Streams of living water (John 7:25-52)

[Stephan Choe]

May 12, 2022

Key Verses 37-38:      “On the last day of the feast, which was the highest, Jesus stood up and called out, 'Whoever is thirsty, let him come and drink to me. Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures say, streams of living water will flow from within him.>”

Water is important to our life. A study conducted by doctors in 2003-2004 found that an average adult can survive up to 80 days without food. Provided that enough water is available. But without water, our body cannot survive for more than a few days.

Jesus wants to give us the living water. By the living water he means the Holy Spirit. When someone believes in Jesus Christ, he receives the Holy Spirit and has eternal life. This Holy Spirit can flow through us to other people.

May God help us to accept and enjoy the gift of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus.

1. Feast of Water

Every year in the fall, the Jews celebrate their Feast of Tabernacles around October, this year October 9-16. October. This feast is a harvest festival and at the same time a thanksgiving for the liberation from Egyptian bondage. This feast lasts a whole week.

I will explain this feast:

The priests go to the pool of Siloah to draw water. They will be greeted there with trumpets blowing the chorus of Psalms 3-8. As the choir sings Psalm 8, each male lifts up branches of trees, and all shout, "Give thanks to the Lord!" 3 times.

After this, the priests begin their procession towards the temple and pour the water on the altar as a sign of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days.

I would like to explain the meaning of this water festival. In the Bible, water symbolizes the source of life. Genesis chapter 2 presents the Garden of Eden as follows:

"A river goes out of Eden to water the garden..." (Genesis 2:10).

The Garden of Eden was rich in water and that is where man originally had eternal life. But man was expelled from the Garden of Eden because of sin and lost eternal life.

During the desert wanderings, the Israelites experienced water problems. Exodus chapter 15 tells us that God gave them the water at Mara:

“Then they came to Mara, but they could not drink the water of Mara, for it was bitter... And the people grumbled against Moses, What shall we drink? So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet” (Exodus 15:23-25).

Exodus chapter 17 tells us that at Mount Horeb God again provided the people with drinking water (Exodus 17:1-7). At that time, the Israelites argued with Moses and said to him:

"Give us water that we may drink."

And Moses cried out to the Lord. Then God answered him:

"Go with the elders of the people and strike the rock at Horeb with your staff, and water will come out of the rock for the people to drink" (Exodus 17:2-6).

In a way, the Feast of Tabernacles typifies the coming of the Holy Spirit. The people sing during the water festival:

"You and your friends will draw water from the well of salvation" (Isa. 12:3).

In Isa. 44:3-4 rivers of water in the wilderness are pictured as the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

"For I will pour water on the thirsty, and streams on the dry land. I will pour out my spirit on your children and my blessings on your offspring.”

Where is this water supposed to come from?

Prophet Zechariah 14:8-9 says that the water that gives us life comes from Jerusalem:

“ On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.  The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.”

That's right. The water of eternal life flows from Jerusalem, where our Lord Jesus died on the cross and rose again. The Feast of Tabernacles is linked to the desire for the timely rain. The fruiting of grain can only be possible when it rains.

And our spiritual fruitfulness is only possible when God gives us his Spirit. Jesus fulfills this requirement. That is why Jesus said to Nicodemus,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, <Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God>" (John 3:5).

The water and the Spirit are linked in the Bible. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman,

"but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14).

And revelation chap. 22 tells us: "He showed me a river of living water shining like crystal, coming out from the throne of God and of the Lamb."

And God invites us all to drink water:

" Come, all you who are thirsty,
    come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without cost!” (Isa. 55:1).

2. The living water of today

At the Feasts of Tabernacles, Jesus declared, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

Jesus is the river of living water. He is the new temple from which springs the waters of salvation. In addition, this water also quenches our thirst for life.

And the Holy Spirit is the living water that we can drink through faith in Jesus Christ. We can drink this water and invite other people to drink this water.

The Jews believed that the Messiah would not come from Nazareth, but from Bethlehem. But they did not know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. They also didn't know that Jesus came from God. Their false pride had blinded them spiritually.

We also see Putin's false pride in the Ukraine-Russia war. He believed Russia could beat Ukraine in three days because he believed Russia was a world power. But after 70 days of war, Russia has occupied only a little east-south part of Ukraine and has to fight hard against Ukraine.

So false pride makes people blind.

The opinions of the crowds of Israel about the person of Jesus were divided.

Some of the crowd believed that Jesus was the prophet because he performed miracles. They said, "Truly this is the Prophet."

Others said, "He is the Christ."

But another objected, "Should the Christ come from Galilee? Doesn't the Scripture say, 'Of the lineage of David, and out of the place of Bethlehem where David was, shall the Christ come?'

They held that Jesus was not a Messiah because Jesus was born in Nazareth in Galilee.

But Jesus was born in Bethlehem, although he grew up in Nazareth.

Even today, the opinions of people in the world are different. Many people consider him an outstanding person. Others see Jesus as a miracle worker. Still others view Jesus as a benefactor.

Jesus came into the world to give us the water of life. It is important that we believe in Jesus as God’s Son and Christ. So we can drink the water of life and enjoy blessed, eternal life.

We are to introduce Jesus to other people so that they too may have eternal life.

The chief priests and the Pharisees sent the temple guards to arrest Jesus. At that time, the Jews were not allowed to have soldiers because the Romans ruled the country. They were only allowed to have temple guards.

Jesus said to them, “I will be with you for a little while. After that, I will go to him who sent me. And you will look for me and not find me.”

Jesus meant here of his death and ascension.

Sent by their superiors, the temple guards came to Jesus and first listened attentively to his speech. They must have been behind the audience while Jesus was teaching to the crowds in the temple. After hearing from him, they became convinced that his teaching was not illegal, but sincere and wise. That's why they didn't arrest Jesus. So they came back to the leaders of the people without Jesus.

The chief priests and Pharisees asked them, "Why don't you bring Jesus?"

The temple guards answered them, "Never has man spoken like this man."

The Pharisees said to them, "Have you also been deceived? Did any of the leaders of the people believe in him? But the crowd that does not know the law is cursed!” (47-49).

Nicodemus, who knew the law well and was highly regarded as the teacher of Israel, said,

"Does our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he did!"

Nicodemus had probably become a believer in the meantime after visiting Jesus one night, as we can learn in chapter 3.

But the Jewish leaders answered him,

“Are you also from Galilee? Research and see that no prophet arises from Galilee!” (50-52).

They spoke disparagingly of Nicodemus. They knew something about the Bible. But they used their knowledge of the Bible to defend their selfish claims. The result of their selfish way of thinking was their spiritual blindness to God's work.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, as the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke tells us. But because King Herod wanted to murder the Baby Jesus, Jesus' parents moved to Nazareth with Baby Jesus, so Jesus grew up in Nazareth and became known as the Nazarene.

On the last day of the Feast of the Lodge, Jesus appeared and cried,

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures say, streams of living water will flow from within him."

He said this of the Holy Spirit that people will receive after his ascension.

It is true that streams of living water flow from believers. When a person believes in Jesus Christ, they receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit becomes a river of living water and flows on to many people.

A few years ago, I visited the Rhenish Mission Museum in Wuppertal during the leaders' meeting in Wuppertal. This missionary society was founded in 1818 as the Barmer Mission Society. Many missionaries were sent out from this missionary society, so that in Indonesia, Africa and elsewhere in the world several million people became Christians through their work.

Unfortunately, no missionaries are sent out by this missionary society today.

But God does not sleep, like a river does not sleep, but keeps flowing. God works mightily elsewhere by His Spirit.

For example, God works powerfully in China, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America or Africa, so that countless people come to faith. He also works in our lives, our families, communities and in our society if we allow Him.

We are to let Jesus Christ into our lives so that He might work in us, in married life, and in society. He is to fill us with his Spirit so that we can be his witnesses to the world.

God gives us his Spirit in abundance to fill us with joy, freedom, forgiveness, and life.

When we really understand what Jesus is saying in John 7, we will shout for joy and clap our hands and sing praises to God as the people in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles praised God, "Give thanks to the Lord!"