John 7

Part of Light of the World and the Good Shepherd📖 John introduction

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¹After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. ✦ ²Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. ✦ ³So His brothers said to Him, “Move on from here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. ✦ ⁴For no one does anything in secret when he himself is striving to be known publicly. If You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.” ✦ ⁵For not even His brothers believed in Him. ✦ ⁶So Jesus *said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always ready. ✦ ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify about it, that its deeds are evil. ✦ ⁸Go up to the feast yourselves; I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet fully arrived.” ✦ ⁹Now having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee. ¹⁰But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as though in secret. ✦ ¹¹So the Jews were looking for Him at the feast and saying, “Where is He?” ✦ ¹²And there was a great deal of talk about Him in secret among the crowds: some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He is misleading the people.” ✦ ¹³However, no one was speaking openly about Him, for fear of the Jews. ✦ ¹⁴But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple area, and began to teach. ✦ ¹⁵The Jews then were astonished, saying, “How has this Man become learned, not having been educated?” ✦ ¹⁶So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not My own, but His who sent Me. ✦ ¹⁷If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God, or I am speaking from Myself. ✦ ¹⁸The one who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. ✦ ¹⁹“Did Moses not give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why are you seeking to kill Me?” ✦ ²⁰The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill You?” ✦ ²¹Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, and you all are astonished. ✦ ²²For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and even on a Sabbath you circumcise a man. ✦ ²³If a man receives circumcision on a Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry at Me because I made an entire man well on a Sabbath? ✦ ²⁴Do not judge by the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” ✦ ²⁵So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is this Man not the one whom they are seeking to kill? ✦ ²⁶And yet look, He is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to Him. The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they? ✦ ²⁷However, we know where this Man is from; but when the Christ comes, no one knows where He is from.” ✦ ²⁸Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and 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. ✦ ²⁹I do know Him, because I am from Him, and He sent Me.” ✦ ³⁰So they were seeking to arrest Him; and yet no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. ✦ ³¹But many of the crowd believed in Him; and they were saying, “When the Christ comes, He will not perform more signs than those which this man has done, will He?” ✦ ³²The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest Him. ✦ ³³Therefore Jesus said, “For a little while longer I am going to be with you, and then I am going to Him who sent Me. ✦ ³⁴You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.” ✦ ³⁵The Jews then said to one another, “Where does this Man intend to go that we will not find Him? He does not intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks, does He? ✦ ³⁶What is this statement that He said, ‘You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come’?” ✦ ³⁷Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ✦ ³⁸The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ” ✦ ³⁹But this He said in reference to the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. ✦ ⁴⁰Some of the people therefore, after they heard these words, were saying, “This truly is the Prophet.” ✦ ⁴¹Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” But others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not coming from Galilee, is He? ✦ ⁴²Has the Scripture not said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” ✦ ⁴³So a dissension occurred in the crowd because of Him. ✦ ⁴⁴And some of them wanted to arrest Him, but no one laid hands on Him. ✦ ⁴⁵The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” ✦ ⁴⁶The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken in this way!” ✦ ⁴⁷The Pharisees then replied to them, “You have not been led astray too, have you? ✦ ⁴⁸Not one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he? ✦ ⁴⁹But this crowd that does not know the Law is accursed!” ✦ ⁵⁰Nicodemus (the one who came to Him before, being one of them) *said to them, ✦ ⁵¹“Our Law does not judge the person unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?” ✦ ⁵²They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee as well, are you? Examine the Scriptures, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” ✦ ⁵³[[And everyone went to his home. ✦

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Where this chapter connects

John 7 ·49 John 8 ·29 John 1 ·16 John 6 ·16 John 12 ·14 John 5 ·14 John 9 ·13 John 17 ·13

Christ at the center

John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.

How John 7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereDocumentaryFollowing the MessiahAppian Media · Free · evangelical
A free, beautifully shot 10-part series walking the lands of Jesus' life — Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, and more.
★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
DocumentaryHolyLandSiteHolyLandSite · Free · evangelical
Free on-location videos tying biblical events to the actual sites in Israel — the Temple Mount, Galilee, Capernaum, and more.
ApologeticsCold-Case Christianity (J. Warner Wallace)J. Warner Wallace · Free · evangelical
A cold-case homicide detective examines the Gospels' reliability — forensic faith for skeptics and seekers.

Pastoral

★ Start hereSermonMLJ Trust — Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermonsMartyn Lloyd-Jones · Free · reformed
1,600+ free sermons from "the Doctor," including landmark verse-by-verse series (Romans, John, Ephesians, Acts) — a gold standard of expository preaching.
SermonGrace to You — John MacArthurJohn MacArthur · Free · reformed
Decades of careful verse-by-verse expository sermons, especially through the New Testament. (MacArthur, d. 2025; archive remains free.)
SermonGospel in Life — Tim KellerTim Keller · Free · reformed
Tim Keller's gospel-centered preaching — sermons stream free (the complete downloadable archive is paid).
ArticleRecommended NT commentaries (9Marks / Schreiner)Thomas R. Schreiner · Free · reformed
A trusted pastor-oriented guide to the best commentary on each New Testament book.
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.
VideoVerse By Verse Ministry InternationalVerse By Verse Ministry Int'l · Free · evangelical
In-depth, verse-by-verse expository teaching book-by-book — strong for working straight through a whole New Testament book.
VideoLook at the Book — John PiperJohn Piper · Free · reformed
Watch Piper trace the logic of a passage phrase by phrase on screen — a model of close reading.

Seminary

★ Start hereApologeticsGary Habermas — the resurrectionGary Habermas · Free · evangelical
130+ free videos and lectures from the scholar behind the "minimal facts" method — the start-here on the historical evidence for the resurrection. (Only his books are paid.)
★ Start hereCommentaryThe Gospel According to John (Pillar NT Commentary)D. A. Carson · ~720 pp · Paid · reformed
The go-to mid-level exegetical commentary on John — rigorous and readable.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — John videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on John 7YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — John 7David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JohnMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — John 7Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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