I want to apologize for my post which was supposed to contain our most recent Sunday message. You’ve probably noticed that it’s mostly AI generated… So, in my mind, I understand why it shouldn’t count for my 1000 word a day challenge, but I’m just going to keep it in there, with the promise that I’m going to go beyond 365 this year.
In fact, now that I mention it, I think I want to go WAY beyond 400k. I’m friends (well, more acquainted with anyway as we’re only connected via Facebook) with this one writer fellow who’s committing to a sweet million words for 2025… and then I just happened to hear that one guy who calls himself the Bioneer on Youtube, and how once he used to go as far as 10k words (yes, not steps) a day – but at the cost of his posture and his gut suffering the effect of what he pointed out was a ridiculous amount of caffeine.
So, yeah, with these folks obviously doing better, I want to do better. And, well, the win I foresee here is just an overall clearer, and less cluttered mind – which is always good.
Anyway. How do I describe the message I delivered yesterday, in a nutshell? I’ll say that I said that Daniel 7 was a version of Daniel 2, allowing us to visualize the entire event unfolding with more detail. Daniel 8 was a drill down of said events, but the fall of the empires of Media and Persia, as well as the rise of the Greek empire in particular.
John 7 was where I discussed Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees in the Festival of Booths, and how the latter was wanting more and more to not only persecute, but outright kill Jesus – this was more pronounced as he rebuked them for being children of the devil, and also for saying, ‘before Abraham was, I am.‘ Finally, John 8 was where we talked about Jesus’ encounter with the adulterous woman, and how He said that He was the light of the world.
My approach was linear, in that I went through each chapter and stopped along the way to go ahead and point out whatever I saw was given to me by ClaudeAI. I do remember, however, a couple of points that came up only when I was at the pulpit:
- When the Pharisees demanded an answer from Jesus, on whether He was the Christ/Messiah or not, He answered that for everyone who believes in Him, ‘out of their bellies shall flow rivers of living water‘; I took this as a reminder for us – that God hears our questions and our demand for specific answers or details, but He answers the best way, all the time – according to HIS eternal wisdom and infinite power, and not according to our limited expectations.
- Then, when the adulterous woman was dragged in front of him, and when the Pharisees demanded for Him to make a call on whether she should be stoned to death or not (with intentions of trapping him no matter which of the 2 answers they expected him to give), He instead stooped down and started writing on the sand. This is another reminder for us, that the grace of God is also demonstrated in the details that He knows but refuses to make known to us.
- As a conclusion, we saw that the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man essentially rule and reign in the end. Through all the empires and generations, it is the kingdom of God, of the Stone from the mountain that has not been crafted by human hands – it is the Kingdom of the Son of Man that will stand forever…
- …Yet even in His absolute glory, He still chose to love us. While we were yet sinners, Christ chose to love us – He obeyed His Father, being sent to us, born as one of us, laying His life down for us, that we would be reconciled to Him.
- In His absolute glory, He humbled Himself so now that we believe in Him, we are co-heirs with Him, part of this everlasting kingdom, with rivers of living water bursting forth from us, and with the Light of the world shining favorably upon us.
I closed the laptop during that third point, and I forgot to bring it all in by way of pointing out what revelations we’ve already had during the previous weeks, as we went through the earlier chapters of both Daniel and John. For the midweek service, and again on what I’m calling Valentines’ Sunday, I will do a quick recap as follows:
- From Daniel 1-2 & John 1-2: He reveals truth we could never discover ourselves.
- From Daniel 3-4 & John 3-4: He transforms us from the inside out.
- From Daniel 5-6 & John 5-6: His Word shows us our need and His sufficiency.
- Now in Daniel 7-8 & John 7-8: God’s Absolute Authority has declared complete freedom for us. God’s grace through His Son Jesus Christ is the ultimate demonstration of His everlasting power and eternal glory.
But, well, there’re a couple of other things I would have wanted to have pointed out yesterday, which I guess will be for this Wednesday instead. For this, I’m going through the books again, really quick.
First of all, I want to set the expectations as early as now, that we’re looking at the rest of Daniel in the light of what we’ve read in John 5:39 – that is, that all Scriptures and all Words are interpreted correctly if they point to Jesus Christ.
I believe this is a non-negotiable. Yes, we’ve let out how it’s important for us to look at prophecies in general as well as in specifics, and we recognize how we could benefit by way of being more precise in our preparations… but we should NEVER deviate from the guideline that it all points to Jesus, in some way or form, in some capacity.
With that in mind, let’s jump right into John 7-8.
John 7
Summary
Jesus at the Feast of Booths
After reading a little more on the Feast of Booths, I’m told that it’s a celebration of the time the Israelites were in the wilderness, and had to sleep in tents. AI tells me that this Festival also has its significances regarding Agriculture and so on, but it’s supposed to unite the Jews, and even the nations in celebration.
However, we see at least three instances in this same chapter where Jesus was confronted – and His responses those who approached Him are probably nice for us to go through.
In John 7:11-24 we read the following:
The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.
About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”
With the absence of social media I could just imagine how word of mouth back in the day was just as effective. And here’s the thing – ‘No one spoke openly of Him’, sure, but people WERE talking about Him still.
But the feedback wasn’t all positive, because while some people thought He was a good man, others said He was leading the people astray – and others still were marvelling – with or without a touch of condescending – about how He spoke as one who was learned, ‘when He has never studied’.
Let’s take a look at Jesus’ response.
So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 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. 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. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?”
First of all, we’re getting a good crash course on discernment here, from Christ Himself – We know if a teaching is from God if the one speaking ‘seeks the glory of Him who sent Him‘. It’s pretty simple, and we’ve mentioned it before – if Christ said in John 5:39 that all Scripture points to Him, we’re reading here that all teaching, and all interpretation, and, I dare say, all prophecy that points to God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and seeks His glory is truthful, and with no falsehood.
Let me say that again. All Scripture points to Jesus, and all true teaching, true interpretation of Scripture, all true prophecy points to God; it’s all for the glory of God.
The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 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? Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
Second, Christ confronts these folks who were looking for Him, with previous intentions to kill Him. To this, the Jews flat out deny and even gaslight Him.
I could imagine Jesus rolling His eyes sleeves and saying, off the record… ‘Well, let me remind you.’; Because He does remind them in their sudden amnesia of why they wanted to kill Him – because He healed someone on the Sabbath. He brought up that they can circumcise a man on the Sabbath without consequence, according to the Law initially given to them by Moses but passed down by ‘the fathers‘ – why would they suddenly want to kill Him for healing someone on the Sabbath?
With grace, Christ ends His response by saying, ‘judge with right judgment‘ – and all right judgment points to God; it’s all for the glory of God. No, not compliance, and devoid of any personal vendettas or selfish intentions.
We see more of Christ’s consistent message regarding truthful teaching, in John 7:25-29:
25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 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? 27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
We can see from these overheard words that the people at the time were certainly doing some thinking of their own – even going as far as observing that Jesus was there, indeed, and though they knew the authorities were seeking to kill Him, ‘they say nothing to Him‘.
Also, notice how they REALLY were thinking – they were aware of as far as where Jesus came from, who his parents were, and so forth, so some of them reasoned that He probably wasn’t the Messiah/Christ, because ‘no one will know where he comes from.‘
Well, sorry. I may not have interpreted their responses correctly, but I do want to hop onto what Jesus said to them: 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “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. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”
Again, Christ does not speak ‘of His own authority’, He said He has not come of His own accord, but sent (as God so loved the world, and SENT His only Son); not ‘seeking His own glory’, but pointing out that He was sent, and giving all glory to the One who sent Him, for He is the One who ‘is true’.
For this final portion we’ll be seeing in John 7, it’s Christ who speaks first, and the people around them respond. John 7:37-44:
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 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.
40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.”
First thing here, is what I shared again: For all their talk of Jesus’ integrity and authenticity, Christ responds by saying to anyone who does believe in Him, that Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water, referring to the Holy Spirit who would be poured out upon them after His resurrection and ascension. This was enough for people to comment positively, even to believing in their hearts that He is the Christ.
41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So there was a division among the people over him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
I have a feeling that the folks who wanted Jesus arrested were the folks who spoke earlier, saying ‘he is leading the people astray‘. Still others had their doubts, because they were looking at the Scriptures for their accuracy, instead of believing when Jesus said something that they would have been able to verify, even in their day – again, that all Scripture points to Him, regardless of any claims of accuracy or contradictions, etc.
Personally, I could imagine that I would still have my reservations, because I would like to think that I would still depend on accuracy of the Word, BUT it wouldn’t rattle me to the point that I would insist on having Christ arrested. Or, well, what do I know, right? I could be one of those people – but no matter where anyone was leaning on that day, one thing is for certain no matter what people were thinking – His words had power.
Christ’s words brought people to believing in Him. Christ’s words made others think. Christ’s words made even more people talking about Him… and, finally, Christ’s words were all that was needed to astonish the officers sent to arrest Him.
It goes to show that, sure, we’re able to enjoy signs and wonders, we’re able to see blessings burst forth from the blessing of blessings (our salvation)… but the Holy Spirit was sent to us to convict us, that we ourselves would be able to speak in wisdom, words that support the signs and wonders, to the glory of the One who saved us – the One who, in Matthew 28, sent us as well to make disciples of the world.
Gosh, I think I spent too much time here. I’d like to continue with John 8, but I’ll do that tomorrow as a follow up to all we’ve covered here.
Until then, God bless us all. Stay strong and blessed in the Lord.
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