Jesus started teaching midway through the festival, this would be the busiest time, thus achieving maximum impact. Teaching was a key part of Jesus' ministry, and the Jews were amazed at His teaching, for He had had no formal training. The standard pattern in those days was for a person to learn from a rabbi. Remember that Luke records the teachers in the temple being amazed at His understanding when He was only 12. After Pentecost, the Jews were amazed at Peter and John, for they too had had no formal training.
Jesus answer was that it came direct from God. Even today we place great emphasis on theological training, or going to Bible college. Now we need to note that while Peter and John had little formal education, Paul was highly educated, and the Bible and the world has benefited greatly from this. The point is that formal education is good, but it is not essential. Submission to God, listening to Him is the crucial matter. In a healthy church there will be teachers who have had formal training, but there will be others who have not. Faith and obedience to God are what count. At the same time all of us should be teachable, we all need to learn from others.
Jesus claimed that His teaching came direct from the Father. We can discover this by doing the will of God. The best way to truly understand the word of God is to do the word of God.
Today we place a great emphasis on developing ones own thinking, but here Jesus says that the one who teaches truth is the one who seeks to represent the one who sent them. If developing our own thinking is the goal, then we end up seeking our own glory. Does this mean that we should not think for ourselves? No, but everything must be submitted to the word of God.
Jesus here is also referring specifically to Himself, He was sent by the Father, and came to do the Father's will. The Jews claimed to obey the Law, yet they did not do it. Very specifically they were plotting to kill Jesus.
The crowd (ie the general people), were clearly not aware of the desire of the Jews to kill Jesus, so they thought Jesus was demon possessed. We should probably read this in a similar way that we might say "he is a looney".
The root of the controversy was Jesus healing on the Sabbath. Jesus points out that the Jews themselves were prepared to overlook the Sabbath in order to circumcise someone on that day. God's desire for mercy, therefore, surely permitted healing on the Sabbath.
We have an innate desire to find a perfect set of rules, but no matter what set of rules we have they will never be perfect. We need to have rules and guidelines, but they always need to be applied with wisdom. Jesus summed up the will of God, as love God with all that we have, and love others as oursleves. No perfect set of rules exists, there will always be exceptions. In fact in mathematics there is Godel's incompleteness theorems that show that mathematically it is impossible to get a perfect set of rules. Govenernments are always trying to close tax loopholes, but clever accountants always find new ones.
Jesus answer was that it came direct from God. Even today we place great emphasis on theological training, or going to Bible college. Now we need to note that while Peter and John had little formal education, Paul was highly educated, and the Bible and the world has benefited greatly from this. The point is that formal education is good, but it is not essential. Submission to God, listening to Him is the crucial matter. In a healthy church there will be teachers who have had formal training, but there will be others who have not. Faith and obedience to God are what count. At the same time all of us should be teachable, we all need to learn from others.
Jesus claimed that His teaching came direct from the Father. We can discover this by doing the will of God. The best way to truly understand the word of God is to do the word of God.
Today we place a great emphasis on developing ones own thinking, but here Jesus says that the one who teaches truth is the one who seeks to represent the one who sent them. If developing our own thinking is the goal, then we end up seeking our own glory. Does this mean that we should not think for ourselves? No, but everything must be submitted to the word of God.
Jesus here is also referring specifically to Himself, He was sent by the Father, and came to do the Father's will. The Jews claimed to obey the Law, yet they did not do it. Very specifically they were plotting to kill Jesus.
The crowd (ie the general people), were clearly not aware of the desire of the Jews to kill Jesus, so they thought Jesus was demon possessed. We should probably read this in a similar way that we might say "he is a looney".
The root of the controversy was Jesus healing on the Sabbath. Jesus points out that the Jews themselves were prepared to overlook the Sabbath in order to circumcise someone on that day. God's desire for mercy, therefore, surely permitted healing on the Sabbath.
We have an innate desire to find a perfect set of rules, but no matter what set of rules we have they will never be perfect. We need to have rules and guidelines, but they always need to be applied with wisdom. Jesus summed up the will of God, as love God with all that we have, and love others as oursleves. No perfect set of rules exists, there will always be exceptions. In fact in mathematics there is Godel's incompleteness theorems that show that mathematically it is impossible to get a perfect set of rules. Govenernments are always trying to close tax loopholes, but clever accountants always find new ones.
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