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Is Jesus the Messiah?
Call to Worship
Intro
Have you ever been into a television series and really enjoyed it.
Then all of a sudden there is this extremely slow paced episode that no one seems to like, but it’s important for moving the story along.
These are called expositional episodes.
And the reality is that sometimes they aren’t all that entertaining, but rather they are trying to move the plot along.
They are trying to give you the audience insight into where the show is going by showing you where the characters have been.
What events have impacted their lives in order to cause them to make the decisions they have chosen to make.
When one of these episodes relays a lot of information and kind of overwhelms the audience it is called an “info-dump”.
Here’s the thing, this mornings sermon is going to be kind of an info-dump.
It’s going to be expositional in nature and it will show us what we need to look for and glean out of the next several weeks of sermons.
So I ask that you bare with me and know that all of this is going somewhere.
And I promise, getting a hold of this info-dump is going to help us to see exactly what John is doing in the next couple of Chapters.
This morning we are going to do an overview of John 7-9.
But we will spend the next 7 weeks fleshing out the details.
In these chapters.
There is a big Question in these chapters and that question is “Is Jesus the Messiah?”
Is Jesus the Christ?
Is Jesus the one that was promised to come and make things right again?
And this question comes right on the heels of Peter’s Confession found in
John 6:68-69 “68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.””
That is the proper response to Jesus when he asks you who he is and over the next couple of weeks we are going to look at improper responses to the Question “Is Jesus the Messiah?”
Let’s Pray
Festival of Tabernacles
So the setting and events surrounding John 7-9 is super important to understand the claims that Jesus makes about himself.
We don’t celebrate these feasts and so to us they don’t seem that important, but to the Jewish People living before, during, and after Jesus’ time these feasts and festivals mean a great deal.
There are 3 great Jewish Festivals that all Jewish Males were required to attend.
The Festivals are Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles (Shelters/Booths).
John’s Gospel has already touched on 2 Passover feasts.
And Pentecost will be covered in Acts 2, but here we learn of Jesus going to the Festival of Shelters/Tabernacles/Booths.
The Festival of the Tabernacles took place on the Jewish calendar in the Month of Tishri.
This corresponds to our months of September and October.
The Month of Tishri begins with the Feast of Trumpets calling the Jewish People to Repentance and called them to assemble.
The Festival of Trumpets also dedicated the new agricultural year to God for his provision.
The Festival of Trumpets would usher the Jewish people into a 10 day period of repentance and prepare them for the Day of Atonement.
The Day of Atonement was a day where the High Priest could enter into the most holy of rooms in the Temple and make an atonement for the sins of the people.
This was the only day that anyone was allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies.
The only day that someone could be in the presence of the Lord.
These actions of the Day of Atonement would symbolically lead the Jewish people into the Lord’s presence.
The Sacrifice would then cleanse them of the past years sins.
This cleansing would prepare the people to partake in what Ancient Jewish Historians would call the “Holiest of all the Feasts”
The Feast of Tabernacles.
This feast or festival would take place 5 days after the day of atonement.
And this festival is at hand.
This is where we find our selves in the Gospel of John.
The Festival/Feast of the Tabernacle/Booths/Shelters.
This Festival was a time where the Jewish people in and around the area would actually build out door shelters to live in.
These are the booths and tabernacles they would build.
This is like a form of camping for them.
Why would they do this?
To begin with God commanded it.
So this festival was like a week long camping trip for the Israelites.
They would build temporary shelters outside to remind them of the wilderness wanderings.
This festival was originally commanded for 7 days, but the Jewish Leaders ended up adding an extra day to the festival.
Therefore, the festival ran for 8 days instead of 7.
This festival was specifically a time for the Jewish People to rejoice in the Lord
In fact, that’s the commandment that God gave them when he instructed this festival.
v.40 “…Rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.”
Now this was a time for them to rejoice, remember, and look forward to God’s provision.
The Israelites were to look back and remember God’s provision after freeing them from Egypt.
He provided for them in the desert.
The water from the rock and the manna and quail from heaven.
They looked at the present provision by rejoicing in the harvest that God gave them.
This festival celebrated the harvest of olives, grapes, and other fruits.
This festival eventually became a celebration of looking forward to the future messiah as well as looking back on God’s deliverance and God’s provision of the harvest.
And it seems fitting that Jesus the Messiah would show up at this festival to proclaim who he is.
Before Jesus’ Time the Jewish people added a couple of elements to the Feast of Tabernacles that Jesus is going to point them to.
One thing they added was what is called a libation ceremony.
Each day of the festival the priests would make the journey down from the temple to the pool of Siloam.
They would then draw water from that pool in a golden cistern and take the water back up to the altar at the temple.
Once arriving at the altar they would pour out the water.
This was a ritual reminding them of God’s provision of water when they were wandering in the desert.
If you look in Exodus 17 and Numbers 20 you will find the miracle of water flowing from a rock.
Providing enough water for all the Israelites and their livestock in the desert.
So Jesus takes this tradition and makes something more out of if.
John 7:37-38 “37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
38 The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.””
Jesus is probably playing off of the words in Isa 12:3 “3 You will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation,”
Especially b/c these are the words that would be recited as the water is poured on the Altar.
Jesus is the one that provides water that truly satisfies.
Water that brings life.
If those present are thirsty for the truth.
Longing for the provision of God he has arrived.
Another thing they added was on the the 7th night of the festival they had these giant candelabras set up in the temple courtyard.
One theologian said that the fuel used to light these giant candelabras was oil and the old, worn out priestly garments.
But on the 7th night of the celebration these candelabras would be lit and they were said to give off immense light.
One Ancient source says “He who has never seen the illumination ceremony has never seen true joy.”
And it was around this time that Jesus speaks this truth,
John 8:12 “12...“I am the light of the world.
Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.””
Jesus is claiming to be greater than this ceremony and celebration.
He is the light that pierces the darkness.
He is the light that draws people to God.
He is the light that provides life.
Then to put a more pointed explanation on Jesus as the light of the world, in John 9 Jesus heals the blind man and he can now see.
The Light of the world has taken the one that was in darkness and given him light.
But we will talk about that more in a few weeks.
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