WEEK FOUR
Day Two
DAILY SCRIPTURE
John 1:1-13
LEADER GUIDE QUESTIONS
Week Four Download
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Know: Read John Chapter 8
Note: Mark keywords, including pronouns and phrases. (sin, true, truth, light)
Ask questions: (Use tools such as interlinear bibles to search the original meaning of words- free tool here) For example:
Who did Jesus bear witness to, ?
What I AM statement did Jesus make about himself?
When?
Where was Jesus when the adulterous woman was brought to him?
Why did the Pharisees walk away?
How did Jesus have the authority to remove the woman’s condemnation?
Observation: Read Leviticus 20:10-16
What: What does today’s study reveal to you about the nature of God? What truth do I need to apply to my life today?
The Golden Candlestick
“I AM the light of the world.” John 8:12
Positioned opposite the Table of Shewbread, it was lit by seven lighted lamps with a continual supply of oil poured into them. Made of one solid piece of gold, it speaks of the deity of Christ and of the church because, through them, the Divine nature of Christ would be revealed. “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:15-16)
The Greek word for “oil” is “charisma,” translated as “anointing.” Christ is the Anointed One, and the believers of Christ are "anointed ones,” continually burning with the Spirit and God’s anointing. Without the light from the Candlestick, The Holy Place would remain in shadow, but the light produced highlighted the Table and the Alter of Incense. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the Oil that continually burns with a believer highlighting Christ in a dark world.
The Candlestick was a shadow of a New Covenant promise in the Tabernacle. It represented the light of the Holy Spirit indwelling every believer, which would pour out and shine its light to a world in darkness. The candlestick was made of one solid piece of gold beaten into its shape. It is not wood and then overlaid. It is solid gold. Every branch was of one solid piece, pounded and hammered into shape. Its shape was designed to look like an almond tree. Of all the trees, the almond tree is the first tree to bear fruit after winter. It speaks of life out of death. It's a picture of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who arose from the dead. Jesus is the Tree of Life!
The center shaft is a picture of Jesus, and you and I are the other branch on the right and left. Each branch leans in toward the center branch and gathers its light from the oil of beaten olives. Because no natural light entered the Temple, the Candlestick provided the only lighting. This represented the New Creation realities of every believer. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, He forgave the sin of the world to reconcile us to the Triune God. We have been grafted into His body and given His Spirit. The Spirit (oil) is a continual source that never runs out and gives each believer Zoe life to make us the light of the world.
By Laura Thevaos
John chapter eight begins with the woman caught in the “act of adultery.” This event is initiated by religious leaders who wanted to trick Jesus. As the Law of Moses commanded, they dragged an adulterous woman to Jesus and asked whether they should stone her.
Why did the religious leaders want to trap Jesus?
They were upholders of the law. Because the law was their standard for righteousness, anyone who contradicted it was a heretic. Or, perhaps it was because accusing others was the easiest way for them to justify themselves.
The law was like a mirror that exposed man's guilt.
If Jesus said to stone her, he would be culpable in condoning this woman's death. If he didn’t, he would look like a heretic who supported breaking the law of Moses.
What about the woman?
All we know is, she was caught having sex with a man who was not her husband. She had been exposed, which meant she was guilty of death. Not only that but she was dragged into an assembly of men. They were her accusers, cursing, spitting, and despising her. She was nothing in their eyes.
Jesus was writing in the dust when she was brought to him. The word dust is significant here. It takes us back to the garden where man and woman were created.
“Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).
The dust represents the origin of man, the flesh, and the weakness of humanity. It was the serpent’s food, the curse God put on him.
Scholars differ in their ideas of what Jesus may have been writing. Although no one knows, various scriptures give us insight into what it could have been.
Some scholars say it was the law of Moses that Jesus was writing in the dust. A verse supporting this is Exodus 31:18, “When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the covenant law, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.” It says the finger of God wrote the law.
These leaders did not know they were testing the very One who had written the law. What they also did not realize was that Jesus was the fulfillment of the law. Not only was Jesus the fulfillment of the law, but he was also the sacrifice for its judgment.
Jesus asked the woman who her accusers were, and she responded that they had all gone. Jesus then told her he did not condemn her and to “go and sin no more.” He declared that she could now live sinless because she had been relieved of her guilt.
Men cannot condemn us because they are not worthy of passing judgment; all have sinned and are guilty; therefore, there is no judgment worthy among men. (Matthew 7:1-2)
We cannot condemn ourselves, for the Bible is clear that we are not qualified to. (1 Corinthians 4:3)
God no longer does not condemn us, for “there is, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)