John Chapter 7:37-53

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

I believe in fearing the Lord in a reverential fear. 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 in as David McGee continues his teaching, Are You Thirsty? So we're at John, chapter 7, 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. And that awesome gushing rivers of living water, not a little jinkle or not a couple of droplets, but torrents, rivers of living water.

That's the way it's supposed to happen. And you understand, as Christians, 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 7, if you go back to verse 2, it's talking about the Feast of the Tabernacles here, which was one of the most joyous of all the Jewish feasts. 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. The empowering of the Holy Spirit was not yet given. 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 there our joy and they go, I don't have that joy. Where can I get that? Oh, that's when witnessing gets real easy, isn't it, guys?

Oh, let me tell you where you can get it. Verse 40 says, Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, Truly this is the prophet. And when they said the prophet, they weren't saying a prophet, they said the prophet, the foretold Messiah. They're actually referring back to Deuteronomy 18, 18, which is a messianic scripture describing the Messiah. It says, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. So they're saying this is the God, this is the Messiah.

This is the Savior of the world. Verse 41, others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Will the Christ come out of Galilee? See, they didn't realize where Jesus had been born. You see, Bethlehem was in Judea, right next to Jerusalem, just a couple of miles away. Jesus had been born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem, house of bread is what that means. And they're saying, Well, will he come out of Galilee? See, had they checked out the facts, they would have known this. If they'd have asked Jesus, Hey, where were you born? He'd have said, Bethlehem.

They're going, Oh, now then he moved to Galilee. But they heard that they were off and running. Let me ask you a question.

How much heartbreak and heartache could we avoid if we simply asked people before we took off and running? So many times I've done it myself. I've heard something and I'm off and running before I've gone to that person and said, Hey, you know, I heard this. What's the deal there? You understand the Bible tells us as believers that we're supposed to do that, that we're called upon to do that, to go to one another and say, Hey, I heard this.

What's the deal? Do we do that? Quite often we don't, do we? But we're supposed to.

And how much heartache we could avoid. So many times stuff like that happens and then you end up talking to the person. They go, Oh, no, no, no. That's not what happened.

That's not what was said. But meanwhile, we've been in connections for two weeks because we took off and running. See, some of you are smiling, no one smiles and chuckling, knowing chuckles going, I've done that. The rest of you just have bad memories probably. You don't remember that you've done that, but you've done that for it. Verse 42, Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David from the town of Bethlehem where David was?

Again, had they checked this out, they would have known. Verse 43, So there was a division among the people because of him. You know there's still division among the people because of Jesus. There is still division because of Jesus. You can talk about God in a real generic sense, a higher power, if you will, and generally people don't get offended. But the moment you start talking about Jesus, the line in the sand is drawn.

Why? Because Jesus said some things that were, well, they didn't really leave any gray area. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. And while you can have this vague sense of God and that there's so many ways to God that you can go, once you think about what Jesus said saying there's only one way, well, that becomes a little divisive, doesn't it?

Still today it is. But Jesus knew that. Maybe some of your experience in division with family members, with loved ones, and it's because of this, because you believe in Jesus and you're following Jesus.

Don't be surprised by that, guys. And what's really cool is you've been grafted in, you've been accepted into a new family, if you will, the family of God. And I'll be honest, I'm probably closer to parts of the family of God than I am to my blood family. That's sad, but it's true.

It's probably true for some of you as well. But Jesus said, I came to bring division, Luke 1251. He said, do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. I came to bring division. When's the last time you read that on a Christmas card?

It's probably been a while. And Jesus is still the dividing line on sin and on judgment, on heaven and hell, right, wrong, forgiveness, freedom, salvation. Oh, but he's so worthy to be followed. He's so worthy to be followed that I want to be on the side Jesus is. I'm not talking about the Jesus that necessarily the church has proclaimed or portrayed. I'm talking about the Jesus of the Bible, the real deal. He's worthy to be followed.

Not the watered down version who never did anything or spoke harshly or anything like that. I tell you, as a man, I would have a hard time following somebody like that, but Jesus is not like that. Remember the little thing at the temple? It was kind of a little uh-oh, wasn't it?

Not really. He sat there, and this is amazing to me. It says he sat there, and as he was watching him, he was making the whip. Does that blow some of your minds about your perceptions of Jesus? Jesus was upset at what they were doing in the temple. He was getting ready to go off on the religiously prideful.

Now, here's an interesting thing. We look at Jesus, and people who were religiously prideful were very uncomfortable around Jesus. Oh, but sinners were drawn to him. Does that describe the church today?

I don't think it does. I want this place to be that place. Don't get me wrong. I don't want somebody who's living a horrible life to sit in here and not feel challenged and not feel convicted and not feel the need for forgiveness, but I want them to know that it's okay to come here and hear a message of hope and hear a message of restoration from Jesus, the fact that Jesus loves them and wants to forgive them if they'll simply come to him. I want this to be that kind of place, and let me go to the flip side, a place where religiously prideful people get a little uncomfortable, as it's been said, to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the departed.

I kind of like that. Let's get back into our story here. Verse 44, Now some of them wanted to take him, but no one laid hands on him. Then the officers came to the chief priest and Pharisees, who said to them, Why have you not brought him? And the officers answered and said, No man ever spoke like this man. What an awesome sentence.

What an awesome statement. Now, keep in mind all that we just discovered about the pouring out of the water and the waving of the palm trees, and they're singing, Drink from the wells of Yeshua, and up stands this guy that says, Hey, if you're thirsty, come to me. Now you begin to get the picture of what they're saying when they say, We've never heard anything like this man.

And you know what? In 2000 years, we still have never heard anything like this man. He's still unique. All the brilliant minds and all those things that we've produced in the last 2000 years. Let's go further back, 6000 years. There's never the earth has never produced anybody who spoke like Jesus spoke.

Not one. His words hold life. And you read the Bible and you go, Wow, this is this is radical. This is amazing stuff. What Jesus was saying, they were radical and revolutionary in that day.

And they still kind of are. What an amazing, amazing man. Nobody ever spoke like this. Nobody ever said, I am the light of the world and then proceeded to heal a blind man. Nobody ever did that.

He backed it up with action. Nobody ever said, I am the resurrection and the life and then raised somebody from the dead. That's never happened.

Nobody ever said you're to love one another and love God and lay down your life and then die on the cross. Showing us what that looks like. What a true statement. Nobody's ever spoke like this and that's still true to this day.

Nobody's ever spoke like this. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

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. Verse 47, then the Pharisees answered them and said, Are you also deceived? And there was some deception going on, but some people that had been thirsty before that day were finding the real water. And here's what they used as the litmus steps, kind of interesting.

Verse 48, Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? These Jewish leaders were being deceived. And here they're doing, they're following one of the oldest debate tricks in the world. If you can't answer the argument, attack the speaker. If you can't work out the evidence that it doesn't make sense, then you begin to attack the speaker. That's the way a lot of people debate Christianity. If you've ever been sharing your faith and then they go, What about you?

I saw you the other day. You got mad or you said something you shouldn't have or dah, dah, dah. They're attacking you because they can't answer your argument. They don't know what to do with the fact that Jesus loves them and has a plan for their life and desires them to come to him. They can't deal with that. So what do they do?

They attack you. And listen, guys, when they do that, don't argue with the fact that you have sinned. I've known believers that did that. I did not do that.

I didn't do that. I used to sin like you, but I don't sin anymore. Praise God. You ever notice people, did they change it to GOT when they get, Praise God, when they're getting really into, I don't know what that deal is. But you know what, you know what?

I did do that. Man, I'm so thankful that I can have forgiveness for messing up like that. I'm so thankful that God gives me grace. This grace stuff is wonderful. Man, you got to get some of this grace. Oh, then they're not going to know what to do again. Probably figure out some other reason to attack you.

Guys, understand something. Boy, I didn't understand this for a long time. I grew up in church. As a matter of fact, I checked out the church. I went to church.

I did the little church thing and it was totally dissatisfied. And you know what I thought? Oh, and here's the danger. I thought, well, okay, I've checked out God. And I didn't find meaning. I didn't find this love and this joy and this peace and this forgiveness that this book talks about. I've checked out God.

It's not working. I'm left. What I checked out was the church. And guys, let me assure you, when you check out church, you're going to see things wrong. Even here, you're going to see things wrong.

Well, what's up with that person or that man or that woman? There is something wrong. This is not the perfect church.

And if you're perfect, you probably shouldn't come here. And even if it were perfect, well, you couldn't come here because if the church were perfect and you weren't perfect, if you came, it wouldn't be perfect anymore. These religious leaders, they were deceived. They didn't know Jesus.

Understand something, guys. There's religious leaders out there today. They don't know Jesus. There's people that say that they're scholars, that know a lot about Jesus, but they don't know Jesus. And perhaps you've had the frustration of knowing some of these religious leaders that don't know Jesus. Maybe some of you have been wounded by them and you thought, my goodness, this is not what it's about. And you know what? You were right.

You were right. It's not about the church. It's about Jesus. And nobody to my knowledge has ever had a relationship with Jesus where they really poured out their heart, poured out their life and said, well, this is not it. Paul was a religious leader. There was a cure for Paul being a religious leader.

Wasn't there? There was that little road to Damascus thing where he got knocked down. Better to be knocked down than knocked out, huh? I mean, that may be what has to happen to some religious leaders to meet Jesus.

They got to get knocked down. Now you don't need to do it personally. Okay. Don't, oh, I'm going to go knock down some religious leaders. Praise God. Pastor Dave told me I was supposed to, and then you're going to call me to get your bail, and I won't do it. Let God do that. Let God speak to them. And God will.

God will. Verse 49, but this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. Wow, that's kind of interesting to me. The crowd that does not know the law? Let me ask you a question. You may not be aware of this. Who is responsible for teaching these people the law?

The people who are saying they don't know the law. Isn't that amazing? I always, let me, let me, let me share something. It's amazing to me because occasionally I'll go to a pastor's meeting or something, and sometimes a pastor will actually say, well, I don't think, you know, the people in my church, they just don't know their Bibles. Now sometimes I sit quietly.

Okay. Twice I think I sit quietly, but you know, it's like, okay, they don't know their Bibles. Are you teaching the Bible?

Well, sure. Everybody teaches the Bible. Well, tell me how you teach the Bible. Well, you know, take a verse here, take a verse there, take a verse over here, verse over there. I say, you know what? You're not really teaching the Bible.

What? So you're teaching out of the Bible. If you're teaching the Bible, you were given the Bible in book form. Is there another book that you go, oh, let's read one paragraph over here. Oh, that's good. Let's read a paragraph over here.

All right. And another paragraph over here. Well, I read the book. Can't approach the Bible like that. And these guys were responsible for teaching them the law. And then they were saying they didn't know the law.

Tragic and twisted, isn't it? You guys are coming, you're hearing the word of God. Some of you are starting to really know your Bible and discussions and stuff. It just fires me up, man. And when I'm talking to you, you go, oh, and you make connections with prophecies and the Hebrew scriptures and what this means and that means.

And I'm like, yes. Know their Bible because that's a passion. That's what I want to communicate to you. It's the Bible, a knowledge of God's word.

It's really, really important. And some of you have come to me and say, you know what? I've learned more in six months here than I've learned in 20 years of church. We just read the book. We just explain what the book says.

And that's what we're hungry for. Verse 50, Nicodemus, he who came to Jesus by night being one of them said to them, does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing? They just asked the questions in verse 48. Look at this.

This is interesting. Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in him? And then Nicodemus in verse 51 says, does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he's doing? This is Nicodemus that came to Jesus in John chapter 3 and Jesus says, you've got to be born again. It's kind of looking like one of the Pharisees had believed Jesus. And when we get to the third appearance of Nicodemus after the death of Jesus Christ, I believe Nicodemus was a believer. And there's reasons I believe that that we'll get into when we get there. But Nicodemus is saying, we can't judge him.

We have to have him before a court of the law. And Nicodemus was judging Jesus by his words and his actions. They're pretty convincing then and they're pretty convincing now. Verse 52, they answered and said to him, are you also from Galilee?

Search and look for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. Very condescending, very looking down on the people, aren't they? This still happens in church today. I don't look down on anybody in here. I love you. I want to communicate the truth for you. To you. Because why? The ground at the cross is all level.

It's all level. And it's amazing they're sitting here accusing them of ignorance. No prophet has ever come out of Galilee. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, to you consider that Jonah was from Galilee who was a prophet. And they're accusing other people of not knowing the law. It's kind of interesting, isn't it?

Verse 53, it says, and everyone went to his own house. Are you thirsty this morning? Have you been looking around, grasping at straws, trying to find something to quench that thirst? Have you been shocked that things that you thought would quench your thirst haven't?

Things like success or material goods or fame or popularity or something. Have you chased those things and then when you got them, were you shocked and surprised that they didn't quench your thirst? Oh, they might have for just a few moments. Hopefully you've not been satisfied with those things.

May the Lord help you if you have been satisfied with those things because you are meant for something far more, far better than just stuff. The people of this day at this setting, they were blinded. They couldn't see it. Jesus was offering them the greatest gift they had ever been offered Himself and they were blinded. And they refused it. Don't be blinded this morning.

Don't refuse the most awesome gift that you've ever been offered. That's Jesus Himself. Don't be blinded to the truth like these religious leaders were. Some of you may have strayed and gone to other wells. Maybe you know the Lord as your Savior but you've been visiting other wells, trying to figure out, well, maybe this will do it or maybe this will do it. It's time to come home. Man, if you're a thirsty pilgrim, the Lord wants to quench that thirst this morning. You don't have to be thirsty anymore.

You can come and drink. You can ask Him to forgive you, either for the first time or once again. Ask Him to be your Savior.

Or if He's already your Savior and you haven't been following Him like a true disciple and with a passion that He deserves, ask Him to forgive you and ask Him to become your Lord. Don't put your Bibles away just for a second because I want you to see something. See the divisions in this, the chapter and verse divisions, they came later.

For the most part, they're in good places. This morning, we're reading from a place that it's not in a good place. You see, verse 53 really goes with John 8 and verse 1. Verse 53 says, And everyone went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. See, that night, everybody went to their own home but Jesus didn't have anywhere to go.

He'd been left outside in the cold because this feast happens when it's cold in Israel. Will you leave Him outside this morning? I know that He's knocking on the door of hearts in this room right now.

Will you answer that? Jesus says in Revelation, I stand at the door and knock. He doesn't barge in. He stands there and invites and says, You know, you're thirsty? I want to quench that thirst. I want to give you the forgiveness that you so desperately need. And many in this room right now, He's knocking on the door of your heart.

And my prayer is that you open that door and you don't leave Him out in the cold. Maybe you've been thirsty because you've been drinking from the wrong wells. Come and drink. The water is awesome.

It's clear, it's pure, and it's refreshing. And the offer still stands for you this morning. Won't you come? 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. And on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. That sounds good, Pastor DA, 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.