The Jewish Festival of Sukkoth just finished yesterday. This is a harvest festival where the Jewish people celebrate God’s presence with them in the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

When Jewish people celebrate this feast, they build a booth or tabernacle, a tented area, like an outdoor eating and living space, in their backyard. Here they will eat meals, and some people even sleeping outside. Sukkoth is the most festive celebration of the year.

Jews still celebrate Sukkoth in Jerusalem. The culmination is the night called Simchat Torah which means, “Rejoicing in the Law,” and is a celebration of God giving the Law to Moses. The Temple area will be lit and there will be parades and dancing.

Now, we remember Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Sukkoth festival. It is now the end of the festival and Jesus has been teaching. In today’s passage, Jesus is at the Temple Treasury which is at the entrance located in the Court of Women. It is called that, because men and women are separated for worship and this is as far as women could go. Both men and women are there, just the boundary for women, as it were.

Here people give their offering. This its also a place of prominence for the Sukkoth Festival. In this replica of the Temple, notice the four big lights in the Treasury area. Each candelabra had four branches, and at the top of every branch there was a large bowl. Four young men bearing 10 gallon pitchers of oil would climb ladders to fill the four golden bowls on each candelabra. And then the oil in those bowls was ignited.

So picture sixteen beautiful blazes leaping toward the sky from these golden lamps. Remember that the Temple was on a hill above the rest of the city, so the glorious glow was a sight for the entire city to see. In addition to the light, musicians played their harps, lyres, cymbals and trumpets to make joyful music to the Lord. What a glorious celebration! The light was to remind the people of how God’s Shekinah glory had once filled His Temple. But in the person of Jesus, God’s glory was once again present in that Temple. And He used that celebration to announce that very fact. He was teaching right here at Simchat Torah time, maybe standing right next to those magnificent candelabras when He declares to all who were gathered there,

“I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

ME

Read about Sukkoth and watch some travelogue clips of the festival in Jerusalem.

Then Nicodemus, the leader who had met with Jesus earlier, spoke up. “Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?” he asked.

They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Search the Scriptures and see for yourself—no prophet ever comes from Galilee!”

Nicodemus is the Pharisee who visited Jesus at night to ask him questions. When Jesus told him, “You must be born again…”

Now, Nicodemus is showing integrity because he does know the law and is calling the way the other Pharisees are attacking Jesus into question. Here we see the case where someone sympathetic to Jesus and his teachings is willing to give him an opportunity to support his claims.

But the Pharisees are resorting to ridicule and sarcasm again.

“Are you from Galilee, too?”

Of course they know where Nicodemus is from, he is a key Jewish leader.

Then they use a blatant lie.

Search the Scriptures and see for yourself—no prophet ever comes from Galilee!”

This is the worst offense. These guys have memorized the whole Bible. Of course prophets come from Galilee. Like Jonah. Or Hosea. They are just boldly lying to Nicodemus’ face, except that he is also a Pharisee and he knows that they know they are lying!

When you seek the truth it takes courage. There is always the chance you will be attacked, ridiculed, and held in contempt. But the truth will not be stopped.

To be a Christian, however, also means you have consideration for others who oppose the truth. You don’t use the same weapons of attack, ridicule and contempt. These are people created in the image of God and precious in his sight. And you don’t need to use false and disrespectful ways, anyway. The truth always wins out, when it comes from Jesus.

The Pharisees seem to know what is right, they just don’t want to lose the upper hand. They don’t want to lose their power. They are threatened by Jesus, because many of the people are starting to listen to him and some are believing in him.

But, we know that other Pharisees and leaders of the Jewish people will eventually be persuaded and courageous after Jesus raises from the dead. After all, the earliest Christians all come out of Judaism!

Jesus doesn’t need us to defend him, he calls us to live his life. We are never surprised when people try to use logical fallacies to oppose Jesus. We are not shocked when ridicule and lying are used against us. When you worship Jesus and you follow him, the only person’s opinion about you that really matters is, “What does Jesus think about me?”

He thinks you are someone unbelievably special…

ME

Jesus is always watching you. When, especially does he have a smile on his face when he is watching you?

John 7

“Have you been led astray, too?” the Pharisees mocked.

“Is there a single one of us rulers or Pharisees who believes in him?

This foolish crowd follows him, but they are ignorant of the law. God’s curse is on them!”

The Pharisees are using three classic examples of false logic to try to gain advantage.

The first logical fallacy is the ad hominem attack.

This means attacking the person rather than their position. Using sarcasm and ridicule to attack the motive and character of the person, rather than showing the weakness of their argument. If your position has strong enough evidence and support, it shouldn’t be necessary for you to use sarcasm and ridicule. When you resort to cleverness to try to gain power over another’s thinking, it is generally a sign that your position is weak, or at least that’s what you think.

The second logical fallacy is called an appeal to the masses.

If the majority of people think the position is correct, then it is valid. The Pharisees are saying since so all of us are opposed to Jesus and his teaching, he must not be legitimate.

This is wrong on two levels. First, as the Pharisees will soon find out, many Jewish leaders do believe in Jesus. But, second, even if no one believes in Jesus, he might still be telling the truth.

The third logical fallacy is appeal to authority or expertise.

The Pharisees are saying they have the academic credentials and so their opinion is more valid that those who aren’t educated in the proper schools.

No, it doesn’t matter how much education you have or what schools you went to, your position must support itself. And someone who doesn’t have as much education as you may be more knowledgable.

ME

What are ways Christians experience ad hominem attack?

John 7

When the Temple guards returned without having arrested Jesus, the leading priests and Pharisees demanded, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

“We have never heard anyone speak like this!” the guards responded.

Good for the guards!

The Temple guards are open to analyzing the teachings of Jesus for themselves. If you study the teachings of Jesus and apply logic and reason, you can make a case for his teachings being accurate. No one has ever understood the human condition and reflected reality so clearly.

If you try to honestly live out his teachings in your life, any of his teachings, you will know he is right. It will make sense.

In our country, for example, people from all political persuasion, all walks of life- whatever terms you use- conservative, liberal, right, left- most people actually do claim the teachings of Jesus and his followers as their own. How can I say that?

Because from the right to the left people admire the teachings of Jesus, it’s just they don’t know or they ignore it comes from him.

• Be honest in all you say and do.
• Care for the needs of all people, not just your own clan.
• Men and women have equal worth.
• Have a special sense of compassion for the poor and children.
• Work against violence and revenge and toward what is good, even for those who are your enemy.
• Have compassion for those in prison.
• Give people another chance.
• Care for all of creation.

Well, if the teaching of Jesus are so admired, why isn’t everyone a Christian, or at least admiring of Christians?

One reason is whenever atheists or other skeptics are critical of the teachings of Jesus, they are generally misinformed or simplistic in their understanding of the Gospels, or they haven’t carefully examined them at all. They haven’t made the connection that Jesus is the source of some of their most cherished beliefs.

Another reason is we Christians are fallen, like everyone else, and we aren’t pure models for Jesus. We aren’t always good ambassadors.

But, even when we do follow the beautiful model of Jesus, those who don’t follow are fallen people, too, and they will choose not to see it. They will underemphasize the good or try to explain it away and overemphasize our fallenness.

The real sorrow of those who deny Jesus is they are influenced by the devil who is helping to hide the good.

And God wants us to freely trust in him and so God allows us to deceive ourselves.

ME

Look for examples of people who deny Jesus but admire his teaching.