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Proverbs 17:10-19
10 Rebuke is more effective for a wise man Than a hundred blows on a fool.
11 An evil man seeks only rebellion; Therefore a cruel messenger will be
sent against him.
12 Let a man meet a bear robbed of her cubs,
Rather than a fool in his folly.
13 Whoever rewards evil for good, Evil will not
depart from his house.
14 The beginning of strife is like releasing water; Therefore
stop contention before a quarrel starts.
15 He who justifies the wicked, and he who
condemns the just, Both of them alike are
an abomination to the LORD.
16 Why is
there in the hand of a fool the purchase price of wisdom, Since he has no heart for it?
17 A friend loves at all times, And a brother is
born for adversity.
18 A man devoid of understanding shakes hands in
a pledge, And becomes surety
for his friend.
19 He who loves transgression loves strife, And
he who exalts his gate seeks destruction.
Father God, we thank you for the love you have for us by
sending your only begotten Son to die on the Cross for us to redeem us of our
sins. Amen!
Gospel of John 7:31-44 NKJV
This week’s lesson we learn the
similarity of the sacrifice on the eighth day (last day) of the Feast of
Tabernacles and Jesus death on the Cross. Is this why Jesus cried out what He
did? Also we learn of the Holy Spirit and how He moves in our lives.
31 And many
of the people believed in Him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will He
do more signs than these which this Man
has done?"
And many of the people believed in Him; The “many people” here is referring to
the crowd of people attending the Feast of Tabernacles, but not the Pharisees
and Scribes. They had seen Jesus miracles and heard Him preach and therefore
believed He was the Messiah, but didn’t have the courage to proclaim it.
And
said, "When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done; What this phrase is saying is this; If
this isn’t Christ, then what other signs would Christ perform? We have seen Him
raise the dead, cure the lame, the blind to see, the deaf to hear, etc. These
miracles are awesome and were prophesized by Isaiah that Christ would do such
things, yet the Jews never made the connection. Isaiah 35:5-6 Then the eyes
of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then the
lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall
burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert.
32 The
Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, and the
Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.
The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring
these things concerning Him; You
can almost picture this scene, the Leaders up in a higher place above the crowd
of people and observing groups of people whispering among themselves. People
going from one group to another stating this must be the Messiah based on the
things He has done and says. No doubt the leaders had spies throughout the
crowd listening to the murmuring and reporting back what was being said also.
And the Pharisees and the chief priests
sent officers to take Him; These
two groups at this point has joined forces against Jesus and sent officials to
bring Him before the Sanhedrin. Two main reasons why they sought to stop this
movement toward Jesus was; one Jesus was teaching against all they had known
and taught to believe; second they feared losing their following and financial
support.
33 Then
Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little
while longer, and then I go to
Him who sent Me.
Then Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little while longer; Actually what Jesus is saying here is
that He will be with them for another six months or until the next Passover
when He becomes the sacrificial lamb for mankind. Most likely base on the
previous verse Jesus is stating this to the officers sent to take Him. In other
words, I will be leaving soon so don’t bother detaining me now.
And then I go to Him who sent Me; Here Jesus re-emphasizes that His existence is from God,
was sent by God, and will return to God to sit at His right hand.
34 You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come."
You will seek Me, and not find
Me; Meaning in the future when Jesus is gone
from earth things will turn ugly and great persecution will come upon the
people and the temple will be destroyed. Then they will seek the Messiah for
deliverance and will not find Him.
And where I am you cannot come; This whole verse is to be understood as
future, though the words “am and cannot” are both in the present tense. Simply
meaning, “Where I shall be you will not be able to come”. He, the Messiah,
would be in heaven; and though they would earnestly desire His presence and aid
to save the city and nation from the Romans, they would not be able to obtain
it because of their disbelief and rebellious ways and accepting Him as the
Messiah.
35 Then the
Jews said among themselves, "Where does He intend to go that we shall not
find Him? Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the
Greeks?
Then the Jews said among themselves,
"Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him; Here again Jesus is speaking spiritually
while the Jews are thinking carnally. Even today are humanism gets in the way
with thinking spiritually and pulls a dark veil down over our hearts.
Those
that aren’t true believers think with their darkened minds and not their
hearts, therefore believing a lie and not the truth of God’s Word. A Born Again
Christian believes every word of the Bible and tries to live according to the
Bible and nothing else.
Does He intend to go to the Dispersion
among the Greeks and teach the Greeks; What this phrase is saying is this; Is He thinking of
leaving the country and going to the Jews that have traveled and settled in other
lands? Maybe He will even teach the Greeks!
36 What is
this thing that He said, 'You will seek Me and not find
Me, and where I am you cannot come'?"
Simply
put that they were bewildered as to what Jesus said. Put yourself in the shoes
of these people. Would you understand what Jesus said; would you believe He was
the Messiah; would you be able to think spiritually; can you think spiritually
now? Something to ponder!
Even
today many people find it hard to truly believe. They are too busy; I don’t
want to give up smoking, drinking, drugs, adultery, gambling, fornication, or
some other vise the flesh takes pleasure in; or there is always tomorrow to get
saved; or this is life and there is nothing beyond death, etc. The excuses are
endless, but one never knows when their last breathe will happen. Today is the
day of Salvation!
37 On the
last day, that great day of the
feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If
anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
If
you remember this feast lasted eight days so the last day mentioned here was
the eighth day. On this day, a priest would draw water from the Pool of Siloam
in a golden vessel, and take it to the temple. At the morning sacrifice, while
it was on the Altar, he poured this water mingled with wine on it, the people
all the while singing with great joy.
Knowing
this information do you understand why Jesus cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink”. Can you see
the resemblance? The Cross is the altar; Jesus is the sacrifice; the mingled
water and wine is what flowed from the sacrifice when it was poured on it, the
same that flowed from Jesus side when the lance pierced Him; Jesus is the
Living Water! John
19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced
His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
Several
things are said here in this verse: 1) “Jesus
stood and cried”: This invitation of salvation is given and meant for all
to hear. 2) “If any man”: This speaks
of any and all, Jew and Gentile, irrespective of color or race. 3) “Thirst”: This thirst is from the
spiritual part of man, and cannot be quenched or satisfied in any other way or
manner, other than Jesus. 4) “Let him”:
This means that nothing is to hinder the seeking soul. As the Holy Spirit deals
with his heart, nothing must stand in his way as he comes to Christ. 5) “Come unto Me”: Obviously, this speaks
of Jesus. He alone is the answer and can quench the thirst. 6) “And drink”: This takes Salvation out of
the philosophical, and places it in the realm of the personal, with One Person,
the Lord Jesus Christ, dealing with another person, the believing sinner. To
“drink” is to believe!
38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his
heart will flow rivers of living water."
He who believes in Me; What must one believe here? One must
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Who came down to this earth in the
form of Man, and paid the price at Calvary’s Cross for man’s Redemption. One
must believe that accepting Him as one’s Saviour, provides Salvation, and that
it cannot be earned but is a Free Gift.
As the Scripture has said; This is most likely referring to this
verse; (Isaiah 58:11 The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy
your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered
garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.) along with Isaiah 44:3-4; Joel
3:18.
Out of his heart will flow
rivers of living water;
This phrase is referring to the Holy Spirit within a Born Again Christians
heart. Jesus used the term living
water in John 4:10 to indicate eternal life. Here he uses
the term to refer to the Holy Spirit. The two go together: Wherever the Holy
Spirit is accepted, he brings eternal life. Jesus teaches more about the Holy
Spirit in chapters 14-16.
The
lesson here is: that ceremonies, however magnificent, revered, and scriptural,
can never satisfy the deep thirst of the soul. That thirst can only be
satisfied by personal union with the Lord Jesus by Faith. For He is the Smitten
Rock Who in Resurrection Power sends forth a stream of life to dying men and to
a thirsty world (Williams).
39 But this
He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for
the Holy Spirit was not yet given,
because Jesus was not yet glorified.
But this He spoke concerning the Spirit;
This is speaking of the
Holy Spirit that is present in a Born Again Christians heart, a heart that
changes from stone to a heart of flesh when a person places their faith in
Jesus Christ; a spirit of regeneration and sanctification; a spirit of
illumination and conversion; a spirit of faith and adoption. This Spirit is
received upon believing, but on the day of Pentecost, the Apostles and others
received a larger extraordinary measure of the Spirit with the evidence being
speaking in tongues, to qualify them for greater work and service.
Whom those believing in Him would
receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given;
The key word
here is “would”, not until after Jesus death, resurrection, and ascension to
Heaven would anyone that repents and accepts Jesus as their Saviour, receive
the Holy Spirit within. John 16:7
Because Jesus was not yet glorified; Jesus was glorified when He rose from
the dead.
40 Therefore
many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, "Truly this is the
Prophet."
That is, the prophet whom
they expected to precede the coming of the Messiah, either Elijah or Jeremiah. Matthew 16:14 So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah,
and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." Deuteronomy
18:15
41 Others
said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Will the Christ come
out of Galilee?
This
state’s they did not Scripturally connect where Jesus was born.
42 Has not
the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the
town of Bethlehem, where David was?"
Jesus
was of the Seed of David, and was born in Bethlehem, however, it seems that
they somewhat misunderstood Micah’s prediction (Micah
5:1-2), thinking that
the Messiah would make Bethlehem his home not Galilee. However, Micah did not
say that, but only that this “Ruler of Israel” would come out of Bethlehem.
Jesus fulfilled that, when He was born in that small village.
43 So there
was a division among the people because of Him.
This
division is a result of not knowing what Scripture states and what town Jesus
was born in by the Jewish people.
44 Now some
of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
Most
probable it was the officials sent from the Sanhedrin that wanted to arrest
Jesus at this point, but was restrained by the Holy Spirit.
The
Spirit of God had His hand on Jesus during this whole discourse protecting Him.
It is simply amazing what the Holy Spirit can do in our daily lives if we will
submit ourselves to Jesus. Have you accepted Jesus as your Saviour? Today is
the day of Salvation! 2
Corinthians 6:2 For He says:
"IN AN ACCEPTABLE TIME I HAVE HEARD YOU, AND IN THE DAY OF SALVATION I
HAVE HELPED YOU." Behold, now is
the accepted time; behold, now is
the day of salvation.
Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created that
are in heaven and that are on earth,
visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All
things were created through Him and for Him.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God,
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God."
The Lighthouse
Full Gospel Church
Sinners Prayer; Pray this, and if you
believe it with your heart, Jesus will save you!
“Lord
Jesus I know I am a sinner. I confess my
sins to you; I am sorry for my sins; I repent (Meaning, desiring to turn from a
sinful lifestyle.) of all my sins, and I am asking for your forgiveness. I believe that only you can forgive sin. I commit my life to you and ask you to come
into my heart, direct, and take charge of my life. I believe that you died to set me free from
my sinful lifestyle and you rose from the dead to give me eternal life, and
right now you are seated at the Right Hand of God Almighty. I believe you are
the Son of God; the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life, and my
Savior.” I believe this and have faith
you will make a new person out of me, by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in my
heart and lead me in a new life. In Jesus name I pray Amen.”
(John 3:16,17; Romans
3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-13; Ephesians
2:8-10; 1 John 5:11-14; 1:6-10)
(Sin: Rom. 1:22-32; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph.
5:3-7)
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