February 15
Bible Reading: John 7:25-39
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. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ 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.”
I love rivers, always have. Some of my fondest memories are of hiking a riverbank or fishing some favorite hole. But no river on earth is as grand and glorious and life-giving as the river spoken of here in our text…
The setting of our text was the Feast of Tabernacles. Every aspect of the feast pointed to the promised Messiah—the sacrifices made, water taken from the pool of Siloam, the entrance through the water-gate, the Psalms sung, etc.—but, for the most part, the multitude of thirsty souls present did not recognize that the fulfillment of promise stood in their midst. Many in today’s world struggle to find clean drinkable water (and even here in Morrow County), but many many more live day-after day thirsty of soul for God. Sin deceptively promises satisfaction, only to leave us more thirsty still. Man’s thirst for life (restored relationship with God) can only be assuaged in Jesus Christ.
On the last day of that great feast as the priest poured out the water—an act which anticipated the pouring out of a living water through the coming Messiah— “Jesus (the Messiah) stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink’ (John 7:37). His reference to “living water” was to the ministry of the Spirit who was to come (John 7:39). The Spirit did come at Pentecost. He has ever since provided an inexhaustible torrent of “life” that works to enliven from within those who are born again.
During a particularly difficult time in his missionary work in China, Hudson Taylor, was blessed by the truth of this passage. He wrote to a friend, “And now I have the very passage for you, and God has so blessed it to my own soul? John 7: 37-39: ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto ME and drink.’ Who does not thirst? Who has not mind thirst, heart-thirsts, soul-thirsts, or body-thirsts? Well, no matter which, or whether I have them all— “Come unto me and’ remain thirsty? Ah no! ‘Come unto me and drink.’ What, can Jesus meet my need? Yes, and more than meet it. No matter how intricate my path, how difficult my service; no matter how sad my bereavement, how far away my loved ones; no matter how helpless I am, how deep are my soul-yearnings—Jesus can meet all, all, and more than meet. He not only promises me rest—ah, how welcome that would be, were it all, and what an all that one word embraces! He not only promises me drink to alleviate my thirst. No, better than that! ‘He who trusts Me in this matter (who believeth on Me, takes Me at My word) out of him shall flow…. Can it be? Can the dry and thirsty one not only be refreshed—the parched soul moistened, the arid places cooled—but the land be so saturated that springs well up and streams flow down from it? Even so! And not mere mountain-torrents, full while the rain lasts, then dry again…but ‘from within him shall flow rivers’—rivers like the mighty Yangtze, ever deep, ever full. In times of drought brooks may fail, often do, canals may be pumped dry, often are, but the Yangtze never. Always a mighty stream, always flowing deep and irresistible!” (J. Hudson Tayler, “J. Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret”).
Hudson Taylor
Jesus alone can fully satisfy the longings of our God-thirsty souls.
I’VE GOT A RIVER OF LIFE
I’ve Got A River Of Life Flowing Out Of Me
Makes The Lame To Walk And The Blind To See,
Opens Prison Doors, Sets The Captives Free
I’ve Got A River Of Life Flowing Out Of Me.
Spring Up, O Well
Within My Soul,
Spring Up, O Well
And Make Me Whole,
Spring Up, O Well
And Give To Me
That Life Abundantly!
There’s A Fountain Flowing From The Savior’s Side,
All My Sins Forgiven In That Precious Tide,
Jesus Paid The Price When For Me He Died,
There’s A Fountain Flowing From The Savior’s Side.
There’s A Risen Savior At The Father’s Throne,
Ever Interceding For His Very Own,
Pouring Down The Blessings That Are His Alone.
There’s A Risen Savior At The Father’s Throne.
LookingtoJesus 