JOHN 7:37-39
RIVERS OF LIVING WATER
[Deuteronomy 31:9-13]
Tabernacles was a popular festival rich in symbolism. Each day of the feast of booths included a water ceremony in which a procession of priests descended to the south border of the city to the Gihon Spring (which flowed into the Pool of Siloam). There a priest filled a golden pitcher as a choir chanted Isaiah 12:3: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” The water was then carried back up the hill to the “Water Gate,” followed by crowds carrying tree branches (lulab in the right hand) in memory of the desert booths and (an ethrog in the left hand) a citrus branches in memory of the harvest. The crowd would shake these and sing Psalms 113–118. When the procession arrived at the temple, the priest would climb the altar steps and pour the water onto the altar while the crowd circled him and continued singing. On the seventh day of the festival, this procession took place seven times.
Judaism saw this water ceremony on multiple levels. On the one hand, it was a plea to God for rain since the autumn is a time of threatened drought in Israel. On the other hand, it was a source of rich symbolism. The feast was established as a memorial to the wilderness journey and God’s provision of water from a rock (Num. 20:8, 10; 2Cor. ). The pouring out of water which cause the sacrificial rock altar of the temple to flow represented the day God’s life giving water would flow out of God’s temple during the messianic age. Zechariah and Ezekiel had visions of rivers flowing from the temple in a miraculous display of God’s blessing (Ezek. 47:1; Zech. 14:8). [In a drought-stricken land, it was a spectacular vision of water, life-giving water flowing from God’s life-giving temple. Burge, Gary M. In NIV Application Commentary, Book of John: 226-227. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, © 2000. ] Jesus’ climatic appearance and astounding words are to be understood against this background.
I. THE INVITATION, 37.
II. THE PROMISE, 38.
III. THE EXPLANATION, 39.
On this final day of celebration, Jesus steps into public view and makes His most stunning pronouncement of the feast. As the seventh water procession climbed the steep hill of south Jerusalem, verse 37 commences. Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
In 7:37 we read about an planned and prepared appearance of Jesus on the final day of the symbolic Jewish festival. He stood up in their midst as an uninvited preacher and cried out. The word cried means shouted loudly and emphatically so that all might hear and heed.
What Jesus so loudly and publically proclaims to one and all is an invitation and then a promise. "If you’re thirsty, then come to Me. The condition for the invitation is an awareness of thirst. Jesus calls people to recognize, to become aware of, their inner thirst.
There is no lasting earthly satisfaction. Marriage, family, money, fame, enlightenment, travel, athletics, academic achievement- nothing completely satisfies us. Any satisfaction or significance we gain in our quest fades quickly and becomes a vague memory, if remembered at all.
Yes, certainly, there are happy events along the way, unexpected moments when we experience pure delight. But those moments are fleeting, and we can never go back in time to relive them and recapture the sensation.
Why then do we keep seeking for something to satisfy us? Simply put, its because we have to. You and I are thirsty people. We long for a deep satisfaction, the kind that makes our insides very alive, that makes us enriched people. We thirst. Deep in our souls, down at the core, we desperately want something-and want it legitimately-that we don’t have -to be respected, to be deeply involved with someone who truly accepts us.
Whether we realize it or not our souls are thirsting for God. Every desire, every aspiration, every longing of our nature is nothing less than a yearning for God. We were born for His love and we cannot truly live without it. He is the joy for which we have been searching all our lives. Everything that we desire is found in Him-and infinitely more.
Jesus is the answer for this deep thirst. But it’s our responsibility-and our opportunity-to drink deeply of Him, to trust Him to produce the kind of change that way down deep inside we know we want for ourselves.
And so, if you find yourself restless and thirsting for something more in life; respond to Jesus’ invitation, "Come to Me and drink." Go to Him, drink freely of His grace and forgiveness, and experience true joy and the personal significance that only Jesus can provide. Happiness depends on happenings, but joy, satisfaction, significance and so much more depends on drinking in from Jesus!
II. THE PROMISE, 38.
For those who accept the invitation and come to Jesus, He gives an astounding promises in verse 38. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ”
Jesus was requiring of each individual a response of faith in Him [that does not include any ritualistic observance.] In order to come and drink, you must believe in Jesus. In order to continue to drink you must continue to come in faith to Jesus. He is the source of the fountain that wells up inside of faithful believers.
Scripture is full of references to blessing of the Holy Spirt in connection to water. For e.g. Isa. 44:3; 55:1; 58:11; Ezek. 47:1ff; Joel 3:18; Zech 13:1; 14:8; Prov. 4:23; 5:15. It is not from an earthly Jerusalem that the living waters flow but it is out of the dwelling-place of Christ which is in the consecrated hearts of transformed lives. When a believer comes to Christ and drink he not only slakes his thirst but receives such an abundant supply that authentic rivers flow out of his inner being.
The thought stresses the out going nature of the Spirit fulled life [Morris, John, 426]. This springing up well not only refreshes one’s own soul but flows out to refresh the lives of others.
The DEAD SEA is so salty that it contains no fish or plant life. What accounts for this unusual condition? There are absolutely no outlets! A great volume of water pours into this depression from the Jordan, but nothing flows out. Inlets plus no outlets equals a dead sea.
This law of nature may also be applied to the child of God, and it explains why many believers are unfruitful and lack spiritual vitality. It’s possible for some people to attend church, listen to religious broadcasts, study the Scriptures, and continually take in the Word as it is preached from the pulpit, and yet seem lifeless and unproductive in their Christian lives. Such individuals are like the Dead Sea. They have several "inlets" but no "outlets." To be vibrant and useful believers, we must not only "take in" all we can, but we must also "give out" in service to others!
May the Lord make us refreshing fountains where thirsty souls may drink. Indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we possess the "water of life" and can be channels of blessing to those in need. From hearts of love, let us pour out to others what we have first received from God. If we do, we win never become Dead-Sea Christians.
Wilson wrote a song called “Make me a channel of blessings.” It goes: Give as ’twas given to you in your need, Love as the Master loved you; Be to the helpless a helper indeed, Unto your mission be true. To be a channel of blessing, you let Christ’s love flow through you.
If I am thirsty, I can come to the Lord Jesus and drink in of Him. But if I encounter others in need, I cannot pour out a cupful of Jesus and hand it to them. I must minister to their needs out of the power, the refreshing, renewing spring of Christ in me. So I must keep on drinking from Christ, if He is going to met the needs of others through me.
How do I drink of Christ’s Live-giving Spirit. Through drinking into my innermost being the Word of Life. Through the Word of Christ His living water flows into us, into our hearts in order to satisfy and renew us. From inside my heart and soul and mind it wells up and out to touch those around me. Now the Word flows though us not on the basis of how many Scriptures we know, but from our dwelling or living in Christ, the source of all that is life eternal. Thus we must ever be opening the connection and drink from Christ by abiding in His Word. Otherwise we will quench no inner thirst, of ourselves or of others.
III. THE EXPLANATION, 39.
John 7:39 makes the symbolism of Jesus’ language plain. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Jesus has just made a profound theological statement. In my intro I explained how at the Feast of Tabernacles Jewish symbols of water were spiritualized to include expectations of the Holy Spirit. Jesus explains that Living Water in one’s innermost being is of the Spirit and that the Spirit would be given to those who place their trust in Christ for their salvation.
The Spirit though had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. [It is important to understand when Jesus is glorified and from this moment interpret the coming of the Spirit.] John is intentionally linking Jesus and the Spirit in order to give us a precise understanding of the origin of the Spirit and his relation to Christ.
This gift of the Spirit was not available during Jesus’ earthly ministry. It must await His “glorification” in order to be distributed. By this John is referring to Jesus’ death and resurrection, tying the Spirit, not only to Jesus’ life and death and resurrection, but also to the ascension and glorification of Jesus on the throne at the right hand of God. The Spirit is the signal of Jesus’ departure from the world and return to the Father.
Calvary must precede the resurrection, and the ascension must come before Pentecost. The glorified Lord then releases the Spirit. [It was only when our Lord had ascended to the right hand of the Father that He gave or transmitted the divine Comforter. It was needful for Him to be at the right hand of God, exalted, before He could ask for, receive, and pour forth the Holy Spirit of promise.] The Paraclete came to finish the work which God began in Christ, but He could not come till the Son’s work was finished and acknowledged.
There is a deep inner lesson for us all in these words. We sometimes wonder why we have not filled with the Spirit and why our lives are not channels through which He pours in as mighty rivers to make dry hearts and lives blossom and sing.
Is not the reason our neglect to glorify Christ? We have not yet abandoned ourselves to Him, we are not content to live life as a branch of Christ, with no other aim than to realize the purpose of His most blessed life, the glorifying of the Father. We don’t seriously make it our mission to glorify Jesus in and with our life. [How we would rejoice if we might be conscious that rivers were issuing from us [as the waters will from the temple threshold one day!] Our life purpose should be to honor and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. If Christ has entered triumphantly into our hearts we should serve and honor Him as the King of Glory. Why don’t we?
During the LIBERATION OF PALESTINE in WWI, a combined force of British, Australian, and New Zealand soldiers was closely pursuing the Turks as they retreated from the desert. As the allied troops moved northward past Beersheba they began to outdistance their water-carrying camel train. When the water ran out, their mouths got dry, their heads ached, and they became dizzy and faint. Eyes became bloodshot, lips swelled and turned purple, and mirages became common. They knew that if they did not make the wells of Sheriah by nightfall, thousands of them would die – as hundreds already had done. Literally fighting for their lives, they managed to drive the Turks from Sheriah.
As water was distributed from the great stone cisterns, the more able-bodied were required to stand at attention and wait for the wounded and those who would take guard duty to drink first. It was four hours before the last man had his drink. During that time the men stood no more than twenty feet from thousands of gallons of water, to drink of which had been their consuming passion for many agonizing days.
It is said that one of the officers who was present reported, “I believe that we all learned our first real Bible lesson on the march from Beersheba to Sheriah Wells. If such were our thirst for God, for righteousness and for His will in our lives, a consuming, all-embracing, preoccupying desire, how rich in the fruit of the Spirit would we be?” [SOURCE: E.M. Blaiklock, “Water,” Eternity (August 1966), p. 27. ]
CONCLUSION / TIME OF RESPONSE
Lord give us this overwhelming thirst for Jesus. Amen
[Jesus is the new temple in John’s theology (see 2:21), and just as Jewish eschatology predicted the temple to be the dramatic source of water (displayed in the water ritual), so now Jesus is announcing Himself as a replacement for the temple once again. Those seeking eternal water need to look no further. Jesus is the source of Zechariah’s fountain. Jesus is the source for what the feast of Tabernacles sought. ]
