SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/30/2016 11:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to John 7:14-24
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 7:14-24
Message of the verses: “14 But when it was now the midst of the feast
Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. 15 The Jews then were astonished, saying,
"How has this man become learned, having never been educated?"
16 So Jesus answered them and said,
"My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17
"If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching,
whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. 18 “He who speaks from
himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who
sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. 19 “Did not Moses
give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to
kill Me?" 20 The crowd answered, "You have a demon! Who seeks to kill
You?" 21 Jesus answered them, "I did one deed, and you all marvel. 22
“For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from
Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. 23 “If a
man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be
broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath?
24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous
judgment."”
In John
MacArthur’s commentary on this section he entitles it “Verifying the Claims of
Christ.” In the introduction to this
chapter, which is the 24th chapter of his commentary he cites a long
list of verses to show that Jesus claimed to be God coming in the flesh,
something that is the most important decision a person has to answer whether or
not he believes that Jesus Christ is who He claims to be. C. S. Lewis in his book “Mere Christianity” writes
the following: “A man who was merely a
man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral
teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on
a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil
of Hell. You must make you choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of
God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit
at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord
and God. But let us not come with any patronizing
nonsense about His being a great human teacher.
He has not left that open to us.
He did not intend to.”
John
MacArthur writes at the end of his introduction, in the last paragraph, the
following which tells us how he will break down these verses: “Despite the mounting opposition He faced,
Jesus fearlessly proclaimed the uncensored truth about His identity and
mission. The ensuing dialog in verses
15-24 provides five features to lead doubters and skeptics to believe His
astounding claims: His source of
knowledge, His surety, His selflessness, His sentence, and His signs, all of
which proved Him to be the Son of God.”
I want at
this point quote from the introduction of Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on this
seventh chapter of John’s gospel which he entitles “Feast Fight.” I think that is a clever name for this
section for that is what happens in this chapter. He writes that there are three words that
describe the contents of this chapter, “Disbelief, Debate, and Division.” Now as stated here is the following quote
from his introduction: “The Feast of
Tabernacles looked back to Israel’s journey through the wilderness, and looked
forward to the promised kingdom of Messiah.
The Jews lived in booths made of branches to remind them of God’s
providential care of the nation for nearly forty years (Lev. 23:33-44).
“Following
the Feast of Trumpets and the solemn Day of Atonement, Tabernacles was a festive
time for the people. The temple area was
illumined by large candlesticks that reminded the people of the guiding pillar
of fire; and each day the priest would carry water from the Pool of Siloam and
pour it out from a golden vessel, reminding of the Jews of the miraculous of
water from the rock.
“The feast
may have been a jubilant time for the people, but it was a difficult time for
Jesus, for it marked the beginning of open and militant opposition to Him and
His ministry. Ever since He had healed
the paralytic on the Sabbath Day, Jesus had been targeted by the Jewish leaders
who wanted to kill Him (John 7:1, 19-20, 25, 30, 32, 44; and note 8:37,
40). He remained in Galilee, where He
would be safer, but He could not remain in Galilee and also observe the feast.
“John 7 has
three time divisions; before the feast (vv. 1-10), in the midst of the feast
(vv. 11-36), and on the last day of the feast (vv. 37-52).”
Now we are
actually following the outline and division of this chapter from John MacArthur’s
commentary, but I will look at some of the things that Warren Wiersbe has to
say, as I always value his insights.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “450” (1 Kings 18:19-22).
Today’s Bible question:
“From what tribe did the Lord spring?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/30/2016 12:16 PM
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