Jesus walked in the wisdom of God in the midst of howling religious leaders who were bent on killing Him. One comedian said the following on the subject of the rising tide of opposition: ”Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that’s not true. Some of the smaller countries are neutral.”¹ There is much discussion in today’s world about mentoring as a way to build the whole man. There is no more magnificent mentor or example than Jesus. If you desire to know how to walk the talk against the rising tide of opposition, look at how Jesus did it, and copy Him.

Listen to the Audio

Click Play to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in Stitcher Radio

Why Taking the Forgiveness Test Helps Your Faith in God

[Tweet “John five says the religious leaders were trying to kill Jesus because He broke the Sabbath.”]

Read the Notes

You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put into operation.
This week’s call is:

 So here is your challenge today. We know the Bible teaches that can be just like Him.  Are you opening your mouth and your life where Jesus is concerned? That is you are not hiding, you are not hedging your witness for Jesus. You don’t care that there might be opposition. You know how to handle it. You’re determined to handle it just like Jesus did.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question: How did you sidestep the rising tide of opposition? Please consider leaving your story in the comments section below.

Episode Resources:

You can find additional information on the subject of John’s Gospel in the resources listed below.

1. 1. #S6-015: The Value of Knowing the Gift of God [Podcast]
   2. #S6-014: How to Conquer Prejudice the Jesus Way [Podcast]
   3. #S6-013: What Does It Mean to Be Born Again from God? [Podcast]
   4. #S6-012: Nicodemus: Is His Life a Positive Example to Follow? [Podcast]
   5.  #S-018: How Not to Be A Minister of Condemnation [Podcast]
   6.  #S6-019: Worshipping God: Why the Hour Is Here [Podcast]
   7. #S6-020: More on Praising God: Why the Hour Is Here [Podcast]
   8. #S6-021: The Big Scoop on Magnifying God [Podcast]
   9. #S6-023: Amazing Pointers on the Road to Lifting God Higher [Podcast]
   10. #S6-027: Why Jesus Shocking Bread of Life Statement is the Only Way to Heaven [Podcast]
   11. #S6-029: Why Mixing Holy and Unholy Is Not a Good God Thing [Podcast]

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

Subscribe to the Podcast

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe.

  Stitcher Radio                                                            Google Play

iTunes                                                                                PlayerFM

Share the Love

If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com

---

Podcast Notes

Killing Jesus: The Jews Attempt

John 7:1 (ESV) — 1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.

• All Israel was under Roman rule, but not all under the same ruler.
• Galilee, the northern part of Israel was under Herod Antipas.
• Judea in the south fell under Pontius Pilate.
• Let’s talk a bit about Herod Antipas.
• He was not the same Herod who murdered the children in Bethlehem.
• His father, Herod the Great, was the doer of that deed.
• But, Herod Antipas is the Herod who beheaded John the Baptist.
• He is the Herod whom Jesus called a fox.
• Herod Antipas is also the Herod during Jesus trial.
• Do you remember how Pilate shuffled Jesus off to Herod for jurisdiction reasons?
• So, Herod Antipas is the main Herod during the ministry of Jesus.
• But, neither of these rulers were in the ‘killing Jesus’ business.
• The politicians weren’t after Jesus; it was the religious crowd who was hell-bent on his demise.
• The scripture states, ‘They were seeking to kill Him.’
• The two words ‘were seeking’ is one word in Greek.
• It means to devote serious effort to realize one’s desire or objective.
• The word means to strive for, to aim (at), to try to obtain, desire, wish (for).²
• Verse one says they were seeking to kill Jesus in Judea.
• With that thought, here’s the historical background of the day from the IVP Bible Background Commentary by Craig Keener.

Since, Galilee and Judea were under separate jurisdictions in Jesus someone in trouble in one part of the country would be safer to remain in the other part. In John’s day, regional religious differences seem to have been increasing, with Christians being concentrated in Galilee and the rabbinic movement gaining more allies in Judea.³

Killing Jesus: How He Walked in Wisdom

• So, the Jewish religious leaders of the south were into the thought of killing Jesus and so Jesus stays away from that area and continues ministry up north.
• Now, that makes good sense doesn’t it?
• You know if someone is trying to take your head off, then getting your head out of the way is one way to keep your head.
• Paul did the same when the Jews were trying to kill him.
• Here’s Paul, an exuberant young covert.
• The man stirred up so much stuff with his zealous young self that the Jews committed a full-court press to kill him.

Acts 9:22–24 (ESV) — 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. 23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night to in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

• Now, you might be thinking, ‘Well this is Jesus the Son of God and Paul the great apostle of God; how come they didn’t just take a stand of faith?

Faith and the Leading of the Spirit Go Hand in Hand

• The answer lies in the leading of the Spirit.
• Faith is not independent of the Word of the Lord via the Spirit of God.
• In some of these cases, where you don’t have a specific Bible promise or Word from God, you have no basis for faith.
• Faith comes by hearing the Word.
• You have to have some Word to act on.

Romans 10:17 (ESV) — 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Several Attempts at Killing Jesus

Over the Sabbath

John 5:18 (ESV) — 18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

• John five says the religious leaders were trying to kill Jesus because He broke the Sabbath in their opinion.

John 7:28–30 (ESV) — 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” 30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

• Later on in John seven, down at verse thirty, the Jews are trying to arrest Jesus.

Over Jesus ‘I Am’ Statement

John 8:57–59 (ESV) — 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

• Moving on to chapter eight, the Jews try to stone Jesus for saying He existed before Abraham.
• He did you know; He was before Abraham.

Over His Sermon in His Hometown

Luke 4:28–30 (ESV) — 28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.

• Then in Luke’s gospel, there’s an account where Jesus preaches a sermon in His home town, and they try to grab Him and throw Him off a cliff.
• So now, think about that for a moment.
• If they are trying to arrest you, trying to stone you, trying to throw you off a cliff, trying to kill you, then there is something about your life that is contrary to the status quo.
• One way of understanding the why of this persecution of Jesus comes via understanding what the world of the first century was like.

The World of the First Century Was a ‘Public’ World

• The world of the first was a public world.
• If you are a private person, you would not have enjoyed the world of the 1st century.
• Life in early New Testament days was all ‘see-through’; everyone saw and knew everything about everybody.
• Consider the following quote from N.T. Wright.

In the ancient world there was virtually no such thing as private life. A tiny number of the aristocracy or the very rich were able to afford a measure of privacy. But for the great majority, life was lived publicly and visibly. The streets were mostly narrow, the houses and tenements were mostly cramped, there was noise and smell everywhere, and everybody knew everybody else’s business.⁴

• So, everything Jesus did or said was publicly broadcast.
• When the day of Pentecost came, and new believers were added to the church, everyone knew who those new believers were.
• There was no such thing as private personal devotion.
• The lives of the early New Testament believer in Jesus was lived in ‘glass homes.’
• When Christians avoided the worshiping of false gods by not attending their feasts, everyone knew who the dissenters were.

The World of the First Century Was a “Groupie” World

• Add to that the group mentality of the first century, that upholding ‘group honor’ while avoiding ‘group shame’ was expected.
• It’s difficult for the individualistic western mindset to grasp the cultural group concept of the 1st century.

If honor signifies respect for being the kind of person and doing the kinds of things the group values, shame signifies, in the first instance, being seen as less than valuable because one has behaved in ways that run contrary to the values of the group.⁵

• You can appreciate the complexity of this society when you understand that there wasn’t just one group whose values clamored for attention.
• There were multiple groups: Ethnic groups like Jews, Romans, and Greeks.
• And, their various philosophies: Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Gnosticism.
• Within the Jewish ethnic, there were multiple groups: Essenes, Zealots, Pharisees, and Sadducee’s.

Different Definitions of Honor and Shame

• All of these groups had their definition of what was honorable and shameful.
• For the Pharisees, honor is holding to the interpretations of the Torah handed down orally by the fathers.
• If you broke the traditions of the fathers, that is, if you lived and spoke contrary to the values of the group, that made you a shameful in the eyes of the religious establishment.
• And, persecution was the result.
• One of the reasons behind the attempted ‘killing of Jesus’ by the Judean religious because He wasn’t a groupie who bought into the ‘oral law system.’

The Christians’ withdrawal from Greco-Roman religious and social life aroused suspicion and prejudice, often resulting in ridicule, insult and prejudice, and sometimes going considerably further—toward physical and economic sanctions.⁶

Jesus Preaches ‘A Contrary to the Group’ Message

• So, here is Jesus a Jew, a Rabbi, in fact, a great teacher, the most excellent teacher, who preaches one of the most famous ‘contrary to the group’ messages the planet has ever heard.

Matthew 5:21–22 (ESV) — 21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

• Jesus told his disciples on a particular day as he sat down on a mountainside, “You have heard that it’s been said to those of old, you shall not… now fill in the blank here, with murder, with adultery…. but Jesus said ‘I say unto you.’
• What is Jesus doing?
• He’s coming out against the group.
• Jesus is saying, “The group has said this, but I, am saying something other than what the group is saying.”
• The Pharisees give Jesus ‘I am saying to you’ speech a thumbs down calling this non-group behavior shameful.
• What, this man won’t come in line with the group?
• Who does He think he is anyway?
• But, Jesus “I say unto you” expression is not a proclamation of individualism.
• Nor is it a declaration of rebellion against ‘the group.’

Jesus Preaches What He Hears the Father Say

• Jesus walks in Holy Spirit immersion as a man.
• He is a Spirit-led man.
• He has more insight than His teachers because the Word was His meditation day and night.

Psalm 119:99 (ESV) — 99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.

• He is hearing and teaching what His Father is saying in His Spirit.

John 5:19,30 (ESV) — 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

• And as a Spirit-led man, the Great Teacher abides in Him.

Two Exceptional Holy Spirit Passages

• You remember these two passages in First John.

1 John 2:20 (ESV) — 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

• And also…

1 John 2:27 (ESV) — 27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.

• These scriptures show us how Jesus spoke and judged.
• He did it by that inward revelation which comes by the anointing within.
• But, these verses in First John don’t refer to Jesus ministry.
• They refer to yours.
• Jesus is showing us by His example what is the ‘new normal’ for every child of God.
• Every born again child of God can be led by the same Spirit of God who led Jesus.
• You don’t need to play the honor and shame game with the group.
• The most spectacular teacher the world has ever seen lives in the simplest child of God.
• You can rise with Holy Spirit inspired revelation from God and declare, “The group is saying this, but I say unto you.”
• That is if the group is saying something different than the Bible is saying.

Spirit-Led Old Testament Style

• Here is this same concept in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 30:21 (ESV) — 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

• Have you ever been on the wrong end of ‘not agreeing with ‘the group?’
• I have.
• It happened during my early years as a believer.
• I began to see some things in the Word of God a little different from the group that I worshiped with on the subject of faith and growing spiritually.
• The disapproval over these new found truths was in evidence at once.
• Certain of that group took it upon themselves to try and corral me.
• After all, everyone should line up with the group, right?
• They even tried to bring the Apostle Paul in on their position.
• “We all need to same say the same thing,” they said to me, quoting from First Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 1:10 (KJV) — 10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment.

• The truth is, we don’t need to say the same thing.
• What we need to say is the right thing.
• The people at the Tower of Babel were all saying the same thing.
• That’s why God confounded their languages so they couldn’t operate in unified rebellion.

Killing Jesus: How Jesus Handled Opposition by Standing His Ground

• So, we can see why Jesus was persecuted.
• We can also see how Jesus stayed away from Judea as one way of handling the opposition’s attempt at killing him.
• In John five, Jesus heals a man who was bedridden for 38 years.
• What draws the ire of ‘the group’ is that Jesus heals this man on the Sabbath day.

John 5:15–18 (ESV) — 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

• The word ‘persecution’ used here means to harass someone because of beliefs.⁷
• The term translated as ‘persecuting’ can also have the force of ‘prosecuting.’⁸

Jesus on Trial

• So, Jesus was on trial because of His yielding to the Spirit of God on the Sabbath day.
• But, when He responded to that persecution by standing His ground knowing, not only the Word in general, but knowing precisely God’s ‘rhema’ word to Him, by saying, “My My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
• Well, the Jews believed that Sabbath rest excluded God because God was the giver of life.⁹
• After all, people were born every Sabbath.
• Their spirits came from God.
• That’s what Solomon told us in the book of Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 (ESV) — 7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

• The Jews said that God could work on the Sabbath day, but when Jesus said that He did the same by working right along with Him, they became ‘foaming at the mouth’ mad.
• You would think, Jesus might stress over all this.
• Someone trying to kill you can be stressful.

Jesus Refuses to Back Off

• Jesus refused to back down, back off; He determinately pressed the truth of God forward.
• Listen to what He said, starting at verse.

John 5:19–24 (ESV) — 19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

• How’s that for not backing off?
• But, there’s more.
• Jesus goes on another twenty-three verses worth along this line.
• So in some cases, when the mindset of the opposition is on killing Jesus, He goes to a different part of the region to avoid those threats.
• But yet in other cases, He looks the death threat right in the face and stares it down.
• It’s beautiful to see Him live life and here’s the good news.
• The Bible says you can be just like Him.

The Value of Humility and Consecration in the Miracles of God

---

References: