It is easy to make Scripture too familiar by knowing it but not applying it to our lives. I was convicted this week as I read John 7:37-39, 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. 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, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Do our spiritual lives resemble that which was promised by our Savior? Are we spiritually thirsty and don't even know it? Let’s examine this passage and determine if it promises spiritual vitality for every Christian, even you, even me.
The background (37), On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out,
• It was the Feast of Booths which is also called the Feast of Tabernacles.
• It combined a celebration of harvest and the dwelling in outdoor booths.
• This ritual reminded them of the water from the rock during the wilderness wanderings and it spoke
prophetically of the coming days of the Messiah.
• Jesus was proclaiming that He is the fulfillment of all that the Feast of Tabernacles was anticipating.
A promise of spiritual vitality (38-39)
The condition (38a), If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me,
• Jesus identified Himself as the One Who provides living water.
• Unbelievers need relationship - Philip Yancey, Does God really want close contact with us? Jesus
gave up Heaven for it. In person he reestablished the original link between God and human beings,
between seen and unseen worlds.
• Believers need fellowship - Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), Never despair of finding Him...Seek
Him by desire, follow Him through action, and in faith you will find Him.
The confirmation (38b), as the Scripture has said,
• Zechariah 14:8, On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern
sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter.
• Ezekiel 47:9, Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be
very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh; and everything will live where the
river goes.
The contrast (38c), 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'
• The Feast of Booths celebrated the temporary water provided during the wilderness wanderings but
Jesus declared that He would provide rivers of living water.
• John 4:14, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water
that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
• Augustine (4th C), You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their
rest in You.
• C. S. Lewis, Our longing is for intimacy with God... What we want is what we were created to have. To
be who we were created to be.
The channel (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.
• Christians can experience this blessing now because the living water is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16, Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
• Romans 8:9, But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
The commitment
• Matthew 22:37-39, And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is
like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
• Phillip Yancey, I could summarize my entire spiritual pilgrimage as an effort to move the operating
center from myself to God.
Let’s take Jesus at His word and expect more spiritual vitality this year. The source of living water is Jesus. It is channeled through the Holy Spirit to overflow one’s inner being. When one’s experience doesn’t match the promises of Jesus, it is probably because the channel is clogged. Disobedience limits the flow of the Spirit, 1 Thessalonians 5:19, Do not quench the Spirit. Obedience to the Spirit produces life and peace, Romans 8:6, To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Oswald Chambers rightly declares, It is a bad thing to be satisfied spiritually...we are as close to God as we want to be. May we be refreshed daily by living water as we seek Him Who sought us first.