The Gospel of John – Portrait of Christ

Class 4

 

CHAPTER 7 - TURNING POINT – Period of Conflict

In these chapters (7-11) the tide changes from a climate of debate and argumentation to an outright hostility aimed at killing Jesus.  Leon Morris writes:

 

“From now to the end of the public ministry John depicts a steadily deepening hostility. In this chapter and the next John has a good deal to tell us about the arguments used by the enemies of Jesus. This may well be his way of saying that the objections raised to Jesus’ messianic claims all had their answers…. But though danger was in the air Jesus continued on His appointed path. He went up to the feast in due course, and there He gave the teaching that was appropriate to the occasion.”

 

The feast mentioned was the Feast of Tabernacle the longest feast of the Jews (7 days).  Celebration of God’s provision for Israel in the wilderness.  Part of the ceremonies involved drawing water (which set the stage for Jesus’ assertions in verses 37-38.  Also it involved in lighting a great lamp 8:12. 

 

The Unbelief of Jesus’ brothers (7:3-9)

  • Felt that He should make an open bid for the king­dom by doing some more spectacular miracles.   Their attitude:  IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE
  • Verse 5 - They do not believe in him (sad note).  SEE Mark 3:21; Mark 6:3
  • Jesus showed that He regarded His career not as an opportunity for personal aggrandizement, but as a care­fully planned mission.
  • John 7:6 Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is always ready.   Greek – kairos – proper occasion -  SEE 2:4; 7:8, 30; 8:20 compare with John 17:1; cf. 12:23, 27; 13:1
  • Not Yet going up to the feast – latter he would

 

Mixed Up People (7:10-13)

  • Three types of people in these verses
  • The Jews sought to kill him – their attitude dominated the feast.
  • Another group defended him as being a good man – constructive person.
  • Others considered him an imposter…
  • Crowd was divided concerning him and yet for fear of the religious leaders the talk was kept in the quiet.

 

Appearance At the Feast (7:14-36)

·        Tenny - In the midst of the feast, Jesus came to Jerusalem and pro­ceeded to teach. His teaching took the form of a paradox, asserting both authority (14) and subordination (16), of­fering a pragmatic test (17-19), and issuing in an argument (2 1-24).

·        Authority – Assumed the right to be heard like any other Rabbi in the temple courts – His enemies have to admit that he spoke in a way that was superior to the learning of the Rabbis. 

·        Subordination – (Bible Knowledge Commentary) The religious authorities figured that either a person studied in a traditional school or else he was self-taught. But Jesus’ reply pointed to a third alternative. His teaching was from God who had commissioned Him

·        Pragmatic Test  - Do and know –

·        Jesus is what man ought to be. His purpose is to represent His Father correctly. Robert Deffinbaugh writes, “The person who is committed to honor the one who sent him is concerned only with accurately communicating what he has been sent to say. He does not use his words to gain a personal following, but rather to urge men to follow the one he serves.”

·        Jesus reasoned that the Jews’ persecution of Him was ill-founded. Since Moses allowed circumcision on the Sabbath, why should they still be so upset about healing of a man on the Sab­bath?

·        (BKC) - This started a fierce controversy. Circumcision is a religious rite that predated Moses. Abraham circumcised as a sign of the covenant (Gen. 17:9-14). But Moses gave Israel circumcision in the sense of establishing it as part of the Levitical system. Under the Mosaic Law, “On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised” (Lev. 12:3). If that day fell on a Sabbath, circumcising a boy would seemingly violate the Sabbath Law of rest. Yet the Jews circumcised on the Sabbath. Therefore, Jesus argued, if care for one part of the body was permitted, then certainly the healing of a whole body (that of the paralytic) should be allowed on the Sabbath. Hence they had no reason to be angry with Him.

·        Utter confusion of who Jesus is by the crowd.

 

Jesus Climatic Appeal (7:37-52)

·        Tenny - On each day the ritual included a libation of _water which was taken in a golden vessel from the pool of Siloam, and which was offered by the priests as they sang: “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation” (Isa. 12:3) (BKC) This ritual reminded them of the water from the rock during the wilderness wanderings (SEE Num. 20:8-11; Ps. 78:15-16). It also spoke prophetically of the coming days of Messiah (cf. Zech. 14:8, 16-19).

·        Streams of living water will flow from within one who believes in Jesus. That is, he will have a continual source of satisfaction, which will provide life continually…JESUS FULFILLS THE MEANING OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.

·        Verse 39 – The coming of the Holy Spirit in all his fullness on Pentecost.

·        ; Verses 40-44 Confusion and mixed response.

·        Verses 45-53 The temple guards, who were sent to arrest Jesus (v. 32), returned without Him. Responding to the question Why? The guards answered, No one ever spoke the way this Man does. Literally this is, “Never spoke thus a man,” which implies that the guards sensed that He was most unusual or perhaps more than a man.

·        The Pharisees explained Jesus’ popularity among the populace by suggesting that the people were too ignorant to recognize Jesus as a deceiver.

·        7:50-51. The Mosaic Law (Deut. 1:16-17) and Rabbinic law stipulated that a person accused of a crime should get a fair hearing. Nicodemus appeared as a fair-minded man who did not want the Sanhedrin to make a false or hasty judgment.

·        The Sanhedrin accused Nicodemus of being as ignorant as the Galileans. A prophet does not come out of Galilee, they argued. So the messianic Prophet cannot be a Galilean

 

CHAPTER 8

Woman Caught In Adultery

·        It is the opinion of most conservative biblical scholars that John 7:53 – 8:12 was not included in the original text of the Gospel of John.  The reasons for this are as follows:  (1) The use of some words here are entirely different from the rest of John, (2) The oldest and best manuscripts of the Gospel do not have it, (3) Even many of the lesser manuscripts of Latin or Syrian origin omit it.

·        But:  (1) The story fits well in the context, (2) Christ is in character, (3) Papias, a disciple of John seems to have known the story, (4) “Augustine has stated definitely that certain individuals had removed from their codices the section regarding the adulteress, because they feared that women would appeal to this story as an excuse for their infidelity (De adulterinis con jugiis II, vii) (in Hendriksen’s Commentary on John).”

·        We agree with Hndriksen’s position, “Our final conclusion, then, is this: though it cannot now be proved that this story formed an integral part of the Fourth Gospel, neither is it pos­sible to establish the opposite with any degree of finality. We believe, moreover, that what is here recorded really took place, and contains noth­ing that is in conflict with the apostolic spirit. Hence, instead of removing this section from the Bible it should be retained and used for our benefit.(Ibid.)

·        Verse 3 – While Jesus is teaching in the temple publically, the Pharisees bring a woman caught in the act of adultery to test him. 

·        Designed to bring him into the dilemma of showing disrespect either for the law of Moses (if he would answer: “Do not stone her”) or for the Roman law (if he would demand that this woman be stoned to death, while ac­cording to the Roman law the Jews were not permitted to execute any­one.

·        Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the dust on the floor of the temple. 

·        READ - Numbers 5:17-20 and the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel; and he shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water. [18] 'The priest shall then have the woman stand before the Lord and let the hair of the woman's head go loose, and place the grain offering of memorial in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy, and in the hand of the priest is to be the water of bitterness that brings a curse. [19] 'And the priest shall have her take an oath and shall say to the woman, "If no man has lain with you and if you have not gone astray into uncleanness, being under the authority of your husband, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings a curse; [20] if you, however, have gone astray, being under the authority of your husband, and if you have defiled yourself and a man other than your husband has had intercourse with you"

·        John 8:7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

·        The law required that a witness in a capital case would have to also serve as the foremost executioner. SEE Deut. 17:7….The law also laid down strong reasons for why a witness should not be false or malicious – SEE

·        Deut. 19:16-18 "If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, [17] then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. [18] "And the judges shall investigate thoroughly; and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely,

·        Rushdoony writes (Institutes of Biblical Law p. 704), “Charges had been made against the woman by the “scribes and Pharisees.” Their charges represented a clear-cut case against a woman taken in “the very act” of adultery. The counter-charges by Jesus, by His actions and by His declaration, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7), broke them. As themselves guilty men, they suspected secret evidence on His part against them. They were busy trying to collect evidence against Jesus; this made it easier for them to believe that Jesus had done the same to them These scribes and Pharisees had preferred charges against the Woman~ in the place of her husband; Jesus placed them in the husband’ category by invoking Numbers 5 by His writing in the dust were guilty, and Jesus knew of their guilt, then, if He invoiced death penalty, could He not charge them also? By invoking Num 5, Jesus in effect placed them on trial also: did they come to judge with clean hands?”

·        Deut. 19:18-19   "And the judges shall investigate thoroughly; and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, [19] then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.”

·        Jesus does not deny the Mosaic Law here he confirms it.  The law required two or three witnesses for a capital case…Rushdoony writes, “Moreover, Jesus had confirmed the death penalty; He had simply demanded honest witnesses to step forward and execute her, to “first cast a stone at her.”  To remain as witnesses against her was to invite witnesses against themselves; to testify to a witnessed fact and confirm a death penalty against the woman was to invite a witness unto death against themselves.”

·        No witnesses no case…BKC - The older ones left first, perhaps because they had the wisdom to recognize the sin in their hearts and lives. Since the witnesses and the accusers left, the legal case against the woman was dropped.

·        He rebuked sin but He gave the woman hope for a new life.

 

The Light of the World Discourse (8:12-59)

  • A major feature of the Feast of Tabernacles was the lighting of giant lamps in the women’s court in the temple.  The light reminded the Jewish people of how God was with them in their wanderings in the wilderness in a pillar of cloud which turned to fire at night (Num. 9:15-23) Christ made His second “I am” statement: I am the light of the world. Christ shines as the Light in the world of darkness and sin. He that followeth. If one accepts and trusts the leading of that Light, he … shall have the light of life.[1]
  • The Pharisees challenge Jesus for two witnesses…In verse 14 Jesus asserts that his witness is true none the less because he knew where he had come from and where is was going.  No human really knows the answers to these things unless given by God. 
  • Jesus proclaims that they judge according to themselves                                   (alone), but He judges with the Father (two witnesses)
  • The second part of this exchange (verses 21-30) is a warning concerning the consequences of their attitude…. John 8:24 “I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins."
  • Many believed as a result of hearing him (verse 30)
  •  Beginning in verse 31 continuing to verse 59 we have Jesus’ address to the believing Jews 
  • Jesus told those Jews who had believed in Him that there was a                              freedom (sanctification) which will come to those who remain in the                              truth of His word  8:31-32  If ye continue in my word. This is not the basis of true faith, but rather the result. This is true discipleship.[2]
  • When the Jews objected to Jesus words about being set free since                              they have "always been free," Jesus responded by affirming that they                              are slaves now to sin (even if they do not recognize it) and by                              trusting in Him as the Son of the Father they will be made free                              people in the sense of being free from the lord of sin--the devil who                              is their father  8:33-58
  • Verse 59 – (BKC) Jesus’ clear affirmation of His deity evoked a crisis. They had to decide whether He was what He claimed or was a blasphemer (cf. 5:18). Stoning was the normal punishment for this sin. The words, but Jesus hid Himself, could refer to a supernatural means of escape. The niv’s slipping away (lit., “He went out”) implies ordinary means (cf. 5:13; 10:39; 12:36). Once again His time had not yet come.

 

CHAPTER 9 Healing of the Man Born Blind

·        New Geneva Study Bible- 9:2 who sinned? Many Jews, like Job’s friends, believed that every temporal misfortune was God’s punishment for some specific sin. With a congenital affliction the explanation could be that the sin had been committed in the womb, or by the parents whose sinful act victimized their child. Jesus dismisses these as improper explanations (v. 3), but this is not to say that certain trials are not the God-ordained punishment for certain sins (e.g., the life of David after His adultery and murder, 2 Sam. 12–21). Neither does Jesus here dismiss the biblical doctrine of original sin (Rom. 5:12–21), which teaches that all suffering is the consequence of our corporate sin and rebellion in Adam. But it is unwise and uncharitable to judge that the sufferings of others are specifically punitive (Matt. 7:1). The question put to Jesus presents a false dilemma. Only two possibilities were given as reasons for the man’s affliction, his own sin or the sin of his parents. Jesus offers a third option (v.3).

·        Life Application Note: In John 9, we see four different reactions to Jesus. The neighbors revealed surprise and skepticism; the Pharisees showed disbelief and prejudice; the parents believed but kept quiet for fear of excommunication; and the healed man showed consistent, growing faith.

·        The Jews interview the man who confesses Jesus as a prophet 9:13-17                        

·        The Jews interview the parents of the man who refuse to identify                              Jesus because of their fear of the Jews  9:18-22

·           The Jews interview the man again demonstrating that they do not                              understand God, and the man proclaims that Jesus is from God                              9:23-34

·        John 9:25     He therefore answered, "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see."

·        The Pharisees call Jesus a “sinner” (v. 24) whose origin is unknown (v. 29), and they excommunicate the man whose replies only irritate them (vv. 27, 30). His replies are to the point: The man born blind had been healed, and “God does not hear sinners” (v. 31).

·        Jesus interviews the man leading  him to the knowledge that He is the                              Son of Man, and to worship of Him 9:35-38

·        John 9:36-37  He answered and said, "And who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" [37] Jesus said to him, "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you."

·        In a discussion with the Pharisees Jesus proclaimed that he has come                              to give spiritual sight to those who believe in Him but spiritual                              blindness to those who physically see but do not believe in Him 39-                              40.

·        John 9:41 Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, 'We see,' your sin remains.

·        Hendriksen, “Jesus, in this connection, reveals the twofold purpose of his coming into the world “in order that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind,” Some Pharisees, standing near, resented what they felt to be an uncomplimentary reference to themselves. They said, “Certainly, we too are not blind, are we?” Jesus rebuked their smug complacency by saying, “If y o u were blind, y o u would have no sin; but now that y o u say, ‘We see,’ y o u r sin remains,”

·        The opponents lacked the elementary humility of acknowledging that they were sinners.[3]


[1]KJV Bible commentary. 1997, c1994. Thomas Nelson: Nashville

[2]KJV Bible commentary. 1997, c1994. Thomas Nelson: Nashville

[3]New Geneva study Bible. 1997, c1995 (electronic ed.). Thomas Nelson: Nashville