SEVEN Series Minicast: Living Water

Like the most loving thing that Jesus can do is tell the truth about who he is.

He knows exactly who he is.

When he declares that in the temple, he knows what he has to offer people and he loves us so, so desperately.

The most one of the most loving things that he can do is just say, I have so much to offer you because you have those two, those two options.

He's either a lunatic or a liar, or he is Lord Savior.

Hi Leah, how's it going?

It's great.

Good to be here.

Good.

Well, thank you, thank you for joining me today.

We're in our seven series mini podcast episodes.

Uh, and so we are today, we're in John chapter seven, and you wrote our devo for the journal this week for those that are following along in that.

And if you don't have that, maybe you're watching this today and you don't have one of these journals for our seven series, you can go online and get one of those on our website, or you can stop in to Crossroads um at any of our locations and pick one of those up.

Um, we have these video series going along with every single week, along with daily devotions and stuff like that too.

But uh, I I really appreciate you joining us today.

Coming to talk about John chapter seven.

Tell us what's going on here.

Tell us, tell us what's happening uh in this scene.

Okay.

So I have to tell you, Jake, when I initially got, you know, my assignment for John, I was a little bummed to see that I got John 7 because I wanted one of the seven signs, and I'm like, oh, I didn't get a sign.

Um, and I think I like teaching the signs of John 7 just because in children's ministry I've taught them so much.

Yeah and kind of like have my spin on each one.

Right.

What I like to say about each one.

So it's like a little bummed of hers, but I've never gotten into John 7 as deeply as I have.

And I hope everyone is enjoying getting back into the Gospel of John like we've been able to in this series.

Um, this chapter is so good.

Oh, yeah.

The drama, oh yeah, I just I appreciate it so much.

I found myself, especially when I read through it in the NLT, just like kind of laughing out loud at a few of the different parts.

So here's where we're at: it is the feast of the booths.

So this is when the Jewish people would remember the time that they had to live in shelters during their time in the wilderness.

So they were called to remember that in the Old Testament in the book of Leviticus, but it also um fulfilled another purpose in kind of celebrating the harvest because it was in the fall.

So all of these people would have like descended on Jerusalem during this festival and they would have camped out basically all over Jerusalem and outside of Jerusalem for seven days, and Jerusalem's population would have grown during this time.

The popul scholars think that maybe like 50,000 people would have been living in Jerusalem at the time and it would have quadrupled.

Whoa.

Um, so during this festival.

But Jesus is not there, he is in Galilee with his family.

Okay.

And so as the chapter begins, he's in Galilee, and his brothers make this comment to him that he needs to go show himself to the world so that people can believe in him.

But then John makes the statement that even his brothers don't believe in him yet.

Right.

But Jesus is purposely not in Judea because he knows that the Pharisees are looking to put him to death and his time has not yet come.

So his brothers go down to Judea to celebrate this feast, and he says, I'm not coming.

And I'm like, is Jesus lying there?

But in the Greek it could easily translate from Greek into I'm not yet coming.

Okay.

So they go down to celebrate the feast.

Jesus doesn't go with them, and then he shows up privately.

He like goes on his own.

But before he shows up, the people are already talking about him.

There's this excitement around him, they're looking for him, and they're kind of divided.

Actually, this whole chapter, what we see is this tension around like, who is he?

And some people are saying he's a really good man, and some people are saying, no, he's leading people astray.

Yeah.

But then he does show up and he begins teaching.

And one thing he says when he begins teaching is he says that that the Jews are trying to put him to death.

And the and the people say, Who's trying to put you to death?

Like they literally say, Do you have a demon?

And he Jesus explains that no, they're mad at him for healing someone on the Sabbath day.

Yeah.

So he's in trouble, probably the healing um in John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

But then Jesus goes on and well, he's teaching, he's kind of teaching against the Pharisees because he says, They're mad at me for healing someone on the Sabbath day, yet they will circumcise a Jewish boy if the eighth day for circumcision happens to fall on the Sabbath day.

And so then the people say, Oh, no one's stopping him from speaking out against the Pharisees.

Maybe he actually is the Christ.

Hold up.

The Pharisees are trying to stop him.

Because then we learn that they have deployed the temple guards to go arrest Jesus as he's teaching.

Right.

So the temple guards um go to arrest him and he stands up on the last day.

This is sort of like the apex, like the climax of the drama of this this chapter, because it's the last day of the festival.

And he stands up and he says, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

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

Wow.

Okay.

So he makes that statement, and John says that he's referring to the Holy Spirit that believers in Jesus will then receive later.

So the temple guards, they go back to the Pharisees empty-handed.

They didn't actually arrest Jesus.

They go back empty-handed, and the people are talking, and we hear them say three things.

Some people say, Oh my goodness, he's a prophet.

Some people say, Oh my goodness, he might be the Christ.

But then there's this problem because they're like, ah, he's from Galilee, and the Messiah is supposed to come from Bethlehem.

Um, and when John's writing this, the other gospels would have already been written, so people would have already had that understanding.

Um, the readers, the original readers of the Gospel of John would have had that understanding.

But that's where the people were at.

They're like completely divided.

Where are the Pharisees at?

Well, these guards come back empty-handed.

And the Pharisees are like, Why didn't you arrest him?

And this is my favorite part of the chapter.

The guards say, the temple guards who have probably seen so much happen in the temple.

They've they've witnessed all these different people teaching different rabbis and their teaching.

And the guards say, No man ever spoke like he does.

Right.

And the Pharisees said, Oh, well, are you gonna believe in him too?

Because you don't understand the law either, like the people.

And Nicodemus speaks up and he says, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, innocent until proven guilty, like we put a man on trial.

And then Nicodemus gets like thrown under the bus.

They say, Oh, are you from Galilee too?

Read the scriptures, don't you know?

A prophet never arose from Galilee.

And that's just where the temp where the chapter ends.

And really, Jesus wasn't arrested because his time had not yet come.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh man, yeah, there's so much that happens in this chapter.

There's so much packed into it.

So many things that that are like below the surface level, like you things you need to maybe understand, like the culturing context of the time.

Like, thank you so much for like walking through the Feast of Booths, because that some of that is reading this maybe for the first time, but maybe doesn't have a ton of like biblical knowledge or like even just like an understanding of Jewish, ancient Jewish culture would have no idea like what's a feast of a booth.

Am I sitting in the booth at Pizza Hut?

Like, I don't even know how to do it.

It's like a music festival.

They have like camped out all over in these shelters for seven days.

Yeah.

So it was Jewish Lollapalooza, basically.

Or burning man.

I'm sure it would have been pretty smelly.

And they would have bringing lots of animals with them too for sacrifices.

Yeah.

Wild.

Yeah.

So they thanks for thanks for going in on that and and really giving us a good breakdown.

Tell us, like, so so that's that's the the the story of what happened.

What did you pull from it?

What do you want people to be able to learn in their time in this passage?

What what's important for us to take away?

Oh, I mean, the tension, the whole chapter, starting with his brothers and ending at the very end, that the guards who don't arrest him and the Pharisees want him to be arrested is who is he?

And I think at w at this point in John, Jesus has already made it clear that he's not going to leave any room for people to be neutral on who he is.

There's no room for neutrality in Jesus already.

And by the time you finish the Gospel of John, there's absolutely no room to remain neutral in Jesus.

Right.

You have two options.

Either he really does like have a demon, like he's a lying lunatic.

Because the things that he is saying about himself could a good teacher would not say, a good prophet would not say.

Right.

Um, so that's your one option.

He's completely crazy.

Or your other option is he's telling the truth.

And he really is all the things that he claims to be.

And in the Gospel of John, the IN state uh the I am statements, um, I am the good shepherd, I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the way, the truth, and the life, um, I'm the resurrection and the life.

You you cannot remain neutral on that.

Right.

He's either one or the other.

Right.

And so, man, where I I come at that is like, where are you with Jesus?

Are you somewhere in the middle?

I think oftentimes in the church we would say that yes, we believe that Jesus really is everything that he said he is in the book of John.

Like we we're supposed to be baptized to make that proclamation that that's what we've believed.

But is the fruit of our life saying that that's what we believe?

Right.

Because oftentimes I think that we can be our own bread of life, be our own light, and then show up on Sunday morning and treat Jesus like he's just a good teacher in our life, like he isn't actually that.

Right.

So in this chapter, who is he saying that he is?

He is offering himself up as a as a drink, right?

Um, and when he refers to himself as water, I think we need to think about what is water in the natural world.

You wouldn't go a day without hydrating yourself.

Right.

If you were, you would feel really sick by the end of the day.

Is Jesus your spiritual hydration every single day?

Is he is he what's getting you through every day?

Or are you waiting for the next Sunday, you know, to acknowledge him again?

And and what would the evidence of Jesus being your drink every day be?

Well, um, John says that he's talking about the Holy Spirit, and whoever thirsts will drink, and from that drink you'll have water, living water flowing out of your life.

So check out your life.

Is there evidence in your life that you have believed in Jesus?

And it's no coincidence that he did this on the last day of the festival.

It's kind of weird.

He could have said anything, right?

Yeah.

He could there's a confusion about who he is.

Why does he choose to use water?

Well, what would have been happening, what everyone there would have known was on the last day of the feast of the booths, there was this water ceremony where the priest would pour out water for two reasons.

One reason was to remember the water that came out of the rock while they were living in the booths.

God, God is your provider, God is giving you water in these parched places.

But it was also looking ahead to a day when there would be a Messiah who would be water.

And my cross cross-reference in my ESV study Bible, when Jesus says, as the scripture has said, out of your heart will flow waters, will flow living water, the cross cross-reference to that is Isaiah 12.3, which describes a future day like this, with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

So it's almost like Jesus referencing that.

And and really like Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Isaiah all have these references to God being living water.

So when Jesus stands up on that day that they're supposed to be remembering that God is their water and says, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me, like he is calling himself God.

Yeah.

And you can't remain neutral on a man who calls himself, who calls himself God.

And so is Jesus your God and is there evidence of that?

Is there water flowing in and out of your spiritual life?

And this all is very um like philosophical.

Like we're we're speaking in terms that are like spiritual, and like what would that look like though in real life?

Like, how could you check and say, man, is the Holy Spirit flowing out of me?

And I think about my own life right now.

Um, the the most important thing that I have going on right now in my own life is my marriage and my children.

Yeah.

So if I look at the most important areas of my life, am I allowing the Holy Spirit to lead in those areas and and be um my direct my direction in those areas?

And so I think about um what I bring into my marriage.

Am I a source?

Am I my husband's best cheerleader?

Am I a place of refreshment for him where he is experiencing the fruit of the spirit in his interactions with the um joy, peace, patience, kindness with my children.

Um and man, just in the last year with my children, the way that I have parented has changed so much as I have gotten like really, really desperate for Jesus personally.

I found that the way that I'm answering my children, the way that I'm correcting and disciplining them is actually with scripture.

Instead of just saying, mom says, I'm saying, no, Jesus says that we're supposed to love our neighbor as ourself.

That means you don't wait for your sibling to be nice to you before you're nice to them.

And um, God tells us that our words matter and that our words have life in them.

So we're gonna choose words that have life.

And so I'm like, I think I have a little bit of in the most important places of my life, I'm allowing the Holy Spirit to speak for me by by like by using scripture.

So it's just it's checking in.

Is there evidence in your life that Jesus is that source for you on a daily basis?

And are you letting it then flow out of you?

Right, right.

And we and we can't live in that nice, fluffy gray area with him.

He doesn't leave room for gray.

He does not leave for John Gray.

And that that's John's whole purpose of writing this this this book in the first place is to try to communicate to the world Jesus is God.

That's why he starts off appealing to both Jewish and Greek audiences, the two major audiences that would read this, and calling Jesus the Logos, calling him the word, the thing that binds the universe together.

And both both of those audiences would have fully understood what he was talking about when he said that that Jesus is God, that he was the word of God, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and then starts talking about Jesus' life.

You know, and so that this this really is uh the a massive crux moment for people where where if you feel like you can live in that that tension of it's cool to follow Jesus' teachings, I like the things that he said, but I don't really believe that he's God, it you're you don't know what you're saying.

That that's that is the most inconsistent thing you maybe could ever say because he does say a lot of things that if he wasn't God, like how dare you say that?

Like to to the people that he's in this uh that he's in the presence of, and even like why would we follow some of those teachings if if it if it wasn't if it wasn't truth coming from the truth maker, if that makes sense.

So yeah, yeah, so much good stuff here.

And I think that man, if you can use your imagination, Jesus standing up and it says he cried out, come to me and drink, it it's not a call, it's not him being ego like an egomaniac.

No, like the most loving thing that Jesus can do is tell the truth about who he is.

He knows exactly who he is.

When he declares that in the temple, he knows what he has to offer people and he loves us so, so desperately.

The most one of the most loving things that he can do is just say, I have so much to offer you because you have those two, those two options.

He's either a lunatic or a liar, or he is Lord, savior, God in human flesh, and the joy that comes with accepting that living water, like it's such a it's such a a loving, loving invitation.

I hope that people don't miss that in this chapter.

Yeah, yeah.

It is loving for him to tell the truth.

That that that reminds me of uh of a quote.

Do you know who Penn Gillette is?

He's he's the uh he's a magician and he's a he's a very famous atheist.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He very, very famously one time talked about how uh if a Christian doesn't want to share Jesus with him out of fear of him going to hell or not knowing God, then they're actually an incredibly unloving person.

So he was like, even though I don't believe in this, you should try to get me to believe it as much as possible if you actually believe it.

Like if you actually really think that Jesus who we said he was, you need to never stop trying to share this good news with me, even though I'm not there and I don't believe it, probably never will.

That's what it's what he says.

Like, like if you really love me and you really love your God, you'll never stop.

And no, no matter how uncomfortable it might make me or you.

Um, and so we have to make Jesus Lord of every aspect of our life, constantly share him, constantly proclaim who he is, and not not try to live in that easy gray space of we'll take the parts of Jesus we like and the parts that we don't, or leave the parts that we don't.

So this is so great.

Thank you, thank you so much, Leah, for for sharing with us today.

Pleasure, really, really appreciate your time.