Much of the public knew Jesus at close quarters. They murmured against Him when He said He came down from heaven because they knew His family. Some did not know his past. They said, “We know where He came from”. They thought He belonged to Galilee. So, they were apprehensive of Jesus being the Christ as Christ was expected to be born in Bethlehem and that too as the Seed of David. – John 7:42. (They were not aware of the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea and was a descendent of David legally by Joseph and biologically by Mary). Later, they said, “We know not from whence He is”. – John 9:29.

They also could not understand Him when He said that He will return to the same place He came from. They thought of a place here on earth, but He was speaking of Heaven, His Father’s abode.

Many always thought of Him as the son of Joseph. Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph? - John 6:42.
Then, they marvelled at His scholarliness because they knew He was uneducated. And the Jews marvelled, saying, “How knows this Man letters, having never learned?” – John 7:15.

Jesus challenged the Jewish public and their leaders - Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise It up. – John 2:19. And it was an open challenge to Satan. Satan should have understood this first even before the Jews had a grasp of the meaning of the statement.

The Devil started prompting the people to kill Jesus. They came up with many accusations against Him as a justification to murder Him.

First, they said He must be killed because He had violated the sabbath regulation by healing a man (who had an infirmity that kept him in bed immobilised for thirty-eight years). Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay Him, because He had done these things on the sabbath day. – John 5:15.

Second, He called God His Father, thus equating Himself with God. Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the sabbath but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. – John 5:18; I and my Father are one. – John 10:30. They did not recognize Jesus as God in flesh. His words had no place in them. – John 8:37.

Third, they said He was a Samaritan (untouchable man of the lowest caste), that He had the devil in Him and that He was mad. – John 7:20; 8:48, 52; 10:20.

Fourth, they were afraid of forfeiting the authority vested in them by the Romans. The Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. – John 11:48.

Fifth, they were envious of Him because many Jews started believing on Jesus and started following Him leaving behind the Jewish Rabbis and Pharisees. Among the believers were many chief rulers (officers/authorities) too. Behold, the world is gone after Him. – John 12:19.

Jesus spoke plainly about the identity of the Jews who were seeking to murder Him. He said, “Ye are of your father the devil”. – John 8:44; and you are seriously inclined to fulfil the lusts (desires) of your father.
They sought to take Him: but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come. – John 7:30. Attempt #1 - failure.

He said, “I have a little more time here”. – John 7:33. That was an extension of the challenge that he posed to them earlier. And some of them would have taken Him; but no man laid hands on Him. – John 7:43. Attempt #2 - failure.

The Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him. – John 7:32. But the officers came empty-handed. No man laid hands on Him; for His hour was not yet come. – John 8:20. Attempt #3 – failure!

He was posing the challenge again. He said, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: - John 9:4. They sought again to take Him: but He escaped out of their hand. – John 10:39. Attempt #4 – failure.

All these attempts to arrest Him happened back to back, but Satan failed every time.

There were also several close encounters to murder Him. The Jews sought to kill Him. – John 7:1.

First, when He revealed Himself to His own people in His hometown Nazareth, as the Anointed One mentioned in the Book of Isiah the Prophet, the Jews rose up, and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. But He, passing through the midst of them went His way, - Luke 4:29, 30.

Second, when He revealed to the Jews as the “I am”, the Jews took up stones to cast at Him. – John 8:59. But Jesus hid Himself and going through the midst of them, passed by.

Third, when Jesus spoke of He being one with the Father – I and my Father are one, then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. – John 10:30, 31.

There was also a weird attempt by the general Jewish public (who had eaten of the bread and fish that He had fed them with, multiplying them miraculously) to take Him by force and make Him King. This was certainly not in the plan of God. So, He departed from them.

Jesus was also continually letting the Jews know that whatever they tried to do, nothing would fructify unless it was the appointed time. And, again, it was not they who would kill Him, but He would lay down His life in the pre-determined fashion as per the original plan of God that was drawn even before the foundation of the world. I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. – John 10:17,18. He also kept telling them about resurrection – a concept that the Jews failed to grasp because nothing like that had happened in the past. But this was built strongly in the original challenge He posed to them. Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise It up. – John 2:19. He spoke not only about He raising up His own on the last day but also about His own resurrection immediately after His death. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life”. – John 11:25. Even His disciples could not understand this “resurrection”.

There was also a momentary attempt by Satan to topple the plan of God using Jesus’ leading disciple Peter. Immediately after Jesus began to openly talk about His trial, death and resurrection, Peter rebuked Jesus saying, “Let this idea be far from You”. Jesus correctly identified the voice as Satan’s and commanded Satan to get behind Him as he is an offence unto Him.

Then came the appointed time.

The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. – John 12:23. For this cause came I unto this hour. – John 12:27.

It was God’s plan that was working out flawlessly!

Satan thought he had his man Caiaphas the high priest for the year at the helm of affairs to help him carry out his plan. But God would use this very man to accomplish His purpose; He put words in Caiaphas’ mouth (Remember Balaam?), “It is expedient for us, that one Man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spoke he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation;” – John 11:50, 51. Then from that day forth, they took counsel together for to put Him to death. – John 11:53. They also commanded the public at large to let them know Jesus’s whereabouts.

The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me. – John 14:29.

The garden at Gethsemane – the battleground on earth where the fate of Satan was reiterated and sealed once and for all when the Lord, as a Man, for the last time before His death, submitted His will to His Father “to finish” His part of the eternal purpose – “not My will but Thine be done” Luke 22:42. The accomplishment of the Plan of God by His Son on the cross was sealed right there – everything that happened later was the completion of the formalities of the foreordained will of God. Satan was comprehensively defeated in this battle against the Son of God at Calvary, but he smelt defeat at Gethsemane. The Old Serpent’s conclusive defeat in private was publicly demonstrated at Calvary. And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Col 2:15.