Sermon Audio File: John 7:37-52
Going Deeper: Study Guide
Rivers Of Life And A Flood Of Controversy
In our last passage of John 7, we found that Jesus arrives in Jerusalem halfway through the Feast. And as soon as He arrives in the city He goes to the temple courts and then begins to teach. An outcome of Jesus’ authoritative teaching of truth, results in what should have been expected that is error would be exposed. And when error is exposed, people will respond with repentance or repulsion. In the case of part of the crowd, they believed in Jesus and were saved. For the others there was rejection, especially from the Jewish authorities who try to arrest Jesus, but it was not according to God’s divine timetable and therefore it is unsuccessful.
As we come to today’s passage we can discover that Jesus continues teaching. Jesus offers WATERS OF LIFE - that is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which comes from Jesus’ offer of eternal life to those who are listening to His teaching and who humbly respond. This is true living - true life - a life that is spiritually rich, full, satisfied.
Yet like Jesus’ earlier teaching, the people respond in different ways and there arises A FLOOD OF CONTROVERSY. We will discover as we get to verse 40, that peoples’ responses can be broken into 6 different reactions.
This is our text from the Scriptures for today:
WATERS OF LIFE - 37 Now on the last day, the great [day] of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, `From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' " 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet [given], because Jesus was not yet glorified.
FLOOD OF CONTROVERSY - 40 [Some] of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, "This certainly is the Prophet." 41 Others were saying, "This is the Christ." Still others were saying, "Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? 42 "Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" 43 So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him. 44 Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him. 45 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, "Why did you not bring Him?" 46 The officers answered, "Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks." 47 The Pharisees then answered them, "You have not also been led astray, have you? 48 "No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he? 49 "But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed." 50 Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them) ^said to them, 51 "Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?" 52 They answered him, "You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee."
Today we are going to look at the single most important issue we all face. This issue revolves around two realities that all people fall under. These two areas are - Spiritual Fullness and Spiritual Emptiness. And the question that we should be asking ourselves in relating God’s Word to our life is - Am I spiritually full or am I spiritually empty?
WATERS OF LIFE (v.37-39)
Before we get into our text, some background is necessary so that we fully understand what Jesus is going to teach. If you remember we are in Jerusalem, at the time of the Feast.
v. 37 The feast which the text refers to is the Feast of Tabernacles, which is held around September/October and is also called The Feast of Booths or Ingathering. This was a joyful celebration. The Jews during this observance gave thanks to God for the special blessings that He bestowed upon Israel in the wilderness. During the wilderness wanderings God made Himself present in the tabernacle. In remembrance the people would build and live in temporary shelters made from leaves and branches - to remind them of the wilderness wanderings of their forefathers in the days of Moses. The feast later on had an added meaning which was attributing thanks to God for the blessings received in their annual harvest.
The feast of Tabernacles was one of the three major feasts that the Jews were required to observe in Jerusalem (Deut. 16:16) - the others being Passover and Pentecost. During the feast of Tabernacles there were rites involving water drawing and lamp lighting, which the people observed. The water rite involved a the High priest leading a procession from the Temple down to the pool of Siloam. It was here that the priest would fill a golden pitcher with water. The procession would then return to the Temple area and the water would be used by pouring it out at the base of the Temple altar.
The water was offered to God which symbolized the blessing of having sufficient rainfall for their crops. This context becomes important to understand in reference to the statements that Jesus is to make in our passage today about Himself, being the source that satisfies spiritual thirst for all people, for everyone of you here today.
As the celebrations of the feast came to an end, it was on this last day, the great day that the High priest would come once again to the altar to pour out the water in his golden pitcher. This would be the high point of the Feast accompanied by the reciting of Scripture and the singing of Psalms. One of the Scripture they would recite was from Isaiah 12:3 - which says 'Therefore you will joyously draw water From the springs of salvation'. It was at the close of this ceremony that Jesus stood up and suddenly cried out in a loud voice, just as He did back in verse 28 - If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. In so doing Jesus gave a greater meaning to the water ritual - He gave it a deeper spiritual significance. For the people, they were more focused on the memorial of the Israelites thirst in the wilderness, and the physical benefits of water. And now with Jesus’ words - He focused the people upon their own soul’s parched spiritual condition.
This is something that I found - it is a secular commentary of life, but it does speak to the issue of pursuing the fullness of life, but in the end finding not more of life but less of it…as one writer remarks….
We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less. We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and lie too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've done larger things, but not better things; we've cleaned up the air, but polluted the heart; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice; we write more, but learn less; plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes; but lower morals; more food but less appeasement. We build more computers, but have less communication; we've become long on quantity, but short on quality. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure and less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition. These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. Indeed it's all true.
In the book of Ecclessiastes it reminds us that Solomon had everything that he could imagine, and more - yet what did he say? It was all meaningless….vanity….a chasing of the wind.
I want all of you to think about something - and it deals with spiritual thirst in our lives - have you tried different things, maybe even everything that has come your way that been offered to you, but are still empty?….here is the solution…..
v.38 - The water theme continues and Jesus now states - "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, `From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' This was a call by Jesus, to every individual present, for a personal response of faith in Him. Jesus draws the attention of the people in realizing that the person who believes in Jesus will be given… rivers…an inexhaustible flow…an abundance - not just a symbolic single golden pitcher full of water…, but an unlimited source of spiritual refreshment… of living water… coming from your innermost being….provided only by faith in Christ. John does not give the Scripture reference Jesus refers to, but we do know that the water rite of the Feast pictures the end times rivers of living water, in a passage such as Zech 13:1- 'In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.'
v.39 - Since this is a very important statement Jesus makes, the Apostle John gives us the inspired interpretation of what Jesus was referring to. The rivers of living water Jesus spoke of was none other than the Holy Spirit, who was to be given to those who believed in Him after Jesus ascended to heaven. The giving of the Holy Spirit would transition people into the next phase of God’s redemptive plan - from the Law to the New Covenant.
The New Covenant was spoken of by Ezekiel - this is what Ezekiel 36:25-27 says - it is printed in our bulletins if you would like to look at it - 'Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.' It was in the Father’s plan that the Holy Spirit would not be given until Jesus was glorified. The word glorified is one of the key words in the Gospel of John. In this context it refers to Jesus’ forthcoming suffering, death, and resurrection from the dead. This was the demonstration of God’s love and power - and the humble means that Jesus would enter into His glory.
Have we been chasing after the goods of life? Is our life like going to the grocery store - we grab a shopping cart and we go down the aisles - and we start filling up our cart with items - chocolate chip cookies, BBQ chips, cream soda, black forest cake, chocolate covered almonds, cinnamon buns….do you get the picture? All these items are going to get you by, but in the end you are going to be malnourished. If this is all you ever eat in your life….your body is going to be empty….your body is going to crave for real food - meat, vegetables, fruits - stuff that will really feed your body - in fact your body will demand it - otherwise your body is going to shut down.
In our lives are we filling up the cart with ‘spiritual substitutes’ - it’s all about our personal image - our hair style, hair colour, our clothes, our jewelry; maybe it is our traditions - the stanley cup, high school re-unions, giving gifts; maybe it could be our experiences - extreme is in these days - extreme dating, extreme sports…...may I suggest to you today, that whatever it is…all it boils down to is the reality that if these are the goals of your life….then these are all ‘spiritual substitutes’ - the more that I can achieve, the more I can accumulate, the bigger the better - these are things which attempt to plug a gaping hole in our lives because we are sinners…..spiritually empty……thirsty…..
Why are people like that? Why are we like that? The answer is that we are all made in the image of God. We were created to be in fellowship with God, but sin blocks that fellowship. And because we love sin we will find ‘things’ to fill in that spiritual void, but we find none. Yet Jesus has been glorified and can stand in the gap. Because Jesus speaks the truth, there erupts a…..
2. FLOOD OF CONTROVERSY (v.40-52)
In our passage Jesus was predominantly addressing those who did not have faith in Him. But as we go through this section , as Christians there are some possible implications for us too. Yes, we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit - we may not be spiritually empty in the sense of not being saved, but in some senses we may be spiritually empty because we hinder the work of the Spirit in our lives (1 Thess. 5:19). We can be spiritually immature because we can react to truth, in the same way as those who don’t know Jesus.
Therefore spiritual emptiness can lead to the following 6 reactions …….
1. People being sincerely wrong (v.40)
v.40 - Once again as on previous days when Jesus taught at the Temple, there was confusion over what He meant. In the OT there is a passage which speaks about the coming ‘Prophet’ which was declared by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15 (The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him). Moses foreshadowed that this person would be on the level of the regular ordinary people. This Prophet would not come with the alarming manifestations as seen in the wilderness wanderings - that is with thunderous voice and fire - instead the Prophet would be one of their countrymen. So as this OT verse flashed through the minds of some of the people, part of the crowd interpreted Jesus’ words to mean that He was claiming to be that Prophet, Moses spoke of. Since the people were spiritually empty they thought they had assessed Jesus correctly - but they were sincerely wrong, that thinking of Jesus as merely a great prophet. We see this with many of the cults - they claim to be Christians but are void of spiritual truth, because they have an incomplete and therefore wrong Jesus. Spiritual emptiness can result in…
2. People who are sincerely right (v.41)
v.41 - But, others in the crowd interpreted Jesus’ teaching as meaning that This is the Christ - not merely the Prophet, but instead He was the long awaited Messiah. This is a proper identification of Jesus that can only come through the drawing of God (Jn. 6:44). Only God can open our minds to who He is. We see this reality in our lives as Christians - we didn’t have to do anything to get God’s attention, but He put us in a place where we recognized that we couldn’t do anything to please Him because of our sin; He offered us forgiveness in Christ for the penalty due our sin; and He gave us the faith to believe in Jesus as the only true Saviour from our sin - leading to rivers of living water (cf. 38).
Being spiritually empty makes…
3. People sincerely skeptical (v.42)
v.42 - Still another group present, questioned these beliefs - they said - Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? - they couldn’t believe that someone as great as the Messiah would come from the country - a small town nobody. They believed that the Christ was to come from the descendants of David. Yes, that is what the Scripture said - and they were right. They also were correct in interpreting that the Christ was to be from David’s town of Bethlehem - according to Micah 5:2. But they were skeptical and did not come to know Jesus. There are many people today who have the intellectual knowledge of who Jesus is yet they may not really accept the fact that Jesus is God, and that we can have a personal relationship with Him.
So far we have seen that there are those who are wrong about Jesus, there are those who are right, and those who are skeptical….
v.43 - There was such a FLOOD OF CONFUSION because of Jesus that the people were divided. The word ‘division’ in verse 43 in the Greek is the word schisma - our English word ‘schism’ comes from this word - pointing to the fact that there was a clear split over their views. The schism arose in part because of the question of Jesus’ origins; they assigned Jesus as coming from Nazareth, so some of them discounted Him as the Messiah. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but He grew up in Nazareth - and this is were the disconnect lay - a portion of the crowd had possessed only a part of the truth, and therefore ignorantly assumed it was an untruth.v.44 - In the end, the teachings of Jesus were so provocative that some people wanted to seize Him - probably in order to drag Jesus before the Sanhedrin - which was the central authority, for the Jews comprised of members from the Sadducees and Pharisees. But no one laid hands on Him - and so we see once again, just like back in verses 30 and 32, that God controlled the outcome - nothing would be allowed to transpire outside of God’s will. And in the light of this, it was not Jesus’ Divinely appointed time to be arrested.
The rest of our passage reveals the final three results of a lack of spiritual life. We find fourthly that…
People become easily confused (v.45-46)
In this case it is the temple guards.
v.45 - If we remember back in verse 32 - the officers (temple guards) were dispatched to arrest Jesus. They now return back to the chief priests and Pharisees empty handed. They failed their mission without any arrest and there was an infuriated eruption amongst the Sanhedrin - and they were reprimanded with these words -Why did you not bring Him?
v.46 - The officers (temple guards) that were sent out responded by saying that - Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks. The words of Jesus so captured these guards, that they were mesmerized. I pointed out last time that these guards were Levites, so they had a strong religious knowledge. In contrast to the members of the Sanhedrin, Jesus’ words conflicted with the words of their superiors, because Jesus’ words were full of authority and power. As a result they these officers became confused and did not follow their orders.
Today many people have been asked to come to Jesus, make Him your Lord and Saviour, but there is no context to it. Many people have grown up in the church but are not Christians. Yes people would agree that Jesus had a lot of good things to say which were packed with a punch…but they are confused, because in the end they don’t really understand what it all means. The reason for this is that the context of what is said in the Bible, needs to be spiritually discerned.
Number 5 - with spiritual emptiness…
There are people who simply don’t care
v.47-48 - The Sanhedrin were disappointed to say the least, as the Pharisees returned fire by accusing the guards of being deceived by Jesus - in other words they were saying… ‘No way…are you so foolish that you believe in what Jesus said?’…Look at us rulers and Pharisees…have we been led astray by Jesus…..absolutely not! In this statement we get a clear glimpse of the spiritual pride that was overflowing in their hearts. They set themselves above the temple guards (officers)….v.49 - And they set themselves above the people as well. The Jewish authority believed themselves to be the educated - those amongst the Jewish people that had all the brains. In fact the Pharisees were so upset that they slammed those who had sympathies towards Jesus as ignorant and common people. The Pharisees’ heart attitude was saying this - what right do these people think they have to question our decision about Jesus - we don’t believe Him - therefore Jesus is a fraud - we are right and you are wrong.
In contrast to themselves, they pass judgment on the crowd - labeling them as idiots - not having a clue of the law - and these Pharisees are so stuck up that they proceed to pronounce them accursed - meaning that they were condemned to destruction, because they believed that these people were incapable of having any intelligence. The Sanhedrin professed intellect above the common people, but in their own knowledge they were at fault.
What they were trying to do was put down anyone who would get in the way of their rage against Jesus. They were so bent on evil that they willfully did not care and sadly disregarded the truth.
Spiritual emptiness…deadness… allows ones heart to cultivate pride, but pride people from Jesus…and they simply don’t care to know Him. All they care about is holding onto their own version of the truth - and looking out for number one - that being self….they live by their own rules….they place themselves in a position of being God….they are a religion unto themselves, and condemn those who - quote unquote are being deceived by Jesus. And lastly there are...
6. People who are undecided
v.50 - In verse 50 we see the resurfacing of Nicodemus. We were introduced to him back in chapter 3. If you remember he had gone to Jesus at night to ask Jesus some burning questions on his own heart. Nicodemus was one of them - a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin.
v.51 - He opposed what the Sanhedrin was doing to Jesus and he speaks out against this injustice. He stands up for doing the right thing. There was a legal procedure to be followed in the Law - and Nicodemus challenges his colleagues to observe it - that is that a man must first be heard before they could judge and condemn. As a note, it is not certain at this point if Nicodemus was defending Jesus because he was ‘born again’ or it could simply have been his will to do what is lawful and right.
v.52 - The Sanhedrin do not answer Nicodemus’ question about this legal detail - which demonstrated their own disregard for the law - it was a ‘do as I say and not what I do’ scenario. Not only did the Sanhedrin put down the people for their thoughts about Jesus, but they did not stop at insulting even one of their own members - by mocking Nicodemus, insulting him with this question - You are not also from Galilee, are you? They expected a ‘no’ answer since they would have know this fact about Nicodemus, but what they were driving at, was that his sympathy for Jesus was putting him into the same category as the crowd. They further press on Nicodemus by challenging him to do some study - so that he would discover that no prophet arises out of Galilee. This statement by the members of the Sanhedrin was unfounded, since the prophet Jonah, and also Hosea, and Nahum were from Galilee.
Despite spiritual emptiness, there are those like Nicodemus in whom God works in their heart. God begins the process of drawing them to Jesus, but in this process comes indecision….you could say that they could fall on either side….belief or unbelief. But in the end - if God is indeed drawing… it is only a matter of time that a person will move to the point of a deep spiritual thirst that they will respond to Christ’s call to saving faith - to possess ‘rivers of living water.’
Often we go through life in a similar way, that is with some or much spiritual emptiness. And we may find that we go to any lengths to get to the end, but there are those hills in our life which just won’t let us get to the top….because we are spiritually empty.
If you are not a Christian, I know that there are going to be a lot of those hills in your life. Maybe you think you have made it to the top, but you haven’t. Let’s be honest, you don't have it all together - and Jesus certainly knows that you don’t. That is why as Christians we meet, we know we don’t have it all together, but at one point in our lives, Jesus opened our eyes and helped us figure out that we were spiritually empty - and that Jesus was the only way. We came to know Jesus and the Holy Spirit now lives in us, to fill us with true purpose in our lives.
Jesus in a loud and clear voice reminds us, today, right now - that - "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, `From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' " Do you passionately long for spiritual refreshment? Is your soul so parched that you can’t move forward? In these times may understand that in order to get to top, we need to turn to the One who provides rivers of living water.
In these two verses Jesus was calling the people to Himself...maybe you today. That Jesus is saying to you I know that you are longing for spiritual satisfaction. You need Me to help you recognize this. You need to have your sins forgiven, your unrecognized spiritual thirst quenched, and I am the only Person in the world who can do that for you. Come and drink... repent of your sins and receive Me, and within you I will grant the rivers of living water unto eternal life.
This is the good news that Jesus offers…a gospel invitation to true spiritual life.
Back to Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived - and from Ecclesiastes, really summed it up (12:13-14): The conclusion, when all has been heard, [is]: fear God and keep His commandments, because this [applies to] every person. 14 For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
