If Anyone is Thirsty

Going to the Feast of Shelters

A. Hostile leaders at the feast

1. After this Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. He stayed out of Judea because the Jewish leaders wanted to kill him. ²Now the Jewish Feast of Shelters was near.

B. Jesus’ own brothers don’t believe

3. So Jesus’ brothers advised him, “Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing. ⁴For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself does anything in secret. If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”
   ⁵(For not even his own brothers believed in him.)
6. So Jesus replied, “My time has not yet arrived, but for you any time is good!
7. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil.
8. You go up to the feast yourselves. I am not going up to this feast because my time has not yet fully arrived.”
9. When he had said this, he remained in Galilee. ¹⁰But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then Jesus himself also went up, not openly but in secret.

A’ Hostile leaders at the feast

11. So the Jewish leaders were looking for him at the feast, asking, “Where is he?”
12. There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. Some were saying, “He is a good man,” but others, “He deceives the common people.” ¹³However, no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish leaders.

Teaching about Jesus’ authority

14. When the feast was half over, Jesus went up to the temple courts and began to teach. ¹⁵Then the Jewish leaders were astonished and said, “How does this man know so much when he has never had formal instruction?”
16. So Jesus replied, “My teaching is not from me, but from the one who sent me. ¹⁷If anyone wants to do God’s will, he will know about my teaching, whether it is from God or whether I speak from my own authority. ¹⁸The 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 is no unrighteousness in him.
19. Hasn’t Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law! Why do you want to kill me?”
20. The crowd answered, “You’re possessed by a demon! Who is trying to kill you?”
21. Jesus replied, “I performed one miracle and you are all amazed. ²²However, 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. ²³But 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?
24. Do not judge according to external appearance, but judge with right judgment.”

Teaching on Jesus’ identity

A. Jesus cannot be Christ because of his origin

25. Then some of the residents of Jerusalem began to say, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? ²⁶Yet here he is, speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to him. Do the ruling authorities really know that this man is the Christ? ²⁷But we know where this man comes from. Whenever the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”
28. Then Jesus, while teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You both know me and know where I come from? And I have not come on my own initiative, but the one who sent me is real. You do not know him, ²⁹but I know him, because I have come from him and he sent me.”

B. Attempted arrest, but some believe

30. So then they tried to seize Jesus, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.
31. 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?”
32. The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about Jesus, so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.

C. Teaching and response

33. Then Jesus said, “I will be with you for only a little while longer, and then I am going to the one who sent me. ³⁴You will look for me but will not find me, and where I am you cannot come.”
35. Then the Jewish leaders said to one another, “Where is he going to go that we cannot find him? He is not going to go to the Jewish people dispersed among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? ³⁶What did he mean by saying, ‘You will look for me but will not find me, and where I am you cannot come’?”

40. When they heard these words, some of the crowd began to say, “This really is the Prophet!” ⁴¹Others said, “This is the Christ!” But still others said, “No, for the Christ doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? ⁴²Don’t the scriptures say that the Christ is a descendant of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
43. So there was a division in the crowd because of Jesus. ⁴⁴Some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

B’ Failed arrest, and some believe

45. Then the officers returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him back with you?” ⁴⁶The officers replied, “Never did a human being speak like this one!”
47. Then the Pharisees answered, “You haven’t been deceived too, have you? ⁴⁸None of the members of the ruling council or the Pharisees have believed in him, have they? ⁴⁹But this rabble who do not know the law are accursed!”

A’ Jesus cannot be Christ because of his origin

50. Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before and who was one of the rulers, said, ⁵¹“Our law doesn’t condemn a man unless it first hears from him and learns what he is doing, does it?”
52. They replied, “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you? Investigate carefully and you will see that no prophet comes from Galilee!”