See Note below concerning the Jewish festivals.
(1) The brothers of Jesus:
a. Why did they not believe in Him?
b. Why then would they ask Jesus to gain fame in Judea?
c. What did “these things” refer to?
d. Why then would they not believe in Jesus?
(2) What did His “time” have to do with being hated?
(3) What does He mean by “for you any time will do”? What is its implication for us today?
(4) Since Jesus did go to Jerusalem, did Jesus lie to His brothers? What do you think?
(5) What was the mood in Jerusalem at this time of the festival?
(6) Why was there such a divided opinion about Jesus?
(7) How did the crowd respond to His teaching? Was it a compliment or an expression of doubt? Why?
(8) According to Jesus, who are the ones that would believe in His word and in Him? (v. 17)
(9) According to Jesus, how can we tell a person is a person of truth? (v. 18)
(10) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
Note:
The background to chapters seven and eight is the Feast or Festival of the Ingathering, or the Festival of the Tabernacle. This is one of the three festivals that the Lord told Moses to have the people observe:
“Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me. Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread (which is merged with the Passover)…in the month of Abib, the month you came out of Egypt…Celebrate the Harvest with the first fruits of the crops you sow in the field (which is the celebration of the early harvest)…Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year (which is the late harvest about the time of our October).” (Exod. 23:14-16)
(1) Let’s recap the answer that you gave to question #8 of yesterday's study:
a. What evidence did Jesus give to prove that they were not doing the will of God?
b. How did Jesus justify His accusation that “not one of you keeps the law”?
(2) Did the crowd really not know the leaders were trying to kill Jesus? (See 7:13, 25.)
(3) Why then did they say so?
(4) Why then did they accuse Him of being demon-possessed? (See Mk. 3:22.)
(5) Why was their amazement at His miracle (the healing of the invalid on Sabbath) replaced by anger?
(6) What was Jesus’ purpose in pointing out that circumcision was actually instituted by the patriarchs, i.e. before the Law of Moses was given?
(7) Do you think the error of the people was one of (i) hypocrisy, (ii) double standard, or (iii) ignorance? Why?
(8) What was Jesus’ verdict in this respect in v. 24?
(9) Could the people say that “no one will know where the Christ (i.e. the Messiah) is from” (v.27) based on a biblical teaching in the Old Testament (see v. 42)?
(10) Why did Jesus say that the people really knew where He came from (v. 28)?
(11) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) What prompted the crowd to try to seize Jesus? Does it reflect the fact that they did know “who Jesus is” and “where He is from” as Jesus has said? Why or why not?
(2) Why would some believe in Him?
(3) What is the difference between the two kinds of respondents?
(4) Now the religious leaders decided to arrest Jesus. Was it prompted by the unbelieving crowd or those who believed in Jesus? Why?
(5) What essentially is Jesus’ message in vv. 33-34?
(6) While the Jews did not fully understand His message, what was their speculation? (v. 35)
(7) We can see the impact and power of the words of Jesus in the “last and greatest day of the festival." Refer to today’s Meditative Article to gain a deeper understanding concerning the background, meaning and impact of these words of Jesus:
a. What impact did these words have on the crowd?
b. Why?
c. What impact did these words have on the arresting guards?
d. Why?
e. What impact did these words have on Nicodemus?
f. Why?
g. What impact did these words have on the Pharisees?
h. Why?
(8) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) What might be the reason(s) that Jesus chose not to stay in Jerusalem for the night?
(2) While He knew very well the hostility of the religious leaders, why did He choose to come into Jerusalem again in the morning?
(3) John explains that it was a trap for Jesus:
a. Do you think they “happened” to catch the woman in her act of adultery? Why or why not?
b. Since they seemed so eager to obey the Law of Moses, why did they not bring the man to trial too, as mandated by Deuteronomy 22:22-27?
c. What does this tell us about these religious leaders?
d. What were they trying to accuse Jesus of?
e. In their mind, what did they expect Jesus to do so that they could have a basis of accusing Him?
(4) Obviously, Jesus did not have to buy time:
a. Why then did He bend down to write on the ground?
b. Every time when God appears to be “silent”, what is His purpose?
c. Did Jesus achieve His purpose:
- The first time He bent down and drew on the ground?
- The second time?
(Note: Since the Scripture is silent on what Jesus was drawing, it means either that it was not important or that it was not meant for us to know. Any speculation in this respect is futile and not helpful!)
(5) Why did they leave “one at a time, the older ones first”?
(6) They had all come to trap Jesus, but by leaving, what were they trying to avoid or run away from?
(7) Within the context of this setting, which of the following did Jesus mean by “condemn”?
a. To pass judgment as to whether such action was a sin.
b. To pronounce the judgment such a sin deserved.
(8) Why then did Jesus not “condemn” this woman? Did this woman demonstrate her repentance? If so, how?
(9) What was Jesus’ last word to the woman? How significant was it?
(10) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
Please read the Meditative Reflection for today to gain an understanding of the background to this passage.
(1) Here, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”.
a. What does He mean by “walking in darkness” ?
b. And the “Light of life”?
(2) Upon hearing this, how did the Pharisees challenge Jesus?
(3) With their challenge, do you think the Pharisees understood what Jesus meant?
(4) Earlier, Jesus maintained that “If I testify about myself my testimony is not valid” (Jn. 5:31).
a. Why then did He seem to contradict what He said earlier in v. 14?
b. Was He really testifying on His own behalf? (v. 18)
(5) The Pharisees set themselves up as judges and challenged Jesus’ testimony.
a. What did Jesus say about what His mission was not (together with the Father)? (v. 15 and 5:22)
b. What then was His mission? (3:17)
(6) Though they asked Him, “Where is your father?”,
a. In what way did they know who and where His father was?
b. In what way had they yet to know Him? (v. 19)
(7) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
After Jesus’ powerful declaration that He is the Living Water and the Light of the World at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles, the focus of the crowd was naturally on Who Jesus is and especially whether He really is the Son of God as He claimed to be:
(1) What was Jesus talking about once more in v. 21?
(2) The Jews obviously did not understand that He was talking about His death and resurrection and the result of their rejection of Him. What did they speculate?
(3) As much as they might not understand what Jesus said in v. 21, Jesus turned their focus on things that they could understand in vv. 23-24. What were these things?
(4) As Jesus made clear that they will die in their sins because of not believing in Him, it seems that their response in v.25 was only natural:
a. Didn’t Jesus make clear time and again to them about who He is? (See 2:16; 5:17, 43; 6:44, 40; 8:16, 18, 19)
b. Why didn’t they know?
c. Was it a matter of not knowing or not believing? Why?
(5) What in essence was Jesus’ reply to them in v. 26?
(6) It appears that even with His answer in v. 26, the Jews failed to understand what He was trying to say at the moment. Therefore Jesus chose to tell them of things in the future so that when they would happen, they might understand and believe (vv. 27-30).
a. What did He mean by “when you lifted up the Son of Man”? (see 3:14-15)
b. How would they know then that the Father had sent Him and had not left Him alone?
(7) The statement in v. 31 is a statement of “cause-and-effect”.
a. Which is the cause?
b. Which is the effect?
c. Why did Jesus say “you are really my disciples"? Does it mean that there are “false” disciples?
(8) How did Jesus define real “freedom”? (vv. 34-36)
(9) How different is it from the world’s definition?
(10) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?
(1) Jesus acknowledged that they were indeed Abraham’s descendants: What privilege does being Abraham’s descendants bring to them?
(2) What is the difference between being simply the descendants of Abraham and having Abraham as their father? (v. 38)
(3) How did Jesus prove that they were not Abraham’s children? (vv. 39-40)
(4) Twice, Jesus pointed out that they were trying to kill Him. Did they dispute His charge? Why or why not?
(5) What caused them to maintain not only that they were Abraham’s children, but God’s children also? (v. 41) What was the point they sought to make?
(6) Did Jesus make plain who He is and where He has come from?
(7) Jesus charged that their father was Satan. Was He being too harsh?
(8) How did Jesus describe Satan?
(9) What does having Satan as their father mean?
(10) What warning does it serve to you?
(11) Why did Jesus say in v. 42, “you would love me?”
(12) What is the main message to you today and how may you apply it to your life?