The Seekers Who Find

The Seekers Who Find

John 7:1-36                                    

 

Illus. Three feet away…

 

In the verses we will cover this morning, there is a theme and the theme is “seeking.” It is a word recorded 9 times in the 36 verses we will cover, so an average of one time every 4th verse. While it is a word used repeatedly, it is important for us to understand who is doing the seeking, who they are seeking, and why they are seeking Him. Those doing the seeking are the religious leaders in Jerusalem, the who they are seeking is Jesus, and the reason they are seeking Him is written plainly in verse one and it is, “they were seeking to kill Him.” Jesus had just given a teaching that was intolerable to them. Many of those who had started following Him turned away from Him. The religious leaders were enraged by Him, and the reason why is because He said plainly that He was from heaven, was the way to heaven, and eternal life would only be given to those who receive and believe in Him…Their response? They want to kill Him.

Jesus had come near; through Him many Old Testament prophecies were and would be fulfilled. He was the one that they were looking for, longing for, praying for, and hoping for. But when His requirement of them was to dig a little deeper, to seek with their whole heart in order to find, the people not only turned aside and gave up on Him, but they also ultimately wanted to take His life.

 

Isaiah 55:7, Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.

 

Jesus had come near. He had come down from heaven to show the ways and give humanity the opportunity to receive Him by belief in Him. Though we have seen some respond positively to Him, many will reject Him…That said, the beginning of chapter 7 is much different than the beginning of chapter 6. In chapter 6, large crowds are coming to hear Him. In chapter 7, Jesus is avoiding the crowds because His time had not yet come, and they wanted to kill Him. It is to them He will say in verses 33 to 34, “For a little while longer I am going to be with you, and then I am going to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.” That said, if some will seek Him and not find Him, I want to consider the context of the text and consider the differences between the seekers who find Jesus, and those who don’t. Surely, based on the text, the context will give us insights into seekers who had not, and later would not find Jesus. But knowing why that is true of them will help to learn and do differently than them. In other words, my encouragement is to be “seekers who find!”

 

Read: John 7:1-7

 

From verse one we see right away that the religious leaders in Jerusalem are seeking Jesus, but for all the wrong reasons… The word for “seek” is zēteō it means to seek after, to strive after, to seek in order to find. And in these verse many are seeking Jesus, but in many cases, they aren’t seeking Him to find the Savior of the world, rather, they are seeking to find Him, and then do away with Him.

As we look at those who are near but do not find Jesus in these texts, I want to encourage you toward four valuable lessons we find in these verses. To His brother who do not believe, Jesus gives a statement that I want to first highlight this morning…

 

John 7:6, Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune… (NASB 95)

 

1. Believe in Him at the Opportune Time

 

• Verse 1 begins with a familiar phrase from John’s writings, “after these things.” John uses the phrase 13 times between the book of John and the book of Revelation and each time I ask the question, “what things?” We know that there about a 6-month time period between John 6 and John 7. The reason we know this is because in chapter 6 verse 4, the Passover was near and now in chapter 7, the “Feast of Booths” was near.

 

• Passover takes place in the Spring, March or April, and the “Feast of Booths,” takes place in late September, or October. So about 6-months had passed. John does not dive into what took place during the 6-month gap. The details of what took place are recorded primarily in Matthew chapters 15-18 and Mark chapters 7 to 9.

 

• Jesus had been training His disciples and doing ministry in and around Galilee. Jesus made clear in Matthew 16:21-23 that it would be necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem and that He would suffer many things, be killed, and then raised up on the third day, but that day was about 6-months away and so Jesus is remaining in Galilee, because he knew that if he went too soon, they may attempt to speed up the process…

 

• The feast of booths, or tabernacles was a celebration to commemorate God’s faithfulness to His people for 40 years from the time they left Egypt as slaves to when they got to promised land of Israel.

 

• During that 40-year period, as the people wandered in the desert, God provided food, water, protection and provision, and the feast of booths, or tabernacles celebrated what God had done.

 

• It was a seven-day feast, a celebration and the eight day was a set apart day where no work was to be done.

 

• They would build little huts, or tent style set ups out of leaves and branches and they would sleep in those at night. This was to help them remember how God saw them through temporary dwellings, and looked out for them.

 

Leviticus 23:42-43, You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, 43 so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

 

• They built little booths, temporary dwellings, so the feast of booths, or “Feast of Sukkot” in Hebrew.

 

• I’ll have more specifics on what took place during the feast next week, but for our study today, it is important to note time, the occasion, and that Jerusalem would have been full of people for the celebration. 

 

John 7:3-6, His brothers said to Him, “Move on from here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself is striving to be known publicly. If You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.”  For not even His brothers believed in Him.

 

• When the Bible refers to Jesus’ brother here, it is a mention of His half-brothers. Jesus was born miraculously by the Holy Spirit of a virgin. But after Jesus was born, the Bible indicates that Mary and Joseph had children after Jesus.

 

• In Matthew 13 we get the Jesus’ immediate family tree, Joseph the carpenter, His mother Mary, His brothers: James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. We also read that He had sisters though they aren’t named (Matthew 13:55-56).

 

• As Jesus was there in Galilee, his brothers make the suggestion to Him to go to into Judea, head over to Jerusalem to put His works on display for all to see…

 

• It is not clear why they would make this suggestion to Him, but what we learn is that they, at this point, did not believe.

 

• We will see His family come to believe. James, the half-brother of Jesus, will lead the church in Jerusalem eventually (Acts 15). He will write the book of James.

 

• His brother Judas, or Jude for short, would write the book of Jude.

 

• But at this point, they don’t yet believe.

 

• At this point, they seem to be making a suggestion to Him for the same reasons others did. After revealing himself through signs, wonders, and miracles, people would ask for Him to show something more.

 

• Remember, after feeding a crowd of 5,000 men plus women and children, the same crowd said to Jesus the next day, “What will you show as a sign that we may believe you?” (John 6:30)

 

• Notice verse 4, “if” you are doing these things, show yourself to the world! In other words, they had seen what Jesus was doing, but He was up in Galilee, they wanted Him to go and show it on the big stage…If you want people to believe you are the way, show them where they all can see.

 

John 7:6, So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always ready…”

 

• Jesus said, my time is not yet come, the people out there hate me because I testify against their works, they are doing evil.

 

• NASB 95, your time is always opportune; NIV, for you, any time will do; ESV, your time is always here. 

 

• The word is literally, “opportune,” at hand, ready prepared, or made ready.

 

• As Jesus continues, it becomes clear that he is talking about the fact that they could go down to Jerusalem anytime, but His words here were striking when I began to things about their time of opportunity.

 

• Jesus’ time to show the world what they needed to see was coming, He would head to the cross at the very next Passover…His time to show was coming…But their time to see Him was ready.

 

• If they want Him to go to Jerusalem so that people may see His works and be seen by the world…They being those who still had not believed…It would be important for them to know their time of opportunity.

 

• Your time is always opportune…

 

• The seekers who find, will believe in Him at the opportune time.

 

Isaiah 55:6, Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.

 

• Jesus was near them, they wanted to see more it seems, but right then and there that had the opportunity, the opportune time to believe.

 

Illus. Limited time.

 

2 Corinthians 6:2, Behold, now is “a favorable time,” behold, now is “a day of salvation.”

 

Quote – “The opportunity of a lifetime needs to be seized during the lifetime of the opportunity.” – Leonard Ravenhil

 

• The time Jesus said had not yet come for Him, has come. He laid down His life, dying on the cross for our sins, and was resurrected again. His time came to make the way so that we would have the opportunity to believe today. It is important to believe at the opportune time.

 

John 7:7-13,  The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify about it, that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves; I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet fully arrived.” Now having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee. But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as though in secret.

 

• In response to His brothers’ request, Jesus told them He was not going with them. Certain manuscripts read, “I am not yet”

 

• What is clear is that Jesus was not going to go to the feast at that time with them, and in the way they expected Him to. He did, however, end up going, but would not go publicly and display His words for all to see as they were asking, rather, He would go secretly.

 

• When He arrived, he heard that the religious leaders were seeking Him, and what the people were saying about Him. This leads us to the next fact about the seekers who find…

 

1. Declare that He’s the Lord of Your Life

 

John 7:11-13, So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?” 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.” Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews. (NASB 95)

 

• Verses 11 to 13 highlight a couple different groups and what they are saying about Jesus.

 

• The first group is referred to here as “The Jews,” which in other translations reads “the Jewish leaders.” This would be the religious leaders in Jerusalem, the Pharisees and the chief priests and both are mentioned in verse 32.

 

• The Pharisees, remember, promoted strict adherence to both written law and oral tradition. They emphasized the way things looked on the outside, but failed to focus on the heart. They gave the traditions of man equal weight with Scripture, and ask verse one reveals, they had set themselves up as enemies of Jesus.

 

• Outwardly, they presented themselves as perfect, but Jesus would have much to say about how dirty they were inwardly.

 

• What we know from verse 11 is that they were seeking Jesus… “Where is He?” They were asking. They wanted to take His life.

 

• From verse 12, we know other groups of people in the crowd with different things to say about Jesus.

 

• Verse 12 says specifically, there was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him.

 

• Some were saying, “He is a good man,” others were saying “No, he is misleading the people,” but the were all doing it quietly because they were fearing the religious leaders.

 

• The conversation amongst the crowd is worth noting because last week we studied John 6, where Jesus, after a tough teaching, where He told the crowd that He is the bread of life, and the one who sees and believes in Him will have eternal life (John 6:40). Their response was, this is a “tough teaching” who can accept it? Then verse 66, many disciples left and would no longer walk with Him.

 

• The crowd had been following Him, and at the end of chapter 6, its seems that only His 12 disciples were remaining.

 

• We asked the question last week…Where did the crowd go?

 

• Well, here is the next mention of the crowd…And 6 months later they are still talking and debating.

 

• Some in the crowd, perhaps some from the crowd that was once following Jesus to hear His teaching are there contending, “He’s a good man.” The other group was saying, no, He is a deceiver.

 

• But their declarations all fell short.

 

Illus. Good guy.

 

Quote – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity: “Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

 

Revelation 3:20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

 

Romans 10:9-10, That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

 

• The seekers who find are the believers who declare that He’s the Lord of their lives!

 

Illus. Who?

 

III.  Be Willing to Do His Will as Defined

 

John 7:14-18, But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple area, and began to teach. The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this Man become learned, not having been educated?” So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not My own, but His who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God, or I am speaking from Myself.  The one 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.

 

• In the middle of feast, in the middle of the week, Jesus gets up and He begins to teach.

 

• The religious leaders were astonished at His teaching, that He had become learned though uneducated. When they said uneducated, the idea is not that He hadn’t studied, but that He had not been trained in one of their seminaries.

 

• Yet they were astonished by his teaching. The word used is the Greek word for doctrine.

 

• They were astonished by His sound teaching, His sound doctrine. If they could have accused Him of false doctrine, they would have, but they couldn’t, they heard Him teach and they were astonished!

 

• Jesus in response, references His teaching twice, it is the word “doctrine.”

 

• Didaché is the Greek word. It simply means doctrine, teaching, or instruction– or perhaps even simpler, truth taught, conveyed, or imparted to others. That’s the word, “doctrine.” It is instruction that applies to lifestyle application.

 

• Throughout the gospels and Jesus’ ministry in the Gospels the “doctrine” is referred to in various forms quite frequently.

 

• Jesus said if anyone is willing to do God’s will, He will know about the teaching and whether it is from God.

 

• The seeker who find, are willing to do God will, and they are willing to walking out at defined because they know who it is from!

 

• The Bible speaks about our willingness to do God’s will and what is required.

 

Romans 12:1-2, Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

 

• Paul speaks of surrendering ones life as a sacrifice, not being conformed but transformed and then the ability to “prove what the will of God is.” The word for “prove” means recognize as genuine, to discern, or know.

 

Illus, Sound it out.

 

John 6:19-31

 

• Some listening would hear Jesus’ words and believe, but others weren’t willing. This lead us to the last point I want to pull from our text this morning…

 

1. Have the Heart to See and You Will Find

 

John 7:32-36, The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest Him. 33 Therefore Jesus said, “For a little while longer I am going to be with you, and then I am going to Him who sent Me. 34 You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.” 35 The Jews then said to one another, “Where does this Man intend to go that we will not find Him? He does not intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks, does He? 36 What is this statement that He said, ‘You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”

 

• When Jesus said He would only be around for a little while longer, and then He would go to Him who sent Him, that where he was going they would not find Him, the Pharisees were confused.

 

• They say, He is not going to the “dispersion” is He? That is, the diaspora, the Jewish people who had been dispersed throughout the world for various reasons.

 

• They are saying, oh, He isn’t going to go to teach the Greeks now, is He? What is this statement that He said, “You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

 

• What He seems to be saying to them is that He is headed back to heaven, He will be going back to Him who sent Him, and they would look for Him, but they would not be able to find Him.

 

• But He makes an additional statement to consider…and that is, “where I am, you cannot come.”

 

• Why is that? They had rejected Him. 

 

John 1:11-13, He came to His own, and His own people did not accept Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.

 

Jeremiah 29:13-14, You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will let Myself be found by you…

 

Illus. Found.

 

John 7:1-36