John 7 - It's the Water and a Whole Lot More!
Jesus Goes to the Festival of Tabernacles
7 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want[a] to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
The Feast of Tabernacles was one of three annual feasts Jews were required to attend in Jerusalem. It was a time they remembered when they built a portable tabernacle in the wilderness where God dwelt by His Spirit. Jesus said in John, "If anyone loves me and obeys my teaching, my Father will love them and we will make our home (tabernacle) with them." John 14:23
Jesus' disciples wanted him to go to the feast to continue to dazzle the people with signs and miracles. Interestingly his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not[b] going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee. 10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?” 12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.
Jesus never took his cues from anyone but the Father, so he declined to go to the festival. It was not God's timing, so it was not his timing. Sometimes we get ahead of God's timing and that never goes well. Jesus had another plan which they would soon see.
The leaders were watching for him and wondered where he was. The crowd was mixed in their beliefs about Jesus. Some thought he was a good man and others thought he was a deceiver. Jesus is divisive. People are usually for him or against him. Usually people aren't "neutral" about Jesus. Jesus had never deceived anyone, so it seems far fetched when they say this about him. When you are looking to find something wrong in someone, you will find it every time.
Jesus Teaches at the Festival
14 Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?” 16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?” 20 “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”
Jesus continued to teach in the temple, showing he was still considered a rabbi. The people were dazzled by his teaching. Rather than taking credit for his teaching, he gives all credit to the one who sent him. He is basically saying, "the proof is pudding". If you obey his teaching you will see it is from God.
The same is true today. Sometimes we try to prove the truth of Jesus by using all kinds of arguments, which isn't in itself wrong, but what if we encouraged people to take Jesus at his word and live the way he lived. They would start experiencing the truth that sets one free, and they would realize that truth is Jesus!
21 Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. 22 Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. 23 Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? 24 Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”
Jesus pointed out their hypocrisy by how they treated the Sabbath laws. They circumcised a boy, in effect cutting him, yet they attacked Jesus for healing a man's body on the Sabbath. They were making judgments based on the external and extrinsic aspects of the law, when God looks at the heart.
Division Over Who Jesus Is
25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”
The people questioned if Jesus was the Messiah, because he came from Nazareth. Then, they claimed that since they knew where Jesus was from, he could not be the Messiah. They assumed they knew where he would come from. Wrong! The Old Testament prophecies talked about Jesus' birth, his mom and dad, his connection to King David, where he grew up and where and how he would die.
28 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, 29 but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” 30 At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”
The Pharisees had seen and heard enough. Most importantly the crowd had started to believe in Jesus, which threatened their power and authority. Many in the crowd believed Jesus and wanted to see even more signs from him. Jesus then reveals where he has come from and the authority of the One who sent Him.
Jesus tells them that they know him but don't know who sent him. But he knows him because he is from him and sent by him. Jesus is revealing more every day of his divine nature. Jesus' true home was in heaven and he had stepped out of heaven in humility. Philippians 2:6 says, '
"Jesus did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped but emptied himself becoming a servant even to death on a cross."
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 am going 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’?”
Jesus began to reveal to the crowds that his time on earth would be limited. He would soon be returning to the One who had sent him. This was a place they could not go. The Jews were confused and equated what he was saying to the Greek speaking Jews, who had come for the festival and were going back to their Gentile nations.
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”[c] 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 Messiah.” Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42 Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants 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.
On each of the first seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, a golden pitcher of water was carried from the pool of Siloam and poured out over the altar. This was to remind them that God had provided water for them in the wilderness. On the eighth day they brought no water as a reminder that they were then in the Promised Land, where there was plenty of water.
Jesus stood up and in another indication of his divinity, he told them to come to him if they were thirsty and drink. Whoever believed in him would have living waters flow from within them. Jesus was referring to the Spirit, who he would not send to the apostles until Pentecost, fifty days after he rose from the dead.
The people were amazed again at Jesus' teaching but were caught up with the fact that he came from Galilee. Again they showed their ignorance of scripture when they said, "Does not scripture say the Messiah will come from David's descendants from from Bethlehem, the town of David." Of course, Jesus was born in Bethlehem and was a descendant of David through both his father Joseph (legally) and his mother Mary (biologically).
Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders
45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” 46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied. 47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Have 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 a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been 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.”
Even the temple guards were enthralled with Jesus. The chief priests and Pharisees were mad at them for not taking Jesus in. They were furious and claimed the mob knew nothing of the Law of Moses. But as we said earlier, even the Law of Moses prophesied about Jesus. The Pharisees were ready to condemn him on the spot, but Nicodemus, who was a member of the Sanhedrin, urged them to hear him out. The mocked Nicodemus asking him if he too was from Galilee.
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