So we come to John chapter 7. Now the events of John chapter
7 are some six months or so after the end of John chapter 6. Do
you remember at the end of John chapter 6 as we were looking
last week, the Lord Jesus was abandoned by most of his followers,
those called disciples. Not the twelve, but the hordes
that followed him seeking to see another miracle. Having been
fed as part of the 5,000 men and the many others that were
there, they wanted to see more. He said to them, you came seeking
me, not because you wanted the words of eternal life, but because
you were fed and you wanted another free meal. That was the reason
that they were following. But when the doctrine got so
that they said it was a hard saying and who could bear it,
he was abandoned by most of them. And of course, at the same time
in Judea, Sadducees and all of these religious
leaders were, they were adamantly opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ. They wanted to see him dead.
Everything he said was upsetting their nice, cosy situation. Everything that he said was in
contradiction of their view of religion. They hated him and
they sought to kill him. Again and again it says they
sought to kill him. And so, because of that, he goes
back to Galilee and he keeps a low profile for about six months. We know it's six months because
the events of John chapter six are all around the time of the
Feast of the Passover, which was a spring feast. There were
three main feasts in the Jewish calendar. There were seven or
so altogether, but three main ones, Passover, Pentecost, and
Tabernacles, the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles. And
all Jewish males were required to go up about six months after the Feast
of Passover. So he's kept a low profile for
six months or so. In Galilee, I don't know, I mean,
clearly he continued to minister. Clearly the 12 were with him.
Clearly he preached the gospel to the poor. That was his mission,
that's what he did. But he wasn't in the gaze of
the religious leaders in Jerusalem, down in the south. His hour had
not yet come. What was his hour? His hour was
the hour for which he came. His hour was that hour in which
he, as the substitute of his people, would pay the penalty
for the sins of his people in their place, that they might
be made the righteousness of God in him, and thereby his mission
would be accomplished. His mission? To redeem his people
from the curse of the law. To pay their penalty. that they
owe to divine justice, that we all as sinners owe to divine
justice. To qualify his elect, that multitude that no man can
number, for heaven. To qualify them for heaven. Here
he is, God, keeping a low profile. Can you ponder that for a moment? This man who kept a low profile,
out of the public gaze of the capital city, where all the leaders
and the big wheeler dealers were, down in the south in Jerusalem,
here he is, God over all, blessed forever. As Romans 9 verse 5
says of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God over all, blessed
forever. He's living a low profile existence
in Galilee, in that poor situation. He who is God, who thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but laid his glory aside
and came amongst men and humbled himself, it says in Philippians
2, and became obedient unto death. He who is God humbled himself
and became obedient unto death for a little while, as Hebrews
2 says, for a little while made lower than the angels. He who
is God made lower than the angels for the suffering that he might not stimulate Satan's
action to frustrate his mission to redeem. You see, the opposition
of the Pharisees and the religious leaders, yes, they were culpable,
yes, it was them, but do you know who really was behind it
all? It's Satan. Read Revelation 12. The woman,
the church, gives birth to a waits to try to devour the child
as soon as he's born, and to destroy him once he is born.
This opposition is always satanic in origin. The kingdom of this
world is the kingdom of Antichrist. It's the kingdom of Satan, and
it hates the kingdom of God. But the kingdom of God will be
triumphant, for God cannot be frustrated in his eternal purposes
of grace. No, he wasn't here on a mission
of revolutionary stirring up insurrection. No, not at all.
We read of the Lord Jesus Christ that a smoking flax he wouldn't
put out, he wouldn't quench it. And a bruised reed. Very, very
weak pictures. Very weak. Not a burning flame,
but a smoking flax. And he wouldn't even put that
out. And a bruised reed. It was already bent, but he wouldn't
break it. He wouldn't break it. You see?
Low profile. Gentle. in all of his purposes,
gentle. So, here he is, keeping a low
profile. But why was John inspired to
write this chapter 7 of his gospel? I know he didn't write it in
chapters, but nevertheless it makes a very useful division.
Why was he inspired to write these words that we call John
chapter 7? You know it. I quote it each time. John 20
verse 31. He wrote it that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ. From the fall in Eden, the promise
was made that the seed of the woman would come. The woman produces
a man-child. That child is Christ, the seed,
capital S, the seed of the woman. He says to Abraham, in your seed,
not seeds as of many, but seed one, Christ. In Christ, all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed with salvation. it's that you might believe that
Jesus is that Christ. That this man, as Paul kept preaching
throughout the Acts of the Apostle, persuading and reasoning and
showing from the scriptures that Jesus of Nazareth After these things, six months
after the events of chapter 6, Jesus walked in Galilee. For
six months he walked in Galilee. For he would not walk in Jerusalem,
because the Jews to be the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles. It's coming up. His brethren
therefore said unto him, Depart from here and go into Judea. Go away from Galilee, go into
Judea, that your disciples also may see the works that you do. The details of it were given
in Leviticus and other places. It was God's feast, given for
a purpose to teach gospel grace, but it had become the Jews' Feast
of Tabernacles. It had become an empty religious
charade that they had made it into. They did a lot of play
acting. They thought more about the symbolism
than they did about the truth behind the symbolism. The Jews'
Feast of the Tabernacles, one of the three main feasts. One
reminding, this one, tabernacles, reminding of the exodus. I know
Passover was the start of the exodus, but in the wilderness
wanderings, they lived in tents, they lived in booths, and the
Feast of the Tabernacles commemorated that. It reminded them of God's
providential care. They wandered 40 years through
the wilderness. It says that the shoes of their
feet didn't wear out. Have you had a pair of shoes
that lasted 40 years? What is it? Manna? The word means.
What is it? They didn't know what it was,
but it fed them for 40 years. In a desert, where there was
no water, it fed them for 40 years. And they had the tabernacle
there. And God tabernacled. God lived
in a tent, as it were, with men. And all of it pointed to Christ,
who would come. Christ living with his people. And all the Jewish males were
required to attend. Now here's his brethren. Who
are these brethren? The Catholics have got it wrong.
Mary didn't remain a virgin. She gave birth to other children
with Joseph, her husband. And he had siblings, natural
men. They were natural men. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them. Why?
For they are spiritually discerned. These brethren were unable to
see the kingdom of God at that point. They were unable to see
the King of the Kingdom of God at that point. Some did later.
James, the brother of our Lord, we read about. It was as if,
to them, Jesus was a family member who was a celebrity. They'd seen
what he did, how the crowds followed him in John And they encouraged him to grasp
the opportunity of this space. Look, there's going to be lots
of people there. They're going to be looking for, go and do
some thing. You know, you can imagine the
agent of a celebrity promoting their situation to make them
become more popular and gain a bigger following and crowds
that were paying money to see them. And you know, the kind
of thing that goes on, the agent, organizes the events to which
the crowds come and they see and the popularity explodes and
grows vastly. But their motive was worldly,
because, you see, verse 5, neither did his brethren believe on him.
How dead is the flesh? You know, when you think about
it appealing to the flesh, look, what greater testimony to the
truth of God God, in the person of his son,
lives in the same four walls that you're in with your brethren,
with the rest of the family. And there, in that household,
he displays all the grace of God. We beheld his glory, says
John, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth. And they grew up with him from
a little boy. He was the older brother, but they grew up with
him all the way through. and they never saw him sin once,
and they never saw him curse once, they never saw any imperfection
in him. He was full of grace and truth,
and their flesh witnessed it, the fullness of the grace and
truth of Christ, first-hand witnesses of it in the same household,
and yet spiritually dead. by nature, what our neighbours
are like, what the members of our family who don't believe
are like, what people all around us are like, the people we work
with, the people who govern our country, the politicians, the
leaders, the council. Doesn't it tell us what people
are like by nature? How dead in trespasses and sins,
how unable to discern spiritual truth. So they say to him, go
up to this feast and Put yourself about and show people the miracles
that you can do. Wow, what a following you will
get. And hopefully we'll get some spin-off from that. So he
says, no, you go. My time has not yet come. This
isn't the time for me to go. I'm not going up yet. He says,
my time has not yet come. Your time. You go up. The world
can't hate you, but it hates me. I testify of it. Why does
the world hate Christ? Because he testifies that the
deeds thereof, the works thereof, are evil. Go you up to the feast. You go. I'm not going up yet. He didn't say he wasn't going.
He said he wasn't going up yet to the feast. But for my time
is not yet full come. It wasn't the right time for
him. And so they went. And he stayed a day or two in
Galilee. They went up in good time. But
when they were gone, He went up, as it were, in secret. He
went up under that low profile. That low profile without fanfare. Yet, there's anticipation there
at the feast. Is he coming? Is this man coming? Look in verse 12. There was much
murmuring among the people concerning him. For some said, he is a good
man. Others said, nay, but he deceives
the people. He was the talk of the town,
as it were. Even though he had a low profile, for what he'd
done already, he was the talk of the town. This special man
must make his mark on this occasion. And he goes up quietly, but then,
in the midst of the feast, verse 14, in the midst of the feast,
he goes into the temple. And there, he teaches. He teaches. Teaching in the temple. We're
not told exactly what it was, but what must it have been? You
know how he said that the whole of the scriptures, these are
they which, the gospel of salvation from
sin, of eternal life, of heaven. As Luke chapter 7 verse 22 says
to the disciples of John when he's sent to say, go and ask
Jesus, is he the one or do we look for another? And Jesus said,
well, go and tell John. All the miracles that the scripture
said would happen, you have seen them, they are happening, and
you can't deny them. And the poor have the gospel
preached to them. The poor. Those who are poor
in spirit, those who are poor in sin and the certainty of a
lost condemnation have the good news of saving grace preached
to them. Surely he preached to them, surely
he taught them the significance of the feast. Surely he taught
them how it showed and spoke about salvation out of bondage
when Israel was brought out of Egypt and kept in their Wilderness
journeys, the providential keeping on the journey to the promised
land. You know, the symbolism of that, like being, the journeyings
through this life towards eternity. The symbolism of God
dwelling with his people in the tabernacle. And he was teaching
in the temple. The temple? The temple in Jerusalem,
there isn't one there now. You can go to the site of it,
but there isn't one there. It was destroyed in AD 70. He
was teaching in the temple, the second temple, the one that was
put up by, oh gosh, forgetting, in Zechariah
and in Haggai, you read about it, in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah,
the restoration, you know, after the Babylonian captivity. And
he was teaching in that temple, that temple that was nothing
like the magnificence of Solomon's temple, but nevertheless, there
it was. What did it picture? It pictured the body of Christ. The temple pictured the body
of Christ. How do we know? Ephesians chapter
2, at the end of it. You, believing Gentiles, along
with Jews who believe, you are living stones made a temple of
the living God. You're being built together,
fitted together into a temple of the living God. You are the
temple of the living God, he says to his people. The church,
his church is his body. The church is the body of Christ.
It's pictured by the temple. Christ himself as the head of
the body, and the temple as the physical presence of God with
his people, symbolizing God in Christ. Again, the temple symbolizes
God, Christ, in flesh, dwelling among men. That temple, which
was like the body of God there in Jerusalem, is a picture of
Christ. He's the fulfillment of it. And
here he is, a man. Oh yes, he's a man. There's nothing outstanding.
He's a man of no worldly academic qualifications. Look at verse
15. He taught in the temple, and the Jews marveled. Even the
religious leaders. When it says the Jews, it means
the religious Jews, the religious leaders. The Jews marveled. They
were amazed, saying, how knoweth this man letters, having never
learned? Where did he get his academic
qualifications from? How does he know how to teach
this? Which school did he go to? that taught him this. He
didn't. He didn't. It wasn't some human
seminary that taught him these things. It wasn't the school
of Gamaliel that Paul went to as a Pharisee that taught him
these things. No. He'd never learned. He had
no worldly academic qualifications. The Jews were amazed at his knowledge. His knowledge of what? Of Word and the Word was with God
and the Word was God. He who was the Word of God, who
is the Word of God, he there displayed perfect mastery of
that Word of God. He showed comparing Scripture
with Scripture. He showed, as he did at the temptation
with the devil, it is written, it is written, it is written.
Surely he testified, look at verse The world cannot hate you,
but me it hated, because I testify of it that the works thereof
are evil. He testified concerning sin. He testified concerning
divine justice. He testified concerning just
condemnation. He taught them concerning promised
redemption from sin. He taught them concerning his
mission of saving grace, that he had come to bear the sins
of his people. In this man, who had no worldly
education, who had no worldly academic qualifications. We read
in Colossians 2, verse 3, Paul writes there that in him, in
Christ, are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in him. The wisdom of
God is so much higher than the wisdom of man. The wisdom of
man is complete foolishness compared to the wisdom of God. And all
the treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge are hid in this
man. No wonder that they marveled Where did he get it from? Where
did he get it from? This man, where did he get it
from? Verse 16, Jesus answered and said, my doctrine is not
mine, but his that sent me. If any man will, if any man wants
to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine that he's teaching,
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself, whether I've
made it up myself or whether this doctrine is from God. Notice
he says, my doctrine, singular. He doesn't say doctrines. because
the teaching of Christ and the gospel of his grace is one unified
doctrine. One unified teaching of eternal
life, of salvation from sin, that comes from heaven, that
came down from heaven, that came from God in heaven, by God made
man who taught it there in that temple. By God who taught it. Here's the test, verse 17. If
any man wants to do God's will, he shall know of the doctrine.
If any man is made willing, do God's will, because you know
His people are made willing in the day of His power, made willing
to do His will. He shall know for sure that Jesus'
doctrine, the doctrine of this man speaking, is God's doctrine
from heaven and not a mere man's. Verse 18, he that speaketh of
himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory
that sent him, the same is true and no unrighteousness is in
him. So who is this? Who is this? You know, this is
the thing, why John wrote it, that you might know that Jesus
is the Christ. What does that mean? Who is this?
You see, some of them, the leaders, hated him even to desire to murder
him. Others were speculative about
him. Could he be? Could he not? There was confusion
because they said he, well, some said he must be the Messiah because
nobody else can do these things. They're exactly what the scripture
said. But this guy comes from Galilee. And we know that the
Christ will come from Bethlehem. the city of David. It says that
in verses 41 and 42. They were confused, they were
speculating. Others said, this is the Christ,
but some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the
scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and out
of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? You see, there was
confusion about him. There was bemusement on the part
of some. No doubt there was sympathy. Some even believed that Jesus
fulfilled the criteria revealed in scripture regarding Christ.
So the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him, but God restrained
them. Verse 32, the Pharisees and the
chief priests sent officers. They sent strong arms to arrest
him, to stop him, to take him off the streets, to lock him
up. The power of God restrained them.
They couldn't do it. The power of words from a divine
source the words of this man, the Lord Jesus Christ. It diffused
their intentions. Verse 46, when they didn't take
him, and the officers that they sent returned to the chief priests
and the Pharisees, they said, why haven't you brought him?
We sent you to arrest him. He's just one man and there's
all of you with your weapons. Why haven't you brought him?
And the officers answered, verse 46, towards the end of John's Gospel.
And he said to them, who are you seeking? And they said, Jesus
of Nazareth. And he said, I am. Not I am he,
I am. What did God say to Moses from
the burning bush? I am. Who shall I say sent me?
Say, I am. And I don't know what it was,
but in those words, those that came to arrest him They just couldn't. They were
so restrained. In the midst of their worst threats,
in the midst of their attempts to arrest him, their failed attempts
to arrest him, right there, in the midst of it, look at verse
37. You see? They're seeking to arrest
him, but look, right there. whether that was the same day,
but in verse 37, we're on the eighth day of this feast, on
the last day of this feast, on the great day of this feast,
the day full of symbolism. Right there, not arrested. They'd
failed to arrest him. Isn't it amazing the power of
God over the situation? Right there, Jesus stood and
cried with a loud voice, saying, if any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. Despite all of the satanic opposition,
despite the determination of the world to silence him, overwhelmed
by the force of numbers and strength and weapons, yet he could not
be silenced or restrained in preaching the kingdom of God.
You know, this is the same God that made the army of the Assyrian
Empire that was so big and mighty that it was coming just to swallow
up little Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah. And he made them
all go away. They believed a rumor and they
all ran away. This is the most significant
day of the feast. It's the one where they brought
out all of their symbolism. You know, we're a nation in Britain
of great pageantry and symbolism and ceremonies of state and all
of those things. And I must say, you know, if
you're there and you see it, In the flesh, it makes a tingle
run down your spine. I remember once being at the
Trooping of the Colour, standing on the corner of the Mall and
Horse Guards Parade in London on a beautiful June day. And
as it finished and all the bands and the royalty was parading
back to the palace, you know, the tingle runs down your spine.
It was significant. Well, this is the sort of thing
that we have on this eighth day of the feast. It's the pinnacle
of the feast. The Jews are strutting their
religious arrogance. Do you know what they did? It
says, the tradition has it, that what they would do is they would
go down to the River Shiloh and they would bring up buckets of
water and pour them out on the ground, pouring them out while
singing what Isaiah 12, verse three says. Isaiah 12, verse
three says, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of
salvation." So he took that and they thought, well, let's literally
interpret it. And they went and got their buckets and they went
down to the river Shiloh and they brought them up and in the
middle of the feast where there were all these booths, these tabernacles
pitched around Jerusalem, and they emptied the buckets of water.
With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
But it was just an empty ritual. And what it pictured was what
the ritual pictured. was the soul-thirst-quenching
power of gospel grace. That's what it was meant to show.
There is a soul-thirst, a thirst of the soul, that needs to be
quenched, and the gospel of grace is the thing that has the power
to quench that thirst. But they pour out these buckets
in their symbolism, and they're all left completely empty, and
they're left without any soul satisfaction, because they see
nothing in there. The whole thing The whole ritual
is Ichabod. Do you know what Ichabod is?
Remember the account in Samuel about 1 Samuel chapter 4 or 5? You know where the Ark of the
Covenant is stolen and the daughter-in-law of Eli is about to give birth
and she's going to die. And they say, well, surely you're
going to call him after his father. And she says, no, call him Ichabod. Why? Because the Ark's gone.
So what? departed. When they did this
feast, when they did this ritual, it was Ichabod, because there
was no spiritual truth in it. There was no soul satisfaction
in it. The water poured out symbolizing
spiritual water, they had no perception of it. There was no
true life from heaven. And meanwhile, they tried to
silence Jesus by force of arms, yet were unable to stop him being
heard by the multitude. And he claims not this water
being poured out, but if any man thirst, soul thirst, let
him come unto me and drink. Let him come to me and drink,
and I will give him living water. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. It says it in Jeremiah, it says
it in other places. Rivers of living water. They
tried to silence him, but they couldn't. The buckets that they
poured out, were futile in their attempts to give any thirst quenching. That sole thirst quenching. And his announcement stands today
as fresh as it was then. If any man thirst. Are you hearing
me? If any man thirst. Thirst for
water to quench. To quench what? You know what
it's like to have a, any of you that have got diabetes like I
have, you know what it's like to have you know, your tongue's stuck
to the roof of your mouth. That kind of a thirst. I remember
once reading the account of those mountaineers in the Andes, and
I forget what the name of the book is, but you know, there's
one guy, he fell and his mate thought he'd lost him for good,
so he went off down the mountain. And anyway, the guy was badly
injured with broken legs, and because he was at high altitude
in such low temperatures, he got unbelievably thirsty, The
account in the book says when he finally, he crawled his way
back down over the ice, and when he got low enough down, there
were little pools of water. And he talks about there were
muddy pools of water, but nevertheless he drank and drank and drank
and drank to quench that intense yearning, that painful dryness.
And that's picturing the sinful soul made aware of sin and condemnation
before a holy God, longing for peace, longing for To know that your sins are forgiven.
To know that the defilement of your sin in the holy judgment
of God is cleansed away. To know that that which you must
have to be right with God and made at peace for heaven is justification
before the righteous law of God. Assurance that the sin separates
you, the sin that separates you from God, has been propitiated
to turn the anger of God away. Does that describe any who might
be listening to this now? It's irrelevant who you are or
what you have done. The only thing that matters is
that you have that thirst in your soul to be right with God.
And what does Jesus bid you to do? What does he bid you to do? Reform your life, get better?
No, come to him and drink. Come, not physically, not moving
physically, come and find in him that which quenches your
spiritual thirst. How? What is it in him that quenches
your spiritual thirst? It's in his satisfaction of offended
justice for his people as their substitute, as the infinite God-made
man, by his death and by his shed blood, that says to the
offended law of God, that's it, that's the payment made. And
the law replies, it is enough. It is enough. It is finished. There is no more to pay. What
is it to come? It's this. We read it in Romans
chapter 10, the account there. You hear a preacher expound the
scriptures that declare the death of Christ, the God-man, that
declare that as his people's substitute. And the Holy Spirit
reveals to you your need, your sin, and the Holy Spirit reveals
to you the cleansing power of what Christ has done, and gives
faith for you to believe the truth of what you're hearing
the preacher preach, the truth of Christ's atonement, the work
he did to make at once sinners and an offended God. And believing,
you see, how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall
they preach unless they're sent? How shall they believe on what
they've never heard of, and how shall they hear without a preacher?
You hear about it, you believe it, the Holy Spirit gives you,
and you call on the name of the Lord. And what does it say? Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That is
what it is, to come and drink, just as Israel did in the wilderness.
You know, in their wilderness wanderings, they got very thirsty
because it was a desert. In Exodus 17, verse six, Moses
was told to go to Horeb, to a rock, and there thou shalt smite the
rock. You'll hit it with your rod.
and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink.
Miraculously, and they did. What was it all about? 1 Corinthians
chapter 10, verse 4, they, the Israelites, drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. Then
it couldn't be clearer, could it? To come is to believe on
Christ and his promise. Verse 38, he that believeth on
me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers modern language, but look, the
belly, as part of the anatomy, is that which craves worldly
things in the natural man. In Philippians chapter three
and verse 19, Paul writes about those that distort the gospel
and are always seeking the things of this world. He said, their
God is their belly, their idol, their idol that they falsely
worship, is the things that make them naturally feel good. This
is true life. which comes from that very center
by the water that Christ gives. And that water is his spirit
that he gives, making us aware of these things. It's water of
which this world is ignorant. I don't know what a blessing
it is to see and to know and to believe and to embrace and
to experience that living water, Holy Spirit water given by God
to the Gentiles since, I mean, that verse, is the greater blessing to the
wider world of Gentiles. This he spake of the spirit which
they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was
not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When he
was glorified, that Holy Spirit flowed out the day of Pentecost,
et cetera. And so, there it is. He makes
that announcement so clearly. And the controversy continued.
After he said it, the controversy continued. Some were convinced,
others doubted. Read the remaining verses. The
Pharisees raged at the officer's impotence to arrest him. But
one of them seemed to believe. That was Nicodemus, verse 50.
Nicodemus was one of their number. He was one of them, he being
one of them. He was the one that was sent
as an ambassador to Jesus by night in John chapter three.
We know you're a teacher sent from God. He seems to have believed, and
when we get to the end of John's Gospel, it's clear that he really
did. You see, the controversy continued. Many raged against
him. Others doubted. Others speculated. Nicodemus seemed to believe.
Oh, that some who woke today, unbelieving, might hear the voice
of the Son of God announcing these words, If any man thirst,
if any man thirst, Let him come to me and drink, he that believes.