They want to kill Jesus because he claims to
be God. Verse 2. The Jewish festival, the shelters
or booths, depending on what version you're reading
it, was near. Okay? This festival of booths or
festival of shelters would happen every year.
It's a critical point in the Jewish culture.
This was one massive celebration. That you, where
everybody would come together in Jerusalem and
they would camp. And they pulled out these little
tents. This is not glamping. Some of you guys
from our last camp out like that's not camping.
Some of you had like the Taj Mahals. This is
different. They would deliberately bring small
tents and go camp. If you just imagine thousands
of people in little tiny tents for a whole week.
And it was a celebration. And the festival was
to celebrate God's provision in the wilderness.
You remember in the wilderness in Exodus when
they were all there? God provided for them over
and over. His provision was given in food, in
protection, and in water. And so that's what
they would celebrate. They would come to say,
look what God has done. We'll talk more about
that festival in a minute. Verse 3. So his brother
said to him, Leave here and go to Judea so that
your disciples can see your works that you are
doing. For no one does anything in secret while
he's seeking public recognition. If you do these
things, show yourself to the world. For not even
his brothers believed in him. Okay. Remember
what he just said in the first verse that he
was not going to go up to Judea? Why? People
trying to kill him. So his brothers, they say,
hey, these are his actual brothers. Children
of Mary and Joseph. They actually pushing at
him. Why don't you go? You should go up to this
place. Here's the issue. They don't yet believe
that Jesus is the Messiah. You own brothers.
But what is really interesting, in fact, one
of the biggest cases. to believe that Jesus is
who he truly said he was, is that later on, after
his death, burial, and resurrection, they come
to believe. Believing your own brother is the
Messiah. But at this point, they don't believe.
There's a number of motivations behind why his
brothers are kind of pushing him, agging him
on to go down to the place that he knows people
are out to kill him. Because he says he's going
to stay in Galilee and not go down here to Judea
because they might kill me there. What was their
motivation? Well, I think there's possibly two
different motivations. One, I think they were
wanting to expose him as a fraud. Or maybe they
liked the fame. They liked all the attention
that Jesus was getting and they could kind of
ride in and help get the public recognition.
We don't know. Now look at verse 6. Like I said,
we're going to blaze through this because it's
important. Verse 6, Jesus told them, my time
has not yet arrived, but your time is always
at hand. The world cannot hate you, but it does
hate me because I testify about it, that its
works are evil. Go up to the festival of yourselves.
I'm not going up to this festival because my
time has not yet come. After he'd said these
things, he stayed in Galilee. Jesus says, look,
bros, my timetable is not your timetable because
my purpose is not your purpose. I'll go when
I'm ready. You don't understand, basically he's
saying, you don't understand. He tells them,
people don't hate you. But they hate me because
I expose their sins. That's the thing about Jesus,
right? John 3, verses 19 and 20, Jesus talks
about the effects of encountering him. He, the
light of the world, exposes the darkness of man's
sin. When our sin is exposed, we have two options.
Sometimes maybe three, but they really fit into
two categories. One is you cling to him for cleaning.
Help me, Jesus. Or you hate him for exposing
your dirtiness. Sometimes we avoid him, but it's
basically doing the same thing. Avoid it. Ah,
it doesn't exist. Over and over. So let's just
look at verse 10 before we jump to that. Verse
10. After this, his brothers had gone up to the
festival. Then he also went up, not openly, but
in secret. The Jews were looking for him at the
festival and saying, where is he? And there was
a lot of murmuring about him among the crowds.
Some were saying, he's a good man. Others were
saying, no, on the contrary, he's deceiving people.
Still, Nobody was talking publicly about him
for the fear of the Jews. Over and over, we see
people have a lot of different responses to Jesus.
It's true today. You either hate him, or you
love him, or you try to ignore him. One of the
things in the Gospel of John is that you see
this over and over where Jesus is presented,
and either people hate him, They love him. In
these verses, there's a group of people who encounter
Jesus and have a very positive reaction to Jesus,
but for fear of what the other people think,
no one says a word about him. This kind of sounds
like our American church, doesn't it? We don't
need to talk openly about Jesus. Just be quiet
with your faith. You don't want to offend anybody.
I agree with how Joby Martin has what he has
to say when he comments about this section. He
says, every day we have to make a choice. Will
I live under the fear of man or the fear and
reverence of God? So he says, he goes on to say
that when we live under the fear of man, We keep
our beliefs to ourselves so we don't offend anybody.
But we live under the fear of God. We take the
gospel to the ends of the earth. When we live
under the fear of man, we begin to adopt the
values of this world. When we live under the
fear of God, we value what God values. See, to
live under the fear of man, you think about how
this will affect your reputation. But we live
under the fear of God. We think first about the
glory of God and his reputation. Now look at
verse 14. When the festival was already half
over, Jesus went up into the temple and began
to teach. Then the Jews were amazed and said,
how is this man so learned since he hasn't even
been trained? When Jesus spoke, the people were
awestruck by the command he had on Scripture.
They're like, what is this? But it was obvious.
They knew that he wasn't trained as a special
rabbi. But something was different. Verse 16.
Jesus answered them, my teaching isn't mine,
but it is from the one who sent me. If anyone
wants to do his will, he will know whether his
teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking
on my own. The one who speaks on his own seeks
his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory
of the one who sent him is true, and there is
no unrighteousness in him. Jesus is saying, look,
you religious people, if you knew God, you would
know who I am. See, the Father, I am the Father's
Son. I come from Him. I do what He tells me to
do. I don't seek my own glory. I seek the glory
of the Father. Verses 19. Didn't Moses give you
the law? Yet, None of you keep the law. Why are
you trying to kill me? You have a demon, the
crowd responded. Why are you trying to? Who's
trying to kill you? So the law says that thou
shall not murder, right? But they were trying
to murder him. And so Jesus just calls them out.
And in deflecting that, whoa, especially publicly,
they go, oh. Verse 20 is all about the deflecting.
So instead of continuing down that road, Jesus,
he got them. He got them. He just called them
out. You think you're, I know what you're up
to. He says, I know you want to kill me. You
claim that you're really good. You're a really
good follower of God. You claim that, but look
at you. You're wanting to murder me. You have
a demon? So Jesus just moves on to verse 21.
I performed one work, and you were all amazed.
Remember that? What was the work he's talking
about? Well, he's talking about a lot of things.
They've seen a lot, but he just kind of calls
out. He says, I just do one work here. Jesus
answered, this is why Moses has given you circumcision.
Not that it comes from Moses, but from the fathers.
And you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a
man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so
the law of Moses won't. broken, are you angry
at me because I made a man entirely well on the
Sabbaths? Stop judging according to the outward
appearances. Rather, judge according to the righteous
judgment. He says, hey, remember when I healed
the man at the well, or not the well, but the
pool? Remember that? And you're all upset because
I did it on the Sabbath? You guys will circumcise
on the Sabbath, but you're upset. Me? For healing
somebody? See, I think in these verses, I believe
Jesus is exposing the reason or motivation behind
why they will not respond to him as the Messiah
and why they plot to kill him. Why? The reason
is their own self -righteousness. Their own self
-righteousness. The religious leaders were...
were upset and wanted to kill Jesus because he
healed a man on the Sabbath. But Jesus said,
healing and circumcision are no different. Both
are ways to bless, care, and show grace to others.
And one of the results of self -righteousness
is that it squeezes any space out for grace.
You don't speak with grace. You don't extend
grace. You straight up lack grace. Why? Because
you don't even see the need for your own grace.
You're so blind. You're sin. You don't see your
sin, so you have no need for grace. They saw
their own good works. They saw their own righteousness
and thought they were just fine. So the question...
What do you do with this man named Jesus continues
to grow as Jesus shows up at the festival and
confronts these religious leaders? Everything
is swirling. And you've got to see, the reason
we're doing 52 verses is there's a swirl of confusion
or what do I do? What do we do with this Jesus?
He becomes the center point of this whole festival.
Among the people, the question of Jesus' identity.
and what to do with him arises. And so look at
verse 25. Some of the people of Jerusalem were
saying, isn't this the man they are trying to
kill? Yet look, he speaks publicly, and they're
saying nothing. Can it be true that the authorities
know that he is the Messiah? What you see is
there's a group of people now internally in here
who have experienced Jesus, and they're starting
to come to the conclusion that we actually, maybe
he is who he says he is. Verse 27. But we know
where this man is from. When the Messiah comes,
nobody will know where he's from. Now hold on
just a second. Stop right there. That line that
nobody will know where he is from isn't in the
Bible. They've made that one up. They've come
to a conclusion that's not in here. Jesus fulfilled,
Jesus fulfills over and over hundreds of different,
about the coming Messiah. Jesus fulfills those.
Born of a virgin. Born in Bethlehem. Born in
the line of David. And on and on and on. They
knew where he was going to come from. They had
just changed the rules. Look at verse 28. So
as he was teaching in the temple, Jesus underlined
this. cried out. You've got to stand like this
isn't a nice, soft conversation, because two
times we're going to see that when Jesus responds,
it's not like, hey, let's have a nice talk. No,
he belts it out. He cries out, and he says, you
know me, and you know where I am from, yet I
have not come on my own, but the one who sent
me is true. You don't know him. I know him. Because
I am from him and he sent me. Okay? The question
Jesus is asking is, do you know me? To a bunch
of religious people, he says, you cannot say
you know the Father, then reject me. I am from
him and he sent me. Look at me. He says to his
religious people, you say you know God, but you
see me, and you reject me, you don't know him.
That's what he's saying. Look at verse 30. Then
they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand
on him because his hour had not yet come. However,
many from the crowd believed in him and said,
when the Messiah comes, He won't perform more
signs than this man has done, will he? This group
of people, there's this group of people, they
see Jesus and they hear Jesus and the reaction
to Jesus is all over them. They say, ah, he is
the Son of God. And there's another group that
don't like him. And here the sack same things,
but they don't respond to him the same way. One
say, yes, this is the Messiah. And the others
want to arrest him and eliminate him. That's
the tension. Verse 32. The Pharisees heard the
crowd murmuring these things about him. So the
chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants
to arrest him. Then Jesus said, I am only with
you for a short time. Then I'm going to the one
who sent me. You will look for me and you will
not find me. And where I'm going, where I am,
you cannot come. When the Jews said to one another,
where does he intend to go? That we won't find
him. He doesn't intend to go to Jewish people
dispersed among the Greeks and teach the Greeks,
does he? What is these remarks he made? you will
look for me and you will not find me. And where
I am, you cannot come. I like, again, one of
the statements that Job summarizes these verses
with. He says, they say, where did you go to
school? He says, heaven. Where did you come from?
Heaven. Where will you go? Heaven. What Jesus
is saying is, where I'm going, you cannot come.
That statement was extremely offensive. In John
14, verse 6, Jesus will say, which we haven't
got to it yet, but Jesus told them, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me. This is one of
the reasons why we say at Radiant Church, we
are a church that's all about Jesus. Because
he is the way, the truth, and life. No one comes
to the Father except through Jesus. So to the
religious leaders, he says, I'm about to go to
heaven. And you can't go there. But without me,
you want to go there. But without me, you can't
come. That's pretty much straight up what he's
saying. Your righteousness, your goodness. I
mean, guys, face it. The Jews were... Really
good. These Jewish leaders, they worked really
hard at being really good people. Which we know
they weren't fully that good. But he says, your
righteousness, your goodness is not going to
get you there. Now, 36. Now this is where I think
the heart of this whole passage is. Verse 37.
On the last and most important day of the festival,
Jesus stood up and cried out, Notice it didn't
say just get up and set. He cries out. And we're
going to get to this in a minute. He cries out.
If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and
drink. The one who believes in me, as the scripture
has said, will come streams of living water flow
from deep within him. Okay. On the last and most
important day of the festival. Seven days, day
seven, the end of the campout is over. This is
the height of the campout. Remember, the whole
chapter is talking about this seven -day feast.
The purpose was to remember how God provided
for Israel. And one of the main parts of those
seven days ritual was a part that involved water.
Every morning, so you picture this, every morning,
The priest, one of the priests, would gather
everyone together at the temple and then lead
them up to the Pool of Shalom, about a half a
mile away. So you just see this big progression.
And they're going up there and they're doing
this to remember what God has provided. And once
they're at the pool, the priest would take this
golden container and he would fill it with the
water from the pool. And they would make the
procession all the way back to the temple, another
half a mile back. And as they would go, they
would sing the Psalms from 113 to 118. You can
read those on your own. And they would sing those
songs of praise and recounting how God had worked
in their midst. This is what's going on. And
when they get back to the temple, the priest
would pour out the water onto the altar. Which
would help them remember three major things.
These are really important. They would help them
remember to look backwards about how God had
provided and poured out water for them in the
desert. God, you did that. And then it would
help call them to the present. They would help
them remember the present where they'd praise
God for the year and the harvest and the things
that he had done. And they would look forward
to the next year. God, you are amazing. Look
how you provide. And then they would look forward.
Number three, they would look forward to the
day that God would fulfill his promise that he
promised in Isaiah. There's coming something
great. And so in order to understand these little
two verses, we have to do a really quick flyover
of the book of Isaiah. So you ready? Buckle up.
Here we go. Isaiah is really helpful. The first
39 chapters in Isaiah talks primarily about judgment.
God's judgment on Judah, God's judgment on Jerusalem
and the surrounding nations, and God's judgment
on the entire world. Verse 39, really fun. The
judgment is due to their wickedness. What they
have done wrong. God's going to judge wickedness.
And then the book turns in chapter 40, where
you find the promise of salvation enters in.
And the remaining 26 chapters centers on someone
called the servant. And in chapter 52, we find
that this servant is God. And he's described
as raised and lifted up. In chapter 53, we find
out that servant will bring salvation by hanging
on a tree, suffering and dying in place of sinners.
In chapter 54, we find out that the death and
resurrection of the servant allows God to offer
us eternal covenant of peace, and he will bring
us freedom of judgment. And look what he says
in Isaiah 55, verse 1, which then you ought to
compare with 737 of John. He says this, Isaiah
55, 1, Come, everyone who is thirsty. Come to
the water. And you without silver, meaning you
don't have any way to pay for it. Come and eat.
Come buy wine and milk without silver. Basically,
come. It's free. As the water is being poured
out onto the altar, Jesus stands up and cries
out, if anyone is thirsty. Can you picture this?
Like this is the moment they're all excited for.
And Jesus stands up, if anybody is thirsty, let
him come to me and drink. It's mind -blowing
to me. When I read this, I was like, are you
kidding? Everything was on that moment. Jesus
the Messiah, the servant, the Son of God, invites
thirsty people to come to him and drink. It's
beautiful. He says, I am the center of everything
you're celebrating. I am the focus of this whole
story in the Old Testament. It's all pointing
at me, and I am here to quench your thirst. Come
to me and drink. Imagine what this would what
it would mean to somebody in a desert. Now we
think of drinking, right? Just hone in on this
idea of thirst for a second. This hit them different.
It's not like, hey, I'm a little thirsty, go
to the fridge and grab something cold to drink.
I'm a little thirsty like I am right now. In
the desert, water means life. In the desert,
if you are thirsty, you are dying. That's literally
what it means. And they were. The children of
Israel, man, they were thirsty. They were crying
out to God, like, quench our thirst. We're all
going to die. And they cracked the... God provides
water for them. And they're remembering that
the God who provides is right there. And Jesus
says, I'm it. I'm thirsty. Jesus says, are you
dying? Come to me for life. Are you dying? Jesus
is inviting us to come to him. Only Jesus can
give life. Look what Jesus promises, though.
Not just a drink. I don't promise you just a
drink for life. I'm going to put a river. Of
water in your heart. Look what he says. Verse
38. The one who believes in me. As the scripture
has said. Will have streams of living water.
Flow from deep within him. He said this about
the spirit. Those who believe in Jesus. Who are
going to receive the spirit. For the spirit.
had not yet been given because Jesus had not
been glorified. If you come to Jesus, put your
faith in Jesus, you will be given life and his
spirit will live inside of you. This is the picture
we celebrated in baptism. When you come up out
of the water, the same spirit that raised Christ
from the dead and now lives in those who believe.
His Spirit inside of you will become a river
of unending life. What a promise. But that invitation
in front of us, we come to six responses really
quick that we're going to hit. Six responses
that go 40 to 52. See if you can pick them out
as we read it. Jesus, you've got to understand,
like this is a ripple effect of what Jesus has
just done in crying out, I am the one. who gives
life. Anyone who's thirsty, come to me. And so
there's six, we see six responses. When some
of the crowd heard these words, they said, this
truly is the prophet. Others said, this is the
Messiah. But some said, surely the Messiah doesn't
come from Galilee, does he? Doesn't the scripture
say the Messiah comes from David's offspring
and from the town of Bethlehem where David lived?
They need to read their Bibles right there. So
the crowd was divided because of him. Some of
them wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand
on him. Then the servants came to the chief Pharisees,
and the Pharisees who asked them, why didn't
you bring him? The servants answered, no man
ever spoke like this. Then the Pharisees responded
to them, are you fooled too? Have any of the
rulers or Pharisees believed in him? But this
crowd, which does not know the law, is accused.
Nicodemus, the one who came to him previously
and who was one of them, said to them, Our law
doesn't judge a man before it hears from him
and knows what he is doing, does it? You aren't
from Galilee too, are you? They replied. Investigate
and you will see. that no prophet arises from
Galilee. Okay, there are, hard to find in here,
but there are six responses we see, and we'll
wrap this up really quick. Number one, he's a
prophet. He teaches good stuff. He's a good moral
teacher. Man, I can't tell you how many times
in the valley since I've moved here, in conversations,
not so much with you guys, But with people outside
of the church, I've heard this comment. We fundamentally
believe in God, don't we? Everybody in the valley
believes in God to some degree. It seems. That's
general. But he's just a good teacher. He's a
good, yeah, he's good. Jesus is all right. But
is he Lord? Is he your Savior? I think the second
response is he's a fraud. Where is he from? Nothing
comes from there. He's a fraud. Three is they're
kind of anti -Jesus. That's a response. They
want to arrest him. Who does he think he is telling
me how to live? I'm in charge of my life. It's
my money. It's my time. I'll sleep with whoever
I want to sleep with. I'll do whatever I want
to do. I'm anti -Jesus. Fourth. I have respect
for him. Servants didn't want to arrest him.
Like, eh, nobody speaks like this. We're not
touching this one. I respect him. Number five,
some are just curious. This is Nicodemus at this
point. We know later on we believe that Nicodemus
does come to faith. But we're just curious. Like,
eh, we can't. Hey, don't push him so hard. You
might not know who he is, but aren't we supposed
to judge him? All five of these responses, though,
will damn you to hell. And that's the truth.
Jesus says in John 14, we just, six, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me. There's only one
response, right response to Jesus. He is the
Christ. Christ is not his name, it's what he
is. Jesus Christ. The Messiah. Yes, that's who
He is. He is my Savior. He is my Lord. The Lamb
who's come to take away the sins of the world.
He's come to take away my sins. And yes, I'm
thirsty. And I come to you for drink. Are you
thirsty? Are you thirsty? Come to Jesus today
and drink. That's where life is. Let's pray.
Gosh, Lord, we live in a world that offers a
lot of drink. Different things we could drink
of, and we drink those things in hopes to satisfy
us, but you are the only thing that truly quenches
our thirst. You are the Christ, the Messiah.
And so we look to you, we come to you, we put
our gaze upon you today. And Lord, I don't know
in this room where everybody's at. Many of us
in here may have said, yes, I want to drink of
Jesus. And I pray that we will realize that the
Spirit of God that lives in us is where we find
the biggest and the only hope for this life.
And if those in this room have not yet come and
drank of Jesus, I pray today that they will honestly
look at their sin and say, Jesus, I am a mess
and I need you. Will you? And I put my faith
in you today. And so, Lord, I just pray right
now that your spirit does the work. I can't do
anything. I pray that you do the work in us.
as a group of people and individually. In your
name we pray. Amen.