Verse 14, again, Jesus had gone up in the middle of the feast. And now, as we come to verse 37, it’s the last day, the great day of the feast, and he stands up and cries out and teaches in our text this morning. Well, the origin, I should say, of this feast comes from Leviticus chapter 23. This is where God gives the instructions of this feast that Jesus is at in our text. You can turn to Leviticus 23 if you’d like, but listen to the instructions that God gives the people of Israel for this feast that was supposed to be remembered every single year. It’s in Leviticus chapter 23 beginning in verse 33, and this is what it says.

Again, Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, on the 15th of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths. For seven days to Yahweh. On the first day is a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work of any kind. For seven days you shall bring an offering of fire near to Yahweh. And on the eighth day, you shall have a holy convocation and bring an offering by fire near to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly. You shall do no laborious work. These are the appointed times of Yahweh which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to bring offerings by fire near to Yahweh, burnt offerings and grain offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings. Each day’s matter on its own day, besides those of the Sabbaths of Yahweh and besides your gifts and besides all your votive freewill offerings which you will give to Yahweh.

On exactly the 15th day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of Yahweh for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. And on the first day, you shall take yourselves foliage of beautiful trees, and palm branches, and boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook.

And you shall be glad before Yahweh, your God, for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to Yahweh for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations and you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall live in booths for seven days.

All the native born in Israel shall live in booths so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God. So Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, the appointed times of Yahweh. So this is the feast that Jesus is at in our text, the feast of booths or feast of tabernacles or of dwelling places.

It spanned from one Sabbath day to another, a full week, really eight days because it’s Saturday to Saturday, they’re Sabbath to Sabbath. Again, they were to live in booths or live in tents for a full week. It was a camping week, if you will. They were to remember that this is what Israel did. They lived in booths or in tabernacles or tents while they were going through the wilderness, after God had delivered them.

God told his people to remember this in yearly feasts, the seventh month of every year. and to remember the great things he had done for them and specifically when he delivered them out of slavery in Egypt. God’s purpose in bringing the people out of Egypt and through the wilderness was to show his power and his love for Israel, to make for himself a people, to identify them with himself. He did this so that Israel would always cling to him and obey him and trust him. And so the Feast of Booths reminded the people of this journey through the wilderness and how God had miraculously provided all their needs. And one of those needs that God had provided was water.

As he brought them out through the Exodus, they came out to the desert in the wilderness and they had no water. Exodus 17 tells us of this story. In the beginning verses of Exodus 17, Moses tells us of how soon after the people were delivered from Egypt, they went south from the wilderness of sin and camped at a place called Rephidim. And it turns out there was no water in that place. So instead of trusting God, who had just parted the Red Sea for them to cross on dry land and then enclosed the sea on the armies of Pharaoh. They’d just seen this with their own eyes and now they have no water and all hope is lost. Because in the Exodus chapter 17 verse three, it tells us how the people reacted to seeing no water in this wilderness place where they were in. Exodus 17 verse three says, but the people thirsted there for water and they grumbled against Moses. and said, why now have you brought us out of Egypt to put us and our children and our livestock to death with thirst?

God had delivered them and revealed himself as their redeemer. And the people grumbled in response. That’s the word Moses uses. And it’s no coincidence that John has used that very same word, grumbled. several times in the narrative leading up to this point, this point of the feast that remembers the very time when the Israelites grumbled to their Redeemer. The people grumbled in response to God’s provision. We’re supposed to see that connection. And so, in response to their grumbling, Moses cried out to the Lord and God caused water to come out of the rock.

As the following verses in Exodus 17 tell us, starting in verse 4, it says, Moses cried out to Yahweh saying, what shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me. And Yahweh said to Moses, pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel, taking your hand, your staff, with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you will strike the rock, and water will come out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

So he named the place Massah and Meribah because of the contending of the sons of Israel, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, Is Yahweh among us or not? Is Yahweh among us or not? In its original setting, this is a ridiculous and ironic question. Of course He’s among them. Look at what He had just done. He parted the sea for them. How could it not be Yahweh that was among them? And Yahweh points out to them the ridiculousness of their question. But of course, this was not the only generation that faced this question.

Because in our setting here in John 7, These people are faced with this very same question, and it’s no less ridiculous or ironic, given all that Jesus had done to prove himself to them. If you remember verse 31 here of John chapter 7, many of the crowd believed in him and they were saying, when the Christ comes, will he do more signs than this man did? Is Yahweh among us or not? And all of these allusions to the passage in Exodus and in Leviticus, all of the things demonstrated in John 7 that are supposed to remind us of these things in the original establishment of this feast and why it was established.

They show us what Jesus is showing these people. And what we see in our text today are really two divisions. First, we see an invitation. Jesus gives an invitation to these people and then we see a promise. Jesus gives an invitation and then a promise. So allow me to read our verses that we’ll focus on this morning. John chapter 7 verses 37 to 39. This is the word of the Lord.

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. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. But he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

First of all, in our text this morning, what we see from Jesus is the invitation. And again, remember that this is following Jesus’ warning to those Jews that were refusing to believe in him, his warning to them that he would not always be there for them to seek. And we saw in verse 34, last week, he warns them and says, you will seek me. There will come a time when you will seek me and you will not find me. And where I am, you cannot come.

And now, just a few days later, He’s still inviting them to come. He is still giving them the good news that he is the Messiah. On the last day, again, a few days later, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

Again, the setting is important in this invitation. This is on the last day, the great day of the feast. And on each day of this feast, they performed a ritual of pouring out water to remember the water that God provided in the wilderness. That ceremony was not prescribed in the original instructions for this feast as we had seen in Leviticus, but it had come to be a tradition in the centuries leading up to this time where Jesus is at the feast. It not only remembered God’s miraculous provision, but it looked forward to the time when the Messiah would come. And this is how commentators describe this feast that’s going on right now, and then the ritual that would take place. This is what they say.

Each day of the feast, the high priest drew water from the pool of Siloam and carried it in a procession back to the temple. At the water gate on the south side of the inner court of the temple, three blasts were sounded on a shofar or a trumpet made of a ram’s horn to mark the joy of the occasion. They would then recite Isaiah chapter 12 verse 3, which says, therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. So all of this imagery is going on in this feast. Then at the temple, the priests marched around the altar while the temple choir sang the Hallelujah Psalms, which are Psalms 113 to 118.

The water was then poured out as an offering to God. Then on the seventh day, the last day of the feast, the priests marched around the altar seven times before pouring out the water. So this is the day of the feast that we’re on. Here on this last day of this ritual, the big day, the day where it was a bigger celebration than normal, and Jesus capitalizes on this opportunity to reveal to them once again who he is. All of this imagery of the water, the way that God delivered them and provided for them, Jesus sees as opportunity. to show them that He is the deliverer, and He is the provision for them. And He stands up while this procession is going on. You can think of all the pomp and circumstance of them marching with this water from the pool to the temple, and they march around the altar seven times, and all this is going on.

And Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. This was a gospel invitation from Jesus. This was the good news. Instead of looking forward to the time when the Messiah would come and provide this for them, he was here. He was here offering this living water to them. And there are three elements to Jesus’ invitation.

First, he asks if anyone is thirsty. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me.” So first of all, they need to recognize their need, recognize their thirst, recognize what they lack. Just like any sinner in need of salvation, the first thing is to recognize your sin, to recognize the need you have for a Savior. You must recognize your sinfulness.

We see this in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have sinned, whether they recognize it or not. But the first step is to recognize it.

As Romans 6.23 tells us, the wages of sin is death. That comes first, recognizing. That the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. So the first element of this invitation is that they need to recognize their need. If you are thirsty, come to him. And the second part, Jesus says, let him come. If anyone is thirsty, let him come.

Those who recognize their need for Him must then come to Him. This is repentance, seeing your sin and turning from your sin and turning to Christ. You not only need to see your sin, you need to see your Savior. In Romans 5, 8, God demonstrates His own love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Later in John 14, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

And we know Acts 4.12, well, there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

You need to see your Savior. You need to see your sin, and you need to see your Savior. But Jesus doesn’t just leave it there. Not only do they need to recognize their thirst and come to Him, thirdly, He says they also need to drink. Not only do you need to see your sin and see your Savior, you need to trust in Him. You need to trust that He is your Savior. You need to trust that He alone can pay that price. As Romans 10 verse 9 tells us, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

In Acts 16.31, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

This is a full gospel invitation that Jesus gives them. Those who thirst need to come and drink. Sinners need to recognize their sin, see their Savior, and come to Him and drink, and trust Him for salvation. This is the invitation that Jesus gives these people who are seeking to kill Him. He stands up in the crowd and tells everyone, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. That is the invitation that Jesus gives to this crowd. And next we see the promise.

He gives them an invitation, then he goes on to give them a promise. In verse 38, he goes on to say, he who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. So first, you need to come to Him. You need to believe in Him. And then he says, and he who believes in me, as the scripture said.

This is not a direct quote from scripture, but it is meant to bring to mind several Old Testament promises. Some of them include the passage I read to open the service this morning from Isaiah 44. where it says, I will pour out water on the thirsty ground and streams on the dry land and I will pour out my spirit on your seed and my blessing on your offspring. This is looking forward to the time when Israel will experience salvation. When God will pour out his spirit and it’s speaking of it as if it’s water being poured out on the thirsty ground. I read from Isaiah 55 last week where it speaks of everyone who thirsts will come to the waters, speaking of salvation once again. And other passages that speak of that day of salvation and deliverance using language of springs of water springing up are places like Isaiah 49 verse 10 that says, they will not hunger or thirst. Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down, for he who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them to springs of water.” Or in Zechariah, Zechariah who speaks of the promised Messiah that’s coming and what that day will be like. In Zechariah 14, speaking of the fulfillment of the day of the Lord.

It says, and it will be in that day that the living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the Eastern Sea and the other half to the Western Sea. It will be in summer as well as in winter. The day of the Lord will be like streams of flowing water.

And this was familiar imagery to this Jewish crowd. They knew the imagery of water was well correlated with the Messiah. All of these promises in the Old Testament speak of the day of salvation using this water language. And all of that ought to be coming to mind for these Jews at this great festival, remembering the provision of the Lord.

If you remember, Jesus made a similar announcement to the woman at the well in Samaria. Back in John chapter four, verses 13 and 14, Jesus answered and said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst, ever. But the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.

And all of this imagery of the springs of water overflowing and spreading to others ought to tell us something about the gospel and its effect on our lives. The gospel should not be a secret that we keep. Your faith ought not to be between you and God. It ought to be springing up within us so much that the people around us, the people that are around us in our lives are getting splashed by that water of our salvation. The gospel should be contagious. We should be spreading it. There’s one commenter, Leon Morris, very helpfully explains this idea that Jesus is speaking of.

He says it this way, believers are not self-centered. As they receive the gift of God, so they pass it on to others. Or to put the same thought in another way, when people believe they become servants of God and God uses them to be the means to bring blessings to others, the life that we are given When we come to Christ and become a Christian, it is not a life that’s meant to be lived by ourselves and for ourselves. That’s not what it means to be a Christian.

It is a life that is outward focused. As Jesus said, it’s springs of living water flowing out of us like rivers. It’s not a stagnant pool of water that does nothing and affects no one. It’s a life that, just like rivers and springs, moves outward. It’s constantly affecting others.

John gives us a clarifying comment here in verse 39, what exactly Jesus is speaking of. It says in verse 39, but this he spoke of the Spirit. whom those who believed in him were going to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.” This is what a life lived in the Spirit looks like.

It’s a life that serves others and affects others. When you think about the gifts of the Spirit, each and every one of them are gifts that are used to serve and minister to others. This is why I like to speak of them as ministries of the Spirit. They’re opportunities to serve other people by the power of the Spirit. So if you have some idea of a spiritual gift that’s supposed to be private or just for yourself, that is not a biblical view of a spiritual gift. That’s not a spiritual gift. That’s not what they’re for. The life of the Spirit and the gifting of the Spirit is for the edification and blessing of others.

And John says here that that gifting had not yet happened at the time when Jesus was speaking, because the Spirit had not yet been given. But even in John’s comment, his need to explain this shows you that at the time John wrote, it had been given, because he’s clarifying for his readers. You see, back in this time when Jesus was speaking, the Spirit hadn’t been given yet. Not like we know it. Not like John knew it and John’s audience knew it. Because the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. Now John is not saying that the Holy Spirit was not present or active in the past or in that time that Jesus was speaking.

But he was saying that there was going to be a time A time that was coming for believers that would be different than it was before. It would be a time when the Spirit was given in a way that was different than how the Spirit worked previously. The Spirit would be given to believers in a special way for ministry and evangelism and the growth of the church, and we see this happen in Acts chapter 2. at the beginning of the church. God was doing something different now. And all of the things that happen in Acts signify there’s a change here. God is working differently with His people now. This is a new stage in God’s redemptive plan. And this would be different than what they had experienced before.

Jesus makes this clarification in John chapter 14, the passage where he speaks of the giving of the Spirit. He says in verse 17, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him nor know him, you know him because he abides with you and he will be in you. Jesus says, the Spirit is with you now, but there’s a time coming that he will be in you. There’s a significant change coming. He was already with them, but he would be in them.

And here Jesus says, he’ll be in you in such a way that he will be overflowing, springing up like wells of water, overflowing and affecting those around you. And when Jesus was glorified in the ascension, The very event that he mentioned a few verses earlier, he then does give the Spirit to believers at Pentecost. From that day forward, the Spirit has indwelt every believer at the moment of their belief. Every single believer has what Jesus is talking about here.

They have the Holy Spirit in them. That’s what happened on the day of Pentecost. And what happened after that day? What happened after the Spirit was given? Did the church resemble a still and small puddle of water? Or did it look like a roaring river that was quickly overflowing its banks and could not be held back? That’s what Jesus was talking about.

This is what the life of a believer after the giving of the Spirit looks like. is a raging river overflowing, affecting those around you. This is the effect that the Spirit has on a believer’s life. This is the effect the Spirit has on the church. And when the church is Spirit-filled, which simply means the church is full of genuine believers. You often hear that language used, a Spirit-filled church. A Spirit-filled church is a church of believers who have been truly converted and have received the Holy Spirit like all believers do. When the church is Spirit-filled like that, it cannot help but affect the world around it. This is the very phenomena that Jesus is talking about here in John 7, from his innermost beings will flow.

Rivers of living water. Not will contain rivers of living water. Not that you will just be filled and that’ll be it. They will flow. Something will happen. People will notice. That is the promise that Jesus gives to believers here. The promise that he gives to his church. You will be changed. A river cannot flow without making a difference. And the Spirit cannot be present in your life without showing its effects. So there are two aspects of this text for us. First of all, we see the invitation. The invitation that Jesus gives them. Have you accepted that invitation yet? If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Have you come to him to drink?

Have you recognized your sin and your sinfulness? Have you recognized that you are without hope in your own power because you’re a sinner? Have you seen that He is the only Savior? Have you turned from your sin and come to Him, left your sin behind? And most importantly, have you trusted in Him? Have you drunk from Him? Have you trusted in Him as your Savior?

If you have not yet accepted that invitation, you need to come to Him today. But if you are a believer, we’ve been given a promise. In this text, we are given a promise, and that promise is the promise of the Holy Spirit. That is the promise of a changed and affected life.

Is that you? Is that what your life looks like? Has the river of living water shown its effects in your life? Is the Holy Spirit overflowing in your life to the point that other people notice and are getting splashed with that water? I’m gonna put it another way.

Are you living out the Spirit’s effects in your life? How are you exercising your spiritual gifts? How are you serving others with what the Spirit has given you? Everyone is given the Spirit and everyone is given gifts of the Spirit. What are your gifts? And how are you using them to build up and edify the church and to serve others? Do people see the difference in your life?

Are you a stagnant pool or a flowing river? We need to live as people who are changed by the power of the Spirit. That’s the promise that Jesus gives us. That’s what it is to be a believer. Everyone who does believe. Everyone who does believe, he who believes in me, from his innermost beings will flow rivers of water.

We need to come to Jesus when we thirst and live our life showing the evidence of his living water flowing out of us. Before we come to the table this morning, let’s stand and close in a word of prayer. Our God, we thank you for what Jesus has given us. Not only in the invitation to come to Him and to believe in Him, to repent of our sin and to leave our sin behind and come and drink from Him and trust Him as our Savior, but also in the promise of a life that is changed. The promise of the living water flowing up and flowing out of us. the promise of the Holy Spirit. Lord, I pray that you would help us to live a life that shows the effects of the Holy Spirit on us, that we would live to serve others and use our gifting to serve other people and edify the church. God, we thank you for who you are and for the promises you do give us. We pray all of this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.