The Biggest Spring in The World

 The Biggest Spring in The World

To embrace Jesus as the living water, providing all we need

Scripture John 7: 32-44

“The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about Jesus, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent guards to arrest him. Therefore, Jesus said, “I’m still with you for a little while before I go to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you won’t find me, and where I am you can’t come.” The Jewish opposition asked each other, “Where does he intend to go that we can’t find him? Surely he doesn’t intend to go where our people have been scattered and are living among the Greeks! He isn’t going to teach the Greeks, is he? What does he mean when he says, ‘You will look for me, but you won’t find me, and where I am you can’t come’?” On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted, “All who are thirsty should come to me! All who believe in me should drink! As the scriptures said concerning me, Rivers of living water will flow out from within him. ” Jesus said this concerning the Spirit. Those who believed in him would soon receive the Spirit, but they hadn’t experienced the Spirit yet since Jesus hadn’t yet been glorified. When some in the crowd heard these words, they said, “This man is truly the prophet.” Others said, “He’s the Christ.” But others said, “The Christ can’t come from Galilee, can he? Didn’t the scripture say that the Christ comes from David’s family and from Bethlehem, David’s village?” So the crowd was divided over Jesus. Some wanted to arrest him, but no one grabbed him.”

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Jesusn used living water to indicate eternal life.  Here he used the term to refer to the Holy Spirit.  The two go together.  Wherever the Holy Spirit is accepted , she brings eternal life.  Jesus teaches more about the Holy Spirit in John 14-16.  The Holy Spirit empowered Jesus’ followers at Pentecost and has since been available to all who believe in Jesus as Savior.  Jesus’ words come and drink alluded to the theme of many Bible passages that talk about the Messiah life-giving blessings.  In promising to give the Holy Spirit to all who believe in him, Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah, for that was something only the Messiah could do.  Jesus extends this open invitation to everyone today.  Come to him and accept his deeply satisfying love for you.  The crowd was asking questions about Jesus.  Some believed in him, others were hostile and others disqualified him in their minds as the Messiah because he was from Nazareth, not Bethlehem.  But he actually was from Bethlehem because he was born there.  Most of his childhood years were spent in Nazareth.  He may have had a pronounced Galilean accent if they had looked more carefully, they would not have jumped to the wrong conclusion. When you search for God’s truth, make sure you look carefully and thoughtfully at the Bible with an open heart and mind.  Don’t jump to conclusions before thoroughly investigating what the Bible says.  

Jesus is speaking to a large group of people in Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths.  In the book of John we have 3 scenes.  Today we are on scene 3.  We see confusion as to the origins and identity of Jesus.  We see there are people who are drawn to Jesus and those who reject him.  There are attempts to arrest him which are unsuccessful.  During the raucous (raw kuhs) environment surrounding Jesus, he stands up and says: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

We see all of the division and differing opinions among the various groups in this chapter.  That is the way the world is.  The world has all sorts of assumptions that it makes for who Jesus is and that is what we see in this passage.  There are those who are asking if he could be the Christ.  There are those who are trying to explain why Jesus can’t be who he claims to be.  You have those who are outwardly hostile to Jesus and his claims.  We have these same groups today.  

When Jesus gets up and speaks, he isn’t calling people to have it all figured out and then come to him.  We don’t have to be theologians, have all of our ducks in a row morally and then come to  him.  He isn’t giving an exhaustive explanation of the Old Testament and why he is  the Christ and should be worshiped and praised.  Regardless of the arguments for or against Jesus, no matter what a person thinks about Jesus or what the world tells about Jesus, we are invited to come to the living water.  Jesus invites the Spiritually thirsty to come to him and to drink the water that he offers.

Water is essential for life.  It quenches our physical thirst.  We rely on water for bathing, cleaning, growing plants and preparing food.  Water provides recreational opportunities: swimming, wadding, boating etc., spending time on the beach.  Those who were listening to Jesus lived in desert, barren and dry landscape.  They feared the water in the sea because they believed it led to the underworld.  They couldn’t drink salt water.  They needed fresh water that bubbled from the springs and flowed in streams to survive.  

This living water that flows from Jesus quenches our spiritual thirst and sustains us in our spiritual lives.  Jesus extends this invitation to everyone.  Imagine a spring of living water bubbling up inside you, a spring that flows from Christ.  

How does this water quench your spiritual thirst and sustain your life in Christ?  I imagine crystal-clear water washing away sin, guilt, and regret.  I imagine the refreshing water of forgiveness.  I imagine abundant water that overflows from my life and touches the lives of others, inviting them to faith in Christ.  Imagine energizing water that motivates me to service.  I imagine the water as God’s love bubbling up and living within me.

Some people miss out on opportunities to enjoy the water because they are afraid of it.  Have you ever wondered why some people do not accept Jesus’ invitation?  Have they been hurt by a bad experience with a church or religion?  Have they not been convinced by the lives of Christians

 that they know that placing their faith in God will make a positive, life-changing difference in their lives?  The water Jesus offers leads to life!

Verse 38 is the focal passage and has been interpreted 2 ways: 1) is that the living water flows out from within Christ.  2) is that the living water flows out from believers.  This isn’t an either or but both.  

When Jesus stood and spoke, all were surprised.  Wide-eyed children and toothless grandparents paused.  They knew this man.  Some had heard him preach in the Hebrew hills: others, in the city streets.  Two and a half years had passed since he’d emerged from the Jordan waters.  The crowd had seen this carpenter before.  But had they seen him this intense?  He stood up and shouted.  The traditional rabbinic (ruh bin ik) teaching posture was sitting and speaking.  But Jesus stood up and shouted out.  The blind man shouted, appealing for sight, the sinking Peter shouted begging for help and the demon possessed man shouted, pleading for mercy.  John uses the same Greek verb to portray the volume of Jesus’ voice.  Forget a kind clearing of the throat.  God was pounding his gavel on heaven’s bench.  Christ demanded attention.  He shouted because his time was short.  The sand in the neck of his hourglass was down to measurable grains.  In six months he would be dragging a cross through these streets,  and these people?  The people thirsted.  They needed water, not for their throats, but for their hearts.  So Jesus invited all to come, and drink.  Are your insides starting to shrivel?  Drink me.  

Does Jesus have a slot in your schedule?  Do you plan our day around your time with him or does he get whatever time is left?  Your spiritual life will dry up if you don’t come to Jesus to drink the water of life.  Give Jesus priority by praying often and by making decisions you believe he would make.