Sunday, June 27, 2010 – Chuck Strouss, guest, as an introduction to our Summer Book Reading Club – Missionary Emphasis Sunday – James & Janelle Junior, Campus Christian Fellowship, Western Washington University, Bellingham
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Lessons from Part 3 of the Festival Cycle!
John 7:1-9:41
37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. - 12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 7:37 & 8:12 NIV
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I invite you to open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 7. Today I will be making some summarizing comments about the section comprised of John 7, 8 and 9.
On October 11, 2009, after having spent nearly two years studying the second half of the Gospel of John, I finally got around to starting on the first half of the Gospel. There was a reason for that approach, but I won’t get into that now.
So, since October 11, I have preached 32 sermons from John chapters 1 through 9. Today I will be reviewing the past 7 sermons from chapters 7-9, text that has had as its backdrop the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Booths, or even the name, Feast of Ingathering.
As you may recall, I have been following an outline of John’s Gospel presented by commentator Gerald Borchert, whom I have found very helpful, particularly in the major section we are presently in from chapters 5-11. He calls these 7 chapters the Festival Cycle because he sees five units within them, each having a Jewish feast as background to the stories within it. So far in our studies, the featured feasts have made a significant contribution to our understanding the message of each unit.
Chapter 5, the story of Jesus healing the lame man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem had as its backdrop the Feast of Sabbath. We don’t often think of the Sabbath as being a feast day, but it really is. Leviticus 23 lists it as the first of seven feasts. And, if you recall when I devoted several messages to the principle of the Sabbath, I made a point of demonstrating that the Sabbath was not a day of fasting but rather a day of feasting.
Chapter 6, that started with a bang and appeared to end in a bust, had as its backdrop the Feast of Passover. The chapter begins with Jesus feeding the 5000 and the people wanting to force Him to be their king. The chapter ends with Jesus turning to His Twelve disciples and asking them if they want to leave too, just as most everyone else had already done when His teaching got very difficult to accept. You’ll remember it was in chapter 6 when Jesus spoke of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Most of the people didn’t understand that Jesus was speaking of believing His word when He spoke that way and as a result, they walked away from Him. But, Peter responded to Jesus’ question, that is, “Do you want to leave as well?” by saying, 68 . . ., “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69 (NIV))
In chapters 7-9, the Feast of Tabernacles isn’t just in the backdrop for what happens, it is the feast being celebrated and Jesus becomes the central figure throughout the feast. Chapter 7 divides itself into three sections by focusing on the beginning days of the feast, the middle of the feast and the last and greatest day of the feast. The latter portion of chapter 7 draws our attention to the water ceremony that was celebrated on each morning of this seven day feast. Chapter 8, from verses 12 to its end, draws our attention to the daily lighting ceremony that took place in the evenings of this feast. Then, chapter 9, provides us with a miraculous sign through the healing of a man born blind. That miracle brings together both the attention to light and the attention to water that takes place at the Feast of Tabernacles, and, appropriately, it is Jesus who brings them together.
Chapter 10 will have as its backdrop the Feast of Dedication and chapter 11 will bring us back to thinking about the Feast of Passover.
So, in chapters 5-11, we are called on by John, the Gospel writer, to think about these festivals as he presents us with stories and events in the life of Jesus that will greatly help us to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing we will come to have life in His name (John 20:31). So, it is not an accident on John’s part, nor is it simply coincidental, that John draws our attention to these feasts as He presents us with his divinely guided perspective on the life of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. I believe we actually see that the setting supports the message or lesson of each particular story. Thus, I do encourage asking with each story, what significance does the Jewish feast being mentioned have in communicating the message of that story?
That brings us to our text for today. Chapters 7-9 call for us to think about the Feast of Tabernacles. We are to think about living in booths or rickety shacks made from branches. Thus, this isn’t a week’s vacation to live in fancy hotels. Rather, it’s a vacation that requires us to camp out of doors in a homemade hut in remembrance of the years when Israel wandered in the desert. It’s a time of looking back with thanksgiving that we are no longer slaves in Egypt. It’s a time of looking forward with hope to a future in our new home in Canaan.
Thus, the message of tabernacles reminded the celebrants that when they got into the affluent Promised Land of Canaan, they were not to be drawn away from God by the deceitfulness of riches and the many other things of the world. They needed to renew their devotion to God as their Father. They needed to be reminded how disobedience to their Father’s commands turns them back into slavery to sin.
As the celebrants of the Feast of Tabernacles participated in the water ceremony, they were to be reminded of how merciful and gracious God was to provide them with water in a relentlessly hot desert. And these same celebrants, who participated in the lighting ceremony, were to be reminded of how God leads with the light of His word.
Tabernacles was a joyous occasion to strengthen a believer’s relationship with God their Father. For many, it would be a time to reconnect with the Father after having wandered away into sin. The Feast of Tabernacles was a faith builder. It helped the people to trust God more. The picture of God leading the children of Israel in the desert through the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night illustrated what faith is. By faith, they moved at a moment’s notice when the Lord told them to move. They learned to not get too attached to this world and to be flexible in their planning.
Exodus 40:34-38 (NIV) 34 Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
36 In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; 37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. 38 So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels.
It was by faith, then, that their eyes focused on the presence of the Lord and their ears were alert to His voice. Taking a week each year to live outside in flimsy tents helped God’s people see how temporary things are but how permanent their true Father is. The Feast of Tabernacles helped God’s people understand that their true security is found in God alone.
Our Colville Mission Team experiences a portion of the Feast of Tabernacles nearly every time they go on their weeklong trip. Having to pick up their bedrolls and bed down at a new location the next night is not unusual for them. They wisely remind each other that they need to be “flexible.” Because of this and spending more time in near desert-like conditions, their experience has a touch of what it is like to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
Now, have you ever asked yourself, why did Israel spend 40 years wandering in the wilderness? The journey between Egypt and Canaan could have been done in weeks, not years. Why did they take so long to make the trip?
The answer is both simple and sad. It was their unbelief that turned a relatively short journey into an incredibly long journey. It was their inability or refusal to trust God. So, the purpose of the 40 years was for the children born in the desert to learn to trust God, to learn that God can be trusted.
What we see in John 7-9 is a replay of the wilderness wanderings. At the time of Jesus, the Jews had lost their way. They had taken their eyes off of God the Father and had not been listening to His voice. Jesus diagnosed their problem by saying to the Pharisees in John 8:44 (NIV) 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
So, John 7-9 is all about reconnecting God’s people with their true Father. And the only way anyone can connect to or be in relationship with God the Father is through His Son, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Christ.
All of us have or had a father. His God-given task in life is to see that his children are connected to their heavenly Father. There is no higher calling for a dad. Earthly fathers must be connecting their sons and daughters to their heavenly Father if they want to be successful as fathers.
Essentially, John highlights that we really only have two options. We are either connected to the true Father, God, or we are connected to the false father, the devil. Jesus is saying that we all have a father and it’s either God the Father or the devil. That’s what the argument was all about in the second half of chapter 8.
John 8:31-41 (NIV) 31 To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill Me, because you have no room for My word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are determined to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the things your own father does.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God Himself.”
Jesus is saying that it’s not who we say our father is that makes him our father. Our real father is the one we obey. If we are not obeying God the Father, we need to be questioning if He is truly our Father.
The ministry of Jesus is to call all of us into a relationship with God the Father. Jesus does so by being the water for the thirsty pilgrims. Jesus does so by being the shekinah glory in the pillar of fire at night to bring light to this dark world. Jesus does so by being the hope for a future in Canaan. For Jesus is the Messiah who delivers His people from slavery to sin. Jesus is the one who equips His people to resist the temptation to return to live as slaves in Egypt.
That is what John 7-9 is all about. It’s a reinactment of Israel’s journey to the Promised Land so that we can see more clearly that Jesus is God’s Son; that He is the Christ, the Messiah, who lives among us in order to lead us to eternal life.
1. Jesus is the water for thirsty pilgrims.
37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” 39 By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Here the people are in the temple, celebrating with gratitude to God for how God supplied water to the thirsty pilgrims wandering in the wilderness, their ancestors; and up stands the miracle worker and invites the thirsty to come to Him and drink. Jesus is proclaiming Himself to be like the water that God supplied to the people in the desert. He is saying that He is the water that God supplies to thirsty souls.
This invitation is for you, as well. But, do you recognize that you are thirsty? Do you realize that you are in need of the water only Jesus can give? Then He says to you, “come to Me and drink.” But His words are even broader than that. This invitation is for all who are thirsty and if anyone hearing this invitation knows of anyone else who is thirsty, he is under obligation to let that thirsty one come to Jesus. We must not prevent anyone whose soul is thirsty from coming to Jesus. Let them come. Let them drink.