John 7:1-52 - Caleb Richardson

They want to kill Jesus because he claims to

be God. Verse 2. The Jewish festival, the shelters

or booths, depending on what version you're reading

it, was near. Okay? This festival of booths or

festival of shelters would happen every year.

It's a critical point in the Jewish culture.

This was one massive celebration. That you, where

everybody would come together in Jerusalem and

they would camp. And they pulled out these little

tents. This is not glamping. Some of you guys

from our last camp out like that's not camping.

Some of you had like the Taj Mahals. This is

different. They would deliberately bring small

tents and go camp. If you just imagine thousands

of people in little tiny tents for a whole week.

And it was a celebration. And the festival was

to celebrate God's provision in the wilderness.

You remember in the wilderness in Exodus when

they were all there? God provided for them over

and over. His provision was given in food, in

protection, and in water. And so that's what

they would celebrate. They would come to say,

look what God has done. We'll talk more about

that festival in a minute. Verse 3. So his brother

said to him, Leave here and go to Judea so that

your disciples can see your works that you are

doing. For no one does anything in secret while

he's seeking public recognition. If you do these

things, show yourself to the world. For not even

his brothers believed in him. Okay. Remember

what he just said in the first verse that he

was not going to go up to Judea? Why? People

trying to kill him. So his brothers, they say,

hey, these are his actual brothers. Children

of Mary and Joseph. They actually pushing at

him. Why don't you go? You should go up to this

place. Here's the issue. They don't yet believe

that Jesus is the Messiah. You own brothers.

But what is really interesting, in fact, one

of the biggest cases. to believe that Jesus is

who he truly said he was, is that later on, after

his death, burial, and resurrection, they come

to believe. Believing your own brother is the

Messiah. But at this point, they don't believe.

There's a number of motivations behind why his

brothers are kind of pushing him, agging him

on to go down to the place that he knows people

are out to kill him. Because he says he's going

to stay in Galilee and not go down here to Judea

because they might kill me there. What was their

motivation? Well, I think there's possibly two

different motivations. One, I think they were

wanting to expose him as a fraud. Or maybe they

liked the fame. They liked all the attention

that Jesus was getting and they could kind of

ride in and help get the public recognition.

We don't know. Now look at verse 6. Like I said,

we're going to blaze through this because it's

important. Verse 6, Jesus told them, my time

has not yet arrived, but your time is always

at hand. The world cannot hate you, but it does

hate me because I testify about it, that its

works are evil. Go up to the festival of yourselves.

I'm not going up to this festival because my

time has not yet come. After he'd said these

things, he stayed in Galilee. Jesus says, look,

bros, my timetable is not your timetable because

my purpose is not your purpose. I'll go when

I'm ready. You don't understand, basically he's

saying, you don't understand. He tells them,

people don't hate you. But they hate me because

I expose their sins. That's the thing about Jesus,

right? John 3, verses 19 and 20, Jesus talks

John 3:19

about the effects of encountering him. He, the

light of the world, exposes the darkness of man's

sin. When our sin is exposed, we have two options.

Sometimes maybe three, but they really fit into

two categories. One is you cling to him for cleaning.

Help me, Jesus. Or you hate him for exposing

your dirtiness. Sometimes we avoid him, but it's

basically doing the same thing. Avoid it. Ah,

it doesn't exist. Over and over. So let's just

look at verse 10 before we jump to that. Verse

10. After this, his brothers had gone up to the

festival. Then he also went up, not openly, but

in secret. The Jews were looking for him at the

festival and saying, where is he? And there was

a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds.

Some were saying, he's a good man. Others were

saying, no, on the contrary, he's deceiving people.

Still, Nobody was talking publicly about him

for the fear of the Jews. Over and over, we see

people have a lot of different responses to Jesus.

It's true today. You either hate him, or you

love him, or you try to ignore him. One of the

things in the Gospel of John is that you see

this over and over where Jesus is presented,

and either people hate him, They love him. In

these verses, there's a group of people who encounter

Jesus and have a very positive reaction to Jesus,

but for fear of what the other people think,

no one says a word about him. This kind of sounds

like our American church, doesn't it? We don't

need to talk openly about Jesus. Just be quiet

with your faith. You don't want to offend anybody.

I agree with how Joby Martin has what he has

to say when he comments about this section. He

says, every day we have to make a choice. Will

I live under the fear of man or the fear and

reverence of God? So he says, he goes on to say

that when we live under the fear of man, We keep

our beliefs to ourselves so we don't offend anybody.

But we live under the fear of God. We take the

gospel to the ends of the earth. When we live

under the fear of man, we begin to adopt the

values of this world. When we live under the

fear of God, we value what God values. See, to

live under the fear of man, you think about how

this will affect your reputation. But we live

under the fear of God. We think first about the

glory of God and his reputation. Now look at

verse 14. When the festival was already half

over, Jesus went up into the temple and began

to teach. Then the Jews were amazed and said,

how is this man so learned since he hasn't even

been trained? When Jesus spoke, the people were

awestruck by the command he had on Scripture.

They're like, what is this? But it was obvious.

They knew that he wasn't trained as a special

rabbi. But something was different. Verse 16.

Jesus answered them, my teaching isn't mine,

but it is from the one who sent me. If anyone

wants to do his will, he will know whether his

teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking

on my own. The one who speaks on his own seeks

his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory

of the one who sent him is true, and there is

no unrighteousness in him. Jesus is saying, look,

you religious people, if you knew God, you would

know who I am. See, the Father, I am the Father's

Son. I come from Him. I do what He tells me to

do. I don't seek my own glory. I seek the glory

of the Father. Verses 19. Didn't Moses give you

the law? Yet, None of you keep the law. Why are

you trying to kill me? You have a demon, the

crowd responded. Why are you trying to? Who's

trying to kill you? So the law says that thou

shall not murder, right? But they were trying

to murder him. And so Jesus just calls them out.

And in deflecting that, whoa, especially publicly,

they go, oh. Verse 20 is all about the deflecting.

So instead of continuing down that road, Jesus,

he got them. He got them. He just called them

out. You think you're, I know what you're up

to. He says, I know you want to kill me. You

claim that you're really good. You're a really

good follower of God. You claim that, but look

at you. You're wanting to murder me. You have

a demon? So Jesus just moves on to verse 21.

I performed one work, and you were all amazed.

Remember that? What was the work he's talking

about? Well, he's talking about a lot of things.

They've seen a lot, but he just kind of calls

out. He says, I just do one work here. Jesus

answered, this is why Moses has given you circumcision.

Not that it comes from Moses, but from the fathers.

And you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a

man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so

the law of Moses won't. broken, are you angry

at me because I made a man entirely well on the

Sabbaths? Stop judging according to the outward

appearances. Rather, judge according to the righteous

judgment. He says, hey, remember when I healed

the man at the well, or not the well, but the

pool? Remember that? And you're all upset because

I did it on the Sabbath? You guys will circumcise

on the Sabbath, but you're upset. Me? For healing

somebody? See, I think in these verses, I believe

Jesus is exposing the reason or motivation behind

why they will not respond to him as the Messiah

and why they plot to kill him. Why? The reason

is their own self -righteousness. Their own self

-righteousness. The religious leaders were...

were upset and wanted to kill Jesus because he

healed a man on the Sabbath. But Jesus said,

healing and circumcision are no different. Both

are ways to bless, care, and show grace to others.

And one of the results of self -righteousness

is that it squeezes any space out for grace.

You don't speak with grace. You don't extend

grace. You straight up lack grace. Why? Because

you don't even see the need for your own grace.

You're so blind. You're sin. You don't see your

sin, so you have no need for grace. They saw

their own good works. They saw their own righteousness

and thought they were just fine. So the question...

What do you do with this man named Jesus continues

to grow as Jesus shows up at the festival and

confronts these religious leaders? Everything

is swirling. And you've got to see, the reason

we're doing 52 verses is there's a swirl of confusion

or what do I do? What do we do with this Jesus?

He becomes the center point of this whole festival.

Among the people, the question of Jesus' identity.

and what to do with him arises. And so look at

verse 25. Some of the people of Jerusalem were

saying, isn't this the man they are trying to

kill? Yet look, he speaks publicly, and they're

saying nothing. Can it be true that the authorities

know that he is the Messiah? What you see is

there's a group of people now internally in here

who have experienced Jesus, and they're starting

to come to the conclusion that we actually, maybe

he is who he says he is. Verse 27. But we know

where this man is from. When the Messiah comes,

nobody will know where he's from. Now hold on

just a second. Stop right there. That line that

nobody will know where he is from isn't in the

Bible. They've made that one up. They've come

to a conclusion that's not in here. Jesus fulfilled,

Jesus fulfills over and over hundreds of different,

about the coming Messiah. Jesus fulfills those.

Born of a virgin. Born in Bethlehem. Born in

the line of David. And on and on and on. They

knew where he was going to come from. They had

just changed the rules. Look at verse 28. So

as he was teaching in the temple, Jesus underlined

this. cried out. You've got to stand like this

isn't a nice, soft conversation, because two

times we're going to see that when Jesus responds,

it's not like, hey, let's have a nice talk. No,

he belts it out. He cries out, and he says, you

know me, and you know where I am from, yet I

have not come on my own, but the one who sent

me is true. You don't know him. I know him. Because

I am from him and he sent me. Okay? The question

Jesus is asking is, do you know me? To a bunch

of religious people, he says, you cannot say

you know the Father, then reject me. I am from

him and he sent me. Look at me. He says to his

religious people, you say you know God, but you

see me, and you reject me, you don't know him.

That's what he's saying. Look at verse 30. Then

they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand

on him because his hour had not yet come. However,

many from the crowd believed in him and said,

when the Messiah comes, He won't perform more

signs than this man has done, will he? This group

of people, there's this group of people, they

see Jesus and they hear Jesus and the reaction

to Jesus is all over them. They say, ah, he is

the Son of God. And there's another group that

don't like him. And here the sack same things,

but they don't respond to him the same way. One

say, yes, this is the Messiah. And the others

want to arrest him and eliminate him. That's

the tension. Verse 32. The Pharisees heard the

crowd murmuring these things about him. So the

chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants

to arrest him. Then Jesus said, I am only with

you for a short time. Then I'm going to the one

who sent me. You will look for me and you will

not find me. And where I'm going, where I am,

you cannot come. When the Jews said to one another,

where does he intend to go? That we won't find

him. He doesn't intend to go to Jewish people

dispersed among the Greeks and teach the Greeks,

does he? What is these remarks he made? you will

look for me and you will not find me. And where

I am, you cannot come. I like, again, one of

the statements that Job summarizes these verses

with. He says, they say, where did you go to

school? He says, heaven. Where did you come from?

Heaven. Where will you go? Heaven. What Jesus

is saying is, where I'm going, you cannot come.

That statement was extremely offensive. In John

John 14:6

14, verse 6, Jesus will say, which we haven't

got to it yet, but Jesus told them, I am the

way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to

the Father except through me. This is one of

the reasons why we say at Radiant Church, we

are a church that's all about Jesus. Because

he is the way, the truth, and life. No one comes

to the Father except through Jesus. So to the

religious leaders, he says, I'm about to go to

heaven. And you can't go there. But without me,

you want to go there. But without me, you can't

come. That's pretty much straight up what he's

saying. Your righteousness, your goodness. I

mean, guys, face it. The Jews were... Really

good. These Jewish leaders, they worked really

hard at being really good people. Which we know

they weren't fully that good. But he says, your

righteousness, your goodness is not going to

get you there. Now, 36. Now this is where I think

the heart of this whole passage is. Verse 37.

On the last and most important day of the festival,

Jesus stood up and cried out, Notice it didn't

say just get up and set. He cries out. And we're

going to get to this in a minute. He cries out.

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and

drink. The one who believes in me, as the scripture

has said, will come streams of living water flow

from deep within him. Okay. On the last and most

important day of the festival. Seven days, day

seven, the end of the campout is over. This is

the height of the campout. Remember, the whole

chapter is talking about this seven -day feast.

The purpose was to remember how God provided

for Israel. And one of the main parts of those

seven days ritual was a part that involved water.

Every morning, so you picture this, every morning,

The priest, one of the priests, would gather

everyone together at the temple and then lead

them up to the Pool of Shalom, about a half a

mile away. So you just see this big progression.

And they're going up there and they're doing

this to remember what God has provided. And once

they're at the pool, the priest would take this

golden container and he would fill it with the

water from the pool. And they would make the

procession all the way back to the temple, another

half a mile back. And as they would go, they

would sing the Psalms from 113 to 118. You can

read those on your own. And they would sing those

songs of praise and recounting how God had worked

in their midst. This is what's going on. And

when they get back to the temple, the priest

would pour out the water onto the altar. Which

would help them remember three major things.

These are really important. They would help them

remember to look backwards about how God had

provided and poured out water for them in the

desert. God, you did that. And then it would

help call them to the present. They would help

them remember the present where they'd praise

God for the year and the harvest and the things

that he had done. And they would look forward

to the next year. God, you are amazing. Look

how you provide. And then they would look forward.

Number three, they would look forward to the

day that God would fulfill his promise that he

promised in Isaiah. There's coming something

great. And so in order to understand these little

two verses, we have to do a really quick flyover

of the book of Isaiah. So you ready? Buckle up.

Here we go. Isaiah is really helpful. The first

39 chapters in Isaiah talks primarily about judgment.

God's judgment on Judah, God's judgment on Jerusalem

and the surrounding nations, and God's judgment

on the entire world. Verse 39, really fun. The

judgment is due to their wickedness. What they

have done wrong. God's going to judge wickedness.

And then the book turns in chapter 40, where

you find the promise of salvation enters in.

And the remaining 26 chapters centers on someone

called the servant. And in chapter 52, we find

that this servant is God. And he's described

as raised and lifted up. In chapter 53, we find

out that servant will bring salvation by hanging

on a tree, suffering and dying in place of sinners.

In chapter 54, we find out that the death and

resurrection of the servant allows God to offer

us eternal covenant of peace, and he will bring

us freedom of judgment. And look what he says

in Isaiah 55, verse 1, which then you ought to

Isaiah 55:1

compare with 737 of John. He says this, Isaiah

55, 1, Come, everyone who is thirsty. Come to

the water. And you without silver, meaning you

don't have any way to pay for it. Come and eat.

Come buy wine and milk without silver. Basically,

come. It's free. As the water is being poured

out onto the altar, Jesus stands up and cries

out, if anyone is thirsty. Can you picture this?

Like this is the moment they're all excited for.

And Jesus stands up, if anybody is thirsty, let

him come to me and drink. It's mind -blowing

to me. When I read this, I was like, are you

kidding? Everything was on that moment. Jesus

the Messiah, the servant, the Son of God, invites

thirsty people to come to him and drink. It's

beautiful. He says, I am the center of everything

you're celebrating. I am the focus of this whole

story in the Old Testament. It's all pointing

at me, and I am here to quench your thirst. Come

to me and drink. Imagine what this would what

it would mean to somebody in a desert. Now we

think of drinking, right? Just hone in on this

idea of thirst for a second. This hit them different.

It's not like, hey, I'm a little thirsty, go

to the fridge and grab something cold to drink.

I'm a little thirsty like I am right now. In

the desert, water means life. In the desert,

if you are thirsty, you are dying. That's literally

what it means. And they were. The children of

Israel, man, they were thirsty. They were crying

out to God, like, quench our thirst. We're all

going to die. And they cracked the... God provides

water for them. And they're remembering that

the God who provides is right there. And Jesus

says, I'm it. I'm thirsty. Jesus says, are you

dying? Come to me for life. Are you dying? Jesus

is inviting us to come to him. Only Jesus can

give life. Look what Jesus promises, though.

Not just a drink. I don't promise you just a

drink for life. I'm going to put a river. Of

water in your heart. Look what he says. Verse

38. The one who believes in me. As the scripture

has said. Will have streams of living water.

Flow from deep within him. He said this about

the spirit. Those who believe in Jesus. Who are

going to receive the spirit. For the spirit.

had not yet been given because Jesus had not

been glorified. If you come to Jesus, put your

faith in Jesus, you will be given life and his

spirit will live inside of you. This is the picture

we celebrated in baptism. When you come up out

of the water, the same spirit that raised Christ

from the dead and now lives in those who believe.

His Spirit inside of you will become a river

of unending life. What a promise. But that invitation

in front of us, we come to six responses really

quick that we're going to hit. Six responses

that go 40 to 52. See if you can pick them out

as we read it. Jesus, you've got to understand,

like this is a ripple effect of what Jesus has

just done in crying out, I am the one. who gives

life. Anyone who's thirsty, come to me. And so

there's six, we see six responses. When some

of the crowd heard these words, they said, this

truly is the prophet. Others said, this is the

Messiah. But some said, surely the Messiah doesn't

come from Galilee, does he? Doesn't the scripture

say the Messiah comes from David's offspring

and from the town of Bethlehem where David lived?

They need to read their Bibles right there. So

the crowd was divided because of him. Some of

them wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand

on him. Then the servants came to the chief Pharisees,

and the Pharisees who asked them, why didn't

you bring him? The servants answered, no man

ever spoke like this. Then the Pharisees responded

to them, are you fooled too? Have any of the

rulers or Pharisees believed in him? But this

crowd, which does not know the law, is accused.

Nicodemus, the one who came to him previously

and who was one of them, said to them, Our law

doesn't judge a man before it hears from him

and knows what he is doing, does it? You aren't

from Galilee too, are you? They replied. Investigate

and you will see. that no prophet arises from

Galilee. Okay, there are, hard to find in here,

but there are six responses we see, and we'll

wrap this up really quick. Number one, he's a

prophet. He teaches good stuff. He's a good moral

teacher. Man, I can't tell you how many times

in the valley since I've moved here, in conversations,

not so much with you guys, But with people outside

of the church, I've heard this comment. We fundamentally

believe in God, don't we? Everybody in the valley

believes in God to some degree. It seems. That's

general. But he's just a good teacher. He's a

good, yeah, he's good. Jesus is all right. But

is he Lord? Is he your Savior? I think the second

response is he's a fraud. Where is he from? Nothing

comes from there. He's a fraud. Three is they're

kind of anti -Jesus. That's a response. They

want to arrest him. Who does he think he is telling

me how to live? I'm in charge of my life. It's

my money. It's my time. I'll sleep with whoever

I want to sleep with. I'll do whatever I want

to do. I'm anti -Jesus. Fourth. I have respect

for him. Servants didn't want to arrest him.

Like, eh, nobody speaks like this. We're not

touching this one. I respect him. Number five,

some are just curious. This is Nicodemus at this

point. We know later on we believe that Nicodemus

does come to faith. But we're just curious. Like,

eh, we can't. Hey, don't push him so hard. You

might not know who he is, but aren't we supposed

to judge him? All five of these responses, though,

will damn you to hell. And that's the truth.

Jesus says in John 14, we just, six, I am the

way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to

the Father except through me. There's only one

response, right response to Jesus. He is the

Christ. Christ is not his name, it's what he

is. Jesus Christ. The Messiah. Yes, that's who

He is. He is my Savior. He is my Lord. The Lamb

who's come to take away the sins of the world.

He's come to take away my sins. And yes, I'm

thirsty. And I come to you for drink. Are you

thirsty? Are you thirsty? Come to Jesus today

and drink. That's where life is. Let's pray.

Gosh, Lord, we live in a world that offers a

lot of drink. Different things we could drink

of, and we drink those things in hopes to satisfy

us, but you are the only thing that truly quenches

our thirst. You are the Christ, the Messiah.

And so we look to you, we come to you, we put

our gaze upon you today. And Lord, I don't know

in this room where everybody's at. Many of us

in here may have said, yes, I want to drink of

Jesus. And I pray that we will realize that the

Spirit of God that lives in us is where we find

the biggest and the only hope for this life.

And if those in this room have not yet come and

drank of Jesus, I pray today that they will honestly

look at their sin and say, Jesus, I am a mess

and I need you. Will you? And I put my faith

in you today. And so, Lord, I just pray right

now that your spirit does the work. I can't do

anything. I pray that you do the work in us.

as a group of people and individually. In your

name we pray. Amen.