• Last week – we ended talking about surface issues vs dealing with heart issues.
• Get counsel from a wise person that will take you deeper than “he said… she said”.
• Think about it… you might fight over issues… but deep down there is a bigger issue. If you can’t see that… you need to seek wisdom.
  
  

John 7:25-52
THE IDENTITY OF THE MESSIAH
25 Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”

• Where do they say Jesus is from… “Nazareth”
• But the truth is… Jesus is from Bethlehem which is according to prophecy (Micah 5:2).

28 As he was teaching in the temple, Jesus cried out, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me is true. You don’t know him; 29 I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”

• This was a serious accusation to make against an orthodox Jew, for the Jews prided themselves in knowing the true God, the God of Israel.[1]

30 Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.
 - Houdini… poof… just gone… not His time.
 - He was to die at Passover.
31 However, many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t perform more signs than this man has done, will he?”
 - At this point, Jesus had performed 2 of the 3 Messianic miracles… He will heal a blind man soon.
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to arrest him.
33 Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time. Then I’m going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

• This is a parable because they cannot understand.

35 Then the Jews said to one another, “Where does he intend to go so we won’t find him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Jewish people dispersed among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does he? 36 What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”

• Where is He going? Right hand of the Father.
• Only those who believe He is the Messiah will go there.

THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT
37 On the last and most important day of the festival, (the 21st day of the 7th month) Jesus stood up and cried out,
- The last day of the feast would be the seventh day, a very special day on which the priests would march seven times around the altar, chanting Psalm 118:25 (25 Lord, save us! Lord, please grant us success!) [2].
- It would be the last time they would draw the water and pour it out.
- No doubt just as they were pouring out the water, symbolic of the water Moses drew from the rock, Jesus stood and shouted His great invitation to thirsty sinners.[3]
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”
 - Haggai 2 1 On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet: … this is the Lord’s declaration. “Be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Work! For I am with you” —the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. 5 “This is the promise I made to you when you came out of Egypt, and My Spirit is present among you; don’t be afraid.”
6 For the Lord of Hosts says this: “Once more, in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord of Hosts. 8 “The silver and gold belong to Me”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. 9 “The final glory of this house will be greater than the first,” says the Lord of Hosts. “I will provide peace in this place” —this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. [4]

39 He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

• One of the ceremonies was pouring out the water from the pool of Siloam over the altar to represent the pouring out of the Spirit.
• This was representative of (Exodus 17) the Jews leaving Egypt and they were thirsty and Moses struck a rock and water poured out of it.
• When did this actually occur? Acts 2
• When Peter preached, 3,000 souls were redeemed.

 
THE PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED OVER JESUS
40 When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 42 Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David’s offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David lived?” 43 So the crowd was divided because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.
 - When doubt enters in… it paralyzes you.

• Have you ever experienced jumping off the high dive? How long did you stand there?
• Lord… help me with my unbelief.

DEBATE OVER JESUS’S CLAIMS
45 Then the servants came to the chief priests (Sadducees) and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”
46 The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!”
47 Then the Pharisees responded to them: “Are you fooled too? 48 Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.”
 - The Pharisees just proclaimed they are more intellectual than the people.
 - I have been accused of not fully understanding the Word of God and confused in my teaching.

• That’s OK… I’ll take what I have and walk in the freedom I have been blessed with.

50 Nicodemus—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them—said to them, 51 “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”
 - Is it at this point… (2nd of 3) that Nicodemus begins to believe that Jesus is the Messiah?
52 “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”[5]
 - They never answered Nicodemus because they knew he was right… they just ridiculed him.
 - This is an ancient debate trick: when you cannot answer the argument, attack the speaker.[6]
 - Jesus didn’t come from Galilee… He went to Galilee.
 - Not even true… Jonah did.
 - Jesus even said, “You will see the miracle of Jonah.”
53 Then each one went to his house.

Question Concerning the Woman Caught in Adultery
John 8
1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he went to the temple again, and all the people were coming to him. He sat down and began to teach them.
 - The Festival of Booths had ended and Jesus was teaching in the Women’s Court at the Temple.
3 Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, making her stand in the center.
- The Law required that both guilty parties be stoned (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22 - 22 If a man is discovered having sexual relations with another man’s wife, both the man who had sex with the woman and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.[7]) and not just the woman.
- It does seem suspicious that the man went free.
- The scribes and Pharisees handled the matter in a brutal fashion, even in the way they interrupted the Lord’s teaching and pushed the woman into the midst of the crowd.[8]
4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 They asked this to trap him, in order that they might have evidence to accuse him.

• If Jesus said, “Yes”, it would go against his message of forgiveness for sinners.
• If Jesus said, “No, it would go against the Law of Moses.
• Ha… They finally got Him!!! Wrong…

Jesus stooped down and started writing on the ground with his finger.
- The 10 Commandments were written by the finger of God. Was Jesus indicating He is God? Or…
- Jeremiah 17:13 - 13 Lord, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away from Me will be written in the dirt, for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.[9]

7 When they persisted in questioning him, he stood up and said to them, “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.”
- He knew He was the only one without any sin.
- The Law required the accuser to be the first person to cast a stone as long as they were not guilty of the same sin.
- He was referring to the particular sin of the woman, a sin that can be committed in the heart as well as with the body (Matt. 5:27–30)[10]
- The Law was given to reveal sin (Rom. 3:20), and we must be condemned by the Law before we can be cleansed by God’s grace.
- Law and grace do not compete with each other; they complement each other. [11]
8 Then he stooped down again and continued writing on the ground. 9 When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only he was left, with the woman in the center. 10 When Jesus stood up, he said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, Lord,” she answered.
“Neither do I condemn you,” said Jesus. “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”[12]
- Was Jesus light on sin?
- Transformation had to occur.

[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 317). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[2] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Ps 118:25). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 317). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Hag 2:1–9). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Jn 7:11–52). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[6] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 318). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[7] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Dt 22:22). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[8] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 319). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[9] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard version. (2009). (Je 17:13). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
[10] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 319). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[11] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 320). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[12] Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (Jn 7:53–8:11). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

QUESTION
Who is the most significant person who has ever lived? Time magazine 2013 said it was Jesus with Napoleon as #2
 
JEWISH FEASTS
1. Passover - 1 Cor 5:7
Isiahah chapter 53
Matzoh bread is pierced and striped

2. Unleavened Bread
Psalm 22
At 3pm Jesus said "It is finished." just as high priest sacrificed the last lamb.

3. First Fruits
1 Cor 15:20

4. Pentecost
Leviticus 23:17, Romans 8:2

5. Trumpets
Habakkuk 1:5-6
Jericho before entering Promised Land

6. Atonement
Hebrews 8:13
Talmud account of scapegoat ribbon ceasing to change from crimson to white.

7. Tabernacles
John 1:14
Celebrated 40 years of wandering. It was 40 years after the cross.
 
MAIN POINT
We have a faith, but it's not a blind faith. The evidence from a Jewish feast perspective is convincing and at the very least fascinating.
 
CLOSING
Romans 2:4
I hope His Love and kindness drives all of us to dig deeper.