Life of Christ Lesson 87: Division at End of the Feast {Never man spake like this MAN!}

John 7:32-53 Jesus stood in the Temple, raising His voice to people who thought He could not possibly be the Messiah because they "knew" His origin (birthplace and parentage), but they were wrong. He gave repeated claims to His Deity (7:28, 29), which enraged the religious rulers, especially when many people did believe Jesus was Who He claimed to be. The Jews felt it was time to send for the Temple guard to arrest Him. In this lesson, the Lord spoke a prophecy to the religious rulers, "Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come" (7:34). They sarcastically said among themselves that he must be going among the Gentiles, for they would not "lower" themselves to associated with Gentiles. John recorded the events of the last day of the Feast of Taberncaldes. We talk a lot about the rituals and ceremonies involved in celebrating this feast and how Jesus used them to point to Himself as the Fulfillment - for example - of the Rock smitten by Moses in the wilderness out from which flowed life-giving water! He said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (7:37, 38). There were three kinds of responses to His words - some heeded it; some hindered it; and others hated it. Interestingly, the Temple officers sent by the Sanhedrin Council to arrest Jesus did not arrest Him; instead they returned to the Council with this testimony, "Never man spake like this man" (7:46)! Then, too, one of their own Council members spoke up in defense of Jesus! His name was Nicodemus! This is a great lesson! Lots of "meat".