Emerging Conservative

John: Chapter Seven

The Feast of the Tabernacle was an event during the fall. Jesus had been staying in Galilee because there were those who wanted him dead in Jerusalem from the events in chapter 6.

There is something to ponder in all this. As Christians, we often times think it is our responsibility to fight each and every fight. To be proven right is a need many Christians feel. However, sometimes, it appears a particular battle may not be our to fight. Maybe God needs for that situation to struggle or maybe it’s someone else’s battle and we could get in the way.

If this is the case, how do we know when it is time to move forward or when is it time to head in another direction or address the situation through prayer? I think down deep we know it as we prayer and think about it. The Holy Spirit will put something on our heart and if we do not follow through, we feel it. It is a delicate balance though……Sometimes, when we feel we are being called outside of our comfort zone, we say….”Oh God doesn’t want me dealing with that” to get out of it. We have to be careful on the balance of our motivations so God can use us in action or wait.

Anyways, I get off track….back to John.

Jesus’ brothers try to get Jesus to go with them to the big festivities but Jesus declines. His brothers, who do not believe He is the Christ until after He dies and resurrects, seem to be teasing him or being sarcastic. They can not deny His miraculous powers and say He can get more followers (just like us men thinking it’s all about popularity) but they do not believe. Jesus pushes it off, maybe because they want a big show and that is not His plan. He goes separate and in private in God’s timing.

Jesus waits until half way through the week to start teaching instead of doing what everyone expected with Him using this opportunity to get followers. However He has already shown when He had thousands of followers in the last chapter that it is not about numbers but of love and faith.

There is mixed reaction to Jesus….some believe but are intimidated by the religious leaders, some are baffled, some think He’s incredible but can not get past the prejudice of where He comes from. We even note that those that oppose Him are taken by His knowledge and His teachings though Jesus insists that it is not from Him but His Father. Anyone teaching to promote themselves is not of God but His message was to point people to the Father.

Jesus starts taking the debate to task. There was reference to the 10 commandments and that the religious leaders desire to have Jesus killed was in essence breaking the tenth commandment (Exodus 34). The people were confused because they did not know of this desire by the church. They wondered why Jesus wasn’t censored if He was such a big threat.

One of the main things the religious leaders were using as an excuse to kill Jesus was the healing by the Pool of Bethesda where Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath. Thus Jesus shows the inconsistency of what they do (circumcision on the Sabbath versus what they preach against (healing on the Sabbath).

You’ll also notice in here a couple times that a group of people wanted to seize Jesus but could not because it was not God’s time yet. I think this is interesting…..

Another point of interest is the lack of knowledge the people had about the prophecies about Jesus. They knew enough for them to feel smart but not enough to get it right. They felt that the Messiah would come out of no where and they were confused about knowing where Jesus was from. However prophecy told them where He would be from but they were uneducated. That is part of the problem still today….people make big beliefs with little knowledge of what the Bible says and this tends to lead people to be disillusioned and/or hurt.

Now to His water statement……

During the festival, there is a daily event where the priest’s have a procession from the temple to the Pool of Siloam and then they drew water that was poured out on the alter. As they did this, they recited Isaiah 12:3 “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation”. Jesus calls this metaphor out further to what it refers to. That is you accept Jesus as Leader and Forgiver in your life, then you will have an eternal spring inside you so you never thirst again.

Now, He doesn’t mean water….He means the Holy Spirit. That part of God that comes and resides within you. Our comforter and Guider………Now, I don’t know about you but sometimes I don’t feel like I’ve got this great fountain inside of me all the time. Sometimes I do, but sometimes not so much. However, I do realize that there are things I do to plug up that fountain and maybe it’s me that puts myself in a thirsty situation.

For instance, if I focus on stress, problems, or conflicts instead of the One who is the answer to such things…..there is a clog in the pipes. If I hold onto unforgiveness or guilt, there’s a clog in the pipe. God loves us too much to leave the fountain suffering so He will point things out. What the clog is…….Ways to help fix it (people, the Bible, prayer, action, time, ect) but it’s up to us to follow.

Again, I get off base…..back to John….

Many decided that from the prophecy that the Messiah would be from Bethlehem and not Nazareth that Jesus was not the Messiah. However, if they knew more….Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

Now we go to a meeting of the religious leader. We find the Pharisees and Sadducees working together even thought they usually don’t due to religious differences in their beliefs. However, they are united in the threat of Jesus.

They had sent out an arrest party after Jesus but the guards came back empty handed. They were taken by Jesus’ teachings to the point that they did not follow orders and arrest him. The religious leaders were upset. Nicodemous, a religious leader who believes in Jesus as the Messiah, stands up for Jesus but not from a “I Believe” standpoint but from a legal standpoint. Maybe he’s not ready to go public with his faith yet. Maybe he doesn’t think that would help Jesus even if he did but went the legal route to assist the Messiah.

However the other religious leaders mock him and say “are you one of these gullible people too?” “You know a prophet does not come out of Galilee” Again, focused on where people come from….prejudice. God often uses what others don’t think much of. However, there are Old Testament prophets that came from that region including Jonah so this shows their hatred towards Jesus was so much, they would twist their own knowledge to fit their means.

Now we have one of the most beautiful stories of grace, God’s forgiveness, in the Bible.

The religious leaders try to trap Jesus by bringing a woman caught in adultery. The “Law” which came from God through Moses teaches that such a woman needs to be stoned to death. They were trying to trap Jesus…..if he was all about this love stuff He had been preaching, the people would be crushed to see Him stoning a woman to death. However, if He denied the law, than He was being unjust and ignoring the Scriptures He claimed to.

However, Jesus surprised them. First, He was quiet……Then He said “You’re right….whoever has not sinned, let them be the first to throw a stone.” Might not sound like much but WOW!

Think about it….God is love and God is just. From a justice standpoint, there is a penalty. According to the Bible, the penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and this is what we all desearve as sinners. But in His love, God did not leave us this way. Jesus paid the price of death on the cross for us so we could have life again by accepting this gift.

This is mirrored here. Yes, she deserves death according to the law (which is now fulfilled and doesn’t apply the same way but that is a talk for another day).

However, everyone there was sinners. The only one who could have thrown a stone was Christ since He was without sin. However, when all the others dropped their stones and left, he asked her, who is here to condemn you? No one……(for they were all guilty…man’s judgments tends to forget our own guilt and just focus on others).

Then Jesus told her (as the only one with the right to judge her) Then neither do I condemn you. I hope you feel this way the next time guilt tries to steal the freedom that Jesus came to give you (Galatians 5:1) “Neither do I condemn you.” A matter of fact, I’ll pay that penalty for you.

He doesn’t ignore the truth though. He doesn’t say “Oh, go have fun.” He says “Go and leave your life of sin.” Let this touch of the Master change your life to a life of Freedom!

That’s a beautiful message from the Master. And that finishes our message for today….prayers!