John 7:37-8:11 - Part B

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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. You admit that you have a need. You come to the fountain, but you actually have to stoop down and bring the water up. You have to drink it.

You know, how many people come to church every week? I'm at the fountain. I like the fountain. I don't like the fountain this week. I like the fountain maybe two weeks ago. It's all about the fountain.

You got to drink from the fountain. And I'll never forget for me. That afternoon, I said a simple prayer. There was nobody there. There was no pastor. I was in a church service.

But I finally said, I'm giving up. And I did not see a bright light. I did not have the heavens shake.

I didn't hear an audible voice. But I felt like a huge burden had been lifted. A huge weight was gone. I was refreshed. I drank. It's like, yum.

Man, that tastes good. It's great to know that you have a need, but it's great to know that you can come somewhere to get the need met, but then it's much better when you actually take a drink. That's the promise.

And notice how universal it is. If anyone, if anyone, if anyone thirsts, let them come to me and drink. I just want you to think about you and about others that you know. Anyone means anyone. There's no qualification as to education or social status or background or ethnicity. Anyone. Jew, Gentile, anyone. Male, female, anyone. Tall, short, anyone. Rich, poor, anyone.

Educated, not educated, anyone. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. An incredible promise.

And when you break it apart like this, you get the richness of it. He continues the promise, the invitation. He who believes in me.

Speaking of that last part of verse 37, these commonees had a drink. He who believes in me. As the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. There's a few different kinds of faith. Now listen carefully. How many people do you know say I believe? I'm a believer. I'm a spiritual person. I believe in God.

That's a good start. I ask them to define God and define believe. Define believer. Tell me what meaning you are pouring into the words that you and I are using together.

Because you and I may have different meanings for the same words. See, there's different kinds of faith. There is, number one, a false faith.

It's not real. You say false faith. What's a false faith? Well, doesn't the Bible say even the devil believes and trembles?

Remember the book of James? You say you have faith, you dwell. But even the devil believes. The devil believes in God. Is the devil going to heaven?

Not last time I checked. Doesn't sound like heaven if he's there. No, he's not saved. He believes, but that's a false faith. It wasn't a faith that changed him. He rebelled against him.

He rebelled against God. So there is a false faith. Then there is a firm faith. This is true faith. This is what Jesus refers to if somebody believes in me. They've come to the fountain.

They've had a drink. That's firm faith. That's real.

That's life changing. But I submit to you, based on this promise and other scriptures, there's a third level. And that is flowing faith. Look at the promise. Hugh believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

You see, herein lies the problem with many believers. For many people, it's about them being satisfied. Not how God can flow through me to satisfy others.

It's just, no, it's all about me. I want to be happy. I want to be fulfilled. I want to be satisfied. Well, notice Jesus didn't say that you're to be a reservoir or a lake, but a fountain, a river. You and I are to convey what we have received in terms of satisfaction to others.

You say, how can we do that? I can't save another person. Jesus saved me. I tasted from the fountain. I can't provide that for others.

Well, yes and no. You can't save them, but you can make them thirsty. You can, by your lifestyle, make this whole Jesus thing pretty attractive to people. So you got to ask, what is it about your life that makes people attracted to Jesus? Are they attracted to Jesus?

Or would they be repelled? Going, Jesus did that to you? Man, I'm so sorry. Remind me never to follow that guy. Or, Jesus did that to you and for you?

Where can I get me some of that stuff? You see, the joy is being the conduit. He's flow to you.

Does he flow through you? In fact, I submit to you that the highest source, the highest place of satisfaction for a believer is when they become a conduit. When it doesn't stop with them. When it flows not only to them, but now through them to others. When they're about taking the Father's business out to their friends, their families, sharing the gospel with others, and letting others who are thirsty know about the fountain. When your life becomes a conduit rather than a reservoir, it's the highest place of satisfaction to know God used you today for his glory, for his purpose.

Nothing is better. So, I hope you don't have a false faith. You who trust in Jesus, I know that you have a firm faith.

The question is, do you have a flowing faith? You come to him and you're saved and you're satisfied, but follow that through. Be saved, satisfied, and now sent. Do something about that satisfaction.

Be a conduit. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And so that you know that you're not the source, the next verse qualifies that. John says, 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. Now, we're going to get a further understanding and qualification of the meaning of that when we get to chapter 14 and 15 and 16, when Jesus speaks to his disciples about the coming Holy Spirit. But here's something that has helped me in understanding the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In John 14, Jesus used two prepositions that describe the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the life of the believer. Now, a preposition is a word that shows you the function of a noun or pronoun or an adjective. So, there are prepositions that show you the relationship of the coming Holy Spirit to the life of the believer. Here's the two prepositions in John 14. Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will be with you. The Greek word para, that's the preposition, with you and in you, with you and in you.

So, how does that work? Well, before you came to Christ, the Holy Spirit was the one who came alongside you and was with you, telling you you're thirsty. So, you were going, man, life isn't what I thought it would be and I want something more than this. I'm really thirsty. I'm not satisfied with the way things are. And you're going, man, I never felt like this before.

Where'd that come from? The Holy Spirit being with you, showing you that you have a need, convincing you that you are not complete. He's with you. Once you come to the fountain and you drink, then you fall under the second preposition. The Holy Spirit will be with you and in you. He comes inside of you to live within you. You are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, as Paul said. He is inside of you as an abiding possession.

He fills you. But there is a third preposition used by Jesus in Acts chapter 1 verse 8. He said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He'll be with you, para. He'll be in you, en is the Greek preposition, en we would spell it. He'll come upon you, epi epi, in the Greek. He'll come upon you and empower you for service and I believe this speaks of a relationship with the Holy Spirit subsequent to salvation. Yes, he's in you. He's in all believers and he baptizes all believers into one body of Christ, but he wants to flow through you.

He wants to come upon you and empower you to be the kind of witness that you couldn't be on your own. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, Nate Heitzig has written a children's book, Just in Time for Christmas, and this month we're offering it to you as thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig. Christmas Under the Tree follows the timeless story of Jesus Christ from the cradle to the cross through the eyes of an unlikely character, a humble tree. This beautifully illustrated book, which includes a companion audio experience, is a wonderful way to tell the Christmas story and the story of Christ to the children in your life. This resource is our thanks for your gift of just $25 or more today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give $25 or more today to reach people all around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip.

And I told you this last week when we were together how that worked for me. When I took that first step to witness to Angus McIntosh and how scared I was and how the Holy Spirit worked and I found that upon experience, that empowering, and I remember walking away from that. I don't think he ever gave his life to Christ, but I felt so stoked just that I could share the gospel with somebody because I was so afraid to speak up for the Lord up till then.

But I just felt like I was set free and I'm fulfilling a purpose that God had for me. So within and upon, 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. Therefore, many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, Jesus got their attention on the Feast of Tabernacles, this whole promise, this whole crowd interruption, many of the people 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 Christ comes from the Seat of David and from the town of Bethlehem where David was? And so there was a division among the people because of him. Now, you can see right off the bat in these verses that there's a lot of confusion about Jesus. There always has been.

There still is. People have different opinions about him. Now, they said, isn't this the prophet? What are they speaking of? They're speaking of Deuteronomy chapter 18. God said that he would send a prophet from among the people like Moses in the future.

Rabbis have believed for generations that's a prediction of the coming Deliverer Messiah. However, by the time of Jesus, there was a division as to what the promised prophet would be. Is he going to be the Christ or is he going to be a prophet separate from the Christ? Is he going to be the forerunner of the Christ like John the Baptist? So there's a division as to who Christ is and there's a division as to who the prophet would be. And is Jesus the prophet?

Is he the Christ? They're one and the same, but not everybody got that. They're saying he came from Galilee and he's supposed to be born in Bethlehem, which he was, but they didn't know. So you just get the whole – everybody's confused about him.

That's the point John wants you to know. So there was a division among the people because of him. Now some of them wanted to take him, that is to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the officers came to the chief priests and the Pharisees who said to them, Why have you not brought him? The officers answered, No man ever spoke like this man. And then the Pharisees answered and said, Are you also deceived?

Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed in him? Now I love this because we get the picture that these scribes, these Pharisees, sent a group to arrest Jesus. And when they come back, they said, Well, where is he?

Didn't you arrest him? And they went, Wow, nobody ever spoke like that. It's like they were completely awestruck by what they heard, which is ironic and interesting. They were sent to arrest Jesus for the words that he spoke. But they ended up being arrested by the words that he spoke. It just stopped dead in their tracks, awestruck.

Wow. They probably walked back and said, That was a great sermon. And then they come back and they said, Well, where is he? You were sent to bring him. Oh, man, that guy can talk.

It's awesome. They went and were sent to arrest him, but they were arrested by the words themselves. And the Pharisees, they come in glued. You can see how loving they are in verse 47. Are you also deceived?

And listen to what they say. Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? Now, this is the old argument of personal authority. You tell people that you're a Christian and they go, Oh, are there any Ph.D.s that believe that? Are there any, like, smart people that believe something that lame and dumb as you? See, the idea is, do any of the religious leaders, the authorities, people like us, people who aren't easily deceived, do any of them?

So I'm saying that because don't buy into this argument from personal authority. There are plenty of smart people who believe in Jesus. And there were plenty of Jewish people back then, even some of the rulers, in process was Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, Sanhedrin members who would become believers in Jesus Christ by the time he was crucified. Verse 49, they continue their rant, but this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. Now, they couldn't be more wrong because some of those in the crowd had said believed in Jesus. So some of those in the crowd that they said were accursed actually had everlasting life. But the ironic thing is they themselves were accursed. The ones who said they're accursed, they were the ones who were accursed because they refused to believe that Jesus was the Christ. Nicodemus, he who came to Jesus by night, that's back in John chapter 3, being one of them said to them, Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? They answered and said to him, Are you also from Galilee? Now, I know that doesn't make sense to some of you. Because when he says doesn't our law, you know, give people a fair hearing, the response doesn't seem to make sense.

Are you from Galilee? What does that have to do with what I just said? It has nothing to do with this. It's called an ad hominem attack, a personal attack. It's like you just said something I don't like. Let me think of something really annoying to say back at you and accuse you of being something that you're just going to hate if I say it.

That's the idea. Are you also from Galilee? The people in Jerusalem and Judea hated the Galileans. They thought they were a bunch of hicks. Now, I could give you an example of somebody from the West saying something about somebody from different parts of the United States. And I've done this in the past to show you the equivalent, but it always gets me in trouble. We all have those people in our minds.

We do. But if you say it, you get in trouble, so I'm not going to say it. They were unsophisticated from the backwoods, uneducated. They didn't know the nuances of the law of Moses. Those were Galileans.

And notice what they said. Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. Now, they prided themselves in being so smart. We know the law.

These Galileans, they don't know the law. Search and see, has any prophet come out of Galilee? Actually, they're idiots because their own Bible talks about prophets that come from Galilee. There was one guy by the name of Jonah, the son of Amittai, Jonah Chapter 1. 2 Kings 14 tells us that Jonah was from Gath Hefer.

Gath Hefer is five miles away from Nazareth in the region of Galilee. That's one prophet that we know from scripture. Some even believe the prophet Nahum was from Galilee. And that the original name of the city of Capernaum was called El Cosh. Nahum was an El Coshite, and they believe that the name El Cosh at Galilee was later changed to Capernaum.

By the way, Capernaum means the town of Nahum. So it is believed that at least one, maybe two, maybe even three prophets from the Old Testament were from Galilee. But these guys, search and see, is there any prophet that comes out of Galilee?

A few of them. What they overlooked, of course, is that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in the city of David, according to the prediction made in the Old Testament. Then He moved to Nazareth where He grew up to escape Herod the Great and the foray down in Jerusalem. But they overlooked that. They didn't do enough research.

It would have been an easy thing to ask and to find out. Last verse of the chapter, and everyone went to his own house. Sometimes, to me, chapter breaks are unfortunate in the Bible, the way they're broken up.

They're not inspired. They were written years later by one in particular, but this is one of those unfortunate things because verse 53 and chapter 8, verse 1 go together. Because notice the chapter, chapter 8 begins with the word, but, and my English teacher said never begin a story without word.

Because that word belongs with another thought, right? So notice verse 53 and chapter 8, verse 1, they belong together. And everyone went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

Okay, let me uncover that with you. The Mount of Olives is right next to the city of Jerusalem. Some of you have been with us to Israel. The Mount of Olives is just to the east. We always take groups of people there because it's the best view of the city. It's a commanding view. It's raised up a little bit. You can look down on the Temple Mount, and the whole city is spread out in front of you. Just below you is the Kidron Valley, and you can look to the right if you're standing on the Mount of Olives, and you'll see the Garden of Gethsemane right there and the olive groves.

And you look up, and it rises from the Kidron. It goes up to that beautiful area called the Temple Mount, and you see the walls of Jerusalem. It was an important place to Jesus. Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives.

We call it the Olivet Discourse. Matthew chapter 24 was taught on the Mount of Olives. It was where Jesus would travel to pray on the Mount of Olives in that little garden at the foot of it called the Garden of Gethsemane. So Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives. He prayed on the Mount of Olives. He was also betrayed on the Mount of Olives.

Judas Iscariot went to where the priests had their headquarters outside of Jerusalem, which was located on that southern end of the Mount of Olives. So Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives. He prayed on the Mount of Olives. He was betrayed on the Mount of Olives. Another thing about it is Jesus ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives. It says in Acts chapter 1 that the disciples were on the Mount of Olives with Jesus, and all of a sudden He just started floating up. He went to the right hand of the Father. So Jesus taught on the Mount of Olives, prayed on the Mount of Olives, was betrayed on the Mount of Olives, and ascended from the Mount of Olives. Oh, and there's another thing. When He comes back, He's going to return to the Mount of Olives.

So it's a pretty important place. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resource that will help you and the children in your life see the timeless story of Christ with fresh eyes.

Nate Heitzig's book, Christmas Under the Tree, with Forward by Levi Lusko, is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $25 or more. Call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can find full message series and libraries of content from Skip Heitzig on YouTube? Simply visit the Connect with Skip Heitzig channel on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.