HOW TO KNOW THE TRUTH OF JESUS’ WORD

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN

III. THE WITNESS OF JESUS’ CONFLICT WITH THE JEWISH LEADERS.

This feast was celebrated in October. Six entire months had elapsed between this and the preceding chapter.

Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles.

  30. How can the truth of Jesus’ teaching be tested?

The rites of the feast recalled the miraculous interpositions of the Exodus. Water was poured forth each morning in the Temple to recall the smiting of the rock. Two candelabra, lighted each evening, represented the luminous cloud which lighted the Israelites by night.
This feast was celebrated in October each year.

Jesus at the Feast of Booths

Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.
And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
Jesus answered them, and said,

My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?

The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee?
Jesus answered and said unto them,

I have done one work, and ye all marvel.
Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man.
If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day?
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

30. How can the truth of Jesus’ teaching be tested?

HOW TO KNOW THE TRUTH OF JESUS’ WORD

Jesus now went up to the feast, not because he was prompted by the worldly policy suggested by His brethren, but because He was led by His Father’s will. We must be on our guard against unspiritual advisers, and must wait till the hour and the minute-hands of the clock have reached the precise moment of the Father’s appointment.
Here is an easy method of ascertaining whether our Lord’s words about God, Himself, and the future are merely the words of a human teacher, or are really God’s. Be willing to do as He says! Stand prepared to fulfill whatever is revealed to your mind and witnessed to by the inner voice! Live with your face toward the dawn, for though it tarry long it will certainly break. See Joh_3:21. Faith in the gospel does not come by logic, but as the result of obeying the highest truth that you know. Follow on and your path will lead you out to where Jesus stands, the revealed Son of God and the Savior of men. The old quarrel as to the miracle wrought at Bethesda on the Sabbath was still alive, Joh_7:22-23. His critics did not hold that the Mosaic law was violated if a child’s submission to the Jewish initiatory rite was performed on the Sabbath. How foolish, then, to blame Jesus for an act of mercy and healing!

By Philippus Schutte

New Covenant Israelite! "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;  Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee."  Rom 11:17 -18