Is He Really the Christ?

When we left the Lord Jesus last time, He was responding to the crowd's astonishment at His teaching. Two aspects of His teaching inspired the crowd's wonder. First, Jesus possessed an amazing knowledge of the Scriptures having not studied at the feet of a recognized Rabbi. Second, they were astounded because He taught with divine authority and did not cite the usual scholars in support of His teaching. Jesus' authority came from God the Father. If they were willing to obey God, they would understand from where His authority came. He closed His discussion with an admonition to judge rightly. "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." John 7:24.

Verse 24 serves as both a bridge and a title for our text today. The people who heard Jesus tried to judge with righteous judgment. They began to deliberate on all they heard and tried to arrive at a verdict as to who Jesus really was. Not only must that first century group of Jews consider the evidence and arrive at a conclusion, we too must decide who Jesus was and is. This is the most important judgment we will ever make. For this judgment will determine where we will spend eternity. So, let us listen in as the deliberations take place and the verdict is finally rendered.
I. The People's Deliberation (v. 25-27)
II. The Savior's Clarification (v. 28-29)
III. The Verdicts Given (v. 30-32)