John 7:25-30
I Am From Him
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| John 7:25-30 MKJV Then some of those from Jerusalem said, Is this not the one they seek to kill? (26) But lo, he speaks publicly, and they say nothing to him. Perhaps the rulers truly know that this is the Christ indeed? (27) However, we know this one, from where he is; but when Christ comes, no one knows from where He is. (28) Then Jesus cried in the temple as He taught, saying, You both know Me, and you know from where I come. And I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. (29) But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He has sent Me. (30) Then they sought to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. |
Jesus
plainly says that He is from God, was sent by God and personally knows God.
Jesus also points out that they did not have anything like the knowledge of God
that He did with the referential phrase: “but He who sent Me
is true, whom you do not know.” And on top of this Jesus says these things in a
loud voice, in public, in the Temple, in front of the entire religious
hierarchy and God-experts. (v.28)
This is a clear attack on the efficacy of the
Jewish religion as it was practiced in Jesus day. Jesus is saying that the
religious establishment did not really know the truth about God – but that He
did!
This builds on what we saw yesterday that is
that Jesus consistently interpreted the Sabbath as being “for man”, and for our
wholeness and blessing in particular. In other words religious institution is
there to serve the saint, not the saint to serve as mere labor for the
religious institution.
For the Jews things were like so:
The Saint serves à
the Religious Institution, which serves à God.
But in Jesus’ view things were like so:
Religious Institution serves à
The Saint who serves à
God.
In
fact Jesus Himself came to seek and serve the lost, so that they might become
saints and serve God. So ministers and churches exist to perfect the saints and
fit them for Heaven and for the service of the Lord.
[Now
this does not excuse the selfish Christians who think everything revolves
around them at church! Selfishness is clearly not part of the gospel.]
So
the Jewish religious authorities were failing to serve the people in their
quest for God – because these same authorities did in fact not know God (v.28).
As we saw earlier, they were so bound up by their traditions that they did not
judge with “righteous judgment” (v.19-24) and ended up distorting the Law.
So
great was their delusion that they wanted to seize and kill Jesus – who was
indeed Immanuel, God with us! Their allegiance to their religious system was
far greater than their desire for the truth.
“Then Jesus cried in the
temple as He taught, saying, You both know Me, and you know from where I come.
And I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not
know. (29) But I know Him, for I am from
Him, and He has sent Me.”
Jesus is saying that He
is a messenger sent by God, to the Jews, to tell them the truth about God,
which they do not know. As a messenger He is not going on His own initiative,
but on the initiative of the One who
sent Him. Jesus did not just decide one day to leave Heaven and tell the world
some of His ideas about God. Instead Jesus was sent by the Father to say and do
certain clearly specified things that would communicate the nature of God most
clearly to those who believe.
In various passages in
the gospel of John Jesus explains His role as God’s Messenger to humanity:
John
5:30… I can do nothing of My own self.
…I do not seek My own will, but the will of the Father who has sent Me.
John
7:16… My doctrine is not Mine, but His
who sent Me.
John 7:28
… And I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true…
John 8:28
... I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father has taught Me, I speak these
things.
John 8:42 … for
I went forth and came from God; for I did not come of Myself, but He sent Me.
John 12:49 … For I have not spoken of Myself, but the
Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say, and what I should
speak.
John 14:10 … Do
you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The Words that I
speak to you I do not speak of Myself, but the Father who dwells in Me, He does
the works.
Thus Jesus does
nothing on His own initiative, but only does the Father’s will, and His
doctrine, His mission, His words, His speech and His works were not done by
Jesus as a result of His own ideas but instead were done by “the
Father who dwells in Me”. (John 14:10).
This obviously applies also to us – as Paul says:
Galatians 2:20 MKJV
I have been crucified with Christ, and I live; yet no longer I, but
Christ lives in me. And that life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith
toward the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself on my behalf.
Christian ministry does not originate in man’s notions or
emotions, but rather ministry flows from God’s motions within us! This requires
the ability to pay attention to our interior life - our being, and our
conscience, and to the presence of the indwelling Christ.
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