Author Archives: RB3

We are in John 8 and Christ is at His work. As stated in the scripture, after spending time at the Feast of Booths and at the temple where He cried out “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37-38), He then traveled to the Mount of Olives. I have always been curious as to just where all these places are, like the Mount of Olives and such. I have been told by those that have been to the Holy Land that it is a rather compact area where Christ did His work in Jerusalem.

https://emp.byui.edu/SATTERFIELDB/Rel211/jerusalem.htm

1. The Temple
2. Southern Wall and Royal Stoa
3. The Mount of Olives
4. The Kidron Valley
5. City of David (Mt. Ophel)
6. The Pool of Siloam
7. The Tyropoean Valley
8. Lower City (Poor section)
9. Upper City (Wealthy section)
10. David’s Tomb
11. The Theater
12. The Market Place
13. Herod’s Palace
14. Antonia Fortress (NT – Castle)

The Mount of Olives is located at number 11 on the map and the temple is at number 1, which is really hard to see and is directly below the Mount of Olives with a large wall around it. So, Jesus spent the night up on the hill and then walked down to the Temple, early in the morning and began to teach. (vv. 1-3) All the people came to Him and this was when the Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery, which we covered last week. I am not sure why that passage, verse 3 to 11 of John 8 is not found in the earliest manuscripts, but it is possible that it was part of the oral teaching of that time and it is in keeping with the teachings of Christ. If you are troubled by it, ask God for greater understanding of His Holy word. And understand, that if you were to remove this and a few other grammatical errors from the Bible, it would not change the content of the message one bit. Let God handle the details and you won’t go wrong.

Jesus is at the temple, teaching and said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (v. 12) This caused the Pharisees to dispute with our Lord. They said to Him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” (v. 13) Jesus answered them, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” (vv. 14-18)

These Pharisees were very righteous, in their own eyes, but had no love in their hearts for any but themselves. When this rabbi comes along and performs many signs and wonders, and then calls them to account for their wretched sinful ways, telling them straight out, they judge according to the flesh, which we have numerous examples of, they hated Him for showing them what was in their stone dead hearts. What about our hearts? We are very quick to judge, are we not? A simple trip to Walmart and how many times did you judge what happened before you? I am not saying we should not have a discerning mind, but where is the Love in your heart for your fellow man? I include myself in this and it troubles me. We are steeped in sin and this book from which I am teaching, calls us to account, does it not? Nobody likes their sins pointed out, but you have to recognize that you are a sinner before God before you can repent. This is what the Pharisees refused to do in their Lord’s very presence. Instead of repenting, they plotted to kill God. The hubris of man knows no bounds. We see it today, writ large across the news. The Pharisees trusted in themselves and their twisted understanding of the scripture.

They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” (v. 19) A more valid question they should have asked themselves is “Who is our Father?” They deceived themselves with a confident reply of Abraham. (Matthew 3:9) Which is where their pride lies, that which they belong to. In actuality it was satan, the father of lies.

Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” This seemed incredulous to these prideful men. How could this simple carpenter tell them anything about belief? Blinded by their pride is something that can be seen down through the ages. It seems to never go out of style.

All these things were spoken in the treasury, part of where these Pharisees held their true power over the people, but no one arrested Him, because his hour had not yet come.

The application of this lesson is to not bind yourself to satan, recognize your sinful state and know who your true Father is. For most of those in this once great nation, it would be satan. The good news is your God sent His only begotten Son to die on a cross and be raised again for those that would believe. Believe in Him that is the light of the world and apply yourself to that belief. Repent your sins to the Father, then Accept, Believe and Continue. How you continue is reading from this book He wrote for you. Consider it homework for the soul, keeping in mind that His Holy Word is not meant to tickle your mind in entertainment but to educate you and guide you to a greater understanding of God and what He wants from us. Which is what a penitent sinner should thirst for and not be cajoled into.

From MacArthur’s Devotionals: Righteousness begins with salvation and continues in sanctification. Only after you abandon all self- righteousness and hunger for salvation, will you be cleansed from sin and made righteous in Christ. Then you embark on a lifelong process of becoming as righteous as Christ—a process that will culminate when you are in His presence fully glorified (Rom. 8:29-30; 1 John 3:2). There’s always need for improvement in this life (Phil. 3:12-14), but satisfaction comes in communing with Christ and growing in His grace.

You can know if you’re hungering and thirsting for righteousness by asking yourself some simple questions. First, are you dissatisfied with your sin? Self- satisfaction is impossible if you are aware of your sin and grieve when you fall short of God’s holy standard.

Second, do external things satisfy your longings? A hungry man isn’t satisfied until he eats. A thirsty man isn’t satisfied until he drinks. When you hunger and thirst after righteousness, only God’s righteousness can satisfy you.

Third, do you have an appetite for God’s Word? Hungry people don’t need to be told to eat. It’s instinctive! Spiritual hunger will drive you to feed on the Word to learn what God says about increasing in righteousness.

Fourth, are you content amid difficulties? A hungry soul is content despite the pain it goes through because it sees every trial as a means by which God is teaching greater righteousness. If you react with anger or resentment when things go wrong, you’re seeking superficial happiness.

Finally, are your hunger and thirst unconditional? The rich young ruler in Matthew 19 knew there was a void in his life but was unwilling to give up his possessions. His hunger was conditional.

Christ will fully satisfy every longing of your heart, yet you will also constantly desire more of His righteousness. That’s the blessed paradox of hungering and thirsting after righteousness. “Copyright 2007, Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission.”

So where are you in this respect? Are you hungry for His word, do you seek His Peace and Joy, knowing that prayers and repentance will bring blessings upon you? Or do you find it a job to read from His Word and have chosen to rely on the mouthings of man to keep you in good stead? If you find you lean a bit too heavily to the man side of things, there is still time to repent and pray to the Father. He wishes none to be lost. (2 Peter 3:9) Get busy, there is no time to lose. Start with your Pastor, or Deacons of the church you go to. If you find you’ve chosen poorly and do not go to a church that expounds from the Bible, contact our pastor Aaron: pastor@firstbaptistgrovecity.org and he will be glad to talk to you. You can even contact John MacArthur from Grace Church: letters@gty.org. Do any or all of these things but don’t sit on your hands. Accept, Obey and Continue or get ahold of someone to help you out. And yes, you can contact me also: rb3@americanloon.com.

I grew up reciting the Lord’s Prayer, which is also called the Disciples Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15). In our Lutheran Church, we said it every Sunday and you knew after that had been said, you’d be in the parking lot within 10 minutes. I have fond memories of saying that prayer. It always brought a familiar comfort and that is a problem. When we do something like that with great regularity, we cease to use it as a prayer and just enjoy the feeling of everybody saying it together. In the Baptist church we now attend, that prayer hangs on the east wall, but we rarely say it. It was told to me by Pastor Pete that the reason for not using that prayer was to not take it for granted, to actually use it to pray to God which is what Christ had meant when He gave it to the disciples. It should be used as a framework for how we pray to God. The devotionals I read every day from Grace Church had this recently:

The implications of the Disciples’ Prayer are profound and far-reaching. An unknown author put it this way:

I cannot say “our” if I live only for myself in a spiritual, watertight compartment. I cannot say “Father” if I do not endeavor each day to act like His child. I cannot say “who art in heaven” if I am laying up no treasure there.
I cannot say “hallowed be Thy name” if I am not striving for holiness. I cannot say “Thy kingdom come” if I am not doing all in my power to hasten that wonderful day. I cannot say “Thy will be done” if I am disobedient to His Word. I cannot say “in earth as it is in heaven” if I will not serve Him here and now.

I cannot say “give us . . . our daily bread” if I am dishonest or an “under the counter” shopper. I cannot say “forgive us our debts” if I harbor a grudge against anyone. I cannot say “lead us not into temptation” if I deliberately place myself in its path. I cannot say “deliver us from evil” if I do not put on the whole armor of God.

I cannot say “thine is the kingdom” if I do not give to the King the loyalty due Him as a faithful subject. I cannot attribute to Him “the power” if I fear what men may do. I cannot ascribe to Him “the glory” if I am seeking honor only for myself. I cannot say “forever” if the horizon of my life is bounded completely by the things of time.

My hope here is for you to look at how you use this prayer, given to the disciples and to us, and if you have fallen into the trap of just speaking these words with no more meaning than ordering fast food at a drive up window, stop right now and repent to God. Renew your relationship with He who created you and strive to be Holy because He is Holy. (1 Peter 1:16)

We are finishing up John 7 this week. When Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’”, (v. 36) the people began to talk among themselves. Some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? (vv. 40-41). Most all of them were following Him for the spectacle of healing and supernatural acts. Of the comment about Galilee, Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers has this to say:
It has often been asked, sometimes in the spirit of objection, sometimes in the spirit of inquiry, how the Apostle, if he really knew the history of our Lord’s birth at Bethlehem, could record these questions without a correction. But in these verses he is giving the feelings and opinions of the multitude, and it is a mark of the truthfulness of his narrative that he gives them just as they really occurred.

The scripture states that there was division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. (v. 43) The temple police who had been sent to arrest Jesus came back to their masters, the chief priest and Pharisees were incredulous and very angry with them for not arresting Jesus. You see, those sent to arrest this Son of Man had been amazed at what they heard. “No one ever spoke like this man!” they exclaimed, when asked why they hadn’t arrested God. (vv. 45-47)

The Pharisees answered back to them “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” (vv. 48-52) Interesting that Nicodemus, after his shocking encounter with Jesus, (John 3:1-15) has the courage to speak out with those that would kill He who has come to redeem those that would believe.

Verse 53 states that “They went each to his own house”. And here starts a part of the scripture that I have struggled with. In most new translations of what I read, that being the NASB and ESV, this part of the scripture is listed with an asterisk and brackets: [The earliest manuscripts do not include 7:53–8:11.] This is what’s known as “The Woman Caught in Adultery”

Here it is:
[[8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]]

The lesson here is, now that you know of your sins, that you are held to account and convicted through the scripture, go now and sin no more. Believe, Obey and Continue. Do this and you will have eternal life. Or put more directly: Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is our only hope. So go forth and act upon that knowledge. Believe, Obey and Continue.

Last week we learned of Jesus being at the Feast of Booths. (John 7:10) He started preaching at the temple and the people marveled at what He was telling them, they then started to wonder at where this simple carpenter, whom they knew, where did He receive His knowledge? (v. 15) Jesus told them “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” (v. 16) He ended His answer to them with this: “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” (v. 19)

This did not sit well with those He was teaching. They prided themselves with claiming Moses and Abraham as their fathers and when they were told that they don’t follow the law that was given to them, they got mad at He who would call out their sins to them. So they shouted out “You have a demon!” This was the claim of the Pharisees and is mentioned in Matthew 9:34, Matthew 12:24, Mark 3:22 and Luke 11:15. It is also pretty much at this point when Jesus stopped teaching in anything but parables. After the telling of the parable of the seed and the soils, His disciples asked Him why He taught like that. Christ answered them: “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:10-17)

Jesus taught in parables, not to explain spiritual truths to the crowds, but to keep spiritual truths from the crowds. Lest we doubt or misunderstand Christ’s answer here, Jesus noted that the veiling of spiritual truths from the unbelieving crowds is actually a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy given at Isa. 6:9–10. Note Luke’s account of this narrative, as he refers to Jesus’ citation of Isa. 6:9, and writes,

And Jesus said to the disciples, ‘To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, so that, “Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand”’ (Luke 8:10; cf. Mark 4:11–12).

Jesus was fulfilling a prophecy by telling parables, for He knew the hearts of men and their unbelief. Back to the lesson, all of this caused people to grumble, some against and some for Christ. (vv. 30-31) All this grumbling caught the attention of the Pharisees and they sent their temple police to arrest Jesus. Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” (vv. 33-34) And this last statement caused them to wonder: “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? (vv. 35-36)

Jesus, on the last day of the feast, which the scripture states it was a “great day,” stood up and cried out “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” When the bible states that He cried out, it does mean that He did this in a loud voice. He wanted them, all of them, to hear what He said. Jesus is appealing to them, yet again. And to us.

From Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary: “On the last day of the feast of tabernacles, the Jews drew water and poured it out before the Lord. It is supposed that Christ alluded to this. If any man desires to be truly and forever happy, let him apply to Christ, and be ruled by him. This thirst means strong desires after spiritual blessings, which nothing else can satisfy; so the sanctifying and comforting influences of the Holy Spirit, were intended by the waters which Jesus called on them to come to Him and drink. The comfort flows plentifully and constantly as a river; strong as a stream to bear down the opposition of doubts and fears. There is a fullness in Christ, of grace for grace. The Spirit dwelling and working in believers, is as a fountain of living, running water, out of which plentiful streams flow, cooling and cleansing as water. The miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit we do not expect, but for his more common and more valuable influences we may apply. These streams have flowed from our glorified Redeemer, down to this age, and to the remote corners of the earth. May we be anxious to make them known to others.”

Christ’s time was growing short and even though He knew their hearts, He was calling to them, put away their sin and follow Him with a true heart. He offers a comfort that flows plentifully and constantly as a river; strong as a stream to bear down the opposition of doubts and fears. It is a message that we should heed today, with all that 2020 and now 2021 has brought to us. He was here in this world as the Son of Man for a limited time, but now that limited time is ours. You may think that you’ve got time, time to enjoy life and you’ll have time to get right with God. Let me remind you of Luke 12:20: “But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” When will your life be required of you? The time of salvation is NOW! Seek God while He may be found. (Isaiah 55:6)

If you think “I’m good with God,” I think maybe you better examine that belief, if all you want to do is listen to the word, with no fruit of the spirit. Christ said “Take up your cross and follow Me” which means being willing to die in order to follow Jesus. This is called “dying to self.” It’s a call to absolute surrender. After each time Jesus commanded cross bearing, He said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:24-25). Although the call is tough, the reward is matchless.

In Luke 9:57-62, three people seemed willing to follow Jesus. When Jesus questioned them further, their commitment was half-hearted at best. They failed to count the cost of following Him. None was willing to take up his cross and crucify upon it his own interests. How about you? Are your interests in your salvation, half hearted at best? Examine yourself and “Get right with God.” You’ve got no time to lose!

We are in John 7 and Jesus is at the Feast of Booths. You can find more information about that much beloved festival here: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/feast-booths/
Jesus had let his brothers go without Him to Jerusalem while He told them it was not yet His time. (vv. 2-8) After they had been gone a bit, Jesus went there unannounced and then started to teach at the Temple. (v. 14) This caused many people to talk, some for Him and some against Him (vv. 11-13) He tells them the truth, His teaching is not His, but from the Father and He asks them “Why do you seek to kill me?” (vv. 16-19), for the Pharisees were eagerly searching for Him to lay hands on Him. (v. 11)

The people answered back to Jesus with the starkness of their unbelief. “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” (v. 20) What do you say to such a thing? This Man that spoke with such authority and clarity, now He has a demon and delusional, thinking that people are trying to kill Him. I have used this from Solomon “There Is Nothing New Under The Sun,” found in Ecclesiastes 1:4-11.

We are in the same condition today, speaking nonsense from the very top of our government down to our local authorities. Many churches have been shuttered for a good part of a year at the behest of our authorities and just now opened with the threat of further closings if they say so. What would Christ, He who created all (John 1:3) and Groom of the Church (Revelation 19:7) say to this? We see what is happening in Hebrews 12:27. God is shaking that which can be shaken and by the looks of it many of the churches have been shaken to their core. Education, Corporate structure, Government, Western Culture, the list goes on. You may disagree with that assessment, but point to any one of them and see if they are operating with Christ in mind. You say that is too high of standard, that nobody does that. And that, I point out is the problem, it should be our standard, yet it is not sought. Ok, let’s take it down a couple notches and ask if what we hear and see from our society is working in the realm of common sense? Or Truth? Not so much, I would say. Hence, the wrath of God for a people He has given up to their sins. We have blown well past the warnings of abandonment listed in Romans 1 verse 18 to the end of the chapter, and still we wonder at what’s going on around us.

Hebrews 12 also says that what can be shaken will be removed and that which remains unshaken will remain. So, how shaken are you and who do you turn to for hope? We the Called will remain unshaken, or at least we should be, and that is what Christ was looking for in the people that were following Him around. Some believed, but most were the stiff necked Jews of old. He told them to “Not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment,” but that for the most part was unheeded.

We are now up to where we left off last week.

Many of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?” (vv. 25-31)

It is interesting that the people had a fair amount of knowledge of the Christ. I am sure it was talked about because John the Baptist was operating in the area and with what the Temple authorities had been saying. We do not have that kind of general biblical knowledge in our society. You see it by the silly things people believe in. Part of folk wisdom as it is, has a saying, If You Don’t Stand for Something, You’ll Fall for Anything. You see a lot of that these days. Not the same situation as back then, but they had the Pharisees and all their additional laws that they had said would protect God’s word from abuse. The real abuse came from their additional laws and how they enforced them.

The Pharisees, who seemed to be always around looking for an infraction of their highly esteemed law to enforce, heard the people muttering about Jesus and sent officers to arrest God. They refused to acknowledge the Kingdom walking and talking in their presence and were angry and insulted at Jesus’s supposed flaunting of their sabbath rules. (v.32)

Jesus of course knew of all that was going on and said “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” (vv. 33-34) Which the people promptly misunderstood. “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?” (vv. 35-36) When you are a pagan, you think and act like a pagan. Again, look around you in this current day, what do you see, and more importantly, are you in support of what is being said and done? I keep bringing this up not to rub your nose in it, but to show that this is nothing new and to wake up those sleepwalking through life, thinking a minimum effort will magically give you a maximum result. Christ never offered easy terms to follow Him. I believe His terms were “Pick up your cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24-26)

The last day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (vv. 37-38) That scripture He quoted might refer to Exodus 17:6 where Moses hit a rock with his rod at God’s request and the water flowed. We’ve also seen this at the well in Sychar, to the Samaritan woman. (John 4:1-28) And now I ask you, are you seeking the Waters of Life? You can’t do that, standing on the bank of that river, not wanting to get your toes wet. Jump on in, the water’s fine.

We are now in John 7 and it starts out with “After this…” indicating a period of time elapsing between the last event listed in the previous scripture and this new one. It states that Jesus was walking about Galilee and would not go to Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. (v. 1) These Jews were the Pharisees and scribes, those who ruled the people, that had seen the signs and wonders that Jesus had done and were not moved to believe, only hate Him for violating their rules and making their false righteousness evident to all. His brothers, those born from Mary, so really half brothers came to him: “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” (vv. 3-4) It also said that His brothers did not believe in Him. (v. 5) From Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary: “The brethren or kinsmen of Jesus were disgusted, when they found there was no prospect of worldly advantages from him.”

This tells you how entrenched these people were to their rebellious attitudes. Something that is a hallmark of their heritage. A good portion of the Old Testament deals with Jews rebelling and God warning them to repent. Read it, it’s a very instructional story. (Genesis 1 to Malachi 4)

During this time, the Feast of Booths was going on, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or by its Hebrew name, Sukkot, this celebration was the last of the fall festivals and was held at the end of the agricultural year when the grapes and olives were harvested in Israel. This was a time to thank God for all of the preceding year’s provisions and to pray for a good rainy season, which lasted from October through March. Sukkot was designed to remember the wilderness journey from Egypt to Canaan, when God made the people live in booths (Lev. 23:33–43). It was a beloved festival that the people looked forward to.

Jesus responds to His brothers: “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” (vv. 6-8) After telling them this, Jesus remained in Galilee. (v. 9)

After His brothers go off to the feast and know this Feast of Booths lasts 7 days, Jesus goes also to the feast, but in private. (v. 10) Many people were looking for Him. The Pharisees because they wanted to kill Him, but others also were looking for Him and talking about Him. Some said He was good and others said He led people astray. And nobody said anything too loudly because they feared the Pharisees. (vv. 11-13)

During the middle of the feast, Jesus went up and began to teach in the Temple. (v. 14) The Jews, and I think this means all of them, marveled at what He said and the authority in how He said it. They knew who He was and where He was from and also knew that a simple carpenter could not have this knowledge. “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” (v. 15)

Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” (vv. 16-19) Jesus, when asked a question, always answered in a way that would educate those that would listen, these people had ears to hear, but they could not. (Isaiah 6:10, Jeremiah 5:21, Ezekiel 12:2, Matthew 13:15, Acts 28:27, Romans 11:8)

One of the things that has been perpetrated upon us is the perception that Jesus was a meek and mild and slightly effeminate man that just wanted to be your friend. Nothing could be further from the truth. Joshua 5:13-15 is an example of the pre-incarnate Christ, with a sword drawn, leading God’s people. Go Read It and disabuse yourselves of what has been pushed upon us, that of a mild Christ that just wants to love us and be our friend. He is our King and Savior!

Jesus never shied away from schooling those that confronted Him. He was never confrontational but the Truth is as hard as a brick wall when you run into it. And that’s all the Jews ever did, run into the Truth and it made them stupid. As evidenced by what comes next. The crowd shouted back to Him “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” (v. 20) This man cured many many people, (Luke 4:40) fed thousands (Mark 6:30-44, Matthew 15:32-39) and cast out demons, (Luke 4:35, Matthew 8:32) now they’re claiming He has a demon. Like I said, stupid, sin makes you stupid. Nehemiah 9 is where the people have returned from Babylon and they are repenting their sins. They recite a brief chronology of knowing God, rejecting God, being punished by God, repenting to God. Rinse and repeat. Read it, it is a short chapter and will give you a better understanding of these Jews and their stiff necks. We share in their stiff necked ways.

Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (v. 21-24) We should also pay attention to this lesson in this day and age. Do not judge by appearances. We base most of our judgement on looks. Even Samuel the High Priest was fooled when told to view Jesse’s sons. Samuel picked what he thought looked good, but no, God wanted somebody with a good heart, not tall and handsome. Read the story in 1 Samuel 16, it’s a good one. So, do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (v. 24)

I think we are going to stop right here and let you read about young David being chosen in Samuel 16. Also think about how you judge things. And while you’re at it, read about how you should judge not lest you be judged. Judgement, in my opinion, is one of our major faults and sins. You can use these scriptures for study: Mat 7:1-5, Luke 6:37, Romans 2:1-2, James 4:11-12, Romans 14:10-13, Luke 6:41, 1 Corinthians 4:3-5, Romans 14:3-4, Ezekiel 16:52-56 Enjoy your time enriching your mind with God’s Words and reap the blessing of your obedience to Him.

For a more thorough unpacking of this portion of John 7, I enjoin you to watch this sermon by Ben Merkle. He does a very good job of explaining the scripture and you come away with a much better understanding of Christ and the unbelief of Him and His teachings in this part of the scripture. I count this as Providence that this sermon popped up in my YouTube feed while I was writing this. God is working in all of our lives, you just have to pause and recognize it, then pause again to praise and thank God for His work in you.