Sunday, April 15, 2012

Sunday, April 15th

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Psalm 7, 27, 31, 34, 52
Today's scripture focus is John 7:32-53


32 The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.
 33 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? 36 What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”
 37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 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.
 40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
 41 Others said, “He is the Christ.”
   Still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? 42 Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family 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.
Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders
 45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
 46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards declared.
 47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Has 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.”
 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51 “Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is 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.”
 53 Then each went to his own home.


In v 37 Jesus once again makes some amazing claims.  And Him talking about thirst and living water is not out of place here.  It happened on the last and greatest day of the Feast.  Consider this description from John MacArthur's Bible Commentary.....
A tradition grew up in the few centuries before Jesus that on the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, a golden container filled with water from the pool of Siloam was carried in procession by the high priest back to the temple.  As the procession came to the Water Gate on the south side of the inner temple court, three trumpet blasts were made to mark the joy of the occasion and the people recited Isaiah 12:3, "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." At the temple, while onlookers watched, the priests would march around the altar with the water container while the temple choir sang the Hallel (Psalms 113-118). The water was offered in sacrifice to God at the time of the morning sacrifice. The use of the water symbolized the blessing of adequate rainfall for crops. Jesus used this event as an object lesson and opportunity to make a very public invitation on the last day of the feast for His people to accept Him as the living water.  His words recall Isaiah 55:1.  thirsts....come....drink.  These three words summarize the gospel invitation. A recognition of need leads to an approach to the source of provision, followed by receiving what is needed.  The thirsty, needy soul feels the craving to come to the Savior and drink, i.e., receive the salvation that He offers....He was the fulfillment of all the Feast of Tabernacles anticipated...He was the One who provided the living water that gives eternal life to man.

Isn't that fascination?  So, yes, it completely fit the context.

From a MacArthur  sermon:  Not only do we drink and have our own thirst quenched, but we become the supplier, would you believe it? The supplier of living water to the world. That's the real key to this. We are channeled for living water to reach the world. Out of our hearts should flow rivers, not one river and not a drip. Most of us can't even say, "Out of my heart drips living water." I think the reason that so many Christians stink spiritually is because they have become stagnant storage tanks instead of rivers of living water.  


They could receive the living water now, but they wouldn't be able to overflow because that would take the power of the Holy Spirit, which had not yet come (see v39)


the convinced (v40 and 41a), they receive Christ. The contrary (v41b, 42), reject open unbelief. The confused (the temple guards from v45, 46), kind of wrestling with it. And the contemplative (Nicodemus in v50, 51, who likely later becomes a Believer - see John 19:39,40), the one who researches, moving step by step willingly openly toward the truth of Jesus Christ. Where are you? I ask you the same question that rings in my mind that Pilate asked two thousand years ago, what will you do with Jesus Christ?

The Pharisees claim that the officers are deceived, that the crowds are blinded by a curse and that Nicodemus is blinded by his Galilean bias.  But the truth is that the Pharisees are the ones deceived, cursed and biased.

Jesus causes division because He forces you to choose for yourself what you will believe - and not just intellectually, but what you will choose to do with the Truth. But the good thing about division is that it means that those who are convinced, stay convinced.  They aren't swayed by the other side.  They remain convinced by the truth.

And v34 should serve as a huge wake up call.  There will come a time when it will be too late.  Whether that be death, Christ's second coming, or when you've hardened your heart to the point of no turning back. But upon death, and upon judgement day - you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was exactly who He claimed He was.  And every knee will bow and tongue proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.  But not everyone will be with Him in heaven forever.  That is based on what they decided now - based on faith.  Don't wait until it's too late!

And those who have chosen to follow Christ - we cannot just coast in our faith.  So many Christians today are simply ignorant of what the scriptures say.  They've gone to church every Sunday for 25 years but haven't really studied the Bible and they don't really know God.

Like the Pharisees who knew the Messiah was supposed to be born in Bethlehem, but didn't both to investigate where Jesus was from, we need to be careful not to be ignorant or stupid when it comes to the Bible.

John MacArthur (emphasis mine).....

We live in a culture where Jesus is a byword. Everybody knows Jesus. But nobody knows Him. Bibles all over the place, and nobody knows what's in them. Churches everywhere, and people don't know God and they don't know Jesus. But before you condemn the world, just look at the church. You know what the curse of Christianity is today? One word...ignorance. That is the greatest curse that we face in Christianity, trying to educate ignorant Christians. They can't reproduce themselves cause they don't know what they are. They can't teach the Word of God cause they don't know what they believe. They can't give some help to somebody cause they don't know what the Bible teaches. We presented a series one time at the National Sunday School Convention on why young people drop out of church, and we came to the conclusion that one of the dominant factors is the fact that they get frustrated over the fact of ignorance, where a kid is brought to church all his life by mom and dad, and then a crisis comes in his life and he says, "Help me, dad or mom, what does the Bible say?" And the parents say, "I don't know, I've only been going to church for 25 years. But ask me what's on page 198 in the hymnal and I'll tell you it's 'Just as I am.'" And that's tragedy. That is tragedy.
We're ignorant. That's why it's almost a consuming passion with me to communicate the knowledge of the Word of God. The apostle Paul said in Romans 12:2, he said you can be transformed from the world by the renewing of...what?...your mind, just your brain, just learn the things of God. They'll take care of the emotion and the motivation if you just learn. Paul didn't say, "Timothy, go out and get excited. Go hear a super-challenging speaker." Paul said to Timothy, "Study...study...study to show yourself...what?...approved, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth." Ignorance is the curse of Christianity. I daresay our faith is based on a Trinity view of God, I daresay 90 percent of the people in the church if they were confronted by somebody and they said, "Show me two places in the Bible where the trinity is taught," couldn't give them one. Ask yourself. And yet you know when they knock on your door, brother, they know the ones that prove the Trinity doesn't exist to them. We don't even know what we believe. That's why it's to teach...to teach...to teach...to teach that matters.

And that is exactly why we're doing this blog - studying and learning together!

Tomorrow's scripture focus: John 8:1-11
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage:  Psalm 56, 120, 140-142

1 comment:

Miriam said...

I've read through the whole Bible twice and I STILL feel ignorant! But I know I've come a long way and will continue to benefit myself and others as I continue to learn.