Day #296

Sermon - Audio
John 7-8 - Reading
John 7-8 - Audio

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John 7-8

“Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment” John 7:24.

Lost in a world of illusion people (or the Jews in this case) make judgments based on mere appearances, and are simply unable to grasp what is important and true.
The Jews found it difficult to swallow that Jesus himself was God based on his appearance. What made it more unbelievable was that he also claimed the right to establish a grace morality which is better than the legalistic morality of the Jews.

He didn’t look like the Christ – they resolved that he must simply be another man possessed by a demon.

The Jews – This designation is used often in the Gospel of John. He did not mean Israel, or the Jewish people as a whole. When John said “the Jews” he meant the religious leaders of the people who chose to oppose Jesus, and who represented a distortion of historic Old Testament faith.

John 7

v. 14-24 Moral and spiritual blindness are not rooted in our inability to understand. They are rooted in our unwillingness to submit completely to God. The leaders had made man’s ideas supreme, and had missed the real meaning of the Law of Moses. If any of Jesus’ critics had committed himself to do God’s will, he would have recognized Jesus’ teachings as the Word of God.

v. 37 To come to Jesus and drink means to believe in him, to enter into a trusting, ongoing personal relationship with him. Both the image of “coming” to Jesus as one would come to a person and the image of “drinking” imply not mere intellectual assent but a wholehearted personal involvement and participation.

v. 42 The irony is apparent, for the Jews did not realize that Bethlehem was in fact Jesus' birthplace.

John 8

v. 1-11 Unable to arrest Jesus, the Pharisees hoped to destroy His influence by forcing Him to violate the Law, or insist on a drastic and unpopular penalty. The Pharisees were quick to use the woman to strike at Jesus. She had no value in their eyes; they didn’t care about her as a person. But Jesus did care about her, individually. She was guilty, but in spite of her sin Jesus refused to condemn her. Grace salvages, rather than destroys, the individual.

v. 39-40

--The Teacher’s Commentary -- ESV Study Bible -- Bible Knowledge Commentary--