MISSION WOODS CHURCH
Sunday, July 26, 2026
      • Bible Trivia
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      • Bible Trivia
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  • In the Name of the Lord
  • Praise The One Who Breaks The Darkness
  • Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
  • Jesus My Jesus
  • More Love, More Power

      • John 7:25-27ESV

      • John 7:28-30ESV

      • John 7:31-33ESV

      • John 7:34-36ESV

  • Of all the passages we’ve done this far in the Gospel of John, chapter 7 is probably the least well known. There’s no great miracle, no unusual new teaching. It is an exposition of the conflict between the traditional teaching of the Pharisees and Jesus.
    In a small village, a revered elder would always carry a lantern while walking at night. One day, a curious child asked why the elder always walked with a lantern when the village was lit by street lamps. The elder smiled and replied, 'This lantern shows me the way, not just for me, but for those who come after.' Similarly, traditions can illuminate our path, but they must align with the true light of revelation. When tradition outweighs understanding, we may trip in the darkness it once illuminated.
    You and I today have a significant advantage over the common person liiving during Jesus time is THIS (hold up Bible). We have access to God’s Word. They had to go to the synagogue to see the Scriptures. This is by far the best selling book of all time. In the United States somewhere between 85 and 88% of homes have at least 1 Bible in them. Most homes have between 3 and 4 Bibles.
    As little as 9% report reading the Bible regularly. Only about 11% have read the entire Bible according to surveys. Researchers tell us this is a difficult statistic to confirm because it tends to be over reported.
    Even in the church, research says 1 in three will engage with the Scriptures outside of worship on Sunday morning.
    With that, I want to say, Please. Please, Please, don’t have a hand me down, second hand faith. Augustine famously heard a voice saying, “Take up and read.”
    So as we dive into our passage this morning, we begin with a debate happening among the people. We read that some of the people in Jerusalem were saying, John 7:25-27
    John 7:25–27 ESV
    “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
    So we have some Puzzling Preconceptions.

    1. Puzzling Preconceptions

    They apparently knew of the Pharisees desire to kill Jesus.
    Why were they seeking to kill him? If you remember back in chapter 5 Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, telling the man to take up his bed and walk - in other words commanding him to work on the Sabbath. When confronted about healing on the Sabbath Jesus responded “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” And we read in John 5:18
    John 5:18 ESV
    This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
    Yet, now the people see him speaking openly and the authorities are not doing anything. They begin to question whether they secretly knew this is the Christ.
    But they also are struggling with what they knew of where the Messiah was to come from - Bethlehem. Yet to their knowledge, Jesus was from Nazareth in Galilee.
    Their deeply rooted traditions were obscuring the divine truth that was right in front of them.
    What are someof your own predispositions that may hinder your recognizing God’s work around you?
    Jesus goes on to proclaim his purpose.

    2. Proclaiming Purpose

    We read in verses 28-30,
    John 7:28–30 ESV
    So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
    Jesus confronts the misconceptions about his ministry head on. He takes the time to declare his divine origins and challenges the existing world views calling upon the people to look deeper.
    Should they hold to their traditions which were comfortable and familiar? OR As they are seeing the acts of Jesus, and hearing Him proclaiming He has been sent to them.
    Some thena re seeking to arrest Him, and others believe Him. Professing, John 7:31
    John 7:31 ESV
    Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
    “When the Christ appears will he do more signs than this man has done?”
    So we see the Pharisees entrenched in their traditions while the people are waffling.
    How do we actively engage with Scripture and seek discernment in understanding God’s will?

    3. Persistent Paradoxes

    Verses 31 & 32 demonstrate the challenge the Pharisees were facing:
    John 7:31–32 ESV
    Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?” The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.
    The truth is that faith and opposition coexist not only in the crowd’s responses to Jesus, but in our lives as well.
    Again, I point you back to are you holding to a second hand faith?
    What happens when what we’ve been taught comes up against what we read in Scripture?
    What happens when we realize much of what we think is in the Bible isn’t?
    At Christmas time I often share a fun trivia quiz surrounding Jesus birth. It asks questions such as “How did Mary and Joseph get to Bethlehem?”
    A. walked. B. Joseph walked, Mary rode on a donkey C. Mary walked, and Joseph rode. D. We don’t know.
    Contrary to our beloved friend Helen May who pointed out to us regarding our biblical trivia screens the answer was never “D”. The answer is “D”> The Scriptures don’t say how they got to Bethlehem.
    “How many kings came to see Jesus after his birth?” Most people answer 3, but it’s not in the Scriptures. Furthermore, they weren’t kings according to the Scripture, they were “wisemen from the east.”
    Too often we believe what we’ve been told about the Scripture rather than reading it for ourselves. And, many in our churches are “New Testament” Christians, meaning we tend to spend all of our time in the New Testament. However, the people of the New Testament when they’re quoting the Scriptures are quoting the Hebrew Scriptures - our Old Testament. What better encouragement for us to become familiar with the Scriptures they were familiar with.
    Embrace the tension between your own skepticism and faith as an opportunity for spiritual growth. Search the Scriptures. Become like the Berean’s, Acts 17:11
    Acts 17:11 ESV
    Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
    receiving God’s word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

    4. Parting Perspectives

    Finally, Jesus gives some parting thoughts - though we’re only in the seventh of John’s 21 chapters in his Gospel. Yet, Jesus is already speaking of His departure.
    John 7:33–36 ESV
    Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
    The Pharisees really struggled with this because they still didn’t recognize where it was Jesus came from, so how could they know where He was going? They couldn’t understand Jesus message because they were holding so strongly to their tradition.
    There’s a story of a newlywed couple and the young wife was determined to make a roast for their Sunday dinner. She cut off the ends of the roast and the husband got upset. “Why are you doing that? You’re throwing out good meat?” The woman admitted she didn’t know, that’s how her mom always did it.
    After dinner they called her mother who had served her famous roast every Sunday. Curious, her daughter asked why, and she replied, "That's how my mother always did it." Huh.
    Seeking clarity, she visited her grandmother, later that week. She shared how she had cut off the ends of the roast as her mother did, who said she had taught her. The grandmother laughed, “I don’t know why you two are doing it, but I did because I had a small oven, so it wouldn’t fit otherwise."
    This story reflects how we sometimes hold onto traditions that have lost their meaning, missing God's true revelations in Scripture that can guide us. We need to ask ourselves, are we following traditions or the truth of God?
    Jesus time was limited here on earth. We know he will return.

    Time is Running Out

    We know Jesus will return, we don’t know when that will be. I find comfort in realizing that even in Jesus day there were those who struggled with His teaching. Even then, our faith was not meant to be passive.
    True faith flourishes when we allow God’s revelation to challenge and reshape our traditions, leading us to a deeper and more authentic relationship with Christ. When we read the Scriptures how have they been understood.
    I talk to people often who will say they want to have an active and vibrant faith. Yet many of these people will also confess they’re not in church, they don’t read their Bibles, their prayer life is limited at best, and so I have to wonder how they expect for their faith to become vibrant?
    Don’t let someone hand you your faith. Your faith muscle needs exercise just like your body’s muscles do. Read your Bibles. Pray. More than that dialogue with others about your faith, even with those who may not have faith.
    Don’t be afraid to ask questions of your faith, and don’t leave it simply at a question, seek the answers. Jesus is the answer if we’re willing to seriously look.

      • John 7:25–27ESV

      • John 5:18ESV

      • John 7:28–30ESV

      • John 7:31ESV

      • John 7:31–32ESV

      • Acts 17:11ESV

      • John 7:33–36ESV

  • We Are An Offering
  • Victory In Jesus
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MISSION WOODS CHURCH
info@missionwoodschurch.org
(253) 922-5555
http://www.missionwoodschurch.org
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