Session 9 John 7:14-29
the Jews’ response to Jesus’s words.
14 When the festival was already half over,
Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.
15 Then the Jews were amazed and said,
“How is this man so learned, since he hasn’t been trained?”16 Jesus answered them,
“My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me.
17 If anyone wants to do his will,
he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.
18 The one who speaks on his own seeks his own glory;
but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true,
and there is no unrighteousness in him.19 Didn’t Moses give you the law?
Yet none of you keeps the law.
Why are you trying to kill me?”
This is not the first time people were amazed by Jesus.
Even as a boy in the temple,
religious leaders were astounded by His insights (Luke 2:47).
as a teacher since He had not been trained by a rabbi.
Note that Jesus was sent by God
and only did and said what the Father directed Him to do and say.
Emphasize that Jesus’s only goal was to bring glory to the Father.
Point out that Jesus emphasized belief in God
and obedience to God as prerequisites for discerning the truth.
Jesus suggested that the leaders failed to follow God,
so they could not judge His teaching.
Emphasize that the only way to discern the truth
is to stay close to the One who defines all truth.
Share that a healthy, ongoing relationship with God
through Jesus will help us have wisdom and discernment.
Jesus’s claim that some in the crowd wanted to kill Him created a stir. But He turned the tables on His opponents by using their own religious rituals to prove His point.