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11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people.
Minister to one another’s needs in prayer, biblical counsel and encouragement.
Encourage loving accountability to obey Jesus
Choose a way to cast vision for who they can become in Christ or what God can do through them by:
Our vision is: “A church for every village and community, and the gospel for every person.”
1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him.2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near,3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do.4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do.7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.
10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret.11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?”
12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”
Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.”13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.
14 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”
16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
20 “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”
21 Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed.22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath.23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath?24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”
25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah?27 But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”
28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him,29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”
30 At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.31 Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
33 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me.34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?36 What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
41 Others said, “He is the Messiah.”
Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee?42 Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted.48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked,51 “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
52Then they all went home, 8:1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Additional Questions:
Jesus and his disciples went to Jerusalem during the annual seven-day Feast of Tabernacles (or Feast of Booths). It was a time when all Jewish men who could travel must report to Jerusalem to present themselves. Jesus’ half brothers, who still did not believe in Him, go on to Jerusalem without Him. Later, Jesus arrives midway through the Feast. He goes to the temple and begins to teach about who He is. He reveals that He is from the family line of David, even though He was raised in Nazareth. An argument breaks out and there is a lot of yelling about Jesus, but He slips away for the night to spend more time with the Father. Meanwhile, the religious leaders were arguing about Jesus. One of them, who had earlier become a believer in Jesus, tried to influence the group but they ridiculed him. When Jesus came back to Jerusalem, the religious leaders tried to trap Him by bringing a woman caught in adultery to Him. Jesus models leadership with great wisdom, compassion, mercy, and grace while challenging the religious leaders with their own sin and hardness of heart.
Practice giving and communion here or in the Preparing for Mission section
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