The Gospel of John - Outline Part 19 - The Root of the Problem

TITLE

John 7:25-39 – The Root of the Problem

EXPLANATION

Still in the midst of the Jews during the Feast of Booths, Jesus continued to face opposition from them.  The people could see the evidence of His authenticity, in the face of the verbal opposition yet active apathy of the authorities.  However, in spite of the obviousness of the situation, the people could not get past the human wisdom they were relying on.  This false wisdom prompted them to question Jesus because of His humanity.  They had built in their minds an image of the Messiah that was incongruous with what had been revealed in the Old Testament; the same picture that Jesus was now advertising.  Therefore, they questioned and doubted.

At this point Jesus drove the stake of truth right into the heart of the issue.  The simple fact of the matter was that He had come from God.  Yet, the people did not truly know God.  He had been obscured from their sight by their unrighteous obsession with fulfilling the letter rather than the spirit of the Law.  So, because they did not know God they could not know the One whom God had sent.  In spite of the bleakness of the situation, we see a ray of hope shine through the storm clouds of faithlessness.  The text records that, true to God’s pattern, there was a remnant in the midst of the people who did believe in Jesus.

Hearing the grumbling of the people, the Pharisees thought they might have an opportunity to attack Jesus.  So, they sent soldiers to arrest Him.  Responding to this threat, Jesus continued to focus on the real issue that was at the heart of their unbelief.  It was that they did not truly know God and could not find their way to Heaven where He would be going.  Taking one final opportunity on the last day of the feast to proclaim truth, Jesus again pointed out that it was only through belief in Him that the people could have a hope of eternal life.

APPLICATION

Faith in Jesus is faith in God.  This is a fundamental staple of the Christian religion.  This was the focal point of opposition from Jesus’s Jewish countrymen in the 1^st century, it has been the single greatest point of contention between Muslims and Christians throughout the centuries, and it is the singular dividing line between spirits who are from God and spirits who are not from God.  John makes this clear in 1^st John 4:1-6.  Those of us who engage in great amounts of theological education must not lose sight of the relatively simple truth that faith in Christ is the key that under-girds everything we do.