Author: Jeff Englund

John 7: 39

” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

This verse follows Jesus telling the people at the festival, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” In verse 39 John explains that Jesus was referring to the Spirit that would be given after Jesus had ascended into heaven. Now, about 2000 years later, the Spirit of God has been moving through his people for a long time.  Continue reading “Rivers II”

John 7: 37-38

” On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’” 

How are we to take this guy seriously? Living water? Really??

The metaphors that Jesus used to describe where he was from and what he was doing on earth were difficult for people to understand. Honestly, they still are difficult. Yet he had a message he was trying to convey. Continue reading “Rivers”

” The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.’
The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?'”

Where is Jesus going? We have noted several times that Jesus speaks like he is from another place, and not of this world. Now he is speaking like he is going to a place different from this world. Continue reading “Door”

John 7: 28a – 31

“’I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.’

At this, they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, ‘When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?’”

A while back I wrote about Smudge the cat. Smudge belongs to the neighbor but for personal reasons having to do with a lot of competition for attention in that house, Smudge likes to visit us and loves attention. A little scratching behind the ears and Smudge is putty in your hands purring like a kitten. So while Smudge isn’t our cat, you might say she’s our friend.

One of the things about having a cat for a friend is that you become the recipient of signs of their affection. Cats are generous. They like to bring gifts and leave them on your doorstep. Of course what a cat might think is a wonderful gift is probably not the same thing that you would want for a gift. In Smudge’s case, she is a good hunter, and she proudly brings us the trophies she has brought down herself.  Continue reading “Signs”

John 7: 27-28a

“”But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”

Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from.”‘

Over and over again we have noted that Jesus speaks from a different point of view than the rest of us born on earth. He speaks as one who has already been to heaven, who existed before Abraham, and who knows God personally. Yet in this passage Jesus says, “… you know where I am from,” meaning that they knew he was from Nazareth in Galilee. For once he speaks as an earthling instead of someone from Another Place.  Continue reading “Earthling”

John 7: 25 – 26

“At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, ‘Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah?’”

Ooooh, Ouch! That had to hurt when the Pharisees heart that being whispered about. Have they concluded he is the Messiah indeed? That kind of raises the question of what would it take for the Pharisees to conclude someone was actually the Messiah? For example, would they have accepted the claims of someone who had the right pedigree and wore the right clothes? Would they have accepted someone who taught the people that they should continue with the old covenant temple worship? What else would they have needed to convince them that the one who claimed to be the Messiah was really from God?  Continue reading “Messiah”

John 7:24

“Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”

There are many references to “judging” in the Bible, but perhaps the most famous and most used is found in the first verse of Matthew, chapter 7: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” Yet here, in this verse in John, we hear Jesus saying, “… judge correctly.” What gives?

Clearly, Jesus’ words suggest that there are correct ways of judging and incorrect ways of judging. Continue reading “Judging”

John 7: 21-23

“Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually, it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath?'”

If I understand this correctly (and I don’t claim to be an expert!) Jesus is pointing out that under the strict interpretation of the Fourth Commandment circumcision should not be done because it is a form of work, which is forbidden on the Sabbath. Later, after giving the Ten Commandments,  God gave Moses the instruction about circumcision telling him that boys were to be circumcised on the eighth day after they were born. (Leviticus 12:3) The Jews had to choose to place the importance of one law over the other and at some point they decided that circumcising a child on the eighth day was more important than observing the Sabbath rest.

Interestingly, Jesus does not condemn the Jewish leaders for their choice of doing “work” on the Sabbath. Continue reading “Anger”

John 7: 19b-20

‘”Why are you trying to kill me?”

“You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”’

I suspect that calling someone “demon-possessed” 2,000 years ago would be similar to calling someone “crazy” today.

Why are you trying to kill me?

You’re crazy! Who is trying to kill you?!

As we have seen throughout our study of John, Jesus demonstrates again and again that he is God by knowing things only God could know. He knows the hearts of men, and he knows that the Jewish leaders are plotting to kill him. The crowd, on the other hand, has no idea what is going on. “Who is trying to kill you?” they ask. They do not realize that within a short time they will be shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

So where do we go with this? Continue reading “Crazy”

John 7: 19a

” Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law.”

Hmmmm… Which law do you suppose Jesus is referring to?

God gave Moses the Ten Commandments which would serve pretty well if you wanted a Users Manual from the Creator of the Universe. To that, he added a large number of laws specific to Israel and the covenant God made with Abraham. Then there were all of the hundreds of laws added by the Jewish leaders during the exile and afterward.

If you had to pick one of these three groups of laws as being more important than all of the others, it would be hard not to pick the Ten Commandments. They were given directly to Moses by God and written by God on stone tablets.

It was the fourth commandment that had stuck in the craw of the Pharisees. Continue reading “Laws”