Study Desk

After these things Jesus was walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.

"The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify about it, that its deeds are evil.

"Go up to the feast yourselves; I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet fully arrived."

"If a man receives circumcision on a Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry at Me because I made an entire man well on a Sabbath?

"I do know Him, because I am from Him, and He sent Me."

So they were seeking to arrest Him; and yet no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.

But this He said in reference to the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

So a dissension occurred in the crowd because of Him.

Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I am testifying about Myself, My testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.

These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple area; and no one arrested Him, because His hour had not yet come.

"I know that you are Abraham's descendants; yet you are seeking to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.

"Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot listen to My word.

"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

"But because I say the truth, you do not believe Me.

"The one who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God."

Therefore some of the Pharisees were saying, "This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath." But others were saying, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And there was dissension among them.

His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already reached the decision that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be excommunicated from the synagogue.

"When he puts all his own sheep outside, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

"However, a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers."

"He flees because he is a hired hand and does not care about the sheep.