John 7:19
“Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?”
(a) Moses is the lawgiver; Jesus is the gracegiver (John 1:17). Those who preach the heavy yoke law are preaching the bad news of Moses when they could be preaching the good news of Jesus.
(b) None of you. By plotting to kill Jesus (John 5:18), they were planning to break the sixth commandment (Ex. 20:13).
(c) Kill me. On several occasions people plotted or tried to murder Jesus (Luke 4:30, 22:2, John 5:18, 7: 25, 11:53). But none succeeded. Jesus would freely lay down his life for all. No one would take it from him (John 10:18).
John 7:21
Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, and you all marvel.
(a) One deed. In an earlier visit to Jerusalem, Jesus healed a lame man on the Sabbath (John 5:8–9).
(b) Marvel. The Jews were not astonished by the healing but by the audacity with which Jesus broke the Sabbath law (John 5:10). They were so upset they persecuted him and then tried to kill him (John 5:16–18).
John 7:23
“If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath?
The Law of Moses specifically refers to the commandments, ordinances, punishments, and ceremonial observances given to the nation of Israel through Moses (Jos. 8:31). This law is sometimes referred to as the law of commandments (Eph. 2:15) or the law of the Jews (Acts 25:8). See entry for The Law.
John 7:24
“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
(a) According to appearance. Don’t make superficial judgments based on the law. The Jews were furious with Jesus because he had healed a man on the Sabbath (John 5:8–16).
(b) Righteous judgment. “Your judgment needs to align with what God is doing.”
A crippled man had been healed by God. How could that not be a good thing? In attacking Jesus for healing the man, the religious Jews had made a bad judgment.
John 7:28
Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.
Teaching. Jesus often taught and preached the gospel in the temple (Matt. 26:55, Luke 20:1). He did this because that’s where people congregated (Luke 21:38) and to fulfill the words of the prophet Malachi: “the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple” (Mal. 3:1).
John 7:40
Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This certainly is the Prophet.”
The Prophet. The Jews revered Moses, but Moses said that the Lord would send another prophet that they should listen to (Deu. 18:15). That Prophet was Jesus (John 6:14, Acts 3:22, 7:37).
John 7:42
“Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”
Bethlehem. The village of Bethlehem is known as the Cradle of Christianity because Jesus was born there (Matt. 2:1). Bethlehem was also the home of King David (1 Sam 16:1, 17:15) and Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth (Ruth 1:1, 19).
John 7:49
“But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed.”
The Law refers to the Law of Moses, the commandments, ordinances, punishments, and ceremonial observances given to the nation of Israel through Moses (Jos. 8:31, John 1:17). This law is sometimes referred to as the law of commandments (Eph. 2:15) or the law of the Jews (Acts 25:8). See entry for The Law.
John 7:50
Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them) said to them,
Nicodemus; see entry for John 3:1.
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