The beginning of Jesus' ministry was generated tremendous controversy in the region around Jerusalem of Judea.  The temple was situated in Jerusalem and was the center of Jewish religious activity.  The most pious and respected Jews would attend the Temple regularly, so Jerusalem became home to the sect of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Sanhedrin (the ruling Jewish council.)   Their adamant regard for their traditional law led them to despise anything or anyone that did not adhere to it, or at least to their interpretation of it.  So, when John the Baptist started preaching with prophesies of the coming Messiah, and was baptizing people as a testimony of their repentance. the religious leaders saw that activity outside of the scope of their religious views.  They challenged John on the authority by which he did these things.  When Jesus started his ministry, his message of salvation and his claims to authority were also despised by the religious authorities.  When Jesus healed the lame man on the Sabbath (breaking their Sabbath rules), and declared his sins to be forgiven (considered blasphemy) the religious leaders sought to kill Jesus.

Because of the rabid hatred expressed toward Jesus by the religious leaders in Jerusalem, it was not safe for Jesus to minister there, and he moved his center of activities to Capernaum in Galilee.  However, Jesus still sought to visit Jerusalem during the feasts, so He did so with careful attention to avoid unnecessary attention.

John 7:14.

Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.

It was traditional for Jews to visit Jerusalem during the three major feasts, Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of the Tabernacles that followed the Day of Atonement.   John, Chapter 7 starts with the plans of Jesus and His disciples to attend the feast, as Jesus sends the disciples on and remains in Capernaum.  Rather than attend the 8-day feast, Jesus went to Jerusalem around the middle of the feast and went to the temple where he spoke to the crowds that gathered there.  It was not unusual for the Jewish rabbis to use the courts outside the temple as a place from which to profess their opinions on the law.  However, there was something unusual about Jesus. 

John 7:15.

And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?

When Jesus spoke on spiritual matters, His manner of speaking was different from that which they had heard before.  The people were amazed at how knowledgeable Jesus was about the scriptures, particularly because He appeared to be a common man like all others.  They were also angered.   What was the difference in the way that Jesus taught and the way in which the religious leaders taught?  Jesus' teaching was characterized by authority that no other teacher would ever dare assume.  Jesus did not appeal His words to rabbinic authorities, and He had not submitted Himself as a disciple to one of the respected rabbis.  This lack of credentials, paired with the authoritative way that Jesus spoke incensed the religious elite. 

John 7:16-18.

Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. ¹⁷If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. ¹⁸He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

We might see a similar parallel today.  When a Christian shares his or her faith, or teaches, or preaches God's Word, there is a dynamic in their testimony that no other source can draw from:  the Holy Spirit.  When a Christian shares their testimony or teaches the Word out of an agape love for those receiving the testimony, the Holy Spirit is empowered in the speaker.  Even the lost see that the person is sharing from the heart, and their confidence in their beliefs is evident.  Jesus, when He spoke, was not simply repeating tenets of the law as the rabbis did.  The rabbis often spoke in order to promote their own pride, pointing to their own righteousness, with no concern for the true well-being of the people.   Jesus loved the people and spoke from His heart the message of salvation so that those who would believe in Him could respond.  There was life in his words that the people had never heard before, except from John the Baptist.   

Jesus' words were clearly intended for the benefit of those who were hearing.  He did not speak in a manner that would seek to glorify Himself.  It is obvious when one is speaking in a manner that is meant to lift up the speaker, and this was the pattern of the Jewish leaders and the Pharisees, so when Jesus began to teach the people, they crowded around to hear.  Many people were attracted by this difference in character, but most did not understand Jesus' message.

Jesus stated that, rather than receiving his doctrine from any rabbi, His message is from God, the Father, and anyone who is in the will of God will, upon listening and believing, understand.  Such words would enrage the religious elite, but those words are true, and unlike the fact-based teaching of the rabbis, requires a seed of faith.

John 7:19a.

Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?

The position of the rabbis was based upon their prideful adherence to the law.  They declared themselves righteous by it.  This had taken place for so many years that the people did truly believe that those fundamentalist Jews were more righteous.  However, every thinking person is aware of their own sin.  Each of us knows that we could never keep every letter of the law, so as Jesus speaks to the crowd that included many religious leaders, he pointed out this truth.  All of a sudden the righteousness of the elite is brought down to the level of the common man.  The baselessness of their pride is exposed.  This is an amazing teaching to the people who held their leaders on a high level of regard.  Today Christian's will sometimes use the cliché to note that all people have sinned and come short of God's standard of perfection and that no person can stand in front of another as righteous.  All deserve the penalty for sin, and without Jesus, are without hope.

John 7:19b-20.

Why go ye about to kill me? ²⁰The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee?

As Jesus is speaking, He can sense the anger arising in the religious elite who had already spoken among themselves of finding a way to kill Jesus.  They had rationalized charges of blasphemy and had drawn from Mosaic law a litany of charges stemming from Jesus' "working" on the Sabbath.  Their desire to discredit Jesus was to the point of obsession.  When Jesus braces them on their desire to kill him, the people who were there were astonished.  The plot of the religious leaders was not public.  The leaders recognized that Jesus was becoming continually more popular with the people, and their very authority was being challenged by His success.  To kill Jesus outright would stir up riots and could expose their own hypocrisy.  However, as the question is asked, one can imagine that those members of the religious elite who were in attendance were more than agitated.

John 7:21-24.

Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel. ²²Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man. ²³If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day? ²⁴Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

Jesus then exposes the hypocrisy of the charges of the religious elite by using the same Mosaic law that they twist for their own purposes.  Jesus first notes that the charge of the elite comes from a single event:  the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethsaida (John 5).  However, it was common practice to circumcise boys on their 8th day following birth, and if that day fell on the Sabbath, the circumcision was performed.  This was a rite that was attended by a rabbi.  It was clearly understood by the people and by the religious elite that circumcision on the Sabbath was contrary to their own Sabbath law.  The leaders rationalized away this conflict by placing opinions into their traditional writings that promoted the laws of circumcision over the laws of the Sabbath.  Jesus shows that the violent reaction of the elite was in response to one event, but they themselves perform a similar act on a regular basis.

Jesus calls upon those who judge to do so based upon righteous judgment.  The prejudice of the religious leaders was obvious, and that prejudice was clouding their judgment, just as prejudices will cloud our own.  

John 7:25-27.

Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, whom they seek to kill? ²⁶But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? ²⁷Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is. 

The crowd was made up of a wide range of people, and most were probably travelers who had come for the feast.  In this verse, those local Jerusalemites are particularly pointed out as it was they who were seeking to destroy Jesus.  Until now, many were not certain that this was the man who the religious leaders sought to kill.  His very presence in the temple at this time presents a paradox since the people considered the religious leaders to have the political power, particularly in the temple.  Furthermore, some even in Jerusalem are becoming convinced that Jesus is, indeed, the Messiah.  Is the response of the leaders so violent because they too think that He might be the Messiah?  Besides, how can Jesus be the Messiah?  We know where He is from:  Nazareth.  Why do the religious leaders not stop this man if He is not who he says he is?  The prophets have written that the Messiah will come from Bethlehem, so that the people would, indeed, know "whence he is."  Still, the people were probably not aware that Jesus came from Bethlehem because shortly after His birth, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Egypt to avoid the murderous King Herod who did know to look for the Messiah in Bethlehem.  Upon their return, they went to Nazareth and it was there that Jesus was reared.

John 7:28-29.

Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of myself, but He that sent me is true, whom ye know not. ²⁹But I know Him: for I am from Him, and He hath sent me.

Jesus' response to the critics was firm.  His words could be translated in modern language, "So, you think you know where I am from, do you?"   Jesus makes it clear that He did not come on His own accord, but came from God, the Father, who sent him.  He then declares that the critics do not know God.  Jesus makes no compromise when debate arises as to who He is.  It is the debate over who Jesus is that has separated society for 2000 years, and separates all people from God for eternity.  Jesus states His own clear calling, that He knows that He has been sent by God, and by so doing, declares Himself in yet another way, to be the Christ, the Messiah.

John 7:30-31.

Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.  ³¹And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?

The 'hour' that Jesus often referred to would be that point in time when He would be called upon by God to atone for the sins of all people on the cross of crucifixion.  There was work to be done before this event would take place, so Jesus could not yet fall into the hands of the angry Jerusalem Jews.  What kept the religious leaders from taking Jesus prisoner?  It might have been God's hand of protection, it might have been due to the disorganized confusion among His enemies.  In any case, it was God's will that Jesus would not yet be taken.

Yet, characteristic of Jesus' ministry, the people were divided.  Who were they to believe?  On one side were the self-righteous religious leaders shouting their condemnations, yet Jesus was a man of peace who had shown the power of God through many miracles, perhaps more already than they would have ever expected from the Messiah.  Accepting who Christ is requires making a decision to stand clearly on one side or the other of an eternal issue.

John 7:32.

The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. 

As the people listened more to Jesus' teaching many became to have more confidence in the truth of His words.  Though Jesus described who He was in terms of his purpose, He never actually stated that He was the Messiah, the Christ.  So people questioned among themselves as to whether it was possible that this man from Nazareth was, indeed, the Promised One.  When word got back to the Pharisees concerning the amount of attention Jesus was given, they were motivated to take action.  Part of the temple staff included guards who served as security officers.  These men were Jews, not Romans since Romans were not allowed to enter the temple.  (Romans could enter the Court of the Gentiles if their purpose was for worship.  However, that court had been taken over by merchants.)   

John 7:33-36.

Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. ³⁴Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come. ³⁵Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? ³⁶What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?

These words were spoken in the hearing of the temple guards.  As they are coming to arrest Him, Jesus tells them that He will not be here very long, and where He is going He will not be found.  At face value, the guards might think that since Jesus will not be here long, it would be easier to let Him leave than to take Him into custody among a crowd that is increasingly supporting Him.  As the Jews considered His words, they could only conjecture on where Jesus would be going.  The Jewish laws were so severe that the only place that he would be estranged from them would be out among the Gentiles.  Such a concept was almost impossible to them, so their statement was not one of prophesy, but one of sarcasm.  It is if they are saying, "Where will He go?  Does He think He can go teach the Gentiles?"  Little did they know that this was exactly why Jesus would leave us in the manner which He did.  By the time that John wrote these words, the gospel had been taken outside of Jerusalem into the Gentile communities where it found fertile soil and many were saved.

The place that Jesus was referring to was His place with the Father in heaven following his sacrifice on the Cross.  This is something that a crowd could never understand.  Jesus would only be able to teach such deep truths to individuals and small groups in a quiet setting.  These were the teachings that were brought to the apostles and disciples who, after the crucifixion would be able to share the truth with others.

Jesus came to bring peace and life to a world that only experienced turmoil and death.  One would think that since the Jews were the "children of God" that they would have embraced the Messiah.  However, there was little in first-century Israel that resembled children of God.  The Word of God had become a ritual law that was protected by a large and complex set of traditions and oral law that made the law the center of their faith, not God.  The religious leaders prided themselves on their knowledge of the law and their ability to keep it, despising anyone else who did not.  Their power to control was entirely wrapped up in the law.  They were not ready for a Messiah who would place the law back where God had intended it:  into the hearts of people (Job 22:22, Psalm 37:3, Isa. 51:7).  Jesus' message was so radical that His life was in danger any time He set foot in Jerusalem.  

Little has changed in our world.  After 2000 years of testimony people still systematically reject Jesus today.  The world culture is turning back to a traditional law that despises anyone who does not agree.  In western culture, it is the law of positive tolerance and relativism that rejects any act as being sin, and refuses to tolerate anyone who thinks it is.  The new culture feels no need for a savior.  Non-western cultures still recognize their need for God, but search for Him through animism, the attribution of authority to created things, whether they be people such as Buddha, or objects and animals.  In many places in the world Christians are persecuted, even unto death, for professing their faith in public.  More Christians have been martyred in the last 100 years than were martyred in the previous 1900.  

Jesus came to bring love to a world filled with apathy and hatred.  It is only through the testimony of Christians, one that is wrapped in love for all people, will this world turn to Christ.  Let us not allow those of us who are part of the body of the Church of Christ be as the Jewish leaders and find ourselves blinded to Jesus' true purpose, and through that blindness, lead the lost into the abyss.  Let us rather put aside our pride and submit ourselves totally to God, seeking to listen to His Holy Spirit as we seek to bring the world to saving faith.

Yes, Jesus did come from Bethlehem, born as a Man.  But Jesus was also the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, the One who provided a way for us to see God, returning to the right hand of God.  In this He was also fully God.  As the world sees the Man, let us help them see the Messiah who came to save us from our sins.