Old Jerry

Jesus didn’t condemn the lady because the law says that there has to be witnesses to the crime. I think that she probably was guilty. But instead of condemning her Jesus told her to go and sin no more. If we want to accept Jesus Christ as our savior then we have to turn around our lives and not live like the world. That is why we should repent. We wouldn’t need the gospel because everybody would be doing their own thing so we need to repent and follow Jesus.

Jesus probably wrote on the ground in order to kill time and to get the accusers to think about what they were doing. I don’t think that the writing was important to the story otherwise it would have been included in the story. The effect was that it slowed down the process and let everybody think about what they were doing.

The reason that Jesus insisted on an unbiased, righteous witness to cast the first stone was because it was the Law of Moses. Jesus knew that the accusers were trying to trap him and they didn’t want to take it so far as to murder the woman. Verse 7 us misused because they don’t want anybody to judge the guilty. Jesus does not require sinlessness of those called on to judge otherwise there would be no judges. He requires them to be honest. This lines up perfectly Matthew because we are not to judge the moral of the other person but if a person commits a crime we are to judge that.

They were trying to trap him into saying something against the Law of Moses and if he didn’t rule against the Law of Moses then they could show that he didn’t have any compassion. If he would have upheld stoning her then he would be breaking the law of the land. If he said not to stone her he would be breaking the Law of Moses.

Jesus is inviting everybody to drink the streams of living water. He promises them that they will thirst no more and will have eternal life. This is fulfilled at Pentecost when the people are filled with the Holy Spirit. I have received the Holy Spirit and I have the living water within me.

I don’t think that we can know God’s will if we aren’t willing to obey the truth we know. We would be doing our will and we will not be able to hear what God wants us to do. Our hearts will turn to stone.

The rabbis were trained in Jesus’ day by being with a already trained rabbis. Jesus was trained by God his father. The disciples were trained by Jesus. When we hear and obey the voice of the Spirit we know that we are doing the work that God has sent us to do.

Jesus knew that the leaders of the Jews in Jerusalem wanted to kill him so he avoided Jerusalem. We have always got to know what is going on around us so that we can avoid danger because that is our part. God will take care us when we do our part like protect us from things that we don’t see.

The difference between the Twelve and the crowd is the twelve believed in Jesus and knew that he was the savior. The crowd was just in for the ride and to get what they could from him. If we hold to Jesus teaching then we are his disciples.

I think that “eating the Bread of Life” and “eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood” is about the same metaphor. I think that Jesus used such a vivid and repugnant metaphor because he was trying to get his point that we need to be living for him. If we are living for him then we are “eating the Bread of Life” and “eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood. We do those things in remembrance of Him.

“Eating the Bread of Life” means in practical terms that we and believing and living for Jesus. I think that nibbling the Bread of life means that we read the bible occasionally and go to church once in a while but don’t really turn our lives over to God.

I think that the significance of Jesus’ teaching that only the ones that Father “draws” to him can come to him is that we have to accept what God has already done for us. This sounds like predestination because it sounds like we were drawn and only those that have been drawn will come to him. But Jesus died for us all so we have all been drawn to Him and not all have come to him. The Holy Spirit prepares people to put their faith in Christ because he is the one that puts the want in us to seek Him.

We do all kinds of “works” to pursue to please God like helping others, donation to a charity, being with the sick. But the most important “work” that God requires is our faith.

Some of the “believers” were following Jesus because of the feeding and the miracles that he performed. I think that their selfish motives were to get what you can for free. The motives that true disciples seek Jesus is because they love him and want to be with him.

The way that making Jesus king is like the third temptation is that they wanted to put him up on the pinnacle and have him take care of the cares of the world. It wasn’t God’s plan to have Jesus king of the world at that time so it would have stopped his ministry if he hadn’t retreated to the hills. Usually people don’t have our interest in their heart and only have a selfish heart on what you can do for them.

Jesus having the disciples pick up the left-over pieces will remind them that there was more than enough to feed the 5000 and also not waste what was left-over. We should never waste the resources that the Lord gives to us. God will provide more then we need.

Jesus had the disciples distribute the leaves and fishes to the multitudes. The disciples are the ones serving the people. The baskets are used to carry the food. The impression is that they can fully trust Jesus.

Jesus had the crowds sit down before feeding them because he wanted them to be organized. After they are organized he can tell how many are there. The disciples’ role was to help to organize them and distribute the fish and bread. Jesus knew that it was going to happen and the disciples were just following Jesus. I think that we see miracles all the time.

I think that Jesus is trying to get the disciples to own the task of feeding the crowds because he wants to teach them a lesson about relying on God. The significance to the story of the boy’s five loaves and two fish is that unless we have a little skin in the project we can’t expect for a grand result.

The role of the Scriptures should be out lives. Some atheist know the bible cold but they lack the spiritual discernment and lifestyle. It is just another book to study and doesn’t mean anything to them. It is hard to keep our churches orthodox but not legalistic nor judgmental. Therefore we need to focus on our relationship with God and judge others about their relationship with God.

The value of miracles in John’s gospel is that it gets the people attention. Once you have their attention then you can teach them about Jesus. The weakness of faith that depends solely on miracles is that they never learn where the miracle come from. I think that we have miracles in our day and some of them we don’t recognize. But we hear of miracles pretty often and they are dismissed as a fluke. I think that many miracles depend on a congregation’s attitude because they will just brush it off as just another day happening.

I think that Jesus is so dependent upon the Father for wisdom because he is his son. He can only do what the Father has allowed him to do. I don’t think that I am dependent on my culture to approve my way of life or validate my wisdom. I hope I am following Jesus’ example.

Eternal life begins right now when we believe that God sent Jesus to die for our sins. If it weren’t for Jesus our default position would be death. I don’t know how people have eternal life it they never “hear my word” that is the reason that we send missionaries out in the field. My friends and neighbors normally hear Jesus’ word through me or through the bible or by going to church. My role in seeing that they hear his word is telling people about my experience.

I don’t think that knowing the bible is a substitute to emulating Jesus and listening to the Father. But is one of the ways of knowing and listening to the Father and the other way is to fellowship with fellow Christians and going to church. I don’t know why the churches don’t teach more about hearing the voice of God. If our generation would learn to dynamically hear God and then obey what he is saying then everything would definitely change for the better.

It is possible to be blessed outwardly but lost inwardly. Look at most of the Hollywood actors most of them are blessed outwardly but lost inwardly. Jesus confronted the healed man in the temple because he needed to repent of his sins. It is necessary to repent and be healed inwardly for his salvation. I don’t think that man responded with faith to Jesus’ rebuke.