Verse 36: “What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me’?” In response to this calm authority, they are clueless. I have come to do my Father’s will, not yours. You won’t keep me here when I choose to leave. ![]() In other words, you may try to arrest me but I will choose where I go, when I go, and who will follow. You will seek me and you will not find me. We are not told until verses 45–46 what happened with those officers (next week’s message), but what we are told here is that Jesus responds with calm and authoritative words in verses 33–34: Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. And when the Pharisees got wind of that positive response, verse 32 says they took action: “The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.” But some thought he just might be the Messiah. This is why the crowds wanted him arrested in verse 30 (and why you will not be popular in this pluralistic world of ours if you speak the word of Christ). If they will not have Jesus as Lord and Savior, they do not have God as Father. What they make of him reveals whether they truly know God, or honor God, or love God, or have God as their Father. If you want to help somebody discern if he really knows God or not - say a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Jewish person - present him with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified for sinners as the only hope of the world. “If you will not have Jesus as Lord and Savior, you do not have God as Father.” John 8:42 - “If God were your Father, you would love me.” ![]() If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” John 8:19 - “You know neither me nor my Father. John 6:45 - “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me.” John 5:42–43 - “I know that you do not have the love of God within you. John 5:23 - “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” Over and over in this Gospel, Jesus makes plain that if you reject him as God’s Son, his Messiah, and as the supreme Treasure of your life, you don’t know God or honor God or love God or have God as your Father - no matter what your religion, and no matter what you say your relationship with God is. And since you don’t know him, you can’t recognize me. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”ĭon’t miss the words “him you do not know.” You, the most religious, the most privileged, the most well-taught people in the world, the people with the very oracles of God, the Jewish Scriptures - you do not know God. ![]() He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But the reason the opposition intensified in verse 30 (“seeking to arrest him”) was not merely because he failed to look like a Messiah, but because of what he said - and the most offensive part (and it remains offensive 2,000 years later) was what he said about them, not about himself. Maybe their faith was real maybe it wasn’t (like his brothers’ in verse 5). They said, ‘When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?’” In other words, they were really impressed with his miracles. Verse 31: “Yet many of the people believed in him. But here Jesus is a man from Nazareth, with no sudden appearance, and looking nothing like a Messiah.īut others thought he was the Messiah - at least it was a good chance. Notice how they argue in verse 27: “But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” There was a popular view among the people that the Messiah would appear suddenly, as out of nowhere. ![]() John 7:30: “So they were seeking to arrest him.” Why? Because they saw him as a pretender who can’t possibly be the Messiah. Jesus is in Jerusalem teaching a divided crowd of listeners.
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