Sunday Gathering - John 7 : 36-52 - Myke Walters - Sermon Only

Thank you.

Morning, everyone.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Micah.

It's my privilege to work with the youth here at MCF.

Me and my family have been coming for about five years

and have lived here in Jordenthorpe.

And today we're going to carry on chatting about John.

So we've been, I don't know how long we've been in John.

We've been in John for quite a while.

So we're going to refresh your memories.

I would like you to come back to the beginning of John with me

as we set where we have been so we can see where we're going, essentially.

So in the introduction, it's quite a famous audience participation, I'm afraid.

So in the introduction, we start off with some very famous words.

Who can remember them?

Nice.

In the beginning was the word.

I was going to ask for a scribe, Andy.

Thank you.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was God,

and the word was with God.

he was there in the beginning. So here in the introduction. And so we have this beautiful

poem that introduces us to the majesty of who Christ is, but you don't have him named yet

in the beginning. And then in chapters two to four, we look at various aspects of key Jewish

institutions. Okay, so there are four between chapters two and four that highlight different

Jewish institutions. Who can remember them? Points if you get them in order.

There's a wedding. I don't know who said that. It came from over here. Oh, well done, Catherine.

So the first one, you have a wedding, and there's this big miracle. It's the first time that Jesus

does a miracle, and he turns water into wine, which some people get very excited about. He then

goes to somewhere, which is really important to Pharisees. Temple, I think I heard. Yeah, he goes

to the temple and you've got this big scene where he flips tables and casts out all of the money

lenders. From there, he has a late night chinwag with Nicodemus. Yeah, late night chinwag with

Nicodemus. And we talk about the new birth, the spiritual new birth with Nicodemus. And the last

meeting is with a Samaritan woman at the well and it's a sacred well within Jewish

culture and history is where they meet the Samaritan woman at the well and then so those

are chapters two to four and then in chapters five we start talking about key festival dates

within Jewish culture, and Jesus starts interacting with these Jewish feasts, and there's dates in the

calendar that Jews will remember, and they will talk about, and they will tell stories, and they're

very, very well-known times, so we have two on chapter five, he talks about, he insults quite a

lot of people by doing something on a rest day. The Sabbath healing. I heard a voice. Yeah, in

chapter five, there's a Sabbath healing, and the Pharisees get very angry. And then in chapter six,

we look at a very key date that marks the beginning of our Easter period,

the Passover. So in chapter six, there's a story at the Passover. Someone over here is on it,

Passover. So my little pictures were of a bouquet, of a temple, of a moon, of a well,

of a person going, yay, and of blood on the door. Just for you to remember, this is where we've been

coming from. Thank you very much. Now in chapter seven, the beginning of chapter seven, and for

the next couple of chapters, we're in a collection of feasts for the tabernacle. This is what this

next section is. Jesus has gone to these feasts and at the beginning of seven, his brothers come

up to him and say, you need to come with me. I believe this is what you talked about last week.

You need to come with us. And he goes, no, it's not my time yet. I'm not coming. I know that when

I go, they are going to try and kill me. But what he does instead is he goes in secret a little bit

later on, and he waits before he comes out, and he does his first bit of talking. Last week, you heard

about it, and throughout John, we see that Jesus is performing signs and miracles, and we also see

people's reactions to him, and he's often not very good. It's a bit of a spoiler. It doesn't end well

for Jesus, not in our traditional sense anyway. He rubs a lot of people up the wrong way. And

throughout John, we're looking at this balance between Jesus speaking and people getting quite

angry with him. So that is where we have been. And we're going to read today from chapter 7. We're

about halfway through chapter 7. We're starting at 37. If you have a Bible, if you have a phone

with the bible on it if you have any kind of device for reading the bible we're going to read

that now okay so it says on the last and greatest day of the festival jesus stood and said in a loud

voice anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink whoever believes in me as scripture has said

rivers of living water will flow from within them and by this he meant that the spirit whom though

whom those who believed in him were to later receive up to that time the spirit had not been

given since jesus had not yet been glorified on hearing these words some of the people said

Surely this man is the prophet.

And others said,

He is the Messiah.

Still others asked,

How can the Messiah come from Galilee?

Does not the scripture say that the Messiah will come from David's descendants

and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?

Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.

Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

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,

You mean he has deceived you also?

The Pharisees retorted,

Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him?

No, but this mob that knows nothing of the law, there is a curse on them.

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked,

Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he's been doing?

They replied,

Are you from Galilee too? Look into it and you will find that a prophet does not come out of

Galilee. Thank you. So that's what we're going to be doing today. And what I want us to do is to

start with the second half of the passage first, and then we'll go back to the first half. I think

it's amazing because the book, the Bible is not a book about you and me. It's a book about God and

who he is and who his people are but we can use it as a mirror on our own lives

as a reflection of who we are and where we stand before Christ

after reading the passage my first questions to you will be who do you say that Jesus is

who do you say that Jesus is and who does your life say that Jesus is because they're not

necessarily always the same thing right you can say with your mouth one thing but if your actions

say another then it doesn't really mean very much as I tell my children all the time

who do you say Jesus is and who does your life say Jesus is? Because who you say Jesus is will

influence every aspect of your life. It will influence how you spend your time. It will

influence how you spend your money. It will influence how you interact with those around

you. Who you Jesus is will change every aspect of your life. So therefore, it is imperative that

you answer this question. It's such an important question for your life. Who do you say Jesus is?

In the passage, we read in John's gospel lots of different answers, and he's really good

at showing us different responses to who Jesus is. What are some of the responses that people

in the passage give us to the question, who do they say Jesus is? You need your Bibles open again.

Yeah, one of them says he's the Messiah. So the Messiah, anybody know what Messiah means?

The anointed one. Thank you, Kath. The anointed one, the chosen one. And John has said at the end

of his gospel, the reason that he has written, the reason that he has written the gospel is because

he wants us to believe in the Messiah. He says, oh let me find my, let me get it right. He says,

so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that by believing you might have life

in his name. That is the reason that he's writing the gospel, that we may believe in the Messiah

and through that have life in his name. But what else does the crowd think about Jesus?

that he's a prophet so a prophet one sent to share God's words speak God's truth to others

and how are these counted any ideas these are counted counted these people they speak against

this and say there's no messiah coming out of Nazareth do you not know your Torah there's

nothing that says that there's going to be a messiah coming out of Nazareth the issue is they

don't know that Jesus was a refugee and that he was born in Bethlehem but had to flee as a refugee

before he came back. They accuse the guards of being deceived. They say that the mob is cursed.

They say that Nicodemus is biased. They counter every single one and say, you are just voices,

you're being conned, it's no good, it's all a lie. And I wonder how many of you have those voices

over your lives now, that Jesus is not who he says he is, that you are conned, that people around you

are biased, that you are not believing the truth. And those voices can seem overwhelming, but we

don't counter it in our power because we are presented with who Jesus is through the Bible

story, and he doesn't just leave it as a load of words at the beginning. He, as we carry on reading

through John, he moves in a way that says that I am irrefutably the son of God. If Jesus hadn't

died and come back to life again, then the Pharisees would have been correct.

Maybe you're happy sitting on the fence. Maybe you're like, well, it doesn't really matter what

I think Jesus said. It doesn't really matter. It's okay for me to just sit here and be around people

who love Jesus, who love Christ, but I'm quite happy sitting on the fence. And I'm challenging

you to review your vision of who Christ is because he doesn't give us space to sit on the fence.

C.S. Lewis said, I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people

often say about him. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim

to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would

not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on level with a man who says he is a

poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and

is the son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool. You can

spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God

but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.

he has not left that that open to us and he did not intend to who do you say Jesus is

so having started with the end of the passage we're going to come back to the first two verses

let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture has said

living rivers of living water will flow from within them so are you anyone is the person next

to you anyone? Can you turn to the person next to you and say, you are anyone. Let anyone who is

thirsty come to me and drink. And this is a beautiful invitation because it's not caveated.

It's not a statement that says, come all who are wealthy, come all the English speakers, come all

the beautiful or go to Jesus everyone else but me. This is an invitation that is open to everyone

and no one is discounted or disqualified because when he is issuing the invitation it isn't around

a dinner table around people that he loves. It's in front of people he knows want to kill him

and he's saying to the people who want to put him to death come anyone who is thirsty

and come to me and drink. So is anyone thirsty? I have a drink. Is anyone thirsty? You've got a

drink. Oh, right. Oh, I was going to throw it to Jonathan. He put up his hand first. You ready?

Right. Jonathan, you are thirsty. Good job. So come to me, all who is thirsty. There is no bar

that you have to reach to be accepted by the Lord incarnate. Hallelujah. But firstly,

you must realize that you're thirsty. All of us will recognize what it means to be thirsty, and we

have this physical thirst, but the text isn't really talking about physical thirst. He isn't

saying, if you want a drink of water, I am your man. He's saying that if you have a spiritual thirst,

and how do you recognize that you have spiritual thirst? This is the thirst in your soul, the hole

in your being that is never satiated, is never satisfied, and you can try to satisfy it with

lots of things. There are lots of things that we satisfy this thirst with, with relationships,

career, money, family, fame, scream, drugs, porn, sex. It could be any list of things that you try

to satiate that hunger, that need with, but they will never fulfill you. The drugs will never be

enough. He'll just go back for more. The career will never satisfy you properly because they're

not designed to satisfy you. We are only designed to be satisfied by our creator. And it's only in

being as created beings and being with our creator that we find satisfaction. And Jesus is inviting

you to satiate, to satisfy that thirst by coming to him. So how will you respond to that offering?

so person um Jonathan with a drink did that drink help your thirst no why not because he hasn't

drunk it you can't you can't be satiated from thirst unless you drink you can now drink it

so you not only do you have to recognize that you're thirsty but you actually have to drink

you actually have to come so how do you get your soul to drink like you can take a donkey to water

but you can't make it drink. How do you get your soul to drink? And in this passage, it is talking

about the Holy Spirit. So later on, it says, by this he meant the spirit whom those had believed

in him were later to receive. And up to that time, the spirit had not been given since Jesus has not

yet been glorified. But I can tell you that Jesus has been glorified now. That as he went to the

cross and he gave his life for us and then rose three days later, that was how Jesus was glorified.

and he sent the Holy Spirit so that we no longer are with the incarnate God, but we are with the

Holy Spirit, and we are no longer with God, but the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, and there is

no longer any separation. We don't have to go to Israel to meet the Holy Spirit. We don't have to

go to a specific place because the Spirit lives inside of us. As created beings, we are created

to live with the Holy Spirit in us and we we have that now when when we believe when it says

as it continues as the passage continues it says whoever believes in me and when we believe in

Christ he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to live in us and that is what satisfies us

that is what means that we have rivers of living water flowing out of us that's something that

doesn't stop that's not something that's battery powered and has a lifeline it's not something that

goes off that is a promise that when we give our lives to Christ and we accept him as God incarnate

as our savior as the son of God that the Holy Spirit will come and live inside of us

drinking is a step of obedience and it's a choice to stand with Christ acknowledging him as Messiah

the chosen one and our Lord and Savior as we have spoken about before God's love language

is obedience I've said that before the shema the hear and obey so to all those who choose to follow

him to choose to believe and follow him that is what he is offering so my questions are have you

shemaad? Have you heard and obeyed? The last sentence, as I said, it says, whoever believes

in me, as the scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

And there's so many things that I could talk about, how the Holy Spirit transforms our lives.

The living water is in abundance. It's life to the full and a life that never runs dry and never

runs out. It's relationship with the Father that doesn't require a power bank, as I said.

And this relationship is fundamental to our identity. Understanding of who Jesus is does

fundamentally change us. I'm not the same person now as I was when I was 14 and first met the Holy

Spirit and gave my life to Christ. He is in this work of continual redemption and changing of my

life. And when you give your life to Christ, that is a continual journey that carries on and on and

on for your entire life after that. When we understand Jesus as the Messiah, as the chosen

one, it means that when we read in the Bible who we are, that everything it says is true.

So here we go. We've got some affirmations. I am conformed to his image. I am free from

condemnation. I am more than a conqueror through him that has loved me. I can rejoice because he

makes all things possible. Thank you. I am a truth bearer. I have self-control. I have a new heart.

I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. There are more. I am a new creation. The old has

gone and the new has come. Hallelujah. I am united with Christ. I no longer a slave to sin but made

alive in him. I am part of the body of Christ and you here are my brothers and sisters and bear

witness to that fact. I am united with Christ and no longer a slave to sin, but have been made alive

in him. And you can carry on. Your image is no longer the same as it was before because Christ

looks at us and when he looks at, when God looks at us through Christ, this is what he sees. He sees

a new creation, accepted and loved, adopted by him. And the biggest miracle of all is that

as we abide in him, we are transformed and it's not for our blessing. He doesn't say, I bless you

because I bless you. He says, I bless you because you will now bless those around you. We are blessed,

brothers and sisters, to be a blessing to the people that we meet and the people that we come

across, which is why when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, it changes the way that we live.

We are blessed to be a blessing. And how is this immense transformation possible? It's because of

who Jesus is and was. He is the word in the beginning, fully God yet fully man, triumphant

over death, ascended to the right hand of the Father in glory. He is a joy bringer, a truth

speaker. He is the beginning and the end, the thirst quencher, the hunger stiller, the light giver.

And you can go on. Jesus is worth everything. And many of you know this. I have the real blessing

of being part of a church family that knows and loves Jesus with all of their heart. And together

we encourage one another we go to him and he is the one who satisfies our souls I don't go to my

pastor expecting him to be the one that makes me okay because he can't because only Jesus can I

don't go to my husband I don't go to my children because they cannot satisfy the yearning in my

soul that I have for my creator only the creator can do that but this is a daily choice when I

started writing this preach I said to Jesus mate I don't think I can do this I don't have it in me

I am dry. I am tired. I feel, it is hard. I feel hard. And then I got to the end of this preach

bouncing because this is who God makes us. He changes you. He transforms you. And he looks at

you and says, you're my precious child. It is a daily thing that we come before our creator and

we say thank you for who you are thank you that you let anyone and the person next to you is anyone

and you are anyone anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink and they will be satisfied and out of

their soul out of his heart and soul will flow rivers of living water because they have believed

in who christ is it's powerful because she drank she was thirsty and she drank and so she had a

revelation of who she is in christ and that's why this message is so powerful because she was thirsty

and she drank well she didn't move away she stayed until she her thirst was satisfied

and that's the invitation today

because sometimes we just come to God

and just, oh, I'll just have a little drink

and then I'll go off and do my own thing

and then I'll come back and have a, you know.

He's saying, no, stay and drink.

Stay and let me transform you

so that when you look in the mirror,

you will see what I see

because what God sees

is that I am more than a conqueror.

I am a truth bearer I am conformed to the image of Christ I am free from condemnation

so the challenge is are we thirsty where are we drinking and the second question was

who is Jesus but who is Jesus in my life is that how you turned it it was a really good

we might say that we're jesus followers what does my life say thank you what does my life say

oh it's okay i'm gonna be a bit quiet for a bit it's a good word it's a powerful word

so just right where you are at home on holiday wherever you are watching and listening

and us right here let's just take a moment we've got time

who do we say jesus is if we're just saying that he's a good teacher and a prophet kind of missing

aren't we the fact that he's our messiah he is the christ who do you say jesus is

and who does your life say jesus is come on come on who does your life say jesus is

let's be honest with ourselves right now and with God this isn't about there's no condemnation

we're free from condemnation this is a invitation to say I've been keeping this to myself God you

can have all the other rooms in the house of my heart but I'm going to keep this one closed

and so the invitation today is open that room there's some words that Micah said we fill our

lives with when we're trying to find something to drink. And we drink from lots of different

places and pools. And you know what they are. She named some of them. And what do we do with that?

Well, we repent. We turn. We say, God, I'm sorry. I've been drinking from a pool that

isn't actually satisfying my thirst. I'm sorry. I repent. And I turn. And I choose.

To have you water my soul.

Holy Spirit, come and transform our hearts and our minds.

Transform it by the truth that we've heard today.

Not by our feelings, not by our circumstances, but by truth.

And while you're in this place of reflection and prayer,

and you might be feeling uncomfortable,

and you might be feeling like, oh my goodness, where is this going?

I want to invite you to look in the mirror.

Look in the mirror.

What do you see?

Are you seeing what God sees?

Because sometimes I think we look in the mirror

and we're like, I know you say that, God,

but actually this is what I think.

I think that I'm going to stay stuck in this habit.

I'm going to stay stuck in this view about myself

or this other person.

I'm going to stay stuck

because that's just what I've always known.

but you see what we've heard today is when we when we are thirsty and the Holy Spirit satisfies us

he changes the Holy Spirit changes how we see ourselves so how God sees us so when we look in

the mirror we need to be seeing a man a woman a young person who is free from condemnation

We need to look and stand and say, this person in front of this mirror is a truth bearer.

This person standing in front of this mirror is a new creation.

There might be voices telling me I'm not new, but Jesus is reminding me today through the Holy Spirit that I am a new creation.

The old has gone.

Who needs to hear that today?

The old has gone.

it's gone. The new has come. You can rejoice. He has and is and will be making all things new.

There's hope today. He is going to make things new. I have a new heart. I have a new heart.

I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. You might not feel like it. You might feel like

you are in a desert and God is silent but the truth today is I have been blessed with every

spiritual blessing shall we have the worship band up please we're going to move this back a little

bit and there's an opportunity if you feel that you actually need to come out of your seat and

look in the mirror and even for those who aren't here with us if you're at home or as I said

somewhere else maybe you need to physically move out from the space that you're sitting in right

now and find a mirror find somewhere to be in a different place because sometimes it's quite

significant to change our position so we're gonna worship but the invitation is if you need to come

and look at this mirror

to remind yourself what God says about you.

Come and do that

and we'll see what God else

is saying.