Hearing God’s Voice from His Word
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Take a moment and turn your attention to God. Tell God that you desire to trust and obey Him. Ask God to speak to you from His word.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 88:1-4 Lord, you are the God who saves me;
day and night I cry out to you.
2 May my prayer come before you;
turn your ear to my cry.
3 I am overwhelmed with troubles
and my life draws near to death.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am like one without strength.
Read the Entire Psalm
Psalm 88 is one of the darkest Psalms, but it begins with hope. It says, “Lord you are the God who saves me.” Regardless of circumstances or how you might feel internally, you can cling to the reality that God is a God who saves. Ultimately, in the end, he will rescue you. If you’ve trusted him, you will be with him forever. Praise God for being one who saves.
SCRIPTURE READING:
John 7:25-52 – Christian Standard Bible
The Identity of the Messiah
25 Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Yet, look, he’s speaking publicly and they’re saying nothing to him. Can it be true that the authorities know he is the Messiah? 27 But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he is from.”
28 As he was teaching in the temple, Jesus cried out, “You know me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on my own, but the one who sent me is true. You don’t know him; 29 I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.”
30 Then they tried to seize him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. 31 However, many from the crowd believed in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, he won’t perform more signs than this man has done, will he?” 32 The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things about him, and so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent servants to arrest him.
33 Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time. Then I’m going to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
35 Then the Jews said to one another, “Where does he intend to go that we won’t find him? He doesn’t intend to go to the Jewish people dispersed among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does he? 36 What is this remark he made: ‘You will look for me, and you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”
The Promise of the Spirit
37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” 39 He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
The People Are Divided over Jesus
40 When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, “This truly is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But some said, “Surely the Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? 42 Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David’s offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David lived?” 43 So the crowd was divided because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.
Debate over Jesus’s Claims
45 Then the servants came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?”
46 The servants answered, “No man ever spoke like this!”
47 Then the Pharisees responded to them, “Are you fooled too? 48 Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which doesn’t know the law, is accursed.”
50 Nicodemus—the one who came to him previously and who was one of them—said to them, 51 “Our law doesn’t judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he’s doing, does it?”
52 “You aren’t from Galilee too, are you?” they replied. “Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Having God’s Ear through Prayer
- Express thanksgiving to God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you.
- Confess your sin to Him and receive forgiveness.
(1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.”) - Bring your personal requests to God.
(Psalm 62:8 “Pour out your heart before God”) - Pray for someone in your small group.
- Join with others from River and pray for the River Youth. They are heading home from Super Summer today. Pray that students would apply the truths that God has shown them this week.
Living as God’s People by applying the Bible
Scripture Reflection from the Sermon
“So, the crowd was divided because of him.”
John 7:43
This hasn’t changed, has it? Families are divided because of Jesus. Friends are divided because of Jesus. Our country is divided because of Jesus. To be sure, there are many other things that divide people, but many are divided because of the claims of Christ. Jesus said that he came to bring division. Why is this so? Is he a mean, divisive person? No, he is not saying bringing division was his “goal.” He came to bring salvation, and to experience salvation requires a decision. A decisive choice is also a potentially divisive choice. If I decide to go one way (and that way requires a total allegiance to Christ), and you decide to go another way (to give your allegiance elsewhere), we are going to experience division between us. To put it more simply, if I decide I must walk north and you decide you must walk south, we cannot walk together. This is not about Jesus being mean, it is about Jesus stating reality. He will bring division because he brings a decision. He didn’t leave people with the choice to remain neutral. He is Lord, or he is not. We will follow him, or we will not. Decision leads to division… this is not something we strive to make happen, but it is something we must be aware will, in fact, happen.