Week 18 Day 4

The Daily Take 10

The Gospel of John

Week 18 Day 4

Introduction…Jesus knew human nature very well and was aware of how people were thinking about Him. He knew the people of His day with their rituals, fears, disdain for Roman rule and hunger for hope for freedom and prosperity. Jesus also recognized the mounting tension, hatred and jealousy of the leaders to whom He was a threat. His liberating words of being set free developed hope within the people. The miraculous acts of God’s power and mercy amazed them. The departure from man’s ways and religion in exchange for knowing God personally was appealing. However, in spite of all this good, Jesus was considered dangerous and anti establishment by the religious, wealthy and powerful of that day.

Read John 7:25-30 “When the festival was now half way through, Jesus went up to the Temple precincts and began to teach. So some of the people of Jerusalem said: ‘Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? And look! He is speaking publicly and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities have really discovered that this is the Anointed One of God? But he cannot be because we know where he comes from. When the Anointed One of God comes no one knows where he comes from.’ So Jesus, as he taught in the Temple, cried: ‘So you know me? And you know where I come from? But it is not on my own authority that I have come, but he who sent me is real and you do not know him. But I know him, because I have come from him and it was he who sent me.’ So they would like to have found a way to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him because his hour had not yet come.”

Bible Study

• Jesus did not fear man and the obvious threats. He was in the hand of God the Father. He came to this earth at an appointed time and He would leave at the precisely right time.
  • For those that hated him and wanted to murder Him, realize that Jesus taught that if you hate, you are guilty of murder.
  • Consider those in religious power were filled with this evil, this sin, to hate and murder!
  • These were the same people that were intent on declaring Jesus’ healing of the sick on the Sabbath as violating God’s law. What hypocrisy!
• The Anointed One could not come from Nazareth, the son of a carpenter
  • The people thought they knew where Jesus was from…Nazareth, and who his parents were…Joseph and Mary, when in fact Jesus came from God the Father, was born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem…all of which fulfills prophesy describing the Messiah. Those along with 300 other Messianic prophesies Jesus fulfilled proving He was and is the Anointed One of God.
  • The people of Jesus’ day assumed and thought wrongly that the Messiah had to supernaturally appear out of no where quite amazingly.
  • We must not miss God ourselves, as those in Jesus’ day missed God and missed out. Make Psalms 119:125 your prayer to God, “I am your servant, so give me discernment that I may understand your statutes.”
  • God is here, with us. He is in the mundane and everyday life activities. Remember the revelation of Elijah
• Jesus knew His time was short so He taught and spoke with urgency, passion and purpose. His words challenged authority that led wrongfully, religion that led people astray, claims about God that were untrue, and the futility of people without hope.
• Jesus knew God because since the beginning He was with the Father and now He was God in the flesh. So His claim to be the only one who God as He did was true. Now it is up to us as it was up to them to believe these bold claims or consider what Jesus said as blasphemous.

Application

• Meditate on the great truth found in Isaiah 30:18 from the Amplified Bible

“And therefore the Lord (earnestly) waits (expecting, looking, and longing) to be gracious to you and therefore He lifts Himself up that He may have mercy on you and show loving kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who (earnestly) wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him (for His victory, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship).

Tags: Take 10

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