[In recent days we've been shocked by the manifestation of hate. Jesus said, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first" (John 15:18). Jesus was warning his disciples that the hatred of the world against Him would be shown in hatred against His followers. We've seen it in history, we read about it in violence against Christians in other parts of the world, but the brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk, a 32 year old man who was simply, gently, engaging in debate on a college campus, speaking the truth in love, has shaken us. For weeks, months, we have been working through the Gospel of John, seeing the resistence to the Truth, the hatred of the world, and the offer of life through faith in Christ. That offer stands, and we are called to hold forth the Word of Life. We know the end of the story, and it is glorious! Jesus wins. Jesus told His disciples, "...you will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy" (John 16:20b). SN.]
Rivers of Living Water
John 7:37-39
Introduction: This time of the year it is not
too unusual to get a couple of weeks with no rain, and suddenly the lawns and
grassy areas begin to turn brown. Every now and then you will still see a lawn
that is beautifully green. No matter what the rainfall, our neighbor directly
across the street has grass that is always green. At his own expense, he
installed a sprinkler system, and the grass is well-watered. If you are a gardener,
you know the need for irrigation. Water means life. If that is true in
Philadelphia where we have over 40 inches on average of annual rainfall, it is
much more urgently understood in the arid climate of the Mideast. That imagery
was prevalent in the biblical world since those societies were dependent on
agriculture. In fact, the blessings and curses of the Covenant included the
promise of rain in season if the people remained faithful. The OT also picked
up on water imagery to speak about spiritual life and blessing. In Psalm 1, the
righteous man who delights in the Law of the Lord and forsakes the way of
sinners, is “like a tree planted by a river, that brings forth its fruit in
season.” Our desire for God is also described in terms of thirsting for water.
For example, Psalm 63 begins, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my
soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where
there is no water.” “Thirsting for water” was also used by Jesus as an
illustration of spiritual thirst in John 4 with the story of the
encounter of Jesus with a woman from Samaria. More recently, we saw it in John
6:35 when Jesus said, “I AM the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not
hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
With
this background, we return to John 7, and come to the last day of the Feast of
Booths. The requirements for the Feast were spelled out in the Law, but had
been neglected from the time of Joshua until the return from exile under Ezra
and Nehemiah (cf. Neh 8:14-17). And as with much biblical teaching, traditions
were added over the centuries to the Scriptural requirements, including pouring
out water at the altar along with the wine that was poured out as a drink
offering to God. That water was carried in a procession from the Pool of Siloam
and poured out in celebration, as the people sang and the shofar sounded. On
the last and greatest day of the feast, in the midst of that joyful
celebration, Jesus seized the moment to cry out to the people, offering life
and over-flowing blessing to those who come to Him in faith. That points us to…
The Big Idea: Come to Jesus in faith and have the deepest
longing of your soul satisfied through the life-giving presence of the Holy
Spirit. Let’s take that one verse at a time,
1) Come
to Jesus, only He can satisfy the deepest longing of your soul (37);
2) The
invitation is to believe, “drink of Him” and you will be abundantly
satisfied (38);
3) The over-flowing blessing is His presence
through the Spirit, following the “lifting up” of the Son (39).
I. Come to
Jesus, only He can satisfy the deepest longing of your soul (37).
37 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.
Jesus had first taught publicly in the middle
of the feast, and now, the week-long celebration was coming to an end, and He
seized the moment to “stand up and cry out” to the crowd. A teacher
would usually sit, teaching the disciples that gathered around him. On the last
and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and proclaimed his message loudly.
He was extending this invitation beyond his small group of committed disciples
and offering life-giving water to all who would listen. He stood up and
cried out… both emphasize the importance of the invitation He was
extending to all who could hear.
Secondly, as the water was being poured out at
the feast, as the people were perhaps remembering the stories of their fathers
thirsting for physical water in the wilderness, Jesus says, “if anyone
thirsts, let him come…” He doesn’t
specify that they need to hunger and thirst for righteousness, or for anything
specifically spiritual, but whatever they thirsted for, He was inviting them to
come to Him. Perhaps it wasn’t necessary, since the people were in Jerusalem
for worship, perhaps he could presume that some, perhaps many, thirsted for
life with meaning, life in relationship with God. That language was pervasive
in the Scriptures. Isaiah 55:1 might come to mind,
Come,
everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy
and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Or perhaps,
the words of the Psalmist in Ps 42:1-2a,
As a deer
pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the
living God.
The
feast was a time of looking back on God’s provision for the people in the
wilderness, manna from heaven, water from a rock. It also celebrated His
provision in the current harvest. Jesus pointed to a deeper need, a longing of
the soul. It is through believing in Jesus that we can experience the living
water. He himself is the ultimate source of life. Through faith in Jesus,
believers will be indwelt by the Spirit of God,
who will well up within them and become a blessing to those around them.
We’ll see the invitation is to *come to Jesus and have the deepest longing of
your soul satisfied through the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit. But
what does that mean?
II. The
invitation is to believe, “drink of Him” and you will be abundantly
satisfied (38).
38 Whoever believes in me, as the
Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"
The “drinking” to which He refers is
faith, believing in Him. He knows the human heart. We saw that same idea in
6:35 when Jesus said, “Whoever believes in Me will never thirst.” He knew
the hateful intentions of the leaders. He knew the curiosity and interest of
some in the miraculous signs. Some had believed, at some level, and were drawn
to Him. But as He stands up in this Feast that commemorates God’s provision
in times past, He knows that He is the Way to life, the only way, for those who
will come to Him in faith. If the language in 7:38 sounds familiar, we read
something similar in John 4, at a well in Samaria, when Jesus met a needy woman…
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is
it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" ( For
Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is
saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have
given you living water."
Jesus
did not despise her because of her ethnic background, nor did he look down upon
her because of the depth of her need, for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God. That is why he
came: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:17). The
whole world is God’s world. We saw in John 4 a contrast between the Samaritans,
who take Him at His word, and the Jews, who look for signs, and still
struggle to believe. Remember, this was a part of the reason “He
needed to go through Samaria.” He would offer life-giving water, even to
the Samaritans. Grace! Jesus said that he came to save sinners, to show them
the way to forgiveness and life. Yes, He came first to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. But remember from the first chapter, “He came unto His own,
but His own people did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to those
who believed on His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”
Don’t miss this: Jesus was speaking to the woman in John 4 of water that
could quench her deepest thirst, the longing of her soul. Here in John 7, He is
speaking to His own people at the Feast, He comes back to this idea. He knows
every heart within hearing distance as surely as He knew the woman at the well.
Here, He stands and cries out, like a prophet, but different than any mere
prophet. He himself IS their hope…
38 Whoever believes in me, as the
Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living
water.'" 39 Now this he
said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive…”
Here Jesus is not just speaking of a cup of thirst-quenching
water, but of “rivers of living water.” That surely points to the abundant
blessing He is offering. He is talking of the Spirit, using the imagery of the
water of life welling up from within. The commentaries spend pages talking
about these rivers, are they welling up from Jesus to His people, or from
within the people themselves? John loves to use ambiguous grammar from time to
time, and I think this is intentional. Both
are true.
Jesus is the source, later he’ll talk of sending the Spirit. But we can also
become “channels of blessing” as the Spirit empowers us to share the Gospel. The
Big Idea is to: *Come to Jesus by faith, and have the deepest longing of your
soul satisfied through the life-giving presence of the Spirit.
III. The
over-flowing blessing is His presence through the Spirit, which would follow
the “lifting up” of the Son (39).
39 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.
If
we woodenly translate this verse, word-for-word, the second part of reads, “…for
the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” The
English versions do a good job of exposing the meaning that John intends. We
know the Spirit always existed; He was there at creation in Genesis 1 hovering
over the waters. We see him coming upon people in the Old Testament
multiple times as well as in the pre-Pentecostal birth narratives in Luke. God
doesn’t change, He is Triune, Father, Son, and Spirit, three persons, One God.
But clearly, He does work differently at different moments in History. Jesus
took on a human nature, and is now forever God and Man. And Jesus will promise
the disciples in the Upper Room that after He leaves, He will send another
Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who will be with them always. That “Comforter”
(parakletos) is the Holy Spirit, who is also called the “Spirit of
Christ” (Rom 8:9). His presence is poured out at Pentecost, and His work is
evident as Jesus is building His church in the book of Acts. He is our Lord and
King who will reign forever and bless His people with living water…
Rev
7:17, “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne
will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and
God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
That is our sure hope… but remember our context in John 7:39. Jesus
is at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem before the cross and
resurrection. John is writing his Gospel
decades later, after Pentecost. So, he reminds the reader of the historical
context in v. 39. The “giving” of the
Spirit would follow the “glorification” of the Son. This verse is worded in a
very emphatic way, literally: “The Holy Spirit was not yet… for Jesus was not
yet glorified…”
Clearly,
this isn’t saying that the Holy Spirit did not yet exist. He is eternal God, He
is present at creation in Genesis 1. Throughout Scripture he “comes upon”
people and “fills” them. So, the translators are correct in adding a word or
two to explain what John meant: The Holy Spirit has not yet been given, i.e. He had not yet been sent
into the world, in the permanent, abiding sense that He would be starting at
Pentecost.
John
the Baptist had testified to the connection between the coming One and the initiation
of a new ministry of the Spirit in John 1:32-34…
32 "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven
like a dove, and it remained on him. 33
I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me,
'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with
the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I
have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God."
Jesus’ glorification, his being “lifted up” on
the cross (in connection with His resurrection and ascension) would happen
before a new ministry of the Spirit would be initiated in which He comes and
inhabits redeemed humans. Later Jesus
will teach his disciples about this more in depth in the upper room (see
14:16,17; 16:5-15). He was, in that
discourse, preparing the disciples for what was about to happen. By then it was
clear that his hour was approaching, and soon they would need to learn about
life without the Master walking physically with them and speaking audibly to
them. The Comforter would come to indwell them, to give them spiritual
refreshment and life, to empower them to carry out his mission in the world.
Pentecost initiated a New Age.
I remember a preacher using the acrostic “R.I.B.S.”
to describe the NT work of the Spirit in a believer’s life. If you have
believed in Jesus, you’ve been…
R-(Re)born of the Spirit, Jesus spoke to
Nicodemus about being born again: (Jn
3:3-7). He says in John 3:3, "Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless one is born again (or, from above)
he cannot see the kingdom of God." In 3:5 He says, “born of
water and the Spirit.”
I-Indwelt by the Spirit, Some things
changed after the cross (John 14:17; I Cor 3:16; Romans 8:9), resurrection and
Pentecost. Paul told the Corinthians: You are the Temple of God, and the
Spirit of God dwells in you (I Cor 3:16) and wrote to the Romans that “…if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to him” (Rom
8:9).
B-Baptized in the Spirit, John the
Baptist prophesied that the coming one would baptize in the Holy Spirit (John
1:32-34), and so Paul could say “By one Spirit we have all been baptized in
one body…”; cf. I Cor 12:13; see Lk 3:16; Acts 1:5).
S-Sealed by the Spirit. Paul later wrote
in Eph 1:13-14,
“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Like a
seal placed on a letter or a contract, God’s Spirit has sealed us, assuring us
that we are His forever.
Reborn, indwelt, baptized, sealed… RIBS. So,
Jesus is at the Temple, symbolically the dwelling place of God. We know from
John 2, that He is the True Temple, Emmanuel, God with us. And yet, when He was
glorified, He would send the Spirit to indwell and empower us, such that Paul
could say in Ephesian 2:19-22,
19 So then you are no longer strangers and
aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of
the household of God, 20
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself
being the cornerstone, 21 in
whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in
the Lord. 22 In him you
also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the
Spirit.
The invitation is to
come and drink, believe in Jesus, and be filled with the Spirit! So…
What is God
saying to me in this passage? Come to Jesus in faith, and have the deepest
longing of your soul satisfied, through the life-giving presence of the Holy
Spirit.
What would
God have me to do in response to this passage?
1) Are you thirsty this morning? Water is
allowed in the sanctuary! Most importantly, you can drink from the fountain
that never runs dry, and feast on the Bread of Life.
2) IF you have trusted Christ as Savior, you
have something that no one had before Pentecost, the permanent indwelling of
the Holy Spirit, to convict, to guide, to enlighten your understanding, to
empower you to live by faith. Rejoice, and walk in the Spirit!
3) The Feast looked back with joy at God’s
faithfulness in the desert. We who believe are pilgrims as well, and as we
celebrate communion, we look back with joy that God so loved us, He gave His
Son, that Jesus willingly gave His life, so we could have life. As we
celebrate, we also look ahead and show forth His death until He comes. AMEN.
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