John 7:32-44. “Where I am you cannot come!”

Politicians use various techniques to keep the masses from thinking about certain matters. They will want to prevent leaders from communicating with others as much as they can. The Pharisees were already concerned with what Jesus was teaching about himself. The public were beginning to become interested in what he was saying. Even before Jesus started to teach in the temple during the week-long Feast of Tabernacles, he was becoming the subject of conversation.

“Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, ‘He is a good man.’ Others replied, ‘No, he deceives the people.’” John 7:12

With Jesus now speaking openly the authorities concern would have increased. No wonder the talk was in whispers, they didn’t want the authorities to know what they were thinking. People were wondering,

“When the Christ comes, will he do more miraculous signs than this man?” John 7:31

Others were demanding action by the authorities and were asking what was going to be done.

“The authorities heard the crowd whispering such things about him.” John 7:32

The next phrase is striking. The Sanhedrin was composed of representatives from three separate parties, the Sadducees, who were the political proletariat and who controlled the High Priesthood, the Pharisees who were the orthodox religious party, and finally the elders of the country. The Sadducees and the Pharisees seldom saw eye to eye. Yet on this occasion they acted together; common enemies making strange bedfellows!

“Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.” John 7:32

The temple guards were composed of Levites and were used to police the whole country in those matters that disinterested the Roman authorities. Whilst their commanding officer, ‘the Captain of the Temple’ was waiting for an opportune time to make the arrest, Jesus continues to speak.

“Jesus said, ‘I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me. You will look for me but will not find me; where I am you cannot come.’” John 7:33

In the original Greek this verse begins with ‘Therefore’ which suggests that what Jesus said was in response to the approach of the Temple Guard. Whenever Jesus talked in terms of ‘his departure’ he was talking about his coming death on a cross. For him this was not the end but a return to live in the glory of his heavenly Father. Certainly those who were opposed to him then would never enter the promised land of heaven. This is still true; Jesus repeatedly affirms that the only ticket to heaven can be obtained from him.

We recently went to a funeral. During his eulogy the vicar explained that the deceased had been married in that church, although he had not attended since until that day – his funeral. He went on to explain that he had been a leading light in the golf club and other local societies and that now he had ‘gone to a better place to be welcomed by a loving Saviour.’ But the problem is that that man was known to be opposed to Jesus and what he taught. What a disaster it is if Christ’s ordained representatives teach the opposite of their Lord! In the next chapter Jesus explained what he meant,

“Once more Jesus said to them, ‘I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.’” John 8:21

As usual, when Jesus speaks in parable form, his enemies misunderstand him. Where is Jesus going to disappear off to? Will he become an exile and start to teach Gentiles?

“The Jews said one to another, ‘Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?” John 7:35-36

Perhaps it was the thought that if Jesus was about to flee from Jerusalem then the political problem would solve itself, or possibly it was because of a fear of the crowds; whatever the reason the guard returned without arresting Jesus. However, about six months later, it was the request of some Greeks to Philip saying, ‘Sir, we would like to see Jesus,” that indicated to Jesus that his death was imminent.

Jesus’ invitation

We now come to the climax of Jesus’ talk in the temple,

Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’ John 7:37

Jesus said this in a crowded temple Court of Gentiles on the most important day of the feast of Tabernacles when the Jews remembered the hardships their ancestors had faced as they roamed for 40 years in the wilderness. They had often been hungry and thirsty. But Jesus is clearly talking not of physical thirst but of spiritual thirst. Jesus had used the same idea when talking to the Samaritan woman he met at the well.

“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. ” John 4:14

Part of the celebration of this feast was a daily water ritual. Every day of the feast, the Levites would proceed down to the Pool of Siloam, on the other side of the city. There they would fill a golden flagon with water from the pool. The High Priest would then lead a procession through the city streets back to the temple. As the group approached the Water Gate on the south side of the temple, a Levite on the walls would issue three loud blasts on the Shophar, the ram's horn trumpet used in religious ceremonies.

Once inside the temple, the priests would carry the cup around the altar while the temple choir sang the Hallel (Psalms 113-118). When the choir began to sing the final Psalm, all the men in the crowd waved a branch in one hand and lifted a citrus fruit in the other, symbolizing the harvest. Everyone then shouted, “Give thanks to the Lord” three times, the water was then offered to God along with the regular morning offering of wine.

The invitation to drink was the theme of one of Isaiah’s great prophecies. There God calls people to ‘come to me’. Jesus is clearly picking up on this idea when he also says, ‘Come to me.”

1 ‘Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendour.’

6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

8 ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:1-8

The elaborate water ritual every day of the feast reminded the Israelites how God provided them with water when they wandered in the desert. It was also reminded them of the prophecy of Zechariah who told of a coming ‘fountain of water’ that would purify God’s people from sin.

“On that day a fountain will be opened in the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” Zechariah 13:1

Ezekiel also wrote of a vision he had of the end times, when a river would flow out of the temple and give life to the whole land.

“I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple towards the east . . .Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fall. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them.” Ezekiel 47:1-12

Jesus is appealing to all the people. He is calling God’s people to come and follow him. He is claiming to be the answer to their deepest needs. ‘Are you thirsty? Come and drink. Are you dissatisfied? Come and drink. Are you facing problems in life? Come and drink.’ We all have to make a decision in response to his appeal. There is something about Jesus. He is forthright and he offers to come and answer our deepest needs. We have already seen repeatedly, as we read through John’s gospel, that Jesus saw out greatest need to be our innate rebellion against God and he offers to pay the price for that and, furthermore, to give a power to live a new life. There is something eminently attractive about Jesus. His appeal is both intellectual but also personal.

When a couple are in love and decide to get married, they know some facts about their partner but not everything. They do not know what the future will hold but they do know that, in the present, that they long to live with their girlfriend or boyfriend for life. So it is in our relationship with Jesus.

Jesus continues by saying that not only will his followers be satisfied but so will many others through them.

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” John 7:38

This is again similar to what Jesus said to the woman at the well,

“Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14

So when Jesus stood up at the end of the festival, he is claiming that he can make this ‘water’ available. This water represents not only the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit, but also the power that provides for ultimate cleansing from sin, and to bring a deep satisfaction.

Jesus’ gift - the Holy Spirit

What does Jesus mean when he talks about this ‘living water’ that would flow from his people. Jesus goes on to make this abundantly clear.

“By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not been glorified.” John 7:39

We read about the coming of the Holy Spirit on all his church in Acts 2 but prior to this Jesus spent some time explaining to his disciples what the Holy Spirit would give to his people. This can be found in chapters 14 to 16 of John’s gospel. This picture of flowing water tells us that the Holy Spirit will give us understanding and fulfilment as well as enabling us to be God’s means of helping others. The prophet Joel looked forwards to the day when God’s Spirit would be given to all his people so that they can represent him. Peter quotes this prophecy in his sermon at Pentecost to explain the strange phenomena that people could see and hear.

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” Acts 2:17-18

The word ‘prophesy’ means to speak out God’s message and is similar to our words ‘proclaim’ and ‘preach’. When the Spirit comes, all God’s people will want to pass on God’s message, to proclaim the good news about Jesus. ‘The last days’ is a technical term that refers to the times between the first and second comings of the Lord Jesus. We are therefore living in the ‘last days’ today.

Streams of living water flow out from Christians into others lives. The Ezekiel passage quoted earlier gave the right image — the stream flows down to a great sea and this nourishes life. The Holy Spirit overflows naturally through Christians lives into the lives of others. We help others, not to win praise from them but because it is a natural consequence of Christ being in us.

With this Old Testament background of "living water", we see the Holy Spirit works within us to give understanding, satisfaction, and the capacity to be a blessing.

Jeremiah, speaking for God, also looked forward to the day when God’s Spirit would be given to all his people.

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbour or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 30:34

The following are some of the effects the holy Spirit has in a person’s life. We should be able to go through the list and say ‘Yes’, ‘Yes’, ‘Yes’, I am beginning to see the effect of God’s Holy Spirit in my life.

1. Love for Jesus.

2. Love for God’s word.

3. Love for Christ’s people.

4. Longing for righteousness in me.

5. Longing to pray and involve the Lord in everything.

6. Longing to tell others about the gospel, to evangelise.

7. Longing for heaven.

A decision is needed

Whenever the claims of Jesus are presented people will make one of three decisions about him. Some will recognise him as being very special, a prophet of God. It falls short of what Jesus wants them to know but is a start. Others are convinced that he is God’s chosen King who will lead his people into eternity, that he is the Christ, and others will come up with excuses as to why they should not accept him. They did this in Jesus’ day and they do the same today.

“On hearing his words, some of the people said, ‘Surely this man is the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘he is the Christ.’ Still others asked, ‘How can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say that the Christ will come from David’s family and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived. Thus the people were divided amongst themselves.”

It is concerning that their excuses are invalid - they are not true. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and was a direct descendant of King David. They could have asked if they had really wanted to know. Our motivation too often influences how and whether investigate honestly. But then God knows our hearts and motives and it is to him that we will all have to give an account.

BVP