John 7:37–39: “On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, Jesus stood up and shouted, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me. Let the one who believes in Me drink, just as the Scripture says, “From within him will flow rivers of living water.”’ Now He said this about the Spirit whom those who believe in Him were going to receive. The Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
This is a powerful illustration of the reality that Jesus Christ brings, and he’s calling out to everyone. Look at the longing in the heart of God, calling out to everyone. In another place we read that God does not want anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). So part of repentance is coming to Him, turning from wherever we are and coming to Him.
Look at this cry. This is not something hidden; this is a powerful point in the feast at which He is calling on them to look to Him. He is calling on them to embrace the truth that is in Him. He is the ultimate evangelist, and He’s saying, “Come to Me. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”
“Let him take that step. Let him make that move.” He is saying, you cannot save yourself. You cannot help yourself. “I am the help.” Psalm 20 says, “May He send you help from His holy sanctuary” (Psalm 20:2). Jesus Christ is the help that has been sent from God.
The alternative is for people to try to help themselves—to think they know the way to go, to think they know how to do things, to think they can scheme. No. He says, “I am the way” (John 14:6). “I am the divine scheme.” Jesus Christ is saying, “Come to Me—that is your action. Come to Me and drink, and it is going to be in you a fountain of living water.”
You see the powerful picture in the Old Testament of the crowd of people thirsty, and what do we have? We have a rock, and the Bible says that rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). That rock followed them, that sustained the millions of people who came from Egypt—not just for one day, not just for two days, not just for three days, but for forty years—telling you that it doesn’t have an end. There’s no seeing the end of it.
He says, “Come to Me.” He has endless resources, endless possibilities with Him. Come to Him. Just come to Him. Embrace Him. He says, “Let the one who believes in Me drink.” So you believe in Him and come to Him. Of course, you’re not going to come to Him if you do not believe in Him, because He does not come in a shape amenable to human logic.
Look at this man, thirty‑something years old at this time, and He’s making all these claims. But He’s saying, “Believe Me because of the works themselves” (John 14:11). He said the people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with that generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and “now something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:41).
The point I’m making is that there is a public announcement that this is God in the flesh. This is divinity. This is the One. This is the Messiah. This is the One in whom all your hopes, all your dreams, all your desires—even what you don’t know you need—find their solution.
They probably didn’t know they needed spiritual water, and He is saying, “Look, the water I’m going to give you—I am the source of it.” You look at the words of Ezekiel that talked about water flowing from the temple (Ezekiel 47:1–12). He’s saying, “No, I am that temple” (John 2:19–21). “I am the source. Come. The Spirit I will give you will be an endless reality of God in you” (John 7:39).
God bless you. See you later.