Anchor My Faith

Such Marvelous Teaching

Scripture: John 7:11-16

We ended the previous lesson with Jesus waiting for his brothers to go up to Jerusalem to the feast. He desired to go in private and not arrive there with a crowd gathered around him. This lesson opens in Jerusalem with the Jews looking for Jesus: ^{Jn 7:11} “The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?”’

While the Jews were looking for Jesus, ^{Jn 7:12} “there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” ¹³ Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.”

The muttering among the people was a secret debate they were having as to whether Jesus was the Messiah or whether he was deceiving them and thus drawing them away by pretending to be the Messiah. This debate was conducted in secret, like Christians gathering for a time of fellowship in the face of persecution, because of fear. Today, more and more believers must assemble in small groups in different places to try not to be detected and punished. In the setting of our study, it was the Jews who the people feared.

^{Jn 7:14} “About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. ¹⁵ The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”’

Since the feast lasted eight days, it would have been around day four or five that Jesus made his public appearance in the temple. The word “temple” used here denotes the area surrounding the temple, including the Court of the Gentiles, in distinction from the temple building proper from which non-Jews were excluded. In that temple area there was space for the people to gather and listen to Jesus teach and as he taught the Jews marveled.

In this context, the Jews may include both the Judean crowds and the Jewish authorities. They marvel because they know that Jesus never studied as other Jewish leaders did, yet he taught as one who had great learning. Seated before them was the Son of God clothed and concealed in human flesh to the point that all they could see was one of great learning who taught with authority that exceeded their learned teachers.

Of course, Jesus would detect them marveling, ^{Jn 7:16} “So [he] answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.”’ In response to their marveling, Jesus explains why he can teach as he does. He explains that his teaching is not from him, but is from his Father, who sent him from heaven. Jesus is indirectly telling them that he is the Son of God who came from heaven and took on a body of flesh through a virgin birth and thus his teaching is from God.

Conclusion

As Jesus faces these gathered around him in the temple area, he announces that his teaching is from God and is being presented to them from the Father by the Son. Without the virgin birth this makes no sense, and even with the virgin birth in the picture, for many it still makes no sense, and for many that is still true today. As the God/Man, Jesus is one of a kind and is thus the only way to the Father.