Christ's extravagant promise

Father, we ask your blessing on the children who are out in Sunday school and those children down in the nursery.

Father, may your Holy Spirit move mightily in their lives, bringing them to a saving faith in Jesus,

keeping them in a saving faith in Jesus, helping them to grow as disciples of Jesus.

Father, we thank you that you have blessed us in many ways, the offering that we've collected.

Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would make us a congregation that wants to give, that wants to bless,

that wants to send, that wants to share, that wants to lift Jesus high in this city and to the ends of the earth.

Father, may your Holy Spirit do that work in us day by day.

And now as we gather to think about Jesus, to think about his word, to think about what he's done for us on the cross,

Father, pour out the Holy Spirit deep within us.

Make us disciples of Jesus who are gripped by the gospel, learning to live day by day for your glory.

And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Please be seated.

So, actually, we're going to start by putting...

You don't need your Bibles for this, but Andrew, could you put a scripture text right up on the screen right off the bat?

So this is in case I put you all to sleep and you get nothing else out of the sermon.

We're going to begin with this verse.

It's in the ESV.

I'll explain a little bit in a moment why it has his and all that type of stuff.

But right back from the early church fathers, and they don't talk about it very much anymore,

but right back from the early church fathers through the reformers and all of that,

many, many, many people would say that these words deserve to be written in gold.

That it should have just been black all the way.

And then when it comes to this, it should have been written in gold because they're such precious words.

So let's say this together, please.

If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

And this is what Jesus says in the temple.

So it's a wonderful verse.

I'm going to try to unpack a little bit for you in a few minutes.

But, you know, it's really interesting the context within which Jesus talks about this

and makes this really quite an extravagant promise.

If you look at it there for a second, that anyone at all, anybody who's thirsty,

that's the only requirement to come to Jesus is having a thirst.

A thirst for maybe a cleansing, thirst for pardon, thirst for forgiveness,

a thirst to be able to forgive, thirst for meaning, thirst for significance, thirst for beauty.

Like just if anyone thirsts in any way, come to me and drink.

And by coming to me and drink, it's an image of believing in Jesus.

And then Jesus says, I'm going to summarize a whole range of scriptural sayings

that if you come to me, you drink, and out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

It's an extravagant promise.

An extravagant promise.

Almost too much for even Christians, for many, many Christians to believe.

And it's really interesting the context within which Jesus says this.

Like it's really fascinating.

I don't know how many of you have been watching on Netflix,

The Wild Wild Country.

It's become a very talked about documentary.

Wild Wild Country.

And it's about something that happened in the late 70s,

but in particular in 19, I think it was 1981,

an Indian guru, Rajneesh, I think that's his name, the Bhagwan,

brought his whole commune from Bombay, India,

to settle in the middle of Oregon.

And in an empty place, a ranch that I think was a 10-square-mile ranch,

out in the middle of nowhere.

And the documentary, it's a fascinating documentary,

maybe a bit disturbing.

I'm not saying that everybody should watch it.

I mean, one of the reasons I'm going to watch it again after it's over is

it's really both frightening and fascinating to see people who can lie boldly

with no hint whatsoever of guilt.

Like they can just lie and say BS with impunity.

Like it's actually sort of, I mean, it's on one level disturbing.

It's also sort of fascinating to watch.

But here's the thing.

Why am I bringing this up?

So if you watch this, the Bhagwan, the guru,

who has thousands and thousands of followers,

they show you several times, quite a few times,

they give you film footage of him speaking.

And every time he says a few words,

like everybody's either going like in ecstasy like this,

or they're pumping their fist, or they're dancing, or they're clapping,

and everybody is celebrating every time he speaks.

And in fact, they almost get into a type of ecstatic frenzy of dancing.

And I, you know, I'm listening to it, and I think,

gosh, a lot of this is just so trite,

or foolish, or stupid, or just wrong.

But for them, as they listen,

they just get unbelievably excited by it.

And so, you know, it's very easy.

In fact, it's interesting, just this week,

one of the fellows that I've talked about most,

a non-Christian I've talked about the most,

about the Christian faith with,

in a coffee shop,

he asked me out of the blue

what I was speaking on on Friday, on Sunday.

So I told him about this verse,

and what I was speaking on.

And when I told him the verse,

he sort of rolled his eyes.

Like, you're going to see, you know.

And he said, well, you know,

it's easy for, you know,

you religious people to get all excited about stuff like that.

But I didn't push it.

I just told him a little bit about what the text was.

And, you know, it's just often just bear witness.

I don't, just, you just bear witness.

I wasn't intimidated by it.

But afterwards, this is one of many, many times

where I wished afterwards I could have said something to him

that I didn't say.

So I'm saying it to you, you captive audience.

And what I wish I'd said to him is,

no, no, no, no, you don't understand

the context that Jesus said this.

And it's really quite remarkable.

So let's look at the context.

Because it's actually not at all like the Bhagwan.

And it's not at all like my friend thought.

Let's look at the context.

The context is one of snarky comments,

murderous intent,

intent,

massive confusion,

and name-calling.

Like, it's really the most completely different context

than you could possibly imagine.

So if you get your Bibles and turn to John chapter 7,

John 7 · chapter mention

we'll look at the context.

It's a very, very curious context

that leads to this comment.

John chapter 7, verse 1.

John 7:1

After this,

Jesus went about in Galilee.

He would not go about in Judea

because the Jewish leaders

were seeking to kill him.

Now just sort of pause for a second.

What's just going on before this

is the story of Jesus

feeding 5,000 men

with five loaves and two fishes.

He's walking on the water.

And a sort of a controversy

that came as a result of him

feeding the 5,000.

And that's what's going on just before this.

So after this,

verse 1 again,

Jesus went about in Galilee.

He would not go about in Judea

because the Jewish leaders

were seeking to kill him.

Now, the Jewish feast of booths

was at hand.

And just pause there again.

So what this means,

John's just giving us

a little bit of a time marker.

And what he's saying is

six months have passed.

Because that's approximately

the distance from Passover,

which was roughly

when the last event happened.

It happened just before Passover.

And now it's about,

it's six months later.

And this is,

there's three sort of great feasts

in the Jewish calendar

at that time.

The first one's Passover.

Then there's a break

of quite a few months.

Then there's what we call

the Feast of Weeks

or Pentecost.

And then a few months after that,

there's this final feast.

It's called the Feast of Booths

or the Feast of Tabernacles.

And it remembers

how the Israelites

were in the wilderness

and how God provided for them.

When I grew up,

I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood.

I grew up from the age of

five to 14.

I lived in a neighborhood

where everybody was Jewish.

All my friends were Jewish.

There was only one other

non-Jewish family

on our street

of whatever,

60 houses.

and all my friends

had bar mitzvahs.

And in fact,

you know,

I find it so interesting

when a lot of people

of my generation,

the Anglican Church,

talk about how Canada

used to be Christian and all.

I didn't grow up thinking that

because I grew up

and everybody was Jewish.

The Jewish holidays in the fall,

it was a great thing for a kid

because the elementary school,

all the Jewish parents

kept all their kids home.

And this would have been

a school that,

I don't know,

would have had like maybe

six or seven hundred kids

in the elementary school.

You could fit all of the

non-Jewish kids

in one classroom.

I'm not making that up.

In one classroom

and we weren't crowded.

And after the first year,

my mom just let me stay home

with my Jewish friends.

So you got two extra holidays

in the fall.

The nicest time of the year,

you get two extra holidays.

I can't remember

what they were both for.

Anyway,

so what's just happened?

It's the Feast of Tabernacles.

The other time marker

that John is giving us here

is he's letting you know

that in about six more months,

Jesus is going to die on the cross.

But this is a big festival.

And when it says the feast,

this is,

depending on,

scholars differ at that time

whether they celebrated

for seven or eight days.

It doesn't matter to us.

Some of you want to do

a PhD dissertation on it,

go ahead and do it.

But it doesn't really matter.

But it's long,

seven or eight days.

So that's the feast, okay?

Okay?

So it's one of the big three

where Jewish people

would all try to go to Jerusalem.

So that's the context.

Okay?

Sorry,

back to verse two.

Now the Jewish feast of booths

was at hand.

So Jesus' brothers said to Jesus,

leave here and go to Judea

that your disciples

also may see the works

you are doing.

For no one works in secret

if he seeks to be known openly.

If you do these things,

show yourself to the world.

For not even his brothers

believed in him.

That's just a,

remember,

this is the context.

This is what leading up

to this unbelievable,

this extravagant promise

by Jesus.

It's really quite remarkable.

And in the original language,

Jesus' brothers are speaking

in a snarky way.

It's as if they're saying,

you know,

listen,

because Galilee is Hicksville,

okay?

I don't know how many of you

are from small towns

or rural areas.

And I don't mean like

small town,

like Muskoka's,

where all the rich people

go in the summer.

I mean like,

where no rich people are.

It's just Hicksville,

you know?

Because I had somebody here

who spends a lot of time

in Saskatchewan

at the 8 o'clock service.

I said,

you know,

if you want to be famous,

don't live in northern Saskatchewan.

Okay?

Like,

nobody cares in northern Saskatchewan.

Like,

go to Toronto or Vancouver

if you want to make a big splash,

if you want to become famous.

So that's what they're saying.

Leave Hicksville,

if you're such a big deal,

go to Jerusalem.

And so,

even Jesus' brothers

don't believe him

and they're sort of snarky.

Put him down.

And Jesus says to them,

verse 6,

my time has not yet come,

but your time is always here.

The world cannot hate you,

but it hates me

because I testify about it

that its works are evil.

You go up to the feast.

I am not going up to this feast,

for my time has not yet fully come.

Now,

just sort of pause there.

Some of you might be saying,

well,

what's up?

Why on earth is it that Jesus says

you can't hate his brothers?

Like,

there's lots of hate in the world.

Like,

what's up with that?

Well,

what's going on here

with this,

Jesus' comment is this.

In,

in,

in the bulletin

or in the,

the growing in grace section,

I always try to share

three different types of attitudes

or sayings with you

that emerge from the text

that help us to live

the Christian life.

I also,

there's also a memory verse

and there's sort of a prayer

that flows from the text,

which I,

I write,

and it's available to you

every week to,

to consider.

And I think,

I can't,

I should have brought up a bulletin.

I can't remember if I have it exactly,

but,

what,

what Jesus is saying is

that,

um,

because of the fall,

because human beings

are in rebellion against God

and want to be God.

That if God,

the Son of God,

actually comes,

people are going to hate him.

Why?

Because we want to be God.

We want to be God.

We want to be like God.

It's the central human problem.

Buddhists are mistaken.

The central human problem

isn't desire.

You know,

many,

uh,

Hindu,

uh,

types of faiths,

they're just mistaken.

It's not the problem

that,

uh,

people just have a different,

have to have a type of different consciousness

or something like that.

Muslims are just mistaken.

The problem isn't just that we don't,

uh,

submit to Allah

and,

uh,

and practice the five pillars of Islam.

Christians say the problem is that fundamentally

every human being wants to be God.

They want to be like God.

We want to be,

I want to be like God.

That's my problem.

And so if we have a world

where people want to be God

or want to be like God,

if God actually shows up,

we won't like him.

That's what Jesus is trying to talk about.

I think what I put in the bulletin is,

uh,

God can't reveal himself

without offending us.

God cannot reveal himself

without offending us.

Now,

it's obviously a little bit more subtle than that

because this is all leading us up to the test

where Jesus says,

if anyone thirsts,

let him come to me

and,

uh,

and believe on me.

And as the scripture says,

out of him will flow rivers of living water.

So obviously on one hand,

we have a bit of an attraction to God

and we know we need a savior.

It's a bit of a mystery,

but fundamentally God's word,

God revealing himself

will always offend us at some level.

Why?

Well,

because I have my God project.

I have my God desires.

I,

I want to be like God.

I don't like God correcting me.

Either by telling me something I should do

or telling me to stop doing something I should do.

And that's sort of what Jesus is getting at.

He's not saying that obviously,

he's not,

I mean,

he's not,

I mean,

good grief.

He knows that Jewish leaders are trying to kill him.

So he knows there's hatred in the world.

But that he's,

he's saying,

you know,

I'm doing everything according to God's plan.

My,

my plan isn't to try to get as much publicity

as possible.

In fact,

there's only,

yeah,

there's,

I'm not trying to get publicity.

I'm not getting,

trying to get fame.

I'm doing everything according to God's plan.

So,

verse nine,

after saying this,

the brothers leave,

he remains in Galilee.

Verse nine,

after saying this,

he remained in Galilee.

But verse 10,

but after his brothers had gone up to the feast,

then he also went up,

not publicly,

but in private.

It's harder to translate in English,

but he didn't,

his,

his not doesn't mean he's not going up at all.

It just means he wasn't going up with them or at that time or in that way or in that manner,

according to their schedule and their goals.

He wasn't going to go and then have them parading around and mocking him and trying to draw a crowd.

He wasn't going to go that.

He's just not going on.

He's going on his own terms,

not on theirs.

But after they've left,

he goes up quietly.

He goes up incognito,

so to speak.

Verse 11,

the Jewish leaders were looking for Jesus at the feast and saying,

where is he?

And there was much muttering about him among the people.

While some of the people said,

he's a good man.

Others said,

no,

he's leading the people astray.

Yet for fear of the leaders,

no one spoke openly of him.

About the middle of the feast,

Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.

So this would be day four.

Day four of weekly religious ceremonies and prayers and lots of feasting.

Day four,

Jesus goes to the temple and starts to preach,

teach.

Verse 15,

the Jewish people therefore marveled,

saying,

how is it that this man has learning when he has never studied?

So just sort of pause here.

This is a,

it's a very subtle thing in the English.

You know,

part of the problem is,

and by the way,

one of the reasons maybe that God has called me to be a priest,

a presbyter is because my natural inclination is to race through texts.

And this forces me to keep going slow and trying to look at the nuances.

This is actually sort of grudging admiration by the Jewish leaders of Jesus,

but also a put down.

The grudging admiration comes in saying,

wow,

like,

he has,

like,

he can teach.

But,

you know,

we know he's not educated.

Like,

we know he didn't go to Harvard or U of T or Princeton.

You know,

he doesn't have certification.

He's not ordained.

So it's,

it's,

it's both,

it's a very fascinating thing.

There's a bit of a grudging admiration,

but they can't grudgingly admire Jesus without putting him in his place,

putting him down.

He doesn't have the proper teaching,

doesn't have the proper credentials,

but doesn't have the proper,

you know,

lineage.

He's just not proper.

And so his brothers put him down.

People are grumbling about him.

People are trying to kill him.

And even when he starts to speak and people sort of admire him,

they can't admire him without also sort of putting him down.

So how does Jesus respond?

Well,

how does he respond?

Verse 16.

So Jesus answered them.

My teaching is not mine,

but his who sent me.

If anyone's will is to do God's will,

he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory,

but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true.

And in him,

there is no falsehood.

Has not Moses given you the law,

yet none of you keeps the law?

Why do you seek to kill me?

Now,

just sort of pause there.

Some of you might be going,

like,

what's up with this?

Like,

what's up with this,

George?

You've got to do God's will to be able to understand Jesus?

Like,

George,

what's up with that?

That doesn't make sense.

Like,

I don't have to do God's will,

you know,

to know math.

I don't have to be trying to live a certain type of life to know math.

I don't have to live a certain type of life to know,

you know,

about economic theory or geography or read the paper and learn things or read blogs.

So what's up with this?

If anyone's will is to do God's will,

he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

Like,

George,

isn't that just one of those types of things of,

like,

just surrender your mind,

kiss your brain goodbye,

and,

um,

just trust me,

uh,

like,

those of you who will,

if you end up seeing that Netflix documentary,

you can see the terrible things that happen when otherwise very,

very bright people just completely and utterly surrender their mind to a charismatic leader.

I'm not giving anything away because it's in the introduction to this,

this film clip.

This is something that took place in the,

in the early to mid eighties in middle of Oregon.

And by the time the story is finished being told,

it's the largest bioterrorism act in the history of the United States.

The largest immigration fraud in the history of the United States.

Wire fraud,

multiple attempts of murder,

were all connected to people who surrender their mind to a charismatic leader.

And many of the people,

on one hand,

they show film clips,

people who know that they're doing horrendous things,

talk as if they're doing wonderful things.

And so,

George,

what's up with this?

Well,

here,

Jesus isn't saying that you have to do God's will to be able to understand math.

And he's not saying you have to be able to do,

you have to be a moral person just to understand,

to be able to know who the leading goal scorer is in the NHL.

Like,

Jesus isn't being stupid.

But,

think about what you need to know.

So,

first of all,

the first context is,

he's saying,

how do you think you can understand who I am if you're trying to murder me,

an innocent person?

Like,

we can see there's some wisdom to that,

eh?

Like,

how on earth can you think you're trying to figure out me and my teaching

if all the law,

all the while,

all you're doing is thinking about how you're going to get me killed?

How you're going to abuse me?

Is your power to get me killed?

But,

Jesus is pointing here to a,

it's a whole other sermon topic,

but I wanted to bring it out to you.

It's a,

a key spiritual principle when it comes to,

to knowing God.

And that is,

that in knowing God,

it's not that we don't think about what God has said.

It's not that we don't think about God's word.

It's not that we don't think about Jesus.

But for many things in the Christian life,

we do not think our way to clarity.

We obey our way to clarity.

For many things to do in the Christian life,

for many of the truths in the Christian life,

we do not just think our way to clarity,

we obey our way to clarity.

Well,

why is that?

Well,

because,

what is it,

how can we know God?

Like,

we can't,

if God,

if God,

the God that Jesus describes really exists,

if he really does exist,

if that really is the God that does exist,

and has made himself known,

we can't know God without bowing to him.

We can't know God without worshiping him.

We cannot know God without surrendering to him.

Like,

that's the only way we can know God.

If the God described by Jesus really exists.

And,

and so it is,

for many,

many things in the Christian life,

if we just absolutely,

it doesn't mean that we have to be perfect at doing things,

but if we absolutely refuse to do something,

absolutely refuse to do something,

then no amount of thinking will help you.

I've shared this story before.

I have time.

I'll share it to you again.

It was quite a few years ago,

and,

I was,

I,

I had just preached on this text at the morning.

I used to have an evening service,

and I preached on an aspect of this,

one of the two,

so there's an evening text.

We just follow a lectionary.

I'm going to be preaching on the,

the first text,

I think it was,

but we read the second text.

I don't even look at it.

I just focus on the text I'm going to preach on.

And it turned out the second text,

was sort of controversial around the relationship of men and women.

Now,

I had talked about that text a couple of months earlier in the morning service,

so I didn't preach on it the Sunday evening service,

because I'd sort of talked about it a couple of months earlier.

But after the service,

there was a young woman,

very,

very bright,

and her,

and her,

her fiance,

and also very,

very bright.

I mean,

multiple,

multiple degrees,

and,

and very,

very good,

very nice people.

And they came,

and they asked me about the text.

And,

and I started to try to explain the language,

and,

and,

and context,

and all.

But then I had one of these moments,

when it's as if the Holy Spirit said to me,

George,

you need to say something to them.

And so I,

I,

I changed my course,

because we,

after church,

we're talking about 15 or 20 minutes,

and it wasn't getting anywhere.

And I said,

I said to,

I said to them,

let's say that you decided that this is going to be your project for the next decade.

And so over the next decade,

you're going to learn Greek,

you're going to learn Aramaic,

you're going to learn Hebrew,

you're going to maybe learn Syriac,

or some other version that the New Testament was translated in.

You're going to master archaeology,

you're going to master Roman law,

you're going to master Roman and Greek literature,

you're going to,

you're going to master linguistics and sociolinguistics and anthropology,

and you're going to do all of that to become unbelievably well,

scholarly,

and,

and just have knowledge to the gazoo.

And after you've done all of that study,

after 10 years,

you come back to the text,

and it actually just means what it says,

will you try to obey it?

And they both,

without pausing at all,

said,

absolutely not.

And I said,

well,

there's nothing I can do to explain the text to you.

Like,

if you absolutely refuse

to even attempt

to live the text,

how can I ever explain the text to you?

And there's many,

many things in the Christian life,

because

if Jesus really is the Savior and the Lord,

if he really is,

that if we come to him and drink,

and believe in him,

that out of,

out of,

out of him,

that he is the fountain of life,

that,

that,

that,

that the Holy Spirit will come,

and, like,

I,

it,

it,

it's going to involve me

learning to bow my knee to Jesus.

So,

that's what Jesus is saying that here.

He's,

I mean,

he's just really confronting them.

How on earth is it you think you can figure me out

if you're trying to murder me?

But his context has a very important principle

for us to think through,

that in many things in the Christian life,

we obey our way to clarity,

rather than think our way to clarity.

Anyway, so,

so how do they respond to this?

You know,

because he just is revealed now in public

that the Jewish leaders are trying to kill him.

And,

Jesus lived in a time which wasn't very politically correct,

and people were very direct,

and,

quite willing to be insulting.

And the response of the crowd,

verse 20,

is the crowd answered,

you have a demon.

Like,

we might say,

you're insane.

You're,

you've lost it.

Who is seeking to kill you?

In verse 21,

Jesus says,

I did one work.

Now,

what is,

what's caused in John's gospel?

What,

what is the spark

that ignites

their simmering

envy and hatred of Jesus?

So,

for the Jewish leaders,

they,

they have this growing envy of Jesus

and hatred of Jesus,

and there's a spark

that ignites it

so that it starts to burn.

And what it is,

is,

and it's recorded in John chapter 5,

John 5 · chapter mention

is on the Sabbath,

Jesus does two things

to offend

the religious establishment.

He heals a man

who's been an invalid

for 38 years,

which offends them,

they consider it work,

you're not supposed to work.

The other thing is,

he asked the man

to carry his mat,

so he's offended them twice.

And that's,

that's what's offended,

and that's what Jesus

is referring to.

Verse 21,

I did one work,

and you all marvel at it.

Moses gave you circumcision,

not that it is from Moses,

but from the fathers,

and you circumcise a man

on the Sabbath.

If on the Sabbath,

a man receives circumcision

so that the law of Moses

may not be broken,

are you angry with me

because on the Sabbath

I made a man's whole body well?

Like,

do not judge by appearances,

but judge with right judgment.

So Jesus doesn't sort of

get back at them

and say,

listen,

you call me a demon,

you've got demons.

Like,

he doesn't just sort of go,

yeah,

yeah,

you've got demons.

No,

you have more demons.

No,

he doesn't do that.

He just goes right to the point.

Like,

he said,

you guys are thinking crazy.

Like,

you really are.

Just think about it

for a second.

Like,

circumcision is the ritual

that you have to have

to become part,

so to speak,

of physical Israel,

of visible Israel.

It doesn't save.

That requires

a heart transformation.

Right?

By the way,

in,

yeah,

anyway,

I almost took us off

on a rabbit trail.

And Jesus says,

listen,

we all understand

that that's fine.

Well,

how on earth

can it not be right

to make a whole man well

on the Sabbath?

Like,

how can that be breaking

any rule?

And it's actually

not breaking the Bible,

it's just breaking

your traditions.

So he challenges them

on their anger.

Now,

it actually has some effect

because it must be

that for some of the crowd,

as we're going to see

in a moment,

they're thinking back

one moment,

yeah,

they were really upset

about that about a year ago

when he did something

like that,

weren't they?

And,

oh yeah,

like,

before he started to speak,

we were a bit nervous

about speaking out loud

about Jesus

because we could sort of

sense that there's

this hostility going on.

So the people,

on one level,

they hear this rebuke

and look how they respond.

Verse 25,

some of the people

of Jerusalem therefore said,

is not this the man

whom they seek to kill?

And here he is speaking openly

and they say nothing to him.

Can it be that the authorities

really know

that this is the Christ?

But,

we know where this man

comes from

and when the Christ appears,

no one will know

where he comes from.

And just sort of pause,

what the Old Testament,

which our Jewish friends

call it the Tanakh

and we call it

the Old Testament,

and it had many,

many prophecies

about the Messiah

and the Jewish people

of the day,

they basically looked

at all of the prophecies

that really refer

to Jesus' second coming,

that he'll come in glory,

that everybody will know,

that's spectacular.

They miss the thing

about the virgin

shall conceive,

they miss the suffering

servant text,

they miss all this

other stuff.

And so they're just thinking

like the same way

that we think

of the second coming

where Jesus is just

going to come in clouds

and power and glory

and everyone will know.

And that's why

they're confused, right?

So verse 28,

Jesus proclaimed

as he taught in the temple,

you know me

and you know where I come from

but I have not come

of my own accord.

He who sent me is true

and him you do not know.

I know him

for I come from him

and he sent me.

It's once again

Jesus saying

I've come from God.

He keeps going on

and on about this.

I've come from God.

I am God,

the son of God,

sent by the father

in the power of the spirit,

born of the virgin Mary

to live amongst you.

But the crowd

and the leaders

sort of understand

that this big claim

he's making

in verse 30,

so they were seeking

to arrest him

but no one

laid a hand on him.

Why?

Because his hour

had not yet come.

So just pause.

What this text is saying

is God had a time

and a purpose

for Jesus coming

and the purpose

of Jesus' coming

is to die upon the cross.

And Jesus has to resist temptation.

The father doesn't keep

temptation away from Jesus.

But what this text is saying

is that God

just stops Jesus

from being arrested.

Like,

why didn't Jesus

get arrested?

God stopped them.

Do they go into details?

Well,

how can they go into details

about that?

It's just God stopped them.

That's what John

now realizes

as he writes it.

Verse 31,

yet many of the people

believed in Jesus.

They said,

when the Christ appears

will he do more signs

than this man has done?

The Pharisees

heard the crowd

muttering these things

about him

and the chief priests

and Pharisees

sent officers

to arrest him.

Jesus then said,

I will be with you

a little longer

and then I am going

to him who sent me.

You will seek me

and you will not find me.

Where I am,

you cannot come.

Now,

what Jesus is saying here

is,

it's a very deep text.

On one level,

he says,

I'm going to die.

I'm going to die

on the cross.

And after I've died

on the cross

to taste all there is

to taste of death,

I'm going to ascend

into heaven.

And the other thing,

though,

is this thing here,

where I am,

you cannot come.

You notice that?

Go read the Athanasian Creed.

This touches

on the deep mystery

that God,

the Son of God,

never stops being God.

And yet,

he takes into himself

our human nature.

The Athanasian Creed said,

as God,

he has no beginning.

As man,

he's born in Bethlehem.

And this just teases open

these profound mysteries

of the fact

that there's just one person,

but he has a double nature.

And I won't say anything

more about it

other than that's what he says.

And the leaders

and the people

are confused.

They say to one another,

verse 35,

where does this man

intend to go

that we will not find him?

Does he intend to go

to the dispersion

among the Greeks

and teach the Greeks?

What does he mean by saying,

you will seek me

and you will not find me?

And where I am,

you cannot come.

They don't know

what it means.

And it's in that context,

four days later,

or three days later,

on the last day of the feast,

the great day,

Jesus stood up

and cried out,

if anyone thirsts,

let him come to me

and drink.

Whoever believes in me,

as the scripture has said,

out of his heart

will flow rivers

of living water.

So you see the context?

The context is

his brothers

are snarky

and put him down.

We see

all of the smart people,

all of the bright people,

all of the people

who go to the right type

of parties

and have the right connections,

they're the ones

who want to kill Jesus.

The crowd is confused

about Jesus.

They're quite willing

to call him a name

and then on one level,

the next breath,

they're saying,

well, maybe he's

the real thing.

And so it's in the midst

of conflict,

confusion,

and all of that

that they make

this remarkable claim.

Jesus makes

this remarkable claim.

So where are we?

Just to close up.

Actually, Andrew,

could you put up

the first point?

Yeah, it's going to be

a three-hour sermon,

by the way.

I have four points.

I spent 34 minutes

on the first point.

Just to sort of

summarize it here.

Here's the first thing

that's really important

to understand.

The Father sent the Son

to save you,

not because he weighed

your merits,

but in order to

pardon your offenses.

The Father sent the Son

to save you,

not because he weighed

your merits,

but in order to

pardon your offenses.

This is so brilliantly

seen in this text.

Right?

This isn't,

oh, gosh,

Jesus,

you're so wonderful.

Please come speak

to us more.

Speak to us more.

Give me more.

Give me more.

No.

They don't believe him.

They want to kill him.

They're snarky to him.

They're confused by him.

They don't understand.

It's not,

and that's how it is

with every human being.

It's not as if God

looks down at you

and me and my life

and says,

gosh,

George was such a,

wow,

is he ever just saying

to me,

you know,

I want to know

more and more of you

all of his life.

And so finally,

because he's finally just,

he's starting to applaud.

It's like after the band

is played the first time

and everybody's standing up

with a standing ovation,

clapping and clapping

so the band will come out.

That's not like it was.

That's not how it was.

If you give it

like a music example,

everybody's out somewhere else.

The room is empty.

Everybody's outside

having a cigarette

or in the bar

having a drink.

In the actual room

where the musicians are,

nobody's there

and nobody wants

the musician

to come and play.

That's the context

within which God

sends his Savior.

And if you could put up

the second slide,

Andrew,

that would be really good.

The resurrection of Jesus

changes everything,

vindicating him,

his work,

and his words.

The resurrection of Jesus

changes everything,

vindicating him,

his work,

his words.

In text after text

after text,

Jesus keeps saying,

I'm going to go to the Father.

How does he go to the Father?

He goes to the Father

first by dying upon the cross

and then tasting

all there is

to taste of death

and then rising

from the dead.

And if Jesus hadn't

risen from the dead,

like,

before I mention the Bhagwan,

how many of you here

knew of him?

Well,

the only reason

that he's sort of

known again

is because there's

this documentary

which has gotten

lots of talk.

Well,

why?

Because he made all,

the Bhagwan made

these remarkable claims

that he was going to

change,

create a new man

that would change

the whole human race.

Well,

he didn't.

And nobody remembers him.

And Jesus would have

just been like the Bhagwan

if he hadn't risen

from the dead.

The resurrection

changes everything.

It changes everything.

If it's true,

it changes everything.

You know,

the remarkable thing

about the resurrection

is there's enough

historical evidence

that if you are seeking

and you look at

the evidence

for the resurrection,

you can say

that I am not

kissing my brains

goodbye

to believe in the resurrection.

There is enough

evidence to believe,

but there's not

enough evidence

to force you

to believe.

Which is how it works

on the Christian life.

There's enough evidence

to believe,

but not so much evidence

to force you to believe.

But if Jesus really

did rise from the dead,

if the grave is empty,

it changes everything,

then these words

are true.

Could we say these,

could you put up

the scripture,

could you say this text

with me as we're

trying to draw

in this to a close?

If anyone thirsts,

let him come to me

and drink.

Whoever believes in me

as the scripture has said,

out of his heart

will flow rivers

of living water.

There's two things

I want to show you

very briefly

about this text

which is so precious.

And it's one of the reasons

why the ESV

is actually quite remarkable here.

And I've kept the word him

to refer to all human beings.

And that's because

in the original language,

so in the original language

they can use

the masculine pronoun

like that

to refer to all human beings.

But the original language

is actually a very,

very interesting

double meaning.

It means that later on

if you go back

to your Bible translation,

some of the Bible translations

are going to translate

this differently

because the question is

who is the his

in the last part

of the verse?

And it can have

a double meaning.

And so here's the first one.

Andrew, if you could

wrap up the third point.

The first meaning is

if you are thirsty,

come to Jesus

and drink and live

for he is the source

of the river of life.

That's a completely valid way

to understand

the original language.

Jesus is saying,

you know what,

if you're thirsty.

You know, Paul,

and there's other parts

in the Bible

where it talks about sin

and it talks about guilt

and it talks about shame

and in this part

Jesus is just sharing

about himself

in a very different context.

If you're thirsty,

come to me and drink.

Why?

When you come to me and drink

and coming to me and drink

is a way of believing in me,

you will discover

that I am the source

of the rivers of life.

I was,

just this week

I had two conversations

around this text

in my coffee shop.

The one I've already shared,

the other one,

very different type

of context

because the person

he was sharing with me

about,

you know,

he asked,

he was talking to me

a little bit about

why anybody would

become a Christian

and he didn't really feel

like he was guilty

or anything like that

and I was thinking

about this text

and I said,

well, you know,

Jesus says

if you're thirsty,

come to him

and I tried to quote

the text.

I hadn't memorized it then.

I tried to share

the text with him

and he sort of thought,

well, that's sort of interesting

and I shared with him

the story of Paul Henderson.

Some of you are too young

to know who Paul Henderson is

but there was a very famous

hockey series

in the 70s

between Canada

and the Soviet Union

to see who was the best

hockey power in the world

and the USSR

were up several games.

I can't remember,

it was going to be

an eight-game series

or something like that

and Canada was down

and if Canada was going

to win the series,

they had to win

the last three games

and Paul Henderson

who used to play

for the Leafs,

he scored the game-winning goal

in each of the last three games

for Canada

to beat the Soviet Union.

Like,

this was such a big thing.

School was canceled

to watch the last game.

Okay,

I mean,

they couldn't officially

say to school

but in the biggest possible way

they said,

don't come to school

but for those who did,

you actually didn't go to class,

they had TV set up

in the different places

so students could watch it together

and my mom,

who's watched exactly

one hockey game in her life,

she watched that final game

and,

I mean,

maybe she's watched more since then

and it was a big thing.

Paul Henderson.

In fact,

you might not know it

but what's now called

Wilfrid Laurier University

which regrettably

is constantly in the news

for inordinate political correctness,

it used to be called

Waterloo Lutheran University

and it was right around this time

that they decided

they were no longer

going to be Lutheran,

they were going to be secular

and they wanted to change

the name of the school

and they had a poll

of the students

and the overwhelming majority

of students

wanted to name the university

Paul Henderson University

and the Board of Governors

overrode that

but Paul Henderson

within about a year of this

he was at the peak

of his career,

peak of his earning power,

the greatest hockey moment

in Canadian history

to that point in time

and his response was,

is that all there is?

There must be something more

and within a year

he'd become a Christian.

You see,

these words of Jesus

are very true.

If anyone thirsts,

come to me.

And the wonderful thing

about this text

is it doesn't say to you

as a Christian,

listen,

if you thirst,

come to me and drink

and you'll never thirst again.

It doesn't say that,

does it?

It's both a wonderful example

of how you become a Christian

if you thirst,

if you suspect

that there must be

something more.

Come to Jesus.

He is the source

of the rivers of life.

And that's how you become

a Christian,

to drink of him.

But at the same time,

it also just means

in our day-to-day world

as we get thirsty

to come to Jesus

and drink

because he is the source

of the rivers of life.

But this verse

can also be translated

in another way,

completely valid,

has a double meaning

in Greek.

And the double meaning

is that the rivers of life

flow out of the Christian.

So you could put up

the final point, Andrew.

When you believe in Jesus,

the Holy Spirit

both abides in you

and flows out of you.

That when I come

to Jesus

for that first time

and say,

Jesus, I believe

that you are the source,

the fountain of life,

the source of the rivers of life

and I'm thirsty.

And in fact,

actually, you know,

I hadn't thought of it

until this week.

What led me to

give my life to Jesus

wasn't because I wanted

Jesus to pay for my sins,

although I knew he did that.

It was that I had a sense

that there had to be

something more.

That's what led me to Christ.

There must be something more.

And this wonderful text

says that when you drink

of Jesus,

the Holy Spirit,

the rivers of life,

it both is now

inside of each Christian,

but it flows out of us too.

It explains the normal

Christian life,

that the normal Christian life

is to serve,

is to give,

is to go to Angola,

is to try to church

on Wednesday.

It's to think of

how you can go

and how you can give

and how you can make

a difference.

And it means,

how can you make a difference

to the kids in the church

and how can you make

a difference for the church

and how can you make

a difference?

It's because it's of the nature

of having faith in Jesus

that the Holy Spirit

both abides in us

but flows now

out of us

as a river of life.

Could we all say,

could you put the verse up again,

Andrew?

Could we all say this together?

Could you all stand, please?

Can we say this again together?

In fact,

I really encourage you

to consider memorizing

this verse.

If anyone thirsts,

let him come to me

and drink.

Whoever believes in me

as the scripture has said,

out of his heart

will flow rivers

of living water.

If you are here

and you have not come

to Jesus,

I encourage you

to say,

Jesus,

I am thirsty.

I want to drink from you.

I believe that you are

the source

of the river of life.

There is no better time

than today

to come to Jesus

and say,

Jesus,

I come to you

as thirsty.

Be to me

that fountain

of living waters.

And for all of us,

we all thirst

day by day,

those of us,

brothers and sisters

who are in Christ.

Come to Jesus

on a regular basis

and say,

Jesus,

I am so thirsty.

I come to you.

I come to you,

Jesus.

Let's bow our heads

in prayer.

Father,

thank you for Jesus.

Thank you,

Father,

that you didn't

sort of wait

until we all

had our lives together

and we're giving you

a standing ovation

waiting for you

to come and show up

so we'd only cheer louder.

Father,

it wasn't that way at all.

We thank you,

Father,

that you saw us.

We had our backs

turned to you.

We were resisting you.

We didn't want you.

And still you loved us

and still you sent your son

to die on the cross.

Still you sent your son

to be the one

who could come among us

as the source

of the fountain of life

so that all who thirst

can come to him

to receive that eternal life.

Father,

we thank you for Jesus.

We thank you

for your great love.

We ask that your Holy Spirit

move within us

to come to you

again and again and again

when we are thirsty.

And that,

Father,

you would teach us

not to quench the Spirit,

but that the Holy Spirit,

that we might walk

in the Spirit

as we seek

to make a difference

in this world

for the good of the world

and your great glory.

And we ask this

in the name of Jesus.

Amen.