John 7:25-53

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Intro/Background

Last week, if you remember, we started a new section in the Gospel of John where we are now in the last 6 months before the cross

We’re going to see Jesus talk more and more about His death and resurrection

He’s going to give His disciples, and in turn us, some really important instructions for their walks

We’re gonna get all that tonight

But I was thinking about it while I was putting this lesson together, and it’s still so crazy to me that Jesus’ entire mission was to die

His whole purpose in coming to earth as a man, subjecting Himself to this criticism of the religious leaders (who were supposed to be leading the people in worship of Him!), being left and abandoned by His disciples like we talked about a few weeks ago, and then eventually betrayed by one in His inner circle, all that was with the knowledge that He would eventually die

And die for you and me so that we could be forgiven of our sins

I don’t think you’ll ever cease to be amazed when you think about all that Jesus did for us and what His mission was - to save us, it’s absolutely incredible

And like we talked about last week, knowing that, thinking about that, should change our actions and our words and our pursuits/passions

Remember what was going on when we dove into our study last week

Jesus went down to one of the religious feasts in Jerusalem

There was this buzz/debate about who Jesus was

Some said He was a good man, others didn’t like Him. The religious leaders wanted to kill Him

That debate is going to continue tonight

Lesson - John 7:25-52.

Verses 25-27

Here the debate is continuing.

Remember last week we had 3 groups of people at the temple during this feast all involved in this dialogue & debate

Jesus & His disciples

Religious leaders (Pharisees)

The Jews who had traveled into town for the feast and were at the temple

Now we see a 4th group enter the scene, some of the local residents of Jerusalem

They see what’s happening and kinda taunt the Pharisees

“Isn’t this the guy you all wanted to kill? You sure let Him say a lot for a guy you want dead....”

And then the debate comes

“Some people say this Jesus guy is the Christ (Messiah), but we were pretty sure the Messiah was just going to appear from nowhere, but we know where Jesus came from.”

There’s speculation about what the Savior/Messiah would be like, instead of an educated answer from scripture

The Bible told everyone in the OT in Micah 5:2 that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem

But people were trying to come up with their own conclusions about God and who He was

We need to make sure that we don’t do the same thing - we can’t speculate or formulate our own ideas on God based on our feelings or even necessarily our own thoughts or experiences, we need to base our view on God from His word.

Verses 28-31

Jesus answers the crowd and says, “Yes, you know where I’m from, but even more important than that is that I was sent by the Father” alluding to the fact that He really came from heaven, not just Bethlehem

The Pharisees hated hearing Him say that, they thought it was blasphemy, they wanted to kill Him right then and there.

But Jesus was in control of everything (it wasn’t His time) and there was no threat to Him

And we see that more people were believing in Him as the debate continued (“Will the Messiah do more miracles than this guy? No way, Jesus has done so much, He has to be the Messiah”)

Verses 32-36

So as the Pharisees are lining up to try and arrest Jesus, Jesus talks to them in their pursuit

“Don’t worry boys, eventually you’re not gonna see me anymore because I’m going back to my Father”

There’s this debate, where is He going?

To the Greeks (non-Jewish people), here, there, they weren’t sure

We know that He was speaking of His death and resurrection - that He would ascend back into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father

We’re starting to get into Jesus talking more about His death

He’s trying to get the people to realize what was coming

He’s even more importantly trying to get His disciples to see what was coming

Remember many of the people who believed in Him as the Messiah, and even many of the disciples, thought He’d set up His kingdom on earth, kick the Romans out, and declare Himself to be King

Jesus is trying to show them that that’s not the plan - His plan, His mission from day 1, was to die for us

Verses 37-39

So on the last day of this feast, Jesus gets up and makes this huge, bold claim as the debate about who He was is raging on

This was the Feast of Tabernacles - an 8 day feast where they celebrated God’s provision for them as a nation, and remembered specifically how God provided for and protected them during the 40 years they wandered in the wilderness with Moses

They would build these little shelters (tabernacles) and live (dwell) in them for those 8 days just as their ancestors had done

And they would do things to commemorate God providing for them in the desert - anyone remember how God provided for the Children of Israel?

He provided them food (manna and quail) and water (Moses struck a rock and out of that rock gushed all this water that made a reservoir for the people)

In fact, they believed that the Messiah would provide those things again when He would come

To commemorate the water part of the feast, every day the priest would take water to the top of the steps entering the temple and pour the water out

It’s at this point, that Jesus gets up and says in John 7:37b-38 “37 “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.””

It’s such an incredible statement

Jesus is saying that He is the Messiah

He is giving a promise that if anyone comes to Him to drink, they will be satisfied

He is telling us that He is the answer to the thirst in our souls that we all have

And He tells us that not only will He quench our own thirsts and satisfy our own souls, but we’ll have this living water in abundance to where it is overflowing in our lives and impacting others

By coming to Jesus, He is going to satisfy any longing, any need, any emptiness that we have

And not just with a little bit, but with rivers, torrents of water. So much water that we won’t be able to contain it all, we’ll have too much!

It says here that Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit

3rd part of the Trinity (in fact, I’ve got a good video to watch on that....)

So when we put our faith in Jesus and get saved, God takes up residence in our hearts - that’s God the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit now lives in our hearts permanently

He’s with you wherever you go, whatever you do

His job is to point you in the right direct, to pull you away from sin, and to positively impact others for Jesus through your words and actions

That’s what Jesus is talking about by the overflow of living water coming out of your life - the Holy Spirit isn’t just going to change you, He’s going to use you to serve and change others

At this point when Jesus is teaching, that hadn’t happened yet b/c you couldn’t have been saved yet - Jesus hadn’t died on the cross and rose from the grave

But after Jesus would do that, we could then receive the Holy Spirit because we could be forgiven of our sins.

Verses 40-43

The debate continues!

Because Jesus basically stood up and said He was the Messiah, more people were believing that’s who He was.

But then other people were like, “No, the Messiah was supposed to come from Bethlehem, wasn’t this dude from Nazareth? He can’t be the Messiah”

They were confused.

Verses 44-53

In the debate, remember the Pharisees wanted to arrest Jesus, but they didn’t b/c Jesus was in control and it wasn’t His time yet.

So the officers - some Roman soldiers - come to the Pharisees and they continue the debate

“Didn’t you want to arrest this Jesus guy? Why haven’t you done it yet?”

And then we see their amazement in the things Jesus was saying, “We’ve never heard a guy speak like this before, there’s something special about Him.”

This just makes the Pharisees mad, they get all angry, start yelling, and try to argue that Jesus isn’t the Messiah

And then we get a statement from an old friend - Nicodemus

Remember him? He was the Pharisee that came to Jesus in the middle of the night with all these questions and we got John 3:16 out of it. Nicodemus became a secret follower of Jesus even through he was a Pharisee

He tries to step out in his faith a bit and stand up for Jesus, “Maybe let’s just wait and see more about what this guys does, we can’t judge Him too quickly...”

The other Pharisees shoot him down pretty quick, “You don’t know what you’re talking about Nicodemus!”

And I’m sure Nicodemus keeps his mouth shut after this and is down on himself for not standing stronger for Jesus, maybe he feels embarrassed or hurt, but the day is coming that He would make a bigger stand for Jesus and let all of the Pharisees know exactly what he believed

And then the feast ends, Jesus is not arrested, and everybody goes home

Small Groups

Sample Small Group Questions

What did you find new or interesting about tonight’s study?

Was there anything you found confusing about our study?

Why is it so important that we base our ideas on who God is from the Bible, and not from what we hear or from our own feelings?

Why do you think Jesus made a point to talk about His death before it happened?

How does it make you feel that Jesus’ #1 mission, the whole reason He came to earth and went through all He did, was to die for you to be able to save you?

In what ways have you experienced the living water that Jesus spoke of in Verses 37-38?

Why would God want that living water to overflow from your life into others, and not just be to fill you up?

Describe a time you made a public stand or statement for your faith. How did it go and what was the impact of that stand?

How can God honor those public stands, no matter how small or big they are, and use them to give you more opportunities to declare your faith to others in the future?

What is one thing you’re going to do this week to apply this lesson to your life?

Prayer Requests and Group Prayer