Repentance - Part 1

I want us to think just really about this verse 37, in the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried. One version says Jesus stood and cried with a loud voice, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. I shared some thoughts last Sunday morning about this, but it's been stirring my heart ever since. You know, when we teach children about heroes in the Bible, we usually teach them about David and Goliath, or Samson, or Daniel in the lion's den. I think this chapter is incomparable for courage. It was the last day, the great day of the feast, and this feast was the last feast in a Jewish calendar. There were seven great feasts. According to Leviticus, in three of them, only men were allowed to go. But in this last feast, this is the last feast in the year, and this is the last day on the last feast, and this is the last feast that Jesus himself will attend. It says that he went up into the temple, oh look at verse 5, for neither did his brethren believe on him. Then Jesus said unto them, my time is not yet come, but your time is already ready. The world cannot hate you, but it hateth me, because I testify of it. And the works thereof are evil. Go ye up to the feast, I go not up to the feast. Now verse 14, in the midst of the feast, Jesus went up. Now why does it say he's not going to the feast, and then right in the middle of the feast, he goes to the feast? It seems to me that this is a lesson to us in conserving our time. The three main feasts, I think, in the Jewish calendar were still celebrated, or still are celebrated in the Christian calendar. Passover, which is a time of our Lord Jesus Christ dying for us, and then there's a feast of Pentecost that they had which we still celebrate, remembering the upper room. But this third feast we do not keep in our Christian calendar, it's not yet come. It's the time of in-gathering. Again, three of the other feasts only males were allowed to go. This final feast of the year, people came in from 70 different countries. As a matter of fact, the Jews previous to this killed 70 bullocks, one representing each country where their people were dispersed. The last day, the great day of the feast. Now this actually followed immediately after the super day in the Jewish calendar, the day of atonement. Remember the priest went and shed blood for the people, and then he took two goats and he, I don't know how he chose, he chose one goat that he would lay the blood upon that goat and take it to the wilderness, put the sin of the nation on that goat and send it out into the wilderness so that it was lost forever. A type of God taking our sins and putting them behind his back, never to be remembered against us anymore forever. The other blood was taken in a bowl and it was taken, put onto the, into the Holy of Holies and put there on the mercy seat. The Salvation Army used to have a great chorus they sang at their altar calls. They didn't sing just as I am without one plea, they sang, come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel. Here bring your wounded heart, here tell your anguish. Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal. Scores of thousands of people were sung into blessing through that marvelous chorus when I was a boy, which was last century by the way I feel tonight, but anyhow it's a long way back. Earth has no sorrow heaven cannot, okay. Now this is the last day, the great day of the feast. It's estimated, I don't know how, that more than a million people crushed into the city for this last final feast. If you go into the Old Testament you'll discover that they took branches of trees, I remember seeing a lot of these in India when I was there. Lots of people make homes like that out of branches of trees and then plant leaves in between to protect them from the rain or the heat, whatever it was. And so there's this celebration. Now Jesus went up in the midst of the feast and verse 15 says, the Jews marveled saying, how knoweth this man letters? Or maybe there's a marker on that letters which in the margin says, how is it this man has wisdom? He's never learned, he's never been to the school of the rabbis. Where is he from? We know who he is, he's illegitimate anyhow. He's the son of Joseph, they actually say, we know his father, we know his mother. But he went into the temple and taught. Now in the first place I want to know how he got in the temple. He must have had his, fight his way through the crowd, and the temple was always guarded by temple police. But he gets through the crowd, he gets into the temple, and he goes and stands in the pulpit. That must have been pretty shocking. How can a man who isn't ordained go in the pulpit? Isn't that beyond reason? Excuse me. But people think it is today even. When saith this man wisdom, never having sat at the feet of men. But if you turn to the 8th chapter, not now but when you go home, he says, I was taught of my father. So then he had the greatest teacher of all. You know John that wrote this gospel is being called the Plato of the New Testament, because it's the most profound chapter maybe ever written. Now you may or may not remember, I guess you do you wise scholars, that was it Plato was the student of Socrates, one of the wisest men who ever lived. And so they said that this man is as wise as Plato. No, you see poor Plato only had Socrates. He may have been the greatest intelligence in the world at the time, but he didn't have the Holy Ghost to teach him, so he's still ignorant. We put men in pulpit because they've got degrees. But you can have 32 and still be frozen. But today there's such an emphasis on scholarship isn't there? Oh we're getting a new pastor, he's got a BA. But my sheep used to say that every time I looked at them, BA. So what's a BA or an MA? I've got a BA, I'm born again. And I've got my MA, I'm marvelously altered. I've got my PhD sometime, I'm a post hole digger, but anyhow there you are. I would love to know what Jesus taught, wouldn't you Martin? I'll tell you it was so sensational that those people, those rabbis and others sat with their mouths open, they marveled at him. What did he do? Did he unveil the mysteries of Daniel's image? Did he tell them some of the most unheard, well only unheard of things, they'd never heard. But they marveled at this man. Now it's a wonderful thing that Jesus ever got into this place. Why? Again I say because he had to push his way through a million people outside. He had to push his way past the temple guards. And he comes into the temple. Mercy on us, what's he doing here? In the second chapter he says he went in the temple, he called them a den of thieves. Well that's a way to get the welcome mat out, isn't it? Anyhow. You say to a bunch of the most learned men in the world, you're a bunch of thieves. That's what he said. Not only that, he kicked over the money changers tables. Kind of like the Irishman said everything that's for me is against me. Don't you think they squint at you? That's the man that kicked over our money tables. Our money went rolling down the street there. This is the man who said we're a bunch of thieves and robbers. We hold truth from men. We're blind guides leading the blind. Why don't they kill him? Look what the first verse says. After these things Jesus, after what things? After all these miracles. You know if we don't get the background of some of these stories we miss the majesty of them.