Is Jesus the Christ?

John 7:25-36

Could This Be the Christ?

25 Now some of them from Jerusalem said, "Is this not He whom they seek to kill? 26 But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? 27 However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from."

28 Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, "You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. 29 But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me."

30 Therefore they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. 31 And many of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?"

Jesus and the Religious Leaders

32 The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him. 33 Then Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. 34 You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come."

35 Then the Jews said among themselves, "Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him? Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What is this thing that He said, 'You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come'?"

The question arose when Jesus was being targeted by the religious leaders of the Jews for His teaching that threatened their system of added laws to God’s to keep control of the people.  The question was whether this was the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah who was the Prophet prophesied to come (Genesis 49:10, Deuteronomy 18:15, John 6:14) whom they should listen to and hear His words.  They witnessed Jesus speaking and teaching boldly in the temple when these were after His life and the people questioned why they were after Him.  They even considered they suspected Jesus was the Christ but were unsure themselves because they did not know where Jesus came from and the scriptures made it clear that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem according to Micah 5:2 as foretold.  But Jesus loudly proclaimed that they did know who He was and where He came from, that is from heaven above, because God His Father sent Him whom they did not know and He did.  This internal witness of who He is was based on the full knowledge of His eternal identity and presence with God from eternity (John 1:1-2, 14, 17:5) before the beginning of all creation (Colossians 1:17, 1 Peter 1:20)!  Because Jesus the Son came from the Father to become a man, He had full knowledge of who He was and only those whose eyes were opened by Him could grasp this fact.  Some tried to take Him away to stop this proclamation of the truth that upset their religious system of control but it was not time yet for the cross because He had more to say and do first according to what was predetermined by God.  Many did hear, however, and wondered among themselves if this truly was the Messiah, the Christ, because of the things He taught with authority and the ring of unarguable truth and the supernatural works which only the Divine could be able to do.  This question rang in their minds, “Is this man Jesus the Christ we have been looking for?”  The Pharisees and chief priests had enough when the people started to believe Jesus and they wanted to stop Him.  Jesus addressed them all by saying He would not be much longer with them but that He would soon go back to Him who sent Him (they did not understand or accept that Jesus was speaking about going back to heaven to God His Father, however).  He made it clear that when He went back (ascended, Ephesians 4:9-10) to where He came from that they would be unable to follow Him or find Him there.  They did not have the understanding to grasp His meaning and so reasoned in futility as to what He might have meant.  They even wildly guessed that might mean going to the dispersed Jews among the Greeks to teach them outside of their control.  They simply did not know.  If they had accepted the truth that He was indeed the Christ instead of rejecting Him and His words, they might have been given the understanding eyes and ears to hear and see who He really is and where He came from beyond His inception into flesh at Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) which they never found out was not Nazareth (Matthew 2:23, John 7:52) as was assumed (John 1:46, 7:41-42).  We now have the full counsel of scripture recording the whole picture with all the facts and it is easy to wonder how they missed this, but we must understand that God purposely blinded them until after His death and resurrection so we could understand when He explained it all (Luke 24:26-27) and His Spirit was given to live in all transformed believers (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) to be able to be taught these things by God to receive and accept Him as the divine Word made man to save us through trust in His words made spiritually understandable.  We who have been so enlightened with life out of the darkness now can truly say Jesus is the Christ and our Lord (Matthew 16:17, 1 Corinthians 12:3).  It is so written (2 Corinthians 4:13-14, 1 John 5:13) and so we believe.