We like fairy tales. We tell our children stories where everything works out in the end; the heroes and heroines live happily ever after. An ideal fairy tale is one that you can tell in about 20 minutes at the longest, and that ends neatly; good has prevailed, justice has been done, and little people can go to sleep knowing that all is well. And even though we are grown up, we would like more of life to be like that. It good for us psychologically to achieve what in professional jargon they call closure, where we can put a situation to rest, leave it behind, close the chapter and move on.

To be honest I would really like my sermons to be like that and I suspect I sometimes try to make them so. But the reality is that life is not like that. Life is an ongoing story, which is far longer than 20 minutes. Justice often takes years to come about, and we can be struggling with injustices that are very hard to bear, we wait for very long to see right prevail.

John in his Gospel recognises that he is telling an ongoing story. He begins with the creation, but he ends with Christ’s invitation to Peter and to us all to follow me; it is an ongoing story. But although it is not a complete story, it is a story where there is progress. It is a story that moves forward, where people move forward, where people learn; just as we should all be doing. John makes it clear that he is writing so that people will make progress in believing, in putting their trust in Christ. As we go though the gospel, John shows us people coming to faith.

Here in chapter 7 we see a number of people who are at very different stages on that journey of faith. We will look at these people and the things they say to help us in our journey of faith, but also to help us understand others around us who may be at different stages, who maybe we can help and encourage on their journey.

Chapter 7 is set at the feast of tabernacles in Jerusalem. This took place about 6 months before Jesus was crucified. There were all sorts of people gathered in the city to celebrate and remember the time when the people had lived for 40 years in tents in the wilderness. Although the Jewish leaders already want to kill Jesus, he goes up to Jerusalem and teaches publicly.

The first group of people that we will think about are Jesus brothers. Read v3-5 John tells that they did not believe in him. Now they had heard about and seen the miracles that Jesus did. In a way it would seem that they were encouraging Jesus. ‘Go to Jerusalem where the crowds are, where the publicity is. Do your miracles there to attract support for your cause.’

A lot of people will be attracted to the spectacle of miracles. A miracle worker can pull the crowds today. But its not good enough to be a spectator, ultimately Jesus did not come to draw spectators. He came to draw men and women to the truth. He came to draw men and women to God. He came so that people might believe. His brothers at this stage did not believe, they were still spectators, not engaged with Jesus. We know people like that; people who are sympathetic to the Christian cause. People who will even give encouragement or make helpful suggestions. But they need to come to the point where they believe for themselves. Jesus’ brothers did eventually come to that point. After Jesus death and resurrection in Acts 1 Jesus’ brothers were in the company of believers. One of them whose name was James wrote the letter of James in the New Testament and became leader of the church in Jerusalem. There are folk who are spectators now, but as they continue to watch, if they see the reality of Jesus taught and lived out in his people will discover the truth for themselves, and like Jesus brothers come to believe.

Yet there is a cost to those who come to believe. The world doesn’t hate you if you’re an unbeliever. It’s when we are committed to the truth, as Jesus was that we know what opposition and hatred are. Mel Gibson who has produced the current film that portrays the passion of Christ says that he has never experienced such hostility as he has over this film. James the brother of Jesus was one day to be murdered for his faith. To believe also means to take up your cross.

Then there were those who saw Jesus miracles and heard his teaching and were so convinced that God had sent him and that he was a prophet. But they could not believe that he was the Messiah, because they knew his parents. They knew that the scriptures taught that the Messiah was to be a descendant of David, and come from Bethlehem, and they didn’t think either of these things was true of Jesus.

It is right and proper to ascertain the truth before we draw conclusions and make judgements. We do it in our society today, if you buy a house, you get a solicitor to find out everything about the house. In public life we set up enquiries to ascertain the facts regarding important matters. We have courts to ascertain the truth about cases before a person is found guilty, that is how it should be. There are people who do have real questions about Jesus today, some people do not know all the facts about Jesus, others have the facts wrong, like these folk in verse 42, who just did not know that Jesus was a descendant of David, and that he was born in Bethlehem.

People today can have their facts wrong, some have been taught wrongly in church. Some have learned about Jesus through the Moslem religion where he is only regarded as a prophet. People like this need to know the truth about Jesus, when they do, there is the possibility that they will believe in him for who he is. About eight months after this Feast of Tabernacles, when Jesus had been crucified, had risen, and had ascended back to heaven. The story broke, the disciples proclaimed the truth about Jesus. I suspect that some of these folk who up till then only thought of Jesus as a prophet heard, believed and were among the 3000 that joined the church that day.

Yet not all people make progress in faith. It is not that they stand still; it is that they move in the opposite direction. Read v45-52. When confronted with Jesus, there is always a challenge. He calls people to repent. He calls people to change that can be costly. For some it will mean the loss of prestige, or influence. It can mean facing up to mistakes.

Some are unwilling to do that. It was so with the Pharisees and the chief priests. They were moving in the wrong direction. In rejecting Jesus, they refused to see the truth that was in front of their eyes. Sinful human nature tends to do that when confronted with its failures and mistakes. But it is a downward path. They had seen Jesus heal a man (ch5). But they could only find fault. Their unbelief was now turning to hatred, it would eventually lead to them crucifying Jesus.

When people live their lives in rebellion against Christ, they are on a downward road. There is still the possibility of turning back from that; the gospel is an invitation to do so, but if people harden their hearts, God respects their choice. In the end, we don’t stay still, for everyone, life moves on. How important to move in the right direction.

Finally, there is a progression of God’s love to mankind that John tells us about. John leaves us in no doubt that the gospel is a story of God’s love. It was God’s love for mankind that sent his son into the world. The greatest expression of that love was still to come, Jesus put it in due course like this; ‘Greater love has no man than this, that he lay don his life for his friends.’ The ultimate in God’s love was Christ’s death on the cross.

At the feast of tabernacles, there was a very vital ritual that was carried out every year. In great ceremony, water was drawn from I believe the pool of Siloam, and carried in procession to the Temple where it was poured out symbolically, to represent God’s pouring out of the Holy Spirit.

This was occasion on which Jesus stood up and said ‘If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink.’ John tells us that Jesus was speaking of something that would happen in the future, Jesus was speaking of when the Holy Spirit would be poured our on believers eight months later at the feast of Pentecost. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit was to be a pouring of God’s love into the hearts of believers. Jesus is claiming ‘I am the source of this abundant life that all who believe in me will receive.

But notice there is a progression in this gift of the Spirit. Christ gives the water of life, the Holy Spirit to all believers. But he gives it so that it can be passed on. Out of the believer, living water will flow to others. That is the reality for us, for you and for me. Christ has left us, his body, the church to continue the ongoing story, the ongoing task of speaking his truth and sharing his love. As we remain in fellowship with him and with one-another He will enable us to do that; so that his life, his love, will be passed on to others; that others may see the truth and may come to believe.

Amen.
 

Acknowledgement.

I lay no claim to originality in my sermons. They are an attempt to pass on the gospel message in a contemporary way and depend on the bible as well as others who have studied and written on the passages in question. In preaching from John’s Gospel, I acknowledge my debt to Roy Clements for his book Introducing Jesus and I have also used material from Readings in John’s Gospel by William Temple. PN Jan 04

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