Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm19991020.htm

JOHN: TRIUMPHING IN LIFE'S MOST CRITICAL ISSUE
Part III: Presentation Of The Messenger Of Salvation
C. Christ's Credentials Revealed In Confrontations With Men
8. Christ's Claims Supported Through The Errant Ignorance Of His Opponents
(John 7:40-52; 8:12-13)
  1. Introduction
    1. One way to test the credibility of Jesus' claims to be Messiah and God is to evaluate His critics' words!
    2. John 7:40-52 with 8:12-13 reveals a deep blindness on the part of Jesus' critics that works to expose the errancy of His critics' reliability as well as exhonerate Jesus . It provides a lesson for us today as well.
  2. Christ's Claims Supported Through The Errant Ignorance Of His Opponents, John 7:40-52; 8:12-13.
    1. We here establish that John 7:53-8:11 is not part of John's original Gospel text. Here are our reasons:
      1. The most reliable and ealiest manuscripts (like Rylands papyrii 66 and 75, Codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus et al.) omit John 7:53-8:11, Metzger, A Textual Com. on the Grk. N.T., p. 219-222.
      2. Both the style and vocabulary of the John 7:53-8:11 text is readily non-Johannine, Ibid., Metzger.
    2. However, there is evidence that the event most likely occurred, for copyists boldly placed it into the text under obvious belief that the event actually happened, and the event recorded in this passage (The Woman Taken In Adultery) is completely harmonious with the other texts on the character and works of Jesus.
    3. Accordingly, we look now only at the events in John 7:40-52 and 8:12-13 as a single event as follows:
      1. When Jesus had finished claiming He was the source of the spiritual water of life in John 7:37-39, people reacted in various ways to Him, revealing their great ignorance:
        1. Some felt He was the Deuteronomy 18 Prophet like Moses to come, John 7: 40.
        2. Ohers thought He was the Messiah, John 7:41a.
        3. However, others objected to Jesus being the Messiah, saying no credible spiritual leader of Israel was supposed to come out of Galilee according to Old Testament prophecies, 7:41b-42a. In fact, they said Messiah would come out of Bethlehem, the city of David, not out of Galilee, John 7:42b .
        4. Obviously, the people were ignorant of how Jesus HAD indeed come from Bethlehem as that was the town of His birth and town of His lineage, cf. Luke 2:1-1-7; Mtt. 1:6, 16.
      2. However, concerning the charge that no prophet was to arise out of Galilee, John's Gospel records how Jesus countered that charge as also being errant as follows, John 7:43-52; 8:12-13 with Isaiah 9:1-2:
        1. With the crowd divided over Jesus' identity (7:43-44), the officers who had come to arrest Jesus returned to their religious overseers empty-handed, John 7:45a.
        2. These overseers demanded an explanation of the officers, so the empty-handed officers responded that Christ's teachings were so effective that they lost the motivation to arrest Him, John 7:45b-46.
        3. These leaders retorted that perhaps these officials also had been deceived by Jesus, Jn. 7:47. Their reasoning was that these officials, like the crowds, were ignorant unlike themselves who knew Scripture and would not be swayed by Jesus' alleged "error," John 7:48-49.
        4. Nicodemus, one of the overseers, objected to his colleagues' implication that Jesus was a deceiver, stating that the Law did not condemn Christ unless he had received a fair hearing, John 7:50-51.
        5. The leaders retorted to Nicodemus that he might have been deceived as well, and backed up this claim with the conclusion that Scripture never promoted even a prophet rising from Galilee, Jn. 7:52.
        6. At this point, Jesus claimed to be the Light of the world to illumine believers so they would not walk in darkness, John 8:12. This claims was an illusion to Isaiah 9:1-2 which text in turn predicted a Great Light would arise in the Galilee region and shine upon them that had walked in darkness!
        7. Thus, Jesus exposed the great spiritual ignorance of the religious leaders who said the Old Testament gave no credibility to even a prophet arising in Galilee! THEY were the BLIND ones walking in DARKNESS not to have seen Jesus' Messianic credibility out of Isaiah 9:1-2!
Lesson: The glaring oversight of Isaiah 9:1-2 by Israel's TEACHERS who objected to Christ's Messianic claims and Jesus' illusion to that very passage all work to give credibility to JESUS' claims!

Application: Whether it is Christ's claims or the words of any believer today, the degree to which the differing parties involved ADHERE to REVEALED SCRIPTURE works to reveal who is CREDIBLE!