John 7
7
Jesus Goes to the Feast of Shelters
1After this, Jesus traveled around in Galilee. He didn’t want to travel around in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2But when it was almost time for the Jewish Feast of Shelters, 3Jesus’ brothers told him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea. That way your disciples there will be able to see the works that you do. 4No one who wants to be well known does things in secret. Since you’re doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5Even Jesus’ own brothers did not believe in him.
6So Jesus told them, “My time hasn’t come yet. For you, any time would be the right time. 7The people of the world can’t hate you, but they hate me because I’m a witness that what they’re doing is wrong. 8You go to the feast. I’m not going up to this feast because my time hasn’t yet fully come.” 9After saying that, he stayed in Galilee.
10However, after his brothers had left for the feast, he went too. But he went secretly, not openly. 11At the feast, the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus. They were asking, “Where is he?”
12Many people in the crowd were whispering about him. Some said, “He’s a good man.”
Others replied, “No, he’s misleading the people.” 13But no one would say anything about him openly because they were afraid of the leaders.
Jesus Teaches at the Feast
14When the feast was halfway over, Jesus went up to the temple courtyard and began to teach. 15The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How can this man know so much when he’s never been taught?”
16Jesus answered, “What I’m teaching doesn’t come from me, but from the one who sent me. 17If anyone chooses to do God’s will, they’ll know whether my teaching comes from God or from me. 18Whoever speaks on their own does it to get personal glory, but anyone who works for the glory of the one who sent him can be trusted. There’s nothing dishonest about him. 19Didn’t Moses give you the law? But not one of you obeys the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
20“You’re controlled by a demon!” the crowd answered. “Who’s trying to kill you?”
21Jesus said to them, “I did a single miracle, and you’re all amazed. 22Moses gave you the law about circumcision, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had the custom even before that. 23So you circumcise a child on the Sabbath day. If you’ll circumcise a boy on the Sabbath day so that you don’t break the law of Moses, why are you angry with me? I healed a man’s entire body on the Sabbath day! 24Stop judging only by what you see. Judge in the right way.”
People Don’t Agree About Who Jesus Is
25At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they’re trying to kill? 26Here he is, speaking in public, and they’re not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really decided that he’s the Messiah? 27But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he’s from.”
28Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courtyard, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I’m from. I’m not here on my own authority. The one who sent me is true. You don’t know him, 29but I know him because I came from him and he sent me.”
30When he said this, they tried to arrest him. But no one laid a hand on him because his time hadn’t come yet. 31Still, many people in the crowd believed in him. They asked, “When the Messiah comes, will he do more signs than this man?”
32The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering things like this about him. So the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
33Jesus told them, “I’m only going to be with you for a short time. Then I’ll go to the one who sent me. 34You’ll look for me, but you won’t find me. You can’t come where I am going.”
35The Jews asked each other, “Where is this man planning to go, if we won’t be able to find him there? Will he go to where our people are living scattered among the Greeks, and will he teach the Greeks there? 36What did he mean when he said, ‘You’ll look for me, but you won’t find me,’ and ‘You can’t come where I am going’?”
37On the last and most important day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink! 38If anyone believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from inside them, just as Scripture says.” 39When he said this, he was referring to the Holy Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus would later receive the Spirit. But at that time, the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus hadn’t been glorified yet.
40When the people heard his words, some of them said, “This man must be the Prophet we’ve been expecting.”
41Others said, “He’s the Messiah.”
Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42Doesn’t Scripture say that the Messiah will come from the family line of David and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43So the people didn’t agree about who Jesus was. 44Some wanted to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.
The Jewish Leaders Do Not Believe
45Finally, the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
46“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
47“You mean he has deceived you too?” the Pharisees asked. 48“Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? 49No! But God’s curse is on this mob that knows nothing about the law.”
50Then Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of the Pharisees, spoke up. He asked, 51“Does our law find a man guilty without listening to him first to find out what he has been doing?”
52They answered, “Are you from Galilee too? Look into it—you’ll find that no prophet is going to come out of Galilee.”
53Then they all went home.
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