Sunday Sermon
sunday morning 8th June 2008 john7v37
Intro: “on the last and greatest day of the feast”
The feast was all about Gods salvation / provision. Feast of Tabernacles.
Celebrated after the harvest was gathered in. Also booths / tents were lived in to remember the Exodus and all the provision / salvation of those days. As the community gather together to celebrate Gods continuing provision through the harvest and to remember his salvation of old Jesus Proclaims the next great stage in Gods plan of salvation!
Salvation is the great them of these verse. Jesus offered salvation to the people in Jerusalem on that great day and still today the offer is on the table.
V37 is a great verse of salvation; it contains all that we need to know to be saved.
1) First of all we ask: who is salvation for?
Jesus stood up so that all would see him, and he shouted so that all would here him.
The invitation is not for a select or secret few!
Jesus did not want to start a private society.
Specific context: All kinds of people would have heard Jesus on that occasion.
He picked one of the three main feasts to make the invitation at.
He picked the high point of that particular feast to make his invitation.
To this feast all the Israelite males were supposed to attend!
There was no discrimination involved in this invite!
Today who is salvation for?
“if anyone is thirsty”
Two words stand out for us here - “anyone” and “thirsty” - that together make up the candidates for salvation.
Salvation is for the people who know they need God in their lives - “thirsty” people!
Thirst is the bodies response to lack of water. Your dry and need a drink!
What is your life like today?
Are you dry, do you have a longing for something more to life?
Salvation is for those who know they need it - they are thirsty!
App:
Listen to your life and see if it is telling you that it is thirsty and in need of salvation.
Often we can fill our lives with so much stuff that our need for God is anaesthetized! We keep ourselves busy or give ourselves constant entertainment or noise so that we can’t here just how dry we are deep down inside!
Salvation may never come to you unless you know your need and your thirst.
2) what are we to do for salvation?
For you who recognise your thirst what can you do? “come to me and drink”
Jesus says come to me! That is the invitation.
If you know your need, Jesus says come to me!
Jesus is saying try me out, see if I work - that is what it is to drink.
The thirsty person does not just go to the water and look at it, she drinks it down.
Jesus says come and try me! Don’t stand at a distance, don’t speculate, come and try!
Jesus is almost saying “put me to the test”! He is challenging you!
In the original context the people were celebrating God’s salvation of old but they were also expecting God to work again in salvation.
Into that situation Jesus say, try me! I am what you are waiting for!
App
The important practical point for us today is salvation does not just magically happen to you. You can’t sit around waiting for some bolt from the blue!
Jesus has proclaimed the invitation and now you have to go and test him out on it!
See if He can satisfy your longings. See if he can bring you peace with God.
Test him out, try Him! “come to me and drink”
Note the personal aspect of salvation.
We go to Jesus the Person. Not to an ideology, not to a denomination, not even to a great book of theology!
Salvation is all about Jesus Christ, the Person.
Salvation is a relationship with Jesus.
That is drinking from Jesus - it is having a relationship with Him. “Come to Me”
3) what will be the effects of salvation. V38-39
Jesus describes the effect as “streams of living water will flow from within him.”
In dry regions water was all important. Wars have been fought over water!
Thus, a stream of living water was a picture of sheer luxury and divine blessing.
So Jesus is saying that in coming to him for salvation the benefit will be magnificent!
Like an internal stream of water that brings life and satisfaction!
What a beautiful picture! Salvation is life and satisfaction!
No dryness, no drought, no barrenness!
Thankfully we are not left in the dark as to the meaning behind the picture!
V38 tells us that what this picture represents is the internal presence of God in the believer by the Holy Spirit!!
Jesus has much more to say about this as he continues to teach the disciples.
For now what we can take from it is this:
Salvation is a magnificent blessing - unimaginable if it had not been revealed to us in the bible.
That we should be given life with God!
Satisfaction to our deepest needs
Relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
This verse summarises the magnificent blessing that salvation is:
Isaiah 58:11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
A living relationship (the Lord will guide you always)
Satisfaction (satisfy your needs……)
Unending life (a spring whose waters never fail)!!
sunday evening 8th June 2008
John 8v31-32
What is the great thrust of this particular statement of Jesus?
Jesus is telling those who believe, what the secret to discipleship is:
The secret is, “me,nw meno” remaining in, abiding in, staying with, living with, the Teaching of Jesus / the Word of Jesus !!!!
That is the secret to being a good pupil of Christ.
At the end of the day the hard work of discipleship is all about staying with Jesus through His teaching.
Nothing fancy, no razzmatazz, no great moments of eureka - just “me,nw meno”
What is it to “me,nw meno” “hold to” / remain in / continue / abide - the teaching of Jesus?
John 1 has lots of references to staying with:
The Spirit came down and remained on Jesus - stayed with Jesus, v32-33
The Spirit never left Jesus, He stayed with Him!
Staying with the teaching, is holding to it / remaining. Never leaving Him.
There can be no days off.
Andrew asked where Jesus was living and then spent the day with Him v38-39
Living with the teaching is abiding in it.
A disciple wants to know about Jesus but also wants to live with Him.
Similarly the Samaritans urged Jesus to stay with them: 4v40
Living with Jesus is abiding in his Word.
So that is “me,nw meno”. Living with Jesus and His teaching, never giving up, always holding on!
And that is the great secret of discipleship!
What then are the great consequences of remaining in Jesus?
1) assurance
Jesus says to those who believe already: if you keep on going / remaining in, then you are really a disciple!
The word is “truly” a disciple.
A true disciple takes all that Jesus has to say and sticks with it!
We cannot be true disciples if we take the teaching of Jesus in a pick and mix kind of fashion. Really, when it comes to discipleship, it is all of Jesus or nothing!
In v33 these disciples go on to argue with his further teaching! Are they really disciples?
For us, if we want assurance of our discipleship, ask yourself - do I really keep to all of the teaching of Jesus?
And this is a very practical matter. Because our acceptance or rejection of the Word boils down to obedience!
We truly are disciples and will have great assurance if we are obedient! That is another way of saying if we remain in him “me,nw meno”
2) growth in knowledge of the truth
Another consequence of remaining in Jesus is “you will know the truth”.
This does not mean you become and overnight theological genius!
What it does mean is that as you stick with Jesus he will lead you on in the faith,
thus, you will grow in knowledge, you will come to know more fully!
This speaks moreover of the Shepherding of the Lord.
He is the one who leads and guides us.
Not just into theological truth, which is most glorious,
but also in practical day to day matters.
To enjoy this great benefit what you have to do is “me,nw meno”
How many of us suffer from a lack of knowledge?
All of us!
Thus we pay hundreds of pounds to get our cars fixed by others etc.
Thousands of pounds to get houses built by others etc.
When we are sick we go to the GP because we don’t have the knowledge etc.
We all suffer in one way or another because of lack of knowledge!
In the life of faith many of our problems come because we do not understand!
Much of our practice is sinful because we do not understand!
So what a tremendous gift that Jesus has given to us by telling us the secret to getting the knowledge that will alleviate much of our suffering and bring us into freedom as we will see.
The secret? Remaining in Him & and He will lead us into the truth.
3) resulting in greater freedom because of growth in the truth.
The ultimate outcome of all this is total freedom! The truth will set us free.
If we remain in Christ, determinedly, never giving up, we will be emancipated.
What is freedom?
Freedom is doing what we want, whenever we want, wherever we want, and with whoever we want.
Freedom is the opposite of slavery.
When we are dictated to by others, or by our own out of control desires!
Gods aim for us as disciples is to set us free! Totally free to do whatever we want!
The whole reason why Jesus came and lived and died and rose again was to set us free!
To let us loose as individuals in the world to do whatever we want to do!
No rules, no regulations, just complete pure freedom!
No limitations, no conditions - “the truth will set you free”.
The secret to that total freedom? “me,nw meno”
Conclusion:
Abiding in the Word, in Christ, brings Assurance, knowledge and freedom.
So that challenges us to go for it, to abide in Him.
We have the responsibility to abide - Jesus said “if” you remain in my word.
This is not a forgone conclusion! Will you abide then ?
