Tomorrow is Memorial Day. It is the day when Americans remember and honor those who died in service to their country. And it is fitting that we should remember those that paid the ultimate sacrifice so that we might enjoy the freedoms that are ours as Americans. Jesus Himself said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends.”

Today however is another memorial day which is celebrated the world over. It is called the Lord’s Day. It is the day set aside each week to honor Jesus Christ, who laid down His life so that we might be truly free. The remarkable thing about Christ’s sacrifice is that He did not just lay down His life for His friends, but He laid down His life for His enemies. Jesus said He did not come to save the righteous, but sinners. Sinners are by definition the enemy of God who is holy and righteous.

The essential fact of the gospel that is so often missed however, is that all men are sinners. Romans 3:10 says, ”THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”

The good news however, is found just a couple of chapters later in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

But a lot of people are so offended at hearing Romans 3:10 that they never get to know the benefits of Romans 5:8. In other words, they are so offended that the Bible says that all men are condemned because of their sinfulness, that they never come to know the salvation that is through Christ’s death as our substitute. The fact is, that if you do not acknowledge your need for salvation from your sins, and trust in Christ’s atonement on the cross as the propitiation for your sins, then you cannot know the freedom from condemnation that comes through salvation.

Now that is really the crux of the passage we have before us today. This exchange between the Jewish leaders and Jesus which is recorded here for us is due to the fact that they trusted in their own righteousness and rejected salvation through Christ. As a matter of review, Jesus had been preaching in the temple for a week at this point, during the weeklong celebration known as the Feast of Tabernacles. And He has presented in many different ways the truth of the gospel. That truth simply stated was that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, the eternal God come to Earth in human form, so that men might have the spiritual life that God offers to them that believe in Him.

And Jesus has used a couple of metaphors to illustrate that doctrine, which we have looked at in detail in previous weeks. In the first metaphor He says He is the source of living water which if anyone drinks of, out of their innermost being will spring up living water. Then His other incredible claim is that He was the light of the world, and that the world was in darkness, but if they follow Him, they will have the light of life. In both of those metaphors, Jesus is teaching that He is the source of life, abundant life through the Spirit of God, and He gives it to those who believe in Him.

But at every point that Jesus makes in His messages during the Feast, the Jewish religious leaders want to find fault with Him and argue over some technicality. And at the heart of their response is their fervent belief that they did not need a spiritual Savior. They believed that they were inherently good people. They were obviously very religious people. They thought that they knew what the scriptures taught. They thought that they had been given entry into the kingdom of God through their heritage and that they insured it by their adherence to certain laws such as circumcision and keeping the Sabbath.

In many respects, they were not unlike many Americans today. According to a recent Pew Research survey, 70% of Americans claim to be Christians. They believe in God. They go to church on somewhat of a regular basis. They believe in the golden rule. They have a few Bibles in their possession. They are what we would call “good people.” And the real danger for these people is that they have never come face to face with their sinfulness and as such have rejected the idea that they need a Savior.

This was the predicament of the Jews who listened to Jesus that day. He had told them repeatedly that He had come from the Father in heaven and as such had been doing the works of the Father and speaking the words of the Father, shining the light of the truth unto the world so that men might have life. But they had repeatedly rejected His claims. Therefore Jesus says in vs. 21, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”

Their response is that of disdain, again missing the significance of what He is preaching, and focusing instead on trying to discredit Him. So they respond with dripping sarcasm, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” I think there is even a hint in their response of their intention to kill Him, but they phrase it as if He will commit suicide. Suicide by the way in Jewish culture of that period, was the most egregious sin, and they believed that the bottom level of Hades was reserved for those who committed suicide. So in effect, they are suggesting that Jesus deserved the pit of hell.

The question must be asked – why such vitriolic hatred towards Christ? I’ll tell you the answer. It’s the same answer that Jesus gave for their hatred in John 7:7, He says, “[the world] hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” It’s the same hatred we see spewed towards those who proclaim the truth today; it’s because of the conviction of sin. If you dare call anyone a sinner today, or suggest that the Bible condemns certain activities as sinful, then you are going to be the object of intense hatred. And by the way, this doesn’t just come from atheists, this comes from those claiming Christianity. I just read on the news last week that Bishop Desmond Tutu said that he would rather spend eternity in hell than a minute in a homophobic heaven. Well, he just might get his wish. Because that statement reveals his hatred towards God. Jesus said that God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. That means that God gets to make the rules, not us. We must worship who He is, and not who we want Him to be. The world does not get to define God. God has defined Himself in His word. And we must love God more than we love the world. 1John 2:15-16 says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

The essential principle that Bishop Tutu fails to understand is that God’s law is a reflection of God’s nature. It is how He reveals His holiness. I read another quote by Bishop Tutu in which he said, “We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.” I have news for him, God’s standards are anything but low. God’s standard is absolute perfection. And there is only one person that has been able to meet God’s standard, and that is Jesus Christ. All the rest of mankind is dead in their trespasses and sin. That is why Jesus says three times in this passage, “you will die in your sins.” Unless you repent and call in faith upon Jesus Christ – that is the only way for your sin to be forgiven.

And listen, your sin is not forgiven because God just decided one day to get with it – just go along with the culture and forget about all that sin stuff, just live and let live. No, God still counts sin. God did not do away with the requirements of the law. Jesus kept every law perfectly so that He might be the blameless, spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. No, God didn’t stop counting sin, He just counted it against Christ. He transferred our sin upon Jesus and beat Him for it with a whip within an inch of death. He transferred our sin upon His Holy Righteous Only Begotten Son, and pounded nails into His hands and feet and let Him hang on a rough cross for hours bleeding to death. He transferred our sin upon Jesus and let Him die and descend into Hades to pay the penalty for sin. He transferred our sin upon Jesus so He could pay the price of our sin, and then and only then could He transfer Christ’s righteousness upon us. God’s standards are anything but low. No one comes to heaven, to the Father, except through Jesus Christ and dressed in His righteousness alone.

So in spite of the unbelief and sarcasm, once again Jesus shows compassion by restating His warning to the religious leaders. In vs.23 He says, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

Now what Christ has done is give a litmus test of sorts for belonging to the kingdom of heaven. That was the primary message of Christ. He was preaching about the kingdom of heaven. And the Jewish leaders recognized that the requirement of citizenship was righteousness. So Jesus is in effect giving a litmus test for righteousness. He says they are of the world, and as such they are still in their sins, and they will suffer the consequences of that sin, which is death. How do you know whether one is of the world or of heaven? How do you recognize those belonging to the kingdom of darkness, and those belonging to the kingdom of heaven? I mean, anyone can claim to be of the kingdom of heaven, can’t they? People all over the world claim to be of the kingdom of heaven. We already said that 70% of Americans claim to be Christians, that is, belonging to the kingdom of heaven. So how do you know? What is the evidence?

Well, to find out the truth, I’m not going to quote Desmond Tutu, but instead quote the Apostle John once again. As we read earlier, 1John 2:15-16 says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

And Paul says virtually the same thing, that those who are of the world set their mind on worldly things. In Phil. 3:18-19 he says, “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.”

That’s the litmus test. If you love the world, if your focus is on the world, if your passions are in the world, if your love is towards the things of the world,if your pride is in the things of the world, then you are of the world. You cannot serve God and mammon. That’s why James says, show me your faith by your works. Show me. Don’t tell me. You say you have faith, but show me your faith. Faith is not an intellectual exercise, by which we gain heaven. Faith is an exercise by which the will of heaven is worked out on earth. Where God’s will supersedes our will. Faith is praying, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

That’s the litmus test. That is why Jesus was able to point to His works as the litmus test that proved He was sent from God. Three times in this little passage He says that He does the works of God, as evidence that He is not of this world, but of God. Look at vs.26, “the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.” Then again in vs.28, “I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.” And third, vs.29, “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”

It’s noteworthy that Jesus categorizes things in threes. Three times He says “You will die in your sins.” And three times Jesus says He does the works of God. The principle is clear; if you are of the world, then you will die in your sins. If you do the works of God, then it’s evident that you are of the kingdom of heaven.

Now I hope no one here today tries to weasel out of this principle of your works being evidence of where your heart is by saying that Jesus did the works of God, but grace makes us free to do whatever we want. Grace is the means by which our guilt and punishment are expunged. And grace is the means by which we are given the Holy Spirit to lead us in paths of righteousness. But all through the New Testament we are told to imitate Christ. Peter said in 1Peter 1:15-16 “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” And again in 1Peter 2:21 he says, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” We are to follow the pattern that Jesus laid down for us. That is what it means to be a disciple by the way. We follow the pattern of Christ. As He did, so do we. That’s what Jesus is saying in vs.31, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.” To continue in His word is to continue in obedience to His word.

And Paul also makes it clear in Ephesians that we are saved to do the works of Christ. Eph. 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” So the principle that Jesus is teaching is clear, how you live illustrates where your citizenship is. Is your citizenship in heaven? Then you will be about your Father’s business. A ceremonial tip of the hat once every couple of weeks is not indicative of where your citizenship is. Jesus said in Luke 12:34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

You know what disturbs me very much though is when Christians, who have been set free from the enslavement to the world by the death of Christ, try to keep one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom of God. They claim to be all about heaven, but their priorities are all about the world. Everything seems to take priority over the things of God. I worry about such people.

That reminds me of the prophet Elijah, who seeing the double mindedness of the Israelites, who worshipped the idols of the world while claiming to be the people of God. And so he cries out to them in 1 Kings 18, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” If you say you are the Lord’s people, then serve the Lord with your whole heart. But if you are people of the world, then continue to serve the world. But don’t think you can live in two places at once.

Well, back in our text, the Jews respond to Jesus’ words with more sarcasm, more condescension, saying “Who are You?” In a more modern way of speaking they may have said, “Who do you think You are? We have to believe in You or we die in our sins? Just who do You think You are?” That question was obviously intended to be sarcasm as well, but nevertheless, Jesus patiently, compassionately responds to them by saying, “I am that which I have been saying to you from the beginning.”

What had He been saying from the beginning? Well, let’s remember what Jesus has said so far; that He was the Messiah, He was the Son of God, He was the resurrection and the life, He was the Temple of God, that God has given Him the power to execute all judgment, that He is the source of eternal life, that He was the one of whom Moses wrote, that He was the bread of life which came down out of heaven, that He has seen the Father, that He had the words of eternal life, that He was the supply of the water of life, and that He was the light of the world. I think it’s pretty clear who He was.

But since they asked, Jesus gives them another clue. In vs 28 He says, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.” Now what is Jesus referring to in this statement? I believe that He is speaking of going to the cross, being lifted up as the serpent was lifted up on the pole in the wilderness. Jesus is saying, when you see Me lifted up on the cross, then you will know that I am He.

What a tremendous statement. Not only was His life indicative of His deity, and not only was His words indicative of His deity, but His sacrifice for sinners was the ultimate indication of His deity. The crucifixion was the expression of God’s love for the world. And the magnanimity of that act revealed a love that could only be that of God. I’m reminded of the centurion who seeing Jesus give up His Spirit on the cross said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

But sadly, many of those who were debating with Him would still not recognize Him even when He was lifted up. They should have seen the parallel with the serpent in the wilderness which Moses lifted up for the healing of sting of vipers upon the Israelites. And they should have understood that the serpent on a pole symbolized that there would come One who would be lifted up on a pole for the healing of the sins of the world. And perhaps some did make that connection during the crucifixion such as the centurion. But as I have pointed out before, I believe that by the time of the crucifixion, the scribes and Pharisees and the priesthood not only knew that He was the Son of God, but they deliberately, purposefully put Him to death because they hated Him so much by that point that their hatred had blinded them.

And that is born out by the fact that He says, when I am lifted up, then you will know that I am He. Now in the Greek there is not the pronoun He. It is simply “that I am.” And I suggest that is a direct reference to the same “I AM that I AM” which spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. This is the name that God gave Moses to tell the Israelites and Pharaoh who it was that gave him his authority. It was the name of God that refused conventional definitions. So in answer to the Jews question of “Who are You?” Jesus has just answered, “When you see Me lifted up, then you will know that I am the I AM.” He is telling them who He is in terms that they were very familiar with. See, for the Jews, Moses was their guy. He was the greatest prophet. In fact, the Sadducees only recognized the writings of Moses, nothing else. So it’s interesting that in every evidence that Jesus gives to His deity He uses something that happened during the life of Moses. He was the source of water from the rock. He was the manna from heaven. He was the pillar of fire over the tabernacle. He was the serpent lifted up on the tree. And He was the I AM from the burning bush. Yet these champions of the law of Moses would not accept what He was saying, because they believed that they were justified by the law of Moses.

But Paul tells us that the law was not given to be a stepladder to heaven. But the law was given to be a tutor to lead us to Christ. The law was given so that our sin became even more sinful. Even more apparent. But when Jesus showed them that, in the Sermon on the Mount for instance, then they became indignant, and rejected the idea that they were sinners. And that spurning of the need for forgiveness would condemn them to die in their sins.

From our perspective though it should be clear, that Jesus was not only sent from God to be all the things that we stated earlier like the light of the world, and the source of eternal life, etc, but the characteristic that really completes the picture is that He is the Savior of the world. This is the basis for John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the exact representation of God. So Jesus declares that He is Savior, it completes the picture. It completes the picture of God. God is holy, righteous and just. God is the judge of the earth. God is the source of life. And God is also the Savior of the world because God loved the world. He loved His creation. But for God’s love to be enacted, His justice had to be satisfied. God’s law had to be upheld. And so God sent Jesus to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God through Christ.

Well, for a few people in Jesus’ hearing that day, the light suddenly came on. They saw the light of the truth. So it says in vs.30 that as He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. I can only pray that someone here today has suddenly had the light of truth dawn in their hearts. You recognize that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. And perhaps you have come to believe that Jesus Christ is the sinless Son of God who gave Himself in your place on the cross so that you might be saved. If that is you, then simply call on Jesus to save you, believing in all that He says He is, and God promises that He will transfer you from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of heaven. You will become a citizen of heaven, but even more than that, you will be made a son of God by adoption. And as the result of that adoption, you are guaranteed an inheritance in glory and eternal life. I pray that today will be the day of your salvation.

There are many voices calling out for attention in the church today. And there are perhaps as many messages as there are voices. How are we to know which are true, and which are trustworthy? Many of them sound convincing. Many of them claim to be based on scripture. And yet many messages are at odds with one another. So they cannot all be true. If some are true, then others have to be false. The great difficulty comes in discerning which are true and which are false.

I believe that the Bible teaches us that the way to know the truth is by the leading of the Holy Spirit. When I got right with God 30 years ago in California, that was the primary thing I asked of the Lord, that I would know the truth. And later on that evening, as I read the book of John, God gave me three passages which I believe instructed me that the Holy Spirit was the source of truth, and the means by which we can know the truth. The apostle John records Jesus as introducing the Holy Spirit specifically as the Spirit of Truth. Listen to what Jesus says in John 14:16-17 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

And Jesus reiterates that in the next two chapters. John 15:26, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.” The third is in John 16:13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

So three times Jesus gives us this phrase, the Spirit of Truth, as both a title and a description of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now that is significant, because the law required that every fact is to be confirmed by two or three witnesses. So when Jesus declares three times this truth, we can be certain that it is an essential doctrine, and it’s validity is without question.

Understanding that principle helps us to understand then the nature and purpose of the Holy Spirit. One of the greatest misunderstandings in Christianity today is that of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Just taking these three verses at face value, then we must recognize that the primary ministry of the Holy Spirit is to reveal to us the truth. So many people seem to miss that altogether. They think that the purpose of the Holy Spirit is to make us feel something, ie, the presence of God, or to give us some spiritual response from God which registers on our emotions or feelings. But that simply is not taught in the Bible.

Paul makes it clear in 1Cor. 2:11-14 that we have been given the Spirit so that we might know the things of God, through the word of God. He says, “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” So we have to have the Spirit of God to understand the things of God, particularly the word of God, which of course was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

It’s also interesting that the Holy Spirit is spoken of as the Spirit of Christ. Or as Paul said in vs.16 of 1Cor.2, the mind of Christ. Also look at Romans 8:9 “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” In other words, all three are one in agreement, in unity, and are the same in nature, but different only in administration. So Jesus is the exact representation of the Father in flesh, speaking the words of the Father and doing the deeds of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the exact representation of the Son in the Spirit, enabling us to do the deeds of Christ and to know the words of Christ, which is to know God.

Now this may seem like a lengthy introduction and unrelated to the passage before us, but I believe that it is actually very pertinent to understanding today’s text as I hope to show you in due time. Because what is at stake here is the authority of Jesus Christ. How could the Jews know for sure that what He was teaching was true? Was His message trustworthy? Was He claiming to be God, and was that a true teaching?

The Gospel of John is different from the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Even more specifically than the others, John strives to show that Jesus is the Son of God, the very God come in the flesh. In the first place, rather than starting his gospel with the birth of Christ as the other writers do, John opens with Jesus in heaven. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” John does not present miracles in his gospel, he has signs. That is, his miracles are intended to teach spiritual truth. He is very strategic in deciding which signs to include, and those which he does are used to point to Jesus’ divinity. Furthermore, John is characterized by the upper room discourse, in chapters 13 through 16, and then the great high priestly prayer, in chapter 17.

But one of the primary things that characterizes the Gospel of John as different is the claim of divinity that Jesus Christ makes for Himself. They are unique in the sense that they are self-proclaimed. And that was a problem for the Jews. It was a problem because the law specified that truth cannot be established on the basis of a single testimony, but that only by the testimony of two or three men may a matter be established.

The claims of Christ are extraordinary to say the least. The well known prophets of other religions such as Mohammed or Buddha or Confucius did not claim to be God. But Christ claimed to be God. For example, Jesus has proclaimed in the temple, with thousands of people in attendance at the Feast of Tabernacles, three great claims equated with the pre-existent God of the Israelites. The first statement was, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”

Now in that claim, Jesus is speaking at the exact moment when the priests poured water into basins which spilled down upon the altar, signifying the water which came from the rock in the wilderness when Moses struck it. John tells us in the next verse that Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit who had not yet been given to those who believed. Paul said in 1Cor. 10:4 that “all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.” So the rock was Christ, and the water is a picture of the Holy Spirit which springs from Christ, welling up inside of the believer. This picture of living water flowing from our innermost being is representative of the life of Christ, the power of Christ, living in us, enabling us to do the works of Christ and to understand the truth of God.

That was the reason that in the first instance of water coming from the rock, Moses was told to strike the rock, signifying that God would smite Jesus on the cross, and by His sacrifice making us holy we are able to receive the Holy Spirit. But 40 years later in the second occurrence of Moses smiting the rock for water he was disobedient. Because God does not strike Jesus again and again. He was the sacrifice for sin once on the cross, and now He ever lives to make intercession for us. Hence, the second time Moses needed only to speak, to ask for God to give water, signifying that we have a mediator, great high priest in heaven, Jesus who is able to make intercession for us.

So in the first statement in effect Jesus is saying that He was the Rock in the wilderness, from which the Israelites were able to drink. And in the second statement, Jesus cries out during another ritual when the priests lit the great candelabras which lit up the courtyard and the temple during the evening, saying, “I am the light of the world, he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

In this second statement, Jesus indicates that He is the great “I Am”, the name God gave to Moses at the burning bush. And then thirdly, He compares Himself to the pillar of fire that led and protected the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. That was the significance of the ceremony during the Feast which was the context for Jesus’ proclamation. It celebrated the light that shone above the tabernacle over the camp of the Israelites and protected them as they traveled. And at just the moment when the priests lit the candelabras, Jesus cried out in the temple, “I am the light of the world, he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

So Jesus proclaims with great boldness who He is, and what His purpose is, and I’m sure the full import of what He said was not lost on His hearers, especially the Pharisees. And yet their response is not to fasten on the truth of what He was saying, but to focus on a technicality. They say, “You’re bearing record of yourself. Your record therefore is not true. “ What they are really saying is, “You’re not following the teaching of the law.”

In fact, Jesus Himself had stated that principle of the law, back in chapter 5 verse 31 Jesus said, “If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.” So you would think that perhaps the Pharisees have a point in their accusation. But Jesus answers them in a way that shows that while in His flesh He has submitted Himself to the Law, but in His divinity He is outside of the Law, because He is the author of the Law.

So to establish that He is outside the law, first of all He says, “Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.” In other words, men are creatures of this place and time, and as such they are creatures of the present. Time renders all living men captives of the present. We cannot revisit the past, nor can we know the future. That is the province of God alone. Therefore the testimony of men is unreliable, but what Christ knew in Himself embraced the two eternities, the eternity of the past and the eternity of the future. And therefore, He knows that the things that He says is true.

Secondly He says He does not judge by appearances or human standards. Vs.15, “You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone.” That is exactly what Jesus said in John 3:17, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”

But the world would in fact one day be judged by Him, because they rejected Him. So vs 18 says, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” The judgment of sin is already in place in the world. It is only removed by Christ. So to reject Christ is to reject forgiveness of that judgment, and thus the judgment remains upon him. But Christ came the first time to save the world, not to judge it. Judgment came upon the world way back in the Garden of Eden with the first Adam. Salvation from judgment comes with the second Adam.

Not only can we say that Christ was the second Adam, but there is a sense in which Christ was the second Noah as well. Heb.11:7 says “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” Again, the condemnation of the world had already been established. The ark represented salvation for the world, but they rejected it. The Bible says that Noah preached 120 years, and yet we have no record of his message. His message was the living testimony of his life, and the coming destruction was foretold by the building of the ark. So also Christ is patient, not willing for any to perish, and the gospel is being preached for 2000 years so that they who reject it are without excuse, condemning themselves to destruction.

The third argument Jesus presents to them is to say that divine testimony can only be attested to by a divine being. Note vs.16 “But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me. Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true. I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.” So Jesus says that God the Father also testifies concerning Him. Only divinity can attest to the truth of divinity. No man was there in the beginning with God, only God was in the beginning with God. So if we are going to know the truth about God, then God must divulge it Himself. Finite man cannot know it, therefore he cannot attest to God’s truthfulness.

So Jesus is saying then that God can testify about Himself, otherwise we could not come to know God. God has to reveal knowledge of Him if we are to know Him. Otherwise we worship Him in ignorance. Otherwise we are left to guess how to please God. We have to imagine what God is like or compose a picture of Him based on earthly evidence such as creation. We can in fact learn that God must exist from observing nature, and we can ascertain certain eternal characteristics about God through nature, but we cannot know God fully as He wants to be known simply through nature. He must disclose Himself, He must testify of Himself if we are to know Him. And God has testified about Christ, and Christ has testified about God. He was the exact representation of God, according to Hebrews 1:3.

One of the amazing things this passage illustrates is that although these men claimed to know God, they really did not know Him, because they did not recognize the truth about Jesus. I find this is the problem with many people today. They say they know God, but the god they are talking about is a god of their own imagination. They are merely projecting an idea about God that is a fantasy of their own imagination. Consequently they do not know God at all. Neither do they worship God; they are worshiping a figment of their imagination. As James said, “you say you believe in God, so what? The devil’s also believe and tremble.” You are not saved by believing that there is a god. You are saved by worshipping God as He requires.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones had this to say about such people: “Their god is something which they created themselves, a being who is always prepared to oblige and excuse them. They do not worship Him with awe and respect, indeed they do not worship Him at all. They reveal that their so-called god is no god at all in their talk. For they are forever saying that “they simply cannot believe that God will punish the unrepentant sinner to all eternity, and this and that.” They cannot believe that God will do so, therefore, they draw the conclusion that God does not and will not. In other words, God does what they believe he ought to do or not do. What a false and blasphemous conception of God! How utterly untrue and unworthy! Such is the new paganism of today.” That was written about 50 years ago. How much more true it is today.

So once again, the Pharisees don’t want to acknowledge the truth of what Jesus is saying. Instead they try a personal attack to disparage His credibility. Jesus is obviously speaking of His heavenly Father, but they try to disparage His legitimacy by bringing up the rumor of His illegitimate birth. They are insinuating that His father in the flesh, Joseph, who was actually His step father, was not his legitimate birth father, and so then Jesus was born out of wedlock.

Vs. 19 So they were saying to Him, “Where is Your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.” Now you might look at that at first and think, well now, that’s an incomplete answer, He hasn’t said where is the Father. He hasn’t answered their question. But He’s answered the more fundamental question. He said you don’t know Me. because you don’t know my Father. If I produced my Father you wouldn’t even know him. If you had known Me, you would have known the Father. One knows the Father only as he knows the Son. There is no other way to the Father, except through the Son. The God of the Scriptures is only known through the Son. Over and over again the Bible teaches that. The Lord Jesus later on will say, after Phillip asks him, “Lord, show us the Father.” He will turn to Phillip and say, “Phillip, have I been so long time with you, and yet you have not known Me? He that has seen Me has seen the Father. How then do you say, show us the Father.” And then later on he will say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me.” It’s impossible to know God except through the Son.

Now John concludes this section by saying in vs.20, “These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.” And I can’t help but think that this is the conclusion of a single thread of teaching that began back in chapter 7 vs. 8 where Jesus said to His brothers, ”Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.” Now in chapter 8vs.20 we see that even though Jesus said all these things in the temple, in the very headquarters of those who sought to kill Him, no one laid a hand on Him because His hour had not come. His hour speaking of course, of the hour in which He would lay down His life for the sins of the world.

And I think if you look at this section in total you will see that the theme of Jesus being sent from God, being in unity with God, presenting the truth to the world and then going back to God is consistent throughout the whole section. Implicit in this passage is the principle that God exists out of time, and Jesus being One with God, existed in eternity past, but came into time present, in order to bring the truth of salvation to the world. Those that believe in Him, He promises to give them life, to give them the deposit of their inheritance, the Holy Spirit, and to give them all the blessings of God. But those that reject Him remain in darkness, and as such will ensure their own destruction as they remained condemned by that rejection.

This principle of faith in Christ revealing the truth of God was stated in chapter 7 vs. 17 “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.” This is the principle that belief in Christ is self validating, when you submit your will to God, then God will reveal His will to you. You will know the truth, when you submit to the truth that has been revealed to you. Repentance and faith leads to confirmation of the truth.

Those who claim a superficial form of Christianity would rather skip over texts like the one we have in front of us today. Instead they would rather find a text that focuses on some benefit to us, like the power to heal, or the power to perform miracles. Let’s find something that assures us of our specialness. Something dramatic, exciting. The attention of many in the church today is firmly fixed on what they suppose to be the dramatic manifestations of the Holy Spirit. We don’t want to know God, we want to experience Him.

But if we are going to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth, then we need to make sure that our worship is based in sound doctrine, and that our doctrine comes from the facts of the gospel which were written for our instruction. Jesus has much to say here about who He is, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So it behooves us to study this passage thoroughly, that we might fully know the truth of God, so that we might worship Him in Spirit and in truth, and not be led astray by a gospel which is not according to Christ, but manipulated by self serving individuals who wish to twist the gospel to serve themselves rather than serving the Lord.

As I said earlier, to judge according to appearances means to judge according to human experience. Human experience is the fail point of much modern Christianity today. Unfortunately doctrine has taken a secondary place to experience. So then, what we feel, what we think, the way we determine truth, is dependent upon our human experience, our human judgment. And from our experience, or human reasoning, we then interpret scripture or even reject scripture and determine for ourselves what is worship or determine according to our dictates what God is like. But that is not the pattern of the gospel and that is not what Jesus taught. God must disclose Himself to us if we are going to know Him. And we have to submit ourselves to His truth if we are going to be found acceptable to Him. So all human experience must be subject to sound doctrine. And when we believe in Him as He has declared Himself to be, then we must submit ourselves to do His will, and then we will know the truth of God, because the Holy Spirit will lead us and guide us as we study His word. That is the pattern of the gospel. Only then can you know the truth that can truly make you free.

My daughter asked me to solve a riddle the other day. She said the riddle is this; “As I get older, it gets weaker.” What is it that gets weaker? Well, I told her that from my experience there are a whole lot of things that get weaker as I get older. Some of which I can talk about in public and some perhaps are better kept private. But I told her the answer which I think she wanted, and that was my eyesight. The older I get, the weaker my eyesight becomes.

But as I thought about it later, I remembered learning that it is not that your eyesight necessarily gets weaker, which makes it difficult to read, or see clearly. But as you age, your eyes do not receive light as well. And that I know by experience. I can hardly read with my glasses on when I am inside and don’t have a good light to read by. But on a bright sunny day, I can read outside without my glasses on.

Light then, is a great metaphor for the Christian life. Because as Jesus says in vs.12, He is the Light. And as we receive that Light, we have the clarity to see the truth, and then to follow, or obey the truth. And so we see that this idea of light is a common metaphor in the scriptures, particularly in regards to the Messiah.

John has already introduced this idea in chapter one, in his great opening theological statement. He says in vs.4, speaking of Christ, “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” And in vs.9 he says, “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”

So as we read, Jesus confirms this idea that He is the Light by saying, “I am the Light of the world.” And so I want to just focus on this one statement today in an effort to glean all that we can from this important principle.

First of all, let’s consider the setting in which Jesus has made this claim. As you will recall, the Feast of Tabernacles is going on during this time. This was a week long celebration in Jerusalem during which everyone would live outdoors in huts that they had constructed out of leafy branches. This was to commemorate the time when the Jews were wandering in the wilderness after God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt. It was a time of festivities and song and ceremonies that lasted 8 days.

In particular, there were numerous ceremonies during this feast that occurred in the temple in Jerusalem. One such ceremony we looked at a couple of weeks ago, when the priests poured water from the pool of Siloam into a basin which ran down upon the altar, symbolizing the water which came from the rock during their sojourn. And you will remember that at that time, Jesus stood up in the midst of that ceremony, after the trumpets had sounded and the water was gushing out upon the altar and He cried out with a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

Then the next day, Jesus is teaching again in the temple, early in the morning, and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. We looked at that text last Sunday. In today’s text, it is probably now the evening of that same day. And as it neared dark, the priests would light these great candelabras, raising them up on pedestals and illuminate the temple court. The white marble and gold plated walls of the temple would reflect this light and as the darkness settled down over the city, the temple became a shining beacon seen throughout the city in which people would gather and celebrate the feast. From historical accounts, it was a magnificent sight, and thousands of people would be gathered there in the court celebrating together their deliverance as a nation by God.

Now the significance of lighting the candelabras around the temple was to remind them that during their time of sojourning in the wilderness, God had provided a pillar of smoke to guide them by day, and a pillar of fire to watch over them by night, for all the years that they were in the wilderness.

The account is found in Exodus 13:21-22 “The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.” And in the next chapter it says, in Exodus 14:19-20 “The angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus the one did not come near the other all night.”

And then in Numbers 9, I won’t read it due to time limitations, but it says that the cloud covered the tabernacle, and during the evening a pillar of fire over it, so that when it moved, then the camp of the Israelites moved, but when it stayed in place, then the Israelites stayed where they were. The Lord directed their movements by the cloud and by the pillar of fire.

Now that is the historical context of the ceremony for the lighting of the candelabras during the evening. And it was at this point, perhaps at the very moment that the priests lit all the lights and the temple and courtyard were set ablaze by their glory, that Jesus stands up and declares; “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Now there are a number of things that can be understood from that incredible proclamation. The first thing we should point out is that this is the second “I AM” statement that the Lord makes. He has already said, “I am the bread of life.” He will say in chapter 10 that “I AM the Good Shepherd” and that he gives life to the sheep. He will later on say “I AM the door, and that if men enter through him they will have everlasting life. And then He will say “I AM the resurrection and the life.” He will also say “I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” And finally he will say “I AM the true vine.”

All seven of those “I AM” statements would have been recognized by the Jews as a statement of deity. It would remind them of the meeting Moses had with God at the burning bush, and when Moses asked God for His name, He said, “I AM THAT I AM.” What that meant was that God would not allow Moses to put Him in a box. A name in Old Testament times defined you. But God would not allow Himself to be limited to a name. He has many names because it takes many names to speak of the multifaceted nature of God.

There is I think a disturbing trend among Christians today, especially in the music industry, to call God by the name of Love. God is love. But that is not all that God is. And so we do Him a disservice if we limit Him by naming Him according to one characteristic and denying His other attributes. We must recognize and worship God for who He is, and not who we want Him to be.

But among the Jews, they would have recognized that “I AM” was a reference to God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. So it is a reference to deity. It is interesting that the first words recorded in the Bible that God spoke was “let their be light” in Genesis 1:3. It says in Genesis that in the beginning there was darkness, and chaos ruled over the earth. What a picture of the world without God. But then it says the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, and God said, “let there be light.” That is a picture of the gospel, is it not? The Light became the light of the world. It’s interesting that before the sun was created, Light was given to the world.

1John 1:5 says that God is light. So in effect, Jesus is declaring Himself as God. He is the Light that existed with God and who was God. He is the source of life which is characterized as light. And He came down to a world in darkness and chaos and brought the light of truth. I don’t think I should have to tell you folks here today that the world is in darkness. The world is an evil place. You only need to pick up a newspaper, or spend a few minutes looking at the news on television or the internet and it becomes apparent that the world is in darkness. Jesus said in John 3:19 that even though Light came into the world, men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

And that illustrates what John was saying in chapter 1 vs.5, “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” Actually the word translated “comprehend” could have two meanings: 1)comprehend as in understanding the Light, or 2) comprehend might be translated as overcome. The darkness could not overcome the Light. In fact, we know that Light has triumphed over darkness. We haven’t yet seen the culmination of that triumph, but the battle has already been won. Darkness may look like it’s winning if you watch the news, but we have seen the headlines of the newspaper of the future. God wins. Darkness loses. In fact, the forces of darkness are already vanquished foes. But we still are called to stand firm and fight the good fight of faith until the Lord comes back.

Also, Jesus is referring to the fact that He was the Light which led the Israelites out of bondage. He was the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, and they that followed Him were led out of enslavement in Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land.

Now the Messianic metaphor of light is readily apparent in the prophecies, found particularly in Isaiah. In Isaiah 60:1-2 for example, speaking of the coming of the Messiah; “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you.” Notice how that prophecy echoes the Genesis account.

And though there are many others, let’s look at Isaiah 9:1-2, which also is quoted from in Matthew 4, “ But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.”

All of these and many more speak of the coming of the Messiah as the appearance of light shining in a dark world. I can’t help but think in this context of the Apostle Paul, who before his conversion was known as Saul, the persecutor of Christians. And the reason that Saul was arresting Christians and even putting them to death was because they taught that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. To him this was blasphemy and worthy of death.

So it’s ironic that when God chose to reveal Himself to Saul on the road to Damascus, He did so as a flash of blinding light. It was a light so bright that Saul became blind for three days. God showed Saul that though he thought that he knew the truth, the fact was that he was spiritually blind. The Lord said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And Saul said, “Who are you Lord?” And the voice out of the light said, “I am Jesus who you are persecuting.”

That conversion really illustrates the principle of the Lord as light. The world is in darkness, the world is blind to the reality of who Jesus is, and what He came to do. But when the light of God shines in our hearts, it illuminates the truth about Christ, that He came to save us from our sins, and it illuminates the depravity of our sins so that we recognize our need of forgiveness and our need of a Savior.

I just want to emphasize that this illumination is a sovereign act of God by which we see the truth and we see our condition. Without God especially shining the light in our heart, we will not be able to recognize the truth, or to know that we need to repent. So there is a need as it was in the beginning, for the Spirit of God to move upon the darkness and void of our souls, and bring light to illuminate the eyes of our heart, so that we might recognize the truth.

So Jesus is the Messianic Light of the world, the very Light of God, sent by God, so that the world might be saved. And then notice the second phrase; “He who follows Me will not walk in darkness.” Now that symbolically was represented by the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire that the Israelites followed as they wandered in the wilderness.

But fortunately, we have a paraphrase of that statement made by Jesus Himself in chapter 12 vs 46: Jesus says, “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.” So we can understand that Jesus is saying that to believe in Him is to follow Him. You believe that He is the Light of the world, that He was in the beginning with God, and that He was God and all things were made by Him. And if you believe that He came to the world to save the world by His atonement on the cross for our sins, then you simply follow Him, you obey Him, you adhere to Him, you worship Him. You don’t add a little Jesus to an already full agenda. If you really believe He is the source of all life, the source of abundant life, then you forsake all to follow Him. He is the pearl of great price which you will pay anything to have. He is the treasure in a field which finding you sell everything to buy.

It’s like the story of the fountain of youth which Ponce de Leon risked everything to find. If you really found the fountain of youth, then nothing else is important. You move there and live there and drink of it constantly. As Jesus said in chapter 7, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

I think that the problem with most people today is that they don’t really believe that Jesus is the source of life. They may think that Jesus is an important part of life, but not the only source of life. They see Christianity as somewhere on the lower part of the priority list. It’s important, but not as important as my marriage, or my fiancé, or my career, or money, or sports, or whatever. Not really. We say He is, but our lives say otherwise. Unfortunately, we are not fooling God, but only ourselves.

So not only is He the source of life, He is the guide of life. I think to follow Christ means to become a disciple of Christ. The disciples left everything and followed Him. When Jesus asked them if they too would leave Him, when the great crowd had left Him after one of His messages, Peter said, “where are we to go Lord? For you have the words of life.”

Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’” If we truly believe that He is the source of life, then we follow Him so that we may eat of that spiritual food and live. To not follow Him would be to wither away from spiritual hunger. We follow Him because we live by His word. His word feeds us, so that we may grow in maturity to be like Him.

But back to the metaphor of light, we follow Him because as Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” We will walk in the light because we walk according to the word. We follow the light of God’s word, step by step, day by day. This is how the Holy Spirit leads us in the paths of righteousness. This is how we do not walk in darkness. First of all we have the light of the Spirit of God to shine in our hearts. And then we have the light of the word to guide us in the truth.

This is the path of sanctification. Like I have said so many times, as you are obedient to the light God has shown you, He will reveal to you more light. You cannot understand truth and be conformed to the truth, by standing still or sitting in a monastery some where. You comprehend the truth by following, obeying the truth, step by step, each flagstone of your journey another truth of God proven and made manifest by your life, by your discipleship.

I wonder sometimes at so called Christians who I have known for 15 years or so, and they don’t seem to have grown at all. They still hold onto weird prophesies or spiritual fantasies that they held to years before. I wonder why they haven’t grown in their faith. And the answer must be because they have not been obedient to the light God has shown them. They have not allowed the word of God to guide them in the truth. You cannot not grow without discipleship.

The last phrase of Jesus’ statement we have already alluded to, but we will look at it briefly in closing; “But will have the Light of life.” First, as I’ve already pointed out, when you believe in Christ and follow Christ, you receive Christ. Christ is the Light. So when we believe in Him then we have the Light of Christ within us. Then we become lights in the world. As the moon reflects the light of the sun, so we reflect the light of Christ. That’s what Isaiah 60 said, “Arise, shine, for your light has come.” We shine because His Light is in us.

But having that Light in us, and then following the Light, also means that we can see clearly. We can have discernment. We have understanding of the word of God. John 16:13 says, ”But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” And in 1John 4:6 we read, “We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” So we do not walk in darkness if in truth the Spirit of Christ lives in us. As we walk in obedience to the truth, He illumines our hearts so that we know the truth and have discernment.

And notice He correlates that the Light is life. “The Light of life.” The word “life” is “zoe” in the Greek. It means animated life, abundant life, the absolute fullness of life. It means eternal life, everlasting life. It doesn’t say you will one day get life, but you will have the Light of life, present tense. Zoe life is a present reality, not just a future one.

Jesus said in John 10:10 “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” I know that a lot of people want to take that statement and run to Macy’s with it. But we should all know that is not the right interpretation of that. What He is promising is abundant life, fruitful life, meaningful life, a blessed life, Those that have been in our Wednesday evening Bible studies know what I am talking about when I speak of the beatific vision. It refers to the ultimate source of blessing, to be in the light of God’s countenance. In that place is fullness of life, for He is the pure source of life, abundant life, even eternal life. And you can have that life now, if you will just receive Him and follow Him.

We sometimes hear someone use the expression, “it was like a light bulb went on” to describe an “a ha” moment. A more sophisticated word is an epiphany, which means a sudden revelation of truth. I wonder if someone here today has perhaps heard the gospel for years, and suddenly today a light has shone upon their hearts. Suddenly they had an epiphany, perhaps like Paul had on the road to Damascus, a realization of who Christ is, and what He came to do, and what our response must be if we are to have the Light of Christ in us.

If that person is you, then I pray that you will accept Him today. As His light has shown in your heart, I trust that the depravity of your heart has been revealed, and you know your need of a Savior, of forgiveness. You can have that forgiveness and know the abundant life that God has provided through Jesus Christ through repentance of your sins and faith in who Christ is. Then simply commit to follow Him, leaving all the darkness of this world behind and simply follow Him, and He will lead you and guide you in the truth.

Let me close with the words of John found in 1John 1:5-7. “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

The subject of sexual impurity of various sorts is at the forefront of evangelical debate these days. For many, the questions surrounding sexuality and immorality are the defining issues of our times. And without a doubt, there are some very serious debates going on in the public arena which may have a great impact on our society, which I would say have already influenced our culture for the worse and will have tremendous negative consequences. So I want to be clear at the outset that what we are going to say today about this particular response of Christ to immorality does not diminish the tragic effect of these issues on our society. God will forgive sin, but that doesn’t mean we disregard or redefine sin. God, not us, has defined sin, and sin has tragic consequences.

As we consider the story before us, I think that it illustrates very clearly that in the eyes of God, all sin is damning. There are not some sins which are more acceptable than others. We cannot climb upon a pedestal and look down at other people who are caught up in some obvious, grievous sin, and then claim some sort of spiritual superiority because our sins are not so obvious, and in our minds, not so terrible as someone else’s.

Paul said in 1Timothy 5:24 “The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after.” The point he is making is that all sin requires judgment, and the wages of sin, he said in Romans 6:23, is death. Though some people’s sins are evident, such as the sin of alcoholism or drug abuse or prostitution, going before them to judgment, yet the sins of others are secret, such as hate or lust, yet whether obvious or secret they will face judgment. Either way, both lead to judgment.

James makes it clear that even if you commit only one sin, it condemns you of all sin. James 2:10 “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” So all are guilty of sin, all of us are under the penalty of sin, and only through faith in Christ can we be saved from our sin.

Now let’s look at this story and see how this is illustrated for us here. There are a few points that I would like to make before we get into the main part of the story though. First, there is a debate in theological circles as to the authenticity of this text, or as to to location of this text in the book of John. I don’t wish to spend a lot of time on that, but only to address the notes that you may have noticed in your translation, indicating that some of the ancient manuscripts do not contain this story. But I would point out that the fact that it is included in practically all translations, indicates that though their may be some uncertainty about the text, yet almost all conservative translators and theologians concur that it should be included in our Bibles as the word of God. I would add that John wrote this gospel around 90AD, and by 100 AD or shortly thereafter, it was referenced by a couple of early church leaders in ancient writings. It has been accepted as part of the gospel since the very beginning. But some manuscripts do not include it, some put it in another place, some leave a blank area where it should be, and one manuscript includes it in Luke’s gospel. But most theologians believe that it is consistent with John’s style of writing, it is consistent with scripture as a whole, and it is consistent in it’s portrayal of Christ with the other gospels. So I believe that it is the inspired word of God and as such we will study it as the Word of God.

Another point not to be overlooked is that in vs.53 of vs.7, it says everyone went to their home, and then in vs.1 of chapter 8, it says that Jesus went to the Mt. of Olives. While He is in Jerusalem, He is living outdoors, perhaps spending most of the time on the Mount of Olives. Jesus said in Matt. 8:20 “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” That’s such a poignant statement, and so much can be inferred through this little note that says Jesus went to the Mount of Olives and spent the night out under the stars. This was a daily part of Christ’s life. The very God Incarnate – while everyone else is at home with family and sleeping in a warm house – the Son of God is alone, sleeping under the stars. I find it ironic that there are some who are teaching that Christians are somehow entitled to the luxurious standard of living that we have here in America. What about Jesus’ statement that said, a servant is not above his master? Yet some teach that if you just have faith and ask for a 4 bedroom house with all the modern amenities, then God will give it to you. But yet God let the King of Kings live in the cold and damp outdoors. You know, I have to admit, if God let me live without a roof over my head I would have to wonder about His providence. But maybe that speaks more to our priorities rather than God’s priorities.

And one final note is it says early in the morning, Jesus went to the temple to teach. A lot of good stuff happens in the Bible early in the morning. This seems to be a favorite time of God to work. I know our early service seems to be a hardship on some people, and I wish I could do something to make it easier on everyone. But I believe if you look at scripture, you will find that God is at work early in the morning in more than a few cases, and if we want to get in on some of those blessings, it may behoove us to seek God early in the morning. But I am not going to get dogmatic and mandate that, of course. I just throw that out there for your consideration.

Alright, so to the story; Jesus is in the temple teaching very early in the morning, and the scribes and Pharisees come barging in, dragging a woman who was caught in adultery and they present her to Jesus. Under Jewish law, adultery was considered a capital offense. Lev. 20:10 says “If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”

Now the interesting thing is that they have only brought the woman. They said they caught her in the act, but yet there is no man brought forth, only the woman. That makes the whole situation suspect. I think it indicates that she was set up, and obviously they are trying to set up Jesus as well. They say to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”

The truth of the matter is that though adultery had a serious penalty attached to it, it was a rare thing in Jewish society to actually condemn someone for it because it was so hard to prove. There had to be at least 2 witnesses to the actual act, not just seeing them go in to a house together or seeing them come out together, but they had to actually catch them in the act. And there is good indication that in most cases it was a law that was not enforced.

So I think it is possible to read between the lines here and suspect that someone had a reason to dispatch of this particular woman. It could be that a man wanted to divorce his wife, and didn’t want to go through all the requirements involved in that, including dividing his money with her and so forth. We don’t know for sure, we can only speculate. But we can say unequivocally that there was something fishy about the proceedings, because there was only the woman caught and not a man. A woman cannot be caught in the very act of adultery alone. That is an impossibility. So the whole thing is a set up.Now that shows the corruptness of the scribes and the Pharisees.

The interesting thing about these scribes and Pharisees is they never seem to catch on that Jesus can read their thoughts. It would be humorous if their hatred was not so vile. I think they would have changed their tactics if they realized that He knew their thoughts. But it’s also indicative of the sinfulness of these men. They have already decided to put Jesus to death. That was established by John in chapter 7:25. He says it was widely known that the Jewish leaders were trying to kill Him. And to do that, they are willing to set up a woman to commit adultery, probably with one of their own leaders, probably having ulterior motives for having her put to death as well, and at the same time they are going to present themselves as being the arbiters of all righteousness. Their hypocrisy and hard heartedness is appalling.

It’s no wonder that when they come bursting in with all of this that Jesus doesn’t answer them at first. He seemingly ignores them, kneels down and starts writing in the dirt. And then they continue to hound Him for an answer, and finally He stands up, says “Let him who is without sin be the first to cast a stone” and then squats down and continues writing on the ground.

Now much speculation has been made concerning what Jesus was writing. There have been numerous suggestions, from the men’s names to various verses of scripture, you name it, it’s been suggested. But the fact is that we don’t know, because John through the Holy Spirit does not think it’s necessary to tell us.

But I have my own theory which I would like to propose to you this morning. Everyone is quick to point out that Jesus is never recorded as having written anything during HIs life on earth. He did not write His own gospel, for instance. And yet John calls Him the Word. But He never wrote a word that we have record of. But what we also know from John is that He was in the beginning with God, and was with God, and was God. So I cannot help but think of two instances, the only two that I can find in the Bible when God wrote something.

The first instance of course was with Moses on Mt. Sinai, when God wrote upon tablets of stone the 10 commandments as recorded for us in Exodus 31:18, which says, “When [God] had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.”

Now what I suggest is that Jesus wrote the 10 commandments on the ground with His finger as the scribes and Pharisees watched and waited. I don’t know, but I imagine that it took a while, and all the while perhaps the Jewish leaders are getting more and more uncomfortable as they read the words of the Law written there upon the temple floor. And as they read the Law, their guiltiness would have been inflaming their conscience, especially as they watch this poor woman who was undoubtedly sobbing and kneeling on the floor there in front of them. I can imagine that even these hard hearted men began to feel guilty.

You know, I find that people who are living in sin, even when they exhibit a particularly rebellious, indignant spirit, end up feeling guilty just by being around me as the pastor of the church sometimes. I make them feel guilty and I haven’t even said a word. And when I start preaching, even it is unrelated to their particular sin, they will find something to get offended at in my message and go off in a huff and not come back. But I can’t help but notice how their guilt becomes almost unbearable just hearing the word of God.

Anyhow, I think the indication is that Jesus left them on tenterhooks for a while, as He writes the Law upon the ground. Knowing of course, that these are people who prided themselves on knowing the law, and so they would know that Duet. 27 said that to be guilty in one aspect of the law was to be guilty of all of it. So I suggest that it’s a good possibility that Jesus was writing the law upon the ground, as the religious rulers were shuffling from one foot to another, and it was convicting them of their sin.

And if my suggestion is correct, as each of the commandments convicted their consciences, they became ever more incensed. After all, the law of adultery is pretty far down on the list, being number 7. And the law against murder was number 6 by the way. So they are fidgeting, Jesus’ silence is deafening, the Law is condemning them, and so they began urging Jesus to give them an answer. So Christ’s answer to them fits the situation perfectly; “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” At that point, their conviction must have been at a breaking point. You know, I get accused sometimes of preaching too much about sin. But in reality I really don’t think that I do. I just preach the Word of God. God has a lot to say about sin, and the Word of God convicts us of sin. The Holy Spirit brings conviction through the Word of God. And as Jesus wrote the Law of God upon the ground, I think it pricked their consciences.

Then it says that Jesus knelt down again and began to write on the ground. Now He could have just continued to write the Law. We don’t know. But as I said earlier, there are two times in the Old Testament that God wrote with His finger. The first was the Law, and the second is found in the book of Daniel. If you remember the story in Daniel 5, Belshazzar the son of Nebuchadnezzar was having a feast. He brought in the utensils from the Jewish Temple and was using them to serve his guests. He was not like his father Nebuchadnezzar who had repented. Belshazzar was a wicked man. And suddenly, in the middle of the feast, a man’s hand appeared and started writing on the wall of the banquet hall.

Daniel 5:24-28 says, “Then the hand was sent from Him and this inscription was written out. Now this is the inscription that was written out: ‘MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.’ This is the interpretation of the message: ‘MENE’–God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. ‘TEKEL’–you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. ‘PERES’–your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”

Now this is just speculation on my part, of course. But I can imagine that Jesus wrote on the ground the second time, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.” These scribes and Pharisees would have instantly recognized this famous line from the story in Daniel. And they would know that Jesus was directing it towards them. God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. This is what Jesus would prophecy later on when He came out of the temple, and said that God would destroy it, leaving not one stone upon another. And then “you have been weighed in the scales and found wanting.” These men who wanted to judge this woman according to the law, in spite of breaking the law in order to do it, these men that wanted to murder Jesus, and as such broke the law concerning murder, these men were guilty, they had been weighed in the scales and found wanting. They were condemned by their own standard.

Romans 2:1 says, “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” Jesus in preaching the Sermon on the Mount said in Matt. 7:1-5, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Well, John tells us that one by one, the Jewish leaders began to go out, beginning with the older ones. We could speculate on the distinction as to the age difference, but I would just say that it was the elders who left first, followed by the younger members. Undoubtedly, they were on the one hand convicted of their own sin, and secondly, I think they were undone by the wisdom of Christ. You see, they had set a trap for Jesus. Either way He answered, they thought that they had Him. If He said she did not deserve to die, then He was guilty of going against the Law of God. If He said she should die, then He was guilty of going against Roman law which forbid the Jews to execute anyone. That is why when they eventually sought to crucify Jesus they took Him to the Roman governor to pronounce death and provide the Roman soldiers to carry it out.

But Jesus brilliantly evaded their trap, and at the same time provided a means of grace for the woman. Note that Jesus does not say that the woman did not deserve death, but says, “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.” None there could say after that soul searching time when Jesus wrote on the ground, that they were without sin. Their sin was staring them right in the face.

I think it’s also evident that the woman was in fact guilty of adultery. She might have been set up, she might have been left to take the fall all by herself, she may have been duped to think that the man had loved her, but she was still guilty of adultery. The woman doesn’t deny it, and more importantly, Jesus doesn’t deny it, and He knew the heart of the woman. And Jesus said He did not come to annul the Law but to fulfill it. So the woman was guilty and deserved death, and Jesus knew that.

But Jesus also said in John 3:17 “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” See, the Law condemns man. That was the purpose of the Law, to bring men to conviction so that they would recognize that they needed a Savior. Galatians 3:24 tells us, “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

Now the Jewish leaders are convicted of their sin, but they are just embarrassed by it, so they leave. There was no repentance. There was no faith in Jesus Christ. If anything, they exhibit by their later actions that they hated Him even more. So they filed out, and they rejected the only one who could save them from their sins.

The woman, on the other hand, has very little to say. Or at least, John records only three words of this woman. Perhaps she was sobbing so hard, there was little else she could say. You know, I can’t help but feel sorry for this woman, and I know Jesus had compassion on her as well. My reason is that this poor woman was doubly hurt. She was upset that she had been caught in adultery and marched into the temple in front of everyone and basically sentenced to death by the Pharisees. But she also must have been crushed to be so deceived and duped by some guy who said that he loved her, but who was only using her. I don’t want to make excuses for the woman’s sin, but I do think that sin does not negate compassion.

People are deceived. That is why they go into sin. They believe the devil’s lie, that it will be good, it’s not so bad, it will be fun, it won’t hurt you, it’s not addicting. It’s all a lie. Sin is a cruel master that hopes to enslave you, and ultimately destroy you. Sin is a lie, and it is from the devil, the father of lies. But Jesus is the truth, and the life, and when you come to know the truth, the truth will set you free. That’s why we need to have compassion on the lost. They are deceived. I know that sometimes it’s hard to be compassionate, sometimes they attack you personally, they hate you because you are destroying their lie, upon which they have built their life, which they have sold their soul to. But our job is to have compassion on them, and snatch them like a brand from the burning, and compel them, convince them of the truth, because they are being destroyed by the lie of Satan. This is the battle we have been called to fight. Not against the sinner, but FOR the sinner. Against the lie, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places. But not against the sinner. We are called to have mercy and compassion and go to them, suffering whatever is necessary in order to bring them the truth.

Now I believe you have to read a little between the lines in this story, and certainly that is the case with this woman. She was left alone with Jesus there in the court of the temple. And Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

First of all, I believe this woman knew that she was a sinner. She had been caught in the act. She had been duped perhaps, but she knew that she was a sinner. That is so important. People must come to understand that they are sinners. And that is possible because the Law reveals what sin is. Don’t misunderstand that. The Law is necessary, or we would not know what sin is. That’s the danger with this whole culture war out there about homosexuality or transgenderism. Go back to Leviticus 20 and read it for yourself. It lists all kinds of sexual sins. They are all there, and it’s the Law of God, the Word of God. And it’s still relevant today. The law teaches us that we need a Savior.

So she was repentant, because she recognized her sin, and she knew it carried the penalty of death. But note that she called Jesus Lord. Some translators have it as “Sir” but in the KJV kyrios is translated as Lord 667 times, lord 54 times, and sir 12 times. I think she was calling Him Lord. It was a title in Jewish culture which was given to God and the Messiah. It means ruler, master, sovereign. I like the first definition listed under kyrios, which is “he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding.” This woman was not only recognizing Jesus as Messiah, but recognizing that He had the power of deciding her fate, because she belonged to Him.

So Jesus forgave her of her sins. He said, “neither do I condemn you.” Now there are a couple of things to notice in that statement. First, is He was the only One there who was innocent of all sin. So He had the right to condemn her of sin, and He had the right to punish her. And yet He says, “neither do I condemn you.” Now how can He say that? Can He just do away with the Law? Can He do away with justice just because He feels like it? Well, no He cannot and be true to HIs nature as God. God is just and holy and the righteous Judge over the earth. And God is also a God of love and compassion and mercy. But how are the two contrasting natures married? The answer is a principle taught in the Law; the principle of the substitution of the innocent for the guilty. This was the principle taught by the system of sacrifice in Levitical law. But in the New Covenant, God does not stop counting sin, God counts sin upon Jesus Christ. He is the innocent One who was slain for the guilty.

Jesus could forgive this woman her sins because He would take her sins upon Himself and die on the cross so that she might be forgiven and have eternal life. 2Co 5:21 says, “[God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Ladies and gentlemen, that is the gospel. God hasn’t stopped counting sin, but for those who believe in Him, trust in Him, surrender to Him, God counts our sin against Jesus, and so He crushed Him, bruised Him, whipped Him, nailed Him to a cross and let Him hang there until He was dead, so that He might transfer our sins to Jesus, and transfer Jesus’ righteousness unto us, so that we might be called sons of God, and be given an inheritance with Christ, sharing in His glory in heaven. What a tremendous thing is this gospel!

Don’t forget the last phrase that Jesus said to her, “Go and sin no more.” We that have been saved are declared righteous in the sight of God, but sin is still sin. Sin still has consequences. Jesus has paid the penalty of our eternal punishment; death. But sin is still sin, and there are consequences to sin. Paul said sin shall not have dominion over you now in your new nature. And we now have the Holy Spirit in us to convict us of sin, to teach us and lead us into righteousness. He has written the Law of God upon our hearts as Paul says in 2 Cor. 3:3, “you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” That is the third time God has written, He has written in our hearts. We have the law of God written upon our hearts so that we might walk according to His will.

If you have trusted in Jesus this morning for the forgiveness of your sins, then go, and sin no more. You are a letter of God written to the world, His law is written in your heart, that you might walk in His statues and keep His commandments, so that the world might know from your life the compassion and love of God and be saved. John said in 1John 2:1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

In this section of scripture, John records for us, at first glance, the highlights of what transpired on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and in that context, a few seemingly disconnected declarations of Christ and various remarks from those in attendance. And though it might be possible to give a running commentary on those disparate statements and try to tie them together into a sermon of sorts, I wanted instead to focus on primarily one statement of Jesus found in vs.37-39, which I believe is the main point of this section of scripture.

In this declaration, Jesus stood up in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Booths and shouted out this statement in a loud voice. Now this was a shocking thing that Jesus did at a very strategic moment. But in order that you might get the full import of what happened, let me tell you a little about the Feast of Tabernacles which will help us to understand the context.

There were three great feasts which were mandatory for every male in the vicinity of Jerusalem to participate in; the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles is described in Leviticus 23. That feast occurred in the 7th month, and began on the 15th day, and lasted 8 days, from Sabbath to Sabbath. In this feast, the Jews were required to make huts or booths or tabernacles from green leaved branches, and to dwell in them during the week, so that they might commemorate the deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt, when they wandered in the wilderness. It was to be a joyous feast, a time of rejoicing.

One of the special ceremonies involved in the feast was on the last day, the priest would go to the Pool of Siloam, and dip a golden pitcher in the water and bring it back through the water gate to the altar. As all the people gathered together, the trumpets would sound, and He then would pour the water into a basin which would run down through pipes to the altar. This was to signify the water which flowed from the rock when the Israelites suffered from thirst in the wilderness.

It was at just this point, when all the people are gathered together, and the trumpets had sounded, and the priest lifted the pitcher of water and the water gushed down upon the altar, that Jesus stood up and shouted in a very loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

Now that certainly was guaranteed to get everyone’s attention, wasn’t it? I can imagine that everyone stopped and turned and stared incredulously at this person shouting out in the middle of this ceremony. So I want to examine this incredible declaration this morning and see what we can learn from it and how we can apply it to our lives. Because, though the context of Christ’s statement was in reference to the Feast of Tabernacles, the truth of His words are just as relevant for us today.

The first phrase that I would make note of this morning is “if anyone is thirsty…” The correlation between the murmuring of the Israelites in the desert when they became thirsty for water and Christ’s invitation at the Feast should be apparent. God led the Israelites into the wilderness, and fed them with manna from heaven in the morning, and quail in the evening. He provided a cloud to guide them by day and a pillar of fire by night. He gave them victory over their enemies, and delivered them from slavery. And yet He allowed them to become thirsty so that they began to cry out.

Why did God allow the Israelites to become thirsty? I would suggest that it was to make them to desire God and to recognize their total dependency upon God. I would remind you that Israel is a picture of the church. And sometimes God allows us to suffer thirst as well. I would go so far as to suggest that if there were not difficult times in our life, then there would be little if any times of spiritual growth. Though the grace of God provides all things for us to enjoy, and gives us life, and breath and health and many such things which we all too often take for granted, yet God allows us to remain thirsty for that which satisfies the soul.

Men and women are continually seeking that which can never satisfy, which can never quench the burning thirst that all men feel in their soul. We may try to satisfy our soul’s thirst with physical things, material things, but nothing on earth can satisfy the longing of our heart. Pascal, the philosopher said there is a God sized hole in our hearts that only He can fill. And Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3:11 identifies that vacuum by saying that God has set eternity in their hearts.

It’s interesting that when Jesus said “out of his innermost being,” or literally, “out of his belly” He used a word in the Greek which is “koilia”, from the root word “koîlos” which means hollow, or cavity. St. Augustine spoke of this very thing, when he said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

And yet still man does not seek for that which satisfies, but seeks to slake his thirst on things which can never satisfy. In Isaiah 55, God says, “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?” The world today is eagerly seeking for something that will fill the void in their life, something that will satisfy the thirsting of their soul, and yet as the old country song says, they are “looking for love in all the wrong places.”

I would suggest that is because mankind does not naturally seek the Lord. Romans 3:10-11 says, “as it is written,’THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD.’” Unless God stirs the heart, unless God brings conviction, unless God brings a person to a place of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, then man will continually seek to fill that void with things that can never satisfy his soul, and if he should die without the water of life in him, then he will be forever spiritually dead.

In Israel’s case, they had known the goodness of the Lord, and as a type of the church, we might say that they were a picture of the saved, believers if you will. But yet they turned back to the worthless and elemental things, they lusted after those things which they had been delivered from in Egypt, and as such God was not pleased with them.

I cannot leave this first question, without asking you this morning – what are you thirsting for? Does your soul thirst for God? Can you say like the author of Psalm 42, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God?” The question, “are you a believer” or “are you a Christian,” is much overstated I am afraid. I think the answer is better evidenced than spoken. And if you are not thirsting for God, for the living God, the living water, if you are not coming to appear before God at every opportunity, whether corporately or privately, then I would suggest that the evidence shows your desire is set on things of earth and not things of heaven.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” If you find yourself in that state of the prodigal son, having grown tired of the husks and pods of the world which cannot fill the need of your soul, then Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” That is the next phrase I would like to think about for a moment. Let him come to Jesus.

Listen, all the thirsting of your soul cannot be slaked in anything, nor in anyone but Christ. He is the Living Water, which as He said to the woman of the well in chapter 4; “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

Coming to Jesus is the same as believing in Jesus. If the sovereign call and conviction of God causes the spirit of man to thirst for righteousness, then coming to Jesus is the response of man. No man can come to God unless the Lord draws him, but yet man must believe. This is the doctrine of both the election of God and the responsibility of man. Both are necessary.

So if you are thirsty, you must come to Christ. The reason that nothing else can satisfy the longing of the soul but Jesus is because He is the source of life; John 1:3, All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. He is the sustainer of life; Hebrews 1:3, “And He is the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” And thirdly, He is the Spirit of Life; Romans 8:2, 9-11 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. … 9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

This is what Jesus had been trying to make clear to the people gathered in the temple that day. He began by saying that He was teaching the word of God in vs.16, that He was sent from God in vs.28, that He knows God because He is from God, in vs.29, and in a little while He is going back to the Father in vs.33. So to come to Christ is to believe in Him, that as John says in chapter 1, He was in the beginning with God, and He was God, and all things were made by Him, and He came into the world, and the world did not receive Him, and after He rose from the dead He ascended back into heaven to sit down at the right hand of God. So in effect, Jesus is restating the same message He gave in Galilee in chapter 6, vs. 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” And that believing in Him is equated to coming to Him. Vs. 37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

This idea of coming to the Messiah as the source of life is found in the Old Testament in Isaiah 55:1 “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” This is the invitation of Christ to all men everywhere and at every time as stated in Matthew 11:28-30 “Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Let me ask you a question this morning – are you tired yet? Are you tired of the rat race, are you tired of searching for peace, are you tired of searching for what might satisfy your soul? Come unto Jesus. Unload your burdens at His feet. Let Him have your sins and your sorrows. Let Him bear your burdens. And He will give you rest. He will give you rest when you finally reach the place where you are ready to surrender fully to Him. Don’t hold anything back. But lay it all down, all your sins, all your striving, all your works, all your life, lay it down at the cross and find that Jesus has paid it all, and provided all that you will ever need. And in Him you will find rest for your soul.

There is one more important element though in Jesus’ invitation. And that is drink. Come to Him and drink. And I suggest that to drink of Christ is to trust Christ. That means to follow Him, to live for Him, to leave all that you have in order to be His disciple. You could realize this morning that you are very thirsty. And I could offer you a glass of water. You could believe that I have a glass of water in my hand. But until you drink of it, you will not be satisfied. Drinking of Christ is the same idea as we saw in the last chapter with eating His flesh. It is appropriating what is true about Christ for yourself and acting upon it. Listen, saving faith is active faith. Abraham believed God so he left Ur of the Chaldees, not knowing where he was going, and he went out to the place God told him to go. Abraham believed in the promise of God that He would produce an offspring from Isaac through whom the world would be blessed, and so he offered his son upon the altar. There is no separation between active trust and faith.

As I have said before, there are three aspects of saving faith; notitia, knowledge; assensus, assent or agreement; and fiducia, trust. And we see all three in this invitation; knowledge that you are thirsty and cannot find satisfaction, assent is coming to Jesus, believing that He is the source of life, and trust, drinking from the fountain of life which is Christ, being willing to submit to His will and renounce your own. That is saving faith. Not just intellectual. Not just knowledge of a few Bible facts. Not just believing that He lived 2000 years ago. But believing that in Him is life. And then entrusting your life to Him, even if that means forsaking all that you hold dear, all that you hold onto for security. Trusting Him and obeying Him.
Then what is the promise for those that know that they are thirsty, come to Jesus and drink of His fountain? The answer is found in vs.38, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this is an interesting statement. Jesus has just likened Himself to a stream of living water which gives eternal life to all who drink of Him. And now He is saying, that to those who believe in Him, they also shall have living water springing up out of their soul. Now how shall we interpret that?

Well, to start with look at the next verse. John gives us some commentary in vs.39 so that we might know what He is speaking of. “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” So we know that the rivers of living water that flow from the believer will be of the Holy Spirit, which at that time was not known because Jesus had not ascended into heaven and sent to the saints His Spirit.

In John 15:26 Jesus tells the disciples prior to His crucifixion, that “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.” And Jesus elaborates on that statement further in the next chapter, John 16:13-14 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

So what Jesus is promising is that for those that believe in Him unto salvation, He will give them the Spirit to live in their soul, so that we might know the words of Christ, that we might do the works of Christ, and so that we might be like Christ. That is the goal of our salvation, is it not? That we might be united with Christ, so that we might do the works of Christ, and that we might be conformed to the image of Christ.

O ladies and gentlemen, do not be deceived by those that misrepresent the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He came to give us life, and without His indwelling presence, we have not life. Romans 8:9, “But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” We cannot be saved unless we are born again by the Spirit. We cannot have life unless the Spirit of Life gives us life. And we cannot do the works of God unless we have the power of Christ that flows from our innermost being.

Listen to the prophecy of Ezekiel 36:24-27 “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

The Spirit of God not only is the agent of regeneration, but He is the agent of activation, whereby we desire to do the works of God. So that we are able to walk in His statues, and keep His ordinances. He is the power filling us and flowing from within us which empowers us to do the will of God. So that we become the channel by which the living water is spread to the world.

The maturity of a believer is marked by becoming a channel by which the gifts of the Spirit are used for the edification of the body of Christ. For the building up of the body. For the water of life that flows from you to those who are thirsty, even to those who are lost.

Listen, the goal of Christianity isn’t so that you are set up for success, and have all your material needs met, and fulfill all your physical goals, so that you are fulfilled and satisfied. No, the goal of maturity in Christ is coming to a place where the gifts of the Spirit are utilized to bring life to the world around you. That you become like Christ, doing the work of Christ. Reaching the lost with the water of life, refreshing the body with the water of Christ which flows through you and out of you. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that you might dam up the water and keep it all to yourself, but so that it might flow from Him to you, through you, to another and so spread to all the world. You are to be a conduit for the flow of the Holy Spirit, not a culdesac.

I’m not going to prolong the sermon this morning expounding the remainder of the text. I believe that it is fairly straightforward and as such is easily understood. But I do want to leave you today with an admonition, to consider what you are thirsty for. What is your soul thirsting for? Is it thirsting for material gain, or for physical fulfillment, are you searching this world over for things that will never truly satisfy? I hope not. I hope that someone here today recognizes perhaps for the first time that they are thirsty for righteousness. They long to be forgiven, to know freedom from the burden that they are carrying. And for that person I say, Come to Jesus. Drink from the living water. He will give you rest. He will satisfy your longing and give life to your soul.

And also a word to the saints, to those who already have claimed to come to know Jesus, and have believed on Him. I would remind you of the Israelites who murmured and complained in the wilderness because they were thirsty. God supplied all their needs, and delivered them from so much, and yet they found themselves thirsty because they turned back in their hearts to the flesh pots of Egypt, and so God brought them to a place of thirst.

My question for you this morning believer; are you thirsting once again for things of the world? Have you lost your first love, and turned back to those elemental things from which you were once delivered? They could never satisfy you then, you think they will satisfy you now? Are you not supposed to be growing in the grace of God so that the living water flows out of you and brings life to others who are thirsting? Has your appetite for the world overshadowed your usefulness as a channel for God? I hope that you will reconsider your appetites. David prayed for the Lord to renew a right spirit within Him. A broken and contrite heart He will not despise. Present your bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice, and He will once again cause your innermost being to flow forth with rivers of living water, that you might be the source of blessing to others, even as Christ is the source of all blessing for you.