Welcome to Expound--
our verse-by-verse study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your
knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. Let's pray. Now Father, once again,
we want to commit the hearing of our ears to
the speaking of Your word. For we remember our
Lord Jesus said, "whoever has ears to
hear, let him hear," implying that not everybody who
has words going into their head is actually focused on them
or paying attention to them. But we pray we would, and
in so doing, more than just understanding the meaning
of what the language is, we'd understand the meaning
of what Your spirit has for us and how truth can transform
the way we look at life, the way we live our lives,
the way we treat other people. Change our perspective, Lord. May our perspective,
our life, be like what words we just sang. Those wonderful
words of we trust you and we love you and You're
our Father and we're set free. I pray all of that would
become our own reality. Thank you for the
privilege, Lord, of living in a country where
we can carry and open a Bible and read it freely and
discuss truth and live it out in Jesus's name, Amen. There was a man who was
stranded in the Sahara Desert, and he was dying of thirst. Absolutely parched
and not knowing what he was going to
do, he was fortunate when a man riding a
camel came close to him. At which point,
the man cried out. And he said, water. Please, can I have some water? And the man on the camel
said, well, I'm sorry, I don't have any water, but
I would sell you a necktie. And the dying man
said, a necktie? I'm in the desert
dying of thirst. I need water. And that man on the camel
said, well, they're only $4. The guy dying of thirst
said I don't have $4, and I wouldn't buy one anyway. I really need water. The man on the camel
said, I'll tell you what, I'll sell you
two neckties for $7. Well, the guy was
too weary to argue. And so the man on
the camel passed by. Pulling all of his
energy together, the man continued
on his journey. And he spotted, in the
distance, a beautiful oasis with an incredible-looking
restaurant perched among the palm trees. He crawled over
to the restaurant and found the head
waiter and he said, I really am dying of thirst. I need water. And the head waiter
said, I'm sorry, to be admitted you
need a necktie. Now, that absurd little
story that I just told is an introduction to
what we're about to read. Because I find that
that little story gets repeated in real life. You have the ability to
have your thirst quenched, but there are people standing
around talking about neckties. And here we have
a story of Jesus who gives one of the most
incredible invitations to anyone who would
believe in him. They would be satisfied. The deepest thirst of their
lives would be quenched. But there's that
group of people that want to argue about neckties. So it's like they're standing
next to an artesian well, but they're dying of thirst. Now, in chapter 7 where
we left off last time, it's a long chapter,
as I said last week. It is the Feast of Tabernacles. The setting is Jerusalem. Jesus has gone up to
the Feast of Tabernacles in the middle of that
eight-day festival that week. According to Flavius Josephus,
the Feast of Tabernacles was one of the most
joyous feasts of the year. Joyous because of the
way it was celebrated-- the building of booths with
these thatched branches of trees that the
families would then live in for a whole week
looking up at the stars, and imagining what life was
like for their forefathers as they would march
through the desert and trust God to
take care of them. They would celebrate that. It was really a fun
way to do church. Church was fun during the
Festival of Tabernacles. The kids loved it. Stories were abundant in
that town and at that feast. People from all over
Israel came to Jerusalem because it was one of the
three required festivals that males, especially within
a certain distance of the city, would go up and celebrate. They were commanded to do so. But typically, if
they could, they would bring their whole family. So the city was
filled with people. There were actually
tens of thousands of people that gathered
in the temple area. Now, why is the Feast of
Tabernacles important to us? Well, historically
it's important to us and prophetically
it's important to us. One of the reasons I love
the Feast of Tabernacles historically is because I love
the eighth chapter of Nehemiah. When they came back
into the land and it says they constructed a podium
sort of like this out of wood, and Ezra stood to read
from the law of God. It says that he opened the
book and read from the book in the law of the Lord. He read it distinctly. And then he gave the sense of
it, he told the meaning of it. Much like our Wednesday
night Bible study. And the people stood for hours
listening to the law expounded. The very next day, it says,
in the reading of the law, they discovered it was
the Feast of Tabernacles. And so they went out, and
they took those branches. And they made those
booths, and they decided they needed to keep
it because the word of God said to keep it. And I love it because
you have people who decide, in the hearing
of the word of God, to do what they read. Immediately putting
it into practice. That's historical. Prophetically, it's important. And you need to remember this. Even if you don't remember
it, you're going to do this. So let's say you have amnesia. I'm OK with that. Because in the
future, do you know that according to the Book
of Zechariah chapter 14, you in the millennial kingdom, the
thousand year reign of Christ on earth, you will go up
to Jerusalem-- the nations of the world, their
representatives will go up to
Jerusalem every year to celebrate the
Feast of Tabernacles. So if it makes no difference
to you historically, it will prophetically one day
because it says in that passage that the nations of the
world will celebrate the Festival of
Tabernacles every year in Jerusalem during
Christ's millennial kingdom. Let's say that you and I
were in the temple right now. What would we see if it were
the Feast of Tabernacles? Well, you would see
thousands of people with something in their
left hand and something in their right hand. In their left hand they
would have citrus fruit. Yummy. What did that speak of? It spoke of the land
in which they live. The promised land was
filled with provision. In their right
hand were branches. Why branches? Well, they were told to take
branches to build booths. So the branches were emblematic
of the different stages in the wilderness. And they would hold
those branches up in the temple along
with the fruit, thanking God for the provision. But something interesting
happened every day during the Feast of Tabernacles. During that eight-day
week, that elongated week, the first day and the last
day were Sabbath days, but the eighth day
was the grand finale. And this is what happened. Every day, as far
as we can tell, according to Jewish history,
every day during the feast, a priest would take
a golden pitcher. He would walk down
from the Temple Mount down into the old city of
Jerusalem, the city of David. I wish all of us had been to
Israel because when you go, you realize how steep
that walk is-- not only going down but
especially coming back up. So the priest, followed
by lots of people, would go down to
the Pool of Siloam at the base of
that city of David, fill the pitcher with
water, walk back up, and pour the water on
the base of the altar. And there would be three blasts
of the trumpet-- the shofar. And after the third
blast of the shofar-- you know sho-far, so good--
the people would cry out a text of Scripture--
Isaiah chapter 12 verse 3. Now listen to this Scripture. It says, from Isaiah
12:3, "with joy you will draw waters from
the wells of salvation." With joy you will draw waters
from the well of salvation. They'd do that every single day. On the last day of the
feast, the grand finale, the priest would go down,
would come back up-- he'd have that golden
pitcher filled with water. But before the blasts of the
shofar, and before the people would shout out that anthem from
Isaiah chapter 12, the priest, along with many of the
people, would walk around the altar of sacrifice six
times, and then a seventh time. What was that a symbol of? Seven times around? The Battle of Jericho. Why the Battle of Jericho? Because that's what ended
the wilderness march. When they crossed the Jordan and
they marched around the city, signifying this
is the first town we're going to take
in this country. It's going to be ours. It's the inheritance of God. That ended their
wilderness journeys. So they would march
around the temple. So it's raising
to a grand finale. The people march around
the altar seven times. Then, the priest would
come up, and there would be a hush over the crowd
as he would pour the water. Because after he would
pour the water in silence, the people would
cry out-- with joy, you will draw water from
the wells of salvation. I give you that
background because you need to know it to
really understand the impact of the
next few verses. In verse 37, "on the last day
that great day of the feast"-- that grand finale-- "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. 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 want you to picture
the scene once again. The crowd marches around
the altar, the priest goes up to the altar,
he pours the water, the crowd falls silent. And before they can
even shout out-- I believe, though we're
not told precisely-- but Jesus cried out "krazo,"
the cry of a raven, the shout to grab people's attention. And He said, "if anyone is
thirsty, let him come in to me and drink." You know that all those
thousands of heads went-- whoosh-- look at who
said that-- who cried out that-- who is it that is
speaking that promise getting our attention? And it was Jesus. It was Yeshua. Before the people
could say, with joy you will draw waters from the
well of salvation, Jesus said, "if anyone thirsts. Let him come to me and drink. And he who believes in
me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will
flow rivers of living water." A couple of things
get my attention. First of all, here is Jesus
among thousands of people. He doesn't have the
advantage that I have. I have a microphone
and a PA system. He has to have a
pretty loud voice with a pretty
substantive cry to get thousands of people's
attention to make this claim, this promise. And that's striking to
me because if any of you grew up like I did seeing
the pictures of Jesus, you know the picture of Jesus
with that long drawn face. The anemic-looking Jesus
who needs a little sun and a good meal, frankly. Because the holy cards that I
saw just made him look sickly. I see a very different
kind of Jesus here. A very commanding
presence-- a man's man. Making a claim in
front of the leaders, in front of the priests,
in the temple courts. Commanding the
attention of everyone, making a bold
proclamation like this. The other thing that
grabs my attention is what he was saying. He's saying, here you are
talking about your forefathers who had their physical thirst
quenched in the desert-- temporarily, their physical
thirst was quenched. That's wonderful because
God provided for them. But here you are standing
next to a waterfall talking about neckties. Many of those leaders
talking just about the form and are we doing
it right and all of the little nit-picky
things about their law. When here is Jesus, their
Messiah presenting himself with an incredible invitation--
saying, "if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink." Now, notice that
promise-- there's three stages-- if anyone thirsts. We always begin with that. You have to begin with that. You won't drink unless
you go, I'm thirsty. You have to acknowledge that
you have a need before you'll seek to alleviate that need. People don't come to
Christ because they don't believe they need to. I'm not thirsty. I'm good. So you have to make
an acknowledgment that you have a need that has
to be fulfilled beyond what you can do for yourself. So that's always the first
stage-- the thirsty stage. I'm thirsty. Then, you have to do something
about your thirst that takes you to the second state. If anyone thirsts,
let him come-- come. You have to make a decision
of your will to cooperate with the invitation of God. And so you come. I remember the night I came. The afternoon I saw that Billy
Graham Special on television. I decided, I'm thirsty. I'm coming. I'm going to do something
about my thirst. I'm not going to run around
every day complaining, life isn't good. Life's a bummer. I'm just always
thirsty all the time. Take a drink. So I came. Now, if anyone is thirsty,
let him come to me and drink. That's the third step. The drinking speaks of the
appropriation of Jesus Christ by faith. You take him to be your Savior. 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. 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. It wasn't 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. And that's the promise. And notice how universal
that is-- if anyone, if anyone, if anyone thirsts,
let him come to me and drink. I just want you to think
about you and about others that you know. Anyone means anyone. There is 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, he's come
and he's 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
do, well-- but even the devil believes. The devil believes in God. Is the devil going to heaven? Uh, 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. "He who 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 are 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've 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 flowed 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 has 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 described 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--
[VIDEO STALLED] 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 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. They 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. They went and were
sent to arrest him, but they were arrested
by the words themselves. And the Pharisees--
they come unglued. 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 PhDs
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, it
said, believed in Jesus. So some of those in the
crowd that they said were cursed, actually
had everlasting life. But the ironic thing is
they themselves were cursed. The ones who said
they're cursed, 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 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 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 it. 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 in
Judea hated the Galileans. They thought there
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 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. Second Kings 14 tells us that
Jonah was from Gath-hepher. Gath-hepher 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 "Elcosh." Nahum was an Elcoshite,
and they believe that the name Elcosh 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? Uh-huh. 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. The last verse of the
chapter-- "and everyone went to his own house." Now, 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 chapter 8
begins with the word "but." And my English
teacher said never begin a story with that word
because that word belongs with another thought. 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." 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-- 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. Zechariah said His feet will
touch and the Mount of Olives will split into two sections
creating a large valley. So Jesus went to the Mount
of Olives-- everybody went to their own home, Jesus
went to the Mount of Olives. Where did He go on
the Mount of Olives? Well, we're not told. Number one, He just camped out. Garden of Gethsemane
is a pretty nice place. Some of you guys--
we go to Jerusalem, and I sneak off
with a few people. And we jump the wall in
the Garden if Gethsemane, and we pray there at night
and get that beautiful view. I just confessed my sin. A sin I repeatedly
commit when I go there. But it's just a great spot. So He just camped out
on the Mount of Olives. Or He went to the house of
Lazarus, Martha, and Mary, who lived in Bethany, which
is on the Mount of Olives. It's a town right on the other
side of the Mount of Olives. It's a little village. So one of those two. He either camped
out, but He probably went to stay with
them like He often did when He was at a feast. Now, the reason these
verses are put here is to show you the
humility of Christ. Everybody went to his own home,
Jesus didn't have his own home. He said to a would-be
follower, I'll follow you wherever
you want to go. Jesus said, foxes have holes,
birds of the air have nests, the Son of Man has no
place to lay His head. You want to follow me? I don't have an apartment,
don't have a condo, don't have a nice
house overlooking the city of Jerusalem. I'm camping out, or I'm
staying with friends. So they went home. Jesus did not. He did not have a home. He was born in a feeding trough. He never owned His own home. When He died, He wasn't
put in a family tomb. He was put in a borrowed tomb,
which is good because He only needed it for the weekend,
because He rose from the dead. But all of this is placed
here to show you, again, to reinforce the humility of
the Creator of the universe who humbled Himself as
God in human flesh. Everybody went to his
own home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. "Now early in the morning He
came again into the temple. And all the people came to Him. And He sat down,
and He taught them." Now, I know everybody loves
certain verses of the Bible, but there's just some passages
that are special to me. And this is one of those verses. Because I love the idea of
getting up early in the morning and meeting
somewhere with Jesus. And I just see that here. Jesus came again to the
temple, again to teach people, and anybody who wanted to
show up early where he was would take advantage
of that meeting. I hope you do that. I hope you meet
with Him regularly. You open His word. You pray to Him. You talk to Him. And you learn from Him. But here's a beautiful example. Now, it says that Jesus
sat and He taught. What am I doing right now? I'm sitting. In Judaism, in the scriptural
setting, a teacher always sat. An evangel, a
proclaimer, a preacher, somebody who would proclaim
a message from a King would stand, but a teacher sat. And we find Jesus often sitting
down and teaching people. Now, the only thing that's
different about the setting is that the disciples
of the Talmadine would stand while
the teacher sat. We don't make you do that. We give you nice, comfortable
chairs with bibles if you didn't bring
one, et cetera. But that was the setting. Jesus came and we
know where He is. Whereas before, He was
probably in Solomon's porch, not the coffee shop, but
the colonnade in the Temple Mount in the previous chapter. When He comes back
the next day, He's not in Solomon's portico
or the royal portico, but He's in the
court of the women. He's a little bit closer in. Why do we say that? Because when we
get to verse 20, it will identify that
Jesus said these words in the treasury and the
treasury was located in the court of the women. So He's come to
a different place in the temple in the morning,
early in the morning. And for those who come early,
they would meet with Him there. "Then the scribes
and the Pharisees"-- and you would find a lot of
the scribes and the Pharisees in the court of the
women because if you want to go to the
court of the men or the court of the
priests, you have to go through the court of the women. So it would attract
the attention, the ire of the leadership. "The scribes and the
Pharisees brought to Him a woman
caught in adultery. And when they set her in the
midst, they said to Him-- 'Teacher, this woman
was caught in adultery, in the very act.'" I'm giving
a little drama to it because I think they did. "'Now, Moses, in the law,
commanded us that such should be stoned, but what do you say?'
This, they said, testing Him. That they might have something
of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote
on the ground with His finger as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking
Him, He raised himself up. And He said to them, 'He who
is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her
first.' And again He stooped down and he wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being
convicted by their conscience, went out one-by-one,
beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone and
the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised
Himself up and saw no one but the woman,
He said to her, 'woman, where are those
accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?'
And she said, 'no one, Lord.' And Jesus said to her
'neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.'" To the Jewish leaders,
the three biggest sins, if you were to
categorize them-- I say that because I grew up
categorizing them-- well, we had mortal sins and
we had been venial sins. As if to say, you know
these are like misdemeanors and these are like felonies. Yeah, you can get by with
these, but these are really bad. So they kind of had
this category of murder, idolatry, and adultery as like
the three worst of all the sins you could commit. All the commandments
you could break, those were the three biggies. Adultery was especially
abhorrent to them for obvious reasons. Adultery would break
up a relationship, which would destroy the
fabric of a family, which would destroy, in turn,
the fabric of society. The more adultery
and the more divorce you have, the very fabric
of a culture is decimated, is destroyed by it. So they took it very seriously. So much so that God
commanded capital punishment in the Old Testament. Leviticus and Deuteronomy--
death by stoning. I have to watch my
language because I don't want to say they got
stoned because it means something different today. So it was death by stoning. In fact, the Mishnah-- have
you heard of the Mishnah? A commentary on the
oral law of the Jews? The Mishnah stipulated
that strangulation, death by strangulation,
was something permitted and encouraged for adultery. I don't know why that is. I haven't done enough research. All I can say is, I mean, from
a man or woman's perspective, if your spouse is cheating
on you with another person, you'd feel like strangling them. I mean, that guy's
coming after your wife. You kind of feel like
you want to do that. So for whatever reason, that
was part of the commentary in the oral law. It was a big deal. But listen, they don't
care about the commandment. What they care about is
they want to trap Jesus. They want to trap Him. Why is this a trap? Because no matter how Jesus
answers it, they got Him. That's what they think. Master of the law says
she ought to be stoned. If He says, yeah,
kill her, stone her. Well, He's going to
lose His reputation of being the friend of sinners. Jesus said, come to me all you
who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. He didn't say, I'll stone you. So He has this reputation
that He loves people. He's the friend of sinners. But if he were to say,
no, don't stone her, then He would be accused
of breaking Jewish law. If He says, stone her,
since the Romans have the right of capital punishment
and not the Jews at that time, He would be breaking Roman law. So He's either going to
be breaking Roman law and lose the reputation of
being a friend of sinners. Or He's breaking Jewish law. They've got Him trapped. But Jesus just starts writing
on the ground-- writing on the ground. Now, here's what's
wrong with their issues. The first problem, though
the law says somebody's ought to be stoned, they
hadn't practiced this for over 1,000 years. In real-life practice,
they didn't do it. At that time, I mentioned
the Romans took away capital punishment. They couldn't do it. Number two, the most
obvious problem, is the law said you shall
stone both the adulterer and the adulteress. Where's the adulterer? They brought the adulteress. Where's the dude? If she was caught in the very
act, the very act of adultery, there was a guy involved
and they saw him, but they didn't bring him. So they're breaking the law
by only fulfilling half of it. Letting him go free
but just bringing her. So Jesus acts like He
doesn't even hear them. But He wrote on the
ground-- verse 6. By the way, the
only time we ever have a record of Jesus
writing anything is here. Wouldn't it be fun
to see how He wrote? Just what His
penmanship was like? I'm curious about those things. He's writing something on the
ground and when he continued, they continue to asking Him. And He raised himself
up and he said, "he who is without
sin among you, let him throw the first stone." Now, He raises the
issue from a legal issue to a spiritual issue. Saying, you are all unfit
to be her executioner. There is only one qualification
for you to be her executioner. You have to be
[SPEAKING GREEK] That's the Greek word for the
two words without sin. If you are without
sin, if you haven't wanted to do the same thing,
then go ahead pick up a stone, kill her. Now they were all
convicted, it says. "Those who heard it, being
convicted by their conscience, went out one-by-one with
the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone the
woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised himself
up and saw no one but the woman. He said, 'woman, where those
accusers of yours?'" They had gone. So "'has no one condemned
you?'" She said, "'no one, Lord.' He said, 'neither
do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.'" Is
Jesus being light on sin? No. The words imply two things--
salvation and sanctification. Salvation is found in the words
"neither do I condemn you." Sanctification is implied in
the words "go and sin no more." I don't condemn you. There obviously had to
have been some faith that she exhibited
toward Him for Him to make that declaration. But then saying, go and
sin no more-- exactly what Paul says in Romans 6. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin
that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we who have died to
sin continue any longer in it? Now, let me close
with this thought. The most expensive, valuable
autograph in the world is guess whose? William Shakespeare. There are only six
documents in existence that bear his signature,
and each document is valued at well
over $5 million. It's considered the
most valuable autograph in existence--
William Shakespeare. But think of the words of
Jesus writing on the ground. Now what did He write? We're not told. The word He wrote means He
wrote something against them. My guess, and I'll explain
why next week, He either wrote their name or He
wrote their name with a sin that they had committed, like
maybe a woman that Shlomo didn't think anybody knew about. He would sort of
trace that name out, or a website thing, or
a hotel room and a date, or an income tax form
thing the guy cheated on. But something that they saw it
and they dropped their stone and they go, I got to pick
up some eggs on the way home, see ya. And they bugged out. But how precious and how
valuable for that woman. To have Jesus write on
the ground to pardon her and say, go and sin no more. To us-- Jesus who will write
your name in His book of life-- that writing, that signature,
is the most valuable. He knows your sin. He knows every bad thing,
every bad motive and thought. But He is willing to say to
you and I, I don't condemn you. Go and sin no more. I'm going to explain to you next
week what I think Jesus said and why He wrote on the dirt. It's fulfilling a very
important prophecy of scripture. And then we'll, by God's
grace, finish the chapter. Father, we want to thank
you for the opportunity to meet with You, though
not in the morning, tonight as a group,
hearing the words of Jesus, like bread broken afresh to us. Though not on the Mount of
Olives, or in Jerusalem, nor in the temple, we,
the body of Christ, the temple of the
Holy Spirit gathered in this place of worship. We have heard from heaven. We have heard Your voice. And this woman who was so
relieved by a Savior who knew the very
worst about her was in that situation feeling
so embarrassed, so humiliated by being drug
into that holy place. And fingers being pointed at
her and rocks being picked up to have the eyes of Jesus
look at her, saying, I don't condemn you. But now go and sin no more. Lord, I believe you want to
speak those words to some who are here tonight. They have come. Maybe they've come
many, many times before, but they've never asked Jesus
to forgive them of their sin. They've never asked
to be cleansed from their unrighteousness. They're still carrying a
weight of shame, embarrassment, humiliation. Others, Lord, are just thirsty. And they know it. They know it now and tonight
more than ever before. And they want their
thirst quenched. Lord, I pray that you would
extend Your love and Your hand to them, giving them salvation. Showing them, Lord, that
though the law condemns them, You, as the Savior
who bore their sin, You don't condemn them. You came to save them. But Lord, if we're
thirsty, we have to come. We have to drink. And it's a promise for
anyone, everyone, whosoever. As our heads are bowed,
perhaps you've come and you've never given
your life to Jesus. Maybe you were like me,
raised in a religious home, and though you were
raised in that home and you were raised
to believe in God, you never came to a place
where you personally committed your life to
Jesus, asking Him personally to come inside. Asking Him to personally
forgive you of the sins you've committed. You haven't been born again. You've been born once, but
you haven't been born twice. And some of you know
how thirsty you are. You've been trying to fill it,
fill that parched soul of yours for so long with so many
things, but they don't work. And you've come
and you've heard. And you've heard the offer of
a Jesus who loves to forgive and who loves to satisfy and
loves to use simple people. Maybe your heart's crying
out for forgiveness or your heart's crying
out for satisfaction. Would you give
your life to Jesus? He gave His life for you. You don't have to
do anything except admit that you're a sinner
and admit that you need Him. You come and drink. Maybe you've wandered
away from Him and you need to come
back home to Him. If you've taken 150
steps away from Him, you just have to
take 1 step back. It's called "repentance." It means to turn around,
to change your mind, change your direction. Just say, Lord save me. I believe in you. Forgive me. I trust you. Take me in or take me back. If that's you and if
that's what you want, then you raise your
hand right now. And I'll acknowledge your hand. Just raise it up
and you're saying, Lord, here's my hand-- take
me, save me, forgive me. Raise your hand up high
enough so I can see it. God bless you to my left,
and you, couple of you right over to my left,
awesome-- right there toward the middle in
the back on my left. Anybody else? Raise that hand up. Right up here in the front. Lord, bless you. Anyone else? In the balcony, yes sir. Just lift that hand up. Lift it up and say, Lord,
forgive me, save me, take me. Father, thank you for
these men and these women. Thank you, Lord for those
hands that are raised. That's the indication of thirst. I pray now, Lord, as they
come and as they drink, their life would
never be the same. That they'd be satisfied and
You'd use them for Your glory. In Jesus's name we ask, Amen. Would you stand
please to your feet? As we sing this final
song, for those of you who raised your hands, yes,
even in the balcony, I'm going to ask you to
come down the stairs. If you're in any row, just
find the nearest aisle, just say excuse me to
the people next to you. We do this all the time. We're used to it. We're going to rejoice in it. And you come stand
right up here. I'm going to lead you in a
prayer right now of making Jesus your Savior, your Lord. This is you committing
your life to Him. You come and stand right
up there in the front. We'll wait for you. But you come. Come right up in the front. It's who you are. It's who you are and
I am loved by you. It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am and you're
a good, good Father. It's who you are. It's who you are. Yeah! Awesome. God bless you. You think it's hard
at first, but it feels pretty good to take
that walk, doesn't it? To come down here and say,
I'm giving my life to Jesus. The past is behind. New start. New life. Whether you raised
your hand or not. Whether I saw your hand or not. Is there anyone else? We're going to sing this song
really quickly through one more time. I want to give you
an opportunity. Take this opportunity. Say yes to the God who loves
you and wants to save you. You say, well, how do I
know it's going to work? Because He said so, number one. Number two, you're not
going to know staying back. You come. If any man thirst, come
to Jesus and drink. Come to Jesus and drink. See if He won't
quench your thirst. See if He won't
change your life. See if He won't
forgive your sins. But you've got to come and see. You've got to come and see. Anybody else? We'll wait for you,
but you just come. Just say excuse me to the
people standing next to you. Even if you're in the
balcony or the family room or if you're outside. Just come through the doors. Run over here if you need to. We'll wait for you. You're a good, good Father. It's who you are. It's who you are. It's who you are and
I am loved by you. It's who I am. It's who I am. It's who I am. For those of you who
have come forward, I'm going to lead
you now in a prayer. I'm going to ask you to say this
prayer, these words, out loud, say them after me. Sort of like wedding vows. You know, you're publicly
committing your life to Christ. You say these words
from your heart. Say them as if nobody
else around you. It's just you talking to God. Say Lord, I give you my life. I know that I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. I believe Jesus died on a cross. That He shed His blood for me. And that He rose
again from the grave. I turn from my past. I repent of my sin. I turn to Jesus as my Savior. I want to follow Him as my Lord. Help me in Jesus's name, Amen. Give it up for God's glory. If you've missed any
of our Expound studies, all of our services
and resources are available at expoundabq.org.
