that I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am, you cannot come. The Jews said to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, you will seek me and you will not find me? And where I am, you cannot come. Let's go to the Lord now in a moment of prayer. Our God and Father in heaven, we thank you for this, your word which you have given us, and we ask that you would add your blessing to the reading of your word, that we would have open hearts and open ears, ready to receive it with all joy and humility. We ask that you would be with me, that I would preach your word in spirit and in truth, that your name would be glorified, and that we would each praise and worship your holy name. This we ask in the name of Jesus, amen. Well, in chapter five, the Pharisees had begun openly seeking to kill Jesus because he was making himself equal with God. But here, they actually are beginning their assault on Jesus in this chapter by sending officers to arrest him. And they continue with this pattern throughout the rest of his ministry. And so hearing Jesus' words now, they continue to try to kill him. Well, there's a great word of comfort that we have in these verses here, in Jesus' words in particular. Because what we see is that it was not the plan of man which put Jesus on the cross, but it was God's plan. It was the plan and purpose of the Father It was the Father who designated the hour of Jesus' death, and it was the Father who orchestrated each of these events. It was not man who was in control. Man may have thought for the briefest moment that they had victory. Satan, on the cross, on his death, may certainly have thought that he had victory over God. But we see that these events are formed and planned not by man, but by God. And it was Jesus who willingly submitted himself to the Father's will, Jesus who willingly gave himself over to death, so that he might raise himself up again unto everlasting life. I find great comfort in these words, as well as in the previous part of this chapter, which we heard this morning. But the main purpose of Jesus' words here, in the Jews' minds, as should be expected, they went immediately to another geographical location. The minds were set on the flesh. They were set on the world. They had no understanding of what Jesus was saying. Well, where is He going? Where is He going? Is He going to the dispersion, to the Greeks, or to the Greek-speaking Jews? They had no idea, as should be expected by now, of the Jews. This was not what Jesus was speaking of. Instead, he was foreshadowing his ascension after his death and resurrection. Turn to John 16, if you would. John 16, beginning at verse 7. He says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. What Jesus is foreshadowing here, what He is saying, it is necessary that I should go away so that you would have the ministry of the Holy Spirit, so that you would receive the Helper. If Jesus did not ascend to the throne, then the Helper would not have been given. Look at verse 20 to 23. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of Me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you." I want you to imagine the disciples of Jesus for a moment hearing these words. He's saying, I am going away. And where I am going, you cannot follow. Imagine His disciples who gave everything to follow Jesus. They left their homes, they left their families, they left all their sense, their source of income. They left everything to follow Jesus. And look at these wonderful words that Jesus says. He says, I'm going away now, but you will see me again. And when you do, you will ask nothing of me. What Jesus is saying is, on that day, after I have departed from you, and then you come to Me, when you see My face, your joy will be complete, full to the greatest degree. You will ask nothing of Me. Your satisfaction will be complete. When you see your Lord and your Savior, you will know that there is nothing else that matters. There could not be anything more appealing, more beautiful, more delightful than seeing the face of your Lord. He uses this imagery of a woman giving birth. I can say from my wife's delivery, the pain and agony that she had when Jonathan was coming out, and then that moment when she saw him immediately, like that, her tears turned to joy. It was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. And that is what Jesus is saying here. There will be sorrow in this life because I am gone. But when you see me again, you will have joy to the greatest degree. Skip ahead to verse 33 in John 16. He says, I have said these things to you that in me, you may have peace in the world. You will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. In the foreshadowing of Jesus' death, he is necessarily assuming, excuse me, in the foreshadowing of his ascension, he is necessarily assuming his death. He says, the world will rejoice at this. The world will think that it has gained the victory over me. But when he ascends, this is as R.C. Sproul puts it, this is his coronation. When He comes up from the grave, He is then seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, and He is crowned with glory and honor. This is the great comfort which we have in the ascension of Jesus Christ. What Jesus is speaking of here in our text in John 7. That He will overcome the world. This is the promise that He gave in John 7. And this is what we look back to as one of our greatest hopes, that death, the enemy, has been defeated. It could not hold Jesus. And death was swallowed up in victory when He rose from the grave and ascended to His Father, to our Father. that we too would be united to Him in a death and resurrection like His. We'll turn back to John 7. We'll read verses 37 through 39, which is the bulk of our passage of the sermon tonight. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive. For as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet. glorified. Imagine that scene. You're in the midst of this great feast on the last day, the great day as it is written, and Jesus, this man, begins to cry out. The word in the Greek is kradzo. It's an onomatopoeia. Am I saying that because I just want to say onomatopoeia? No. It means that the word sounds like what it is. Kradzo. He cried out. It's a very forceful, strong word. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me, and out of him will flow rivers of living water. What Jesus is speaking of here, what we just touched on a moment ago, is the ministry of the Holy Spirit of the living God. R.C. Sproul has these wonderful words. He says, through the pages of the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit appears frequently. It was the Holy Spirit who anointed the prophets, anointed the priests, and anointed the king. It was the Holy Spirit who changed the hearts of unbelievers in the Old Testament and made them the people of God. As it is today, so it was then. There is no regeneration, no salvation apart from the operation and ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was present in the Old Testament, but the anointing of the Spirit for power was limited to a few individuals, such as Moses, Samson, or Elijah. And what we see here in the New Testament is the endowing or the anointing of the Spirit on every believer. This is what is known, at least in part, as the priesthood of all believers. 1 Corinthians 6 says this, He who is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with Him. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." Well, whatever else this means, it does mean this. that every believer is endowed with the Holy Spirit, and our bodies, the body of the church, is the temple of the Holy Spirit of the living God. The Spirit is applying the work of Jesus Christ, making us alive in Christ, And so having this Spirit, we are then empowered to participate in the ministry of God's Kingdom here on earth. That is an astonishing gift and a wonderful mercy of God. That we get to be instruments in the hands of God. that we get to participate. Not that we affect salvation, but we get to participate in that ministry. In the ministry of the Holy Spirit, namely regeneration, salvation, the convicting of the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. We are fit instruments to declare that Word. We are able to participate in that, in the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This proclamation is primarily, as it's written in our confession, primarily through the ministry of the Word. The regular ministry here every Sunday. It is through evangelists, but it is not exclusively through those. Every believer is called to have a defense for the reason of the hope that is within him. And no defense should ever be given without that glorious call of the gospel to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It should astonish us daily that we get to participate in that ministry. So for all those, Jesus says, who believe in me, will have the Spirit poured out upon them. And he said these words, that was a future endowment that he looked forward to. first had to ascend to the right hand of the throne of majesty in heaven. He first had to be glorified by his Father. And only after that would he send his Spirit. And of course we see his sending of the Spirit manifestly at Pentecost. But imagine again the agony that his disciples would have felt in hearing these words. This one whom we love and adore is leaving us. And yet Jesus says, it is far better that I should go, that the Holy Spirit will be put upon you. Take your Bibles once again, and let's look at this last paragraph here. When they heard these words, some of the people said, this really is the prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was? So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, Why did you not bring him? The officers answered, No one ever spoke like this man. The Pharisees answered them, Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed. Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and he was one of them, said to them, does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does? They replied, are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee. So how does this account end? Well, as expected, There's division amongst the people. Some proclaim, this is the prophet. Some, this is the Christ. Some say, would the Christ really come from that backwater place, Galilee? And so, naturally, some of them wanted to arrest Jesus. The amazing part that we see here is that the officers, the men who were sent to arrest Jesus, come back to the Pharisees without Jesus in tow. They say, He spoke like no other man. The officers heard the authority of Jesus Christ, and it was so amazing that they defied their orders and returned to their superiors with empty hands. And the Pharisees continued in their unbelief. They tried to force the officers to disbelieve in Jesus. Are we, the Pharisees, who are the most religious elite, do we believe in Jesus? Have any of the authorities believed in Jesus? This is nothing short of incredible ignorance cloaked by their arrogance. They refused to believe in Jesus. They tried to limit the power of God, saying, surely no prophet would arise out of Galilee. Certainly God would not do that. They even defy their own standards. because they hate Jesus, for which they were rebuked by Nicodemus. We do not judge a man before we hear him out. We do not judge a man before hearing him out, but we bring him to us, we hear him, we interrogate him, as it were. The Pharisees said, are you from Galilee yourself? And so Nicodemus himself was reviled by the Pharisees. And the word of warning to us in this passage is that we ought to receive the word of Jesus for what it is. The very word of God. We should not be like the Pharisees who continually tried at every corner to thwart God's purpose and plan, but we ought to humbly receive His Word with gratitude so that we could participate in the ministry of Jesus Christ and His kingdom here on earth. All too often, men, in their arrogance today, defy the Word of God and they try to bring everyone else with them, and they revile anyone who believes in the Word, who believes in Jesus. Let us not join with them, but be faithful in every matter. Be faithful as our Lord Jesus was faithful, and be encouraged by His ministry that His name would be glorified, even through us. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our God and Father in heaven, you are great and above all to be praised. There is none who is like you. There is no one who can thwart your plans. There is no one who can thwart your purposes. And we are encouraged by the promise you have given us in Isaiah that your Word, when it goes forth, will accomplish all your holy will. And so we ask that you would instill in us hearts and desires to share your Word, to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ boldly, knowing that your Word will not come back void. We ask that You would work mightily in the hearts of not only this community here in Tyler, but around the world, in Karamoja, and elsewhere, O Lord. We ask that Your Word would go forth in power, and that we who hear Your Word regularly would not be persuaded by things of the world, by things of the flesh, but be encouraged in the service of the kingdom of God, be encouraged to work for Your glory and not for ourselves. We ask that You would strengthen particularly our missionaries, that they would be faithful in the proclamation of Your Word wherever they might be. We pray also that You would be with those saints who are in lands where Your people are persecuted. Give them steadfastness of faith. Grant them peace, comfort, and safety. And grant that when men come before them to take them away from their families to do harm to your saints, that they would not shy away from proclaiming the gospel, but proclaim all the more and all the more boldly that even those who persecute you would repent and believe by the power of your Holy Spirit who is at work. And as we go about this week, we ask that you would be with us as we go to our places of work, that you would strengthen us in that endeavor, that you would be with each family here, that as we relate to one another, we would care for our brothers and sisters, that we would honor our mothers and our fathers, and that we would serve you well in each of the relationships. which you have given us and put in our lives, that your name would be glorified above all things. For it is in the name of Jesus Christ we ask this. Amen.