Believe and Live

John 7:25-39

Can This Be the Christ?

25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” 30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

Officers Sent to Arrest Jesus

32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. 33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

Rivers of Living Water

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

The story is told about a pastor that got up in the pulpit and apologized for the Band-Aid on his face. He said “I was thinking about my sermon while shaving and cut my face.” Afterward the treasurer found a note in the collection plate, “Next time, think about your face and cut the sermon.”

What the Gospel means for us.

The Gospel redeems us and empowers us by his power and for his glory.

The Gospel means we can know Jesus.

Jesus lets the crowd know who he is and where he has come from.

The Gospel is not just a mantra or cultural belief. The Gospel is an invitation to know Jesus.

To know Jesus is to know God. To know God is to be redeemed.

The Gospel is a message of victory.

The crowd wanted victory over their present condition. The Gospel is victory.

The Victory is truly in Jesus. Jesus sets the stage as to how this all works. Victory will be through him.

God desires that we offer our swords to him in reverence and obedience. Jesus, you have our sword.

“We must believe that God is God. Recognize the sovereignty of God. God doesn’t want “a place” in your life. God doesn’t want prominence in your life. He demands and deserves pre-eminence. Adrian Roger's

The battle to be fraught is won for the glory of God. Victory is eminent.

The Gospel is the way to eternal life.

go to 37-39.

Jesus stood. Jesus Cried out. The message here is of importance.

We have a need. Jesus has the only saitisfying solution.

The one who believes on Jesus (i.e. drinks) will not only satisfy his own spiritual thirst but will become a conduit through which the water of life will flow to others.

There the believer will have a constant supply of the water of life bubbling up within him. Here he will actually become an intermediate source of this water for others although, of course, its ultimate source is Christ.

Romans 6:1–11 ESV

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.