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³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 

1. The First Seven Days: Daily Water Libation Ritual
   1. During the Feast of Tabernacles, a water libation ritual was performed for the first seven days.

   2. A priest would carry a golden pitcher from the temple to the Pool of Siloam to fill it with water.  He would then go back to the temple, leading a celebratory procession on the way, and pour out the water on the temple’s altar alongside a little wine.

   3. The water symbolized gratitude for God’s provision in the past (especially how he provided for Israel during their time in the wilderness) and how he had provided the crops that they just harvested that year.

   4. The wine was a reminder that God had not just provided sustenance, but joy.

2. The Last (Eighth) Day of the Feast
   1. On the eighth and final day, there is no water libation ritual.  Instead people pray for water for the coming year to nourish their crops.

   2. Jesus is standing up on a day that everyone is praying for water and using the metaphor of water to speak to people in a way that addresses exactly what they’re praying for.

   3. This is also the last day of the feast, so Jesus won’t have another opportunity to address this particular crowd of people.

   4. It’s easy to imagine how passionate his teaching would be on this particular date.  He’s like a pastor that’s giving one last heartfelt sermon to his congregation before he moves on.  “If there’s one thing to learn, here it is!  Please listen!”

   5. “On the last day. The first thing that ought to be observed here is, that no plots or intrigues of enemies terrified Christ, so as to cause him to desist from his duty; but, on the contrary, his courage rose with dangers, so that he persevered with greater firmness. This is proved by the circumstance of the time, the crowded assembly, and the freedom he used in exclaiming, while he knew that hands were stretched out on all sides to seize him; for it is probable that the officers were at that time ready to execute their commission.” -John Calvin, Commentary on John 7

3. The Invitation: “Come to Me and Drink”
   
   
   1. “O blessed invitation, how sweet it should be to every thirsty soul! ‘If any man’ — prince or pauper, ‘any man’ — moral or utterly debauched, ‘if any man thirst, let him come unto me,’ — not to ordinances, nor to human priests, ‘let him come unto me, and drink,’ as much as he will “without money, and without price.” -Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible, John 7.

   2. The invitation is broad and open to anyone.  It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are, or where you’re from, or what your heritage is.  There are a few prerequisites to answer the call, but it’s not about any of that.

   3. Prerequisite 1: Being Thirsty
      1. “The first prerequisite for a person to co me and drink is that they have to be thirsty.  In Scripture, thirst is commonly associated with a deep yearning for closeness with God: Ps 42:1-2, Psalm 63:1, Isaiah 55:1, Isa 65:13 etc.

      2. Sin has disrupted our relationship with God.  We aren’t in a good place with him naturally.  That’s why we yearn for the closeness that was lost at the dawn of humanity in Eden.

      3. Some people have been thirsty so long that they don’t even recognize it anymore.  They assume that deep emptiness is just normal, or they push it down by pursuing other things that will never fill the yearning in their heart, but might distract them and numb them for a time.

      4. There are many who call themselves Christians that still aren’t really thirsty for God.  They assume that a bit of church in their life or a spare prayer is enough God for them.   Jesus needs thirsty people to come and drink, not people who have had enough of him for now.

   4. Prerequisite 2: Taking Action
      
      
      1. If a person wants to come to Christ and drink, they have to actually act on that interest.  Even the thirstiest person stays thirsty if they sit by an oasis and refuse to drink.

      2. There is no amount of theorizing that can end in salvation.  Thinking can prime the pump, but until it is accompanied by action, it’s insufficient.

      3. Sometimes, we excuse delays in coming to Jesus.  Our life is too busy!  Too chaotic!  This just isn’t the right season for devotion.  We’ll get right with the Lord tomorrow.  There are a million excuses to delay action.

³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

1. “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

1. 1. When John Wesley was banned from Anglican pulpits because of his “religious enthusiasm,”, he began field preaching and used this very verse to invite people to accept the gospel in his day.  His journal entry for April 8, 1739 reads: “About five thousand were in the afternoon at Rose Green (on the other side of Kingswood); among whom I stood and cried in the name of the Lord, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

2. “…rivers of living water…”
   1. Those who “drink” of God’s grace become life-giving sources for others, helping quench spiritual thirst.

   2. Believers should ask how often they nourish others.  A true Christian doesn’t just take; they give to everyone freely.

3. “By this he meant the Spirit…”
   1. “Yet we read of John the Baptist, He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb. (Luke 1:15) And Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied. Mary was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied of our Lord. And so were Simeon and Anna, that they might acknowledge the greatness of the infant Christ. We are to understand then that the giving of the Holy Spirit was to be certain, after Christ’s exaltation, in a way in which it never was before. It was to have a peculiarity at His coming, which it had not before. For we no where read of men under the influence of the Holy Spirit, speaking with tongues which they had never known, as then took place, when it was necessary to evidence His coming by sensible miracles.” (Augustine, De Trinitiate, iv. c. xx)

⁴⁰ On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”

⁴¹ Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? ⁴² Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” ⁴³ Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

1. “the people were divided because of Jesus.”
   1. Division appeared at every level: Jesus’ family (His brothers), the crowd, between leadership and the people, and within leadership itself (Nicodemus vs. other Pharisees).

   2. Jesus made it abundantly clear that he would not be a unifying force for the world.  To the contrary, he would divide it (Matthew 10:34-37).

   3. Unity within a group of people is no substitute for the real power of Christ being offered to us by him.  It can be complicated to determine when we need to come together, and when something demands that we act divisively to cling to Christ, but we’re called to that work.

   4. A very large church going through the United/Global Methodist split once said that regardless of what the denomination’s official stance on Scripture or same sex marriage was, they would not leave the denomination because, “Division is not a kingdom reality.”  One can only wish that they were around to correct Jesus’s divisiveness, much less Paul’s constant concern about churches following false doctrine  that draws them away from Christ (Acts 20:29-30, 2 Corinthians 11:4).

2. “How can the Messiah come from Galilee?”
   1. Some people object that he can’t be the messiah because he’s not from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) and not a descendant of David (Isaiah 11:1).  Jesus is both of these things, but they don’t bother to ask him to clarify.

   2. They use their concerns to keep a distance between themselves and Jesus, rather than recognizing them as an opportunity to seek the truth.

   3. “And how could they forget that Jesus was born [in Bethlehem]? Had not Herod given them terrible reason to remember it?” (John Wesley, Notes on the NT, John 7)

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

1. “No one ever spoke the way this man does.”
   1. Temple guards, specifically loyal to the Sanhedrin, were sent earlier (Jn 7:32).  One must imagine that this was not the first man they’d ever arrested on the Sanhedrin’s orders!  But in spite of their loyalty, they can’t bring themselves to arrest Jesus.

   2. They were captivated by His words, which rang true.  They could not seize Him. God was at work in their hearts.

   3. “The Pharisees and Scribes profited nothing by seeing the miracles, and reading the Scriptures; but their officers, who had done neither, were captivated with once hearing Him; and they who went to take hold of Him, were themselves taken hold of by the miracle. Nor did they say, We could not because of the multitude: but made themselves proclaimers of Christ’s wisdom: The officers answered, Never man spake like this Man.” -John Chrysostom, Hom. lii. 1

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? ⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

1. The Pharisees’ Reaction
   1. The Pharisees answer with classism, calling the people a “stupid mob,” ignorant of the law and deceived.

   2. They argue none of the rulers or Pharisees believe in Jesus, which is is quickly proven false as Nicodemus is just about to speak in  his favor.

   3. They dismissed the guards’ experience, telling them to stop thinking and simply obey.

⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

1. “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
   1. Nicodemus’s, who previously spoke with Jesus in John 3, speaks up to defend him.

   2. Nicodemos’s defense isn’t even particularly intense.  He asks only that others investigate Jesus before condemning him, as is required by law.

   3. The Pharisees mock him: “Are you from Galilee too?” implying he’s a country bumpkin like the others that favor Jesus and certainly not one of them.

   4. “Nicodemus indeed knew, or rather believed, that if only they were willing to give Him a patient hearing, they would perhaps become like those who were sent to take Him, but preferred to believe. They answered from the prejudice of their heart.” -Augustine, Tractate 33, 2.

2. They claim, “a prophet does not come out of Galilee,” despite the fact that Jonah was a historical prophet that was indeed from Galilee.  Their bias prevents them from seeing obvious truths in front of them.

1.  

Full Transcript

We are on the last third of chapter seven. We saw in the beginning, that first third, there’s this festival coming, the Feast of Tabernacles, and Jesus’ brothers taunt him. They say, “Look Mr. Big Shot! You think you’re such a big deal? Go down to Jerusalem with us and show everyone what you can do! Show them your miracles! I’m sure they’ll be real impressed!” And Jesus told them, “I don’t work on your timeline. I work on my Father’s timeline. I’m not doing it.”

So they leave, they go to the festival. Jesus does go to the Feast of Tabernacles, not to do miracles, but as someone devoutly seeking to keep the law. And that second third, we saw that Jesus about halfway through the festival can’t hold back from teaching. He’s heard so much bad teaching that he just can’t help himself. He starts teaching people the truth, and he is compelling. The crowds can’t help but be enraptured by the things that he’s saying. Jesus is incredible. He is eloquent, he is thoughtful, he is saying things that they have always known to be true, and now they’re hearing it, and they’re amazed.

But not everyone. There are some people that throw up barriers, that bring up these strange questions that don’t really make a lot of sense when you think about them. They find reasons not to listen to Jesus; barriers to make. That’s when we also see the rulers getting frustrated. They sent some soldiers to go and seize him, but they couldn’t.

Now as we get ready to go into this final third of chapter 7, there are a few things here. We see it’s the last day of the festival. The festival’s eight days long; Feast of Tabernacles lasts for eight days. Remember, this is a festival that has a dual nature to it. On one hand, you’re being thankful for the distant past. You’re thankful for the forty years in the wilderness where God provided manna and provided dew and kept the Israelites safe during that forty years of wandering. You are giving thanks for God’s provision in the past. For the recent past, this is also a harvest festival, and so you think back on the crops from the past year, what God gave you in food and water recently, and you are giving Him thanks for that. That is the essence of this particular feast.

For seven days, they have a little ritual that they do every morning to show that. The priest would go from the Temple Mount down to the Pool of Siloam, which is a few hundred feet away. He would take a golden pitcher and he would kneel down and get some water. Remember, this is a feast, a festival, exciting—there are people celebrating, like a little parade. They take that pitcher full of water to the altar, and then they pour it with a little bit of wine on the altar to symbolize giving thanks to God for the water, both from those forty years and from the past year that helped nourish the crops. You are giving thanks for what you drank and for what the crops had. The wine symbolizes joy, because God hasn’t just given you enough to sustain you; He has also brought joy.

For seven of the eight days they start the day with that, but on the last day, on the eighth day, there is something a little different. On the eighth day, they don’t do that. There’s no libation ritual. Instead, everyone just thinks about water. They don’t actually work with it ritually; they just pray to God: “God, please for the coming year continue to provide water for your people. Continue to provide the water that’s going to nourish our crops and keep us here.” So this last day, everyone is thinking about water, and Jesus is going to talk to them about water.

Keep in mind, this being the last day, not only is there that significance of knowing that everyone’s praying for water, but this is also the last time Jesus is going to get to speak to these particular people. This is the last time he’s going to see this particular crowd, and we can see he’s especially passionate. It tells us he spoke loudly when he was teaching this day. It doesn’t always tell us that. There’s a certain kind of passion that comes out when someone knows this is their last opportunity to be heard.

I’m sure you’ve seen it. You’ve seen different pastors have their last sermon, and the last one usually is a little extra passionate because they’re trying to say that one thing: “If you didn’t get anything out of me, this is the thing I hope you remember.” That is exactly what Jesus did. He’s a little extra passionate. He knows this is his last opportunity to reach these people, and so here he goes. He is speaking with passion, speaking to them with his heart. He goes to them and he uses that theme of water. Everyone’s praying for water, and he says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.”

That’s a pretty broad invitation, right? “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” Anyone can go to Jesus. You don’t need to be of a certain economic status, you don’t need to be from a certain continent, you don’t need to be a certain race. Anyone, any singular person on this earth is capable of going to Jesus. But this broad invitation does show that not necessarily everybody will.

There are a few things that you need to do. First, you got to be thirsty. “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” We are made for God. Just look at Genesis—from the very beginning, there was this closeness between humans and God that was disrupted by sin. We long for that closeness; we long to be close to God. That’s normal, that thirst is natural. It’s just us wanting to be what we’re supposed to be.

Now, some people have been so thirsty for so long, they don’t even feel it anymore. They don’t even recognize that yearning; they just think it’s how you’re supposed to feel: “Oh yeah, that deep-seated sense of emptiness? That’s normal. Don’t worry about that. Just push it down with a fun Friday night and try not to think about it too much.” It’s not normal. We have to pray for people that don’t feel that thirst. They feel it, but they’re used to it; they feel like it’s natural. It’s not! We pray that they sense it.

It’s not just non-Christians. Sometimes there are people who think of themselves as Christians who think, “Oh, I go to church enough. I pray enough, I do enough of the Jesus thing.” If you have had enough to drink, you are not thirsty, and that is a prerequisite. Jesus says, “You have to be thirsty. You have to want it.”

It’s not just about wanting it; there’s a second part to this: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.” You got to do something. It’s not just about that internal yearning, acknowledging that it exists and following it. You got to do something. The most thirsty person in the entire world, if they were right next to an oasis, would continue to be thirsty if they did not take a drink.

Sometimes you’ll occasionally meet people that say, “Oh man, I really wish I was one of those spiritual people that had a relationship with God. I wish I was, but I’m just really busy right now. This schedule… I’m busy, I can’t do it right now, but someday I’ll get to it. I know that it’s important to do the God thing, but right now it’s just not a good time. My life is chaos. I’m going to get to it!” Even if you feel that thirst, if you’re not doing it, it doesn’t make a difference. You have to do something. You have to make the choice to turn to Jesus, and it’s an active choice. Jesus tells us not only to recognize our thirst, but to go to him.

Then there’s a third thing too: what’s the third thing? Well, he tells us, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time, the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

If you feel that thirst and if you drink, you should have rivers of living water in you. You should become the kind of person that can help others find and drink of that grace of God. You should be a fount of it yourself through the Holy Spirit. Every one of us should be that. I think that’s one of those things you have to think about every so often. You have to ask: Do I have that in me? Am I someone that takes and takes and takes, or am I the kind of person where, wherever I go, people find life? Am I nourishing others? Do I see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit where I’m going? Because if we have drunk of the grace of God through Jesus, that is what is supposed to happen. That’s the next step. If it’s not happening, we have to take a step back and ask, am I really drinking of that grace? You got to want it, you got to drink, and you should see that bubbling up of the Spirit in your life. Others should find their thirst quenched through the grace of God in you.

Now people hear this and it makes an impact. On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? Does not Scripture say the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?”

We’ve got two groups that recognize that Jesus is doing something important, and then this third and final group. Isn’t it interesting? Earlier the crowd said, “Well, Jesus couldn’t be the Messiah because we’re not supposed to know where the Messiah comes from.” That doesn’t make any sense. Now, a few days later, they’re like, “Well, the Messiah’s supposed to come from Bethlehem and he’s not from Bethlehem. He’s from Galilee.” Their excuses are changing depending on the circumstances just to find ways to create distance.

Jesus is from Bethlehem, and they could know that. All they have to do is one thing: go to him and ask. He’s right there. He’s not far. But they don’t. They don’t go to him and ask. Instead of using that question as an opportunity to go to Jesus, they use it as a way to create distance, as an excuse to not have to take him seriously anymore.

There’s this great quote from theologian James Boyce. He writes, “Are you the one who has been rejecting Jesus Christ on a quibble? Do you refuse to come because you cannot understand where Cain got his wife, or how God can punish sinners, or why we are to believe in a virgin birth or a resurrection? Is there some little question that you’re using to create distance between you and God?”

If you have those questions, you can use them to go to Jesus, to ask and to learn, but you got to go to him. You can’t just sit with them and use them as an excuse. See how these people—their question had an answer. All they had to do was ask, and they didn’t, so they missed out. Don’t let a quibble hold you back. Don’t sit with that one question, saying, “I’m not going to buy in until X, Y, Z,” without looking into it or asking Jesus, just going about your life using it to create distance. Don’t hold back. If you’ve got those quibbles, ask, seek an answer. Go to Jesus. He will answer.

Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him because his hour had not yet come.

Finally, the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.

They sent these guards days ago to get Jesus and bring him in, and the guards just started listening to Jesus. They heard him speaking, and something about his words rang true. They were beautiful; they were right. They had to hear just a little bit more every day, and in the end, they couldn’t bring themselves to seize Jesus.

We saw earlier it said it was not time; God had a plan for Jesus, so they couldn’t do it. This explains the logic of it. Why did it happen? It’s not like Jesus had a magical force field that activated from God. God was at work in their hearts; they could not lift a hand against Jesus.

The Pharisees respond, “You mean he’s deceived you also? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! This mob knows nothing of the law. There is a curse on them.”

The Pharisees respond with pure classism: “You stupid guards! We don’t pay you to think. Do you see any of the leaders believing it? Do you see any of the Pharisees believing this? No!” By the way, they’re wrong on both counts. When Jesus was born, there happened to be three kings that were very interested in seeing him, and Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees, had been to see Jesus. There are repeated instances already where they’re wrong, but they don’t even care about the details. To them, they are the elites, and if someone is really one of them, they would never believe this Jesus guy. “You stupid guards wouldn’t get it. Stop thinking and just do what we tell you to do.”

Nicodemus, the Pharisee who went to Jesus—you remember him all the way back from John chapter 3? Under the cover of night, Nicodemus went to Jesus, curious but also a little hesitant. He told Jesus, “You told us we’re supposed to be born again. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, Jesus. I hear you’re a great teacher, but what am I supposed to do? Crawl back inside my mother’s womb?” There’s a reluctance to him, but also a curiosity.

Now we see, as he sees the Pharisees coming against Jesus and his fellow members of the elite lining up, he recognizes that this is not right. They are not living up to their own standards. They haven’t even heard this Jesus guy, they don’t even know what he’s about, and they’re sure he’s wrong. He warns them, saying, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he’s been doing?”

“You guys don’t even know what Jesus is about! Let’s talk to him! You should hear what he has to say.” Nicodemus has heard it, and clearly it made an impact on him. They should hear it too.

Their response to Nicodemus is just, “Are you from Galilee too?” Remember, Galilee is that rural region Jesus is coming from. “Look, are you some kind of hick? You one of them? You can’t be one of us if you’re not willing to attack Jesus. Are you from Galilee too? Look into it. You will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

Which is wrong on multiple counts, because first off, prophets historically had come from Galilee. There was no region of Israel that was permanently barred from having people that were faithful to God. As a matter of fact, one of the more prominent prophets, Jonah, is from Galilee, and there are others as well. There were prophets that had come from Galilee. But maybe they meant the prophet of prophets, the King of kings, the Messiah will not come out of Galilee. They would be right if that’s the case, but they would also be asking the wrong questions, because Jesus is not from Galilee. Jesus is from Bethlehem.

As we come to the end of the Feast of Tabernacles, one major theme to think about—there’s a particular scripture that comes to my mind from the book of Matthew that really cuts to the heart of John chapter 7. Matthew 10:34–36: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

Jesus has come to save, but that’s difficult work. It would have been easier to just leave us as we were, but the earth as it is does not always want to be saved. There are battle lines being drawn. You see how Jesus causes separation: there’s a division within his own family as his brothers don’t believe in him, the crowd is separated from one another because some believe and some don’t, the leadership is separated from the people as they rely on prejudice to say anyone who’s not one of them is stupid, and leadership is divided from other leadership.

Divisions continue as people have to ask the question: Whose side are you on? The side of Jesus or the side of the world? That is a division where you can’t be neutral. You either know the King and are obedient to him, or you’re not. You can’t be neutral towards the King and be one of his servants.

That’s a good thing for all of us to ask ourselves: If the battle lines have been drawn, have we chosen to be on the side of Jesus? Are we there? Are we experiencing it? If we’re not, the invitation’s always there. Jesus gave it 2,000 years ago, and it still stands: “Anyone who is thirsty, come to me and drink.” If you do, you will be filled with a river of running water through the Holy Spirit.