Jesus is still in the Temple and it is the time of the Feast of Tabernacles which lasts seven days.  The last statement of Jesus that we looked at last week was Verse 29 where Jesus said here in the midst of the Temple, “I know Him, for I am with Him, and He sent Me.”  Extremely strong and powerfully clear statements regarding who Jesus is, where He is from, and what He came to do.  And so we saw the crowd divide and stir, and we pick it up today in verse 32.

 

Verse 32, The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him, (what things?  Well verse 21, “when the Christ comes, will He do more than this?” And also verses 25 and 26, “Is this not He whom they seek to kill?  But look!  He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him.  Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ?”)  And the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him. These were Jews, Temple officers, not Roman officers.

 

What’s neat is that we will find out later, in verse 46, that these officers that were sent to take Him, after hearing Him, returned to the Pharisees empty handed…challenged and changed by the words of Jesus.  The word of God is powerful!  Isaiah 55:11 says, “My word shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

 

There was a prominent atheist, a graduate of Yale Law School, an award winning investigative reporter and legal editor featured often in the Chicago Tribune.  After 5 years of marriage, his wife became a born-again Christian. 

 

In his own words he writes, “I rolled my eyes and braced for the worst, feeling like the victim of a bait-and-switch scam.” 

 

And so, for two years he intensely studied Jesus.  He set aside his career, his marriage, his life to once and for all prove that this man Jesus was a fraud and that His word was powerless.  Yet he returned to his career, his marriage…he returned to his life utterly changed.  He himself accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior on November 8^th, 1981.  Since then he has written some of the best apologetic books of our time including The Case For Christ, The Case For Faith, and The Case For a Creator.  His name is Lee Strobel, and he lives right here in CO.

 

So, in a way, the best thing that could have happened to these officers was for the Pharisees to dispatch them to take Jesus…same for Mr. Strobel.  And that’s the best thing we can do for our children, our friends and anyone who simply doesn’t know the truth.  Send them after Jesus!  He’ll marvel them!  Point them to the Lord.  No one will ever be persuaded into heaven…no one will ever be frightened into heave…and no one will ever be dragged into heaven.  So often those are our ploys aren’t they, but the truth is, it is God’s goodness that leads men to repentance, and His goodness is found in His word.  Turn to Col 5.  Got you!  You need to know your Bibles, there ain’t no fifth chapter!

 

Paul said in Philippians 3:8 that all things are loss compared to the knowledge of Christ.  Grow in His word and you’ll find that to be true…as you live as a light and lead many in the ways of righteousness.

 

Verse 33, Then Jesus said to them, “I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come.”  Then the Jews said among themselves, “Where does He intend to go that we shall not find Him?  Does He intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?  What is this thing that He said, “You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come?”

 

The Lord’s heart is that all will find Him…that all men would be saved.  We know that clearly from 1 Timothy Chapter 2 and even in 2 Peter Chapter 3 God tells us that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  So what then does Jesus mean here when He says, “You will seek Me and not find Me?”

 

Does that mean that Jesus will hide?  Not at all.  God does not hide Himself…it is man, the Bible says, that willfully suppresses the truth.

 

I wonder, did you find God at work in your lives this past week?  Did you see Him with you day in and day out?  He was there…I wonder if you are looking?  Are you acknowledging His presence?  Check this out, just a few examples…automatic doors opening ahead of your approach, automatic paper towel dispensers going off when you’re not close, and then oh look, a towel just waiting there for you.   

 

But Jesus says to the Jewish elite here, “you won’t find Me.”  Why?  The truth is they will seek Him with their cravings, with their strivings, with their own requirements, demands and agendas but that is not how God is to be found by man. 

 

You see, it’s found in Jeremiah 29:13.  “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for me with all your heart!”  (can’t run with a foot cramp, you’re not all there)  There are lots of folks seeking Jesus in order to be filled but what they need is to be emptied!  James 4:10 says, “humble yourselves in the sight of God, and He will lift you up!” 

 

This audience here in John Chapter 7 is not humble.  They are not open hearted, tender hearted…they have their own agenda.  John tells us that the Pharisees and the chief priests (or the Sadducees) sent officers to take him…The Pharisees, they were the ultra-conservatives of that time...the political leaders of the Jews.  They were so conservative that they even rejected the Psalms, the Proverbs and the Prophets as being the Word of God and would only accept the Torah.  They denied angels, resurrection, really anything inherently spiritual they shunned. 

 

And then the Sadducees or the ultra-liberals of that time.  Concerned not with politics but with spiritual matters.  Tending to the temple, carrying out the temple rites…they accepted the Torah and the prophets and the Psalms and the Proverbs…they believed in angels and resurrection among other things…

 

And so these two groups, the conservatives and the liberals, always at odds, always arguing about what is most important in the frame of society…yet neither party really seeking Jesus!  But interesting, we see them come together don’t we…for what cause?  To snuff out the Truth, to take Jesus Christ Himself off of the scene. 

 

And so this crowd, Jesus says, you will seek Me, you will crave to be filled by Me, you will make demands of Me, but you won’t find Me because your hearts…they’re all wrong.  What does God require of us?  Humility.  Lord, I’m not here to give orders…I have no demands of You…I’m here to say Lord search my heart, change me…help me to let go of all the junk that I cling to that is not of You…

 

And so Jesus says to them, because of your hardness of heart, you will seek Me and not find Me and where I am, you cannot come.  There is no doubt His heart is not haughty as He says this…He says this to pierce through their armor of arrogance, almost pleading with them…Son, daughter, you’re slipping away and for what?  For trinkets or for pomp and power, is it all worth it? 

 

No doubt the only heart that was broken in the sight of God here in this scene is Jesus’.  Look at verse 37, “On the last day (Shemini Atzeret), that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

 

So the feast is almost over…the Feast of Tabernacles…Jesus stands.  What an awesome display of His love.  To stand and cry out would be cause for shame in that culture.  Especially a rabbi, a man of God…it would be considered very shameful to do what He is doing now.  But He doesn’t care!  Nothing will stop Him from calling out to His children…He has no fear of man, He has no desire for mans’ approval…He has a mission, He is the Savior…and look what He says…

 

“If anyone thirsts”…why would He say that?  Because He was surrounded by thirsty people!  Yes they had filled cups in their hands, it was a feast!  But their hearts were heavy, their spirits within them faint and their very core empty…and so Jesus looks up and lays His eyes on the crowd, His creation lost to sin, bound…and He is compelled to cry out to them!

 

You want that void filled?  That ache deep inside that reminds you that you’re in lack?  Come to Me!  I’ll overflow you He says!  Come and believe in Me and as it was written in Isaiah (41 – you’ll search for water and your tongue will cling to your mouth and I will provide), you will be filled with living water…the Holy Spirit…

 

See the pattern here?  Before He speaks of them being filled, He speaks of them being emptied…

 

Verse 39, But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.  It was in John 20, 6 months later, that Jesus would breathe on His disciples and say, “receive the Holy Spirit.”  And so at this time, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given.

 

Verse 40, Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.”  Others said, This is the Christ.”  But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee?  Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”  So there was a division among the people because of Him. 

 

It is the same yesterday, as it is today, and as it will be tomorrow.  Here, the crowd is divided.  Today, the world is divided, tomorrow, all will be divided.  Turn over to Matthew 25 verses 31 – 46.

 

You see it doesn’t matter what you or I or anyone says about Jesus…it doesn’t change who He is.  He is Lord, He is Savior, He is Mighty, He is Everlasting…but from me, from anyone…talk is cheap.  It’s been said, talk is cheap, but the message isn’t.  The message isn’t delivered with what you say but rather with how you live.  What is the message of your life?    

 

Verse 44, Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him.  Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?”  The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!”

 

They went to arrest Him, but He ended up arresting them! 

 

Verse 47, Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived?  Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?  But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

 

Isn’t it interesting how there are many that say they are right with God yet they’re very hearts condemn them?  Their hardness, their spite, their self-righteousness just condemns them…and actually it blinds them…they feel that they are good with God…Jesus is their homeboy...and they are sometimes the hardest folks to reach.

 

But check this out, one of them is cut to the heart, because I think there is a believer among them who is wrestling with what to do about all this…look at the next verse.

 

Verse 50, Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”

 

How do we know about this convo?  How does John know to write this account?  Well I submit to you that his homeboy Nick shared this story with him over fish and chips when he joined them after Jesus’ resurrection!  Oh that’s not expressly stated in the Bible, but who was it that brought 100 pounds of burial spice to the tomb of Jesus?  (John 19:39)  Who was it that came to Jesus on his own accord asking the right questions and seeking truth?  Nick.  And so who was it that could have given this account to John?  You betcha!   Old Nick.

 

Verse 52, They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee?  Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”

 

Nick, we’ve already decided bro.  We’re going to kill Him.  We don’t care what He says, we don’t care what He does, He’s not one of us.  He doesn’t do what we do.  He doesn’t prop us up.  He’s not about us.  He’s about God, and we’re not, so to us He’s as good as dead.  And it’s so interesting, they’re wrong!  Jonah was a “prophet,” and he arose from Galilee according to 2 Kings 14:25.

 

 

How can they be so deceived?  Well the answer is simple really.  They’re on a mission.  Once someone resolves to undertake a mission, plans for it, prepares for it and then sets off…boy it’s difficult to move them…especially when their hearts are hardened.  Their mission is self exaltation.  Their fuel is pride.  And the Bible says that pride blinds…it cheats…and ultimately it murders.

 

It is they that walk in their own ways that are deceived, not Nicodemus.  And the doctor’s prescription is found in 1 Cor 3 oddly enough, 1 Cor 3:16.  Turn there with me as we close and we’ll read through verse 17.

 

If ANYONE thirsts, let him come to Me!  Oh how the Lord desires to overfill you with joy and peace and life through the Holy Spirit…and where the Spirit of the Lord is, liberty!

 

Not in a six digit salary!  Not in a new girlfriend, a new boyfriend, a new car, a new home, a new job, a new wardrobe, a new president…all those things man, they’ll just leave you thirsty when placed in the position of god.  Liberty, love, grace, sufficiency, purpose…truly is only found by obeying the Word of the Lord and simply coming to Jesus!

 

And everyone went to his own house.  The feast is over.  The meal this morning has drawn to a close.  Ultimately, the choice is yours…liberty or lifelessness.