John 7

1 -2

After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He did not want to travel in Judea, because the Jews there wanted to kill Him. It was time for the Jewish Feast of Booths.

This was a time for remembering how the Jews lived in tents when they left Egypt. Leviticus 23:42

3 -4

So Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “You should leave here and go to Judea. Then your followers there can see the miracles you do. Anyone who wants to be well known does not hide what he does. If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”

All males had to come before the Lord three times a year. This feast was one of those times. Deuteronomy 16:16 .

5. Even Jesus’ brothers did not believe in Him.

At first His brothers did not understand that He was the messiah. Later we see that they believed.

But when His own family heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” Mark 3:21

They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus. Acts 1:14

Then He was seen by James and later by all the apostles. 1 Corinthians 15:7

6 – 8

Jesus said to His brothers, “It is not the right time for Me to go now, but any time is right for you. The world cannot hate you. But it hates Me, because I tell about the evil things it does.

So you go to the feast. I will not go now. The right time for Me has not yet come.” After saying this, Jesus stayed in Galilee.

Jesus is letting them know that this is not the time to show Himself as the Messiah. Do not forget that God had chosen a certain day for Jesus to enter Jerusalem as the Messiah. He says, “This is not the right time for Me to go. You can go anytime and it is no problem for you." We are on God's schedule, not our own.

10 – 11

So Jesus’ brothers left to go to the feast. When they had gone, Jesus went, too. But He did not let people see Him. At the feast the Jews were looking for Him. They said, “Where is that man?”

Remember that the Jewish leaders are looking to kill Jesus.

12. There was a large crowd of people there. Many of them were whispering to each other about Jesus. Some said, “He is a good man.”

God is not looking for people to say that Jesus was a good man. Either you believe that he is the Son of God or you do not. Nobody could accuse Jesus of doing anything wrong. Even Pilate, Judas and the Roman soldier at the cross said He was innocent.

13. But no one was brave enough to talk about Jesus openly. They were afraid of the Jews.

If you are full of the Word and full of prayer, go ahead and talk about Jesus. Someone's life could be changed when they hear the Gospel so do not be afraid to say what He tells you to say.

Fearing people is a trap, but trusting the LORD means safety. Proverbs 29:25

14 – 16

The feast was about half over. Then Jesus went to the temple and began to teach. The Jews were amazed. They said, “This man has never studied in school. How did He learn so much?”

Jesus answered, “The things I teach are not My own. My teaching comes from Him who sent me.

Jesus is an example to us in everything. You can go to Bible school and learn many things from men, but you will find more power in your life when you take notes on the Bible for yourself. Go through every book of the Bible and put it into words that are easy to understand. Study everything you can find out about what you are reading and make careful notes. Ask strong Christians to check your notes. There are so few people who do this that you will find out that God is sending people to you so that they can learn what He has taught you. Deuteronomy 17:18

17. If anyone chooses to do what God wants, then He will know that my teaching comes from God. He will know that this teaching is not My own.

All through the Bible we see that God says, “Do what I tell you first and you will understand the details later.” Try this when you have some hard situation. Do what you already know you should do. Do not worry about what you do not know. When you are walking with God’s Spirit then it will guide you in the right way to go.

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. John 16:13

18. He who teaches his own ideas is trying to get honor for himself. But he who tries to bring honor to the one who sent him—that person speaks the truth. There is nothing false in him.

Be careful of teachers who teach their own ideas. The job of a teacher is to explain exactly what the Bible says, not to explain what they think.

19 – 20

Moses gave you the law, but none of you obey that law. Why are you trying to kill Me?” The people answered, “A demon has come into you. We are not trying to kill you.”

The law says, "You shall not murder.” and "You shall not lie.” We see how easy it was for them to lie and not even feel guilty about it.

21 – 23

Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. Moses gave you the law about circumcision. (But really Moses did not give you circumcision. Circumcision came from our ancestors.) And yet you circumcise a baby boy on a Sabbath day.

This shows that a baby boy can be circumcised on a Sabbath day to obey the law of Moses. So why are you angry at Me for healing a person’s whole body on the Sabbath day?

They were still angry about the man that John Jesus healed in John 5:1-9. Since a baby had to be circumcised eight days after he was born, this means that sometimes it would be on a Sabbath day. Jesus is saying, “If it is good to do the work of God for that situation then why is it not good for Me to heal a man on the Sabbath?"

24. Stop judging by the way things look! Be fair, and judge by what is really right.”

Be careful of thinking evil about someone when you do not know the details of the situation. Most of all, do not tell others what you think about a situation and make somebody look bad when you do not even know what you are talking about.

25 – 26

Then some of the people who lived in Jerusalem said, “This is the man they are trying to kill. But He is teaching where everyone can see and hear Him. And no one is trying to stop Him. Maybe the leaders have decided that He really is the Christ.

You can see how strong of an influence, a leader has on the people. This is why a leader has to be a servant and not a big boss to make everybody think like he thinks.

27 – 29

But we know where this man is from. Yet when the real Christ comes, no one will know where He comes from.”

Jesus was still teaching in the temple. He cried out, “Yes, you know Me, and you know where I am from. But I have not come by My own authority. I was sent by the One who is true. You don’t know Him. But I know Him. I am from Him, and He sent Me.”

If they knew the Father they would have known that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and later lived in Nazareth because Isaiah said that He would be despised. Isaiah 53:8, Micah 5:2

30. When Jesus said this, they tried to arrest Him. But no one was able to touch Him. It was not yet the right time.

There are people who not only do want to receive Jesus, but they do not want anyone else to hear about Him

31. But many of the people believed in Jesus. They said, “When the Christ comes, will He do more miracles than this man has done?”

The Jews had many ideas about the miracles that the Messiah would do when He comes. Isaiah 61:1

32 – 33

The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Jesus. So the leading priests and the Pharisees sent some Temple guards to arrest Him. Then Jesus said, “I will be with you a little while longer. Then I will go back to the One who sent Me. You will look for Me, but you will not find Me. And you cannot come where I am.”

People who are trapped in sin need to know that if they keep putting off the Lord until later they may not find Him.

35. The Jews said to each other, “Where will this man go so we cannot find Him? Will He go to the Greek cities where our people live? Will He teach the Greek people there?

They did not know what they were saying but the Old Testament said that the Messiah would be a light to the Gentiles. Isaiah 49:6

36. This man says, ‘You will look for Me but you will not find Me.’ He also says, ‘You cannot come where I am.’ What does this mean?”

God is not a puppet on a string who waits until we pull the string to come help us. If we play games with Him, He may let us search for Him until we are finished playing.

Seek the LORD while you can find Him. Call on Him now while He is near. Isaiah 55:6

37 – 38

The last day of the feast came. It was the most important day. On that day Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. If a person believes in Me, rivers of living water will flow out from his heart. This is what Isaiah says.”

There was a tradition that the priest poured water for seven days. On the last day of the feast. he did not pour water. There were many thousands of people at the feast watching the parade. Instead of telling them the whole Gospel, Jesus lets them know that He is the real water that they are looking for. It was a tradition also to sing these words from Isaiah at the feast: “With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation!” Isaiah 12:3

39. Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit. The Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been raised to glory. But later, those who believed in Jesus would receive the Spirit.

The Gospel of John was written many years after these things. John is now seeing that the water Jesus was talking about was the filling of the Holy Spirit.

40 – 44

The people heard these things that Jesus said. Some of them said, “This man really is The Prophet.” Others said, “He is the Christ.” Still others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee.

Isaiah says that the Christ will come from David’s family. And Micah says that the Christ will come from Bethlehem, the town where David lived.” So the people did not agree with each other about Jesus. Some of them wanted to arrest Him, but no one was able to touch Him.

It makes people confused and it makes you look stupid when you only know a few ideas from the Bible and you do not know how it all fits together. Luke says that he checked into the life of Jesus very carefully and they could have done this also.

They would have found that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem but will be despised like the people of Nazareth were. They would have seen that He would be born of a virgin. They would have found out that He had to escape to Egypt and come back. Because they did not really have a hunger for truth they did not check God's Word carefully. Let us be careful not to do as these people and lead others the wrong way.

Micah 5:2. Isaiah 11:1, Isaiah 7:14, Deuteronomy 18:15, Hosea 11:1

45 - 46

The temple guards went back to the leading priests and the Pharisees. The priests and the Pharisees asked, “Why did you not bring Jesus?” The temple guards answered, “No man ever talked like this!”

People can tell when you know what you are talking about. When your life is built on the Word of God and you really live like what you say you believe, people feel God's power in your words.

He taught with real authority—not like their teachers. Matthew 7:29

47. The Pharisees answered, “So Jesus has fooled you too!

The Pharisees were the ones who were hiding the truth from the people. Confused people accuse you of the same things that they are doing.

48. Have any of the leaders or the Pharisees believed in Him?

Many people did believe in Him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they would not say it for fear that the Pharisees would send them out from the synagogue. John 12:42

So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too. Acts 6:7

49. But those people, who know nothing about the law, are under God’s curse!”

The Pharisees are the ones who were cursed. They were full of lies, murder and evil spirits.

Cursed is anyone who does not agree and obey this law. Deuteronomy 27:26

50 – 51

But Nicodemus was there in that group. He was the one who had gone to see Jesus before. Nicodemus said, “Our law does not judge a man without hearing him. We cannot judge Him until we know what He has done.”

Jewish law required witnesses which they were not able to find. The fact that they later went against their own law by having a night trial of Jesus shows that they did not care about their own laws. When people have a demonic mind they do not need a reason for the evil they do.

52 – 53

They answered, “Are you from Galilee also? Study the Scriptures. You will learn that no prophet comes from Galilee.” And everyone left and went home.

People who talk like this do not see how ignorant they are about the very thing that they are talking about because Nahum, Hosea, and Jonah all came from Galilee. This shows us that people who read the Bible only to prove what they want to believe will never understand the truth about the things they do not want to believe. 2 Kings 14:25

“I am not troubled by the things in the Bible which I do not understand, but I am troubled by those things which I do understand.” Mark Twain