Sermon Tone Analysis

5-26-02

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John 7: 37,38

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Part one: 7:1-13

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Memorial Day week-end

The power of tradition.

Get the garden planted so we could take off to explore lakes and rivers and woods  - the great out of doors.

It was the official beginning of summer.

School was out and it was celebrated with  camping, fishing, swimming, good stuff!!  Kick back!

Celebrate the holiday!

Somewhere in the break, we are asked to remember those who have died in defending our country in times of war.

Visit a cemetery just to remember.

The nation of Israel had similar deeply rooted traditions.

Passover, Pentecost, Booths

*Feast of Booths*

(Lev.

23:33-44 and Numbers 29) It was celebrated from the fifteenth to the twenty-second day of the seventh month, which approximates our October.

It was a feast of thanksgiving for the /(harvest)/.

But besides being a harvest-festival it was also a joyful commemoration of the divine guidance granted in the Atonement.

The nation rejoiced at God’s provision of redemption.

·A daily sacrificial feast of seventy bullocks was made.

Extreme BBQ  13-12-11-

·The temple-trumpets were blown on each day.

·There was the ceremony of the outpouring of water, drawn from Siloam, /in commemoration/ of the refreshing stream which had come forth miraculously out of the rock at Meribah (Ex.

17:1-7), and /in anticipation/ of blessings both for Israel and for the world.

·There was the illumination of the inner court of the temple, where the light of the grand candelabra reminded one of the pillar of fire by night which had served as a guide through the desert (Num.

14:14).

There was a torch-parade.

·And above all, everywhere in and around Jerusalem, in the street, the square, and even on the roofs of the houses booths were erected.

These leafy dwellings provided shelter for the pilgrims who came from every direction to attend this feast.

But most of all they too were reminders of the wilderness-life of the ancestors (Lev.

23:43).

-Hendricksen

What a celebration!

A beautiful image – *if you believe and keep believing in me, your heart will be like a river.*

“Some images are attractive, some are repulsive.

This image is attractive.

Most people, I think, would like their heart to be like a deep mountain spring overflowing in rivers of living water.

Even before we have a clear idea of what this image is referring to we yearn for it.

Because it seems to imply fullness and completeness to the point of overflowing.

It implies sweet coolness and refreshment.

It implies moisture and growth and life.”

- Piper

Video

            There’s something about a river…

 

*Part Two: *

For some a celebration like Memorial Day can be unbearably difficult.

It is hard to remember.

Ill.

In America, the two days in which there is the highest incidence of suicide is the day after Christmas and the day after Thanksgiving.

It becomes overwhelming that where there should have been joyous family celebrating there was a void.

The pain overwhelms.

The Feast of Booths in AD 29 was like that for Jesus.

Jesus was not even going to Jerusalem to the Festival because of deep conflict.

The closing words of chapter six clearly show that a turning point has occurred in our Lord's ministry.

Many of the great multitudes at Capernaum-- even many of his own disciples who followed him everywhere he went -- have now drawn back and ceased to follow him.

In the opening words of chapter seven, John declares that there is a hint of murder in the air.

Jn.

7:1-9

In one short sentence, John deals with six months of our Lord’s ministry (the period April-October of the year 29 A.D.) : “*And after these things Jesus was walking in Galilee; for he was unwilling to walk in Judea,”*

* Map*

From the Synoptics we can see that the Lord went from Capernaum in Galilee to the border of Tyre and Sidon, traversing a large section of Galilee; then departing from Galilee in crossing over to Decapolis; went back again to Galilee (Dalmanutha); left it again for the region of Cesarea Philippi; and finally, covering another large stretch of Galilean territory, went on his way back to Capernaum.

When this feast drew near the four brothers of Jesus came to him/.

One of the gospels tells us their names: James and Jude (who, after they came to faith, were to write two of the letters of the New Testament), and Joses and Simon.

(Jesus also had sisters, but their names are not given in the New Testament.)

/

What our Lord’s brothers said to Him was rooted in unbelief and rejection—not in faith.

I do not believe our Lord’s brothers are giving Him a piece of good advice.

To sum up the essence of their words to Jesus irreverently (as unbelieving brothers would be inclined to do), “Put up or shut up!”

I think our Lord’s brothers were embarrassed by Jesus and fed up with His ministry.

I am tempted to believe that these brothers were aware that the Jews in Judea were seeking to kill Jesus.

They urged Him to leave Galilee, the place of safety (and also the place where they lived), and to go to Jerusalem, the place of greatest danger.

At best, these brothers are saying, “If you are really determined to go ahead with this thing, then get on with it.

Go up to Jerusalem and see if you can convince anyone that you are Messiah by performing miracles, if indeed you can perform them.”

Cynicism seems to virtually ooze from their words.

At worst, they are encouraging Jesus to pursue His ambitions in a way that they are certain will result in His arrest, and perhaps even His death.

If you had asked these men, *"Is Jesus a great brother to you?"* they would have said, "Yes, he is.

We love him, although we never can quite understand him.

But he is always compassionate, merciful, kind and trustworthy.

He is a great brother."

And if you had asked them, *"Did Jesus have unusual powers?"* they would have said, "Not while he was growing up, but we can't deny his mysterious abilities to do remarkable things now.

He does have great powers."

But if you had asked them, *"Do you believe he is the promised Messiah?"* they would have had to say, "No, we don't.

We can't accept that.

It's impossible to believe that this man whom we grew up with -- we slept in the same bedroom with him, we went to school with him, we did all the things boys do together -- that this is the one the Scriptures are talking about.

We can't believe that."

It must have been a heartache to Jesus that his family did not understand and did not believe in him.

So, Jesus went up later, in secret.

Conscious of an appointed time.

Jesus understood the Scriptures.

He knew that God had appointed, not only a pathway for the Messiah to follow, but the very program and time in which the events would occur.

He knew that he would not be offered at the Feast of Tabernacles, but at the Feast of Passover.

Tabernacles is in October, while Passover is in March or April, thus there were six months left before his time was to come.

He knew the ceremony in the book of Exodus of the offering of a lamb and sprinkling its blood over the doorposts so that the Angel of Death would pass over the houses of Israelites and spare them from the judgment of God, was picturing that event in which he would be the central character.

This is why John the Baptist's first words when he saw Jesus coming toward him were, "Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world," {cf, John 1:29}.

John and Jesus both understood the program that the brothers of Jesus did not.

Climax at the Feast of Booths (37,38)

“On each of the seven days of the feast a priest drew water from the pool of Siloam in a golden vase and brought it in procession to the temple with the joyful sounding of the trumpet.

There the water was poured into a bowl beside the altar from which a tube took it to the base of the altar.

Simultaneously wine was poured through a similar bowl on the other side of the altar.”

(Morris, 420).

It pictured joy and provision mingling together.

Isaiah 12:3  *“…with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation”*

           

John 7:37,38

 *On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."'*