Whose Authority

Lesson #125

We continue the previous lesson by picking up at verse 18: “The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood” (John 7:18 ESV). Jesus was not speaking on his own authority, but on that of his Father. What Jesus taught was given to him from his Father. When we teach do we teach on our own authority or on the authority of the Word of God and our position in Christ?

When we listen to someone speak or teach we need to evaluate what the speaker does with the glory that is generated. Does the person seek it for themselves or for God? He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but if the message is obtained from God as the source and the speaker seeks glory for Him then there is much less chance of falsehood in the message because the speaker is not seeking his own gain.

“Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” (John 7:19 ESV). Back in chapter 5, Jesus healed a paralytic on the Sabbath at the pool called Bethesda. This angered the Jewish leaders because by healing on the Sabbath they claimed Jesus was breaking the law. They claimed they were upset because of their zeal for the Law. Jesus claimed it was not their zeal for the law, but their evil hearts from which their hate for him came. They who claimed to be so righteous and a defender of the Law, Jesus claims they violate the Law as often as they please and therefore they care nothing about the Law but instead are trying to protect their own piety by pointing out the sins of others.

The crowd joins in, in defense of their leaders, saying, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” (John 7:20 ESV). It seems that the crowd was not fully aware of the intentions or accusations of their leaders and felt a demon was misleading Jesus. They didn’t realize the intensity of hatred toward Jesus and by saying he had a demon and thus were ascribing to him a form of madness for his feeling. Jesus response to this is too long to this lesson and will be covered in the next.

Prayer

Father, I wonder how often the evil in my own heart has caused me to take a stand in defense of the Scriptures only to be defending my own position. This lesson points out to me how important heart attitude is when approaching the Word of God. Forgive me for my past times of abuse and guide me into a proper understanding of my heart.