COMING AND GOING
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Opening Prayer
Father, I come to your Word today with an overwhelming sense of thanksgiving that you choose to speak to me through it and use it to transform me.
Read JOHN 7:25–36
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Division Over Who Jesus Is
25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”
28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”
30 At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
33 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36 What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.’1
‘Last weekend, I watched a film about Jesus. I didn’t know his story, but I loved him!’ The international learners in my English class always teach me to see life and faith from unexpected angles. Over many years, I have pondered different responses to the person of Jesus. For my Chinese student, Jesus’ kindness and healing powers were hugely attractive. Initially open to reading the Bible, her admiration did not lead to worship. An Eastern European told me how faith was important to her—until she concluded that her church was self-serving and she lost interest in Jesus. Another time, following an Easter play, a Muslim whispered, ‘I believe Jesus will return one day. Do you?’
As I overhear discussions in today’s passage, the faces of my students merge with the pilgrims, Jerusalemites, and religious leaders. For each, the crucial question is, ‘Who exactly is Jesus?’ Is he an anti- establishment nuisance? A threat? A miracle worker? The long-awaited Messiah? A blasphemer? A madman? What fascinates me is that, disregarding all good apologetics, Jesus does not argue the points, but presents the curious and the critical with a deeper challenge. It concerns his origin and mission. It focuses on where he has come from and where he is going. Amid speculation in a chattering city, he cries out, ‘I am from him and he sent me … I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me’ (vv. 29, 33).
Any conclusion about Jesus, any commitment to him, takes us beyond the man in first-century Jerusalem to his unique divine origin and purpose from all eternity. Genuine faith disregards human bias and distortion. It grasps Jesus’ uncompromising claim to know God completely and to speak his truth.
Apply
What will bring your contacts to a full, life-giving knowledge of Jesus?
Closing prayer
Spirit of God, as my unbelieving family and friends encounter the truth of the gospel, I look to you to dissolve misunderstanding, apathy, and distraction. Help them to embrace Jesus as their Savior and Lord; draw them to faith.
1 John 1:14
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