John 7.11-18
11 So the Jews were seeking Him at
the feast and were saying, “Where is He?” 12 There
was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a
good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people
astray.” 13 Yet no one was speaking openly of
Him for fear of the Jews.
14 But when it was now the midst of
the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. 15 The
Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this man become learned, having
never been educated?” 16 So Jesus answered them and said,
“My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 “If
anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is
of God or whether I speak from Myself. 18 “He
who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of
the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
The world today suffers from an identity crisis as well as
an authority crisis. Many people have a
hard time understanding their purpose in life and many more people are confused
about truth to the point that they question its very existence. Jesus suffered from no such crisis. He knew who He was, what He was supposed to
do and Who had sent Him to do it. He was
secure in His identity and submissive to His authority. Unfortunately, the crowds of people around
Jesus did not have the same understanding about Jesus. Since Jesus did not go to the feast with His
brothers in a public manner performing miracles and gathering crowds, there was
all kinds of speculation about Him. When
He did appear, there were all kinds of arguments about His teachings.
THE IDENTITY OF JESUS: The Jews were seeking Jesus at the
feast but could not find Him, so they were asking where He was. This questioning about where He was sparked a
great deal of speculation about who He was.
He was well known by the people and the leaders but there was not any
agreement about who He was or about His reputation. There was a grumbling through the crowd as
they speculated about His identity. Some
said that He was a good man, others said that He was a deceptive man. However, nobody was speaking openly and
publicly about their opinion because the feared the Jews. So He was also seen as being a dangerous man. All of these arguments and opinions
demonstrate a complete lack of understanding about the true identity of
Jesus. He was not just a good man and He
certainly was not a deceitful man. He
had repeatedly demonstrated that He was Messiah, the One sent from God. The world today continues to misidentify who
Jesus is. People will admit that He was
an important historical figure and consider Him to have been a good man or at
least an influential man. What needs to
be made clear in no uncertain terms is that Jesus was and is the Messiah, He is
the One God promised to send to save the world from sin. He is the Creator and King. He is the highly exalted One who is coming
again to judge this world. That is who
He claimed to be and it is who He is. So
He cannot be just a good man. He is
either God or He is a deceiver. How we
identify Christ determines where we will spend eternity.
THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS: When Jesus began to teach in the
temple the controversy about Him only intensified. The issue the leaders had with Him was an
issue of authority. They questioned how
He could teach things that He claimed to be true when He was uneducated. In their minds, they had a corner on the
market of truth since they had been educated so they thought they were the only
ones who could educate. They based their
authority to teach on the traditions they had been taught by other men. Jesus had never been taught by these men so
they didn’t consider Him to have authority.
Jesus makes it very clear that His authority came directly from
God. This, of course, was a challenge to
their authority. The reason that
relativism is running so rampant in today’s society is a crisis in
authority. All men consider themselves
to be the ultimate authority over their lives.
So there are countless varieties of standards for truth. So men will argue with one another over who
is right and wrong and end up coming to the conclusion that we cannot know what
is right and wrong on a universal level but that we all have the right to make
that decision on our own. This ignores
God all together. The Bible is God’s revelation
of truth to man. Just as Jesus was God’s
revelation of truth. The only standard
of truth in which we can completely trust s the Word of God. All the wisdom and education of men is without
true authority because it is fallible.
Only God’s Word is inspired and infallible and the ultimate source of
truth and authority.
APPLICATION: Understand who Jesus is and worship Him as
God. Don’t attempt to rationalize Him
into being just a good man or important figure from history. Recognize the weakness of human wisdom and
the limits to man’s authority. Admit we
don’t have the authority to decide truth.
Submit to the Word of God as the ultimate authority and standard of
truth for our lives and the world.
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