October 24, 2025 • 14 mins
A festival crowd whispers, leaders scheme, and Jesus steps into the temple with a challenge and a promise that won’t let anyone stay neutral. We walk through John 7 as family pressure collides with divine timing, public myths crumble under Scripture, and religious certainty meets the kind of healing that exposes hypocrisy. The result isn’t calm; it’s clarity—truth that confronts and living water that satisfies.
We start with the brothers who push Jesus toward visibility and acclaim, and we name the tension many of us feel: wanting God to fit our timelines. Then we move into the temple where Jesus anchors His authority in the One who sent Him and asks the crowd to judge with right judgment. The Sabbath debate becomes a mirror, showing how the letter without the heart can weaponize religion. Along the way, we address common misconceptions about the Messiah’s origin and trace how prophecy, Bethlehem, and David’s line point to Jesus with precision. Faith doesn’t grow on rumors; it grows on Scripture.
The pressure escalates as guards are sent to arrest Jesus and return stunned by His words. On the festival’s final day, Jesus raises His voice with an invitation that reaches beyond controversy: if you’re thirsty, come and drink. John explains that He’s speaking about the Holy Spirit, promised to those who believe. We explore what living water means for real life—holy desire, steady courage, and a witness that overflows instead of runs dry. Nicodemus makes a brief, brave stand for fairness, and we draw out a final challenge: don’t let past experience set the limits of what God can do; let Scripture lead and let the Spirit make it alive.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's wordtogether.
Well hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, John chapter 7.
(00:22):
If I were to give this chapter atitle, it would be Jesus Brings
Controversy Wherever He Goes.
There's this idea that is so nottrue about Jesus, and that is
that Jesus just kind of floatedthrough the crowds, and
everywhere he went, he just, youknow, it's like he just like the
Pope, just blessing people, andjust everybody was, oh, how
precious.
(00:43):
That ain't Jesus.
Everywhere Jesus goes, hecreates controversy because he's
the king.
He's God.
And whatever he says goes, whichmeans you don't get to have your
way.
And so we're going to jump inthat as we talk about our king
together.
But as always, if you like whatwe're doing here, make sure that
you are, if you're listening tothis on YouTube, like, share,
subscribe.
Let me know in the comments howGod is moving in your life.
(01:03):
If you're listening to thepodcast, I love you so much.
Thank you so much for givingyour time every day that we can
go through God's word together.
And I want to know in thecomments and on our Facebook
group, you can go to Biblebreakdown discussion and we can
go through this together.
But I want to know in thisdiscussion, have you ever found
yourself wrapped up incontroversy that you didn't
(01:23):
intend?
It's like you start aconversation and before you know
it, there's this controversyflying.
Like all of a sudden yourealize, oh Lord, I thought we
were just having dinner.
Now we're having a fuss.
You know what I mean?
You ever done that before?
And I found that I've done thatbefore many times because we
tend to figure out that we'renot really having the same
conversation, right?
Using the same words butdifferent definitions.
(01:44):
And we're going to see thattoday in the life of Jesus, that
wherever Jesus goes, people arechallenging him because Jesus
is, he's challenging them intheir life and saying, I'm God,
follow me.
And that's the whole idea of theGospel of John.
If you remember, John was Jesus'best friend.
And at some point, John ended upoverseeing seven different
(02:04):
churches, and we can see themlisted in the book of
Revelation.
And he is writing this gospel,inspired by the Holy Spirit, to
these churches to say, make sureyou don't miss the message.
He was my best friend while hewas on this earth.
He's now my best friend inheaven.
He is God, and this was hismessage.
And I love that idea.
He's like, he's just telling thechurch, man, Jesus is God.
(02:26):
You may have 99 problems, butJesus ain't one of them.
And I think that that is soimportant for us to remember
now.
Jesus is not our problem, he isour king, and we follow him at
his good pleasure.
We're going to see him get intothis today and just controversy
everywhere.
He's just controversy with hisfamily, controversy with
everybody else, but he neverbacks up from who he is.
(02:46):
He is no, he is nobody's victim.
He is the king and he is God.
So I want to read this togetherand just dissect, break down the
Bible together.
The more we dig, the more wefind.
So if you have your NLT Biblesopen with me, chapter 7, verse
1, here we go.
After this, Jesus traveledaround Galilee.
He wanted to stay out of Judea,where the Jewish leaders were
(03:08):
plotting his death.
But soon it was time for theJewish festival of shelters.
And Jesus' brothers said to him,Leave here and go to Judea,
where your followers can seeyour miracles.
You can't become famous if youhide like this.
If you can do such wonderfulthings, show yourself to the
world.
For even his brothers didn'tbelieve in him.
Jesus replied, Now is not theright time for me to go.
(03:31):
But you can go anytime.
The world can't hate you, but itdoes hate me because I accuse it
of doing evil.
So you go on.
I am not going to this festivalbecause my time has not yet
come.
After these things, Jesusremained in Galilee.
Now pause for a moment.
Now, there is this situationwhere Jesus' family doesn't
(03:52):
believe in him.
Now let's give Jesus' family alittle bit of a break because,
first of all, Jesus would havereally upset the social order at
the time, especially in thissmall backwater country town of
Nazareth where they grew up.
And all of a sudden he's gettingall this attention.
He's creating all this ruckus.
He's probably getting theattention of not only the
Pharisees, but the Romans.
And so it's not necessarily theydon't they don't believe Jesus
(04:14):
because they don't trust him.
It's Jesus, you're causingproblems for our family, is
likely one of the things thatmay have happened.
You know, you have this societywhere maybe people were no
longer doing business with them.
They were carpenters by trade.
They're no longer wanting to bebe part of things.
And so he's probably causing alot of trouble for their family.
But here's the amazing thing: the Bible said that after Jesus (04:30):
undefined
rose from the dead, he appearedto his family, at least to
James, which is one of hisbrothers.
Because what ends up happeningis James, the brother of Jesus,
becomes one of the early leadersof the church.
As a matter of fact, the firstleader of the church in
Jerusalem wasn't Peter, it wasJames.
(04:51):
James, the brother of Jesus,becomes the first leader of the
Jerusalem church, and he is theone who actually wrote the New
Testament letter that we nowcall the book of James.
So here's the thing, he totallyredeems them in time.
So don't hate on Jesus' familytoo much.
(05:19):
Jesus' leaders tried to find himat the festival and kept asking
if anyone had seen him.
There was a lot of grumblingabout him among the crowds.
Some argued, he's a good man,but others said he is nothing
but a fraud who deceives thepeople.
But no one had the courage tospeak favorably about him in
public, for they were afraid ofgetting in trouble with the
Jewish leaders.
(05:40):
Then, midway through thefestival, Jesus went up to the
temple and began to teach.
The people were surprised whenthey heard him.
How does he know so much when hehasn't been trained?
They asked.
So, which by the way, it's easyto know it when you wrote it,
right?
Verse 16.
So Jesus told them, My messageis not my own.
It comes from God who sent me.
(06:01):
Anyone who wants to do the willof God will know whether my
teaching is from God or merelymy own.
Those who speak for themselveswant glory only for themselves.
But a person who seeks to honorthe one who sent him and who
speaks truth, not lies.
Moses gave you the law, but noneof you obeys it.
In fact, you were trying to killme.
(06:22):
The crowd replied, You'redemon-possessed.
Who's trying to kill you?
Pause.
Once again, remember, Jesus,meek and mild, gets up in your
business.
Okay?
Verse 21.
Jesus replied, I did one miracleon the Sabbath, and you were
amazed.
But you work on the Sabbath too,when you obey Moses' law of
circumcision.
Actually, this tradition ofcircumcision began with the
(06:43):
patriarchs long before the lawof Moses.
So if the correct time forcircumcising your son falls on
the Sabbath, you go ahead and doit as to not break the law of
Moses.
So why should you be angry withme for healing a man on the
Sabbath?
Look beneath the surface so youcan judge correctly.
So what Jesus is doing is he'sthrowing their hypocrisy back at
them.
They're saying, We are so godlybecause we obey the letter of
(07:06):
the law.
And he's saying, Not really.
And you're obeying the letter ofthe law, but you're forgetting
why the law even exists.
It exists to bring freedom.
All right, verse 25.
So the people who lived inJerusalem started to ask each
other, Isn't this man they'regoing to try to kill?
But here he is speaking inpublic and they're doing nothing
to him.
(07:26):
Could our leaders possiblybelieve that he is the Messiah?
But how could he be?
If we know where this man comesfrom, when the Messiah comes, he
will simply appear and no onewill know where he comes from.
Pause again.
This is the reason why it's soimportant to read the Bible for
yourself.
This is incorrect.
They were assuming the Messiahwas simply going to appear and
(07:48):
no one's going to know wherehe's going to come from.
That's not what the Bible said.
As a matter of fact, the Bibleactually says exactly where he
is going to be born.
If you remember, if you everread uh the book of Matthew and
the book of Luke, uh especiallythe book of Luke, the Bible says
that when wise men came from theeast to find where Jesus was,
they were able to ask, Hera wasable to ask some of the local
(08:09):
scholars.
And they said, Oh yeah, he'sgoing to be born somewhere
around Bethlehem.
We already know that.
So if you actually read the OldTestament, these people or heard
the Old Testament, they wouldhave known he doesn't appear.
They say exactly where it was.
And the problem still persiststoday.
We don't read the Bible.
And so then we get confusedabout what the Bible is supposed
to say.
That's why it's so important toread the Bible.
Okay, verse 28.
(08:30):
When Jesus was teaching at thetemple, he called out, Yes, you
know me, and you know where Icome from, but I am not here on
my own.
The one who sent me is true, andyou don't know him, but I know
him because I come from him, andhe sent me to you.
Then the leaders tried to arresthim, but no one laid a hand on
him because his time had not yetcome.
(08:53):
Many among the crowds of thetemple believed in him.
After all, they said, would youexpect the Messiah to do more
miraculous signs than this manhas done?
When the Pharisees heard thatthe crowds were whispering such
things, they and the leadingpriests sent temple guards to
arrest Jesus.
But Jesus told them, I will bewith you only a little longer,
then I will return to the onewho sent me.
(09:14):
You will search for me, but youwill not find me, and you cannot
go where I am going.
The Jewish leaders were puzzledby this statement.
Where is he planning to go?
They asked.
Is he thinking of leaving thecountry and going to the Jews
and other lands?
Maybe he will even teach theGreeks.
What does he mean when he says,You will search for me, but not
find me, and you cannot go whereI am going?
(09:34):
On the last day, the climax, thefinale of the festival, Jesus
stood and shouted to the crowds,Anyone who is thirsty, come to
me.
Anyone who believes in me maycome and drink.
For the scriptures declare,rivers of living water will flow
from his heart.
And when he said this, livingwater, he was speaking of the
(09:55):
Spirit, who would be given toanyone believing in him.
But the Spirit had not yet beengiven, because Jesus had not yet
entered into his glory.
Now, of course, remember, theApostle John, inspired of the
Holy Spirit, is writing thisgospel after the day of
Pentecost.
So what he's saying is thatJesus was going to die, he was
going to rise again, and as heascended into heaven, Acts 2
(10:16):
tells us that the Holy Spiritdescended and remains with the
church even till today.
But Jesus is already prophesyingthat this is going to happen.
Verse 40.
When the crowds heard him saythis, some of them declared,
Surely this man is the prophetwe've been expecting.
Others said, He is the Messiah.
Still others said, But he can'tbe.
Will the Messiah come fromGalilee?
(10:38):
Pause.
Answer is yes, read your OldTestament.
For the scriptures clearly statethe Messiah will be born of the
royal line of David inBethlehem, the village where the
king was born.
Yes, that's what happened.
So the crowds were divided abouthim.
Some even wanted to arrest him,but no one laid hands on him.
When the temple guards returnedwithout having arrested Jesus,
the leading priests andPharisees demanded, Why didn't
(11:01):
you bring him in?
We have never heard anyone speaklike this, the guards responded.
Have you been led astray too?
The Pharisees mocked.
Is there a single one of usrulers or Pharisees who believe
in him?
This foolish crowd follows him,but they are ignorant of the
law.
God's curse is on them.
Then Nicodemus, pause.
Remember, Nicodemus is from Johnchapter 3, the guy who came in
(11:23):
secret to see Jesus at night.
This is the same one.
Then Nicodemus, the leader whohad met with Jesus earlier,
spoke up.
Is it legal to convict a manbefore he is given a hearing?
He asked.
They replied, Are you fromGalilee too?
Search the scriptures and seefor yourself.
No prophet ever comes fromGalilee.
Then the meeting broke up andeverybody went home.
(11:45):
There's this old phrase I usedto know that said, We can't do
that, we've never done itbefore.
And that seems to be the samephrase that the Pharisees are
using.
There can't be a prophet comefrom Galilee.
We never had one before.
Well, who cares what you've hadbefore?
What does the Bible say?
The Bible prophesied, the OldTestament prophesied again and
again and again about whereJesus was going to come from,
where he was going to be born.
(12:06):
And if they'd even done acursory investigation into the
life of Jesus, they would haveseen that he was fulfilling all
of the Old Testament prophecies.
But they weren't doing that,were they?
They were just judging what theywanted to see.
And when they didn't see whatthey wanted to see the way they
wanted to see it, they deniedJesus.
We can't hate on them too much,because if I'm honest, I've done
(12:26):
that before myself.
I have looked for what I wantedto see.
I've wanted Jesus to line upwith my thoughts, my ideas.
I've wanted the Bible to line upwith what I wanted it to line up
with instead of taking God'sword as it is, even when it
disagrees with me, because I'mnot always right.
That's why we need objectivetruth so that we can we can deny
(12:48):
ourselves and go after what istruly true.
And that's what I love aboutJesus is he loves us enough to
tell us the truth.
Even though everywhere Jesusgoes, he creates controversy.
And that maybe in your own life,you could look at this because
the overall idea of the Gospelof John is that Jesus is God.
We may have 99 problems, butJesus ain't one of them.
(13:09):
And he gives us life.
And so what about this chaptergives you life?
I know for me it is that I cantrust Jesus.
I can trust him even when hemoves in a way that I don't
expect.
Even if he moves in a way I'venever seen before, I don't
automatically say that can't beGod because I've never seen that
before.
Rather, I say it might be God.
Does God's word line up with it?
(13:30):
Because that's the truth ofGod's word, is that God's word
leads us.
If you remember from yesterday,it always points to him.
Let's pray together.
We've been listening so muchabout what God has to say to us.
Let's celebrate and talk to him,and then we'll be done for
today.
Father, thank you so much.
Your word is true.
Your word is honest, your wordis good.
You lead us to life and allthings.
Thank you, Jesus, for messingaround with all these fools and
(13:52):
telling them the truth becausethat reminds me that you ever
you're never going to stopmessing around with me, too.
That even when I say weird stuffand when I get out of whack
sometimes, you're going tocontinue to lead me in truth as
well.
And I celebrate that today.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Don't forget, John 20 says,These things are written that
you may continue to believe thatJesus is God and that by
(14:15):
believing in him, you will havelife by the power of his name.
I love you.
God bless you.
I see you tomorrow for Johnchapter eight.
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's wordtogether.
Well hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, John chapter 7.
(00:22):
If I were to give this chapter atitle, it would be Jesus Brings
Controversy Wherever He Goes.
There's this idea that is so nottrue about Jesus, and that is
that Jesus just kind of floatedthrough the crowds, and
everywhere he went, he just, youknow, it's like he just like the
Pope, just blessing people, andjust everybody was, oh, how
precious.
(00:43):
That ain't Jesus.
Everywhere Jesus goes, hecreates controversy because he's
the king.
He's God.
And whatever he says goes, whichmeans you don't get to have your
way.
And so we're going to jump inthat as we talk about our king
together.
But as always, if you like whatwe're doing here, make sure that
you are, if you're listening tothis on YouTube, like, share,
subscribe.
Let me know in the comments howGod is moving in your life.
(01:03):
If you're listening to thepodcast, I love you so much.
Thank you so much for givingyour time every day that we can
go through God's word together.
And I want to know in thecomments and on our Facebook
group, you can go to Biblebreakdown discussion and we can
go through this together.
But I want to know in thisdiscussion, have you ever found
yourself wrapped up incontroversy that you didn't
(01:23):
intend?
It's like you start aconversation and before you know
it, there's this controversyflying.
Like all of a sudden yourealize, oh Lord, I thought we
were just having dinner.
Now we're having a fuss.
You know what I mean?
You ever done that before?
And I found that I've done thatbefore many times because we
tend to figure out that we'renot really having the same
conversation, right?
Using the same words butdifferent definitions.
(01:44):
And we're going to see thattoday in the life of Jesus, that
wherever Jesus goes, people arechallenging him because Jesus
is, he's challenging them intheir life and saying, I'm God,
follow me.
And that's the whole idea of theGospel of John.
If you remember, John was Jesus'best friend.
And at some point, John ended upoverseeing seven different
(02:04):
churches, and we can see themlisted in the book of
Revelation.
And he is writing this gospel,inspired by the Holy Spirit, to
these churches to say, make sureyou don't miss the message.
He was my best friend while hewas on this earth.
He's now my best friend inheaven.
He is God, and this was hismessage.
And I love that idea.
He's like, he's just telling thechurch, man, Jesus is God.
(02:26):
You may have 99 problems, butJesus ain't one of them.
And I think that that is soimportant for us to remember
now.
Jesus is not our problem, he isour king, and we follow him at
his good pleasure.
We're going to see him get intothis today and just controversy
everywhere.
He's just controversy with hisfamily, controversy with
everybody else, but he neverbacks up from who he is.
(02:46):
He is no, he is nobody's victim.
He is the king and he is God.
So I want to read this togetherand just dissect, break down the
Bible together.
The more we dig, the more wefind.
So if you have your NLT Biblesopen with me, chapter 7, verse
1, here we go.
After this, Jesus traveledaround Galilee.
He wanted to stay out of Judea,where the Jewish leaders were
(03:08):
plotting his death.
But soon it was time for theJewish festival of shelters.
And Jesus' brothers said to him,Leave here and go to Judea,
where your followers can seeyour miracles.
You can't become famous if youhide like this.
If you can do such wonderfulthings, show yourself to the
world.
For even his brothers didn'tbelieve in him.
Jesus replied, Now is not theright time for me to go.
(03:31):
But you can go anytime.
The world can't hate you, but itdoes hate me because I accuse it
of doing evil.
So you go on.
I am not going to this festivalbecause my time has not yet
come.
After these things, Jesusremained in Galilee.
Now pause for a moment.
Now, there is this situationwhere Jesus' family doesn't
(03:52):
believe in him.
Now let's give Jesus' family alittle bit of a break because,
first of all, Jesus would havereally upset the social order at
the time, especially in thissmall backwater country town of
Nazareth where they grew up.
And all of a sudden he's gettingall this attention.
He's creating all this ruckus.
He's probably getting theattention of not only the
Pharisees, but the Romans.
And so it's not necessarily theydon't they don't believe Jesus
(04:14):
because they don't trust him.
It's Jesus, you're causingproblems for our family, is
likely one of the things thatmay have happened.
You know, you have this societywhere maybe people were no
longer doing business with them.
They were carpenters by trade.
They're no longer wanting to bebe part of things.
And so he's probably causing alot of trouble for their family.
But here's the amazing thing: the Bible said that after Jesus (04:30):
undefined
rose from the dead, he appearedto his family, at least to
James, which is one of hisbrothers.
Because what ends up happeningis James, the brother of Jesus,
becomes one of the early leadersof the church.
As a matter of fact, the firstleader of the church in
Jerusalem wasn't Peter, it wasJames.
(04:51):
James, the brother of Jesus,becomes the first leader of the
Jerusalem church, and he is theone who actually wrote the New
Testament letter that we nowcall the book of James.
So here's the thing, he totallyredeems them in time.
So don't hate on Jesus' familytoo much.
(05:19):
Jesus' leaders tried to find himat the festival and kept asking
if anyone had seen him.
There was a lot of grumblingabout him among the crowds.
Some argued, he's a good man,but others said he is nothing
but a fraud who deceives thepeople.
But no one had the courage tospeak favorably about him in
public, for they were afraid ofgetting in trouble with the
Jewish leaders.
(05:40):
Then, midway through thefestival, Jesus went up to the
temple and began to teach.
The people were surprised whenthey heard him.
How does he know so much when hehasn't been trained?
They asked.
So, which by the way, it's easyto know it when you wrote it,
right?
Verse 16.
So Jesus told them, My messageis not my own.
It comes from God who sent me.
(06:01):
Anyone who wants to do the willof God will know whether my
teaching is from God or merelymy own.
Those who speak for themselveswant glory only for themselves.
But a person who seeks to honorthe one who sent him and who
speaks truth, not lies.
Moses gave you the law, but noneof you obeys it.
In fact, you were trying to killme.
(06:22):
The crowd replied, You'redemon-possessed.
Who's trying to kill you?
Pause.
Once again, remember, Jesus,meek and mild, gets up in your
business.
Okay?
Verse 21.
Jesus replied, I did one miracleon the Sabbath, and you were
amazed.
But you work on the Sabbath too,when you obey Moses' law of
circumcision.
Actually, this tradition ofcircumcision began with the
(06:43):
patriarchs long before the lawof Moses.
So if the correct time forcircumcising your son falls on
the Sabbath, you go ahead and doit as to not break the law of
Moses.
So why should you be angry withme for healing a man on the
Sabbath?
Look beneath the surface so youcan judge correctly.
So what Jesus is doing is he'sthrowing their hypocrisy back at
them.
They're saying, We are so godlybecause we obey the letter of
(07:06):
the law.
And he's saying, Not really.
And you're obeying the letter ofthe law, but you're forgetting
why the law even exists.
It exists to bring freedom.
All right, verse 25.
So the people who lived inJerusalem started to ask each
other, Isn't this man they'regoing to try to kill?
But here he is speaking inpublic and they're doing nothing
to him.
(07:26):
Could our leaders possiblybelieve that he is the Messiah?
But how could he be?
If we know where this man comesfrom, when the Messiah comes, he
will simply appear and no onewill know where he comes from.
Pause again.
This is the reason why it's soimportant to read the Bible for
yourself.
This is incorrect.
They were assuming the Messiahwas simply going to appear and
(07:48):
no one's going to know wherehe's going to come from.
That's not what the Bible said.
As a matter of fact, the Bibleactually says exactly where he
is going to be born.
If you remember, if you everread uh the book of Matthew and
the book of Luke, uh especiallythe book of Luke, the Bible says
that when wise men came from theeast to find where Jesus was,
they were able to ask, Hera wasable to ask some of the local
(08:09):
scholars.
And they said, Oh yeah, he'sgoing to be born somewhere
around Bethlehem.
We already know that.
So if you actually read the OldTestament, these people or heard
the Old Testament, they wouldhave known he doesn't appear.
They say exactly where it was.
And the problem still persiststoday.
We don't read the Bible.
And so then we get confusedabout what the Bible is supposed
to say.
That's why it's so important toread the Bible.
Okay, verse 28.
(08:30):
When Jesus was teaching at thetemple, he called out, Yes, you
know me, and you know where Icome from, but I am not here on
my own.
The one who sent me is true, andyou don't know him, but I know
him because I come from him, andhe sent me to you.
Then the leaders tried to arresthim, but no one laid a hand on
him because his time had not yetcome.
(08:53):
Many among the crowds of thetemple believed in him.
After all, they said, would youexpect the Messiah to do more
miraculous signs than this manhas done?
When the Pharisees heard thatthe crowds were whispering such
things, they and the leadingpriests sent temple guards to
arrest Jesus.
But Jesus told them, I will bewith you only a little longer,
then I will return to the onewho sent me.
(09:14):
You will search for me, but youwill not find me, and you cannot
go where I am going.
The Jewish leaders were puzzledby this statement.
Where is he planning to go?
They asked.
Is he thinking of leaving thecountry and going to the Jews
and other lands?
Maybe he will even teach theGreeks.
What does he mean when he says,You will search for me, but not
find me, and you cannot go whereI am going?
(09:34):
On the last day, the climax, thefinale of the festival, Jesus
stood and shouted to the crowds,Anyone who is thirsty, come to
me.
Anyone who believes in me maycome and drink.
For the scriptures declare,rivers of living water will flow
from his heart.
And when he said this, livingwater, he was speaking of the
(09:55):
Spirit, who would be given toanyone believing in him.
But the Spirit had not yet beengiven, because Jesus had not yet
entered into his glory.
Now, of course, remember, theApostle John, inspired of the
Holy Spirit, is writing thisgospel after the day of
Pentecost.
So what he's saying is thatJesus was going to die, he was
going to rise again, and as heascended into heaven, Acts 2
(10:16):
tells us that the Holy Spiritdescended and remains with the
church even till today.
But Jesus is already prophesyingthat this is going to happen.
Verse 40.
When the crowds heard him saythis, some of them declared,
Surely this man is the prophetwe've been expecting.
Others said, He is the Messiah.
Still others said, But he can'tbe.
Will the Messiah come fromGalilee?
(10:38):
Pause.
Answer is yes, read your OldTestament.
For the scriptures clearly statethe Messiah will be born of the
royal line of David inBethlehem, the village where the
king was born.
Yes, that's what happened.
So the crowds were divided abouthim.
Some even wanted to arrest him,but no one laid hands on him.
When the temple guards returnedwithout having arrested Jesus,
the leading priests andPharisees demanded, Why didn't
(11:01):
you bring him in?
We have never heard anyone speaklike this, the guards responded.
Have you been led astray too?
The Pharisees mocked.
Is there a single one of usrulers or Pharisees who believe
in him?
This foolish crowd follows him,but they are ignorant of the
law.
God's curse is on them.
Then Nicodemus, pause.
Remember, Nicodemus is from Johnchapter 3, the guy who came in
(11:23):
secret to see Jesus at night.
This is the same one.
Then Nicodemus, the leader whohad met with Jesus earlier,
spoke up.
Is it legal to convict a manbefore he is given a hearing?
He asked.
They replied, Are you fromGalilee too?
Search the scriptures and seefor yourself.
No prophet ever comes fromGalilee.
Then the meeting broke up andeverybody went home.
(11:45):
There's this old phrase I usedto know that said, We can't do
that, we've never done itbefore.
And that seems to be the samephrase that the Pharisees are
using.
There can't be a prophet comefrom Galilee.
We never had one before.
Well, who cares what you've hadbefore?
What does the Bible say?
The Bible prophesied, the OldTestament prophesied again and
again and again about whereJesus was going to come from,
where he was going to be born.
(12:06):
And if they'd even done acursory investigation into the
life of Jesus, they would haveseen that he was fulfilling all
of the Old Testament prophecies.
But they weren't doing that,were they?
They were just judging what theywanted to see.
And when they didn't see whatthey wanted to see the way they
wanted to see it, they deniedJesus.
We can't hate on them too much,because if I'm honest, I've done
(12:26):
that before myself.
I have looked for what I wantedto see.
I've wanted Jesus to line upwith my thoughts, my ideas.
I've wanted the Bible to line upwith what I wanted it to line up
with instead of taking God'sword as it is, even when it
disagrees with me, because I'mnot always right.
That's why we need objectivetruth so that we can we can deny
(12:48):
ourselves and go after what istruly true.
And that's what I love aboutJesus is he loves us enough to
tell us the truth.
Even though everywhere Jesusgoes, he creates controversy.
And that maybe in your own life,you could look at this because
the overall idea of the Gospelof John is that Jesus is God.
We may have 99 problems, butJesus ain't one of them.
(13:09):
And he gives us life.
And so what about this chaptergives you life?
I know for me it is that I cantrust Jesus.
I can trust him even when hemoves in a way that I don't
expect.
Even if he moves in a way I'venever seen before, I don't
automatically say that can't beGod because I've never seen that
before.
Rather, I say it might be God.
Does God's word line up with it?
(13:30):
Because that's the truth ofGod's word, is that God's word
leads us.
If you remember from yesterday,it always points to him.
Let's pray together.
We've been listening so muchabout what God has to say to us.
Let's celebrate and talk to him,and then we'll be done for
today.
Father, thank you so much.
Your word is true.
Your word is honest, your wordis good.
You lead us to life and allthings.
Thank you, Jesus, for messingaround with all these fools and
(13:52):
telling them the truth becausethat reminds me that you ever
you're never going to stopmessing around with me, too.
That even when I say weird stuffand when I get out of whack
sometimes, you're going tocontinue to lead me in truth as
well.
And I celebrate that today.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Don't forget, John 20 says,These things are written that
you may continue to believe thatJesus is God and that by
(14:15):
believing in him, you will havelife by the power of his name.
I love you.
God bless you.
I see you tomorrow for Johnchapter eight.
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