Page 81 - Gospel of John_teachers lesson_cp 1-10_Neat

John 7:36- What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me,
and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?

Lesson Notes:

(John 7:32) – After hearing that people were persuaded to believe Jesus was indeed the Christ,
the Pharisees and Chief Priest finally react to His public oration in the temple courtyard.
Temple officers are sent to take him into custody.

(John 7:33-35) – When the officers arrive the Messiah presents them with an unexpected
discourse telling them that He will remain present among them for a little while and then He
will return to the one that has sent Him. Adding more complexity, He continues the topic
stressing that they will look for Him but not find Him and they are not allowed to come to the
place where He will be.
Uncertain if He would depart from them to take His message to the Gentiles or if He
unrealistically believed they could not capture Him if He were to resist being taken into custody
and escape to a place where they could not find Him, the riddle created great confusion among
the Jews including the Temple Officers.

(John 7:36) – Among themselves they began to query the meaning of His statement, trying to
understand where He could possibly go and not be found or prevent others from coming to find
Him.

They were all unaware that when He said “yet a little while I am with you” that He was
referencing that His time or hour was near; the time of His death. His mother, brethren, and
others including the Pharisees have tried to provoke and accelerate His time but even in the
face of the Temple Officers sent to arrest Him, nothing will transpire until it is time. They will
not be allowed to take Him into custody until His hour (time/purpose) is fully come.

When He said, “then I go unto Him that sent me” He was making a reference about His
resurrection; defeating death and resuming an immortal body to return to Him(self), to God the
Father (God actively present in Heaven).
When He told them that they would look for Him but not find Him, He was describing the
boundary between the temporal and eternal worlds that mortal men cannot cross.

John 7:37- In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
John 7:38- He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water.
John 7:39- (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him
should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus
was not yet glorified.)

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