Differing Opinions John 7:1-13 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

In this text we find varying opinions about Jesus.

The opinion of the Jews: They wanted to kill him (verse 1)

In verses 19-20 they lied to him and denied it. They wanted to kill him because he healed on the Sabbath and denied their interpretation of Moses’ law (John 5:16). They tried to kill him on many occasions, but God stopped them because his time to die wasn’t come yet.

When Jesus’ time was come, the Jews succeeded in killing him (Act s2:36, 1 Thessalonians 2:14). Pilate wanted to let him go, but the Jews insisted and prevailed. The Romans may have put him on the cross, but he wouldn’t have died if the Jews didn’t hate him.  Most Jews today do not believe that the Jews killed him.  In fact, he died because of our sins and he chose to die, butIsraelas a nation rejected him, nonetheless.

The opinion of his brethren: They didn’t believe in him (verse 3)

They sarcastically told him to shew his works to Judaea. Jesus’ time wasn’t come, and he didn’t come to be recognized.  His main interest was his death, burial and resurrection, not to get a big following.  After the crucifixion, then the world would know all about him.

The opinion of the world: They hated him (verse 7)

Christianity today has adopted the world’s strategy to grow, trying to advertise to the world.  These churches can’t stand against the world, and have become apostate.  1 John 2:15 says that if we love the world, we don’t have the love of the Father.  That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love us, but that we can’t show God’s love to others.  You are supposed to be a witness for Jesus, not to be like them.  John 15:18-19 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”  They thought that Jesus was a deceiver

The opinion of the minority: They said he is a good man (verse 12)

John 6:14 “Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.”  Some people knew that he was good. They didn’t speak of him openly, but at least they saw the truth.