How Prejudices Makes us Blind to the Truth: John 7:25-52

About this Episode

How Prejudices Makes us Blind to the Truth: John 7:25-52 is the topic that will be discussed today on RIOT Podcast, a Christian Discipleship Podcast.

In episode 81 we unpacked John 7:1-24 and why the world hated Jesus. The scene showed us that everyone was going up to Israel to celebrate the feast of the tabernacle or also known as “the feast of the booths”.

Before they left to attend the festival, Jesus’ own family members mocked Him and His followers. We learned that Jesus attended the festival in the middle of the feast because that was God’s perfect will. We also unpacked about the Jewish People and the religious leaders saying Jesus had a demon. Jesus was different, He did miracles and people did not understand Him. Jesus said, “He did not come to seek His own glory, but that of His father who sent Him.” He told the crowd that everything He is sharing with them is truth and there is no falsehood in Him.

Today we will unpack John 7:25-52. The story picks back up with the residents of Israel questioning Jesus, some are beginning to ask, “Could He be the Christ?”

Read John 7:25-31

We see here that the residents of Jerusalem are entering the conversations. They knew full well the rulers wanted to kill Jesus and they were amazed that He was teaching openly and getting away with it. In verse 26, they say perhaps the rulers had been convinced He was the Messiah. But why are the Leaders not worshiping Him and why are they not leading others to worship Him?

Their question in vs 25 suggested a negative answer and showed their prejudices: They said, No, the rulers do not believe that He is the Christ, do they? They were able to defend their conclusion with logic:
1. Nobody knows where Christ comes from
2. We know where Jesus of Nazareth came from.
3. So then Jesus cannot be the Messiah.

Once again the people could not see the truth because they were blinded by what they thought were dependable facts.

In vs 28, we see Jesus raising His voice by proclaiming. Jesus is probably speaking in a tone revealing irony. He shared with them that they really do not know Him, because they do not know the Father. This was a serious accusation for Jesus to make against them. The Jews prided themselves in knowing the true God.

His statement is also claiming that He was God. He was not simply born into this world like any other human. He was sent to earth by the Father. This means that He existed before He was born on the earth.

You can’t claim to be God in a religious system and not be threatened with arrest.

Read John 7:32-36

This is certainly a crisis hour in Jesus’ ministry, and the Jewish leaders tried to arrest Him. But His hour has not come. Jesus still had more work to do. Many people, up until this point, have put their faith in Jesus. He had a following, many believed because of His miracles, but eventually, over time we see them openly professing their faith in Christ. It wasn’t time for His arrest and there was nothing they could do about it.

In vs 36, Jesus said ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘where I am you cannot come and the religious leaders did not understand that. Within 6 months from this time, Jesus will go back to the father. He was warning them that they only have a little longer to hear the truth, to believe in Him, and be saved. Had these men been willing to do God’s will, they would have known the truth.

Read John 7:37-39 and unpack the end of the feast and people being thirsty.

The last day of the feast would be the seventh day, a very special day on which the priests would march seven times around the altar, chanting Psalms 118:25 (Save us, we pray o lord, o lord we pray give us success.) This is the last time they draw the water and pour it out on the altar. No doubt just as they were pouring out the water, which was symbolic of the water Moses drew from the rock, Jesus stood there shouting His great invitation to thirsty sinners.

Jesus was referring to the experience of Israel recorded in Exodus 17:1-7. That water was but a picture of the Spirit of God. Believers would not only drink the living water, but they would become channels of living water to bless a thirsty world.

While there are no specific prophetic Scriptures that indicate rivers of water flowing from the believer, there are a number of verses that parallel this thought.
Isa 12:3 With joy you[a] will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Isa 32:2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

At the feast, the Jews were reenacting a tradition that could never satisfy the heart. Jesus offered them living water and eternal satisfaction. The result of this declaration and invitation resulted in the people being divided.

Read John 7:40-52

In Vs-40-44, they want to know “Is He a good man or a deceiver, Is He the Christ, Is He the promised prophet?” If they had only examined the evidence, they would have discovered that indeed He was the Christ, the Son of God.

We should not be surprised if religious leaders refuse to trust Jesus. The Bible says that He has hidden His truth from the wise and prudent and revealed it to the spiritual babies, the humble people who will yield to him.

Vs 45 the officers came to the Chief Priests asking them why they had not brought him to them. They said “no one ever spoke like this man. Have you also been deceived?” Vs 50 says that Nicodemus, who had gone to him before asked them a question. “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

The leaders challenged Nicodemus to search the prophecies to see if he could find any statement that a prophet would come out of Galilee. We know that Jonah was from Galilee, and Jesus said that Jonah was a picture of Himself in death, burial, and resurrection.