[0:00] Hi, my name is Bo, good morning. I'm one of the elders that's bringing you this morning the Word of God. The man for thirsty people from John chapter 7 we just read.
[0:14] Last week, David told us about this Feast of the Boots, or Festival of the Boots, so the people were staying in the tents. And it's supposed to be a time of rejoicing and celebration.
[0:28] So we'll come to the concluding part of this festival, and we'll see what's happening. Let's pray first before we go on.
[0:43] Almighty God, we admit that we would not be thirsty for the Lord Jesus Christ if you do not draw us to Him. And we ask that this morning you might do so.
[0:56] Lord, have mercy on us that we might understand such a great promise and privilege that we have in Christ.
[1:08] May you help us in understanding your Word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so for this scripture today, we are coming to one of the most stunning claims and promises in history.
[1:28] And Jesus was claiming to be the man for thirsty people. We shall consider the immediate context, and then the wider context, the nature of the claim, and the responses of people as we go on.
[1:43] So to start with, I would like to show you a video clipping of the festival of the Boots during the time for the water libation.
[1:56] That is the climax of each day. So every day, every morning, the priest will go and draw water and then bring it to the temple and pour to a cup.
[2:10] So to appreciate what's happening, we can just watch this for about five minutes. All right. This is the first reenactment of this water libation in 2014, so after many years.
[2:30] So they are drawing this water from this Shiloh spring. While they are in the desert, thirst is a very real problem.
[2:52] They were quite afraid of dying of thirst. And they are so angry with Moses that they wanted to kill him for bringing them to the desert. But God make a rock crack and water flow out from the rock.
[3:05] And that's how they sustain their life. And so during this feast of the Boots while they are staying in the tents, so the water is a very great simple for God's provision.
[3:37] You can sense the joy, the atmosphere of joy and celebration.
[4:01] the choir to the twelve to the nine-year- jede kirby. She running out of bed space now.
[4:19] Go into the next show. There must be so good when it comes to the water warm up to fill out a couple of lenses. And, please see, I'm planning on the side of the Gender...
[4:30] I'm not sure why this become nighttime. I don't think it will go on for the whole until the night, but somehow it just became nighttime. So they're coming to the place where the altar was, and the square in the middle representing the altar.
[4:49] And every day they would take the water and circulate the altar for one round. On the seventh day, they would circulate it for seven rounds.
[5:01] And when they walk around, they would recite Psalm 113 to 118. . . . . .
[5:38] . . . So one of the priest is holding water, the other one is a bottle of wine.
[6:15] You can see the copper will flow. Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.
[7:03] Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.
[7:15] Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.
[7:30] I hope this video clip helped us to appreciate the atmosphere of the festival which is much bigger than this of course during the real time and then we can imagine after the pouring of the water and the wine Jesus stood up on the platform and proclaimed if anyone thirst let him come to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water it's just like just now when Don stood up spoke the same verse how did we feel I mean if somebody during our service stood up speaking programming like that how would we respond to such an interruption or surprise and so in today's reading we see people have different had different responses some believe in him in some way some thought that he was mad mad and ignore him some thought that he was bad and wanted to arrest him however we were told that even the officers who were sent by the priests and Pharisees to arrest Jesus did not lay hand on him they said they did not arrest Jesus because they have never ever heard someone spoke like him so that gives us an impression in terms of when Jesus spoke such a promise a claim that his appearance was such a way that people who hear him who really could hear him would know that he was proclaiming the truth he wasn't mad or bad so let us consider the context in terms of what this water libation mean so to those people who are celebrating the water would mean that it's
[9:50] God's provision so water is something that we can't produce we all depend on God for that and so it's a sign of rejoicing and thanksgiving to God for such a gift of life to them wine I suppose to them is to represent the thankfulness as well to God because through water they can have grapes and through grapes they can have wine and so they want to offer that to God as a thanksgiving in the context and possibly also asking God for more blessing for the year to come so the first meaning is what men offer to God in thanksgiving and supplication the second meaning is what God gives to men in mercy and grace for those people who knew the Old Testament well they might remember Zechariah 12.10
[10:52] Zechariah is a book talking about the Feast of Booths the most in the Old Testament in Zechariah 12.10 he says and I will pour out on the house of David and the independence of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and peace for mercy so that when they look on me on him home they have peace they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son or only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn so those people who knew the Old Testament well they will be waiting for the fulfillment of this prophecy that one day God will do something great in their midst again so they don't understand how this is going to be fulfilled they were waiting for the day when God would change their heart and so restoring
[11:52] God's kingdom in that way so they were waiting for the spirit of grace and the spirit of peace for mercy so in here the water can represent the spirit of grace that's God's grace coming down from heaven and the wine could represent the spirit of peace for mercy so by God's grace we can look to the one we have peace and ask for mercy and so the second meaning is what God gives to man then in our reading today Jesus seemed to be applying the symbols to himself he's saying that I am the first meaning and also the second meaning I am the temple the altar and the rock from which they got the water so he's both the offering to God and also
[12:54] God's gift to man so that's why we read from in John chapter 19 John wrote in from verse 33 to 35 he said but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead they did not break his legs but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and at once there came out water blood and water and he who saw it has borne weakness his testimony is true and he knows that he is telling the truth that you also may believe so here John is testifying that Jesus was the one whom they had pierced and from him flowed the water and the wine libation water and blood so we know that from him flowed the spirit of grace and the spirit of peace for mercy so from him we have a double cure for our sins first the guilt of sin has been cleansed by his blood and the power of sin has been washed away by the water make us pure so that we do not need to sin again and that's what
[14:13] Jesus was telling people come to me so the nature of the claim is that Jesus did not say to a group of people who were downcast or depressed he was talking to a group of people who were rejoicing and who had plenty of water and wine to drink so what would these people be thirsty for so among those people who are dancing and singing and what did Jesus mean when he said if anyone thirst so in their context when Jesus was proclaiming I suppose there would be people who were thirsty for the coming of kingdom of God or at least wanting this celebration to continue on forever not just for eight days because it's the last day they would need to go back to their routines again the next day though there's such a thirst for it and what so that is the thirst that wanting
[15:17] God's kingdom to come through and wanting our life to be happy there are other thirsts as well so that we might be thirsty for better relationship with our friends or spouse or family maybe thirsty for a better job thirsty for a holiday or people can be thirsty for pornography alcohol gambling we can have all sorts of thirsts so we can roughly divide thirsts into four categories sometimes we do thirsts for something great like world peace or God's kingdom to be coming God's righteousness be done sometimes we thirst for the sake of somebody else we want someone else to improve in their life become a better person a holier person sometimes we thirst for ourselves that we can be pure holier but many times we we thirst to have more comfort and happiness and we want to have an easier life and these are all the different categories of thirst does it matter what thirst we have can we just come to
[16:41] Jesus and have those thirsts fulfilled I think it really doesn't matter because the result is the same because Jesus said whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water Jesus did not promise that your particular thirst will be satisfied in the way you hope for so if you thirst for alcohol you won't be given more alcohol or even if you thirst for a job you may not be given a job but he said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water our thirst will always be too small too little too shallow and Jesus wanted to give us much more than what we thirst for and he wants to change our life by giving us the Holy Spirit when the Holy Spirit comes to you you will not care about your thirst anymore most of the thirst at least you might care to be thirsty for a holier person but it's not the day to day sort of thirst so we wouldn't care so much about our own thirst but from our heart we will fill this living water that means we will care more about what other people thirst for because we have this living water flowing up from us we would want to help others who are thirsty but how do we come to
[18:08] Jesus so first we must admit that as you said we are thirsty if anyone thirsts if you do not have any thirst then we will not need to come to Jesus if we do have thirst Jesus invites us to come to him and believe in him and then how do we believe in him and we need to be a bit careful here last week from the first half of John 7 David told us that it's possible for us to believe Jesus in our own terms I think we all do this to some extent as we first came to Jesus however as we grow in the knowledge of Jesus I hope that we would learn to believe in Jesus in his terms not our own terms not our own ideas so the gospels such as this gospel of John and other gospels were written so that we can believe Jesus as he claims he should be that is he is the Christ the son of God so when we read the bible we attend bible study listen to sermons hopefully then we really can come to know
[19:12] Jesus and believe in him as he claimed himself to be so what are the responses to this to the claim some of the believers thought that Jesus was the prophet some thought he was the Christ these people unlike us did not have the new testament for them to understand what Jesus said about himself however they did have Jesus there with them so they could have asked Jesus when they were in doubt I hope that you do not have just a vague idea about Jesus and think you know and think that you know who he is I hope that you will take the trouble to study what Jesus says about himself some of the listeners did not believe in Jesus they had a problem with Jesus origin they were in a way correct in asking that Jesus be the descendant of David and coming from David's city the king and savior they were waiting for was supposed to be a descendant of King David and there was when we read the book of
[20:17] Romans Paul started the book of Romans by saying that he was proclaiming the gospel and the gospel was concerning Jesus who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the son of God according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection so Paul took pain to point out that Jesus was a descendant of King David but those listeners back there they were too sure about the judgment of Jesus they did not bother to find out if Jesus was born in Bethlehem they could have if they wanted to the Pharisees who knew the scriptures well were even more biased in the judgment they assumed those who believed in Jesus were the cursed one thinking that they were being deceived by Jesus so while the officers they said no one ever spoke like Jesus the Pharisees said no one who had any learning would believe in
[21:21] Jesus no sooner had they said that who stood up to speak for Jesus Nicodemus Nicodemus was one of the Pharisees he was a well learned man he was also one of the authorities he challenged them and said that if they were they know their law so well why didn't they follow the law in letting giving Jesus a fair hearing to see what Jesus had to say about himself and understand what Jesus was saying instead of judging Jesus without even giving Jesus a trial so they they could not answer Nicodemus question what did they do they belittled Nicodemus to make his question insignificant and that's what we can all do we even make fun of the name of Jesus Christ so that to make his claim to be insignificant and they said they asked
[22:26] Nicodemus are you from Galilee too no winner ever comes from Galilee they are ignorant and simple people how can Jesus who grew up in Galilee be anyone significant no prophet ever came from Galilee after all the Pharisees did not know their scriptures as well as they thought they did at least we know that Jonah came from Galilee Elijah and Nahum may have come from Galilee as well and also in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 1 to 2 it says but there will be no gloom from her who was in anguish in the former time he brought into contempt the land of Jebulun and the land of Lahtali Jebulun and Lahtali they are land in Galilee but in the later time he has made glorious the way of the sea the land beyond Jordan Galilee of the nations the people who walk in darkness have seen a great light those who dwell in the land of deep darkness on them have light shone so 600 years ago before Jesus was born
[23:39] Isaiah said that there will be a light in Galilee and yeah the Pharisees somehow just ignore that because they had a theology of glory the Pharisees of the theology of glory they were impressed by titles status and achievements they thought that the Christ would come as a powerful person and they could not see how someone from the outback without any education and status could be the Christ and we can have the similar theology of glory as well we both seen being the best church or the church with the best something and that is the theology of glory but Jesus has had the theology of the cross Jesus knew that the problem with man is that everyone wants to speak his own glory Jesus did not seek his own glory he lived for the glory of God and for the good of others so Jesus who knew no thirst became one who had thirst so that he could be the water and wine libation to satisfy our thirst if anyone thirst let him come to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water so how would you respond to this claim of Jesus most of us are proud of the fact that we are scientific minded and it would be most unscientific if we dismiss this claim before giving
[25:14] Jesus a fair hearing and read through what he said and think through what he said and all of us have some thirst have you found any other way that would satisfy your thirst I see many people patients who are on painkillers for some sort of chronic pain some of them wanting more and more painkillers to deal with the same pain these people usually focus their whole life on themselves and their comfort and I see that patients who have more important things to live for other than themselves they are not troubled so much by pain or chronic pain you see that the answer to our thirst is not more of something it's more of moving from self centredness to Christ centredness Jesus knew that that's why he promised the Holy Spirit for the change of our hearts it's difficult
[26:21] I know for us to come to Jesus with all the things that we have experienced in life we thirsty for for something else more than Jesus Christ because we don't know the satisfaction he could give to us today I'm pretty disappointed that my sister and the family who came to visit us they come to church with us because they wanted to sleep in if I told them at 10 o'clock I will bring them to see kangaroos I'm sure they will make their effort to get up and see kangaroos they I mean at home they do go to church but kangaroos is more satisfying than being with God's people worshipping God I wanted to bring them to see my church family and to get to know people here and worship together and last night also we heard of the news that
[27:35] Rita's mother passed away if you know four months ago Rita is one of the students the mom came to visit her from Hong Kong so four months ago she actually came to church and Rita told us that the mom couldn't swallow well and couldn't speak very well suddenly so we brought her to the hospital and scanned sure that she got metastatic cancer in the brain and so she needed to go back to Hong Kong straight away so that evening I took her and her daughter and with Leigh to the chemist to buy some medication that would control their symptoms while Leigh and Rita were in the shop I sat with her in the car park I had the urge to tell her that she had just three months to live if she did nothing for the cancer if she would go for treatment she might have six months
[28:42] I don't usually tell people how long they would live and I don't think I would know and even after telling her I felt quite bad because God could have miracle as well I mean people can recover from cancer but why did I tell her because I want to show her that she had not much time she should go home and cancel I mean just repeat the semester just spend some time with her but when she went back to Hong Kong she went to see a Chinese doctor and the Chinese doctor said no problem I could cure you and so she thought that she could be cured she didn't even seek Western medicine help so after a couple of months with Chinese medicine her condition got quite bad initially she got better because she was on steroids definitely she would feel better and so she delayed her help from the
[29:50] Western doctors and so Rita just went back about two weeks ago and she was already quite sick and yes so she I thought she missed the most precious time in life it's so easy to believe in someone to say oh I could kill you I just find hard people would believe these sort of lies without finding the fact but not coming to Jesus what Jesus says fake promise and you can look through history and see whoever really came to Jesus was thirsty again we can find out not only from his word from the last 2000 years of history so
[30:50] I hope that we will not waste our time on all the insignificant things in life and lots more life that we can live when we have the Holy Spirit in Christ let us pray Father God we thank you for being our shepherd because we are in Christ that we will lack laughing you anoint our heads with oil our cup overflows oh Father may you help us to be overflowing that we may taste your goodness thank you Father we pray in Jesus name Amen com I we gatherindustries%.