John Chapter 7

vs 11

They were looking for Jesus, and probably fully expecting him to turn up to the feast, because he is after all some sort of Rabbi.

vs 12

People's opinions of him varied - some people thought he was good, other people believed what the Pharisees were saying about him, and so thought he was deceitful.

vs 13

But to show you the kind of power the Pharisees at the time had, no one wanted to mention him at all in hearing distance. They were afraid of what the Pharisees would do. And fair enough. They could have you stoned to death.

vs 14

He had balls, this plucky young man. Sure, he might have waited before revealing himself, but he did go, and he did end up coming out openly. And it's not like there was safety in numbers - he was up the front talking and could have easily been arrested.

vs 15

Jesus had this going for him too - his teaching was really authoritative, and people were constantly amazed. And all this without having formally studied.

vs 16

Jesus has an answer for this though, and I think we should take him at his word. His understanding of the Scriptures and the power and authority of his teaching don't come from personal knowledge or a keen mind - they come from God.

vs 17

And further than that, Jesus says that those people who choose to do God's will will be able to test and approve his teaching as being correct. Which makes sense really - if you're not trying to follow God's will and walk close with God, how would you know whether what he's teaching is good or bad?

vs 18

Jesus always humbles himself before God. Like Philippians says, he doesn't need to put himself on the same level as God, because he is God. So instead, he humbles himself before God in service to him.
And he says that because he does that, you can tell that he is trustworthy and truthful. See, humility doesn't mean false modesty - Jesus is happy to claim that he is trustworthy and truthful, he doesn't need someone else to say it for him. Humility is putting yourself in your rightful place.

vs 19

Jesus then accuses his crowd of loving Moses more than him. I mean, we wouldn't call that humble, but he is better than Moses. The problem is, they all love Moses so much, but they don't actually do what he said to do. Bad form!

And then he accuses them of wanting to kill him. Now, it is probably unfair to say that most of the Jews wanted to kill him. They would chant as much later, but at the moment they don't really. But the Jewish leaders, who no doubt were listening, did want to kill him, so he wasn't just making stuff up.

vs 20

Of course, the crowd has no idea, and so they accuse him of being whacked out on goof balls, or at least demon posessed. Wouldn't be the first time either.

In fact, you can imagine that, because some people thought he was deceitful, that could have been a heckler. They even had them back then.