John 7-8

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We are only 6 months away from Jesus’ day before the Crucifixion.  It’s getting close.

John 7 can be broken into 3 sections:

• Before the Feast- 1-10
• During the Feast- 11-39
• After the Feast- 40-53

Jesus’ brothers (half brothers) are going to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacle.  (1 of 3 pilgrimages Jews would go for). Mary’s other sons’ names are James, Joses, Simon, and Jude (this is not Simon Peter).  Jesus decides not to go because “My time is not yet here”.  He knows the crowd will be huge and the Jewish Council will be looking for him!  Even His own brothers did not believe He was the Messiah! (v.5).

When He was alone, He went there in private.

¹⁶ Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. ¹⁷ Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. ¹⁸ Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. ¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

The Jews were seeking their own Glory!

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²⁰ “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹ Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. ²² Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually, it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath.

Jesus is referring to an incident a year ago, also at the Feast of Tabernacles,  (told in Chapter 5) when He healed a man on the Sabbath and they went nuts over it.

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Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? ²⁷ But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”

In verse 26 they are basically saying…” they call this man the Messiah?  Can’t be.  We know where He is from (Nazareth).”  There was an urban legend circulating that we would NOT know where the Messiah would come from.  Seriously??  Have they ever read the scriptures??  We know the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2) BUT they knew him as a man from Nazareth…they never asked him where he was born!

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(I am going to skip a little because I know the reading was long.

Oh, but don’t miss the name, Nicodemus!  One of the leaders of the Jewish Council took up to Jesus.  He was the Pharisee that went to Him at night to ask questions about salvation.

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Chapter 8- “Let anyone of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her”.

This might be a familiar passage, but what is happening here?  The teachers of the Law are attempting to test Jesus to break the law.  Does He know the Law?  OF course, He does.  Leviticus 20:10-¹⁰ “‘If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.

They did not produce the guilty man, and they were unwilling or unable to produce the required witnesses.

They cared nothing about this woman; they were using her to trap Jesus

• if He told them to set the woman free, they could claim He did not hold to the Law of Moses.
• If He told them to stone her, they could claim He was not the Savior (He came for the Sinner)
• if He said nothing, they could claim He lacked wisdom

We don’t know what He was writing in in the sand (I bet Jesus has GREAT handwriting though).  I have heard maybe it was their sins but in my head, I envision the word “Hypocrite”.

³ “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴ How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

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The topic of witnesses has been brought up a lot and we will begin to see it more because on the day of the Crucifixion it will be asked that witnesses come forward to prove Jesus is guilty.  If the Law requires witnesses, we know Jesus will not break the Law.   We need 2 or more witnesses.  Does Jesus have them?  YES.  He has Himself and His Father.  If they would recognize WHO He is,  they would know WHOSE He is.  Two witnesses.

BTW, just this past weekend I had to discuss doctrine about suicide.  This morning I was blessed with ANOTHER scripture on the topic.  We were told to be careful of the ‘yeast of the Sadducees and Pharisees. Everything they have said has been Yeast! They made a comment “will he kill himself” because Jesus said, “Where I go, you cannot come”.  They assume THEY are going to Heaven and He is going to Hell because they have called him Satan in the past.  IF EVERYTHING they have said is “sinful yeast”, you can be confident in the scriptures that this is not true.  There is only ONE unforgiven sin that keeps you from the Father, and they are committing it RIGHT now, denying His Work in others.

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Jesus’ mission is becoming very powerful and we are seeing conversions every day.  He knows we are months away and He begins using “Cross” terminology:

“When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. ²⁹ The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” ³⁰ Even as he spoke, many believed in him.

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As you finish out the Chapter look for Key Verses: (some you may have used in your life out of context.  Hopefully after today we will know the doctrine behind them and quote it correctly 😘)

•  ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (It doesn’t say “tell” the truth). Jesus as the Messiah IS Truth
• “Slave to Sin”- Oh, we have said that wrong in our day to day conversations
• The Jews said, “Abraham is our Father”.  They are looking at genealogy NOT Family.  Jesus said all those who believe are Family.

I know many of you are thinking…WHY  don’t they believe Jesus??  Well, it really is quite simple.  It is the same as today.  It is falling on deaf ears.

⁴⁷ Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”