Please read, John Chapter 7
Jesus Goes To The Feast of Tabernacles
John 7:1-6
Question: Do you think that Jesus went out of his way to avoid Judea because he was afraid?
Absolutely not! He said, “this is not the time (verse 6)“. These brothers (does not necessarily mean blood relatives), I believe, could not understand why Jesus wouldn’t want to show himself, to publicly parade his miraculous wonders. Sounds like they were looking for a circus side show. These brothers, were somehow confused as to why Jesus was here. Do you agree? After all, ”no one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret“, so they said. (verse 4). Verse 5 says, “that even his own brothers did not believe in him”.
Jesus Teaches At The Feast
John 7:7-24
After ‘the brothers’ headed out for the feast, Jesus did too, but he did so in secret. Halfway through the feast, Jesus goes up to the temple courts and begins to teach. The ‘Jews begin to question Jesus’ teaching, wondering, how did he get so smart, without studying (I think this means that Jesus did not study with a SMART Rabbi in Jerusalem). Jesus said, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.”
“Every faithful minister may humbly adopt Christ’s words. His doctrine is not his own finding out, but is from God’s word, through the teaching of his Spirit. And amidst the disputes which disturb the world, if any man, of any nation, seeks to do the will of God, he shall know whether the doctrine is of God, or whether men speak of themselves.” Matthew Henry Commentary
What was the response of the ‘Jews, in verses 11-13, toward Jesus?
What was the response toward Jesus, in verses 15 & 20?
I think it goes without saying, that the deeper into the book of John we go, we will find the opposition more intense for the Lord. Not just because we know how the ’story’ goes, but because we are feeling and seeing the negative reactions toward the Lord. It would be very easy for someone to say, “Jesus sure is a confrontational guy”. What we should be seeing is that he is trying to teach about spiritual wholeness, and in whom we believe and have faith in. It is the teaching, of looking inward instead of outward. Verse 24 says, “Stop judging by mere appearance”.
Oh My, There’s A Dispute About Who Jesus Is
John 7:25-36
At this point, “some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, ‘Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill (see verse 19)”? They couldn’t under stand why Jesus was speaking out publicly and no one was saying a word. “Were the authorities acknowledging him as the Christ“? Then Jesus proclaims, loudly, “you know me, you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but from God“. They tried to seize Him, but God tied their hands. Isn’t it amazing? God kept them from laying a hand on Jesus, yet He will not capture the heart. It is we, who must believe and turn our hearts toward Him. Verse 31 says, “many of the crowd put their faith in him“, yet they did not confess this out loud (apparently).
Jesus Raises His Voice Again
John 7:27-52
“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whosoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” John 7:37-39 NIV
The thirst that Jesus speaks of is our deep desire for satisfaction in our spirit. We are all looking for something to fill us, to satisfy our thirst. I don’t care who you are, I believe with all my heart that ‘the stream of living water’ flowing from Christ is the only thing that will satisfy our thirsty, spiritual souls.
Okay, it’s back to the dispute. Some said, “he is the Prophet” and others said, “he is the Christ“. But, they said,”Christ will come from the city of David, not Galilee“. The ‘Jewish people believe that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, but I think these people are truly unaware of where Jesus has come from. On this basis, many of them, are rejecting Jesus. Perhaps, because of false information, there are many today who reject Jesus……because they don’t know the truth.
At the end of this chapter, we can see Jesus’ enemies continuing to rise up against him. We see the temple guards aware of something different about Jesus….they did not bring Him in because they had never heard anyone speak with such power. We hear from Nicodemus again, coming to Jesus defense.
We will end here today. I BELIEVE, that chapter 8 will be for another day. What I want to do, before we go on, is ponder on what “The Teacher” has put forth in chapters 1-7. I will work on this over the weekend…
Until tomorrow…Thought to ponder: “Whoever Believes In Me……” And, What do the miracles teach us?
Read about the Feasts of the Tabernacles: http://www.bible-truth.org/Feasts-Tabernacles.html
This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Bible Studies, Sharing The Gospel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
