Paul
Better Is One Day
You'll Come
Don’t get bored with the story of this holy week, be amazed, in awe
How Great Is Your Love
Jesus Lord Of Heaven
Your Love Never Fails
Stephen Keating
Support Mercy’s Village by going to Chili’s this Wednesday
Mike Workman is forming actuating groups for men
Jon
Looking at John 4 tonight
A wise man once told me, don’t focus on a couple of trees in the Scripture, look at the whole forest
Look at His entire redemptive story
Sometimes God is predictable and sometimes not
Holy Wind – Ruach HaKodesh
Don’t know where He’s going to be
Earth would shake
Also described as a consuming fire
All these elements
Living water
Jesus often referred to Himself as this
God shows up to Elijah on the mountain not as any of these elements but as a gentle whisper
Revealing Himself in all these different ways
I want us to be a community relentless in our pursuit of God
Maybe He’ll do the same things now that he did in the 1800s
Type A’s can say – oh good, structure
Sensory people with all these symbols
Jesus often talked about the living water and bring the bread
God as Spirit and God as truth
Take us through some of these structures
Combination of abstract and concrete
1st image: God’s House
To the Jew, God’s Temple
If you wanted to experience forgiveness, His presence
In Jesus’s day, the temple was located in Jerusalem
2nd image: living water
Rain water, pure, undefiled, direct from Heaven
Spring water
Maim chaim overcomes all defilement
You needed to be cleansed before being in His presence
24 ritual baths called mikvah’s
Had to cleanse yourself before entering into the presence of God
The Shama – prayer
Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind
God I’m completed devoted to You and Your service
No lake water, just living water
Some people say, I can get my head and heart around this structure
When Jesus turned 30 he became a rabbi
Learned about the Torah, went through the training
Gathered disciples
John 4:7-15
Imagine this spring of living water overflowing inside of you
V. 26 He reveals Himself as the Messiah
Here’s this rabbi offering a Samaritan woman
When Jesus talks about eternal life, He doesn’t mean after this life
He is talking about a quality, living relationship with God RIGHT NOW
The time has come now, for you this defiled Samaritan woman, to come into the presence of God
Permanently cleansed
Deeper than that to eternal life and a relationship with God the Father
God sees me? He knows what I’ve done, and He wants to be with me?
Living water is all we need
I want you to experience
3rd image: God’s Calendar
He likes to work within structure, but within it is mysterious
Can’t read the scriptures as broken up books
Leviticus 23
Parties with a purpose
7 different feasts
1. Passover – v. 4-5
A holiday of redemption
Heroic figure of Moses comes in
This week is considered to be a holy week
Millions of people are going to be celebrating
The 2nd grade exodus has arrived
Jesus died to deliver us to freedom
Why is this man asking me this question?
Jesus does not throw people away, God doesn’t make junk
Jesus doesn’t condemn her, He offers her living water
A quality of relationship with the Father
I’m about to set you free
God is looking for people to come into His presence
Jesus is killed on the holiday of redemption
The Father is seeking after people
Luke 4 – I’ve come to set the captives free
You who are unclean will be cleansed forever
Imagine me getting to dance with my Father, to worship with Him
I’m never giving up on you or your story
Jesus gives us such a picture of why He came
Jesus is killed on this holiday that we may enter into Bis presence
Not just looking to fill this with some body
2. Feast of Unleavened Bread – v. 6-8
Holiday of the crops
Prayer – God give us life out of the ground
Jesus buried on this holiday
Jesus Christ came to give us life
When you die there will be a resurrection
Do you think God knows what He’s doing?
3. Offering of Firstfruits – v. 9-14
Barley harvest
Jesus rose from the dead on this holiday
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the words that we forget that God answers prayer
These people are crying out, lead us out of Rome
God gives them the best gift and they don’t understand
7. Festival of Sukkot (tabernacles/booths/tents) – v. 33-43
Celebrate – when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD seven days (V. 40)
Wave palm branches before the Lord
A million people in Jerusalem waving palm branches
Hoshanna maim chaim! Send us living water! Save us as a people!
Priest at 9am and 3pm would go to pool of Salome with gold jar, gather the water and take it to the temple, wait for everyone to be silent and pour it into silver funnel on the altar
Day 7 the priest would do this, walk around the altar 7 times, wait for silence
Jesus stands up (John 7:37-48) and says in a loud voice, I am living water
God shows up all the time, are you paying attention?
4. Festival of Weeks, Shavuot, Pentecost – v. 15-22
Really windy
50 days after Passover
Get ready for the Spirit of God
They remember Jesus saying, “Wait!”
9am and 3pm, the priest would read different passages from the old testament (Ezekiel 1, Exodus 1)
Ruach hagadesh can be translated as many voices
70 different dialects in that place
The time has come to worship the Spirit as truth
People went from Pentecost and spread the Good News
I do not give up on people, I can make you beautiful
5. Festival of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah – v. 23-25
6. Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur – v. 26-32
[picks up guitar]
Beautiful Things
Favorite chapter is in Revelation
I believe God will create a new heaven and a new earth
John says, this angel showed me this river of living water, flows right through the middle of the city
Be this living water to everyone to people that you come into contact with
God’s hand has provided a lot of comfort and joy for us
Let this water rise up into us and flow out into others
Go and seek after the things of God