John Chapter 7 Fear, Faith, and Divine Timing Unpacked

Ah, good morning everyone. Today we're inside, it's raining today, so we'll be doing this from the kitchen table. Today we will continue our study in the Book of John, uh, the Gospel of John, and we'll be in John chapter 7. As mentioned once before, you can catch the replay after this is done on this channel. You could also visit my channel on YouTube if you go to Paul Woodley. So just search me up, Paul Woodley, you'll see my profile. You can feel free to subscribe to my, to my YouTube channel, uh, there you'll see additional shorts as well. But let's get started, and I'll start with some prayer and then we'll get going. Today, by the way, is a little bit shorter today than it was yesterday. Yesterday we were in John chapter 6. It was a very big chapter. Um, this today we are going to tackle, uh, let's see, 52 verses in John chapter 7. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for your time. Uh, we thank you for this day. We thank you, uh, for the rain that you bring upon us. Um, and, and we were just reminded, Lord, that this, uh, this earth is a, is a water earth, you know, set apart from all of universe really, Lord. Part of nature to declare your works. Everything is designed, Lord, especially nature, to have us consider you, think of you, and Lord willing, give you gratitude. So though it's raining outside, we're doing this at the kitchen table today. It's all good. We just pray, Lord, that you'd be with us as we study your word. I pray, Lord, as always, that should I ever make a an opinion in error, that you would strike it from the minds of the hearer, because we seek only the truth, Lord. Your word is truth, and that's why we go verse by verse in the Bible. We pray these things in the name of your Son Jesus. Amen. All right, guys, so we're in John chapter 7. So just a quick overview, um, of where we, uh, where we came through. Um, a few miracles have already happened in the book of John. If you've been following with me, you already know. We remember that his very first miracle was turning water into wine. We see the second miracle was him healing the official's son. We see the third miracle in the book of John being that invalid that was at the pool. And remember, he says, "Hey, do you wanna be well?" He made that man well. But then we learn later on that when Jesus found him in John 5:14, it said, "Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, 'See, you are well. Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.'" It says in verse 15, "The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who healed him." 'Cause remember, the religious folks were saying, "Hey, you know, why are you carrying your bed?" And he's like, "Well, this guy," he didn't know Jesus' name, "this guy told me to pick up my bed," right? So we go on through chapter 5 and the big dissertation of Jesus saying that he's equal with God. Verse 22, 5:22, it says, "For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father." And whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him, so forth. We kind of skip through. We see that in chapter 6, we see that miracle of Jesus feeding 5,000, remember? And he tested Philip. And he says in chapter 6, verse 5, he said this to test him, or pick it up in chapter 6, verse 5. When he saw the large crowd coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat. And it said he said this to test them, for he himself knew what he would do. And of course, we see that he turned 5 barley loaves and 2 fishes, as shown in verse 9, to feed all of these people. And all of these people were satisfied, and there was leftovers, 12 basketfuls of leftovers. And then we kind of skip through to chapter 6. We see that miraculous, another miracle, Jesus walking on water. And remember I pointed out the fact that when he stepped into the boat, that they were immediately on the shore. They were just time warped, boom, there they are. We skipped through that last part yesterday. We were going through the dissertation, the first I am, Jesus talking about I am, the I am the bread of life. And he's talking about how he came from heaven, right? And that's where he came from. That was his origin story, per se. So he came down from heaven, that he is the bread that came down from heaven, and that anyone who eats this bread will live forever. And he's juxtaposing that with the religious folks who kept on putting their hope in Moses, who kept on talking about manna, back when they were back in the Exodus days, back before Exodus, back when they were in the wilderness, when God gave them manna to make the manna cakes and stuff. So he's talking about how he's the bread that came down from heaven. Now we'll pin that for a second because I just want to, because I'm seeing in my Bible here, it says here in my notes that 23 times in all, we find our Lord's meaningful quote unquote, I am. Or in Greek, it's called egoimi, right? So in the Greek text of this Gospel, and we see that these statements, which are in, if you're following along or writing this down, John 4:26, John 6:20, John 6:35, John 6:41, John 6:48, John 6:51, John 8:12, chapter 18, chapter 24, chapter 28:58, John 10:7 and 9, 11, 14. John 11:25. John 13:19. John 14:6. John 15:1 and 5. Chapter 18:5, 6, and 8. So in several of these, he joins his quote-unquote "I am" with 7 tremendous metaphors which are expressive of his saving relationship toward the world. So when he says, I am anything, as you know, back in the day when Moses asked God at the burning bush, who, you know, when I go to Pharaoh, you know, who should I say to him sent me? And God says, tell him I am sent you, right? So here we see in John chapter 6, he's talking about he, the first I am, he's I am the bread of life. Now, where are the other I am? So we already went through the first one, I am the bread of life, that he talked about. Right. And remember yesterday, if you go back to the video or go back to the study or read your own Bible, John chapter 6, he's talking about how he is the bread of life. And this bread, the bread that he gives, is his flesh. And anyone who would eat his flesh would have eternal life. And then we just like, we, we dissected all that. What does that even mean? And a matter of fact, when he started talking in John chapter 6, the chapter before yesterday's chapter we went through, when he started talking about, oh, you know, you have to eat my flesh, drink my blood, you know, a lot of people checked out. And they're like, what? This is crazy talk. This is hard talk. And it said then that many disciples left him, right? And then he turned to his other 12 and he says, are you going to leave me too? Right? And we saw that at the end of that chapter. But other I am statements that Jesus made in the Bible, in the Gospel of John, there is, he says, I am the bread of life, which we already went through yesterday. He says, I am the light of the world. And we'll get to that in a couple of days. That's John 8:12. He says, "I am the door of the sheep." That's in John 10:7-9. He says, "I am the Good Shepherd." That's in John 10:11-14. He says, "I am the resurrection and the life." That's a favorite. That's in John 11:25. He says, "I am the way and the truth and the life," John 14:6. And finally, he says, "I am the true vine." We saw that in John 15. So we'll unpack all of those "I am" statements as we go, right? So today we're in John 7, right? There are no "I am" statements in John 7. Um, but, uh, tomorrow when we do John chapter 8, we're going to start seeing the next I Am statement, which is I Am the Light of the World. All right, so let's unpack John chapter 7, right? My encouragement to all you guys, everybody, no matter what your faith is, who you are, Christian, non-Christian, whatever, my premise always has been, always will be, is that this Bible here is truly The Word of God. And I get it, if you don't heard that, know that, believe that, I get it. It takes a lot of faith because I too was that guy. You know, I'm 53 now, okay? I know I look really young. I'm just kidding. But I was saved at age 35. And of course, I grew up like many, many people with a Bible. Usually it's a King James Version depending on That's the most popular one. But my point is, is that I got saved at age 35 because I heard the gospel for the first time presented to me. And it was only then that I had to challenge my limiting beliefs of understanding. And I really wouldn't say I was a religious guy per se. I don't really think I'm a religious guy now. But I am a Bible-believing dude, right? So that's why we want to read the Bible, because, you know, everyone has their opinion about Christ, about God, and whatnot. My point is always go to the text, but it's very difficult to have an argument if you don't even believe the text, right? So that's why we do Bible study. That's why we go verse by verse, because the point is, is we're trying to look at this through a historical lens. A historical lens, an academic lens, a logical lens, so that we can come to hopefully the conclusion that Jesus is who he says he is. That is really my aim in these Bible studies with y'all, is so that you can hear and read together with me. You can read it together and come to your own conclusion. That Jesus is who he says he is. That's the whole point. I'm not trying to proselytize anyone particularly or whatever, but I do know that if you do believe in Jesus who he is, because that's one of the big questions. Remember a few days ago I said to one of the, one of the questions that you have to answer in life is, who is Jesus? Jesus said so when he was in that boat and he calmed the sea. He said to his disciples after he calmed the seas, right, he says "Who do people say that I am?" And I had said that that is the question that we all have to answer is who do you say Jesus is? And even in the boat, remember when he's asked that question, his own disciples that were in the boat said, "Well, some people think that you are John the Baptist, like resurrected John the Baptist. Some people think that you are Elijah, the prophet." And it was only Peter who stood up at the end there, "Lord, you are the Christ. We believe in you. You are the Son of God." the Son of God, the Holy One of Israel. So that is really kind of, if I have a motive, that is the motive. The motive is to, through the Scripture, not my own Paul Woodley's opinion, you know, though I will add some flavor to the text, but really the motive that I have here is straight up just throw the seed out. That's a parable if you didn't know that. The seed is the word of God. This right here is the word of God. Throw it out there, and depending on where your heart is today will determine whether that seed will germinate and grow. And you know what, if it doesn't germinate and grow and you reject it right off the bat, face value, that's okay. Because actually, if you know that parable, it explains why you are feeling the way you feel. For many, many people, they don't come to Christ for a long, long time I myself, again, my personal testimony, I didn't become a Christian until I was 35 years old. I did not grow up in a Christian home, gospel-centered Christian home. So that is explained in those parables of the soil. So if you want to know what I'm talking about, look up parable of the soils. And then you can kind of see through there that you are one of those soils. We all are. That's a great parable because it explains why a person believes and doesn't believe in the Word. Okay, right, no judgment. So let's pick up where we left off yesterday. It's John chapter 7. Now, um, this replay, of course, this will replay here. I get it. What I do, just so y'all know, what I do with my videos right now is I'm going to go ahead and, uh, after this, you know, goes through, I caption it, and I'm not putting the captions back on here on Facebook, but I do put my caption version on my YouTube channel. So if you want to follow me on the YouTube channel, that'd be great. You'll see my caption version, the long form of this video. It's these videos right here because we're doing full-blown chapters. It's taken about an hour to an hour and a half to get it done. So it's long and I get it. You're not going to have you know, an hour, hour and a half. But hey, hang in there if you want, because some people do. But there's always a replay. And I then, I, I put these into soundbites. You know this, these are reels. So I will do a little post edit on the reels part so you get 30-second soundbites. But most of those reels are going to be on my YouTube channel, not on here on the Facebook channel. Now I do have a group, you may see it in my bio, whatever, you might see it there to join my group. I do have a Christian leadership group. Now, I will post these videos in there, and I stream in, in that group. So that is one benefit of joining that group. And of course, that Facebook group is a little bit more dealing with leadership topics, but we will always have Bible study here because that is who we are, and that is our identity, and it's very important. And one of the things that I'm trying to promote, if you will, is that it all starts with who you are, your identity. And then the secondary thing. Matter of fact, I'm working on developing my actual homepage, which is for many, many years, I own my own name, paulwoodley.com. You should own your own name if you don't already. But right now I just use that to redirect traffic to what the project that I'm working on right now. But I lost my thought. It'll come to me. But yeah, I lost my thought there, sorry. Anywho, it wasn't meant to be, right? That's how it is. So let's get going. Don't wanna digress too much. A lot to unpack here, lots to unpack here. So we're going into John chapter 7. There's already animosity towards Jesus as we get into John chapter 7. So I want us to start following along. Remember, we're trying to put ourselves in the story. We're trying to imagine what it's like being Jesus, what it's like being close to him, like his disciples, what it's like being in the crowd, and even amongst the crowd, who is who. Because there's just, just in real life, when there's a crowd, when there's a following, everyone has their own motive, right? For example, you could, you can be an American and you have a president. Today it's Donald Trump. And you can say, that's my president. And I'm not going to get political here, but the fact of the matter is he's our president currently, right? So you can go to another country, for example, if there's another country and people are like, oh, you're American? Well, oh yeah, an American, of course. Depending on the country you are, it can be nostalgic to them because they're like, oh wait, we don't see many Americans very much or whatever. Or they might think that you are better, you're on a different status level or whatever that case may be. And so in essence, what's happening is you as an American foreigner, like you're an American traveler, you are borrowing the identity of being a U.S. citizen. And to some degree, just by being an American citizen, you have, well, you have access to privilege, if you will. And so because of your identity as an American, people treat you probably with respect or more respect. Now, that may not be the case in this political environment, but for many cases, you know, that is a an assumption for the most part. I know when I travel, when I have traveled other countries, you know, at least poorer countries, you know, the assumption is that, you know, I have a lot of money, whatever. And compared to them, I do for sure. But so I borrow— so, so I have a borrowed identity from where I come from, right? And if people are talking about my government, or let's just say, let's say the president did travel to my town or travel to a country and I happen to be there, I'm like, oh, I You feel close, like, that's my president, right? So there is, um, there's a relationship that I have with my president, but I'm not in real relationship because he doesn't know me from a hole in the wall. But I identify with him. Let's take that to sports. If you're an avid sports fan, right, you— that's your team, whoever your team is. But, you know, and you, you state, you know, you make— let's say football, your soccer, your I'm sorry, football, football, American football. So, I'm a New York Jets fan, poor me, because they haven't won a Super Bowl since '69, right? But I'm very close to the news of that team. I'm a New York Knicks fan, for example. I follow my teams and I feel like they are a part of me. But in reality, if I was to go there, they'd be like, "We don't have a relationship." They don't know me one-on-one. So, in that sense, I'm in the crowd. Per se. So that is what— when we talk about— so this gospel, this Christian life is all about relationship. What kind of relationship do you have with Jesus? What kind of relationship do you have with the Holy Spirit? And what kind of relationship do you have with God? Right? And so, you know, our goal here is we want to be closer, we want to have a close a close relation. We call God our Father, just like Jesus called God his Father. Now we want to have that same kind of comfort and conviction that, yes, truly he is my Father. Matter of fact, I've got kids. I've taught my children since they were born. I've taught my children that I'm not their father. Okay. Oh, wow. I teach them I'm their dad. But I say, "You know what? You have a Father. God is your Father. I'm your dad." So, I make a distinction in my children's minds real early on that ultimately God is their Father. And as they grow up, of course, they understand I'm their biological father. But the point is that I want my children to have a relationship in time with the real Father. Which is God, who's all our fathers in reality. So anyway, so the point is that we were— so I digress, I know, but I'm talking about crowds. And as we go through the story, we're going to see that there's always crowds around Jesus. Some of them are there because they just want to see it. They just want to witness it, you know, like a circus act. Some are there because they want to be healed, but they're shy. They don't know how. They don't know how to reach Jesus. He's surrounded by a core of 12. Some of them are really desperate because their children are sick, as we saw in the official's son, to the point of death. We see it with the woman with the issue of blood when we get to that. So they're very desperate people. There's the guys that were the lepers, right? And, um, so many, many, many people are very, very desperate to see, uh, to see Jesus. Hey, Ketsia, how are you doing? I see you right there. Hey, uh, how are you? Um, good to see you as well. Um, so, so, um, so, uh, uh, you guys threw me off. I see you scrolling my screen. That's great, great. Ketsia, good to see you. It's been a long, long time. Uh, I hope everything's well. And, um Uh, Ilay, I don't even— how do I phonetically spell your name? I'm not sure if you're still on. I have a— is it I-L-A-Y? I know we were talking the other day. We're in the same Facebook group, Underdog Academy. Uh, good stuff you've got going on there, by the way, uh, with your business and sales. We'll have to connect a little bit later on that. But, um, but yeah, so we're in the— so there's a lot of crowds. Thank you, Ketsia. Good to see you. Cool, cool. Well, hang in there. I hope you like my channel. You know, just trying to throw some truth out here, right? So stick with me for a little bit. And by the way, we do this every day. So that's the goal, unless something happens. And like, I just had an oil change, you know, I just got back from oil change. I prefer to do this at like 9 o'clock Eastern time, but you know, I had to get an oil change today. So I can't promise any given time. By the way, guys, remember what I always say, Bible says this, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Anything more from that comes from evil. I teach my children this. So try to get that, try to get to that position. And this goes into my leadership stuff, but it's very biblical. It's like, let your yes be yes. Let your no be no. Anything more from that comes from evil, right? So don't make promises is high level what I'm trying to say. Don't make a promise. Don't make a promise. You don't have to make promises. And when people try to say, hey, promise me, like my son, he knows I never make promises. I don't make promises. Actually, I do make promises, but I keep my promises. And why do I keep my promises? Because I know scripture that says God will hold every loose word that you— he'll hold you accountable to your words, to your promises. So if you're gonna make a promise, you better make sure you can fulfill on that promise. And if you can't guarantee that you can fulfill on that promise, better not even say a promise. So don't make promises. Just let your yes be yes, your no be no. And just, and you know, I actually been in job interviews. I've been with bosses who He says, hey, promise, can you promise this? And I straight up said, I can't make you that promise. And the reason why I can't make you that promise is because my religion, that's my, you know, I don't like to say that, but I do. My religion says I can't make a promise, but I will tell you this. I will do my best and I will do my best to implement that, you know, so, um, I can, uh, you know, I'll, I'll give you a near guarantee, but I, but I can't promise. I've actually said that. And I, people looked at me very weird, right? I get it. You know, it's a weird life sometimes, right? And I'm a director of sales and marketing, at least that's my profession in big box hotels, right? So it's not like, you know, like I get it. It's like people are afraid. That's unfortunate. People are afraid to share their faith in work. And part of what I do, what I try to encourage other Christians is, hey, you don't have to be afraid. The world wants to shut you up. They don't want, you know, you don't have to go around and in a lunchroom, start street preaching, right? But you can work out your faith just by being you, just by being a good person, right? The best— there's no one good, we get it, right? Only Jesus is good. But you can be a good example, right? For example, here's something— I know I digress, I keep digressing— but here is a good thing. Here's a writer downer for you, right? Don't cuss. Don't cuss, right? If you want to take, you know, and this actually goes into, you know, other lessons I do, but we don't cuss in my house. Now, I used to cuss. I'm from New York. I grew up in— I was born in Brooklyn. I was raised in the Bronx. I was, you know, not fully street, but pretty street, right? So I had a mouth forever till I was 35. As a professional, I will say to you that there is no need to cuss. There's no need to use profanity. And in fact, if you do, you lose credibility in the real world, in the professional world. Now, it's very interesting to me when I see gurus, I see coaches, and I see other leaders that they curse. In reality, what's happening there, if you psychoanalyze it, what they're trying to do is they think they're in rapport. They think that they're establishing rapport. And you might think that you're trying to establish rapport, especially if you're in sales. I've been in sales since I was a baby. I've done door-to-door sales for half of my beginning life, and I still do direct marketing sales, and now I do sales in hotels. So I understand sales. And I will say this is that, of course, as you know, is that in sales you need to be in rapport. So better to take the high path, the narrow road, the higher road, and just don't use profanity. It's funny I say that because I was going through my comments on my YouTube channel Yesterday, and, uh, of course there's these detractors, and I don't hate on those people. I encourage, you know, uh, comments, and I encourage, you know, I understand people are not going to agree with, with what I say, agree with the Bible. So, but, you know, they're, you know, somewhat, someone cussed or whatever, and I do my best to try to filter all that stuff out. But my point is, is that, um, in my rules of my, you know, forums per se, I do make that rule, you know, Don't cuss. It's not necessary. I told that person, you know, it's really not necessary. It's not necessary. Matter of fact, you know, when you cuss, you know what that shows? That shows you're not smart. That shows you don't have vocabulary. So if you have to curse to communicate your point, it's just showing the audience that you just don't have the vocabulary to communicate your point. So make it a professional goal to, to not curse. It's not good to curse. Anyways, I digress. I know we didn't even get into chapter 7 yet, but we're going to get to it right now. I'm leading us up to where we are. So where we're at is Jesus is losing disciples. Chapter 6, Jesus has a huge crowd. People are following him for the miracles. He just fed 5,000 people, and he starts talking about 'This thing where you got to eat my flesh and drink my blood.' And it says many people turned away. And remember, he said to his disciples, 'Are you going to turn away also?' And that's where he says in verse 71 of chapter 6, he spoke to— you know, he says— uh, sorry, in verse 70, he, he says, 'Did I not choose you the 12, and yet one of you is a devil?' He spoke to Judas. He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, he, one of the 12, was going to betray him. So that's the end of chapter 6. So now we're going into chapter 7. So let's pick it up right there, uh, because I know that's why we're here today. Exactly right, kids. Yeah. Chapter 7, verse 1. After this, Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jews the Feast of Booths was at hand. Verse 3: So his brothers said to him, "Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world." For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to the feast, for my time has not yet fully come. After saying this, he remained in Galilee. Let's pick it up some more, and then we'll go back and we'll unpack it verse for verse. Verse 10, follow along if you got your Bibles. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, 'Where is he?' And there was much muttering about him among the people. 12. While some said, "He is a good man," others said, "No, he is leading the people astray." 13. Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him. All right, let's pause there. Okay, can you see how this relates to us today? Right there, right? Can you see how just at the end of that section here, I just read 1 through 13, that it says out, um, ESV. I'm reading ESV, Ketsia, ESV. Um, so, um, at the end of there it says, um, 12, and there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said he's a good man, others said no, he's not, he's leading the people astray. But here, verse 13, for yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him. Okay, so everybody wants to talk to him, everybody wants to see him. Some secretly believe in him, like Nicodemus, if you will, going back to chapter 3. He came in the night to talk to Jesus because he, because he was a high-ranking official and he wanted to work it out in his own spirit, you know, is he really the Christ, the Messiah? Right? But he came in dark at nighttime to see Jesus. And there are many people like that. There are many people like that today where, you know, you have, uh, you know, so I love it when people say, well, God knows my heart, right? And so it's like they have this— call it a secret faith. They, they, they, they watch, they watch from afar maybe the miracles that Jesus does or that God does Or maybe they go to church, and maybe they do read their Bible, and maybe they do believe. But there is a thing that we see here, that there's a condition that the Bible talks about dozens and dozens of times, this thing called fear. We all know that word, fear. And it says here, "Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly." of him. And so that's what we're challenging, you know, that's, that's what we're going to unpack is— and we're going to pack it often— is this concept of fear and why fear is really one of the chief tools the devil will use against you to keep you stuck, right? It's always fear-driven. All right, let's go back, let's unpack it verse by verse. 7:1. So we see this is, uh, in Galilee. After this, Jesus went about in Galilee, and it says that he would not be going back to Judea. And why? Because in Judea, the religious folks, the Jews there, were seeking to kill him. That's why he's not going back to Judea. And now we see there is a, uh, there's the Feast of Booths that was at hand. Now I'm going to just read to you from my Bible notes, right? Uninspired, it's just notes, but we use the notes. And some Bibles have the notes, right? I always encourage people to always read above the notes, like the actual verses, right, um, first, and understand it like what we're doing here. But it's okay, of course, to read the notes for historical context because, you know, we're not all biblical scholars. You know, we don't study— you know, we're not— you know, we don't— we don't know the historical context of certain things. So I'm going to use this in this case in describing the Feast of Booths. Like, what is that, right? So if you're not, you know, an ancient Jew, you probably don't know what the Feast of Booths are. So it says here that the Feast of Booths— and this is where they were at. The Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles, was connected in the Old Testament with the harvest of grapes and olives. Okay, we see that in Exodus 23:16, Leviticus 23:33-36, Leviticus, uh, 23:39-43, Deuteronomy 16:13-15, The feast lasted a full week from the 15th to the 21st of Tishri, which is from September through October. The Jewish historian Josephus indicates that of Israel's three major feasts, which was the Passover, Pentecost, and Booths or Tabernacles, this one was the most popular In order to commemorate the Israelites' trek through the wilderness, the people built makeshift shelters out of leaves and branches, hence the word booths or tabernacles, which was described in Leviticus 23:42. Both a water drawing and a lamp lighting ceremony were featured. A water drawing drawing of water and a lamp lighting ceremony were featured. And I say that because Jesus is going to use the elements, his surroundings, such as the water and the lamp lighting, to make a point later down the road, a spiritual point and application, right? Remember we said here in the beginning of this video here that there were a few I Am statements that Jesus made. He says, um, uh, let's see here, I Am the light of the world, right? That is one of the illustrations where he uses that, saying he is the light of the world. So we know where we're at. We're at the Feast of Booz, and, um, we're going to see other characters in the story. So who, who's been identified here so far? Of course we have Jesus. We see that, um, he's at the Feast of Booz, and as we go on, we're going to see that his brothers are there, his actual half-brothers, right? And just because we haven't hit it on it yet, when we talk about Jesus' brothers We're talking about his half-brothers, which means that Jesus, if you remember, is the firstborn that went through Mary's canal, right? He's the firstborn from Mary, right? But he was not from the seed of Joseph because she was virgin born. So Joseph and Mary had other children and daughters. Of course, those children and daughters were from themselves, from their marriage, right? So those brothers and sisters, we or I reference it as his half-brothers, for example, and we'll see more of that, who they are. So that's who we're talking about when we, when we hear brothers. We're not talking about Christian brothers like how we normally talk in our vernacular. We're talking about Jesus' actual half-brothers that were born between the union of Mary and Joseph. Got it? So we go on, verse 3. So his brothers said to him, quote, leave here and go to Judea. That your disciples also may see the works you are doing.' Now remember, what was the reason why he's not in Judea? Because the Jews were seeking to kill him over there. Yet his brothers, his half flesh and blood, if you will, are telling him, 'You should go there. If you say who you are, the Son of God, then you should go over there and preach, uh, so that they may see the works you're doing. And that's very interesting because we're talking about Jesus' own household, his brothers who are not believing in him. Now, naturally, he's the eldest in the family. He's the oldest son. And we don't know the dynamics between his relationship with his brothers growing up. There's very little that we know about in the Bible about his relationship with his, his brothers. Very little that we know about his childhood, just certain parts of it. But remember, he's the Son of God, so I would imagine he could do some things being the Son of God. But remember, he had to grow in wisdom. And remember, his ministry didn't even start until he was age 30. So, so for the, you know, who knows? No one really knows if he even did any miracles, and I don't think he did according to Scripture. The water and wine was the first recorded one. But regardless, his siblings— sibling rivalry— his siblings don't believe who he's saying he is. Now, they have seen— we can just draw that conclusion, it doesn't specifically say— that they're seeing their older brother getting all of this attention from all these people, and they're just a small little family out of Nazareth, right, with a carpenter father, right? So pretty righteous family, I would say, because Mary herself was earmarked because of her righteousness and faith. And even Joseph says that he was a righteous man. And how the angel visited Joseph in a dream saying, "Don't put Mary away," when he found out that she was pregnant, "Don't put her away because the baby that she has is from the Holy One." So we know that this is a pretty religious, pretty righteous family unit here, but they have an older brother in Jesus, and now all of these people are following him. They themselves are starting to see him doing certain things, Right now, we don't know, at least I don't know yet, I have to deep dive it, whether they were with him when he was feeding the 5,000 or what, you know, or, you know, but I think, or whether they attributed the water into wine with him. I'm sure his mother said it. Maybe they saw that, you know, but on all of this, there seems to be some kind of jealousy, uh, and really ill advice to their older brother saying, hey, You need to go into Judea if you really say who you are. It's almost similar to how when Jesus was pushed into the wilderness when he got baptized, if you remember, and the devil tempted him those 3 times in the wilderness saying, if you were the Son of God, turn these stones into bread. If you're a Son of God, throw yourself off the cliff, right? Because scripture says that his angels will capture you, right? And all those temptations. So it almost seems similar that his own brothers are trying to give him a temptation to, hey, if you say who you are, go prove yourself in a location that they're trying to kill him. So his brothers don't believe him, is my point, and they're the ones that grew up with him. So verse 4, they continue to say the reason why they want him to go to Judea is, for no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. So that was the reason, you know. All right, boss man, if you, if you're doing this for attention, you should go all out. You should go on YouTube. And open up a channel. Just kidding, you know. But you guys, if you know, if you are saying who you are, you need to go all out. Because no one who, um, um, no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. And that's the key— if he seeks to be known openly. I think they believe that Jesus is doing all these things because he seeks to be known openly. But in reality, he didn't, if we know our text. Because as we go through the Gospels, Jesus takes his disciples aside and gives them individual instruction. But in the beginning, he's going around, he's preaching, and he's teaching. So they say in 4 7:4, for no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. And verse 5, for not even his brothers believed in him. That's how we know. And then Jesus said to them, my time has not yet come, but your time is always here. See, now they probably don't know what he's saying there, but he's on a divine timetable. My time has not yet come, right? So he needs to be on that cross when he was on that cross to fulfill prophecy. For him to go to Judea and put himself and subject himself into situations to get killed too early, he won't be able to fulfill the prophecy. So Jesus was always on a divine timeline. But he says to his brothers, but your time is always here. It's the same. And, and that's how we need to internalize this word for ourselves. Your time is always here. You can debate all you want for as long as you want, and you cannot believe and stay in your unbelief for whatever reasons you have, whether that be logical, academic, scientific, whatever the excuse is. Jesus is saying to us today, whatever your Thing is, I'm going to say excuse to not come to me. You need to put that aside because your time is always here. As long as you have breath, that's your time. It's always here. Don't worry about me. That's what Jesus is saying. Don't worry about me. I say this to my children all the time. Worry about yourself. So stop worrying about the world. Stop worrying about the politics of the world, and there's so much of it. Stop worrying about politics. Worry about yourself. That's the message. Stop worrying about others. First, worry about yourself. Are you good? Are you good? Do you have faith in me? Is what Jesus is saying. That's step number 1 to Everything. That is the key that unlocks everything else. That's where the freedom is. That's where the eternal life is. That's the thing that we should all want to strive to get. And I get it that many people are very materialistic and they want the stuff— the houses, the food, the goods, the money. I get it. And if there's any encouragement to some degree, that the promises that not only will you get salvation, but you'll get those things. Now, I don't want to go too deep into all of that because then we start hitting on the prosperity gospel, that if you come to Jesus, that you're going to get all these things, because that's not, that's not the pro— that's not, that's not, uh, necessarily always going to happen, right? But what Jesus does want from all of us is he wants commitment. It's got to start there, and then the rest will be revealed, right? So we go on. His brothers are testing him. They're saying, hey, you know, if you— you know, and they're not really good brothers in my opinion. They're basically trying to say, hey, go to your death, go to Judea. You know, that's, you know, that's where they're seeking to kill him, right? And, uh, but Jesus continues to say, but your time is always here, verse 6. And in verse 7 Jesus says, he's talking to his brothers, he says, "The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil." And that is unfortunately the condition for me, for many Christians that are known to be Christians. For example, if you go, like if you're If people know, if you're carrying that title, first off, there's heavy responsibility in that title. If you're going to call yourself a Christian outwardly, outside, anywhere, and people know that because you said it, well, you really have to behave accordingly, right? Because the world is looking at you. And they're saying— hold on— there's a saying that, um, a person might go to a Christian, say, hey, I'll believe in your Redeemer when I see your redeemed life. So it's better not even to call yourself a Christian publicly if you're not even going to try. To live the life, per se. So my point is, is that if you are that one to identify as a Christian, you're going to be hated, is the point. Luke 9:23 says, if anyone should come after me, let him deny himself daily, pick up his cross and follow me. So this is where we talk about cross-bearing. So you have to be prepared for that. We learn in other parts of the Bible where Jesus says, um, you need to count the cost. You need to count the cost of being my disciple, you know, because it's expensive. In the, in the context that you're going to lose a lot of friends and maybe business or whatever because the world doesn't agree with you. And it's not so much that the world hates you personally, it's what you represent. And if you are a Christ, a Christian, a follower of Christ, You're basically telling the world, "I'm in agreement with Jesus and His sayings." And Jesus says here in verse 7, "The world cannot hate you," talking to an unbeliever, "but it hates Me because I testify about it that its works are evil." Now, I purposely don't go around trying to call out sinners on the regular. I will from time to time if I'm pricked in my spirit, but I'd rather just let the word do its job. That's why I'm really just called to just read the word and let the word do what it's supposed to do, right? But if you publicly profess yourself as a Christian, know that and the world knows that, know that the world's going to hate you and you got to be okay with that. So you really got to be a leader and this is why I talk about leadership a lot in general because a leader does the right thing. A leader is willing to take the hits and keep moving forward in the words of Rocky Balboa, right? A leader knows the difference between good good and evil. A leader does the right thing to the best of his or her knowledge, right? And if you're representing the light and you're representing goodness, if you're representing Jesus, then you gotta be willing to take the hits and be okay with that. Matter of fact, Paul, when he was talking about how all of the trials that he went through, being shipwrecked and being thrown into prison and being whipped and beaten and all these things, he goes through whole list of that, he says he counts it all joy, right? The markings in my body. He says, when he talks about his markings in his body, he's talking about the scars, the scar tissue that remained after he was whipped and beaten for professing Jesus to the Jews back then, and how the markings in his body he's proud of. Because it's evidence that he did his job, per se. And of course, we don't want to be beaten like that, but there is going to be some resistance and we have to be okay with that. But we also have to understand that the very God is behind us and is looking down on us. And the Bible says he'll never give you more than you can bear. It may feel difficult in the moment, But in reality, you're in that moment because he knows you're capable of doing it, okay? And you have to rest in that. Everything is amen. So in verse 8, Jesus says to his brothers, you go up to the feast, I'm not. So he's, he's kind of doing a, he's kind of doing a a decoy move here, right? He says, you go up to the feast, I am not, even though he knows everyone is, um, is, um, is looking for him. Now, verse 8, continuing: You go up to the feast. I am not going up to the feast, to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come. Verse 9: After this, he remained in Galilee. So his brothers go to the feast, every— all, all of them go to the feast. 10. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. So this is the second time, if I remember correctly, of where we're at so far, 6 chapters in or 7 chapters in. This is the second private visit to some place. Remember, the first one was that invalid at the pool. Now secondly, now he's going privately to the feast. Let's see how things turn out. So he goes up there privately with no group, no fanfare, and in verse 11 it says the Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, where is he? Right? And 12 says, and there was much muttering about him among the people. A lot of gossiping going on over there. And we read this before, while some said he is a good man. So there's debate about who, who Jesus is. Is he good? Is he from the devil? Is he misleading the people? So it says here in verse 12, he is a good man, some said. Others said, no, he is leading the people astray. Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. So there are private mutterings, little gossips behind the scenes, right? Remember, we're at the Feast of Booths now, big Jewish holiday. Verse 14: About the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. Okay, now verse 15. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? Right. This is why I say from time to time that you don't have to be a seminary graduate or have a PhD in the Bible to learn the Bible, to read your Bible, or to understand the Bible. Now granted, we're talking about Jesus Christ here, the Son of God. Of course, he knows all things, but he also gave us his word, right? We just need to have childlike faith. And it is true that Jesus didn't go through any religious academy to learn what he knows. And that's why they're marveling. Half the time they're marveling at what he's actually doing in signs and wonders. The other half, they're marveling because of what's coming out of his mouth, because he speaks with authority, right? And we all know when we're hearing authority, right? Generally speaking, there are some slick talkers out there for sure. But Jesus is talking with authority here. So it says here, verse 15, when he goes up to the temple and he's teaching— he loves to teach, that's why we do the Bible study. He loves to teach, Jesus does. He's trying to teach us something about the kingdom of God. This is why Jesus is partly here. He's trying to teach us Humans, in 30 to 33 AD, he shows up and he's trying to teach us humans about God. He's trying to teach us not only that God exists, but he's trying to teach us other stuff that we back then only hypothesized about, such as afterlife things. What happens when we die. He's teaching everyone about these things: heaven, hell, angels, all things he taught about. He validates history. He talks about Noah. He talks about the flood. He talks about Adam. He talks about the serpent in the garden, which means he's agreeing with the whole Genesis account. Right? And if we just use our minds and our brains here, putting two together is he's validating the Old Testament as well, right? So if Jesus talks about Noah and the flood, you can better believe Noah existed and the flood existed. But yet many people out there are trying to hold to some kind of form of science or belief that those things didn't exist, that God is not the Creator God. We see just in his own words and actions from Jesus that that's not true. So they're marveling at him in verse 15. How is it that this man has learning when he has never studied? Man, he's a carpenter's son. So Jesus gives them an answer in verse 16. It says, so Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. Again, another reference to God, to his Father. 17, if anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. So even though Jesus has authority, and even though he's been called the Word of God, Jesus is deferring his knowledge bank to the Father, and he's basically given them and us a litmus test, an acid test, a filter of knowing what he says, if it's going to be true or false. So he says here in verse 17, And this boils down to the individual person, right? He's saying, if anyone, anyone, if anyone's will is to do God's will— stop right there, pause— because there's so many religious people out there that are saying they're doing God's will, right? So what is God's will? Well, here's one example of what God's will is. It says, if anyone's will is to do God's will— if that's your will, to do God's will, not your will but God's will, if that's your heart— he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. He will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.' So they're asking, how does he know this? How does he get this authority? He's saying it comes from God. 18, which is another problem because he keeps on connecting himself to the Father, and they're like— and he says, 'Only I have seen the Father,' and he's trying to— he's trying to let them understand that he comes from God. All right, 18. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. So he's always talking about God, he's always talking about the Father, and he's, and he's making a point here that, that, that if that most people who speak on their own authority— oh, look at me, look at all I've done, oh, I got this wisdom, I got this revelation, right? False prophets— oh, I had a revelation, I got this revelation. They're speaking on their authority. They do that because they're seeking their own glory. According to this. But he says, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. So that's the takeaway: in Jesus there is no falsehood. So what he says, he's saying, is true. Everything he says is true and amen, right? Verse 19, Jesus says, has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?' The crowd answered— now this is interesting. Again, Paul Woodley observation here. I'm sitting here like, 'Well, no, Jesus, who said they were going to kill you?' Like, no one mentioned that in the passage. But Jesus knows their hearts, and it's validated in the very next sentence that that was their motive. That's their hearts. He says, "Has not Moses given you the Law? Yet none of you keeps the Law. Why do you seek to kill Me?" Verse 20, "The crowd answered, 'You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill You?'" Right? Just like I said, like, they're like, we didn't, we didn't say that, so where is that coming from? Jesus, you have a demon who is seeking to kill you. 21. Jesus answered them, I did one work and you all marvel at it. Now, the mark Uh, what'd I say? The, uh, the, um, the work that Jesus is referring to is the paralytic healing. Remember the man at the pool, right? He says, I did one work and you all marvel at it. So verse 22. Moses gave you circumcision. He's going back to the laws, going back to the Mosaic Law, the Pentateuch. Moses gave you circumcision, parentheses, not that it is from Moses but from the Father. So he's always being literal. He always is, you know, explaining. You have an understanding of circumcision, people. You're attributing it to Moses because your faith is in Moses. 'Your faith is in the law, but in reality, it didn't come from Moses, it came from the fathers,' right? 'And you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.' Verse 23: 'If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? 24. Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment. Okay, verse 25. Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is speaking openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. So you see, part of the crowd here, they, they know where he comes from— Mary, Joseph, this family— and they're marveling also because they're like, how come no one's shutting him up? They're letting him talk in the temple of all places. Maybe, maybe they know something we don't know, right? And you know, I say that it came to my mind is that in this day and age of AI, for example, it's getting harder and harder to know what you're seeing is true. Right? Like nowadays, I don't even, I don't, I don't even trust, um, video much, right? Because you could deepfake video so well. That's why I determined to go on lives now. You know, I too do, uh, deepfakes of myself and whatever and various other things, right? But it's getting harder and harder to discern the truth especially in this day of AI, and it's only going to get harder and harder, right? So I say that because this is a passage of discernment in general. This is the crowd, and the application here for you and me is we have to get— we have to know what the truth is. And we— and if we know what the truth is, if we know the difference between good and evil, and we know the truth based on the word, that no matter what what we're hearing and seeing, we know if it's true or not. Because it's very, very easy to believe the fake news, right? And everything is just very fake, right? So they're looking at all of this like, we know one thing, we know he comes from Mary and Joseph, we know that. But we also know that he's acting like he's an authority here of Scripture and no one's saying nothing, maybe they know something we don't know. Of course, he's there to teach them, and hopefully he's trying to draw them to a conclusion here. So verse 28, Jesus answers that. It says, so Jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple, quote, you know me And you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me. Okay, that was his answer to them. It was acknowledging that they knew the first part of where he comes from, Mary and Joseph, but also acknowledging the other part of it that they don't really know, that he comes from God and heaven. So I'll read that back to you again. Read it in your own version of your Bible. He proclaimed in the temple, "You know me, and you know where I come from." Good. You know I come from this family, Joseph and Mary and my brothers who are here. In this place. But I have not come of my own accord. I have not come of my own accord. Interesting. He who sent me is true. So just unpacking that right there, we're seeing that God— he He sent Jesus and Jesus did not come of his own accord per se. He did it so that the next question should be logically is like, okay, well, why? Or why are you here? Okay. And that's logical because he loves the Father. Because he respects the Father, because he's obedient to God, because he knows that God so loved the world, and if God loves the world, I love the world too. I'm in agreement, Father, of your plan, and I will go on this mission. Right? Following? So he says in verse 29, I know him, I know him. I know God, for I come from him, and he sent me, it says in verse 29. And he sent me. None of us can say that we're here today because God sent us here. No, you're here today because your mom and father had you. No one sent you. That's how you became you, right? But Jesus, he was somewhere before, and God sent him. Follow? So we pick it up in 30. So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him They said, when the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done? And that's why they believe, because they're just seeing tremendous signs and wonders never existed in world history. And that's why they believe, because they rationalize. Can even the real Christ, if he's not the Christ, can even the supposed Messiah do anything greater than this guy's doing? So they come to the logical conclusion that he is the Messiah, and it says many believed in him. Verse 32: The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Jesus then said, I will be with you a little longer, And then I'm going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come.' The Jews said to one another, 'Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying "you will seek me and you will not find me," and "where I am you cannot come." So now Jesus is— we're seeing here now he's speaking truth, but it's hidden truth, right? That's why they're asking, "What does this mean?" And so we skip over to the next section is verse 37. Now mind you, they didn't arrest him because his hour was not here, it was not come. And this is why we're talking of when he says, my hour is, is not come. Remember, he's on a divine timetable. God is in this mix. You know, everything is— that everything is being day by day for 3 years orchestrated so that He says the things he says, does the things he does, and gets crucified on the day and hour that he was. Okay, so that's why they couldn't arrest him by divine appointment, because God wouldn't allow it. How does that happen? Well, I'm pretty sure God went into the minds of the people, of the arresting officers, and we see it in scripture that they did not arrest him because his preaching was so strong that they were compelled not to arrest him. That's how God works. So when we look at how God works. It's very interesting if you have that mindset, always asking, always staying curious. That's my encouragement to you when you read your Bible: always stay curious. If that was me that's in this Bible, would I respond the same way? Would I ask the same questions? I think most times we would. So we pick it up in verse 37. Jesus is going to talk more of this concept of rivers of living water. Remember we talked about the living water when we talked about that at the well with the Samaritan woman, right? When she says, oh sir, give me this water so I never would have to come back to this well again. So this concept of living water. So we'll pick it up in verse 37. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, quote, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." That's what he said. I'll read it again. Because it's uber important, because he's saying that to us. If anyone thirsts— okay, if anyone thirsts— are you thirsty? Are you thirsty for God? Are you thirsty for salvation? Do you want this living water? Do you want eternal life? To the point where you're thirsty for it? Do you feel like your life is dry? That's when we get thirsty, right? You got to have this. He's using the word thirst. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. It's an invitation. Let him come to me and drink. Again, another whoever. Not somebody, not some, not a particular tribe, tongue, right? Whoever, he says in verse 38, whoever believes in me as the scripture has said— not that I'm saying to you guys, but as the scripture has said— if whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Verse 39: Now this he said about the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Okay, and that is very interesting. That is, you can go deep on that. So now this is really the second time we hear about the Spirit. Now in John, I don't think he calls it, at least up until this point, he doesn't call it necessarily the Holy Spirit. But he calls it the Spirit, capital S, in my translation. The other time we heard about the Spirit was in the beginning when we were reading about John the Baptist saying, oh, this is the one that the Spirit descended on him, right? So we hear that's when the Spirit is mentioned, when John was talking about how he saw the Spirit descend like a dove on Jesus. That was the only time up until now that the Spirit is mentioned. Now we're gonna learn here Jesus affirming the Spirit, this person, this thing called the Spirit. So we see here at verse 39, "Now this he said about the Spirit," capital S, the Spirit, okay? Which it further says in this verse, whom those who believed in him were to receive. So they didn't receive it yet. Why? Because it goes on to say Jesus was not yet glorified. So it says whom those who believed him were to receive, future tense, for as yet the Spirit had not been given. The Spirit had not been given. Who gives the Spirit is another question. Has not been given. The Spirit didn't come on his own, um, on his own. He's sent. So, for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Because he was not yet glorified. So while he was in the flesh The spirit is still in heaven. Got it? Remember, there's two locations currently going on. We've got Earth, Mother Earth, and we've got heaven. Heaven exists outside of time and space. Okay, so even though God and the spirit, everything lives and moves and has its meaning and being, right? And God is in creation as well. He also, heaven at least, locationally, is outside time and space. But the point is here that on earth, in the flesh, Jesus is working on a solo mission with support from headquarters, per se. The Father and the Spirit are with him. They're all together, but the Spirit is not doing anything yet because Jesus has to do what he has to do first. So that's the idea. Okay, we'll pick it on verse 40. When they heard these words, some of the people said, this really is the prophet. 41, others said, this is the Christ. But some said, is the Christ to come from Galilee? So they're trying to process, you know, the real identity of God. Some of them are tracking the real identity of Jesus. They are tracking, they're debating, they're considering. Verse 42: Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes— now this is part of their rational reasoning— 'Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?' So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. Which is the third time they wanted to, but they didn't. Okay. Verse 45, we're in John chapter 7. "The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, 'Why did you not bring him?' The officers answered, 'No one ever spoke like this man.'" The Pharisees answered them, 'Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is cursed.' Mine says, 'accursed,' 'cursed.' So remember, they sent these temple police out there, these officers, to go arrest Jesus. 3 times they didn't. Why? Because He was speaking with authority. Their reason for not arresting Him is they said themselves, "No one ever spoke like this man." So even though they had a job to do, their consciousness was saying, their brain was saying, "This man could be the Christ. I'm not going to do that thing." So, of course, God is working even in these guys. But that was the reason no one ever spoke like this man. So now the Pharisees and the authorities, they're saying, they're asking, well, what about the rest of our guys, our crew, the other Pharisees, right? Verse 48, have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? Like, is our own people believing in him? And that was their kind of question, open-ended question. And then they go into the statement. They're like, "This crowd is cursed because they're ignorant. They don't know the law." Verse 49, "But this crowd that does not know the law is cursed." That's what their end conclusion is in verse 49. Now, here we see in the next verse, 50, we see Nicodemus again. It says that, verse 50, Nicodemus who had gone to him before and who was one of them, said to them, 'Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?' Verse 52, they replied, 'Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.' So They had all this scorn towards Nicodemus, right? This animosity, right? Now I will read just a note here about the fact that they said no prophet arises from Galilee. It says the real ignorance lay with the arrogant Pharisees who did not carefully search out the facts as to where Jesus was actually born. While they accused the crowds of ignorance, they too were really as ignorant, as illustrated in verse 42. Furthermore, the prophet Jonah did come from Galilee. Okay, so we end here in Gospel of John 7. Here we end on that note. Is it's the Pharisees saying to Nicodemus, "Are you from Galilee to search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee?" So they're really hating on Jesus, trying to arrest Jesus, frustrated that he's going around, in their mind, leading the people astray. And here we have Nicodemus show up again. Remember, he saw Jesus back in in John chapter 3, where Jesus talks about you have to be born again, right? Nicodemus. But here we see Nicodemus trying to defend Jesus in a roundabout way by saying, "Does our Lord judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?" Right? So we'll end there. That's the end of our chapter. Tomorrow, Lord willing, we'll pick it up in the next chapter, which is chapter 8. Um, feel free to watch the replay on this. I know these are long because we're doing a whole chapter. If you want to see the captioned version, feel free to visit the YouTube channel Paul Woodley. Uh, you'll see the captioned version in about an hour or so, and, uh, we'll just go from there. So let's end, uh, today with prayer. Um, and I bless that you have a great day today no matter where you're at. Father, we thank you for this word that you've given us today in John chapter 7. We see, Lord, just what you had to go through to preach this message, how your own brothers that you grew up with did not believe, and how the crowds murmur, and how just the process works for a person to come to saving belief and faith in you. But Lord, our challenge today is, uh, and our challenge in this, uh, John, is that we stay flexible, we stay open-minded, that we stay— that we, that we hear what you're saying, and Lord willing, believe what you're saying, because we know that it's good. Today we just ate spiritual food, right? Man cannot eat by bread alone, but every word that comes out from God. So we're grateful, Lord, that we have this Bible that we can, um, read and consider and debate on if we have to. But there's nothing to do to debate, Lord, if, if what we always do is draw back to what you have said, because all we're— all we are is just witnesses of what you have said. Thank you, Lord, and we pray all these things in the name of your Son Jesus. Amen. All right, guys, you enjoy the rest of your day, and I'll see you in the next episode.