00:00:00:29 – 00:00:21:13 Unknown Welcome. Welcome to Valley View this morning. It’s great to have you here. And we are continuing in our study of the book of John here in John chapter 7 So you’ll want to be turn in there if you don’t have a Bible. We have Bibles out in the lobby, in the connection corner. And in fact, I’ll throw up passages on the screen and we’ll even put the page numbers up there to help you find them. 00:00:21:20 – 00:00:37:03 Unknown Feel free to slip out any time and grab one . If that feels weird to slip out, ask someone next to you to just say, Hey, you look like you need to slip out and use the bathroom. Grab me a bible on your way back in. We want a Bible in your hand because Jesus Christ is the foundation of this church. 00:00:37:24 – 00:00:56:03 Unknown And we know about him because of his word. And so we want you in God’s word. It’s not just don’t just take what I say or what anyone else up here says or your life group leader. We want you in God’s Word, interacting with him personally. And of course, we learn from one another. It’s not just you all alone with Jesus. 00:00:56:19 – 00:01:15:22 Unknown We grow because of one another. But we want you in God’s Word. And so that’s why we try to get Bibles in people’s hands. The theme of today’s whole passage is around the word division, Division. And if you don’t like math, don’t get worried. I’m not going to do any math. I haven’t done any math in a long time. 00:01:16:15 – 00:01:36:05 Unknown But the theme is division. In fact, I thought it’d be helpful if we started just by looking at some of the famous moments in the history of division. So I thought a really good place probably would be with the guy who started it all would be Moses. Just if you look at the screen. Moses kicked it all off by, well, actually, God part of the waters. 00:01:36:05 – 00:01:55:16 Unknown But Moses was a part of this first big division. Let me divide the Red Sea. In fact, maybe even practicing his surfing or something. I don’t know quite what he’s doing. The next thing that came to mind, though, actually was prior to this. Actually, we have this isn’t the this isn’t an actual photo. This is a rendering of Abraham and Lott together. 00:01:55:19 – 00:02:16:07 Unknown So here they were trying to divide the land between them, which always goes well with siblings. Right. You if you’ve ever I know I used to watch my parents with my twin brothers, they would say, okay, one of you cuts the cake and one of you chooses. That’s how we somehow navigate conflict. It didn’t quite work. In fact, it more turned into something like this. 00:02:16:21 – 00:02:34:26 Unknown I saw this meme that was about it was kind of funny, me and my brother fighting for the last cookie. All right. That’s how it ends up sometimes. Division. It leaves us divided. The next moment that came to mind is this. Next screen. And you may not recognize who this is. It’s not Larry Pierce’s senior high school photo, but this goes back a little further to the 1600s. 00:02:35:18 – 00:03:03:20 Unknown This guy was Henry Briggs. And Henry Briggs is the guy to blame. If you don’t like long division, if you’ve struggled in your math class. So he kept the whole issue of division going, probably more in our more recent history would be this next slide, which is the American Civil War, where we divided as a country. And this is the scene where actually the Confederacy was surrendering to the union at the end of the war in the Appomattox courthouse. 00:03:04:09 – 00:03:27:09 Unknown It’s really interesting, though, on our state flag, if you show the next screen that’s really built into our motto, if you remember this, united we stand, divided we fall. We recognize that division will tear us apart. Sad note I learned this recently. Kentucky is the only state that has a monument that’s dedicated to both the union and the Confederacy on the same monument. 00:03:28:03 – 00:03:47:10 Unknown It’s in Morgantown, Kentucky. I’ve been there to see it. It’s pretty interesting. That has nothing to do with the sermon. I just thought you’d find that as interesting. Kentucky history. But this next slide has a lot to do with the message. In fact, probably the most most famous issue of division you see on the screen. In fact, usually we have this flag flying in our home this time of year. 00:03:47:10 – 00:04:06:04 Unknown For some reason, I thought we didn’t need the flag. This year will not go into why, and I’ve struggled with who to cheer for each team. I cheer for keeps losing, so I’ll not say who I’m cheering for now at this point. But the history of division, it goes back a long way. And we’re going to look in this passage today and see how Jesus approaches division. 00:04:06:04 – 00:04:24:24 Unknown You know, when you when you think of Jesus, at least in popular sentiments, you hear things like, well, he was a man of peace. He came because of love. He came to draw people together to to unite people. Unity is a word we use a lot here. We want to be unified. But then you run across verses like in Luke 1251. 00:04:25:19 – 00:04:45:16 Unknown I didn’t come to bring peace, but division. Well, what is it? Jesus, What are you trying to do to us here? Are you just trying to stir up a hornet’s nest? Caused problems just to be that guy that’s known as the divider, the troublemaker. Well, we’re going to see the day that Jesus. Jesus really doesn’t have a problem with division. 00:04:45:16 – 00:05:08:25 Unknown He doesn’t shy away from dividing people. In fact, we’re going to look at two ways in particular in this passage that there is division around him. And then we’re going to see his purpose in division, because everything Jesus does has a purpose. He doesn’t do anything on accident. And so turn with me in Luke chapter seven, we’re going to look today at versus 25 through 39. 00:05:10:03 – 00:05:27:24 Unknown And to remind you of the setting, this is the same as it was in at the beginning of the chapter. So Jesus, as brother said to him, You need to go up to the feast a boost. You need to go present yourself, show yourself that out. Keep building your ministry. And Jesus said, No, I’m not going. I’m not going on your time. 00:05:27:24 – 00:05:47:00 Unknown I’m going to go on my time. And so he does come in the feast a boost was a78 day festival. He shows up in the middle of the festival, but instead of coming in publicly, he goes in privately, he goes into the temple and he starts to teach. And so we’re right in the midst of that still in that setting where he’s teaching in the temple and you kind of the setting kind of jumps around. 00:05:47:01 – 00:06:08:25 Unknown He’s teaching, but also people are talking about it. So are we right there with him or are we out in the crowd or are we around the temple? It kind of jumps around a little bit and that takes us right into verse 25, where we see the reaction of some of the crowd to him. Let’s look at verse 25 through 12, and some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 00:06:09:25 – 00:06:32:02 Unknown Yet here he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. How can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? Maybe it can be that, but we know where this man comes from. And when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. So this first issue of division we see right here show up. 00:06:32:13 – 00:06:55:19 Unknown There’s division in the crowd around his origin. What is his true origin? Where does he truly come from? They’re divided over his origin. In fact, you see right away, verse 25, some of the people said, Isn’t this the man who they seek to kill? And so just a portion of the crowd is wrestling with this. Now, aren’t the leaders trying to kill him? 00:06:55:26 – 00:07:16:17 Unknown Which it’s really interesting because in the previous passage, you know, Jesus said, I know you’re trying to kill me. And they said, you got a demon. If you think we’re trying to kill you, they deny. But yet the whole crowd knows it. Somehow it spread around. Yeah, we all know that they want Jesus dead. There’s no big secret here. 00:07:17:14 – 00:07:39:14 Unknown But the division comes. Not about that. But this observation they make, they say, Look, here he is teaching openly. We know they want to kill him, but yet he’s teaching openly and they’re not trying to kill him. So they say they must not really want him dead. In fact, they must believe in him. Now, I read a bunch on this because it seems obviously contradictory. 00:07:39:14 – 00:08:00:18 Unknown It seems confusing. Why would they say that? Why would they even think that? I think probably the main sentiment that I read that I would agree with is this is probably more like maybe a hint of some of your love languages. It’s a little bit of sarcasm, I think right here. Just a hint of, yeah, they must really want to follow him since they’re not trying to kill him. 00:08:00:18 – 00:08:20:16 Unknown No one that they didn’t really think that. In fact, we know they didn’t really think that because of verse 27, they didn’t even think that this group isn’t really even sure they would follow Jesus, because we know this man come where we know where he comes from, and we know when the Christ appears. No one will know where He comes from. 00:08:20:16 – 00:08:39:24 Unknown And there was a bunch of different kind of beliefs. It was three main ones at the time. So look at to hear about the origin of the Messiah. Where would the Messiah come from? You know, you had different religious groups and they had their opinion and their view when they studied scripture. Some, as you’ve probably heard, thought he would come from Bethlehem. 00:08:40:12 – 00:09:00:27 Unknown And so with Jesus they said, Well, it can’t be him. We know he’s not from Bethlehem, we know he’s from Nazareth. Nothing good comes out of Nazareth, although for whatever reason, the word didn’t trickle down that he was actually born in Bethlehem. So one camp says we can’t find him because of that. But then another popular opinion, which we saw here, was that when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from. 00:09:01:16 – 00:09:25:15 Unknown And there was a view among another group of of Jews that said that when the Christ appears, he’s just going to appear all of a sudden out of nowhere, with no seeming origins, with no background, he’ll just appear. That’s who we should be looking for. So Jesus can’t be that either, because we know he’s from Nazareth. So they’re divided amongst themselves about, is this a guy we follow or not? 00:09:25:15 – 00:09:54:29 Unknown We’re not sure. Now, the reason why this is a problem for Jesus here, not a problem, but appears to be a problem. Is that because either way, the crowd is turning against the religious leaders? In fact, they’re building distrust with the religious leaders, and that’s a problem for them. We can’t have someone going around stirring up division, stirring up doubt about the leaders, wondering if they can trust us or not. 00:09:54:29 – 00:10:16:12 Unknown And I’m going to deliver right now some very shocking news in light of this that we still experience today. Even our political leaders at times don’t always have our best interest in mind. I know, I know. That’s hard to hear. I know that hits you hard, but it’s true. In fact, I remember reading a story by a guy, Ray Dalio. 00:10:16:12 – 00:10:46:23 Unknown He’s a well-known investor. I think he owns the largest private investment firm in in the world. Definitely the US, maybe in the world. And he’s been doing it since the sixties. Still heads up, you know, he’s kind of like a Warren Buffett type guy. And he said, I remember in the seventies the government kept assuring me late sixties, early seventies, you know, our dollar used to be based on the gold standard, what the value of gold was a value of the dollar was tied to that in some mathematical way. 00:10:47:21 – 00:11:05:27 Unknown And they kept assure me, Now we’re not going to come off the gold standard. No, we’ll stay on the gold standard. No worries. You don’t have anything to worry about. And sure enough, one day all of a sudden out of the blue, 1971 had changed. I never saw it coming. He was trusting that the government had his best interest in mind. 00:11:06:00 – 00:11:24:19 Unknown Now, of course they do at times. I’m not saying to distrust the government completely and run from them, but you know what I’m saying? In fact, sometimes he said even when they doubled down on something, Oh, everything’s great. Don’t look behind the curtain. Everything’s perfect. That was even more of a warning to him to go. I know some of you are sweating right now with all that’s going on in the economy. 00:11:24:19 – 00:11:46:01 Unknown I’m sorry. The point being, that’s the same, same thing they experienced here. Can we really trust what these guys are saying? Do they really have our best interest in mind? Is this division, What’s going on behind the scenes? Now? It’s interesting how Jesus responds to this in the verses after that, because, again, he doesn’t have a problem with division. 00:11:46:24 – 00:12:09:20 Unknown He’s okay with that. He’s not running out of the room scared, but it’s interesting to see how he responds to them and their questions about his origin. So look at verse 28. Jesus proclaimed as he taught in the temple, You know me and you know where I come from, but I have not come on my own accord. He who sent me is true. 00:12:10:15 – 00:12:32:28 Unknown And him? You do not know. I know him, for I come from him and he sent me. So they were seeking to arrest him. But no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. So he says, You know me. In fact, the inference here is you think you know me, You think you know where I’m from. 00:12:32:28 – 00:12:57:23 Unknown First of all, you don’t even realize I wasn’t born in Nazareth. I was born in Bethlehem. You got that wrong. But you also don’t know my true, true origins. Where I’m ultimately really from. From You don’t really know who my father is. And by the way, you don’t know the father. He’s laying it on pretty hard on them, really pressing into their misunderstanding of his origins. 00:12:57:23 – 00:13:24:29 Unknown In fact, it’s really important to recognize this. It’s going to come. It’s going to color this whole message. Jesus isn’t afraid of division because Jesus is more worried about truth than unity. In fact, years ago, I heard Ed Childers. Ed Childers attended here. He was often a youth leader when I was growing up, and Ed and I became friends and in college in particular started to do some Bible study together. 00:13:24:29 – 00:13:49:08 Unknown And he said to me once, he said, Unity at the sake of truth is not unity, it’s heresy. And I remember thinking at that time, I’m going to hold on to that and use that someday. So here I am now, finally using it 25 years later. Unity at the sake of truth is not unity, it’s heresy. And so, Jesus, the goal is not unity for unity sake. 00:13:49:27 – 00:14:13:26 Unknown In fact, he just watched a bunch of his disciples leave the scene. He didn’t go chasing after them, begging him to come back. No truth is more important. US understanding who he is is is more important than just saying we’re all together. But following non truth. And so he says to them, You don’t really know who I am, you don’t know where I came from. 00:14:13:26 – 00:14:43:26 Unknown Because if you did, that would force a pretty big decision. I would force a division. And Jesus does the gospel does divide it divides families. Even We attended a church in in Phenix and 15 years ago and this particular church had a number of families that had come out of a mormon background and one family in particular I got to know and they said, Yeah, there was a day where we really came to know Christ. 00:14:43:26 – 00:15:09:21 Unknown He worked in our life and we told our families, Look, we’re leaving the Mormon Church because we’ve met Christ. We’re going to follow him. And they never spoke to them again. And this lady was in her sixties. This happened in their thirties, never spoke to their family again. Not not because of them, because their family cast them out, rejected them. 00:15:09:21 – 00:15:33:01 Unknown The gospel divides. That’s just the reality of the gospel. And I could go around the room and hear from you, this former friend, this former family member, this person said, Hey, leave me alone about the gospel. It has divided your relationships and yet you still move toward Christ. You know that greater hope is so much more valuable, so much more critical. 00:15:34:10 – 00:15:57:00 Unknown And Jesus isn’t shying away from division here. Now, even though he divides. Here’s the beautiful part. He doesn’t leave us without hope. So in the midst of the division about his origin, look at verse 30 and 31. It doesn’t leave us without hope. So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come yet. 00:15:57:25 – 00:16:20:27 Unknown Many of the people believed in him. They said when the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done? And so we see a couple of things here. One element of hope that he leaves them with in the midst of division is I’m still in control. They’re seeking to arrest me. I’m teaching openly. They’ll arrest me on my time, not theirs. 00:16:21:23 – 00:16:49:24 Unknown Jesus is still in control. The other element is in the midst of the division we see. Yet many believed in him right here in verse 31. Many still believed in him. That’s a statement of hope. In the midst of the confusion. In fact, the interesting part of this is that the reason they believed on him is because of the signs he was doing. 00:16:49:24 – 00:17:11:25 Unknown They say when Christ appears, well, he do more signs than this man has done. There was an understanding that the Messiah, if the Messiah comes, what Jesus is doing matches up with what we expect of Him. The types of signs He will do. And there’s an important element to this, though, for us to understand. They believed in him because of the signs. 00:17:11:25 – 00:17:35:29 Unknown And I think one commentator said it this way. In fact, he said faith based on signs is not strongly encouraged, though it is better than nothing. Meaning. And if you know, Christ, you’ve experienced this when you were first drawn to him, you look back at maybe some of the reasons you were drawn to him and you go, Oh, that was kind of shallow maybe, you know, I remember just not just I don’t want to go to hell. 00:17:35:29 – 00:18:01:13 Unknown I’m just scared of hell. That’s a good reason to be drawn to him. But there’s more to faith than that. And signs are a good reason to look for a messiah. But there’s more to Jesus. And just simply the signs. In fact, it’s really fascinating. He’s known for his miracles, yet really, his ministry wasn’t about miracles. He didn’t go to the local coliseum and set up an ongoing miracle ministry. 00:18:02:02 – 00:18:21:10 Unknown He didn’t say, Come, I’ll heal everyone who comes. You know, Arenas will feel for someone who says they can heal. He didn’t do that. In fact, there’s a lot of times he said, I’m done healing here. I’m going on. You would think that Jesus would have healed everyone he could. That’s because of his ministry wasn’t primarily about healing. 00:18:21:13 – 00:18:40:13 Unknown The healing was to set up his teaching about who God was and who he was. And so the miracles are a great place to start, but we don’t stay there, in fact, that this church, we believe God heals. We pray for God to heal. I believe we’ve seen him heal. But if he doesn’t, we don’t ditch our faith. 00:18:41:18 – 00:19:07:05 Unknown We don’t give up on trust in him. We don’t say whatever, God, you didn’t show up. He may choose to, but if he doesn’t, we still hope and trust in him. So he gives us hope here in the midst of all the division. Yet there are still some who believe and so that’s the division over his origin. The second way he divides in this passage First, where are you from? 00:19:07:05 – 00:19:28:20 Unknown Who are you? Second, though, is his mission. What are you about? The second way he divides us over his mission? Look with me. In verses 32 through 36, the Pharisees heard the crowd muttering, These things about him and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Jesus then said, I will be with you a little longer, and then I’m going to Him. 00:19:28:20 – 00:19:52:02 Unknown Who sent me? You will seek me and you will not find me where I am. You cannot come. The Jews said to one another, Where does this man intend to go? That we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying You will seek me and you will not find me? 00:19:52:23 – 00:20:13:08 Unknown And where I am, you can not come. So it’s interesting. They come to arrest Jesus. Pharisees heard the crowd muttering. They sent officers to arrest him. So now it gets. It’s not just. Yeah, we know they want to kill him. Now there’s an official arrest warrant out. They send a group of their official little army. They had to help keep order in the temple. 00:20:14:16 – 00:20:29:14 Unknown They send him out and they come to him. And here’s what Jesus does in response. He gives them a theology lesson. By the way. Try that Next time a police officer pulls you over, maybe just say, Hey, can I share a little bit with you about the gospel? See if that works. I don’t know if it will hurt. 00:20:29:14 – 00:20:46:19 Unknown Not good luck, but this is what he does. He confuses him with a theology lesson. And it’s classic irony in the book of John. We’ve seen this over and over again. Jesus says one thing and everyone else thinks it’s the other. Jesus is talking about a spiritual reality and they think he’s talking about a physical reality. We saw that with Nicodemus. 00:20:46:19 – 00:21:01:15 Unknown How can a man, Jesus, you’ve got to be born again. How can a man be in his mother’s womb again? That’s weird. I don’t understand how does that happen? But he was talking about a spiritual birth, and we see that as well here. He says, I’ll be with you a little longer. I go to him, who sent me? 00:21:01:21 – 00:21:28:08 Unknown You’ll seek me. You will not find me, Graham. You cannot come. And they say, Where does he intend to go? Could it be among the dispersion that we’re dispersion? You may have heard some Bibles, probably say diaspora. That’s the Greek word behind it. It just means to disperse. And in fact, it talks references the fact that the Jews historically, over hundreds of years prior to this, had been spread all throughout the ancient world. 00:21:30:03 – 00:21:56:22 Unknown In fact, it’s really fascinating if you think about how many, we don’t have a count, but it’s not normal for a country to be conquered and then their people keep their religion in language and faith. And yet the Jewish people, they spread the different areas and wherever they went, now they set up a synagogue and the synagogue was set up as a place where they could worship because part of Jewish law required that three times a year, all the males go to the temple in Jerusalem. 00:21:57:10 – 00:22:18:02 Unknown But if you live in Greece and you try to do that three times a year, that’s all you’ll do. Your whole life will be traveling back and forth if you make it all three times. And so they said we got to come up with some other system, will build synagogues and we’ll house the word of God there and scrolls and that’ll be equivalent to the presence of God that we experience in the temple. 00:22:18:11 – 00:22:41:06 Unknown And people can worship and gather there and still keep the law and still follow the law. And the amazing part of that, it’s so incredible how God used the conquering and spreading of the Jews to set up the spread of the Gospel. Because if you think about how Paul went about his mission, where did he always go? At first he went to a new town. 00:22:41:06 – 00:23:09:27 Unknown Where did he go? When he got to that town, he would go to the local synagogue. These are people who already know about God. They already know about Scripture. Must start there and tell them everyone, you, everything you’ve been looking for. Let me tell you about who has come. And so all of this tragedy of the Jewish diaspora, of the dispersion set up, the spread of the gospel. 00:23:09:27 – 00:23:29:17 Unknown Now, here’s the irony in this passage, though. They’re saying, Jesus, where are you going to go? That we can’t go or we can’t go to the diaspora? Partly that’s because they’re among the Gentiles, they’re dirty. We can’t go there and get dirty. And the irony here is that’s exactly what Jesus means. That’s exactly where he’s going to go. 00:23:29:23 – 00:23:51:16 Unknown The Jews are going to reject him. And where does he go? Metaphorically, his followers go throughout the world to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. And so in a classic plot twist, the people who are making the statement that they think is absurd are actually answering the very question that they’re wrestling with. And they’re divided about his mission. 00:23:51:16 – 00:24:11:28 Unknown They’re divided about his purpose, they’re divided about what he’s really about. The Messiah must only be about us. No, no, no. Messiah comes to bless the whole world. And we’ve got to keep that in mind here. And we gather here and I try to focus on equipping us all with the gospel. How do we understand God’s Word better? 00:24:11:28 – 00:24:36:17 Unknown But it is here to enrich us. But it’s not only to enrich us if our faith is only about us, that’s fine. But you’re not going to experience the full richness of what Christ has for you if you’re not also pouring it out into the lives of others. It shouldn’t stop just at these doors. And of course, God can use you in a whole bunch of different ways and what gifts you have to spread the gospel. 00:24:36:17 – 00:25:02:03 Unknown But that’s our hope here. That’s what we pray for, what the gospel to spread out to all around us. In fact, I was talking to someone this week. They said, I’ve driven past your church for years, and I finally came in and I’m so glad. Who is driving past today feeling that same way? In fact, who do you interact with every week that you could just say, you know, come get in the community, come here about what God’s doing? 00:25:04:03 – 00:25:25:10 Unknown That’s part of the call of what Jesus is pointing at here. And so they’re confused about his mission. They’re confused. They’re divided about what he’s doing. But all of this leads up to him talking about really his purpose. He divides. He divides about who he is. He divides about what his purpose is, but yet he’s got a plan for that. 00:25:26:03 – 00:25:53:09 Unknown He does everything on purpose. And his purpose in dividing is going to be here in these next three verses, verse 37 through 39. Now, notice the setting shifts pretty drastically. Here we go from the middle of the feast, verse 37 on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink whoever believes in me. 00:25:53:09 – 00:26:17:04 Unknown As the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow. Rivers of living water. Now this, he said about the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the spirit had not been given fully because Jesus was not yet glorified. All right. There’s a lot going on here. First thing to note, Jesus stands up. 00:26:17:19 – 00:26:40:01 Unknown This is at the end of it all, and he makes a pretty loud proclamation. And if you could try to imagine being in that setting, imagine after a big event is ending, wrapping up. You’re down at Thunder over Louisville, some big celebration. It’s all over and people are milling about. Tents are being taken down, food is being gathered up. 00:26:40:29 – 00:26:59:23 Unknown You’re continuing in conversation in this setting. They would have continued to sing the Psalms that they had been singing at the end of the celebration. It’s all wrapped up and Jesus stands up and gives this proclamation. Anyone thirsty come to me and drink. This points back to chapter four. He had that same conversation with the woman at the well. 00:27:00:00 – 00:27:22:09 Unknown You’re looking for water. I’ve got the water. You need. Drink this water. You’ll never thirst again. But there’s two passages in particular here that we need to look at because it says right in the middle of verse 38, as the scripture has said, normally that’s a bit of a formula that ends up being a direct quote from Scripture, but you’ll not find that direct quote anywhere. 00:27:22:14 – 00:27:48:03 Unknown He’s pointing to a couple of different passages. So we’re going to do a little bit of jumping around in the Old Testament for a minute. Turn with me to Ezekiel Chapter 47. Start with Ezekiel 47. That’s on page 688. Zeke Ills in the Old Testament. It’s in amidst all the prophets. It’s after Lamentations, we find Jeremiah Lamentations, you’ll find Ezekiel and Ezekiel. 00:27:48:03 – 00:28:17:12 Unknown Chapter 47 has a pretty powerful picture of the temple in the future. In fact, this is kind of repeated in the Book of Revelation. But I wanted to go back here to Ezekiel to see where it shows up. First and verses one and two talk about water flowing from the temple. Then he brought me back to the door of the temple and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east. 00:28:18:00 – 00:28:34:23 Unknown For the temple faced east, the water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out, by the way, of the north gate, led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east. And behold, the water was trickling out on the south side. 00:28:35:06 – 00:28:58:06 Unknown And it goes on to talk about all the ways the water was trickling out, flowing, growing and blessing. Everyone. Now, to understand this passage, we’ve got to take a short step back and talk about the feast of Booth’s Feast of Tabernacles. It’s also called the Feast of Tabernacles. One of the main ways this ceremony occurred was each day the priest would go to the pool Shalom there in Jerusalem. 00:28:58:06 – 00:29:17:14 Unknown They would grab a container of water and they would go through a procession back to the temple where they would pour it out as an offering on the altar each day, day after day after day, scoop water up, carried over, pour it out. That was to symbolize their need for rain. This this festival occurred right before the rainy season. 00:29:17:21 – 00:29:36:02 Unknown And it’s a way of saying, God, we’re born this out. Trust in that you will provide rain. We need you to show up and bless us. If you don’t show up, if you don’t bring the water, we don’t have any hope day after day after day after day. But on the last day Jesus stands up and he says, You need water. 00:29:36:16 – 00:30:02:20 Unknown He shouts it out. I’m that very thing you’re looking for. Not only am I that thing you’re looking for, Do you remember Ezekiel 47? Do you remember how the water came out from the innermost part of the temple and flowed continuously and kept flowing and didn’t stop? You don’t have to keep coming back year after year asking. In fact, I remember in Florida one time we were down in Florida and we went to this spring. 00:30:03:06 – 00:30:28:08 Unknown Is this pool just kind of in the middle of nowhere? And it was probably half the size of the sanctuary floor here, this gigantic pool. And it from it issued millions of gallons a minute were just bubbling up. You can even try to swim down in the midst of it. The hole is probably the size of a big SUV, and it was just ice cold coming up out of the ground continuously, nonstop over and over and over and over again. 00:30:28:08 – 00:30:56:13 Unknown And Jesus is saying you’re looking for water and I’m the source of that water. I’m the one who will bring that water. Now, the trick here is he’s not just talking about water. And to understand that, we need to look at Nehemiah, look at Nehemiah, Chapter eight and nine. Nehemiah is a little further back. If you have a church Bible, it’s on page three, 75. 00:30:56:13 – 00:31:24:14 Unknown It’s a little bit before job. Psalm Proverbs Nehemiah, Chapter eight. And in fact, if you just look at the heading for verse 13, you see there’s the title, there is the Feast of Boots, the celebrated Sonia meyers is when Jews had come back into the land after they had been exiled and they’re rebuilding the wall. And part of what they do is to reestablish some of the festivals they had gotten away from the festivals. 00:31:24:23 – 00:31:43:02 Unknown And so they’re reestablishing the Feast of Boots. And what happened is a kind of revival kind of breaks out. They’re just supposed to do it for seven days, but they keep meeting for a month and they keep praying and they keep wanting to hear the word red. They want to hear God’s word. They want to grow from His word, are being so nourished by. 00:31:43:02 – 00:32:11:04 Unknown And then what happens is they start to confess. They start to confess their sins. And then in chapter nine, verse 20, there’s a very interesting verse that summarizes everything that’s happening here in John. It sets up what has happening in John chapter seven. Look at verse 20. Here’s part of their confession You gave your good spirit to instruct them and you did not withhold your manna from their mouth and you gave them water for their thirst. 00:32:12:16 – 00:32:32:11 Unknown From what I’ve read, I think that’s the only place where those three items show up together in Scripture, spirit, manna water, and the way it ties into John here and the way Jesus is tying it together, I’m the source of that water. And it’s not about the water. It’s about the spirit. I’m going to give you the spirit. 00:32:32:17 – 00:32:53:27 Unknown The spirit is going to dwell within you and from within you. In fact, that word heart, if you have the ESV, it says heart. A lot of other translations say innermost being. It really talks about the word can just be translated in your hollow in the core of who you are from the very essence of who you are from that will flow life giving water to others. 00:32:53:27 – 00:33:17:03 Unknown And I think the way we need to deal with this passage today and where we need to land is come away. Recognizing that reality. There is a drastic difference between religion that’s imposed on you from the outside and that is from within, from the spirit dwelling within you. In fact, the picture here is that through Jesus, we come to have the spirit in us. 00:33:17:08 – 00:33:49:00 Unknown And when the Spirit is in us that overflows into the life of others. In fact, I experienced a pretty powerful example of that this week. Some of you may have heard of Dave Brown suddenly and tragically passing just a normal morning, woke up and the day was over and life had changed for his whole family. And I was able to be at the hospital with him and his family. 00:33:49:00 – 00:34:10:03 Unknown And I got to tell you, I was amazed by person after person who came to me and said, you know, Dave, he was one of my closest friends, guy after guy. That’s one of my closest friends, one of the guys I count on the most. I, I didn’t even know you, but I didn’t even know you hardly knew him. 00:34:11:16 – 00:34:52:09 Unknown Coworkers, church members, person after person he had been pouring into and giving life to. And he wasn’t standing up here talking about it, drawing attention to himself. He was a life giver. And that showed up. I mean, yesterday at the funeral home, that place was packed a whole day, person after person. But there was another moment that I think is probably one of the holiest moments I’ve personally experienced when we were gathered around the bed at the hospital and there was Dave, he had passed Dave’s body and in Dave’s mother, Betty, drew everyone around the bed, the family, and just said, we need to pray. 00:34:53:22 – 00:35:14:08 Unknown And she just began to pray and she prayed a blessing over the family. She led the family and she said things like, In the midst of this, we lean on you, God, we trust you. And she spoke life into her family. You know what Dave would want in this moment? He would want us to continue to hope in Christ. 00:35:14:12 – 00:35:41:25 Unknown He would want us to continue to live the way he lived, to continue to pour into others. And I was just so overwhelmed and amazed by how in the midst of great tragedy, a mother standing over her son, giving life to others. You know, my hope is that my life is like that. And I know as you’re hearing this, you’re thinking, God, I hope I can be like that. 00:35:42:02 – 00:36:08:17 Unknown The call of this passage out of the innermost being flow rivers of living water, that is my hope for myself for my family. That is the hope of the legacy of each of us in here. That is the hope of the legacy of this church. And from our innermost being would flow rivers of living water that we would pour life into others like Dave did, like Betty does. 00:36:09:04 – 00:36:49:05 Unknown I pray that God gives each of us the courage and the strength to do that. Let’s pray. Jesus, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word that guides us even in the midst of tragedy, especially in the midst of tragedy. Thank you that we have something to lean on. I don’t know how those who don’t know you make it as hard enough to face a tragedy like the loss of a sibling or a son or a spouse or a father. 00:36:49:15 – 00:37:21:08 Unknown So many were touched. And I know there was other tragedy this week and challenges this week all throughout the church. Lord, we pray that you would help us, give us the strength to turn to you in the times of tragedy, to see the purpose you have in the midst of that. I know it’s not easy at a minimize the pain, but to help us to be those who from our innermost being flow rivers of living water. 00:37:21:08 – 00:37:25:19 Unknown Jesus, we love you. We thank you for this day. It’s in your name. We pray. Amen.