John Chapter 7:35-39

How did we get to where we think that Christianity is filled with just following us?

I believe in fearing the Lord in a reverential fear, but I think somewhere along the line, we've kind of gotten off track. We've forgotten that getting together and worshiping God should be a celebration. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. We're blessed to have D.A.

Brown with us, one of David's associate pastors here at the Bridge. Bob, throughout the Bible, we see that the Jewish feasts were joy-filled parties celebrating God. And yet in our country today, often the church is seen as stale and boring.

Well, D.A., it's anything but that. And today, Pastor David McGee explains how the church should be the place where you go to celebrate our Lord. So let's jump right in as David McGee teaches, Are You Thirsty? So we're at John chapter 7, and we're going to pick it up in verse 35. We ended with verse 34 last week, and Jesus said, You will seek me and not find me, and where I am, you cannot come. And what he's saying there is he's telling the religious people of the day, you know, after I'm done here, I'm going back up to heaven to the Father. And he's telling the religious people, You're not going to heaven.

That's a sad moment, but let's proceed. 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?

Well, kind of, but not yet. He's going to do that through a man named Paul that we'll learn about later. Verse 36, What is this thing that He said?

You will seek me and not find me, and where I am, you cannot come. I mean, what do you think Jesus is talking about there? I've heard some people say the cross.

I'm not sure. I don't believe He's talking about the cross. I think He's talking about heaven. And what's amazing about that is, get the picture, guys, He's in the middle of a bunch of religious leaders, and He's talking about going to heaven. And He's saying, You know what? You guys aren't going.

You guys aren't going. Now, you know what happens is that kind of blows our mind a little bit, doesn't it? But do you realize some religious leaders today in some churches aren't going to heaven? See, if you understand how you get to heaven, a lot of people think, Well, you know, you do the best you can, you try the best you can, and somehow that's good enough for God.

I don't know where we got that. It's certainly not a biblical concept. See, and you think, Well, as long as my good outweighs my bad, some people say. No, that's not it at all, because see, one bad tips the scales.

That's it. It's not a matter of God having sin meters up there, or sinometers, I guess you would call it. You're not going to get to heaven and see all these little clock-looking things on the wall and go, My goodness, what are those? Well, those are sin meters. We keep up with everybody, and we keep track, and we figure out if they're actually going to go into heaven by where the sinometer is.

It sounds bizarre, right? And you may get up there and go, Well, my goodness, I don't see Pastor David's little dial out here. Well, yeah, we got it in back. We're using that as a fan, actually. Oh, I'm kidding. But it's not a matter of your good outweighing your bad. Aren't you glad?

Aren't you glad? It's about knowing Jesus. It's about knowing Him as your Savior. Notice I didn't say knowing about Him. You'd be hard-pressed to go anywhere in the United States on the streets of America and find somebody that didn't know about Jesus.

But that's not the real question. The question is, Do you know Jesus? That brings us to our first life lesson. It does not matter how good you are or how religious you are. If you don't know Jesus, you don't go to heaven.

It doesn't matter how good you are or how religious you are. If you don't know Jesus, you don't go to heaven. That's just based simply on God's Word. And I don't know where we got the concept that, you know, if we're good enough for long enough or if we keep most of the Ten Commandments or if our good outweighs our bad that we get to go to heaven.

That is an unbiblical concept. We're all fallen. We're all sinners. We all need salvation.

We all need Jesus. And isn't that awesome that we can't earn it as Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says? We ask for it and receive it. It's a free gift. Ephesians says because if we could earn it, we would brag about it.

We would boast about it. You know, that old saying, it's not, you know, what you know but who you know. That's the deal, folks. It's not what you know. A lot of people know a lot about the Bible and a lot about God, but they don't know Jesus. They don't know Jesus. And He can woo you and He can tug on your heart, but until you respond to that, you don't know Him.

You can't know Him. And maybe you're sitting in here this morning, you go, you know, I've been really confused by the Bible and I don't really understand it. Well, the first thing that has to happen is you have to know Jesus because the Bible is all about Him.

And then obviously, you need somebody to help walk you through and to teach you these things. Verse 37, on the last day, 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. Isn't that awesome? Come gushing rivers of living water.

Not a little chinkle or not a couple droplets, but torrents, rivers of living water. That's the way it's supposed to happen. And you understand, as Christians, we should be we should be more filled with joy than anybody else. We should be more filled with joy than anybody else.

I understand we go through trials. And note, I'm not talking about happiness because happiness, well, a good thing for you to remember, happiness depends on what happens. So things may happen and you lose your happiness, but joy, that joy inside that knows you can trust in the Lord and everything's going to be all right, that shouldn't leave.

You should be filled with joy. As a matter of fact, you know, here we're talking about in chapter seven, if you go back to verse two, it's talking about the Feast of the Tabernacles here, which was one of the most joyous, joyous of all the Jewish feasts. There were seven Jewish feasts.

There was seven festivals. There was only one that was not a joyous occasion. It was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And that was a very solemn day filled with fasting. The rest of it was filled with music and festivals and food, and it was a joyous occasion.

That's the second life lesson. The Jewish feasts were joy-filled parties celebrating God. How did we get to where we are now? How did we get to where we think that Christianity is filled with just solemnness? Now, guys, don't get me wrong. I believe in fearing the Lord in a reverential fear, but I think somewhere along the line, well, we've kind of gotten off track. We've forgotten that getting together and worshiping God should be a celebration, should be a party. Well, that's just not right, Pastor David, talking about partying in God. Some of you might need to forget what partying used to be, so this definition works, okay? When I'm talking about the partying, I'm talking about celebrating God, celebrating the fact that you can know Him and He knows you, that it's a joyous thing and not a solemn thing. Because, see, this is the thing so many of us go around and, you know, I use this analogy a lot, but we act like spiritual eeors. Well, I'm going to church now.

He's going to talk for a long time. Do you want to go? And then we're surprised when they go, uh, no thanks. I think I'm good. Why? Because so many times we act like, well, God, we act like we've been baptized in vinegar instead of water.

We're kind of got that pickled thing going on. And you know what happens? This becomes an obstacle for people coming to Jesus. If you know Jesus in your heart, in your heart, let your face know. Let your face know. And it will actually open doors for you to tell people about the love of God and the goodness of God.

Now, here's a mind blower. Zephaniah, chapter 3, verse 17, tells us, the Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing. He will rejoice over you with singing.

You know what? If that's not your concept of God, it needs to be. If you don't understand that God takes pleasure in knowing you and you knowing Him, you need to get ahold of this.

Can you imagine God, Creator God, King of the universe, looking down this morning as we're in here singing and joining in, looking over you and smiling? Now, how far is that from what most of us have been taught? And yet there it is in the Bible. I'm not making it up. Zephaniah is a real book, by the way.

It's the force from the end. You're going, there's no Zephaniah. Come on, man.

Who are you fooling? No, seriously, check it out. It's in the index.

It's in there. You've been born again into the family of God. Man, that should be a joyous thing.

We're going to kind of hang out on this passage this passage for a few minutes because there's a lot of stuff here. Habakkuk 3.18 says, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will joy in the God of my salvation. The life lesson here, guys, is God rejoices over you. You should rejoice over your God. God rejoices over you. You should rejoice over your God. It should be a joy-filled thing. Now, again, if you don't yet know Him, don't be sitting there and go, well, I just can't drum this joy up.

Well, there's a reason for that. There's a reason you're not experiencing a joy that it's evading you that you can't seem to find. Nehemiah 8, verse 10, the second part of this verse says, the joy of the Lord is your strength. That's an awesome chapter, Nehemiah 8. As a matter of fact, what happens is Nehemiah is proclaiming the law. They've kind of rediscovered the Bible, if you will, and the people start weeping and moaning and mourning, and Nehemiah says, don't grieve. The joy of the Lord is your strength. And then the priests say, don't grieve. Celebrate. And I'm not saying we shouldn't ever be heartbroken over sin.

Please don't make that kind of generalization and put something into what I'm saying that will lead you to error. But the joy of the Lord is our strength. Now, let me ask you a question. What does that mean? It means that if you don't have joy, I mean, this is not a quantum leap in logic here, guys. If you don't have joy, guess what? You're not strong in your faith.

You've been weakened. So you see how perhaps the world, the enemy, your unsafe friends, family would not want you to be filled with joy because when you're filled with joy, you're strong. You ever been really strong and filled with joy around somebody that's really unhappy about the fact that you're filled with joy?

It's a little bit bizarre, isn't it? I mean, they keep trying to take your joy, you know, and Lord knows some of those family gatherings are just the place for that to occur. But the joy of the Lord is our strength. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor DA Brown. Bob, we want to take a minute to pray for our listeners in a few cities in Florida, Panama City, St. Mark's, Tallahassee, West Palm Beach, and also in Georgia, Athens, Blue Ridge, and Brunswick. God, we thank you for those listening today.

We know that you have a special word just for them. And God, we pray that they would be encouraged in following you, that today they would put their trust in you with no holding back. And Lord, that they would be an encouragement to others with what you're doing in them. Lord, we pray for the pastors in these cities, that you would give them wisdom and discernment, and that you will be honored in the midst of that. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Let's talk about this Feast of Tabernacles a little bit because most of us may not understand about the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, understand, there was holidays, these festivals that God ordained in the Hebrew Scriptures. There were seven of them. Now, the Jewish people have added to them a little bit. And guys, these holidays, I don't mean to rock your boat and ruin your world, but Christmas and Easter weren't part of the original seven.

We'll talk about that another time, a little at a time here. But this Feast of Tabernacles, what they were doing was celebrating when they were in the desert, and they all built booths. And you could see through the top of the booths, so you could see the sky. And they were remembering when they traveled through the desert. Now, they were also celebrating the water that came from the rock and the pillar of fire that they followed in the desert.

All these things were combined. And we'll talk more about the pillar of fire next week and the week after. But they were celebrating the rock that the water came out of. And you know what's awesome, is Paul tells us what the deal with the rock was, doesn't he? He says, that was Christ. That was Christ. Now, I'm not sure if that is literal or figurative.

I'm not sure, to be honest. But it's obviously a picture, and they're celebrating the water. Now, it's hard for us when we get 55 inches of rain a year, sometimes more, sometimes a little less, it's hard for us to imagine how important water was in this desert land, in Israel. Now, what's amazing is, you know, you go out to some desert places in California, they get two or three inches a year. Well, Israel actually gets 20 inches of rain a year.

That's a lot for a desert place. The thing, it usually happens between like November and March, all 20 inches. So between March and November, there's almost no rain.

Now, what happens if they don't get to 20 inches? Well, crops don't grow, livestock can die. I mean, they really didn't have a lot of irrigation going on back then. So water was incredibly important.

If you can picture yourself in an arid or, you know, air with no humidity, desert land, thinking about water, thinking about the coming season, how much you needed water, then you begin to get a picture. So what happened was the priest during this festival, and these things were added, what I'm getting ready to describe to you, they were added somewhere before 165 B.C. and by about 100 B.C., they had added all the things I'm going to be talking about. And we know that because it's in literature.

Some of the works of Josephus going back to the Talmud, which were Jewish writings, they had started implementing these things. And it's incredible to look at these things and what they did because one of the things they did was the priest would gather at the temple and they would go down to the pool of Siloam with a pitcher and dip the pitcher into the pool and then go back to the altar and pour it out on the altar. Now, this is kind of important because what does Siloam mean? Well, John tells us in another couple of chapters, John chapter 9, verse 7, and he said to them, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated, scent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. That's another story for another time. But notice Siloam means scent, okay?

That's going to be important. And it's interesting, by the way, John is writing to both Jew and Gentile. Gentile is a non-Jewish person, is what that word means.

And you can tell he's writing to Gentiles in part because he just translated a Hebrew word that most Jewish people would not need translating. So he tells us that the pool of Siloam means scent. So the priests go down there, they dip up the water from the pool that means scent, they come back to the altar and they dump it out. Now, part of what they would be doing too is reading and singing Psalms 113 through 118. These are known as the Hallels. They would be singing these things, singing these Psalms. And they called this grouping of Psalms the Hallels.

Now, that's important for another reason. After the Last Supper, they went out singing, they were singing these Hallels after the Last Supper. And it's interesting what they say. Now, Hallel means praise in Hebrew. When we say Hallelujah, you're speaking Hebrew. Hallel praise Yah God, praise God. When you say Hallelujah, that means praise God. So they were going and they were singing these Hallels as he was, you know, dipping the pitcher in the water and coming back and pouring it out on the altar. And you can read those Psalms another time, but let me just quote a couple verses for you from Psalm 118.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I pray, O Lord. Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. Now, that's just a small part of those Hallel Psalms. But one thing you need to understand is that everybody understood that these Hallels, these Psalms were messianic. Messianic means describing the Messiah. So everybody felt that these Psalms were describing the Messiah.

Well, it gets even more interesting because what they would do while they were singing these Psalms back at the temple is they would wave palm branches, singing save now, Hosanna. See, that's where you may have Hosanna Rabbah if on the last great day, the great day is the great Hosanna, if you will. Why is that important? Because that tells us Hosanna Rabbah is the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Why is that important? There's no detail in here that's just filler material, guys. Even the genealogies, all that begatment stuff, you know, which sometimes goes on and on and on and on and on and on. There's always something in there.

Sometimes it takes digging to find it, but we're told this, so you have to kind of ask yourself why. Well, you see, on the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, they did something different. Oh, the priest still went down there. He still went down to the Pool of Siloam, the pool that is sent, came back.

They still sang the Hallels when they came back, but he did something a little bit different on that last day that is pretty intriguing to me. He took the water and he mixed it with wine before he poured it out on the altar. Now, we know we've got the advantage of hindsight looking back on what wine means to us. Some people use wine or grape juice in communion, meaning the blood of the Lord. And so the water and the wine symbolizing blood are poured out on the altar. And if you remember, and most of you probably do, in John 19, 34, it says, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out.

Oh, it gets better. And I want to build the picture so you get an accurate picture of what's going on here because many of you have read this several times and you didn't get the picture of what was really going on because on this seventh day when they went down and they walked around the altar not once, but seven times, they poured out just not water from the pool of scent, but they mixed it with wine and poured it out on the altar. And then they sang an interesting song on that seventh day from Isaiah 12, verses three. Therefore, with joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Now, get this in your head, guys, pouring out water and blood on the altar. They just got through singing the Hallels. They're waving palm branches, and then they start to sing a song with this verse.

Well, if you've attended the Thursday night studies, you may know what's coming. This word salvation here is kind of interesting. It's salvation in the English. What is it in the Hebrew?

Ha'eshua, the Lord saves. Oh, you probably know the word, but you know a different form. You see, the English word of the Hebrew word is Joshua.

I know that you know that word, but you see, you probably know that word even more than you think. You're more familiar with the Greek word that's used for the Hebrew word, Yeshua. It's Yeshua in the Hebrew, but we're really, really familiar with the Greek form of the word.

It's Jesus. So now you're starting to get the picture of being in the temple, them taking a vase filled with the water of scent. Some would say Him who is sent, filling it with wine, pouring it out on the altar, waving palm branches, singing the Hallels, and then saying, therefore, with joy, you will drink water from the wells of Yeshua. And in the middle of this, all of a sudden, this young man from Galilee stands up, interrupts the proceedings, some might say rudely, and proclaims, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, he who believes in me, as the Scripture said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. In Bible study, cool.

I mean, I just get jazzed and excited when these things come together. And understand, because we don't know the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament the way we should, we miss out on a lot of this stuff, guys. They're about Jesus. And on that day, He said, if there's anybody thirsty, come to me, and I'll give them water. I'll give them the real deal, the real water. I think it's probably safe to assume that there's probably some thirsty people in here this morning. A friend, you can find water here this morning, a water that will quench your thirst like no water you've ever experienced. Some of you have been really frustrating going from this to that to this to that, trying to quench that thirst. There's only one thing that's going to quench your thirst, and it's not Gatorade. It's that living water. That's what you're thirsty for. That's what you're thirsty for.

Now, let me switch gears for just a second. We, as believers, if you're in here and you already know Jesus as your Messiah, as your Savior, then it says out of you should be flowing these rivers or these torrents of water. In verse 39, it 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. I believe that the Lord provides an empowerment or infilling with His Holy Spirit for the believer. I would encourage you all to ask for God to fill you with His Holy Spirit to overflowing, but we are to become channels of blessing to a thirsty world. When they see us and they see they're our joy and they go, I don't have that joy. Where can I get that? That's when witnessing gets real easy, isn't it, guys?

Oh, let me tell you where you can get it. We're supposed to be like this water, clear, pure. That's the water we're supposed to be like so that other people go, wow, you know, and you hold that out and you go, are you thirsty? You know, this is what we're supposed to be like. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him. And He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit CrossTheBridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to CrossTheBridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. Well, D.A., before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee.

That sounds good, Pastor D.A., and again, it's been great to have you with us on the program today. But tell us, what else can our listeners find on CrossTheBridge.com? If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern Time? Just visit CrossTheBridge.com and click on our live stream link. There, you'll experience a live service from David's home church, The Bridge, in North Carolina. Again, that website is CrossTheBridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.