The Gospel of John 7:25-52

Let's take a look at those first. This is a continuation of the time that Jesus is in Jerusalem, and we'll take a look at a timeline here in a minute. He's in Jerusalem, as he was last week before the feast that they were having. In Jerusalem, of course, the focal point is the temple. That's where he showed up. Remember what preceded it. His brothers were urging him to go down. And he said, no, I am not right now going, is the way he put it. He didn't say, I will not be going. He said, I'm not right now going to the temple. He carefully spoke the truth. so that he wouldn't set himself up. Last week's conversation between Jesus and the Jews, including some of the Jewish leaders, took place, and that will be the same today. The conversation continues. The temple was about the size of six football fields. There was a colonnade that went all the way around the outside.

This temple was, by the way, still under reconstruction under Herod. This was the second temple, but a significant upgrade under Herod, starting around 20 B.C. and it was finished about 63 A.D., just half a dozen years before it was completely ruined. So, at any rate, this temple is still under construction. Jesus is most likely in these colonnade areas.

This was called the Portico of Solomon. There was this part of the colonnade right here. And so you would come up over the Mount of Olives and come up this entry area in here. And so this is the Portico of Solomon. It was a common area for gatherings of teachings, so it may have been in that area. The inner part of the temple here is where only Jews were allowed, and only Jewish males were allowed in here, and this was the working area for the Levites and the priests. So this is where Jesus was, and as we're going to see here, at one point he calls out across the courtyard with an invitation for people to come to him.

So anyway, we'll see that here in a minute. So here's a dramatic depiction. During the feast time, things were really busy, because everything was centered around the temple, right? Everybody was coming around the temple. Jerusalem ordinarily, in its environs, maybe had 40,000, 50,000 people that lived there ordinarily, but it would be some five times that during the feast, and it was expected that everybody who lived there would have guests come and stay with them. That was just anticipated.

And so you imagine, the place is really busy, and so this kind of depiction where people are carrying lambs and there's people crowded and moving around, and add to that the money changers and the people selling the animals and all that in this courtyard, this is a busy place during feast time. So anyway, the last dramatic depiction. Let's take a look on your handout. Make sure all of you have one. On the back side of it are a couple of timelines, and I'd like us to take a look at that just to kind of get a sense of where we are here.

What you see here is there is a timeline at the top, it goes from 28 AD to 34 AD, and increasingly the evidence is lining up for Jesus to have been crucified on April 3rd, 33 AD. That's not something that's in the Bible, so it's not... biblical gospel truth, but it's scientifically lining up more and more that Jesus was crucified on April 3rd, 33 AD. And so that's what you see presented here, not so much the April 3rd, but that particular Passover. Now, what you'll see here presented is first John's three and a half year ministry, most of which is spent with John in prison. You see that?

Imprisonment of John, Luke 3.20. And that was prior to the first Passover that's recorded in John chapter 2, 2.13. So then the next year, 31 AD, it just says, Feast of the Jews, and it doesn't tell us which one, but that was John chapter 5, when Jesus was around and did the healing, remember the healing of the man who was by the pool of Bethesda?

And then the execution of John, which is, by the way, not recorded in the Gospel of John, so we have a reference there, Matthew 14.10, just before the Passover of 32 AD. And then where we are at here is this is towards the end of the season, the feast season, in 32 AD. So it's right before the year 33 AD is about to start. So in rough numbers, it's about six months out before Jesus is going to be crucified.

That's the passage we're looking at now. So they're already seeking to kill him, but as we'll see here, they just don't pull it off. They even send the temple guards after Jesus, and the temple guards are neutralized. They can't pull it off. They can't do it.

So anyway, the time is getting close, but it's not there yet. So that's where we're at in terms of the timeline. Although earlier in the chapters of the Gospel of John, Though we're early in those chapters, the thing that we see there is we have a lot of the Gospel yet to go. Why would that be that the Gospel of John, here we are, early in the Gospel of John, we're just finishing Chapter 7, about a third of the way through chapter by chapter count, and yet we're getting towards the end. Why would that be?

Well, he started off by saying that Jesus was the Passover lamb, so his focus is on that aspect of his life, which would be the latter part of his ministry. The last part of his ministry takes up most of the Gospel of John. And even John records things that are not in the other Gospels. including Jesus talking about, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, John chapter 14, that's not recorded in the other Gospels. And then the same time, John chapter 50, I'm the vine, you're the branches. And then he tells about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

All those things are unique to the Gospel of John. And so you have several chapters just covering that. John 17 that we drew from when we had our Good Friday service. It was another unique thing because that's not recorded elsewhere. So you have several chapters covering just the events of a few hours that are unique to the Gospel of John.

So a real focus on Jesus A week before the crucifixion, a real focus on the things that he said at the time of the Last Supper, and even some resurrection accounts that are not included. in the other Gospels. So, anyway, yeah, that's an interesting thing. It's not an even objective, here's the chronology, and an even amount of time spent. It is largely focused on the last times of Christ's times on earth. So, real interesting.

Okay, right down below there, we have a little more detail on this crucifixion to Pentecost. We have crucifixion and resurrection, three days, 40 days from Acts 1-3, and then you notice I have 10 days and then a little asterisk. The exact number of days from the crucifixion to the day of Pentecost are somewhat in dispute.

And you might say, well, how could that be? It's because the Sadducees and the Pharisees had different means of counting what started when. So remember how we talked about the Jews would have this group, would have this tradition, and this other group would have this other tradition, and the real tradition was that they squabble among themselves about the traditions? That's it. That's why this is in dispute, is because the Sadducees had a different way of counting days and when the holidays started and things of that sort. And so it depends on which one you go by. and when you count these days here. So anyway, that's the quick explanation. All right, let's turn to the top of page 1. And we'll begin looking at the passage here. So John 7, 25-27.

So some of the people of Jerusalem are saying, Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? Look, he is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to him. The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they? However, we know where this man is from, but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where he is from.

One of the things, so some of the people were saying, apparently this knowledge that the leaders were seeking to kill Christ was not universal, it wasn't like everybody knew, but some knew about it. Some knew about it. And we'll see as we go through this that there's a mixed understanding about that. So one of the things we noted last week was that the Jews would various views, and in this case, not everybody was even speaking openly about, you know, this is the guy they're seeking to kill, and even talking about Christ openly, because they were afraid, well, kind of reaction, and what might I get sucked into?

Imagine, here's lots of people coming to visit, right? The place is very busy, very busy. And imagine This is also a situation, especially with the Romans, where you might get sucked into something you had no idea you were going to get sucked into. Imagine you're there, and you're just trying to buy a lamb, and you just laid some coins out on the table for the money changer, and you're wanting to get your lamb. And then Jesus comes through and dumps the tables over. Oh, I'm right in the middle of my transaction, I just, you know. So things could get disturbed that way. You know, Simon of Cyrene?

He was just standing by and all of a sudden he got pressed into carrying Jesus' crossbeam. So you didn't want to get mixed up in something. You want to be careful what you say and who you say it to, right? So the people are trying to be careful, not doing anything that will get them pulled into something that they really had no intent in being involved in. So, here's Jesus. He's in the temple courtyard. That's what we saw in last week's passage. And here's one of the things.

Why is this uncertainty apparent about Jesus being the Messiah? Why are the people uncertain? They knew he was from Nazareth, and that didn't fit. Okay, so they knew he was from Nazareth, and that doesn't fit. And why didn't that fit? Well, could anything good come out of Nazareth? Yeah, could anything good come out of Nazareth? Yeah. It's like my, you know, I went to high school in a little town called Boonville. Over the hill, the saying was, could anything good come out of Boonville?

But anyway. Yes, and that's one reason. It's not the only reason, but you're right. Other reasons? If they knew the scriptures, they knew it was to be born in Bethlehem. Okay. In fact, that's even going to come up here. The Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. They were also a bit confused, and I think part of the problem is they didn't recognize all the messianic passages as being about the Messiah. And I think they read that a lot of them believed that he would appear suddenly and they wouldn't really know where it came from, the Messiah came.

Yeah, you think of Daniel 7.13. says that Jesus, or excuse me, says that the Messiah, the Son of Man, will come in the clouds, right? So he's going to be coming out of heaven. And so then people who thought about that thought, well then, yeah, we have no idea where this guy's going to come from, because he's going to be coming out of the clouds.

So that seemed conflicted with the idea that he's born in Bethlehem. And then they had other points of confusion. that the Messiah, when he comes, is going to be this guy coming in the clouds, and he's going to come, and he'll be the kind of one who will just drive the Romans out, right? And so here's Jesus, and he doesn't have some big band of soldiers with him, and he's not coming in the clouds, and so he doesn't fit.

But that's not the end of the confusion. One of the other points of confusion was that Moses said that a prophet would come, like him. And so people kept looking for THE prophet, not just A prophet, because there were a bunch of Old Testament prophets, right? But THE prophet, like Moses. And so they were looking for that one, but they didn't understand that that is the Messiah. So they didn't put that together. So you have these different personages. So then I've got that, and there's more.

They didn't understand that the Messiah would come and be the same person who would also be the one who would die on the cross. This is Isaiah 53, by his stripes we are healed, by his wounds. So that message wasn't widely understood either. As a matter of fact, it's real interesting, if you track the Jews' teaching, they understood that Isaiah 53 was Messiah ben Joseph, that is, son of Joseph, that is, after the line of Joseph, when he was kind of persecuted and pushed aside. They didn't understand that that was the same as the other Messiah. So about 1850, the Jews decided, this is not a prophecy about the Messiah, because they kept hearing that from Christians about Isaiah 53.

So they said, this is about Israel. They changed it in order to avoid the conflict they had with the Christians over the passage. Yes. But they also had a misconception about why he was going to come. I mean, they didn't see that sin was an issue at all. All they saw was the fact that they needed, kind of like they needed Saul as a king. They were looking for a messiah that would be this ultimate ruler that would rule Israel and put him back on the world front.

Sin was not an issue. Yes, yeah, and why was sin not an issue? Because they were from Abraham, they didn't feel there was any. One is, you've got the descendancy from Abraham, we don't really need some big time savior anyway, right? Because I'm descended from Abraham, I'm in. And just sort of to keep things on an even keel, I've also got the sacrificial system going, right? And so, I mean, really if there's any sin issue at all, it's not a biggie, but I've got the sacrificial system to deal with the sins, and I'm descended from Abraham, yeah I'm in.

So yeah, to them it was, you know, we don't understand this whole thing. So you can imagine their confusion, here's this prophet, okay, the prophet like Moses, and then I'm supposed to have somebody who's descended from David, and he's supposed to be born in Bethlehem, but then he also comes out of the clouds, and just how do they put that together? So you can imagine they're real confused. Now, let's make it even worse.

Did the Sadducees believe in the Messiah? No, the Sadducees did not. So when Caiaphas asked Jesus, are you the Christ? Was he taking the question seriously? He was not. Because he didn't even believe there was a The Christ. So for Jesus to claim, I'm the Christ, was like doubly crazy. Now, we're not done.

About every six years, starting about six years before Christ was born, there was a tax revolt in Galilee. around, you know, surrounding the time when Christ was born. And it's several factor of old, starting in Galilee. So Galilee was a troublesome place to be from. And if there's any kind of rebellion against the Romans, that's where it was going to start. So where's Jesus from?

Right? The area of Galilee. So it's like, okay, here's this troublemaker. Right? We don't like troublemakers. Okay? We're still not done. Additionally, there were various kinds of people claiming to be the Asylum during that time, and various people who were trying to start up different sorts of rebellions against the Romans. And there was increasing fever, if you will, of rebellion against the Romans. And so, by several different grounds, they were very confused. They couldn't put it together, and that's why they had separate questions.

Well, is he the prophet? Is he the Christ? They were confused. And then you had the Sadducees who said BAH! to the whole thing about any sort of Messiah. So massive confusion. And the Sadducees had major control over the temple area. So for them to hear anything about a Messiah, it was like, oh, give me a break. So you can imagine this real confusion on everybody's part, and that's what is kind of the backdrop for this. They're not putting up together the Sadducees, all this stuff about the Messiah and all that, they don't believe it. Besides that, the Sadducees denied miracles, so what did Jesus do? Miracles, right? So no, you can't possibly do those, right? So you have a great deal of confusion. Even among different groups where they did believe in the Messiah, it was not real focused and they didn't pull it together. I was fortunate enough about 10 years ago here to sit down with an Orthodox rabbi and have a conversation with him about various things. We talked for a couple of hours.

I was glad that he gave me the time because he could have just told me to go away. But real interesting, I wanted to talk about Daniel and about Isaiah, and he said, yeah, those are our holy books. I don't want to talk about them. But one of the things he did say was, when the Messiah comes, we'll be asking him, is this your first or your second time? So, interesting perspective. He did not want to talk about the passages that I just brought up with you about Isaiah 53 and Daniel 7 and those kinds of things. He just didn't want to discuss it. I mean, he's really willing to talk about a lot of things, but not that.

Why do you think so? Well, I think the thing is that it's one of those areas where they come from a very different place, that those are passages about which there have been centuries of conflict with Christians. You know, Christians will look at it and say, see here, and you know. And matter of fact, when we went through Isaiah 53, we said, you know, here's the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. in Isaiah 53. All three of those things are there, and it sure looks like it fits the description. It's even what Philip pointed to with the Ethiopian eunuch who had a scroll of Isaiah. It's just a hot subject, and it's one upon which the Jews have changed their teaching. I mentioned around 1850 the Jews shifted to that passage is about Israel. So there's that.

I don't want to talk about it. It's a whole lot easier. Yeah, that's one of our holy books I don't want to talk about. There's a gentleman who writes every month in Israel My Glory, he lives in Jerusalem, and he has a lot of interaction with Jewish believers, and whenever he speaks to them about Isaiah 53, they say, we're not familiar with that, we've never been taught that. So whoever is teaching them is completely ignoring it. Yes, and matter of fact, that's another way of addressing the conflict, is instead of, you know, let's talk about it. or I don't want to talk about it, just ignore it. Just don't even talk about it. So that's an easy way to avoid the issues.

So let's take a look at John 7, 28-31 here. Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, you both know me and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you do not know. I know him because I am from him and he sent me. So they were seeking to seize him. No man laid his hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. But many of the crowd believed in him, and they were saying, when the Christ comes, he will not perform more signs than those which this man has, will he?" Notice you've got statements about the Christ here and in the previous passage in both of them in the form of a question. And we're not even playing Jeopardy.

Right? Yeah. It's interesting that if one of his brothers would have been there, they could have clarified that issue. Yes. Because they probably would have known full well that he was born in Bethlehem. Yeah. Just through stories at home. Sure. So they would have known the answer to that and eliminated the confusion. Yeah, they would have clarified that point. And by the way, let's ask this question. Why didn't Jesus say, hey, I was born in Bethlehem? And incidentally, the record that he was born in Bethlehem was probably in the temple building, right across the courtyard.

Why didn't he go there? Because his hour had not come. His hour had not yet come, that's one, and that's probably one good reason why else. They wouldn't believe it anyway. They wouldn't believe it anyway, and as a matter of fact, that was really their issue.

Instead of saying, hey, this guy did this wondrous thing and healed this guy, instead of that getting their attention, they went and looked through the rule books and see what laws he broke. Instead of, wow, this guy just did a phenomenal miracle, and nobody else among all of us has been able to do this, right?

So you have Jesus is trying to get to their real issue, not the superficial one. So what's his focus? His focus is back to the Father who sent him. He says, that's where you really got an issue, not the details about where I was born. That's your real problem. You guys got it all figured out about the temple, and you got all your squabbles among each other about what the real teaching is about the Messiah. But let me tell you, your real problem is with the Father, and you don't know Him. I do. He's the one who sent me. You see the distinction there? I know Him because I am from Him, and He sent me. I know the Father. You guys don't. I know that He sent me.

And no matter what I do, you guys don't believe me. One of the things we see here is a range of strongly varying opinions. Let's look at the players. You've got the Sadducees. What do they believe about the Messiah? There is no such thing. Therefore, whatever this guy is claiming is bogus.

So you've got that group, right? Now you've got the Pharisees, who do believe there's a Messiah, but they haven't got their act together about, well, you know, the prophet is also the Messiah, is also the son of David, is also the one who's going to die on the cross. So they haven't got that together.

And so, OK, this guy does signs and, you know, I'm just not sure, what category does it fall in? Is he the Christ? Well, he says so, but we don't know. As far as we know, it wasn't born in Bethlehem, and we're not sure if that's valid either, because the Messiah is supposed to be coming in the clouds out of the sky. So some of them would say, if I know where you are from, then you're obviously not the Messiah. because the Messiah is supposed to be coming in the clouds. So they would scratch him off the list because of that. So you can imagine this.

One of the distinctions we make, and this is drawn from a slide from previous weeks here, signs, wonders and miracles are some of the terms that are used And signs and wonders are two words that show up in the Gospel of John, and the difference is more a nuance.

The difference is more an emphasis rather than a great distinction. Supernatural events are signs acting as proofs and clear indications. And then wonders, which may be the same event but a different nuance. Supernatural acts causing wonder and awe among the witnesses. So, the one is an objective sign and indication, a proof that the wonder is the response of the people, the more subjective response of the people. See the difference there? Now, it may be the same event, but the description of it as a sign or a wonder differs by, is it objective, an objective indication, or is it the subjective response of the people seeing it? So, one question is, how many wonders will the Messiah perform? Do we have a count on that? John says no. Pardon? John says we don't. John says we don't. There's so many.

Yeah, the things that Jesus wrote towards the end of the Gospel of John, I couldn't write them all. But these things have been written so that you might believe. But the prophecies in the Old Testament about the Messiah were that the Messiah would perform these signs and wonders and miracles. That's what the Old Testament prophecies said. But it doesn't give a count. And so they're going, OK, Jesus did this, and this, and this.

Well, is that more or less than what the Messiah would do? If it's less than what the Messiah would do, then he's not the Messiah. If it's about the same number, then he might be the Messiah. If it's more, then obviously we undercounted and he is the Messiah.

So you see the head-scratching and whatnot, they're trying to figure out from that. There's a pattern there with the Israelites, as far as signs, because all God would do is give them signs over and over, and they'd say, we need signs. Yeah, isn't that what happened? Jesus fed the 5,000. Jesus fed the 5,000, and when the crowd caught up with them, what did they ask for? More signs. Yeah, give me more. Right? Show us the signs so that we can believe. As if they haven't seen anything yet. Right? And that leads to the question, how many signs do you have to see before you believe? How many signs do you have to see before you believe? John 7, 32-36.

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize him. Therefore Jesus said, for a little while longer I am with you than I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me.

Where I am you cannot come. The Jews then said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? He is not intending to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? What is the statement that he said, you will seek me and you will not find me, and where I am you cannot come? What's their problem? It was the problem that Jesus had been dealing with, with the Jews, for chapter after chapter after chapter, everything they interpreted physically, earthly, and literally. What was where I'm going, you cannot find me, what was that intended to indicate, to convey? Where was he going to go? He's going to go back to the Father. He's going to go back to the Father. Is that what they understood? Not at all. Right? So that's, what we're seeing here is a pattern among the Jews.

When Jesus would say something spiritual, when he would talk about heaven, they did not understand it that way. They would understand it, you know, here's Nicodemus, and Jesus says you've got to be born again. What was he talking about? He was talking about a spiritual rebirth, right? But their interpretation of it, their understanding of it was such that Nicodemus says, well, do I have to go back to my mother's womb? I can't figure this out. Yes?

Don't you think that they compared, in their minds, Jesus with Moses? I mean, when you're talking about signs and wonders, Moses did all these signs and wonders through God. Okay, so they would expect a prophet that Moses predicted. to be much like Moses. And Moses didn't go to heaven, or he didn't get transformed, or any of this, but he was still the most magnificent leader that they ever had. Yeah, and you bring up a very good point. Let's think about this. Here's Moses. Did he say to the Israelites, hey, I'm going to meet with God, and I'd like you to come up with me, and be sure to bring lunch, because we're going to be a while.

Is that the way it went off? No. What was happening up on the mountain? Thunder and lightning, right? And what was the warning to the people? Not, you know, hey come close, you better come close. Don't you touch that mountain or you're going to die, right? So was their intimacy with the Lord encouraged? Not at all, see? Not at all.

So what you have here, they're saying, OK, if this guy's going to be anything like Moses, intimacy with God, forget that, that'll kill you. Intimacy with God is just, that's going to be deadly. And so here he is standing right in front of them, making statements about, I'm God, and they're thinking, ooh, this isn't at all like it was with Moses. As a matter of fact, he's about to give an invitation here that they would be, you know, puzzled at. It also shows in their question how exclusivist they were. You're not going to go teach the Greeks, are you? Yeah. Let's think about that.

You had about two-thirds of the Jews at this time living outside of Israel. A lot of them were around Alexandria, a lot of them were around Ephesus and that part of the Roman Empire. There were still a number of Jews back over in Babylon and Persia in that area. So there were a number of different locations outside of Israel where there were congregations of Jews, and then they'd spread into other places as well. Even Afghanistan, what we now call Afghanistan, a place where there was a collection of Jews, Jews in the various parts of North Africa, Jews in Rome.

So you had Jews spread all over the place. So about two-thirds of the Jews lived outside of Israel, and so a lot of them are thinking, well, here's a place for him to go, where there's lots of other Jews to talk to and to talk with, and that must be what he needs.

And you're going to have a hard time finding me out there among these Jews. See that? So you can imagine their mindset. Being literally minded, that was the only thing that made any kind of sense to them. What do you mean, can't find me? Yes, they were thinking of you. Yeah. Here's the here's the dispersion. Oh, yeah. The dispersion is the diaspora. That was the dispersion of the Jews among the Gentiles.

And it was this even shows up in Paul's writings. Greeks was often used as a synonym for Gentile. Why? It's because in that part of the Roman Empire, because of Alexander the Great, the Greek-speaking peoples, most of the Gentiles that you ever ran into, they spoke Greek, some dialect of Greek. almost all the people that were Christians were Jews.

Is that correct? Yes. Well, actually, you're talking about like in the early chapters of Acts, when you say Christians? Yes. Followers of Jesus. We're not called Christians yet, I guess. Right, we're not called Christians yet, but followers of Jesus, yeah, they're all Jewish. Some little clarification there. Some of them, as we noted in John chapter 4, were Samaritans, right? They were mixed. Right.

Jesus occasionally had contact, as he did, for example, with the Roman centurion, as recorded in Matthew. But the vast majority of it, he's looking for Jews to follow him. He doesn't spend time with Gentiles. As a matter of fact, he sends Matthew chapter 10. He sends the disciples out. Don't even go on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Yes. I always thought that this passage is probably where Joseph Smith got his idea about Jesus coming to the Americas and witnessing to the Greeks or the Indians. Yeah, and we're going to come across some of those passages that kind of triggered his thoughts there. Yeah. Let's look at John 7, 37 through 39 there.

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. So here he is. Let's take a look here. While it's more crowded like this, this is the temple courtyard without all the people and animals and everything in it. So he's calling across the courtyard, probably from underneath one of the colonnades. And he's crying out so that people in the courtyard can hear him. You see that?

Busy place, lots of people there, and he's crying out, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Now, how many people who have heard that interpreted that spiritually? This American woman did it. Yes, yes, this American woman did it. So, anyone who is thirsty, come and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the Spirit, and those who believed in him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Christ was not yet glorified.

Can you imagine, here you are, Jew, you're doing your annual feast cycle thing. This is the last day of this feast that they've been attending, and everybody is milling around, and you're buying your sacrifices, and you're going into the temple area, and you're listening to all these teachers. Everybody's doing all their Jewish activities, and this guy calls out from one of the colonnades, and says this, what are you thinking? What is this guy talking about?

If you had not been aware of this guy doing some signs and wonders, something of that sort, You know, you can say, well, this guy's nuts. Well, it might give some credibility to that he did these signs and wonders, and that might make you think twice again. But if you hadn't seen those, and maybe only heard of that third, fourth, fifth hand, you know, very indirectly, you know, this guy's a little bit loony. Plus, what we've seen is the tendency, the inclination, would be for these people to think physically rather than spiritually.

So that's why Jesus comes across you, believes in you. Oh, I must be talking about something more than just, I'm going to give you a drink of water. And by the way, this is one amazing drink of water, because out of you is going to flow river, right? So, wow.

Yes? So does the metaphor of living water have anything to do with the metaphor of drinking his blood? It does in one respect. What did he mean by drinking his blood? I don't know. Believe. That's what we saw there, right? What does he mean by a drink of water? Belief. Belief, right? So they have this in common, that both of those are indicating belief. That's the point. Both of them are indicating belief.

Jesus said, you know, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the way, the truth, the light. All the different things that he said, those metaphors that he put out there, were all about believing. And this was no different. And he even clarifies it, if you ever wondered.

I'm not here to give you a drink of water. I don't even have any water, probably. I'm not here to give you a physical drink of water. I'm here to tell you that if you believe in me, that's how this is going to happen. Not, I'm going to give you a drink of water that's going to be like no drink of water you've ever had.

Right? but rather that belief in him was going to change you radically. And notice one other thing, it's going to be about six months before his crucifixion, but he's already beginning to speak in terms of the time after his crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension. And he's gone and the Holy Spirit's come. That's the end of his timeline that we looked at. The day of Pentecost. So he is already beginning to speak in terms of the beginning of the Church and the time when the Holy Spirit would be given.

This asks one other question. Is he giving, at this point in time, the Gospel of the Kingdom or the Gospel of Substitution, when he says this? This is about substitution. This is about substitution. And he's also revealing the fact that the church is going to come and replace this whole thing. Here I am standing in the temple courtyards, calling out to you, giving you the gospel of substitution in a building that about four decades from now will be demolished. And when it's all said and done, belief in me is what's necessary. That's the only thing that's going to last. Let's take a look, there's a second to the last paragraph on that page, page 2.

Later John would write in Revelation 21.6.

Here's John, the same one who wrote this that we just here out of the Gospel of John, writing at the end of Revelation 21.6, then he said to me, It is done.

I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. And by the way, those are out of things that God said. Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, are things that God said in Isaiah. The footnote there gives those references. I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the from the spring of the water of life without cost." Water of life is another way of saying, with just slightly different grammar, living water, with the emphasis on life, the water of life.

And then in Revelation 22.17, next chapter, last chapter in Revelation and in the entire Bible, the Spirit and the Bride say, Let the one who hears say come, and let the one who is thirsty come.

Let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost." Both of those end up with the water of life without cost. Is salvation by grace or by law? By grace, and it's without cost. The emphasis there is without cost. You want it, I charge nothing. It's all at my expense. And what does he mean by drinking of the water of life without cost? Believing, right? It's believing. He makes that clear in this passage in the Gospel of John. Let's take a look at the top of page 3 now.

John 7 through 44, some of the people, therefore, when they heard these words, and notice the word here, some of, so we got all this, this group says this, this group says that, those kinds of things. Some of the people, therefore, when they heard these words were saying, this certainly is the prophet. Okay, do you get the point of confusion here? Earlier they were talking about the Christ. Here, oh, we know who this guy is now, it's the prophet. the Prophet. Why would they suddenly conclude that this is the Prophet?

Who gave the Jews water? Moses, out in the desert. At least twice. Remember, he would strike the rock, and water would flow, and they'd all get plenty of water. So here's Jesus, who Paul says is the Rock. Here's Jesus offering, you know, here's free water, plenty of it. And this is flowing water, which is living water. When they say living water, in the Jewish terminology, that's flowing water. This isn't a stagnant pond. This is flowing water, good fresh water. So here's Jesus making this open statement, oh, he's going to give us water like Moses did, and therefore this is the problem.

But they didn't connect that up with him being the Messiah. So at first they're talking about, maybe he's the Messiah? Nah, he's the prophet! So instead of saying this is one and the same person, now they've got it divided up. We're not sure if he's the Messiah. Do they think he's the Messiah? Do we think he's the Messiah? Nah, he's the prophet.

That's it. Now it's clear. At least to some of them. See that, some? Others were saying, this is the Christ! See the point of confusion there? Some, the prophet, others, the Christ. Still others were saying, surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is he? So there's a location confusion, right? Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?

In Micah 5, 2. By the way, when the wise men or the magi came to Jerusalem, Herod had the doctors of the law, the experts on the law, answer the question, where is the Messiah to be from? By the way, why didn't Herod know that? Why didn't Herod know that? Yes. He was too busy killing his family? He was too busy killing his family, which is not a bad observation. But they didn't say that he was going to come from the clouds either, right? Yeah, so there was again this confusion, so there was that.

But if you do have a belief about where was he going to be born, then you'd send her on Micah 5.2, which says, no, that's going to be Bethlehem. But Herod was not a Jew, he was a descendant of Esau.

So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them wanted to seize him. No one laid hands on him. He's the prophet. He's the Christ. No, he's not the Christ, because he's not from Bethlehem, even though that was something they could have looked up or asked somebody about. And so you have lots of division. The division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him. Why would no one lay hands on him? Your father withheld them. It wasn't his time. One is the father withheld them, it wasn't his time.

And that's a good answer. Yeah. I think they were probably afraid to. There was this awe about him that he was so misunderstood and so weird. Yeah. And all the things that he was saying, they probably really didn't want to get close to him. Yeah, and think about it.

Some say this guy really is the prophet. Some say, this guy really is a Christ. Others say, nah, he's not the Christ, and I'm not sure he's a prophet either. And then you've got other people who don't believe any of it. So there was a lot of diversity of opinion. So it's hard to get up any momentum of, what do we do? Here's another thing. Were they upset or puzzled and confused? Yes. Pardon? It largely puzzled and confused, some upset, but that wasn't the most thing. It was just all, you know, what's he mean by this, you know? I've got water, where's your water?"

They just didn't get it, and so a lot of them were puzzled and confused primarily, and a lot of dissension. So it was like, yeah, we think we'd like to seize him, but on the other hand, it's not like he's running, it's not like he's got a big bunch of people who are ready to start some kind of an upsetting riot, and so it's hard to get up any momentum in any direction. Here we got John 7, 45-53. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees and they said to him, why did you not bring him? The officers answered, never has a man spoken the way this man speaks. The officers who were sent to get Jesus were neutralized.

The Pharisees then answered them, You have not also been led astray, have you? No one of the rulers or Pharisees, the rulers being the Sadducees, by the way, the word Sadducees never shows up in the Gospel of John. They always get called rulers or chief priests. The rulers or Pharisees has believed in him, has he?

But the crowd which does not know the law is accursed. Nicodemus, that was the one who came to him in John chapter 3. Nicodemus, he who came to him before, being a Pharisee, said to them, ìOur law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?î They answered him, ìYou are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.î Everyone went to his home.

We won't have time to go into it. One of the things that we'll make note of, though, is John is the only one who records about Nicodemus. John records special insight into the Sanhedrin, and he has special connections with Caiaphas, the high priest. So anyway, you can read about that a little farther down. John also talks about Joseph of Arimathea, who is one of these in the Sanhedrin as well, and speaks uniquely of him.

Some are of the opinion that the words in brackets are not original, verse 53, and basically the rest of the account in John chapter 8 of the woman caught in adultery, You will see a lot of your Bibles will have brackets indicating that that's not original.

I believe it was original, and we'll go over next week why I believe it is. There is, I think, plenty of evidence to indicate that it was original. The woman caught in adultery should be included, and I think that the brackets actually shouldn't be there. So anyway, we'll go over that next week. And by the way, that woman caught in adultery, that's another one of those things where knowing the cultural background is key. Yes?

When you were talking about the guards and the fact that they were Roman, that kind of brings to mind the centurion. the Son of God. So it looks almost like some of the Romans and some of the Greeks actually had a belief that the Jews didn't have. They could see this man from outside the confusion of the religious turmoil that was going on. And I'll bet you some of these guards even, you know, they could have very possibly seen this man as who he was. And may have been another motivation not to seize him or grab him. Let me clarify one thing.

The temple guards were actually Levites. They were actually Jews. The Romans did have the fortress of Antonia on the north part of the temple area. But these particular guys were Levites. The Levites were substantially, not entirely, were substantially of the Sadducee persuasion. for what that's worth.

But these temple guards were of the tribe of Levi, and they were those of the tribe of Levi who had temple service but were not priests. The priests were the ones who dealt specifically with the sacrificial system. These guys did other things related to the temple. Including, by the way, being involved in the reconstruction of the middle part of the temple, where you couldn't put anyone from any tribe just working in that middle part of the temple. It had to be a Levite, because it was an operating temple. We'll go into the account of the woman caught in adultery. Like I said, I believe that's a valid, genuine account, and the cultural background there is fascinating.

Amazing. So, anyway, let's pray. Lord, thank you for what you have revealed here, and thank you that we who believe can indeed drink of this water of life. And in fact, we shall for eternity. And we thank you for what you've revealed because you love us. We pray for your Holy Spirit's working in our hearts that we understand what apparently a great many did not. And we give you thanks, in Jesus' name. Amen.