His Time, Not Theirs

¹After these things, Jesus was walking in Galilee, for he wouldn’t walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.

²Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.

³His brothers therefore said to him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do.

⁴For no one does anything in secret while he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.”

⁵For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.

⁶Jesus therefore said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.

⁷The world can’t hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.

⁸You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled.”

⁹Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret.

¹¹The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, “Where is he?”

¹²There was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “Not so, but he leads the multitude astray.”

¹³Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.

¹⁵The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How does this man know letters, having never been educated?”

¹⁶Jesus therefore answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.

¹⁷If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God or if I am speaking from myself.

¹⁸He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

¹⁹Didn’t Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?”

²⁰The multitude answered, “You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?”

²¹Jesus answered them, “I did one work and you all marvel because of it.

²²Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy.

²³If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man completely healthy on the Sabbath?

²⁴Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

²⁵Therefore some of them of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this he whom they seek to kill?

²⁶Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ?

²⁷However, we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”

²⁸Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don’t know.

²⁹I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”

³⁰They sought therefore to take him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

³¹But of the multitude, many believed in him. They said, “When the Christ comes, he won’t do more signs than those which this man has done, will he?”

³²The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.

³³Then Jesus said, “I will be with you a little while longer, then I go to him who sent me.

³⁴You will seek me and won’t find me. You can’t come where I am.”

³⁵The Jews therefore said among themselves, “Where will this man go that we won’t find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?

³⁶What is this word that he said, ‘You will seek me, and won’t find me;’ and ‘Where I am, you can’t come’?”

³⁷Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!

³⁸He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.”

³⁹But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn’t yet glorified.

⁴⁰Many of the multitude therefore, when they heard these words, said, “This is truly the prophet.”

⁴¹Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “What, does the Christ come out of Galilee?

⁴²Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes of the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”

⁴³So a division arose in the multitude because of him.

⁴⁴Some of them would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said to them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”

⁴⁶The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!”

⁴⁷The Pharisees therefore answered them, “You aren’t also led astray, are you?

⁴⁸Have any of the rulers or any of the Pharisees believed in him?

⁴⁹But this multitude that doesn’t know the law is cursed.”

⁵⁰Nicodemus (he who came to him by night, being one of them) said to them,

⁵¹“Does our law judge a man unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?”

⁵²They answered him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and see that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”

⁵³Everyone went to his own house,