John 7-8: No YOU'RE the liar!

Feel like it's dangerous being a Jesus-follower in an aggressive culture? Listen to Mike's message, "Traps Jesus Didn't Fall For, but You Might", and learn how to recognize and avoid Satan's most common traps.

We read John 7 and 8 out loud and feel the tension rise as Jesus teaches at the Feast of Shelters while leaders look for a way to silence Him. We watch Him answer a trap with perfect grace and truth, then press His claims even further as the Light of the World and the great I AM. 
• reading Scripture as living and active, not just text on a page 
• free resources, study guides, and Heartwork books at outloudbible.com 
• Jesus’ timing, secrecy, and public teaching at the feast 
• “living water” and the promise of the Holy Spirit 
• division in the crowd and fear of the leaders 
• the woman caught in adultery and the exposed trap 
• “I am the light of the world” and the clash over testimony 
• “the truth will set you free” and slavery to sin 
• Jesus’ claim “Before Abraham came into existence I am” and the fallout 

At outloudbible.com, you can find free resources to help you study the Bible. And while you’re there, send us a message to say hi, or start a conversation about having us at your church or event. 

If Outloud Bible has been a valuable part of your understanding of the Bible, please consider supporting the ministry by visiting outloudbible.com.

Transcript

Why Read The Bible Aloud

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike, and I'm so thankful you're here today. Thanks so much for joining me. I love reading the Bible out loud, and I love discovering the passion and the urgency and the emotions and the thoughts behind the words here as we read the Bible together and just bringing those up to the surface. The Bible's already living. It's already living and active. It says of itself. And so when we can explore the words this way and let our imaginations run wild with how these words were really said by real people who had real thoughts about them and they landed in people's hearts in different ways with different results. We really get to see, oh no, this is the living word of God. And it's not just here to entertain us, it is here to present how to find eternal life and life abundantly here on earth. Before we get into our reading of the book of John, I just want to point your attention, as we'll do occasionally here, to our website, outloudbible.com. There you can find a number of free resources, different ways of studying the Bible, and different guides to help guide you through certain books of the Bible so that you can take this deeper and uh and really get to know what God wants to speak to you through his word. Uh, there's also our books that we had spent uh last week on the podcast. We had read a couple uh different excerpts from our recent series of books, all released, the Heartwork series. I mentioned that those are available on Amazon. They're also available through our website. So whatever is more convenient for you, we can even sign the books and send them to you. If you order through the website, that's an option for you. And uh also if you like this time that we have together and you've found it valuable to have the Word of God read out loud in this conversational and dramatic way, well, reach out through the website. I would love to figure out with you how we can come to your church or your gathering or conference or whatever your event you're involved in and read and perform the this Bible and get it on its feet. Whatever maybe you have a series or a theme, we'd love to work with you to uh to support that, to help your people get to engage the Bible in this way as well and fall in love with it, hear it, love it, live it. That's what we're all about. And it's free for churches. So let me know. Uh let me know if this is something that you'd be interested in in having, even if it requires some travel, let's figure it out. Reach out through the website, let us know. And of course, also I want to thank those who have been supporting this ministry through the website, outloudbible.com, through whether it's one time or a recurring gift that is a big blessing to us to be able to keep focusing primarily on doing this work of teaching and reading the scriptures out loud, just like Paul exhorted Timothy. We were taking that mission on as our own to teach, to encourage, and to read the Word of God out loud. That's what we're here to do. Thanks so much for being a part of Outloud Bible Project, and uh, and we'd love to hear from you through the website, outloudbible.com. So let's continue our reading today in John chapter 7. We're gonna read John 7 and 8. Jesus is hardly moving around inconspicuously anymore. His miracles have done enough to uh to spread word, uh, both among people who are very excited about him and people who are not so excited about him, the religious leaders who feel threatened by what he says and what he does. So we're gonna find all of these things develop uh a little bit more here today as we read John 7 and 8 in the New English Translation. Well, after this, Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He stayed out of Judea because the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him. Well now the Jewish feast of shelters was near, so Jesus' brothers advised him, Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles you're performing. For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself does anything in secret. If you're doing these things, show yourself to the world. For not even his own brothers believed in him. Jesus replied, My time's not yet arrived, but you're ready at any opportunity. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I'm testifying about it that its deeds are evil. You go up to the feast yourselves. I'm not going to this feast, because my time is not yet fully arrived. When he had said this he remained in Galilee. Galilee, by the way, is very uh kind of hillbilly, backwoods, kind of the people there are not known for being any level of wealthy or intelligent or influential, um, real kind of a real kind of a look down upon region of Israel. But honestly, that's exactly the kind of place Jesus likes to hang out. Let's keep going. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then Jesus himself also went up, not openly, but in secret. So the Jewish leaders were looking for him at the feast, saying, Where is he? There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. Some were saying, Oh, he's a good man, but others he deceives the common people. However, no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish leaders. When the feast was half over, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. Then the Jewish leaders were astonished and said, How does this man know so much when he's never had formal instruction? So Jesus replied, My teaching's not from me, but from the one who sent me. If anyone wants to do God's will, he'll know about my teaching, whether it's from God or whether I speak from my own authority. The person who speaks on his own authority desires to receive honor for himself. The one who desires the honor of the one who sent him is a man of integrity, and there's no unrighteousness in him. Hasn't Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why do you want to kill me? The crowd answered, you're possessed by a demon, who is trying to kill you? Jesus replied, I performed one miracle and you're all amazed. However, because Moses gave you the practice of circumcision, not that it came from Moses, but from the forefathers, you circumcise a male child on the Sabbath. But if a male child is circumcised on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses is not broken, why are you angry with me? Because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath. Don't judge according to external appearance, but judge with proper judgment. Then some of the residents of Jerusalem began to say, Isn't this the man they're trying to kill? Yet here he is, speaking publicly, and they're saying nothing to him. Do the ruling authorities really know this man is the Christ? Now but we know where this man comes from. Whenever the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from. Then Jesus, while teaching in the temple courts, cried out, You both know me and know where I come from, and have not come on my own initiative, but the one who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I've come from him and he sent me. So then they tried to seize Jesus, but no one laid a hand on him because his time had not yet come. Yet many of the crowd believed in him and said, Whenever the Christ comes he won't perform more miraculous signs than this man did, will he? The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about Jesus, so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. And then Jesus said, I'll be with you only for a little while longer, and then I'm going to the one who sent me. You look for me, but will not find me, and where I am you cannot come. Then the Jewish leaders said to one another, Where is he gonna go that we can't find him? He's not gonna go to the Jewish people dispersed among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? What did he mean by saying you'll look for me but will not find me, and where I am you cannot come? Oh little did they know that in fact through the Spirit he was going to go to the Greeks. Oh silly religious leaders. Well on the last day of the feast, the greatest day, Jesus stood up and shouted out, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink, just as the scripture says, From within him will flow rivers of living water. Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. When they heard these words, some of the crowd began to say, This really is the prophet. Others said this is the Christ. But still others said, No, no, for the Christ doesn't come from Galilee, does he? Don't the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived? So there was a division in the crowd because of Jesus. Some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him. Then the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, Why didn't you bring him back with you? The officers replied, No one never spoke like this man. Then the Pharisees answered, You haven't been deceived too, have you? None of the members of the ruling council or the Pharisees have believed in him, have they? But this rabble who don't know the law are cursed. Now Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before and who was one of the rulers, said Our law doesn't condemn a man unless it first hears from him and learns what he's doing, does it? They replied, Oh, you aren't from Galilee too, are you? Investigate carefully and you'll see that no prophet comes from Galilee. And each one departed to his own house. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came to the temple courts again, and all the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The experts in the law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of them and said to Jesus, Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone to death such women. What then do you say? Now they were asking this in an attempt to trap him so that they could bring charges against him. Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger, and when they persisted in asking him, he stood up straight and replied, Whoever among you is guiltless may be the first to throw a stone at her. And then he bent over again and wrote on the ground. Now when they heard this, they began to drift away one at a time, starting with the older ones, until Jesus was left alone with a woman standing before him. Jesus stood up straight and said to her, Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you? She replied, No one, Lord. And Jesus said, I don't condemn you either. Go, and from now on don't sin any more. Then Jesus spoke out again, I am the light of the world. The one who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So the Pharisees objected, You testify about yourself. Your testimony is not true. Jesus answered, Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I'm going. But you people don't know where I came from or where I'm going. You judge people by outward appearances. I don't judge anyone. But if I judge my evaluation is accurate because I am not alone when I judge, but I and the Father who sent me do so together. It's written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I testify about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me. Then they began asking him, Who is your father? Jesus answered, You don't know, either me or my father. If you knew me, you'd know my father too. Jesus spoke these words near the offering box when he was teaching in the temple courts. No one seized him because his time had not yet come. Then Jesus said to them again, I'm going away, and you'll look for me, but will die in your sin. Where I'm going you cannot come. So the Jewish leaders began to say perhaps he's going to kill himself because he says where I'm going you can't come. Jesus replied, You people are from below. I am from above. You people are from this world. I'm not from this world. Thus I told you that you will die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. So they said to him, Who are you? Jesus replied, What I've told you from the beginning I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the Father who sent me is truthful, and the things I've heard from him I speak to the world. They didn't understand that he was telling them about his father, and then Jesus said, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak just what the Father taught me, and the one who sent me is with me, and he's not left me alone because I always do those things that please him. While he was saying these things, many people believed in him. And then Jesus said to those Judeans who had believed him, If you continue to follow my teaching, you are really my disciples. And you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. We're descendants of Abraham, they replied, and have never been anyone's slaves. How can you say you'll become free? Jesus answered them. I tell you the solemn truth, everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the family forever, but the son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you'll be really free. I know that you're Abraham's descendants, but you want to kill me because my teaching makes no progress among you. I'm telling you the things I've seen while with the Father. As for you, practice the things you've heard from the Father. They answered him, Abraham's our father. Jesus replied, If you are Abraham's children, you'd be doing the deeds of Abraham. But now you're trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth I heard from God. Abraham didn't do this. You people are doing the deeds of your father. Then they said to Jesus, We're not born as a result of immorality, we only have one Father, God himself. Jesus replied If God were your father, you would love me. For I've come from God, and am now here. I've not come on my own initiative, but he sent me. Why don't you understand what I'm saying? It's because you can't accept my teaching. You people are from your father, the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not uphold the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, because he's a liar and the father of lies. But because I'm telling you the truth, you don't believe in me. Who among you can prove me guilty of any sin? If I'm telling you the truth, why don't you believe in me? The one who belongs to God listens and responds to God's words. You don't listen and respond because you don't belong to God. The Judeans replied, Oh, aren't we correct in saying you're a Samaritan and are possessed by a demon? Jesus answered, I'm not possessed by a demon, but I honor my father, and yet you dishonor me. I'm not trying to get praise for myself. There is one who demands it, and he also judges. I tell you the solemn truth, if anyone obeys my teaching, he will never see death. Then the Judeans responded, Now we know you're possessed by a demon. Both Abraham and the prophets died, and yet you say if anyone obeys my teaching, he'll never experience death. You aren't greater than our father Abraham who died, are you? And the prophets died too. Who do you claim to be? Jesus replied, If I glorify myself, my glory is worthless. The one who glorifies me is my father, about whom you people say he's our God, yet you don't know him. But I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar, like you, but I do know him, and I obey his teaching. Your father Abraham was overjoyed to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then the Judeans replied, You're not yet fifty years old. Have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Haha, I tell you the solemn truth. Before Abraham came into existence I am. And then they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus was hidden from them and went out from the temple area. Whoo, Jesus dropping a bomb just saying that he is Yahweh. Whoo boy, that is some man, that's drama, man. If you think the Bible's boring, you have not read it. Give me a break. This is crazy. Alright, well, here, as we saw a little bit here in the book of John, but also throughout the other accounts of the Gospels, especially Matthew, we see a lot of instances where the religious leaders try to trap Jesus with his words. Like we saw today when they brought him a woman caught in adultery. They had set this whole thing up and were trying to get him to compromise on his message of grace or compromise the truth of the law of Moses. Now he was able to hold both in perfect tension and provide the perfect response as he always does. But the traps that people set for Jesus are still being set today because their father is Satan, who is still active today, trying to lie and manipulate and trap the people who belong to Jesus into compromising on grace and truth. I actually delivered a message about this recently at my home church regarding the traps that Jesus didn't fall for, but that you and I might. I'm gonna put that link to that sermon in the description of this episode. I'd encourage you to go check it out. You'll see this story of the woman caught in adultery and Jesus, as well as many others. It is a message every Christian needs to hear because these traps are still today. This sermon goes very practical with a lot of the cultural issues that are around us and trying to trap us today. Politics, abortion, transgenderism, these issues and more are steeped with traps trying to discredit Jesus and the people who ascribe to his name. All right. We can do better. We can avoid falling into these traps that the culture is setting for us. Go listen to the traps that Jesus didn't fall for, but you might. Again, the link will be in the episode description of this episode. Thanks for joining me here today, and we'll see you next time.