John 7

Disbelief leads to debate and division. Truth leads to agreement and unity. The Jews had some significant problems in their theology that led to a failure to see Jesus for who He really was. The majority did not know the doctrines of scripture but leaned heavily on their own ideas. For instance, in Vs 41 and 42 the Jews mention the Messiah was to come from the city of David, not Galilee, yet earlier in Vs 27 they say, “We know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where He comes from.”. Here we see the problem of debate. We will always fall short when we debate with our presuppositions or lean on our understanding. They had access to the Old Testament scriptures that proclaimed Christ would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) and that He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2-5). They still tried to be the authority on the subject rather than letting God’s word be the authority. Further, Jesus’ brothers could not believe in Him, having lived with Him in such close proximity. They clearly would have seen His Godly wisdom and knowledge of the scriptures, which begs the question: How can we be so close to something and totally miss it? We live in a world where people are enamored with religious activity, and ritual yet miss the true meaning and relationship altogether. We do not want to get caught up in religious activity and miss the true purpose of worship. Reverance for God demands our worship but worship is from the heart. And not based on ritual or religious activity. 

Read John 7. What was the religious activity going on here? How was it supposed to point to Christ? How did they miss it?