A Spring of Life

to John chapter 7. John chapter
7. We spent several weeks in this
chapter, where Jesus is entering back into Judea, and specifically,
ultimately into Jerusalem. And that means, essentially,
conflict. It means that Jesus is going
to face and be faced with those detractors, those who are very
against His ministry. They are against His person.
They are against everything that He stands for. And there will
be conflict. Jesus knows it. He’s not ever
purposed to avoid this conflict. And we see it almost immediately
right off the bat. His own brothers really prompt
him, stir him, try to get him to engage in the conflict. Really,
it seems as if they really want to just call the question and
find out whether Jesus is legit or not. His own brothers. Well,
that leads to Christ ultimately appealing to them and giving
to them a peek, a glimpse of a divine perspective on His ministry. And then Jesus engages His detractors,
those who were so against Him, and He defends Himself. He defends
Himself, and He finds at least three things worth defending.
We’ll see those as we go through. If you would, I want to just
take a sweep of chapter 7 once more, beginning back in verse
1. After these things, Jesus was
walking in Galilee, for He was unwilling to walk in Judea. because
the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the feast of the Jews,
the Feast of Booths, was near. Therefore his brothers said to
him, Leave here and go into Judea, so that your disciples may also
see your works which you are doing. For no one does anything
in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If you
do these things, show yourself to the world. For not even his
brothers were believing in him. So Jesus said to them, My time
is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. The world
cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify of it,
that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves.
I do not go up to the feast, because my time has not yet fully
come. Having said these things, he
stayed in Galilee. But when his brothers had gone
up to the feast, then he himself also went up, not publicly, but
as if in secret. So the Jews were seeking him
at the feast and were saying, where is he? There was much grumbling
among the crowds concerning him, and some were saying, he is a
good man. Others were saying, no, on the
contrary, he leads the people astray. Yet no one was speaking
openly of him for fear of the Jews. But when it was now in
the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began
to teach. The Jews then were astonished,
saying, How has this man become learned, having never been educated? So Jesus answered them and said,
My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone is
willing to do his will, speak from myself. He who speaks
from himself seeks his own glory. But he who is seeking the glory
of the one who sent him, he is true, and there is no unrighteousness
in him. Did not Moses give you the law,
and yet none of you carries out the law? Why do you seek to kill
me?’ The crowd answered, You have a demon who seeks to kill
you. Jesus answered them, I did one
deed. And you all marveled. For this
reason, Moses has given you circumcision, not because it is from Moses,
but from the fathers. And on the Sabbath, you circumcise
a man. If a man receives the circumcision
on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses will not be broken,
are you angry with me because I made an entire man well on
the Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance,
but judge with righteous judgment. So some of the people were saying,
is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? Look, he’s
speaking publicly and they are saying nothing to him. The rulers
do not know that this is the Christ, do they? However, we
know where this man is from, but whenever the Christ may come,
no one knows where he is from. Then Jesus cried out in the temple,
teaching and saying, You both know Me and know where I am from. And I have not come of Myself,
but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. I know Him,
because I am from Him, and He sent Me. So they were seeking
to seize Him. And no man laid his hand on Him,
because His hour had not yet come. But many of the crowd believed
in Him, And they were saying, when the Christ comes, he will
not perform more signs than those which this man has, will he?
The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about
him. And the chief priest and the Pharisees sent officers to
seize him. Therefore Jesus said, for a little
while longer I am with you. Then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and will not
find me. and where I am you cannot come.”
The Jews then said to one another, where does this man intend to
go that we will not find him? He’s not intending to go to the
dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? What
is this statement that he said, you will seek me and will not
find me, and where I am you cannot come? anyone is thirsty, let him come
to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the
scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living
water. But this he spoke of the Spirit,
whom those who believed in him were to receive. But the Spirit
was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Jesus
heals first. in this lengthy section with
his brothers, giving them a divine perspective at the setting of
this revelation, the prompter, the request of his brothers,
and the details of the revelation to them. But then Jesus turns
to those who were criticizing him, and on three particular
occasions, each time prompted by one of their thoughts or comments,
Jesus takes up a defense. We saw that he took up a defense
in verse 15 of his teaching. His teaching was worth fighting
for. His teaching was worth standing
up for. But then, they criticize him
for the thought that he has that they’re seeking to kill him.
He knows well what their intentions are. Well, they deny it. Vociferously, they deny it. You
have a demon who seeks to kill you. In the strongest terms,
they deny what He knows in their heart they’re purposing to do.
And He defends His healing. That healing, that ministry of
Christ, was worth defending. There was a third defense that
He mounted. It was the defense of His origin,
that He had come from the Heavenly Father. That was worth fighting
for. Jesus has dealt with his brothers,
and in a sense he has dealt with things worth defending, but now
he comes face to face with his detractors, with those who are
engaged in this plot. And he wants to deal with the
spiritual condition of these detractors. There are three phases
to what unfolds before us here in verses 32 through 39. First
of all, consider the spiritual condition of Jesus’
detractors, look at the desperate nature of their condition. We
see it in verse 32. The Pharisees heard the crowd
muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and
the Pharisees sent officers to seize him. We know already that
they have designed or concocted a murderous plot, and all they
do here is set it in motion. It’ll take almost six months
to bring to fruition. They will not stop until it’s
accomplished, but it really begins to take place here. Therefore Jesus said, for a little
while longer I’m with you. Then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and will not
find me, and where I am you cannot come. Jesus captures the Pharisees. He knows what their plan is. The Pharisees, all they did,
all that really stirred this up, was not like the triumphal
entry that Christ would ultimately enjoy. People waving palm branches,
falling down before Him. They merely were wandering aloud. The way it’s translated in most
of our translations, muttering. That is separate, distinct from
murmuring, which we’ve looked at, which does have kind of a
caustic tone to it. Murmuring is negative in general. This was just muttering. I wonder
if this is the one. Oftentimes, muttering takes the
form of a complaint. We don’t really know what has
been said. It’s under the breath, so to speak. But here, it isn’t
necessary. they were finding fault with
Christ. They were wondering if He was legitimate. They were
beginning to see that this might indeed be somebody worth listening
to. There was a buzz, if you will,
there was a buzz in the crowd about Jesus. People were saying,
as we might say in our day and age, people were paying attention
to Christ. He was drawing a crowd. And the
statements that they made were not definitive But in many cases, they were
just conjecture. I wonder if this could be the
messiah. I wonder if this is the prophet. I wonder if this
guy is for real. But it was the conclusions that
the crowd was drawing, the direction in which they were heading, that
was such a great concern of the Pharisees. The crowd was beginning
to wonder, even aloud, though muttered, whether Jesus might
indeed be the messiah. That movement, according to the
Jewish elite, must be stopped dead in its tracks. See, the
Pharisees had heard the talk of the people, they had heard
their muttering, and they purposed to do none other than silence
Jesus by whatever means. hands were somewhat tied. They
were the legal experts. They were the ones that looked
at the Old Testament law and interpreted it and rendered conclusions. And that was about as far as
they could go. They had to take their request to the ruling council
called the Sanhedrin. And so they do. They reported
it to the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the ruling
supreme We might even say, like in our own land, the Supreme
Court. They were the ones that rendered
the decision final. They were the ones that could
render a verdict that meted out justice. The Pharisees could
do the legwork, but they had to submit it to the Sanhedrin
and have them sign off on it. This is exactly what plays out,
ultimately, in Christ’s arrest and crucifixion. So the Pharisees,
they have no power. They have no power to bring a
sentence of death. They have to align themselves
and get the Sadducees to see their way in order to conform
with Roman law. And so they take this case to
the Sadducees. Now, in this council, it was
made up of a variety of different peoples made up of the high priest,
and really all ex-high priests. Everybody who had served as a
high priest was kind of grandfathered in, if you will, as part of this
ruling council, including some of their own sons, because they
were in the pipeline for future ministry. These were the political
kind of rulers of Jerusalem, Add to that, not only the priests,
the high priests, the ex-priests, their sons, but then the elders
were another grouping, and the Pharisees were also part of this
group. But to call an official meeting
of the Sanhedrin was a very serious matter. Without the consent of
the high priest, the arrest of Jesus would not have been approved
by the Sanhedrin. Without the St. Hedron’s approval,
the Pharisees couldn’t have even charged Jesus with a crime. The interesting thing is, the
Gospels constantly point out, we hear the name Pharisees all
the time through the Gospels, don’t we? We don’t hear about
the Sadducees so much. The Pharisees were the ones that
were dogging Christ’s steps. The Pharisees were the ones that
were making and building the case against Him. But the Sadducees were in a place
of power. And the fascinating thing in this particular account
is to know how quickly, how quickly these two groups form a bond,
the Pharisees and the Sadducees. You see, they were essentially
mutual arch enemies. Pharisees and Sadducees. And yet suddenly, because of
this common hatred for Christ. I would say that it would be
more likely for the Democrats and Republicans of our own day
to lay down their defenses, blend, holding hands, and marching forward
in one common agenda. These were hated enemies, mutually
hated. Well, they find one common purpose. Nothing unites like a common
enemy. going before the Sanhedrin, making
a case, arriving at a charge that they could levy at Christ
together with the sentence of death. Jesus knows all about it. Jesus
isn’t afraid. Essentially, this is what Jesus
came to do. The officers are looking for
an opportunity to arrest Christ Therefore Jesus said, he didn’t
turn and flee, he didn’t rebuke them, he just said, for a little
while longer I’m with you, then I go to him who sent me, he will
seek me and will not find me, and where I am you cannot come.
Jesus wants them to know just how desperate their spiritual
condition is. And with great gentleness he
tells them, how desperate their situation is. Maybe even Jesus
saw about him in the midst of this crowd that the guards begin
to filter in, those who would purpose to arrest him. Maybe
he saw them physically gathering, but either way he knew of the
plot to have him arrested. The plot has been forming, remember, detailed here in John’s Gospel.
John 5.18, following the healing of the man by the pool, for this
reason, because Jesus healed on the Sabbath, for this reason,
therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because
he knew that he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but was
also calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Jesus healed a man, The man next to the pool of Siloam, and from
the follow-up conversation that ensued, the Jews purposed to
kill him. This has been going on. Jesus
says, for a little while I’m with you. He wants them to know
the desperate condition that they’re in. For a little while
longer I’m with you, and then I go to him who sent me. He’s
not going to back away from that claim one bit. Jesus knows the
end of his ministry is drawing near. He’s got about six months
left before the Passover when He would serve as the Passover
Lamb for all mankind. From the start, Jesus has articulated
that the Father, the Heavenly Father, is His own in a very
special and unique way. Not just in the sense that God
is the Father of all mankind, but that He was. And that father was the one who
had sent him. And Jesus says here that he is
going back to his father. This is repeated throughout this
section. We just read it. Look at verse
16. Jesus answered and said, My teaching
is not mine, but him who sent me, namely the father. In verses
28-29, Jesus cried out in the temple, saying, you both know
me and know where I am from, that I have not come off myself,
but he who sent me, that is the heavenly Father, is true, whom
you do not know. I know him because I am from
him, and he sent me. Jesus here, when he says, for
a little while I’m with you, then I go to him who sent me,
he’s referring, of course, to the end of his ministry, he’s
referring heaven where He would be with His Heavenly Father.
But note verse 34. This is where Jesus tells them
about their desperate condition. You will seek me and will not
find me and where I am you cannot come. It’s very plainly evident that
what He’s talking about here is heaven. This is what He’s
been saying all the while, that He is going to go back to His
Heavenly Father. Jesus isn’t saying here that
He’s going to go find a place where they cannot possibly find
Him in order to kill Him. Because Jesus already knows that
His ultimate purpose is to pay the sin of the world on the cross. Jesus isn’t fleeing that duty
and responsibility. The warning here is a merciful
warning of danger to them. He wants them to know what dangerous
footing they are on. That even though they think they
have their lives in their own hands, they think they have His
life in their own hands. The truth is that Jesus is going
back to heaven where they will not have the opportunity to go,
they can’t just waltz into heaven anytime they choose. I love the
way J.C. Ryle put it here. There is a
great Bible truth taught here. The possibility of men seeking
salvation when it is too late. God is unspeakably merciful,
no doubt, but there is a limit even to God’s mercy. Jesus is
referring to his death here, that when he goes to be with
the Heavenly Father, they will begin to look for him. And some,
some seeking to kill him again, if they could. Some seeking perhaps
more information, if he might. Some desperately saddened by
what they’ve done. Jesus tells them it’s a moral
impossibility. You cannot come to heaven. You cannot be where I am with
the Heavenly Father. Jesus tells them the desperate
nature of their condition. But in the course of addressing
the spiritual condition of these detractors, he comes to a second
point there in verse 35. What John does here is just simply
record sustained evidence of their condition. You would think
that if they caught wind of this detail in verse 34, that Jesus
was going to go to a place where they could not come, might it
possibly be heaven itself? That they might give pause, might
rethink their steps, might see the error of their way, their
sins. look at the sustained evidence
of their condition. In verse 35, then the Jews said
to one another, where does this man intend to go that we will
not find him? He’s not intending to go into
the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he?
What is this statement that he said, you will seek me and you
will not find me, and where I am you cannot see? You can almost hear the snickers,
chuckling, hearty, even at feigned laughter. You can hear that,
can’t you? Where does this man intend to go that we will not
find him? Where does he think he’s going
to go that we can’t get him? Even in their own words, they
reveal their guilt in their developing plot against him. If there was
ever a time to repent or to clarify their position, or to back away
from the rabble of the crowd, this is the time. Why, Jesus,
we’re not after you, they could have clarified. Or they could
have said, Jesus, we were totally wrong in this. We repent. We mean you no harm. But that’s
not what they said. Essentially, what they say is,
there isn’t anywhere on the face of the earth that you could go
and we couldn’t find you. We’re going to get you. It’s
a matter of time. In their mind, there’s only one place that they
could go that these self-righteous men wouldn’t dare to go. And that was into the dispersion,
what was known as the dispersion. The surrounding areas around
Jerusalem, Judea, Those hybridized cities blended, cities and towns,
blended with Gentiles and Jews. Ever since the exile to Babylon,
there had been Jews living outside of Jerusalem. Ultimately, when
God brought them back, some Jews chose to remain. If you can imagine,
they had built a new life there, And they chose to stay even among
the heathen Gentiles. James, writing his epistle, mentions
this same thing. James chapter 1, verse 1, note
the term, it’s literally one verse. The opening of the book
of James says, James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad. He’s talking
about those who are in the diaspora, the dispersion. It’s a fascinating
word. Spora is seed, dia is to cast
the seed, and essentially it pictures the nation of Israel
as scattered seed throughout the land. They had originally
been driven out, pulled out literally by exile, then they were driven
out, driven afar by persecution. So often times this word is used
in scripture to speak used in a technical sense to speak of
those Jewish people living outside of Jerusalem. James, of course,
when he uses it, he’s writing to members of the church, largely
Jewish believers, members of the Christian church who are
now scattered abroad. The Greeks, the Greek language,
The Greek culture, Greek literature, Greek philosophy had so influenced
the Jewish culture outside that sometimes you couldn’t even tell
by the way people were living whether they were Jews or not.
And this, to the strict Jew living in Jerusalem,
was utterly detestable. As one said it, the Palestinian
Jews of stricter sort looked down on the Jews of the dispersion
and despised all Gentiles. There was something contemptuous
in their suggestion that Jesus might be contemplating a journey
to these foreign parts. So the conclusion is simple.
There isn’t anywhere that you could go Jesus, that we can’t
find you. Unless, of course, you’re going
to stoop so low as to go out into the dispersion, the low
life of the Jewish nation, who have the audacity to live and
breathe among the heathen, the Greeks, the Gentiles, and in
their self-righteous arrogance. They wouldn’t be caught dead
there, even in their hateful pursuit of Christ. The amazing
thing is, you jump forward and you look back on this as John
is obviously doing. The amazing thing is this, these
areas, the dispersion became the very fertile soil for the
spread of the Gospel. Those who are so against Christ
here suggest that perhaps He intends to go to these God forsaken
places. forbidden among stricter Jews
to even set foot in these cities, these would become the very places
where the gospel would take root and flourish. The very thing
that they thought was so absurd was afterwards accomplished by
the Holy Spirit in the use of the initial apostles of the church,
evangelists, preachers of the gospel, I was thumbing through
a book last week that reminded me of this very thing. It was a picture of the 50s here
in our own country. And there was a little sign taped
above a drinking fountain. Whites only. And I thought, you
know, what seemed utterly absurd to us now, looking at that picture,
must have been the same way for John looking back and seeing
the Jews and seeing their reaction. The unthinkable idea of going
into the dispersion to actually preach the gospel. Look at verse 36. These men were
so hardened in their heart, showing such clear evidence There’s a
crack in the ice. Verse 36, they said, what statement
is this that he said, you will seek me and will not find me,
and where I am you cannot come, it haunted them. This crowd almost
never quotes Jesus accurately. They’re always looking to twist
his words so as to falsely accuse him. They’re so completely shaken
by this statement that they recite it verbatim. You see, the saying
bothered them. It vexed them. It puzzled them. It made them completely insecure,
uneasy. They knew that there was something
to these words. They knew that they were enigmatic
of sorts. You will seek me. and you will
not find me, and where I am you cannot come.” But they couldn’t
make heads or tails what it meant they knew deep in their own hearts
of their own desperate condition. Jesus is speaking to them for
that very purpose. He wants them to know their spiritual
condition. And as John writes, He’s painting
the picture of the spiritual condition of these Jewish detractors.
Not only their desperate nature, verses 32 through 34, the sustained
evidence of their condition, verses 35 and 36, but in verse
37 and following, we see the only help for their desperate
condition. Their situation is severe. Their
situation is that of the lost. Their situation is that of any
sinner ever born on the face of the earth. They’re in a desperate
condition. They are desperate for a Savior. They desperately need Christ. They desperately need forgiveness.
And without Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, they are in desperate
straits. help for their desperate condition.
Look at verse 37, Now on the last day, the day of the great
feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If anyone is thirsty,
let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the
scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living
water. But this he spoke of the Spirit,
whom those who believed in him were to receive. but the Spirit
was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. We believe this was likely the
eighth day of this celebration, the last day. It was kind of
a wrap-up day. It was a day of worship. It was
to be treated as a Sabbath. And according to the Scripture,
this day was reckoned among all the rest of them. Leviticus 23
addresses it. For seven days you shall present an offering
by fire to the Lord. Remember, this is the Feast of
Tabernacles, but the purpose is not a camping trip. The purpose
is that of worship, it’s that of thanksgiving, it’s that of
reviewing the year in your own heart and mind, and for seven
days you would present an offering. On the eighth day, which day? We believe this is. On the eighth
day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire
to the Lord. It is an assembly, which means
it’s a command performance. Everybody was expected to be
there. You shall do no laborious work. It was a Sabbath day. It
was a special day. in the Jewish community. They
would offer their sacrifices. They would, in keeping with the
solemn nature of the day, they would worship God. And it’s in
that particular context that Jesus, on the last day of this
great feast, Jesus stands up and literally cries out. The
word is graphic. He pleads with the crowd. and he brings them a message.
There was a custom that had developed where the priests would go to
the pool of Siloam, that same pool of Siloam where Jesus had
healed the man. They would dip a golden vessel
every day and they would bring that golden vessel full of water
to the altar and pour it on the altar as an offering before God
of water. As I said, this wasn’t commanded,
this became a tradition, a custom if you will, something that they
would kind of add in as if they were offering to God water. It was a reminder of how God
had supplied Israel’s need of water in the wilderness. Remember
the rock? Remember God had just told Moses
that from this rock you will get water? It was a miracle.
On the eighth day, the ceremony was omitted, though. For seven
days, they would pour water on the altar. And on the eighth, they would not. And so Christ’s
invitation comes here in a much more poignant way when he presents
himself as the water. This ritual, comprised of offering
this water, pouring it out, it was symbolic. It was symbolic
of God’s giving of rain, God providing water, and it looked
as much forward as it did backward. They were not only thanking God
for the water that he had provided, but they were in a sense pleading
with God to provide yet more water. It was an act of thanksgiving
and it was an act of prayer all at the same time. And so the
people, you can imagine, were in a very excited, joyful, jubilant
mood. They were worshiping God. This
ceremony all week long had reminded them of what God had provided
and what God had provided to their forefathers, ultimately
even the water from the rock. And what Jesus does here is seize
upon the use of this water, this as He begins to speak of the
living water that He will give, that He would provide. The people,
they’re just thinking of rain, thinking of streams that flow
through the mountain valleys, but Jesus turns their attention
to something more than just physical thirst. He turns it to their
spiritual condition. And He says that only He would
supply it. The water that they would drink,
the water that would water their crops, would do so in a very
temporary fashion and that’s why they had to repeat this festival
year after year after year. Jesus on the last day, the great
day of the feast, stood and cried aloud saying, if anyone is thirsty,
let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the
scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living
water. Jesus, you might even say in
our vernacular, he delted it out. He didn’t scream, he proclaimed
loudly the gospel. Note that he invites the thirsty. He says if anyone is thirsty,
and mind you, He doesn’t say anyone. He says anyone who’s
thirsty. Jesus had used a similar phrase
in Matthew’s Gospel. It’s like those who need the
physician. If anyone needs a physician,
Matthew 9 verse 10 records it as this. It happened as Jesus
was reclining at the table in the house. Behold, many tax collectors
and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this,
they said to His disciples, Why is your teacher eating with the
tax collectors and sinners? But when Jesus heard this, He
said, It is not those who are healthy who need a physician,
but those who are sick. But go and learn. what this means.
I desire compassion, not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the
righteous, but sinners.” You know what? There isn’t a
man created who does not need a physician
sooner or later. But they need to know of their
need and they need to acknowledge their need before they will make
an appointment, right? It’s got to get pretty bad for
some of us. And that’s especially true of a spiritual physician.
But they need to know of their need and acknowledge their need
before they will make an appointment, before they will acknowledge
their need of a spiritual physician. There isn’t a person alive who
doesn’t need a spiritual physician. There isn’t a person alive who
doesn’t need Christ. There isn’t a person alive who
is not spiritually thirsty. but they need to know of their
thirst. And they need to acknowledge their thirst before they will
ever be inclined to take a drink. It wasn’t just anyone who Jesus
was appealing to. It was those who were spiritually
thirsty. Those who are spiritually thirsty
are made so by God Himself. He has brought on their thirst.
He has made them aware of their desperate spiritual condition.
They have come to the place where unless they drink of this spiritual
water, they will die in that spiritual thirst. He says, if anyone is thirsty, come. Come and drink. And he just tells them to respond
and be filled with that very thing which they lack. Come and
drink. And what an inappropriate image.
In a desert land where water was such a desperate commodity,
we take it for granted. We could go within 10 steps and
find water in our own day. Yet in that particular arena,
in a desert land, water was symbolic of the one thing that was so
desperately needed by every living thing in the physical world. And it’s in that same vein that
Jesus takes it and turns it into a spiritual image. In so doing,
He really draws out an image that the Jews were very familiar
with. Isaiah 55-1, they would have
known this. Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.
And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and
milk without money, without cost. Isaiah 58-11. The Lord will continually
guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places and give you
strength through your bones and it will be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Jesus says,
if you are thirsty, come. But His last statement is just
absolutely amazing. That we will become a life-giving
flow of that spiritual water to others, from his innermost
being will flow rivers of living water. What an amazing thought. The interesting thing is the
exact words here, Jesus says, as the scripture says, from his
innermost being will flow rivers of living water. There isn’t
a verse that says it exactly like that. But you can back away
and you can draw this same conclusion from the pages of Scripture.
Isaiah 12, Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord God is my strength and song, He has become my salvation,
therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. Isaiah 44, verse 3 and 4, For
I will pour out my water on the thirsty land, and streams on
the dry ground, I will pour out my on your descendants, and they
will spring up among the grass like poplars by streams of water. Isaiah 58, 11, which verse we
just read, the Lord will continually guide you, satisfy your desire
in scorched places, give strength to your bones. You will be like
a watered garden. Zechariah 13, 1, in that day
a fountain will be opened for the house of David, for the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity. Zechariah 14.8, in
that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them
toward the eastern sea, the other half toward the western sea will
be summer as well as in winter. In other words, there would be
this endless supply. And Jesus says here that essentially,
that in coming to Christ, in coming to Christ yourself, you
transform yourself in coming to Christ into a kind of a conduit
from which this water begins to flow, and flow not only to
you, but to others. As one said, if the believer
cannot end in satisfying his own thirst only, he at once becomes
a fount from which others may derive refreshment. Did you get
that? that if you come to Christ, you
place your faith in Christ and begin to walk in fellowship with
Him, you ultimately become a conduit of that same living water to
others. As one said, he who is drunk
deep of the living waters, which are a gift of Christ Himself,
in turn and in humbler measure, He becomes a servant of God,
and God uses him to be the means of bringing the blessing to others. A fountain from which the water
of life flows for the refreshment of others. Do you remember chapter
one of John’s Gospel? I realize it was some time ago.
Do you remember the first thing that Andrew did when he met Christ?
The very first thing he did was go and find his brother. He found
Peter. Do you remember Philip? As soon as Philip heard Christ
and knew that He was the Messiah, he went and found Nathanael. When Jesus was teaching the woman
at the well, He essentially told her the same truth. Whoever drinks
of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the
water that I will give him will become in him a well of water,
springing up to eternal life. Now here’s the truth. If anyone is thirsty, come and
drink. And if that person has drunk
of the water of life, Jesus says from his innermost being will
flow rivers of living water, unending supply. Do you realize that when you share
with someone, you are giving, when you give them the gospel,
you are giving them something that is so far and away greater than anything
that we could ever give, any money that we could ever give
and provide. You’re literally giving to them,
you’re giving to them salvation. You’re giving to them forgiveness.
You’re giving to them eternal life. And look at what verse
39 tells you. You’re giving to them the Holy
Spirit. life, you’re opening up to the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 39, this he spoke
of the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive. So the Spirit was not yet given
because Jesus was not yet glorified. Now John is looking back and
he’s seeing Christ giving this sermon and he interprets it forward. He says, look, the Holy Spirit
at this juncture had not what the gift was. That it’s
God’s own Holy Spirit that having regenerated him, brought him
to life, given him salvation, brought him to faith, now courses
through him. This is John essentially living
out that verse. J.C. Ryle. One of my favorite
commentators said it this way, he said, the Holy Spirit was
not yet with men in such fullness of influence on their minds,
hearts, and understandings as the spirit of adoption and revelation
as he was after Jesus ascended to heaven. Believers were meant
to receive a far more full and complete outpouring of the Spirit
after his ascension than he had received before. You see, the
Holy Spirit the initiator of salvation. Remember, He seeks
us out. He finds us in our desperate
and dead condition. And He breathes life, brings
us to life. He brings us to faith. He brings
us to repentance. And then He takes up residence
within us. There’s nothing that you could give anybody any greater
than that. When you share the Gospel, You
share not only forgiveness. You share eternal life. You share the Holy Spirit. You
invite them to come and to drink at the waters of Almighty God
himself. And to have those same waters
course through them as well. My question to you is when was
the last time that you told somebody? When was the last time that you
invited somebody? When was the last time that you
pleaded with someone to give their life and faith to Christ?
Let’s examine our hearts. Our merciful King, we thank you
as we see your merciful spirit in dealing with the desperate
condition of these men. We see evidence of it, we know
the union of their hearts, we see the evidence of it as it
presents itself on the pages of scripture, and we see the
only hope for them. That in the face of the very
people that were seeking His death, Jesus Christ preached
life, eternal life. That if only they would turn
and come that if only they would recognize their desperate thirst, that they too would become conduits
of living water. Lord, we have to believe that
some in that crowd, some in that crowd did give. Some in that
crowd did give their life to Christ. Some in that crowd did
turn from their sin and call out to Christ for that living
spiritual water. That some in that crowd did become
those very conduits of grace and of that living water. That
from then the gospel began to spread forth even to the dispersion
and beyond. That God used them in such a
powerful way. And that trickles down even to
us. Through the pages of scripture. Through people like John. who
heard this, filled with the Holy Spirit, wrote this very Gospel
to others who have shared the faith throughout the centuries,
and it trickles down to us even to this day. Lord, grant us the
grace that we would speak. And if there are any in the room
that have not come, if they recognize their thirst, their desperate
thirst Not for a physical drink of water, but for the deep and
spiritual water that only Christ can provide. The forgiveness of sin. Lord,
we pray that you would bring them to repentance even this
day. Show them their need, their thirst. Show them that Christ
is So we close, if you would take
your hymnals and turn to 468, My Faith Has Found a Resting
Place, we’ll stand together and sing.