John 8:21-30

The Pharisees were expecting a messiah, and would continue to search for one, not realising that they had missed Him. Jesus was going away, this refers to His death and ascension. The Pharisees had a limited time in which to come to their senses, otherwise they would die in their sin.

The Jews had no idea what Jesus was talking about, thinking that He was contemplating suicide. The fundamental difference between Jesus and the Jews was that Jesus was from above, from heaven, whereas they were firmly rooted in the earth.

Jesus seems to be saying that once they had crucified Him they would realise who Jesus was. Now after the resurrection most of the Jews (as in religious leaders) still did not believe. So was it did dawn on them who He was, but even so they shut their minds to this?

Jesus did only what the Father told Him to do. While the religious leaders refused to believe, man others did believe in Him.

John 8:12-20

This passage is generally accepted to occur after 7:52. Light was a significant part of the Feast of Tabernacles, every night candles were lit. Light was also a common theme in Isaiah's prophecies of the Messiah (Isaiah 9:2, 42:6,16; 49:6). Jesus called on the people to follow Him.

The Pharisees challenged Him, saying it was not valid for Him to testify about Himself. Here Jesus gives a rather different answer to the one He gave earlier (see John 5:31). The Pharisees would of course have accepted God's testimony about Himself. Jesus is God, so His testimony is valid. Moreover, He was sent by the Father and the Father would testify on His behalf.

The Pharisees were concerned with judging people, finding fault, and seeking to prove themselves superior. Jesus was concerned with giving life to people.

The Pharisees did not realise who Jesus was talking about when He mentioned His Father.

John 7:53-8:11

It is generally agreed that this incident did not appear hear in the original gospel. However, it is also regarded to be an authentic account of an incident that did happen, and certainly rings true.

It was normal for teachers to sit down to teach, unlike today where we normally stand. Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, and the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law brought in a woman. She had been caught in the act of adultery. Jewish law was quite strict, that there had actually to be witnesses, rather than just circumstantial evidence. However, an immediate question is where was the man?

The Jews wanted to trap Jesus. The Romans forbad the Jews from executing people, so Jesus could be either accused of rebellion against the Romans, or of ignoring the Law of Moses (which, by the way, demanded the stoning of the man as well).

Jesus bent down and started to write in the ground. There have been various speculations as to what He was writing, but speculations is all they are, and since the Bible does not tell us, then we are probably best not to waste our time trying to guess what He wrote. In fact, He may well have just been ignoring the Jews, or implying that He really wasn't interested in the matter.

The Jews persisted, and so Jesus said "let him who is without sin cast the first stone". Sin here is a general term, and does not necessarily refer to adultery. The people all drifted away.

Jesus then addresses the woman for the first time, and tells her to stop sinning.

People often use this incident as a pretext for refusing to define any behaviour as sin, but to do so is to misuse this passage. The key message is that our first concern must be our own sin. Jesus clearly agreed that the woman was in the wrong, but He came to heal the sinner, not to condemn. The Jews on the other hand were using the woman as a pawn in their game of seeking to trap Jesus.

John 7:42-52

The chief priests and Pharisees had earlier dispatched the temple guards to arrest Jesus (v32), but the guards had failed to do so. When questioned about this the guards could have referred to the divisions among the crowds (and hence the risk of a riot, which they would wish to avoid). Instead they referred to the way that Jesus spoke. Elsewhere it was noted that Jesus spoke with authority, and this was contrasted with the way that the Pharisees taught (Matt 7:29).

The religious leaders were utterly dismissive. They rebuked the guards with a series of rhetorical questions. Ironically, their answer to both were actually wrong. Nicodemus, a ruler and Pharisee, had been to meet Jesus and was impressed by Him. Hence Nicodemus speaks to urge caution on the Pharisees actions, though he does not admit outright to believing in Jesus.

The religious leaders were very dismissive of the general people, they considered them uneducated and unclean. In fact it was the Pharisees who were going against the Law, for they were willing to condemn a man without a proper hearing. Today, there are some educated people in the church who are dismissive of "ordinary" people who have a "simple faith". Often it is people with a simple faith who have the most wisdom.

They were also wrong in saying that a prophet does not come from Galilee, Jonah, Nahum and Hosea came from there. There is some evidence for saying that the text should read "the Prophet" rather than "a prophet". In this case they would still be wrong, for Jesus actually came from Bethlehem.

John 7:25-44

This passage contains two main elements. The first is the division among the people about who Jesus is, and the second is Jesus' promise of living water.

Division over who Jesus is

Why was there confusion? Perhaps the main reason is that Jesus had clearly performed miracles, thus indicating that He was someone special from God, yet His human family was also clearly known. He was the son of a carpenter from Galilee. However, it seems that they did not know about His place of birth, Bethlehem (v42).

The attitude of the religious authorities also engendered confusion. They were opposed to Jesus (because they felt threatened) and some knew they wanted to kill Him. Yet here He was out in the open and they were not arresting Him. They finally tried to do something when they realised the effect their inaction was having among the people, but they found they could not do anything. It was God who was in control, not men.

In response to this Jesus said yes they did no His human family, but they did not know His Father. If we want to understand Jesus it is not enough to treat Him just as a normal humna being. Yes He is fully human, but He is also from God. Jesus was with God from the very beginning, was sent by Him, and came to do God's work. Only when we take Jesus on these terms will we fully understand Him.

Jesus also told them He was going away. He was referring to his death and ascension to heaven, but the people again (and not surprisingly) did not understand Him.

Living Water

Water played an important part in the Feast of Tabernacles, hence the poignancy of Jesus' references to living water. Jesus was claiming that He, not their religious festivals, were the source of life. Many people went to the religious festivals because they were thirsty for something, Jesus tells them that He is the one who can meet their need. In fact if they believe in Him living water will flow from within them. This is consistent with what Jesus told the woman at the well.

In the midst of disputes and controversy Jesus spoke life-giving truth. Sometimes we can experience confusion in our lives. In the midst of it we should look to the Lord and see what He is saying.

John 7:14-24

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.

John 7:1-13

The feeding of the 5 000 took place around the time of the Passover (6:4), the next few chapters took place around the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles celebrated God providing for the Israelites in the desert, and took place shortly after the harvest was brought in. It is about six months after the Passover, so John leaves a 6 month gap. The next few chapters focus on various disputes between Jesus and the Jews at this time, and claims that Jesus made about Himself. John started his gospel with what John said about Jesus, now he focuses on what Jesus said about Himself.

Jesus was fully aware of the Jews opposition to Him, and their plans to kill Him. His brothers had presumably heard about Jesus' miracles and urged Him to show Himself at the festival. Jesus was dismissive about their advice. His brothers had no appreciation of who Jesus really was nor of the situation. Jesus would not go up to the Festival until He was ready. When He did so He went up secretly, though He would then make Himself very public when He was actually at the Festival.

The Jewish leaders were looking out for Jesus. The people were divided over Jesus. Some thought Him a good man, others that He was a deceiver.