Give Jesus
John 7:25-52,
Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” 30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. 33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So there was a division among the people over him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
45 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” 47 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
It’s a busy time of year! It marks the ending of one season and the beginning of another — and so there’s a lot of excitement in the air!
People are grateful for how God has provided in the past; they’re hopeful for how God will provide in the future. And that of course is what the Feast of Booths is all about — that’s what’s going on here in Jerusalem in John Chapter 7.
We saw the mention of “The Feast of Booths” last week in verse 2, but I want to circle back to it this week because it’s vital context for our passage today.
The Feast of Booths was one of the great festivals that God commanded for Israel in the Book of Leviticus. The people would build booths (temporary shelters) and live in them for a week to remember how God provided for them way back after the exodus, and how he continued to provide for them (see Lev. 23:33–43; Deut. 16:13–15).
This feast would come at the end of the agricultural year — the seventh month — which is roughly September on our calendar. So for your imagination: the events of our passage today happened around this time of year.
So picture this: Jerusalem is packed with people who’ve come from all-over for this festival; all the kids got on their new back-to-school clothes; and they’re having a week-long party — except this year was different because the whole city is abuzz with talk about this man named Jesus.
And we can catch the commotion here just by a simple reading — we heard about Jesus’s brothers at the start of this chapter, and then we hear about “the Jews,” “the people,” “the crowds,” “some of the people of Jerusalem,” “the Pharisees,” “the chief priests,” “the officers,” “the authorities,” and finally “Nicodemus.”
Now there’s overlap in some of these groups, but John uses each of these different words to describe what’s going on, and the impression he gives us is that there’s a whole bunch of different people talking about Jesus.
They all want to know who he is, and everybody’s got their own opinion.
So Chapter 7 is a cacophony of questions about Jesus, and he’s right in the middle of it … and we are too.
This is the brilliance of God’s word. As the readers of this story, we know things that the characters in this story don’t know. We call this dramatic irony — and John, who wrote this Gospel, is a master of it!
John lets us overhear everyone’s questions about Jesus, all while he’s already told us the truth about Jesus — we have the fuller perspective, and John means to involve us! He draws us into this story as readers and he gives us a part — there are ways he expects us to respond. I wanna tell you three.
For the sermon, I want to tell you three ways we should respond to the buzz about Jesus in Chapter 7.
And here’s what’s at stake: if you do these three things, it will change your life.
1. Give Jesus a hearing.
We’re going to actually start with the ending. Everybody find verse 45.
This is the last debate of the chapter, between the chief priests, the Pharisees, and the officers.
We see that word “officers” a few times. Other translations call these officers the “temple guard” or even “temple police.” We should imagine them as basically temple mall cops. Their job was to keep things in order around the temple, but they didn’t carry guns.
And well, back in verse 32, the chief priests and Pharisees told these temple mall cops to go arrest Jesus. The Pharisees kept hearing the crowds talk about Jesus and they had enough, so they said, Go get him and bring him in.
Now everybody look at verse 45:
The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”
The chief priests and Pharisees did not like this answer. The mall cops came back without Jesus, and their defense for why they didn’t arrest him was: This man is different!
We don’t know the full details here, but apparently these guys got close enough to Jesus to take him, but they were enamored by his words (which is a good first step toward faith) — but the Pharisees weren’t having it.
They attacked these guys. Look at verse 47:
The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”
The Irony of Nicodemus
Now this is important — I need everybody to track with me here. In verse 47, I want you to see that the Pharisees are suggesting a contrast between themselves and the crowd — and we have to see the contrast in order to see the deep irony going on here.
When the Pharisees ask if the authorities or Pharisees believed in Jesus, that’s a rhetorical question (the implied answer is Of course not!).
They’re saying: The crowd might believe in Jesus because they don’t know any better — they’re a bunch of dummies! But we’re smart! (That’s my paraphrase.)
Let me read you another paraphrase of these verses, to help us really see what’s going on here. Verse 46:
The police answered, “Have you heard the way he talks? We’ve never heard anyone speak like this man.” The Pharisees said, “Are you carried away like the rest of the rabble? You don’t see any of the leaders believing in him, do you? Or any from the Pharisees? It’s only this crowd, ignorant of God’s Law, that is taken in by him—and damned.” (Verses 46-49, The Message)
See what they’re saying?
That is all meant to set up verse 50. Everybody find verse 50.
Okay, somebody tell me the first word in verse 50 … Nicodemus!
Interesting! We know who he is! We met Nicodemus back in Chapter 3.
John tells us in John 3:1,
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.”
Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a ruler, which were different. There’s historical evidence that confirms that Nicodemus belonged to an extremely prominent Jewish family in the First Century. They had incredible wealth and aristocratic influence — in almost every worldly metric you could imagine. Nicodemus was a big deal.
And in Chapter 3, he came to Jesus one night, in private, with a bunch of questions. And Jesus told him that you have to be born again by the Holy Spirit, and he told him that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Jesus said that to Nicodemus, but then Nicodemus disappears from the story.
We don’t know how he responded … he doesn’t show back up until now, in Chapter 7, verse 50. So catch this:
The Pharisees say: Look, knuckleheads! You don’t see any of us Pharisees believing in Jesus do you?
The next verse starts, “Nicodemus …” Verse 50,
Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”
This is the most reasonable sentence spoken by any of the characters in this chapter. Nicodemus says, Give him a hearing. It’s that simple. Before you dig in your heels on who you think Jesus is, hear him out. See what he’s about.
Nicodemus is basically saying, Do what I did.
The Pharisees think none of their own have believed in Jesus, but they don’t know what we know! Actually, one of their best and brightest had believed, and in verse 50 he’s telling them how he took that step: Give Jesus a hearing.
Said for Us!
And I want us to understand that Nicodemus says this for us. The Pharisees don’t budge. They’re that hardened. They even take a dig at Nicodemus in verse 52 by saying he’s from Galilee — they know where Nicodemus was from. They’re insulting him. So the Pharisees don’t hear Jesus; the question is: will we?
Will we hear Jesus out?
We have to. You’ve heard me say this before about the late Tim Keller — a pastor in New York for decades. I agree with him when he said the magnitude of Jesus’s claims and the magnitude of his historical impact demands every thoughtful person to hear him out.
Because of what Jesus said and what he did, you can’t just doubt him from a distance, you have to look closer. Keller gives the illustration: he says imagine you get a letter in the mail from one of the biggest law firms in the country and it says,
“Dear [your name], Please call us as soon as possible. You are a long-lost heir of the British throne. These assets and mansions belong to you.”
You might think that’s ridiculous, but you’re going to look into it, right? You’re gonna at least make a phone call? The magnitude of the claim is too great not to hear it out.
And so it is with Jesus. We must at least hear him out. That’s what Nicodemus says. Give Jesus a hearing.
This is the second way we should respond to this story …
2. Give Jesus your thirst.
Jump back to verse 37. Verses 37–39 are the high point of this chapter. It’s the concluding words of Jesus in this scene, and I want you to notice something in verse 37 — Jesus didn’t just reply and give an answer this time, but he stood up and “cried out” — and that same word for “cry out” in verse 37 is translated “proclaim” in verse 28. It’s the exact same verb in verses 28 and 37 and it means to say something with a loud voice.
So if we were to track the speaking moments of Jesus in this chapter, from the start of the chapter to its end, it goes like this … it starts in verse 6.
Verse 6: “Jesus said to them”
Verse 16: “Jesus answered them”
Verse 21: “Jesus answered them”
Verse 28: “Jesus proclaimed”
Verse 37: “Jesus stood up and proclaimed”
There’s an escalation happening. Jesus literally gets louder until in verse 37 he stands up and gets loud. So this is the high point! All eyes are on him!
And the setting, again, is important. Verse 37 starts by telling us this happened “On the last day of the feast, the great day” — What feast? What is John talking about?
This is the Feast of Booths — remember verse 2?
The “Feasts of Booth was at hand” — and now in verse 37 John is making a connection between that feast and what Jesus says here. So what is that? What’s the connection?
Pointing to Him
Well, remember the Feast of Booths was about recognizing God’s provision for Israel after the exodus. Israel wandered through the desert for forty years and God met their needs, and one of those big needs, we know, was water.
The people were thirsty and God gave them water to drink — and part of this feast highlighted that provision!
So we know that on this last day of the feast, people were thinking about water. The people were remembering and celebrating God’s provision of water in the wilderness, and so with water literally on their minds, Jesus stands up in the middle of that and he cries out:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink!
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,
‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
Jesus is saying he’s the one this feast has been pointing to this whole time. It’s always been about him. He is God’s true and ultimate provision for our ultimate thirst!
It’s amazing that Jesus did this. He caused this scene and said these words to make clear that the people’s thirst is not just a thing of history, but they still thirst. He knows it. They know it. There is no modesty here. No riddles to solve. No hard sayings. Jesus is yelling. He’s loud:
If you’re thirsty — and I know you thirst — that’s why I’ve come!
And I can almost hear the earnestness in his voice — hoarse with sincerity … heavy with seriousness … hopeful to save. He’s speaking both invitation and fact. And everyone hears him, but do we hear him? Do we learn what he does?
Mining Our Own Thirst
Imagine your own life for a minute. Something true about all of us, as human beings, is that we are glory-chasers and pleasure-seekers. This means we all want to matter and we all want to be happy. I know that about you.
We all have this desire, this void, this thirst, and we can’t help but try to fill it. That’s what we’re all doing, all the time, but the problem is that left to ourselves, we try to satisfy that thirst with everything but God.
And this is not only misguided, it’s evil. That’s the way the Bible talks about it. The prophet Jeremiah says, Jeremiah 2:12,
Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
13 for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:12–13)
Do you see? In our sin, we reject God, we abandon him, but then we go looking everywhere else for the satisfaction only he can provide. And we don’t just do this one time, but over and over again. Every time we sin we are looking for the God we’ve forsaken. It’s been said that when the young man rings the doorbell at a brothel he’s actually looking for God.
So what doorbells are you ringing? Where are you letting your thirst take you?
I ask this for Christians and non-Christians. How badly do you want the approval of man? Do you crave relationships at all costs? Do you compromise conviction for thrills?
Think about this, and I want you to imagine that in the middle of all of it, in the middle of everywhere you might be searching, Jesus is there and he stands up.
In the noise of the crowd and the silence of your room, in the pressure of your work and the ache of your heart, in the high places of success and the low places of failure — Jesus stands up in that and he says over all those things, “If you thirst come to me. Come to me and drink.”
Let’s hear him. And then give him your thirst … right now.
If you’ve never put your faith in Jesus, you can do that now. Just tell him.
I don’t wanna thirst anymore.
I’m done with this search.
Jesus, I believe in you. I rest in you.
That is the invitation of our passage today.
Give Jesus a hearing; give Jesus your thirst; and here is #3 — give Jesus to others.
3. Give Jesus to others.
This is the verse 38. Jesus says that whoever believes in him, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
And right away, we should just name it. This is not what we would maybe want Jesus to say. We might think something else would fit better, something like:
Believe in me and live happily ever after! — wouldn’t that be nice?!
Believe in me and your house won’t burn, your wife won’t get cancer, your children won’t be sick … Believe in me and you won’t be condemned — and that’s true, Jesus has said that — but here he says if you believe in him, it’s not about what you get but what you can give.
You will have living water flowing out of your heart!
And John adds in verse 39 a little clue for us: Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit.
Everyone who believes in Jesus will receive the Holy Spirit.
Jesus will say a lot more about the Spirit in Chapter 14, but I’ll go ahead and tell you one thing he says: he says the Holy Spirit is God the Father and God the Son making their home in you (John 14:13).
The Holy Spirit is the love of the triune God poured into your heart — and how do you think that looks?
Stagnant Pond or Flowing River?
This summer my family spent a few days at my parents’ house in North Carolina. They live in the country: fields, woods, paths, and ponds. And there’s this big pond tucked way down out of sight. You go down this path, past an old house, deep into the woods, and then suddenly there’s an opening and there it is. It’s a big pond (probably called a lake in Minnesota). It’s named after my great-grandfather.
And it used to be the place to go. It had a sandy beach and they built a tall diving board — 50 years ago my mom and her friends would hang out there. But you’d never know that now. It’s been inactive for years, and it shows.
The edges of the pond is covered in green algae, the surface is spooky still, mosquitoes rule the place. The water looks dead and you’ve seen water like that before — now is that your heart?
Is your heart more like a stagnant pond or is it like a river? …
The Holy Spirit makes one kind of heart.
Saved to Give
Jesus says that the one who believes in him, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water! So he satisfies you and then he pours out through you into the lives of others. Now what does that mean? How does that look?
How does the Spirit in us affect the way we relate to others? We know it must mean the fruit of the Spirit! The Spirit makes us people of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness , faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
The Spirit produces all of those things in our hearts in our relationships with others, but really, ultimately, the Spirit in us means that we give Jesus to people. That’s what we’re trying to do.
Jesus has given us himself to be shared.
He has poured his Spirit into our lives to flow through us into the lives of others. We get more of him so that others get him through us!
Don’t you want to live that way?!
We’re just a conduit of God’s grace for others!
Look, God doesn’t save you for yourself — he saves you for his glory and your good — and your good is realized not in your getting, but in your giving!
And church, some of you need to hear that because you think you don’t have anything to give.
You’ve been fooled or discouraged into thinking your heart is a stagnant pond, but it’s not. Not according to Jesus. Christian, you have the Holy Spirit. Let today be the day God stirs anew the living water in your heart.
Hey, it’s a busy time of year. It’s the end of one season and beginning of another — and there’s a lot of excitement in the air. We start school tomorrow.
And church, for this new season, let’s ask God for a fresh filling of his Spirit! That’s what we need! For his glory and our good!
Here’s how we respond to the buzz about Jesus in Chapter 7:
Give Jesus a hearing.
Give Jesus your thirst.
And by his Spirit flowing in us, give Jesus to others.
And we come to this Table in that hope.
The Table
This Table is about receiving — we receive Jesus and his fellowship, and remember all that he’s done for us in his life, death, and resurrected life. But we don’t receive him to stop here. We receive him and then overflow!
