Sermon Notes
John 7
The Feast of Tabernacles
PASSING OF THE PEACE
Question: What is your favorite feast/festival/holiday/etc.?
PURPOSE OF LIFE: Relationships
OLD WINESKINS: Relying on past relationships to get us through the present.
INTRO TO SCRIPTURE
The scene is TABERNACLES (v 2) (despite the danger, religious obligation)
This was one of the three feasts/festivals where God decreed that all males would appear before God at the Temple (Ex 23:14-17). (Passover: Grain Harvest; Pentecost: end of Grain Harvest; and Tabernacles: Tree & Vine Harvest) (Autumn: SEP/OCT, near equinox; the decline of light - CEREMONIES OF LIGHT - JOHN 8:12)
It was a very popular feast.
People built “tabernacles” (booths/tents/temporary dwellings) to symbolize their trek through the wilderness out of bondage to freedom on the way to the Promised Land (US: we dwell in temporary dwellings)
It was during the DROUGHT SEASON (low water)(hills brown): water festivals
Many animals were sacrificed
SCRIPTURE: Numbers 29:12
12 " 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Celebrate a festival to the LORD for seven days. 13 Present an offering made by fire as an aroma pleasing to the LORD, a burnt offering of thirteen young bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. 14 With each of the thirteen bulls prepare a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; with each of the two rams, two-tenths; 15 and with each of the fourteen lambs, one-tenth. 16 Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
NOTICE: More animals sacrificed at the beginning and it lessens with each day until the 8th day.
It was a time of joy because sins were forgiven.
Question: Is this feast a sign? New Wine?
INTRO TO SCRIPTURE:
John 5 - Jesus broke the (Sabbath) law when he healed a paralytic on the Sabbath. The religious clergy wanted him arrested.
John 6 - Passover (John 7, six months later)
SCRIPTURE: John 7: 12 - 20
12Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man."
Others replied, "No, he deceives the people."
NOTE: Debate
13But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews.
Jesus Teaches at the Feast
JESUS BEING QUESTIONED ABOUT HIS IDENTITY
14Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15The Jews were amazed and asked, "How did this man get such learning without having studied?"
16Jesus answered, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. (John 3:16) 17If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"
20"You are demon-possessed," the crowd answered. "Who is trying to kill you?"
SCRIPTURE: John 7: 21 - 24
21Jesus said to them, "I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. 22Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. 23Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? 24Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment."
POINT: It is okay to heal a part of the man; but not the complete man?
SUMMARY OF THE ANSWERS OF JESUS
- School - Heaven (7:15) (educational requirements not met)
- From - Heaven (7:25 - 27)
- Going - Heaven (7:35)
NOTE: Part of the celebration of Tabernacles was a daily water ceremony in which a procession of priests descend to the south border of the city to the Gihon Spring. There a priest filled a golden pitcher as a choir chanted Isaiah 12:3: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” The water was then carried back up the hill to the “Water Gate,” followed by crowds carrying in their right hand (tree branches reminiscent of the desert booths) and in their left hand citrus branches reminiscent of the harvest. The crowd would shake these and sing Psalms 113 - 118. When the procession arrived at the temple, the priest would climb the altar steps and pour the water onto the altar while the crowd circled him and continued singing. On the seventh day of the festival, this procession took place seven times. In some ways, this was their version of a rain dance. It was seen as a reminder how God brought water from a rock (Num 20:8) On the final day of celebration, Jesus proclaimed:
SCRIPTURE: John 7: 37 - 39
37On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
38Whoever believes in me, as[a] the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 39By 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 yet been glorified.
POINT: Jesus is announcing himself as the replacement for the temple, again (John 2); while at the same time, He is the permanent tabernacle.
TODAY: Jesus is on trial as he was in John 7. Jesus divides the audience.
BOTTOMLINE: We must choose which side we are on.
UNFORTUNATELY: The religious can stand in opposition to the new wine of Jesus.
When God moves, do not stand in opposition, but we do because we are encased in old wineskins.
SCRIPTURE: Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sacrifice was intended that an innocent animal would die in the place of the sinner. The reality was that the sacrifice was not intended to be efficient, but to be a sign of a future sacrifice that would be efficient.
SCRIPTURE: Ezekiel 18:20
The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.
SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 10 (remember Leviticus)
1The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
6with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
7Then I said, 'Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, O God.' "[a] 8First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). 9Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. 13Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, 14because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
15The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
16"This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds."[b] 17Then he adds:
"Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more."[c] 18And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. 19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"[d] and again, "The Lord will judge his people."[e] 31It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. 33Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
35So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37For in just a very little while,
"He who is coming will come and will not delay.
38But my righteous one[f] will live by faith.
And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him."[g] 39But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
POINT: Jesus is the new Tabernacles (new wineskins)
Jesus is the sacrifice (Numbers )
Jesus the perfect sacrifice that only needs to be sacrificed once (Hebrews)
Every time we celebrate Holy Communion, we remember Jesus is the sacrifice
SCRIPTURE: I PETER 1:18
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers.
THE POINT:
SCRIPTURE: Proverbs 8: 35
For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD.
CLOSING
TABERNACLES is about residing in temporary dwellings
It’s a celebration of the people on their way to the Promised Land
TODAY
We are a people on our way to the Promised Land
We are not perfect, but we’re on our way
We are not 100% spiritual beings, but we’re on our way
We have difficulties in our relationships, but we’re on our way to the promised Land
We have difficulties in choosing the right over the wrong, but we’re on our way to the Promised Land.
