The Perfect Fulfillment | Sermon 05/07/2023

John 7:37-52

At the height of the Feast of Tabernacles during a water-drawing ceremony in which the people of God are asking the Creator for blessing, deliverance, and washing, Jesus cries out in front of all the crowds and Jewish leaders of all types and says “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink and those who believe in Me will have rivers of living water flowing from inside him.” He speaks as if He is the direct answer to their prayer. He is the solution. John demonstrates these living waters are the Holy Spirit that Jesus gives the believer after His glorification. Among the crowds of people, a divide was becoming apparent in which some thought that Jesus was possibly the Prophet or the Messiah not realizing that Jesus will indeed fulfill both. They establish the Christ must be a descendant of David and born in Bethlehem; which Jesus meets both requirements.

The temple police that the chief priests sent to pursue Jesus came back and reported their failure to apprehend Him. Their only answer was that no one has ever spoken like this Man before. It was His very words that halted their actions. The Pharisees blame the officers and then the crowd of people saying they are ignorant of the Law and are accursed. Which, ironically, is a correct assessment of themselves. Finally, Nicodemus, the one who came to Jesus in the night for answers on salvation, reminded his colleagues of the law on witness and investigation prior to arrests. In their scorn they mock Nicodemus and lump him in with those of Galilee. They say no prophet arises out of Galilee and they forget Isaiah 9, that the Messiah, the Light who enters the darkness will come forth first from Galilee. Jesus is all at once, either a cornerstone of one’s faith or a rock of stumbling.