GEMS FROM THE GOSPEL JOHN 7 & 8 #52days

GEMS FROM THE GOSPEL

JOHN 7 & 8

John 7 & 8 – Jesus was avoiding Judea because the Jewish leaders were out to kill Him. His half-brothers urged Him to go to the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, perform miracles there, and make a name for Himself. His own brothers still did not trust in Him. He told them, “My time has not yet come.” However, Jesus traveled to the Festival secretly. Halfway through it, He began teaching in the Temple courts. The Judeans wondered how Jesus was so knowledgeable without having studied in one of their schools. He told them His teaching was not His own. It came from the One who sent Him. He further stated that those who did God’s will would know His teaching was from God. He asked them why they wanted to kill him and pointed out they broke Sabbath to do circumcisions but were angry when He healed people on the Sabbath. People wondered if the fact that Jesus was teaching in public meant the Pharisees were now believers. But others insisted that no one would know where the Messiah came from, but they knew Jesus was from Nazareth. Jesus told them that the One who sent Him was real, but they didn’t know Him. No one who tried to arrest Jesus could lay a hand on Him because His time had not yet come. Jesus told them that in a little while He would go back to the One who sent Him, and they would look but not be able to find Him. On the last day of the festival, Jesus promised that for those who trusted in Him rivers of living water would flow from their innermost being. Jesus SHOWED COMPASSION by promising the Holy Spirit to all who believed. When the head priests asked why their soldiers had not arrested Jesus, they spoke of how He taught. There religious leaders said that only country bumpkins believed in Jesus. Nicodemus spoke on His behalf saying they could not condemn a man without hearing Him and investigating. They replied that no prophet comes from Galilee. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives alone to pray. At Daybreak he was teaching in the Temple courts again. Scribes and Pharisees stood a woman caught in the act of adultery in the center of the crowd. Where was the man? The Bible does not comment on this inequality. They said to Jesus, “The Torah says to stone her to death.” Jesus didn’t say anything. He just bent down and wrote in the dust. He stood up and said, “The one of you who is without sin should throw the first stone.” Then He wrote in the dust a second time. The accusers left one by one, the oldest ones first. When Jesus was left alone with the woman, He asked, “Does no one condemn you?” She replied, “No, sir.” He told her, “Go and sin no more.” Jesus SHOWED COMPASSION to a woman caught in the very act of adultery. Jesus proclaimed that He was the light of the World who gives life. When the Pharisees said that his testimony about himself was not valid, Jesus replied, “I testify on my own behalf, and so does the Father who sent me.” Jesus said if they knew Him, they would know the Father. They knew this was a claim to equality with God, but no one arrested Him because His time had not yet come. Jesus said to these religious leaders, “If you do not trust that I AM who I say I am, you will die in your sins. Many people who heard Jesus in the Temple courts trusted in Him. He told them, “If you obey what I say, then you are really my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” In John 14:6, Jesus said, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Some protested that they were the seed of Abraham and had never been slaves. Jesus said, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin.” He told them that by trying to kill him, they were doing what their father had told them. If they were Abraham’s children, they should do what Abraham did. They claimed God was their only father. Jesus said that if God were their father, they would love Him and that they belonged to their father Satan, a murdered and liar. He said they did not listen to God because they did not belong to Him. They said Jesus had a demon. Jesus said those who obeyed His teaching would never taste death. He finished by saying, Before Abraham came into being, I AM which was a clear claim to deity. They tried to stone Him, but he was hidden from them and left. If we follow Jesus’s teaching, we will SHOW COMPASSION in His name to those afflicted and even those who are caught in sin.