Our Security for Eternity - the Gospel of John Sample

Read: John 7:1–52

SOAP: John 7:28–29

Then Jesus, while teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You both know me and know where I come from! And I have not come on my own initiative, but the one who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him, because I have come from him and he sent me.”

The Feast of Shelters (some translations say “Feast of Tabernacles” or “Feast of Booths”) was a celebration of deliverance. It was a time when the Jewish people remembered both the Exodus from Egypt and their return from exile in Babylon. They remembered the mighty works God had done to deliver them from their enemies, from slavery, and exile. They also looked forward to a coming deliverer. While many expected the coming Messiah to deliver them from oppression from their enemies and to rule as king, they did not recognize that the Messiah would first come to save them from sin and death.

Jesus went to the feast in secret, and when it was over, began to teach in the temple courts. The crowd did not understand His teaching and wanted to turn Him over to the authorities. They knew only the Messiah could claim to be from God, and they knew Jesus had grown up in Nazareth. He was from Galilee, and the Messiah was supposed to come from Bethlehem. How could this ordinary man claim to be from God, to know God, and to speak the words of God?

Jesus’ claims are true. He is the One sent by God. He alone knows God and He came to make God known. God sent Him and He speaks only the words of God. Even though the crowds (including Jesus’ brothers) knew things about Jesus, they did not know Him because they did not believe Him.

Jesus is not only a good man—He is the God-man. He is fully God and fully human; His nature cannot be separated. He is the Messiah, the Christ, the deliverer of the world. No matter what the world says about Jesus, these things never change. He is the Son of God and the only way to eternal life.

Like the crowd, it can be easy to think we know Jesus because we have heard things about Him. We may have heard that He was a prophet, a good person, a humanitarian, or even a man with whom God chose to share a message. There is a difference between knowing Jesus and believing in Jesus. When we believe He is the Son of God we believe that His dying in our place to pay the penalty for our sin was enough. We believe His sacrifice makes us right with God and that He is alive, raised again to life by God’s power, and that He will come again. To have eternal life with Him, we place our faith in Him and Him alone.