Jesus our Living Water
Robert Dawson
John 7:1-52
As we mercifully wind down a grueling, brutal and divisive political season one of the topics currently and consistently discussed are the poll numbers of each presidential candidate. All the pundits, pollsters and political operatives want to know and care about is what do the people think about our candidate. Are they growing in popularity and are they gathering a following. The more the merrier. The greater number of people is necessary for success. Numbers are everything. Numbers don't lie and the majority cannot be wrong...or can they?
That's what we tend to think. That's the way people thought in Jesus' day as well.
As we look at the life of Christ we find the majority opinion and the so-called experts can be wrong. After two years of public ministry characterized by countless miracles and unbelievable teaching you would expect Jesus' popularity to be growing. You would expect His numbers to be at an all-time high leading into His last year of public ministry. He should have been riding a tsunami of popularity by this point but He wasn't
People were curious. They were intrigued by Jesus. He was a topic of conversation and source of public debate but His popularity was not growing and neither was His following. Both His popularity and His following were waning and with good reason.
Jesus' teaching was difficult. His call was uncompromising and people struggled with it.
1. After making a series of difficult statements and exclusive statements we find in the previous chapter that (John 6.60, 66) ''many of His disciples, when they heard this said, ''This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it...66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.''
2. After that He went off with His disciples and started talking about carrying crosses, being willing to die, denying self, serving others and calling for complete and uncompromising surrender to Him ...
Robert Dawson
John 7:1-52
As we mercifully wind down a grueling, brutal and divisive political season one of the topics currently and consistently discussed are the poll numbers of each presidential candidate. All the pundits, pollsters and political operatives want to know and care about is what do the people think about our candidate. Are they growing in popularity and are they gathering a following. The more the merrier. The greater number of people is necessary for success. Numbers are everything. Numbers don't lie and the majority cannot be wrong...or can they?
That's what we tend to think. That's the way people thought in Jesus' day as well.
As we look at the life of Christ we find the majority opinion and the so-called experts can be wrong. After two years of public ministry characterized by countless miracles and unbelievable teaching you would expect Jesus' popularity to be growing. You would expect His numbers to be at an all-time high leading into His last year of public ministry. He should have been riding a tsunami of popularity by this point but He wasn't
People were curious. They were intrigued by Jesus. He was a topic of conversation and source of public debate but His popularity was not growing and neither was His following. Both His popularity and His following were waning and with good reason.
Jesus' teaching was difficult. His call was uncompromising and people struggled with it.
1. After making a series of difficult statements and exclusive statements we find in the previous chapter that (John 6.60, 66) ''many of His disciples, when they heard this said, ''This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it...66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.''
2. After that He went off with His disciples and started talking about carrying crosses, being willing to die, denying self, serving others and calling for complete and uncompromising surrender to Him ...
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