44
John 7:37-38 AN INVITATION TO DRINK
Introduction:
In
our last several texts the Feast of Tabernacles was
in progress at
arrest Jesus as soon as He arrived at
the feast and put Him to death. What they wanted was to
arrest Him before He got a into a large
crowd because Jesus
was still very popular with the great
majority of people.
However,
that plan failed. He did not show up
until
about the third or fourth day of the feast
and they did not
know that He was around until He was
already on the temple
grounds speaking to a crowd of people.
In
our text last Sunday the Jewish leaders decided to go
ahead and order His arrest even in the
midst of the crowd.
However, by the time the temple officers
arrived to arrest
Him the crowd was greater than ever and
the majority of
people were very enthusiastically praising
Him as a great
prophet of God and many of them were
proclaiming Him to be
the very Christ of God. Therefore, the temple guards just
took their position around Him, but did
not dare to touch
Him.
That was in the middle of the week when the Feast was
about half over.
In
our text today, the scene is still on the temple
grounds, but this is the last day of the
week. We can
assume that Jesus had been there on each
of the intervening
days teaching and preaching without
interference from the
temple guards.
I.
Some things about the Feast of The Tabernacles
V.
37, "In the last day, that great day of the feast..."
The wording in this statement poses a
minor problem. The
actual feast with its various ceremonies
lasted only seven
days.
However, a special sabbath day always followed the
seven days of the feast and the
celebration actually
continued through this special
sabbath. Many Bible scholars
think the events of this text took place
on that special
sabbath day. However, it seems to me that the invitation
which follows indicates that this takes
place on the
preceding day. This would be the seventh day which is the
closing day of the feast itself.
Listen
to this invitation: (V. 37),
"...Jesus stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him
come unto me, and
drink." Before we examine this invitation, let us
take a
few minutes to examine the manner in which
the people of
designed to commemorate the period of time
when the Children
of
of
them, through Moses, to build booths or
tents out of tree
limbs and to dwell in them during this
week of celebration.
It was to be a time of remembrance that
God had brought
their forefathers out of Egyptian bondage.
They
were instructed to eat no leavened bread during
this week.
This was in remembrance that the forefathers had
eaten unleavened bread in the first leg of
their journey.
After that they were given manna to eat.
However,
there was one ceremony which they were not
commanded to observe. Never-the-less, this ceremony had
become a traditional part of their annual
celebration of the
Feast of Tabernacles.
Each
day the priests would go to the Pool of Siloam,
which was not on the temple grounds, but
was out in the city
of
hold about two and a half pints and dip
water from the pool
of Siloam.
Then he would very ceremoniously carry that
water to the temple accompanied by the
playing of trumpets
and a great crowd of people singing
certain Psalms from the
Old Testament.
It
seems that this practiced originated as a result of
Isaiah chapter twelve. Some of the priests or rabbis of
days gone by had read that passage and
decided that it would
be suitable each year to read this passage
and to carry
water from this spring to the temple and
pour this water
upon the altar of God at the temple. So this ceremony was
joyously carried out on each of the seven
days. The
trumpets would be sounded, Isaiah chapter
twelve would be
read, water would be dipped out of the
pool of Siloam and
carried to the temple accompanied by the
people singing the
designated psalms. Once they arrived at the temple, the
water would be poured upon the altar of
God.
II.
The event that transpired in our text
This
ceremony had been repeated now for six day prior to
our text.
The seventh and final day of the feast has
arrived.
It was repeated again on this seventh and final
day.
The trumpets sounded signalling for all to be silent
and give attention to the reading of God's
word. Isaiah
chapter twelve was read.
Before
proceeding further, I want us to read that
chapter.
Listen, please to the words of this Scripture.
Our text does not tell us the exact point
at which Jesus
cried out and gave His invitation, but I
think that it was
most likely right after the priest had
finished reading the
chapter and had dipped the golden bowl
into the Spring of
Siloam he would lift the bowl high for all
to see.
Then
as everyone stood silently with their full
attention focused on that bowl of water a
loud cry splits
the air.
It rings throughout that great crowd of people.
It was the voice of Jesus. The way that I picture the scene
is that He was standing on some elevated
place so that
everybody present could see where the
voice came from. It
was the voice of Jesus. He cried out and said, "...If any
man thirst, let him come unto me, and
drink." Then while
they stood in silence He spoke again. V. 38,
"He that
believeth on me, as the scripture hath
said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living
water."
III.
The invitation that Jesus made to all those people
Jesus
invited all that great crowd of people to come
unto Him and be saved. This is the same kind of invitation
which He had earlier given the Samaritan
woman at Jacob's
well.
He had told that Samaritan woman that if she only
knew who He is that she would ask of Him
and He would give
her water that would spring up within her
unto everlasting
life.
That is what Jesus was now offering to all this great
crowd of people. He was offering to them everlasting life.
Isaiah 12:3 had said, "Therefore with
joy ye shall draw
water out of the wells of salvation."
What
Jesus wanted those people to know was that their
ceremony would not provide salvation of
the soul. No man
would be saved because water was drawn
from the well of
Siloam.
There was only one well which could provide for
them the salvation of the soul. That well was Jesus. They
could come to Jesus and drink the water
--- spiritual water
--- that would spring up unto everlasting
life.
And
the way by which any man could get that salvation
was by placing his faith in Jesus as the
Christ of God.
That is, he was to believe in Jesus as the
Savior of the
world.
He was to believe in Jesus and trust Him as his own
Savior.
He was to trust Jesus to save him and take him to
heaven.
Jesus
said that this is as the Scripture has said.
He
was not quoting from any particular Old
Testament Scripture.
Rather, this was the what the all of the
Old Testament in
general teaches. Let me cite you to an example. In the
Twenty-third Psalm David said, "The
Lord is my Shepherd."
Then in that same psalm David said,
"I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever." Get that.
He said, "I will
dwell with Him forever." He had
placed his faith in the
coming Christ as his Shepherd. He was depending on the
Shepherd to take care of his soul. With faith in that Great
Shepherd, he said, "I will dwell in
the Lord's house
forever." He was trusting in the Lord to save His soul
and
take it to heaven to be with the Lord.
Jesus
extended to all that great crowd an invitation to
be saved.
He invited all the masses of people with whom He
was still popular to look to Him as more
than just a miracle
healer.
He wanted them to see Him as the Savior and to
believe in Him and be saved.
He
invited all those who saw Him as a prophet and
teacher from God to see Him as more than
just a prophet and
teacher.
He wanted them to know that He is the Christ of
God, the very Son of God. He is the Savior of lost men,
women, boys and girls. He wanted them to believe in Him ---
to trust in Him --- and be saved. He wanted them all to be
saved.
He
invited all those local people who had voiced strong
opposition to Him and had attempted to
capture Him to look
to Him by faith and be saved. He wanted them all to be
saved.
He invited all of His opponents, including
the Jewish
leaders who wanted to kill Him, to look to
Him by faith and
be saved.
IV.
The invitation that Jesus makes today to this
congregation
Even
today, Jesus uses this passage of Scripture and
this preaching to invite all of you to be
saved. Jesus
knows that all mankind is guilty of sin
and all mankind
needs to be saved. The greatest burden that a human being
can carry is the burden of his own guilt
of sin.
This
morning if your throat were parched in thirst for
literal water and if I were to hold up a
pitcher of water
and call upon you to come and drink, I do
not think that
anyone would hesitate to come and
drink. Listen to me, the
thirst for spiritual water is just as
real. The desire to
have your sins pardoned and to relieve the
burden on the
heart can be just as strong -- even
stronger -- than the
thirst for literal water. If you are here this morning with
a desire for your own sins to be forgiven
--if you are here
with a thirst for cleansing -- if you are
here with burning
desire -- a burning thirst -- for the
salvation of your
soul, then I am going to invite you to
come and place your
faith in Jesus Christ and be saved.
Jesus
made you a great promise. He promised
that if you
believe in Him as the Christ of God, as
the Savior of your
soul, you will be saved. You will have a river of living
water to flow from within you. Jesus, in the text, said,
"...out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water." He
was talking about spiritual water. He was talking about
this spiritual water coming from within
your innermost
being.
Jesus, in the text, used the word "belly." The Greek
word which here is translated
"belly" carries the idea of
the very innermost part of your
being. It is really talking
about the inner man, the spirit man. You will be born again
and there will be a new inner man -- an
new spirit man
dwelling within you. You will be saved. Jesus told the
Samaritan woman that this inner spiritual
water would spring
up unto everlasting life. That is the promise that Jesus
makes to you today.
Conclusion:
Will
you come today and place your faith in Jesus Christ
and be saved. I want you to listen to the words of Jesus
again.
I want you to envision that scene as He cried out to
that crowd of people and invited them to
come and drink. I
want you also to envision Him as He sits
now on the throne
of God in heaven today and envision Him
crying out to you
today.
Jesus want you to be saved. No
matter what you have
done, He wants to cleanse you of your sin
and save your
soul.
Want you come today and place your faith in Him as
your Savior?
If
you are already saved, He is interested in your life
here on earth. He wants to be your Shepherd to guide you
and help you and take care of you. He wants to make your
life worth living. Won't you come to Him and surrender your
life to Him and let Him have His way with
your life. Jesus
loves you.
He loved you when you were lost in sin.
He
loves you today. Won't you come?