problems that arise when messed up people try to follow. A perfect God. Friend, Jesus was very clear about who He is and what you must do to be in right standing with Him. He tells us, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.

27:22So instead of doubting Jesus, you must place your faith in Him. And perhaps you have faith in Jesus, but everything else seems to be falling in around you. I mean, all you have to do is turn on the news. And we can see that many people are going through some extremely hard things. And some of those people are in this room today. Jesus is always clear about who He is and what He is going to do, but He's not always understood.

28:06As hard as it is to place your faith in Jesus as your Savior, sometimes it seems even harder for you to place your faith in Him as Lord over your life. Because that means we must move forward, trusting that Jesus is actually in control when everything around us seems out of control. Whatever you may be struggling with, know that Jesus has conquered sin and death for you. He lived, he was crucified and buried. He was raised from the dead and he appeared to many witnesses.

28:53And he has ascended and he sits at the right hand of the Father. And he will return to judge everyone. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful that you sent your Son to us to live among us. Jesus, who lived a perfect life and is the fulfillment of your promises. He is your provision, he is the Christ, and he is the Savior. And he reigns victorious at your right hand as King of kings and Lord of Lords.

29:40And we know and we believe that one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord of all. Father, for those who are doubting who Jesus is and what he has done for us, I ask that you send your Holy Spirit to them to open their eyes and to change their hearts. To speak into their hearts and to help them understand clearly who you are. And for those who are walking in difficult situations and are struggling with the idea that you are in control, events and circumstances have clouded their minds and overwhelmed their senses.

30:25We ask that you send the Holy Spirit to them to soothe their wounds, to give them rest, to remind them of your provision in the past and give them hope for the future. We pray all of this in Jesus' name and the church dead. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.