With Dale Ratzlaff
John 7:37-52
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “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.” 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. Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This certainly is the Prophet.” Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him. Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.” The Pharisees then answered them, “You have not also been led astray, have you? No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he? But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed.” Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them) said to them, “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?” They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.”
The feast described here is the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. The Old Testament instructions for this feast are found in Leviticus 23:34-44.
Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, “On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the LORD. On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind. For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work… On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt (Lev. 23:34-43).
The eighth day had the special distinction that it was the last festival day in the entire Jewish church year and was called “the last good day” or “the sacred close of the year” (Lenski, John, p. 587).
Certainly, it was fitting for Jesus to use this “last good day” to make His proclamation. The Greek word translated “cried out” indicates an emotional loud shout. He wanted to dispense His grace.
If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
The offer is for anyone who is thirsty. A sense of need is the only criteria to come and drink. Again, we see Jesus using many metaphors for spiritual reality. “Come” and “drink” are two ways of expressing the same thing. There must be a response to His invitation—acceptance, belief, and trust.
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”
The listening Jews would have had many images of ancient events described or predicted in Scripture. We think of Moses who at God’s command struck the rock, and water came out to quench the thirst of the people and their animals.
“Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel (Ex. 17:6).
The Old Testament prophets looked forward to the day that living water would flow from Jerusalem.
And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter (Zec. 14:8).
For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring and My blessing on your descendants (Isa. 44:3).
The reader of John’s gospel will immediately think of the Samaritan woman who received the living water and left her water pot at Jacob’s well.
The picture Jesus gives is unique. One sip of His water turns into, not a little creek, but many rivers. These, flow from one’s “belly” or innermost being. John tells us how we are to understand these strange metaphors.
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.
Several insights jump out at us. First, anyone who believes was to receive the Holy Spirit. For us, this side of the cross, we can make the point even stronger as Paul did in Romans 8. All true believers receive the Holy Spirit at the time of new birth, and if anyone does not have the Holy Spirit, then they do not belong to Christ. Second, the Holy Spirit is only given via the cross—the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. It was when Peter was proclaiming the gospel of the Risen Christ that the Spirit came down upon the Apostles. Third, we see the fulfillment of Jesus’ words.
From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.
As soon as the Apostles received the Spirit and proclaimed the gospel, rivers of the Spirit went out. Three thousand souls were saved in one day. These, in turn, took the gospel to others, and the word of the cross continued to grow and be multiplied.
The crowd responded to Christ’s proclamation.
“This certainly is the Prophet.” Others were saying, “This is the Christ.”
Doubtless many of the pilgrims attending the feast had either seen or heard of the many miracles Jesus had performed. After Jesus fed the five thousand recorded in John 6, the people concluded Jesus was the Prophet predicted in Deuteronomy.
Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world” (Jn. 6:14).
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him…I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him (Deut. 18:15,19).
Other pilgrims to the feast concluded Jesus was indeed the Messiah. A third group, doubtless the Jews in Jerusalem, rejected the idea that Jesus was the Christ.
Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”
So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him. Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
We are not told why they did not arrest Christ. Elsewhere, when Jesus escaped those who wanted to arrest or kill Him, John records that “His hour had not come”. When the officers sent out to arrest Jesus came back to the chief priests and Pharisees without Him, they answered,
Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.
These officers must have known that they would have received the wrath of the Jewish leaders because they did not arrest Jesus. They could have given some excuse such as the crowd would not have let them, but their reason was that they had listened to the presentation of Jesus, doubtless much longer than John records, and they recognized Jesus was no ordinary man. Their witness should have caused the leaders to give pause to their hatred of Jesus, but it did not. Rather, they implied that the officers had been led astray just as the crowd who, they said, did not know the law and was accursed. What follows shows that the Jewish leaders who were accusing others as not knowing the law, were actually breaking the law themselves.
Nicodemus, who came to see Jesus at night was one of the Pharisees. After that visit where Jesus taught on the new birth, it appears that Nicodemus was still in the valley of decision. It was not until Jesus was “lifted up” that we see him becoming a true follower of Jesus. Nicodemus points out to the other Pharisees that they, themselves, are the law breakers in that they are condemning a man whom they have not interviewed. To this they respond in a way that shows they do not know what they are talking about and imply that Nicodemus is part of the “accursed crowd”.
They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.”
Actually, they were wrong. Jonah came from Galilee.
He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which He spoke through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher [the area of Galilee] (2 Ki. 14:25).
It is thought that both the prophets Nahum and Hosea came from the same area. It seems that the passion of hatred toward Jesus overruled the facts. They could have done more research and found that Jesus was, indeed, born in Bethlehem.
Jesus grew up in Nazareth of Galilee, and Matthew indicates that this was a fulfillment of the prophets.
…and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene” (Mt. 2:23).
This is a somewhat difficult verse in that no Old Testament prophet, let alone prophets, has been shown to support this statement. What then does this mean? We do know that Jesus was often associated with Nazareth in the Gospels.
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (Jn. 1:45).
And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee” (Mt. 21:11).
Even after the resurrection, the followers of Jesus were sometimes known by this city.
For we have found this man a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes (Acts 24:5).
When Jesus spoke to Paul on the Damascus road He used this title for Himself.
And I answered, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said to me, “I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 22:8).
Here is the best answer I could find regarding meaning of Matthew 3:23 listed above.
Matthew counts on the ordinary intelligence of his readers, who will certainly know that the enemies of Jesus branded him the “Nazarene,” that this was the name that marked his Jewish rejection and would continue to do so among Jews. They put into it all the hate and odium possible, extending it, as stated, to his followers. And this is “what was spoken through the prophets.” One and all told how the Jews would despise the Messiah, Ps. 22:6; Isa. 49:7; 53:3; Dan. 9:26: every prophecy of the suffering Messiah, and every reference to those who would hear him, like Deut. 18:18. The Talmud calls Jesus Yeshu Hannotzri (the Nazarene); …It was God who let him grow up in Nazareth and thus furnished the title of reproach to the Jews in fulfillment of all the reproach God had prophesied for the Messiah through the prophets ( Lenski, Matthew, p. 88, 89).
Application
- The fact that God gave Israel these joyous holidays ought to cause us to celebrate the joy of life and liberty. Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Christmas, and Easter are occasions when we can take time to enjoy the blessings God has given us.
- The only prerequisite to the offer of grace is to sense our need, to realize our sin and helplessness, and to desire God.
- Accept the fact that all true believers have the Holy Spirit.
- Jesus blesses all who believe in Him with rivers of the living water of His Spirit.
- We have the promise and opportunity to become a source of blessing to others as we walk in the Spirit.
- As the Jews should have studied to see that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, so we should make sure of our facts in discerning truth and error.
- We should make sure that we do not have the same arrogance and disdain for those we think are less knowledgeable than we are.
- The Jewish leaders felt no need to hear Jesus and thus missed out on the spiritual water of life. Let us often be in the Word gaining insight from its proclamation of grace.
Prayer
Father, I sense my continual need of your grace and mercy. Thank you that I have responded to your call to come and drink of the Spirit. Thank you that Your Spirit lives within me. May I live in such a way that my life and writings will be a proclamation of the good news of the gospel.
In Jesus name.
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