Lesson 7
Jesus is The Truth
"Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth, there is nothing false about him."
Read John Chapter 7
In John chapter 7 we find Jesus goes to the Festival of Tabernacles. The Festival of Tabernacles was a Jewish Holiday that people from all over travelled to; some time in late September or October that celebrated the end of the harvest (Exodus 34;22) and commemorated their dependence on the will of God (Leviticus 23:42-43), and lasted about seven days. Imagine something like Times Square on New Years Eve with people coming from all over to see the ball drop, except in warmer weather and it lasting seven days. So all those people coming into the Festival would be looking for friends & relatives, looking for a good place to camp out and close to where the facilities and restaurants were. (Maybe think Woodstock!).
This is the environment that Jesus comes into and halfway through the Festival he goes to the temple courts and begins to teach. Some people are amazed, some people think he is delusional (demon possessed), some think he's a good man (a great guy), others thinks he's a liar, a deceiver and can't be trusted, and some that he is The Messiah. Times haven't changed, it's still the same today, he's a fake, yeah he's a good guy, he's an angel, he's a prophet, don't really care, he's an angry vengeful god, he's a far off disinterested god, he's an outdated god & times have changed, he is the Son of God."
We all have a choice on who we think Jesus is, and that's the freedom God has given us...choice. Jesus knows who he is and he knows who his Father is, he's confident of that, no doubt in his mind. The beauty of Jesus and his teachings is that we can try it out. We can choose to do his will and find out wether his teaching is of man or comes from an all knowing, all powerful God.
Some questions to ask.
1: Who do I believe Jesus is?
2: What is a teaching of Jesus that I could put into practice for today?
Continue praying for God to reveal himself to you as you continue reading and putting Jesus' teaching into practice.