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Monday, February 9, 2015
Chronological New Testament Study Day 23
John 7; John 8
1 Later Jesus was going about his business in
Galilee. He didn't want to travel in Judea because the Jews there were looking
for a chance to kill him. 2 It was near the time of
Tabernacles, a feast observed annually by the Jews. 3 His
brothers said, "Why don't you leave here and go up to the Feast so your
disciples can get a good look at the works you do? 4 No one
who intends to be publicly known does everything behind the scenes. If you're
serious about what you are doing, come out in the open and show the
world." 5 His brothers were pushing him like this because
they didn't believe in him either. 6 Jesus came back at them,
"Don't crowd me. This isn't my time. It's your time - it's always your
time; you have nothing to lose. 7 The world has nothing
against you, but it's up in arms against me. It's against me because I expose
the evil behind its pretensions. 8 You go ahead, go up to the
Feast. Don't wait for me. I'm not ready. It's not the right time for me." 9 He
said this and stayed on in Galilee. 10But later, after his family
had gone up to the Feast, he also went. But he kept out of the way, careful not
to draw attention to himself. 11 The Jews were already out
looking for him, asking around, "Where is that man?" 12 There
was a lot of contentious talk about him circulating through the crowds. Some
were saying, "He's a good man." But others said, "Not so. He's
selling snake oil." 13 This kind of talk went on in
guarded whispers because of the intimidating Jewish leaders. 14 With
the Feast already half over, Jesus showed up in the Temple, teaching. 15 The
Jews were impressed, but puzzled: "How does he know so much without being
schooled?" 16 Jesus said, "I didn't make this up.
What I teach comes from the One who sent me. 17 Anyone who wants
to do his will can test this teaching and know whether it's from God or whether
I'm making it up. 18 A person making things up tries to make
himself look good. But someone trying to honor the one who sent him sticks to
the facts and doesn't tamper with reality. 19 It was Moses,
wasn't it, who gave you God's Law? But none of you are living it. So why are
you trying to kill me?" 20 The crowd said, "You're
crazy! Who's trying to kill you? You're demon-possessed." 21 Jesus
said, "I did one miraculous thing a few months ago, and you're still
standing around getting all upset, wondering what I'm up to. 22 Moses
prescribed circumcision - originally it came not from Moses but from his
ancestors - and so you circumcise a man, dealing with one part of his body, even
if it's the Sabbath. 23 You do this in order to preserve one
item in the Law of Moses. So why are you upset with me because I made a man's
whole body well on the Sabbath? 24Don't be nitpickers; use your
head - and heart! - to discern what is right, to test what is authentically
right." 25 That's when some of the people of Jerusalem
said, "Isn't this the one they were out to kill?26 And here he
is out in the open, saying whatever he pleases, and no one is stopping him.
Could it be that the rulers know that he is, in fact, the Messiah? 27 And
yet we know where this man came from. The Messiah is going to come out of
nowhere. Nobody is going to know where he comes from." 28That
provoked Jesus, who was teaching in the Temple, to cry out, "Yes, you
think you know me and where I'm from, but that's not where I'm from. I didn't
set myself up in business. My true origin is in the One who sent me, and you
don't know him at all. 29 I come from him - that's how I know
him. He sent me here." 30 They were looking for a way to
arrest him, but not a hand was laid on him because it wasn't yet God's time. 31 Many
from the crowd committed themselves in faith to him, saying, "Will the
Messiah, when he comes, provide better or more convincing evidence than
this?" 32 The Pharisees, alarmed at this seditious
undertow going through the crowd, teamed up with the high priests and sent
their police to arrest him. 33 Jesus rebuffed them: "I am
with you only a short time. Then I go on to the One who sent me. 34 You
will look for me, but you won't find me. Where I am, you can't come." 35The
Jews put their heads together. "Where do you think he is going that we
won't be able to find him? Do you think he is about to travel to the Greek
world to teach the Jews? 36 What is he talking about, anyway:
'You will look for me, but you won't find me,' and 'Where I am, you can't
come'?" 37 On the final and climactic day of the Feast,
Jesus took his stand. He cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me
and drink. 38 Rivers of living water will brim and spill out
of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture
says." 39 (He said this in regard to the Spirit, whom
those who believed in him were about to receive. The Spirit had not yet been
given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.) 40 Those in
the crowd who heard these words were saying, "This has to be the
Prophet." 41 Others said, "He is the Messiah!"
But others were saying, "The Messiah doesn't come from Galilee, does he? 42 Don't
the Scriptures tell us that the Messiah comes from David's line and from
Bethlehem, David's village?" 43 So there was a split in
the crowd over him. 44 Some went so far as wanting to arrest
him, but no one laid a hand on him. 45 That's when the Temple
police reported back to the high priests and Pharisees, who demanded, "Why
didn't you bring him with you?" 46 The police answered,
"Have you heard the way he talks? We've never heard anyone speak like this
man." 47The Pharisees said, "Are you carried away like
the rest of the rabble? 48 You don't see any of the leaders
believing in him, do you? Or any from the Pharisees? 49 It's
only this crowd, ignorant of God's Law, that is taken in by him - and
damned." 50 Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus
earlier and was both a ruler and a Pharisee, spoke up. 51 "Does
our Law decide about a man's guilt without first listening to him and finding
out what he is doing?" 52 But they cut him off. "Are
you also campaigning for the Galilean? 53 Examine the
evidence. See if any prophet ever comes from Galilee." Then they all went
home.
1 Jesus went across to Mount Olives, 2 but
he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down
and taught them. 3 The religion scholars and Pharisees led in
a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain
sight of everyone 4 and said, "Teacher, this woman was
caught red-handed in the act of adultery. 5 Moses, in the Law,
gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?" 6 They
were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring
charges against him. 7 They kept at him, badgering him. He
straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the
stone." 8 Bending down again, he wrote some more in the
dirt. 9 Hearing that, they walked away, one after another,
beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. 10 Jesus
stood up and spoke to her. "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn
you?" 11 "No one, Master." "Neither do
I," said Jesus. "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin." You're
Missing God in All This 12 Jesus once again addressed them:
"I am the world's Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the
darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in." 13 The
Pharisees objected, "All we have is your word on this. We need more than
this to go on."14 Jesus replied, "You're right that you
only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I've come
from and where I go next. You don't know where I'm from or where I'm headed. 15You
decide according to what you can see and touch. I don't make judgments like
that. 16 But even if I did, my judgment would be true because
I wouldn't make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness
of the One who sent me, the Father. 17 That fulfills the
conditions set down in God's Law: that you can count on the testimony of two
witnesses. 18 And that is what you have: You have my word and
you have the word of the Father who sent me." 19 They
said, "Where is this so-called Father of yours?" Jesus said,
"You're looking right at me and you don't see me. How do you expect to see
the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father." 20 He
gave this speech in the Treasury while teaching in the Temple. No one arrested
him because his time wasn't yet up. 21Then he went over the same
ground again. "I'm leaving and you are going to look for me, but you're
missing God in this and are headed for a dead end. There is no way you can come
with me." 22 The Jews said, "So, is he going to kill
himself? Is that what he means by 'You can't come with me'?" 23Jesus
said, "You're tied down to the mundane; I'm in touch with what is beyond
your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I'm living on other
terms. 24 I told you that you were missing God in all this.
You're at a dead end. If you won't believe I am who I say I am, you're at the
dead end of sins. You're missing God in your lives." 25 They
said to him, "Just who are you anyway?" 26 I have so
many things to say that concern you, judgments to make that affect you, but if
you don't accept the trustworthiness of the One who commanded my words and
acts, none of it matters. That is who you are questioning - not me but the One
who sent me." 27 They still didn't get it, didn't realize
that he was referring to the Father. 28 So Jesus tried again.
"When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am - that I'm
not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me. 29 The
One who sent me stays with me. He doesn't abandon me. He sees how much joy I
take in pleasing him." 30When he put it in these terms, many
people decided to believe. 31 Then Jesus turned to the Jews
who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, living out
what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. 32 Then you
will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you." 33 Surprised,
they said, "But we're descendants of Abraham. We've never been slaves to
anyone. How can you say, 'The truth will free you'?" 34 Jesus
said, "I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is
trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. 35 A
slave is a transient, who can't come and go at will. The Son, though, has an
established position, the run of the house. 36 So if the Son
sets you free, you are free through and through. 37 I know you
are Abraham's descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me
because my message hasn't yet penetrated your thick skulls. 38 I'm
talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father, and you
just go on doing what you have heard from your father." 39 They
were indignant. "Our father is Abraham!" 40 And yet
here you are trying to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth he got
straight from God! Abraham never did that sort of thing. 41 You
persist in repeating the works of your father." They said, "We're not
bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God." 42 "If
God was your father," said Jesus, "you would love me, for I came from
God and arrived here. I didn't come on my own. He sent me. 43 Why
can't you understand one word I say? Here's why: You can't handle it. 44 You're
from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a
killer from the very start. He couldn't stand the truth because there wasn't a
shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying
nature and fills the world with lies. 45 I arrive on the
scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with me. 46 Can
any one of you convict me of a single misleading word, a single sinful act? But
if I'm telling the truth, why don't you believe me? 47 Anyone
on God's side listens to God's words. This is why you're not listening -
because you're not on God's side." 48 The Jews then said,
"That clinches it. We were right all along when we called you a Samaritan
and said you were crazy - demon-possessed!"49 Jesus said,
"I'm not crazy. I simply honor my Father, while you dishonor me. 50 I
am not trying to get anything for myself. God intends something gloriously
grand here and is making the decisions that will bring it about. 51 I
say this with absolute confidence. If you practice what I'm telling you, you'll
never have to look death in the face." 52 At this point
the Jews said, "Now we know you're crazy. Abraham died. The prophets died.
And you show up saying, 'If you practice what I'm telling you, you'll never
have to face death, not even a taste.' 53 Are you greater than
Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you think you are!" 54 Jesus
said, "If I turned the spotlight on myself, it wouldn't amount to
anything. But my Father, the same One you say is your Father, put me here at
this time and place of splendor. 55 You haven't recognized him
in this. But I have. If I, in false modesty, said I didn't know what was going
on, I would be as much of a liar as you are. But I do know, and I am doing what
he says. 56 Abraham - your 'father' - with jubilant faith
looked down the corridors of history and saw my day coming. He saw it and
cheered." 57 The Jews said, "You're not even fifty
years old - and Abraham saw you?" 58 "Believe me,"
said Jesus, "I am who I am long before Abraham was anything." 59 That
did it - pushed them over the edge. They picked up rocks to throw at him. But
Jesus slipped away, getting out of the Temple.
Psalm 85
Psalm 85 (New International Version)
Psalm 85
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
1 You showed favor to your land, O LORD; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins. Selah
3 You set aside all your wrath and turned from your fierce anger.
4 Restore us again, O God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us.
5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations?
6 Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your unfailing love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation.
8 I will listen to what God the LORD will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints— but let them not return to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.
12 The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.
13 Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.
Psalm 85
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. A psalm.
1 You showed favor to your land, O LORD; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins. Selah
3 You set aside all your wrath and turned from your fierce anger.
4 Restore us again, O God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us.
5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations?
6 Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your unfailing love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation.
8 I will listen to what God the LORD will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints— but let them not return to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.
12 The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.
13 Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.
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