Scripture: John 7
In Georgian Heights,
EVERY yard had a fence. I used to love climbing them and jumping them -
sometimes even trying to walk them.
In John 7 Fences make a dividing line which no one
can walk. A fence is a dividing line. A fence is designed to keep something in
or something out. The phrase (SLIDE) “Good fences make good neighbors” is
because the fence shows where your property ends and mine begins - no
question. It also keeps you out of my
yard if I don’t want you in it. It keeps
my pets in if I don’t want them to get out - for their own protection. (NEW ALBANY STORY)
Everyone everywhere
understands the concept “Good fences make good neighbors”: There are references
to this quote in German, Norwegian, Russian, Japanese, Hindi and more. Even Benjamin
Franklin is known to have said, “Love thy neighbor, yet don’t pull
down your hedge.” Given how many different cultures have versions of
this non-biblical proverb, it represents a very common sentiment among
neighbors everywhere.
Not everyone believes Good fences make good neighbors
- some think the opposite. Robert Frost’s
poem, “Mending Wall,”
reiterates the confusion that the proverb suggests. In the poem, two neighbors
walk the length of their dividing wall each spring to mend whatever has fallen
off. The speaker does not understand the purpose of the fence; however, his
neighbor merely repeats the phrase, “Good fences make good neighbors.” The
speaker has no alternative but to continue this ritual with his neighbor each
year despite his own belief that mending the wall is a waste of time.
The fence means you are
in or you are out - there is NO middle ground. Rev 3:15-17
I know your deeds, that you are
neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you
are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Matt 12:30-32 "He
who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the
blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word
against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy
Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Acts 4:8 & 12 Then
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking about Jesus, said: “Salvation is
found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by
which we must be saved."
John 7 is not just about salvation and who is in and
who is out, but the difference being in makes: Jesus is asked 3 questions by those who oppose him -
1) Jn
7:15 Where did Jesus get his learning? -
HEAVEN (Jesus has teaching greater than those who are ordained.)
2) Jn
7:27 Where is Jesus from? - HEAVEN -
(Jesus can’t be the Messiah, we won’t know what town he will come from and
he will come from Bethlehem)
3) Jn
7:35 Where is Jesus going? = HEAVEN -
(Jesus says “where I go you cannot come” This is where a divine reversal will
take place. Up to this point, Jesus has
been at work in the world, searching for those who would believe. Once he departs, they will do the seeking,
trying to find what they tragically missed.
John
7 isn’t just about who is in and who I s out.
John 7 isn’t just about Jesus identity completely tied to Heaven. John 7 is about the feast of tabernacles.
Jesus has come to Jerusalem for this 3rd feast of the year and will
not return to Galilee, but will remain for 6 months until the next Passover -
the time he will live out his passion - death and resurrection. Jesus has arrived for this feast at a time of
excessive spiritual drought.
Are you suffering a spiritual drought? A new pastor once found himself neglecting his
study in order to meet other needs. One Sunday following the worship service a
dear lady — a person who loved and cared for her pastor—said, "Pastor, I can hear the dipper banging against the bottom
of the bucket." She knew his water pitcher was empty.
John 7:37-38 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. Whoever believes in me, as the
Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
These words were spoken by Jesus to people who were
spiritually dry, empty and defeated. They are like many people of our day,
going through religious ritual and ceremony but finding no real meaning, life
and victory.
The apostle John includes the commentary on the words
of Jesus. John 7:39 tells us that Jesus' statement about "rivers
of living water" is a reference to the Holy Spirit. When it comes
to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, it is possible to go to extremes. Baptists
have typically feared the extreme, and because of that have often gone to the
other extreme and been devoid of the person and power of the Holy Spirit.
Herein lies the power for life and ministry. The Holy Spirit is our power
source.
The 21st century church needs to be reminded of the
purpose and power of the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The
setting of our Lord's words amplify their meaning. The occasion was the Feast
of Tabernacles, the third in a series of Jewish Feasts. In the Old Testament,
the Feast of Tabernacles lasted seven days. In the New Testament the Feast of
Tabernacles lasted eight days. It was a Thanksgiving Feast.
The guidelines for the Feast are found in Leviticus
23. The people were required to leave their permanent residences and build
booths of willows and palm branches. During the Feast of Tabernacles they
would live in these booths made of branches as a reminder of their nomadic days
in the wilderness. It was a time of remembering God's wonderful provision.
During the Feast of Tabernacles, the city of Jerusalem and the Temple area were
filled with booths made from branches.
This procedure went on for seven days, but on the
last day the procedure was repeated with two significant exceptions. First,
when the parade of people returned from the pool of Siloam, the Priests would
march around the Altar seven times commemorating Joshua's victory at Jericho.
Secondly, the Priests would raise the golden pitcher over the silver funnels
as they had done each day previously, but this time there was no water — only
an empty pitcher. This signified the disobedient generation that died in the
Wilderness. Instead of a shout and the waving of palm branches as the people
had done each day, they now stood in silence.
It was in the moment of silence — this moment of
bewilderment, emptiness and meaninglessness — that Jesus cried out. You must
get the picture. Our Lord had been watching the people go through the motions,
perfectly following the order of service, but there was no meaning, no power,
no life. They found themselves right where they had started. Nothing in them,
or about them, or for them, was different.
I often think of the great crowd of people who
gathered annually for this observation of the Feast of Tabernacles. I think
about their lives, their homes, their jobs, their communities and their
synagogues. I think about what they brought with them to the great Feast: their
hopes, their dreams and their expectations. I think about what they took away
when they returned to their homes. Were they any different? Or did they just go
through the same old motions only to conclude with an empty pitcher?
What happened to that crowd over two thousand years
ago still happens to people in our world every Sunday. People go to church
filled with hopes and dreams and expectations. And all too often they go away
unfulfilled and empty.
I ask, praise team and church staff and leaders: are
we sending our people away empty? Do they come to the House of God in search
for the Water of Life only to hear the clanging of an empty pitcher? Do they
hear the dipper banging against the bottom of your bucket?
E.M. Bounds wrote this statement regarding the
anointing of the Holy Spirit: "This unction
comes to the preacher not in the study, but in the closet. It is heaven's
distillation in answer to prayer. It is the sweetest exaltation of the Holy
Spirit. It impregnates, suffuses, softens, percolates, cuts and soothes. It
carries the Word like dynamite, like salt, like sugar; Makes the Word a
soother, an arraigner, a revealer, a searcher; Makes the hearers a culprit or a
saint, makes him weep like a child and live like a giant; Opens his heart and
his purse as gently, yet as strongly as spring opens leaves. This Unction is
not a gift of genius. It is not found in the halls of learning. No eloquence
can woo it, no industry can win it. No prelactical hands can confer it. It is
the gift of God—a signet set to His own messengers…It is given to those who
have sought this anointed honor through many an hour of tearful, wrestling
prayer."
Are you thirsty? Are you thirsty for God? Years ago Stuart
Briscoe said, "God will meet
man on the level of his desire, man can have as much of God as he wants."
Eric Alexander, the former pastor of St.
George's Tron, Church of Scotland, in Glasgow once said, "We need to learn that the blessing of God is not a
cheap commodity lightly dispensed." The Psalmist 42:1-2 said, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my
soul for You, O God, my soul thirsts for God—for the Living God"
Do you have an unsatisfied need for God in your heart? Are you thirsty?
The text also reveals, The Invitation that was Given
(John
7:37 “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and
drink.” We are reminded here
that Jesus stood to extend this invitation to the crowd. This is significant
because no Jewish teacher ever stood to speak. Those who stood to make
announcements were Imperial Heralds who represented a King or a Caesar. We have
before us an imperial kingly invitation.
Notice that the invitation was not to attend church or a program or a
meeting or a Bible study. It was an invitation to come to a Person!
Lastly we see, The Promise Jesus Made (John
7:38) “Whoever
believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow
from within him.” Jesus did
not promise a trickle or a drip, or even a flow…He promised a river. Can you
get your mind around this? The Holy Spirit is like a mighty rushing river…a
life-giving river. He is like the mighty river found in Ezekiel
47:1-12 that produces life wherever it flows.
Ezek 47:1-12 The
man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out
from under the threshold of the temple toward the east. The water was coming
down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then
brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the
outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side.
As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand,
he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was
ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water
that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water
that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a
river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough
to swim in — a river that no one could cross. He asked me, "Son of man, do
you see this?"
Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I
arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said
to me, "This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the
Arabah, where it enters the Sea. When it empties into the Sea, the water there
becomes fresh. Swarms of living
creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of
fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where
the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore;
from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish
will be of many kinds — like the fish of the Great Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become
fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both
banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail.
Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them.
Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing."
The mighty Amazon River
finds its origin above the freeze line of the Andes Mountains in South America.
There, little trickles of water emerge from the frozen ground and flow down the
mountain. One little stream flowing into another little stream until a majestic
river is formed. As the river flows it picks up speed and power. It flows for
3,600 miles before it reaches the Atlantic Ocean, where it hits the ocean at a
rate of 1.4 million gallons of water per second and with such force that it pushes
fresh water some 60 miles out into the Atlantic ocean. What power!
Jesus said,
"He who
believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of
living water" (John
7:38). Jesus did not promise a
trickle or a drip or a flow… He promised a river.
CONCLUSION
There is a fence! Which side are you on? - are you in or are
you out? There is a feast where Jews are
reminded about the water God provided in the wilderness from a rock. To the church Paul said: 1 Cor 10:4 …for they drank from the spiritual rock
that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. There was a fence and a
feast and a furious river - and that river is the Holy Spirit who wants to invigorate
your life!
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