011 - Tents and Trouble

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?

Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages. Welcome to More Than Ink.

Wow, Jesus is in deep hot water this week in John 7. They tried and arrested. Really? Were they successful? Well, no, they weren't.

Why is that? Because the crowds were so big. No, it had nothing to do with the crowd. There was a riot? No riots.

No, none of those things. In fact, it'll surprise you when you read it with us today. On More Than Ink. Well, welcome this Saturday morning. We're glad that you're with us.

I hope you got your coffee with you. I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And this is More Than Ink.

More Than Ink. And we are excited that you're following with us as we kind of explore our way through John. And today we're into John 7. John 7. So, in fact, I don't know if you're aware, but if you read the entire book of John, there's 21 chapters. And he spends the first, I forget how the count goes, I think the first 11 chapters, 10 or 11 chapters, talking mostly about the first three years of Jesus' ministry. And then the last half, the last 10 or 11 chapters, actually it is sort of half a split, but it's almost cut exactly in half, is the Passion Week, is the last seven days. And most of that takes place in the temple courtyard.

In the temple courtyard with teaching, yeah. So we are rapidly advancing toward that last week. We can't, you know, when we get to chapter 10 or 11, you know, we're into that last week and we're in chapter 7. So, gosh, we're just jetting through the ministry of Jesus. And John has specifically picked out certain scenarios, certain things that Jesus did, certain places he was, to emphasize that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah.

And that's true today. And the opening context is a big deal. So what is the opening context in John 7? Well, John says that after this, Jesus went about in Galilee and went all over Galilee.

And I'm just going to start reading. And he wouldn't go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of booths was at hand. So his brothers said to him, leave here and go to Judea. So let me stop here for a second and say the geographical places are important here because Judea is the southern part of the country where Jerusalem was located, where the religious headquarters, that's where the temple was, that's where the scribes and the Pharisees were. And the Sadducees, their primary stomping ground was down there. And at this time of year, the Feast of Booths, that's one of the three major festivals that Jewish heads of households, men, were required to go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice and take part in those festivals. But John says after what had taken place up at the feeding of the 5,000 and walking on the water up in Galilee, he says now he's not going down to Judea because the Jews down there were seeking to kill him.

Okay, I'm going to pick up the reading now. So his brothers said to him, leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples may see the works you're doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world, for not even his brothers believed in him. So that's kind of an interesting background, that's a little inside information that John gives us about what was really going on. Why would they tell him to go do that? It's kind of like they're saying, well, you know, if you really think you're Messiah, go down there and make yourself known to the leaders.

Go down to the center of Judaism and just let it all hang out. Do all those miracles be crazy? Right, but we probably need to remember that just after these things, John is reminding us that he had been in John 6 talking about being the living bread. He had fed the 5,000, he had walked on the water and revealed himself to his disciples. He had said, all that the Father gives me will come to me, not everybody will come because of the teaching about, you know, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood.

Lots of people have said, I'm not going to follow this guy anymore, this is too weird. And on top of that, the Jewish religious administration knew enough about who Jesus was and the threat of the momentum of what he was doing that they were already out to kill him. That brings you to the beginning of John 7 where they're saying, we've got this big festival, one of the three biggies, so go down there and show your stuff and let people know you're the Messiah, but if you go down there, it's likely they may kill you. So Jesus has got to be a little sneaky how he participates in this, but it's something... I would say careful.

Careful, there we go, careful. He takes some care about how he does this, not publicly but privately, but he does need to manage this because indeed if he becomes too public too quickly, he's going to be killed too quickly and it's going to shorten the ministry. So he's careful about how to do this. So he doesn't want to give up the opportunity of proclaiming who he is in one of the three biggest celebrations of the year, but he's got to be careful not to be killed. So he says to his brothers, my time hasn't yet come, but your time's always here.

The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast, I'm not going up to this feast for my time has not yet fully come. And after saying this, he remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but in private. So he's distancing himself a little bit from the whole family entourage, and he wants to just emerge suddenly into the middle of the crowd instead of arrive in the parade with everybody else.

Yeah, exactly. In fact, it reminds me of what happened in the great Tiberius boat lift where he lets the apostles go on ahead onto the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and then Jesus stays behind knowing that the people would probably stay behind if they did not see him get into a boat and go away. And then at night, he privately leaves, not on a boat again, he walks on the water. So Jesus is being very careful about how he manages his exposure to people and how he does this.

And he's avoiding any appearance of a triumphal entry at this point. Because we see John tells us in verse 11, Now the Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, Well, where is he? And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, He's a good man, others said, No, he's leading the people astray.

Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. And about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple and began teaching. And ta-da, started teaching. He's avoiding the parade, but wants to just appear in the middle of it and pick up teaching so that he avoids this appearance of, I'm making a big showing of arriving. Right, exactly. So Jesus does indeed become very public in John 7. And interestingly enough, just as what you just said, people are not sure who he is.

The debate is going on, and some say, Well, he's a good man, and other people say, No, he's leading people astray. So with Jesus being there in the Feast of Booths, his identity is the core curiosity of everyone that's there. And they're asking, Who is this guy? So in John 7, Jesus does not disappoint them. We're going to talk all about who Jesus is. Well, and John makes a point of telling us three or four times in this chapter, he gives us a little insight into the conversations people were saying. Who is this guy?

Where did he get this teaching? Is he Messiah? Is he not? Here's the reasons why I think.

Here's the reasons why you think. And if we read this, we'll come to those. Yeah, and that's going to be the core of the debate in chapter 7. Who is this guy? And he has a big coming out here in the Feast of Booths or the Tabernacles. I like to think of it, I call it Jesus Jamboree. Well, we probably need to talk about the Feast of Booths just a little bit. Well, that's what I was going to say. Okay, go ahead.

When I say Jesus Jamboree, I'm thinking of Boy Scout Jamboree. Okay. You have a tendency to run to what could be regarded as disrespectful. I know, I know. Explain yourself.

You've got some explaining to do. I explain this because when I was in Boy Scouts, my older brother had the great opportunity to go to the first world Boy Scout Jamboree that was held in the United States. I mean, it's been held all the other places, and it was up in North Idaho, a place that we eventually moved to. But if you just imagine, if you just imagine, it was at Farragut State Park at the time, if you just imagine these fields covered with tents, just tents and tents and tents. So the Feast of Booths is people living in tents, is all it is. So we call it booths or tabernacles.

Tabernacles. It just means tents. It means a temporary dwelling.

It means a temporary dwelling place. And God asked them to do this back in Deuteronomy and Exodus. In Leviticus. Yeah, so He asked them to do this to commemorate them coming out of Egypt and living in tents for a while. And so it was a seven-day-long thing. In fact, I just checked my calendar. We are right now on October 10th.

Yesterday was the last of the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles this year for the Jews. Yeah, and I actually have a friend who's been posting pictures as she built her sukkah. Oh, really?

Yeah, it's been kind of fun to watch that happening. Yeah. So this commemorates the leaving of Egypt and God taking care of them in the desert. And not only just the fact that the tents, which is not that miraculous a thing, when you go out and you live in the desert and you pitch a tent in the desert, where are you going to get water and where are you going to get food? And of course, that was something that God provided for them every single day. So this was a feast remembering and rejoicing in God's provision. He brought them out and gave them a temporary place to live so that they could know His provision and rejoice in that. So if you want to just kind of build that as a memory cue, the Feast of Booths is about rejoicing in God's provision and remembering His salvation. That even when your present circumstance seems tenuous and temporary, that's the tent part of it, God still takes care of you intimately day by day.

So that's the context. Well, and that whole term, tabernacles, is interesting because that's the same word that John had used back in Chapter 1 when he says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That actually is the word he tabernacled. He dwelt in a temporary dwelling place among us. Yeah, always think temporary. It's a movable, temporary place to live.

Right, even when you use the word tabernacle as, you know, for the temple, the temporary tabernacle before that was called a tabernacle. So this time of year, in the fall, nights are getting a little chilly, it's kind of a harvest festival, they would all go up to Jerusalem and build themselves a booth, a temporary dwelling place there, wherever they could in Jerusalem, and celebrate this feast together by kind of reenacting living in those tents in the wilderness and rejoicing in God's provision. So that's what's going on. It's a big celebration.

It's a very happy time. Everyone in the nation is in Jerusalem and everyone is pitching tents on every square inch of ground. So look in your column of your Bible for your cross references because you'll find references to Leviticus and to Deuteronomy, perhaps even to Zechariah, to what God had actually said, how to celebrate, where to celebrate. And then there's a lot of traditions that grew up around it that you could find in a Bible dictionary, not a commentary necessarily, but a dictionary that defines terms and gives you backgrounds on the feasts.

Those things are really helpful, and those are probably important study skills to begin getting your hands on. Well, interestingly enough, if you go chasing down the Feast of Tabernacles, you may actually find some topical connections to what happens in this event. So we'll hold on to that idea for a second. Okay, so Jesus is there at this big everyone-comes-to-Jerusalem festival and everyone's living in tents outside, and so Jesus pops up surprisingly in the middle of the outer temple areas to teach because he's going to take advantage of this. Let's jump into verses 14 or 15. How does he start the whole thing out when he makes himself?

Oh, I love this. This is verse 15. The Jews therefore marveled because Jesus had just suddenly shown up, saying, How is it that this man has learning when he's never studied? Okay, so he's never graduated from their seminary.

Their seminaries, right. So here's Jesus' answer, verse 16. My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he'll know whether the teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking on my own authority. Oh. See, I'm not reading now.

I'm commenting. If anyone really wants to know if he's from God, all he has to do is compare what he's hearing from Jesus with what God has already said. He says if you're really after God, you're going to recognize him in me.

You're going to know that I'm not speaking on my own authority. I'm speaking the way God does. Right, so if you were really connected to God, this wouldn't be a question in your mind. You'd listen to me and go, oh, this sounds like other stuff. Right, so that's going to be important later. Yeah, I call this the self-authenticating kind of phenomenon because anyone who is truly connected to the Father will hear what Jesus is saying and go, this sounds very consistent, very familiar.

Right, right. And so it's that resonance that Jesus says. If you had that resonance because you were close to the Father, you would understand that what I'm saying is true and that the one who sent me is true and there's no falsehood. And Jesus was constantly raising these difficult questions. He says, hasn't Moses given you the law?

Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me? So already there was a death plot.

They have to do away with him. And the crowd answered, do you have a demon? Who's seeking to kill you? Right, because the plot at this point was just in the religious leadership. Yeah, and so actually the second half of that section from about 20 to 24, I mean, he's really focusing in on people saying, well, they want to kill him because of healing the paralytic basically in John 5. Right. And it was on the Sabbath. On the Sabbath.

So he makes really almost a laughable point in 19. You know, Moses gave you the law and yet none of you keeps the law, so why do you seek to kill me? Like why are you trying to kill me when you guys are failing the law?

I'm not. Right. So it's really kind of a funny conversation in many ways about the whole Sabbath issue. So Jesus is teaching in the middle of contention and the Jews want to kill him, and he is being pretty much in their face about how to do this, even when we're talking about Sabbath issues, which is what the paralytic thing was.

So let's move on to about verse 25. So of course while he's teaching, the people's response is, you know, is not this the man whom they seek to kill? So like if he's the target of an assassination plot from the leadership, why is he being so public, is basically what they're saying. Why is he speaking so openly?

And yet they don't say anything, it says in 26. So they're not arresting him. Because they're afraid. They're afraid, exactly. So some of them in the end of 26 say, so could it be that he actually is the guy, because the authorities are not arresting him, which put the authorities in a really bad position, because the authorities realize that if they don't take some action against Jesus, it will look like they are endorsing him.

Right. So this kind of amps up the flame a little bit, and that's exactly what the people are saying. Maybe this is the Christ.

They're not arresting him. And here he is saying publicly, if you're really seeking God, you're going to recognize me, which is basically what he says in verse 17. And then down in verse 28 says, you know, if you don't recognize me, it's because you don't know God.

Again. That the imprint of God is heard and seen in Jesus, and those who are really seeking God, the God who is, are going to recognize that this guy has a connection with God we don't have. It's kind of where they start. And then ultimately come to a place of saying, do you believe that I am the sent one? And lots of people were coming to believe in him, it says in verse 31.

Many people believed in him, even though the leaders were seeking to arrest him. Because they said, when the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this guy has done? If this guy's not the Messiah, you know, who's going to do more? It's really a great argument because it's not, is it sufficient? But gosh, could the real Messiah do more than what Jesus is doing? So it's just not so. They also bring up an issue in that paragraph about the fact that the legend is that when the Messiah shows up, he'll be someone who has no past. He has no origin. Now that's not exactly true.

That's legend, really. Because we do know there's an origin issue. But they're trying, I call this the fact checking in the Bible.

They'll do this a couple of times. They're trying to say, could this be the guy? Well, according to what we know, the Messiah guy should have really no origin. He has a mysterious origin, kind of like Melchizedek does. He does kind of a walk-on appearance in Genesis and walks off again. And so they're saying, maybe he's not the Messiah because he has an origin.

He comes from Nazareth. So what's going on? So they're really wrestling.

The people are really wrestling. Is this the guy? And if he's not being arrested, maybe he is the guy. They're endorsing him by not arresting him.

But then doesn't he supposed to have a mysterious past? So they're picking this together. And I like this. I like the fact that they're wrestling with who he is. Which they should. Which they really should. And they're using biblical issues to try and figure out whether Jesus is fitting the pattern of who he should be. Well, so now the authorities get involved in verse 32. And they send some officers to arrest Jesus.

And they have some problems doing that. Jesus doesn't physically resist. But he does hit them with a very strange line. He says in 33, I'll be with you a little longer. And then I'm going to go to him who sent me. You'll seek me, kind of like they're seeking him now. But you won't find me. Where I am, you cannot come.

Which throws everybody into a tizzy. Like, what do you mean? Right. Where is he going? Is he going to arrest you until later?

You won't be able to find me? Is that what you're saying? And it seems to me. And so they're twisted up trying to figure out what this means.

Is this about the dispersion? Is he going off to Gentile land where the Greeks? I mean, what does he mean that you're going to seek me, but you're not going to find me? What? Well, so what he's doing, he's arousing a thirst in them. Exactly. And they're talking to one another and they're asking the question. But I hear in this an echo of what he says later on that last night to the disciples when he says, I'm going to make a place for you.

So where I am, you will be. Well, what's the difference between then and this? It's believing that what he says is true and he is God's anointed. God sent one.

Yeah, exactly. But at this point, he's saying to the Jewish leaders, hey, you know, I'm going somewhere. You can't come. You can't come. You're not equipped to go there because you don't believe that I came from the Father.

I always do the things he says that I should do and speaks his words. So I'm getting a little ahead of myself because he gets there in the later part of the conversation in chapter 8. Yeah.

Well, let's move on to 37 because Jesus starts teaching about he is, you know, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink and whoever believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Does this sound familiar in John? He had said that to the woman at the well. Yeah. And if you go back and look in the Scriptures in the Old Testament, you realize he's talking about the Holy Spirit. And he even explains that to us in 39. Well, John explains it.

Yeah. But you can find it in other places in the Old Testament. So this actually has a connection to the Feast of Tabernacles because while they were in their tents in the desert, God miraculously provided water for them because there is no water in the desert. And so Jesus just launches right out while everyone's thinking about tents and thinking about, you know, what happened coming out of the Exodus in Egypt and all that kind of stuff. He says, where did the water come from then? Well, guess where the water comes from now, you know, the Holy Spirit.

So he's making a slight connection to the actual celebration. Well, and there was this tradition that had grown up. You won't find it in Leviticus or Deuteronomy, but this tradition that had grown up on the last day of the Feast, by this time the temple people would create this sort of water conveyor belt to take water from, I think it was the Pool of Siloam, and carry it up the hill to the temple precinct. So there was a lot of water carrying and water pouring going on as kind of the climax of this feast. God is providing water for us. So that's actually the backdrop that's happening when Jesus says, hey, if you believe in me, the Scripture said, out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water.

So do you see this water? It's all a picture. Right. But to make this happen, let them come to me.

Let them come to me. So he's the source of all of that. I mean, that's just an amazing thing. Well, let's push on.

We're running short on time. Let's get to 40 where there's this big debate about who he is because remember that he has just launched all these discussions about who he is and people are back to fact checking and trying to figure out what Jesus is saying. You know, when you get to 41, well, this really is the prophet and other people were saying, well, no, this is the Christ. And some said, well, but is the Christ to come from Galilee? Hasn't the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was? And for those of us who've read the Christmas account in Matthew and Luke, we're going, well, he did come from Bethlehem. So there's this constant argument, constant discussion bubbling up and some of them wanted to arrest him. It says in verse 44, but no one laid hands on him. There was this constant division in the people about him.

Yeah. And, you know, if they were better taught about Jesus' history, they'd know that he actually was born in Bethlehem and someone should have raised their hand and said, he was born in Bethlehem. He sure attracted their attention. It's an interesting note, too, that perhaps this confusion about being born in Nazareth versus being born in Bethlehem actually gained him a year or two in actual ministry because it kept people from coming to the conclusion, well, this is the Messiah because it wasn't that well known that he came out of Bethlehem, was born in Bethlehem. So it might have extended the time of ministry.

Don't know, but that could be the case because it clearly did here. They're not arresting him instantly because it doesn't seem like he's the Messiah. Well, that's what the people are saying. In 1945, you get down to the officers, you know, the guys who were sent to arrest Jesus, and they come back empty-handed. And what did they say when they came back empty-handed?

I love this. They said, hey, hey, nobody ever talked like this guy. And the Pharisees said, have you also been deceived?

Have any of the authorities of the Pharisees believed in him? Well, yeah, actually. And then they say, but this crowd that doesn't know the law is accursed. They're ignorant.

Right? They're ignorant. They don't understand the law.

Well, probably they understand more than they're being given credit for. But Nicodemus, verse 50, who had gone to him before and who was one of them, said to them, does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does? And they replied, hey, are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee. So it's all about where you come from. So the leaders used the same argument.

It's the same argument. He's not supposed to come from Galilee. He's supposed to come from Bethlehem.

They didn't know he was born in Bethlehem, seems like. Yeah, so it's an amazing thing. And not only that. When you think about it, they sent these officers to arrest him. And their excuse coming back isn't that he resisted arrest, but that, well, but you know, he teaches really. Right. You know, again, this is the self-authenticating truth kind of thing. They came back and said, we're not sure we should arrest him because, you know, his teaching is exceptional.

There's no one like this. And they didn't really have anything to charge him with other than breaking the Sabbath. Right. So all along he had said, well, hey, I'm only doing what the Father has told me to do. And then he would raise legal questions about observing the Sabbath. Like, you circumcise babies on the Sabbath, or you go and dig your ox out of a pit on the Sabbath. So, you know, he could raise for them, or he did raise for them, questions that kind of niggled at them anyway.

Like, where is the line with resting on the Sabbath? Yeah, yeah. So we come to the end of chapter 7, and the entire discussion in chapter 7, which Jesus stimulated, was, who is he? Who is this man? And the people debate, and they're doing fact-checking. Where is he supposed to be born? The leaders are saying, we know where he's supposed to be born.

He's coming from the wrong place. I mean, when you get to the end of chapter 7, it's just a whirlwind of discussion about who is this guy. And it's because Jesus took the risk, which really wasn't a risk from God's perspective, came down to the Feast of Booths where, you know, millions, perhaps, of people were there in their tents, and stood up, and was very bold, and it caused just a huge discussion. So, next time in chapter 8, what's coming up in chapter 8? Oh, my gosh, well, the conversation, this is all set up for John 8, when he's going to say, hey, I'm from above, you're from below. I'm speaking the truth, you're speaking lies.

I have things to say, and you can't hear them. Yeah, he's going to continue the entire discussion about the origin of the Messiah. He's going to actually talk about his real origin. It's not about Bethlehem and Nazareth.

It's something even bigger than that. Right, before Abraham was, I am. Yeah, so when you get into chapter 8, count how many times you see the phrase, I am, showing up, because it'll show up a lot of times. So, the question is raised in chapter 7, who is this man?

And in chapter 8, he says, he's from above, God Himself. So, join us next time on More Than Ink, and we'd love to have you. Just read ahead with us, and we'll compare notes when we get together next week. Bye. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments, just go to our website, morethanink.org.