Jesus Teaches at the Feast
14Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15The Jews were amazed and asked, "How did this man get such learning without having studied?"
16Jesus answered, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. 17If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"
20"You are demon-possessed," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill you?"
21Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. 22Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. 23Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? 24Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment."
Questions:
1. Jesus challenges his audience in verse 17, stating: "17If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. "
How does doing God's will lead us to the realization that Jesus Christ is the Messiah-the Son of the Living God?
2. What can we do, as believers, to ensure that we remain men and women of truth?
3. a) How does being legalistic blind us to the will of the Father?
b) What does Jesus reveal about the heart of Father God by healing a man on the Sabbath?
c) How can we guard our hearts against becoming legalistic?
1 comment:
Q1: This is one of my very favourite passages in the entire Bible. By doing God's will, according to what Jesus specifically taught, we find that God answers or fulfills the promised He makes in His Word, and we find that everything He says is true. As we put our faith in Christ, for example, we find that we are literally taken from darkness to light, from blindness to spiritual understanding, just as Jesus promised (see John 8:12).
Q2: We can remain men and women of truth by consistently spending both time in the Word and time with God, asking Him to teach us and change us and to put what we read into practice.
Q3: a) Being legalistic blinds us to the will of the Father, because it makes us concentrate more on the "letter" or the literal meaning of the Word rather than the heart of God behind the Word. It makes us insensitive and self-righteous ... setting our own standard for evaluating a situation rather than using God's standard, which is just but also merciful.
b)Jesus revealed that God had compassion on the man's pain and suffering ... it was more important to heal him and deliver him than to keep the Sabbath law.
c)We can guard our hearts by confessing sin often, asking God to shine His light on thoughts and attitudes we have that grieve Him, and being sure to use the Word to judge/evaluate ourselves rather than to judge others. We should continually trust God to act in a situation when needed, or to speak to someone about an issue when needed. We should speak to someone about something/correct them only if He asks us to (slow to speak).
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