Is Jesus the Messiah? Part 3

We have been looking at this passage for the the last 3 weeks and we have come to realize that the key question asked in these 52 verses is “Is Jesus the Messiah?”

How we answer that question has a tremendous amount of baring on how we live, how we act, and how we worship.

Last week I told you guys that the answer to the question Who is Jesus is the most important question you will ever have to ask and answer.

John wants us to see Jesus for who he is. That he is the Son of God the savior of the world.

That he is the messiah who has come to seek and save the lost.

John tells us at the end of the gospel the reason why he wrote these words.

John 20:31 “31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

So the question remains what will you do with Jesus?

Who do you say that Jesus is?

In this morning’s text we will read and hear a beautiful invitation from Jesus.

A call to take him at his word.

A call to know and love him.

A call to taste and see that he is good.

And then we will look a the response from the crowd.

But before we dive in, let’s pray.

John 7:37–39 CSB

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.” 39 He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Invitation

A few weeks ago, I spent a few minutes talking about the Festival that’s going on during this and the following two chapters.

But as a quick reminder let’s talk about it.

It’s Called the Festival of Tabernacles.

This feast was a time of reflection, celebration, and anticipation.

The People would build temporary tabernacles to live in for one week.

This was to remind them of the wilderness wanderings and God’s provision.

The celebration came on the heels of harvest celebrating God’s provision.

The feast pointed them to the coming messiah/savior as God’s provision.

And Jesus, as a Jewish man, would attend this celebration feast.

And here we see that he took a stand on the last and most important day of the festival.

Now to understand what Jesus says here we have to understand one of the practices that would happen daily at the festival.

Each day the priests would leave the temple and make their way down to the Pool of Siloam.

This pool was provided running fresh water to Jerusalem.

The priests would go down each day and take some golden cisterns or pitchers to draw water from the pool.

Once the water was drawn they would make their way back up to the temple and pour out the water on the altar as a sacrifice.

Now on the last day of the feast this would take place not once but 7 times.

And as this ceremony is taking place those present at the feast would wave a tree branch in one hand and a citrus branch in the other to signify their celebration.

They would then recite what are called the Hallel Psalms. Those found in Ps 113-118.

Remember the entirety of this celebration was to help the Jewish people focus on God’s provision.

God providing them water from the rock while they were in the wilderness in Ex 17 and Numbers 20.

God’s provision of water in Jerusalem, to drink, to water the crops, to sustain life.

We live in a time and place where we aren’t as concerned with having water as they were in that time.

Remember they lived in a desert region.

Water wasn’t always easy to come by. They couldn’t go into their kitchen and turn on the faucet to get fresh clean water.

So they were absolutely dependent on God for their water supply.

and they were thankful for the water that he supplied.

When was the last time that you gave thanks to God for clean, fresh water.

Anyway, as this ceremony was wrapping up Jesus stood up and cried out.

Jesus stood up and shouted with a loud voice

John 7:37-38 “...“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.””

He didn’t want those at the festival to miss out on the importance of the festival.

That the festival all along focused on him.

The festival pointed to him.

The festival was looking forward to the provision of God in the Savior sent by God.

Paul tells us in 1 Cor 10:4 “4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.” that Jesus was the rock in the desert that followed the Israelites around providing water for them.

Jesus is the water that satisfies.

He is the water that quenches our thirst.

He is the water that brings life.

Think about it we can’t live without water.

It is essential to our well being.

And we are not simply physical beings.

We are spiritual beings too.

Meaning that we don’t just need to drink water for our bodies, but we need to drink water for our souls.

And here Jesus offers up an invitation.

To come and drink his living water.

Who is the invitation for?

Everyone who is thirsty.

What does it mean to be thirsty?

It means that you are desperate, needy, and unsatisfied.

Your mind, body, and soul is parched and needing refreshment.

Your body sends certain signals when it is dehydrated.

Your mouth gets dry, your muscles start to ache, you get headaches, brain fog, and fatigue.

All because you aren’t drinking water to hydrate your body.

Corrie and I have a friend who suffers from intense migraines.

And if you look at her she seems healthy enough.

But all she drinks is soda.

She never drinks water and her body is reacting to that lack of hydration.

Even though there is water in the soda its not like the pure form of water.

It’s counterfeit hydration.

She never notices the dehydration b/c she filling the felt need with the counterfeit that seems to satisfy.

It tastes good. It feels good. But it doesn’t do what pure water would do.

The soda will never hydrate and cure thirst like pure and unadulterated water.

Likewise your soul is spiritually dry if it hasn’t been hydrated by the living water.

Your soul is thirsty, desperate, needy and unsatisfied.

So you search and feed your soul things that are going to satisfy the need.

And so what do we do, we try to cure our thirst with counterfeits.

We chase after pleasure, money, recognition, relationships, power, or satisfaction.

And as we chase after those things we believe that we are satisfied.

And they may satisfy for a while, but they end up getting old.

It ends up never being enough.

Our souls are still dehydrated.

We are still thirsty.

But here’s the thing, sometimes we don’t care if we’re thirsty.

No matter the cost.

We would rather drink the sodas and risk the headaches than drink the water and be refreshed.

We would rather seek self-satisfaction and risk the consequences than run to the life giving water.

So here’s what Jesus offers.

He offers streams of living water.

But those streams are offered to everyone, but only the thirsty will seek them.

And Jesus says that if you realize your thirst, If you know you’re missing something.

If you know that you are desperate, needy, and unsatisfied with the things of this world then you can find satisfaction in him.

To know that your thirsty is a good thing.

To know that there is more to life is a good thing.

To know that there is something greater, better, and more magnificent is a grace of God.

Because the things of this world, the counterfeits will distract us from our need.

The money, sex, fame, relationships, pride and self-satisfaction will appear to satisfy.

They will dull our senses to the fact that our souls long for something better.

Self-satisfaction will dull our minds, hearts, and souls to the true thirst that we have.

Because as soon as something doesn’t satisfy, we move right on to the next thing.

And God will give us over to our own thirst.

People will lose their thirst for God. For something deeper, something more meaningful b/c they are distracted by the things that satisfy now.

So how do we have these springs of living water?

How can we drink from the waters that satisfy?

Jesus tells us we have to believe in him.

We have to trust in him.

We have to follow him.

Because he is the source of living water.

What does it mean to trust in Jesus?

What does it mean to be satisfied in Jesus?

What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

It means that we believe that we are sinners separated from a holy God.

And that this isn’t how life is supposed to be.

We are God’s Creation, created to be in communion with him.

But our hearts are wicked and rebel against God’s goodness and grace.

Making us children of wrath opposed to God.

All of us destined to spend eternity separated from God because of our sinfulness and our rebellion toward God.

There need to be a way for us to be brought back into right standing with God.

So God made a way. A way for us to be transformed. A way for us to go from children of wrath to children of God. A way for us to be made right with him

That way was made through the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Jesus came to live the perfect life.

He came to die the death that each one of us deserved.

He came to take on the wrath of God so that we can have forgiveness.

This forgiveness comes by grace alone through Faith alone in Christ alone.

We have to trust that Jesus is the only way that we can have a relationship with God.

We have to trust that Jesus paid it all. There is nothing more that I owe.

It’s Jesus that saves us.

Not my morality.

Not my church attendance.

Not my giving to charity or church.

There is nothing I can do to earn the grace from God.

God’s grace is free.

And when you drink from grace you will be changed.

And when we believe that truth we are changed.

We get to drink from the well of living water.

We get to find our satisfaction not in what we do, what we chase, or who we are, but rather in who Jesus is.

And when we believe and trust that there is something else that Jesus tells us happens.

We find personal satisfaction in Jesus, but we also get to be a blessing to others.

The streams of living water that come from Jesus will flow out of from us.

Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t stop at belief.

It simply begins there.

Following Jesus means doing the things that Jesus does.

Loving people.

Caring for the broken hearted.

Taking care of the less fortunate.

Being a blessing and cultivating the Kingdom of God everywhere you go.

We are to be life giving people.

People who use our actions to carry the burdens of others.

People who use our gifts to serve one another.

People who use our words to encourage and build up.

So are you a life giving follower of Jesus

Are you positively impacting your home, community, and work place with the gospel of Jesus?

Many times people think about and ask what’s God’s will for my life?

God’s will for your life is that you be a blessing.

That you live a life that mimics Jesus’ life.

God’s will for your life is that You love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul, and that you love your neighbor as yourself.

You have that capacity.

You have that ability.

You have that in your heart if you have the springs of living water.

If your thirst has been satisfied in Jesus Christ.

Listen to what John said after Jesus talks about the living waters given to those who are thirsty.

john 7:39 “39 He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

When Jesus spoke these words, the HS had not yet come to rest and dwell within believers.

Most certainly he was active in the lives of those who trusted God in the OT and before Jesus’ resurrection, but he didn’t continually dwell with them.

One of the promises Jesus makes later in the gospel of John is that its a good thing that he is going to die.

Because soon the HS would come and dwell with in them.

If you believe in Jesus, If you trust in Jesus.

If you have been transformed by Jesus you have the HS living inside of you.

And that is where the springs of living waters come from.

God dwelling in you.

You are a representative of God.

A light in the dark world.

Living water in the dry and desert land.

That’s a high and mighty calling.

So let me ask you how are you doing?

If you carry with you the name of Christ are you representing him in a way that is life giving?

If not, maybe you need to take some time to reflect on what it means to belong to Jesus.

If so, keep up the good work.

We should be in awe and astounded that Jesus invites us to drink from his wells.

And that when we do b/c of his grace and mercy we become springs that flow from him.

Calling other to come and meet Jesus.

Extending the invitation to them.

Now, here’s the thing with invitations, some people react differently to the invite.

And that’s what we are going to see here. In the following verses.

John 7:40–44 CSB

40 When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 42 Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David’s offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David lived?” 43 So the crowd was divided because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.

Response from Crowd

It doesn’t matter what Jesus says or does people are always confused by him.

The crowd here can’t decide whether Jesus is a Prophet, the Messiah, or something else.

They are reflecting on the fact that he doesn’t look like, act like, or even come from where they believed the Savior would come from.

There’s no way that the Messiah, the Savior, could come from a backwoods town like Galilee.

But if we remember last week, Jesus may have grown up in Galilee, but he is from heaven.

The crowd rightly notices that the Messiah needed to be associated with King David from the OT. Both from his lineage and from his town.

What the Crowd doesn’t know is that Jesus is from David’s lineage and he was born in Bethlehem, Davids home town.

But if we’re being honest, even if they had that information they still probably wouldn’t have truly believed.

Because they didn’t want to believe.

Obviously there were some in the crowd that were convinced, but not everyone was.

But even if they had all the right answers, all the pertinent information, there are those that still don’t want to believe.

They are perfectly fine sippin’ on the soda of destruction rather than drinking from the waters of life.

They don’t know that they are thirsty b/c they are dull to their need.

In v.44, we see again for the 3rd time that they try and take Jesus.

They try and seize him, but they can’t.

It’s not Jesus’ time.

The time has not yet come.

He will not lay down his life until he is ready.

The people are divided over who Jesus is, but so is the leadership in Jerusalem.

John 7:45–52 CSB

45 Then the servants came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?” 46 The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!” 47 Then the Pharisees responded to them, “Are you fooled too? 48 Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them—said to them, 51 “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?” 52 “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

Reaction from Leaders

If you remember, back in verse 32, the Pharisees and the chief priests sent people to go and arrest Jesus.

But they are unable to, so they come back with a report here in v. 45-46.

The servants are in awe of the way Jesus speaks and teaches.

This is definitely reminiscent of Mark 1:22 “22 They were astonished at his teaching because he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not like the scribes.”

The servants are dumbfounded by Jesus’ ability to teach and speak.

Or maybe they are astounded by what he is saying.

Remember Jesus is essentially saying that he is the One the festival pointed to.

He is the one that the people have longed for.

He is the one that they expected, but he isn’t going to do what they expected.

But most the Pharisees are not impressed with Jesus.

“They were the guardians of correct theology, and everyone else was both unknowing (stupid) and cursed (7:49).”

There was no way that they could believe that Jesus or any other person could speak with the same clarity and authority that they had.

They were the gatekeepers to theology and practice.

They were the rule makers and Jesus was threatening their power.

It’s one thing for the crowd of the untrained and “ignorant” to believe, but it would be more scandalous if one among their ranks believed.

And then John gives us a little glimpse into a man we met a few chapters ago.

His name is Nicodemus.

And Nicodemus stands up to the other Pharisees and even points out their own law to them.

The fact that they are willing to judge and violate the law to apprehend Jesus is unthinkable to Nicodemus.

And the immediate come back from those present is to accuse and discredit Nicodemus.

They accuse him of being from the same backwoods town as Jesus.

Insinuating that he isn’t worthy of having an opinion.

Or that his opinion is tainted.

Again they are more focused on where Jesus grew up than what he is teaching and doing.

His works and his words should be enough to prove that he is from God.

But they are blind b/c they don’t want to believe.

So where are you this morning.

Are you part of the camp that believe’s and trusts in Jesus?

Or are you still curious not knowing what to think about him?

Or do you reject him completely?

You have a choice to make.

The invitation is open.

Are you thirsty?

Do you want to drink from the well of life?

Come to Jesus and he will satisfy your heart, mind, and soul.

Let’s pray.

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