There are many confused opinions about who Jesus is.
While there are many confused opinions about who Jesus is, your eternal destiny depends on believing the truth about Him. But John (20:31) wants us to know the truth about who He is so that we “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing may have life in His name.” So John is showing us that … So the overall feeling of our text is that a lot of people were confused about who Jesus is. Because of misunderstanding both about the origins of the Messiah and Jesus’ origins, they concluded that He could not be the expected Messiah. They were confused both about who Jesus was and about why their religious leaders were not arresting Him. Then there is a narrower group that John calls “the people of Jerusalem” (7:25-27). Many of them were not aware that the Jewish leaders were seeking to kill Jesus, so when He mentioned this, they accused Him of having a demon (7:20). This would include Jewish pilgrims who had come up to Jerusalem for the feast from all over Israel and from other countries. So they had to proceed cautiously.Īlso, there is a larger group whom John calls “the crowd” (7:12, 20, 31, 32). They also remembered Jesus’ disrupting their business by cleansing the temple. But they knew that many in the crowd liked Jesus. So they joined together to try to seize Him (7:30, 44, 45). These groups were often rivals, but they viewed Jesus as a common enemy. This refers to the Jewish religious leaders, whom John also identifies as the Pharisees and chief priests, who were Sadducees (7:32). There is the group that John calls “the Jews” (7:1, 11, 13, 15, 35). In our text, we see different groups of religious Jews who are confused about Jesus. Jesus was very exclusive when He said (John 14:6), “I am the way, and the truth, and the life no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Either He was right or He was wrong. There are not many ways to God, so that you can just pick whatever suits your fancy. Contrary to the prevailing popular view, spiritual truth is not whatever each person prefers it to be. That’s especially true when it comes to spiritual matters. Sometimes confusion can be humorous, but at other times it can be disastrous. The woman listening to the choir said, “Isn’t that a lovely sound?” The woman listening to the crickets replied, “Yes, and I understand that they do it by rubbing their legs together.” The other woman was listening to the sound of the crickets chirping. One woman was listening to the sound of a church choir a few doors away as they practiced. One summer evening they were sitting on their porch, enjoying the peaceful scene. A story is told of two old ladies who lived together.