1.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly
Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen. The message from God’s Word
as we celebrate on this Day of Pentecost is taken from John 7:37-39, it’s
entitled, “Come & Drink,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Whether we’re sheltering at home on Pentecost or
gathering together in church, we have reason for praise. Jesus Christ is the
source of the Holy Spirit and that Spirit will never fail. Do you remember searching your kitchen for
food in the midst of the Stay at Home Order? I don’t know about you, but
I found myself rummaging through the fridge, freezer, and the pantry to find
something to eat. I was hungry. Rather than go outside to the store or to
restaurants, I was turning inside, looking for food within. I never knew how
much food I had packed away in the far recesses of the pantry and I began to
appreciate the ancient resources (and I do mean ancient) which were on
hand.
3.
Our text from John 7:37-39 says, “37On 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. 38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has
said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39Now 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.”
4.
Pentecost traditionally turns our eyes outward. We see
God gathering many nations in Jerusalem, speaking the message of salvation in
many languages, and sending out disciples to the ends of the earth. This
Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit turns our eyes outward as we celebrate the
mission of God. But, here is another
dimension to Pentecost, and it’s a dynamic we may not always celebrate as it
turns our eyes inward. It asks us to meditate on the depth of the Spirit before
we celebrate the breadth. This is the dynamic mentioned in the gospel reading. Jesus
says in John 7:38, “38Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,
‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
5.
In our Gospel reading today from John 7, consider how
Jesus emphasizes the depths of the Spirit. Crowds have gathered in Jerusalem
for a festival. It is the last and greatest day of the feast. At the Feast of
Tabernacles, Israel gathered to remember God’s provision. Leviticus 23:39-40 says, 39“On
the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce
of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest,
and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. 40And you shall take
on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs
of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.” After gathering the harvest, God’s people
came together and dwelt in booths or tents. They recalled how God provided for
them during the wilderness wanderings. Leviticus
23:42-43 says, 42You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All
native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43that your generations may
know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out
of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord
your God.” The people anticipated
how God would continue to provide in a land flowing with milk and honey. Whether
wandering in the wilderness or living in the land, God provides for His people.
He is their resource within.
6.
As this feast is ending, Jesus stands up. The daily processions
bringing water from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple have ceased. But, on this
day, when human actions are ending, the divine action is just beginning. Jesus
now speaks of living water which He will pour into the lives of His people.
This is His gift of the Spirit. After His death, resurrection, and ascension,
Jesus will send the Holy Spirit. God’s people will have a source of living
water, constantly flowing from within.
7.
On that day Jesus stood in the temple courtyard and
shouted aloud: “Whoever is thirsty must come to me and drink!” Sisters and brothers, when was the last time
you were thirsty? I mean, really
thirsty? Thirsty down to your soul? What about the kind of thirst that Jesus
spoke about? Do you thirst for more out of life? Millions today seek to quench their thirst
with alcohol or drugs. They are thirsty. Both married and unmarried, people
long for more sex. They’re thirsty. Millions bet that more money will buy them
more of the good life. They’re thirsty. Many, clambering over their neighbors,
seek more power, more popularity. All these people thirst for better living.
They would soak up some thirst-quencher. Anything to dampen the dry, withered
soul inside.
8.
Even more dangerous are the kind of people that you
and I can be. People here taking church just as seriously as we have always
taken it. People trying to be as good as we’ve always been. People not very
thirsty for more. See the danger? Can we be smug with who we are?
Self-satisfied? Who, after all, sent
Jesus to the cross? Was that dastardly deed done by the despised ones? The
lepers? The prostitutes? The thieving tax-collectors? How Jesus loved to be
with such obvious sinners! Did they send him to the cross? Or, was it the people who judged themselves
good? The religious people?
9.
In the Old Testament book of Ezekiel chapter 37, God
showed Ezekiel a valley full of dried bones.
These weren’t the bones of some foreign nation. These were the bones of
Israel. God’s own people. They had given up. They believed God could do no
more. Are we like them? Bone-dry? Parched? Hopeless? Fearful God can do no more
for us?
10.
Lord, break our hearts! Break our hearts of those
things that break yours! Quench our parched spirits with your forgiveness.
Satisfy our lives with your goodness and your love. Irrigate our bone-dry souls
with your gifts and let your Holy Spirit saturate every area of our lives. Let
us be satisfied with nothing less than Jesus! Make us to be like him. Deliver
us from becoming self-righteous skeletons. Lord, let us be spiritually thirsty!
Let us gulp down the living water that is Christ!
11.
Nothing can quench our soul’s thirst except
God’s Good News. That’s why Jesus,
standing in the temple courtyard long ago, shouted aloud, “If anyone is
thirsty, let him come to me and drink!” In
that moment, the city fell into a prayerful hush. The crowd on that day must
have wondered who could he have been? Did he speak for God? Was he a prophet!
Could he have been the One whom the Lord would send? The Messiah! Or, was he
just that crazy carpenter from Nazareth there were warnings about? Who do you
say Jesus is? Maybe that depends on whether or not you are thirsty!
12.
Once, with his shepherd’s staff, Moses split a rock
(Numbers 20). Out gushed water, life-giving water. On a rock outside Jerusalem
God’s enemies raised a cross that held God’s Son. From it flowed life-giving
water! From the wounds of Jesus, gushes out new life! John, standing there at the foot of Jesus’
cross, saw this with his own eyes. To us, John swore to tell the truth. “He
was already dead. . . . One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear,
bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given his
testimony, and his testimony is true. (John 19:34)” Why did John
have to be so graphic? John insisted that we know. Jesus was dead. His heart
stopped pumping. His body fluids separated. He didn’t just pass out. He wasn’t
playing dead. Jesus was clinically dead. We must know this, and we must know
our sins killed Jesus. Out of Jesus
comes the living water, this is why later on John the Apostle records for us in
1 John 5:4-12, “4For
everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory
that has overcome the world—our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world
except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6This is he who came
by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the
blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the
truth. 7For there are three that testify: 8the Spirit and the water and the
blood; and these three agree. 9If we receive the testimony of men, the
testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne
concerning his Son. 10Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in
himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not
believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. 11And this is
the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not
have life.”
13.
Nothing can quench our soul’s thirst . .
. Except the water that flows from Jesus. The Pentecost Good News! Jesus pours out from
heaven his Holy Spirit. Jesus floods the world with his Good News. Jesus pours
out his Spirit that we might trust him. Like a river, sparkling, fresh,
life-giving water poured out on dead-dry bones, Jesus pours out his Spirit on
us. He does it with water! Baptismal
water! Plain, earthly water, flooding over us with his powerful Word! It’s the same as on that first Pentecost Day.
These people, hearing Peter, were cut to the heart. “Our sins killed the
Messiah! How can we be saved?” Peter told them, “Repent and be baptized.. . .
You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
14.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Jesus has
spoken about living water. Earlier, when Jesus conversed with the Samaritan
woman at the well, He offered her living water (4:10). In John 4:10, “10Jesus answered
her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give
me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living
water.” What was then said in
private is now being proclaimed publicly. What was said in Samaria is now
uttered in Jerusalem. In both cases there is a future harvest in view.
15.
With the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus opens the
eyes of His disciples to the field ready for harvest as the Samaritans from the
town come to the well to greet them. With the people of Israel in Jerusalem,
Jesus opens their eyes to a future harvest that will come when the Spirit is
poured out at Pentecost. In either case,
there’s a stress on the living water of the Spirit. Yes, Pentecost celebrates
the outreach of the Spirit to all nations, but first it celebrates the in-reach
of the Spirit among those who believe. Whether they are in public or in
private, whether they are an Israelite or a Samaritan, Jesus gives them living
water, the gift of the Holy Spirit, from whom divine life will continue to flow.
16.
God’s love isn’t bound by our experiences of
separation. Christ has borne our sin in crucified isolation so He might be our
salvation in all places of life. He promises us the living water of His Spirit.
His is an internal resource that never fails.
17.
Maybe during the Stay at Home Order, you found
yourself drinking from the living water of this Spirit. The resources may have
been old. A practice of family devotion long forgotten as the kids got older. A
Bible reading plan you had not looked at in years. Deeper conversations with
loved ones that led to deeper conversations with God. No matter how old, how
unused, how forgotten, these ancient things are the source of living water.
They continued to sustain you after all these years. In your Baptism, Jesus promised you, “Whoever
is thirsty . . . come to me and drink.” He provides streams of life-giving
water that flood you with life. In him you are alive. His life and his love
flow in us out from us to our world! On
this Pentecost Sunday we recognize that Jesus Christ is the source of the
Spirit and that Spirit will never fail. Jesus offers us His promise of living
water, the life of the Spirit, and that life flows from the heart of all who
believe. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all
understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life
everlasting. Amen.
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