Scripture: John 7:37-39
Video Link: https://youtu.be/_BpnbYVeffA
Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 24 May 2026 – The Spirit’s Flow by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Structure:
- Introduction
- The inward flow of God’s Spirit
- The outward flow of God’s Spirit
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
Few people in our society do more to support our physical health and wellbeing than plumbers. Plumbers, in my view, are up there with doctors and nurses in terms of preventing disease and promoting community health.
Think about it for a moment. Plumbers ensure we have clean water for drinking and washing. They keep the rain out and the sewage pipes clear. Without plumbers we would be living in our own filth a lot of the time, exposed to all sorts of bugs and overrun with rats. Plumbers prevent us from getting sick.
Today is Pentecost Sunday, fifty days after Easter. Pentecost is a special time in the church calendar when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church.
The Holy Spirit is often associated with water in the Bible. If the Holy Spirit is like water, then Jesus is much like a plumber, connecting us to the water mains of heaven, bringing refreshment and cleansing to our spiritual lives.
With Pentecost and the Holy Spirit in mind, our Scripture reading this morning focuses on John chapter 7, verses 37 to 39…
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
In John 7, Jesus uses water as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. What we notice here is the water of the Holy Spirit flows two ways: inward and outward.The Spirit is something we drink into ourselves, like water. And it is something that flows out of us like a spring.
First let us consider the inflow of the Spirit which quenches our thirst for God.
The inward flow of God’s Spirit:
The story is told of Lawrence of Arabia who once visited London and brought along some of his desert-dwelling friends. These men were impressed by the bustling city and its modern conveniences. In particular, they marvelled at the water taps. All one had to do to obtain fresh water was turn a handle.
Not understanding how it worked the visitors asked Lawrence, ‘Would it be possible to take some of these water taps back to the desert?’ They didn’t realise the taps were connected to an elaborate system of pipes which in turn were connected to a huge reservoir of water.
The tap was simply the outlet. To disconnect the tap from the source of the water is to render the tap dry and useless.
Verse 37 of John 7 tells us that on the last and most important day of the festival Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink…”
The festival referred to here is the Festival of Shelters. During the eight days of this festival the people were required to live in temporary shelters as a way of recalling the Israelites’ 40 years in the desert when they lived in tents and relied on God to provide for them day by day.
The festival of Shelters was celebrated in Jerusalem during late autumn, once all the crops had been gathered in. It was both a joyous thanksgiving to God for his provision through the past year and a request to God for his on-going provision.
Being late autumn, it was the driest time of year; a time when it didn’t usually rain and water reserves were low.
So, by standing up in the dry season and announcing in a loud voice,
“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink…” Jesus was making a prophetic statement. Jesus was not addressing people’s physical thirst. He was addressing their spiritual thirst for God.
In much the same way that we need water to survive physically, so too we need the infilling of the Holy Spirit to survive spiritually. The Spirit quenches our thirst for the living God.
Notice the implication here. Jesus is saying the Festival of Shelters and indeed the Law of Moses finds its fulfilment in him. Jesus fulfils the purpose of the Law like a plumber fulfils the purpose of a tap. Without Jesus to send the water of his Spirit, the tap of the Law is dry and useless. It cannot refresh.
Notice too, the way Jesus appeals to people’s need for him. Jesus does not appeal to our ego. He does not flatter us. Nor does Jesus appeal to our fear.
He does not threaten us with a big stick.
Jesus simply appeals to our basic need for God. He is honest with us. Our soul needs God’s Spirit like our body needs water. The reality is, we won’t come to Jesus until we are genuinely thirsty; until we realise our need for him.
How then do we drink in the water of God’s Spirit? Through faith in Jesus.
Faith isn’t just believing something in your head. Faith is a verb. It is something we act on, something we do.
If someone offers you a cup of tea, then faith isn’t just believing the tea exists. Faith is trusting the person enough to drink the tea. It’s like that with Jesus. Faith isn’t just believing that Jesus is real. Faith is trusting Jesus enough to drink in His Spirit.
In practical terms, this means coming to Jesus in prayer and asking for the water of his Spirit. You can pray on your own, or you can invite other believers to pray with you and for you as well.
You might receive the Spirit the moment you ask. But you may also have to wait. Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until the Spirit came. They waited together for 10 days, in trust and prayer, between Jesus’ Ascension and the Holy Spirit’s coming at Pentecost.
Drinking the Spirit is about taking the Holy Spirit into ourselves, through faith in Jesus. But the Spirit doesn’t just flow inwards. There is an outward flow with the Spirit too.
The outward flow of God’s Spirit:
Many of you would have seen the freshwater spring at Petone. Some of you may have helped yourself to the water. The water there bubbles up through the ground naturally. Even though people could easily get water by turning a tap on at home they still come to the spring to fill up bottles to drink.
In verse 38 of John 7, Jesus says: Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
The expression ‘living water’ literally translated from the Greek means ‘running water’, as opposed to stagnant water. Running water has a cleansing effect. Because it is moving, it carries the impurities away.
If our hearts, spiritually speaking, are like a well, then the Holy Spirit is the water in the well of our heart. The water of God’s Spirit does not sit stagnant in the well of our heart, no. The Spirit is given in such abundance that it bubbles up through the layers of our soul, giving life to others through us.
To be clear, the Spirit does not come from us. It comes from Jesus. We are like the tap. We, who receive Jesus by faith, act as conduits or vessels of the Spirit. We don’t keep the gift of the Spirit to ourselves; we pass it on.
Jesus is speaking in a poetic way here. How might we translate this to our own experience? What does it look like for rivers of living water to flow from within us?
Well, the water of God’s Spirit bubbles up in all sorts of ways. One way is through the words we speak.
In Acts 2 we read how the Spirit enabled the apostles to proclaim the message of salvation through faith in Jesus. The apostles spoke in the mother tongues of those who were gathered in Jerusalem for the Jewish festival of Pentecost. Thousands believed their message and were baptised.
We might not preach to thousands in a foreign tongue, but we might share the story of how we came to faith in Jesus with someone who is ready to hear it.
Or we may be the person God uses to first listen and then offer a kind word in season, to heal a hurt.
Our Spirit inspired speaking may contain words of truth which get under someone’s skin, leading them to change their ways for good.
Our words, welling up from the Holy Spirit within, may also be words of grace, gentle words which God uses to turn away wrath and bring peace.
Of course, the living water of God’s Spirit does more than issue forth in a fountain of words. God’s Spirit empowers our actions as well.
The Holy Spirit enabled God’s servants in both the Old and New Testaments to perform all sorts of miraculous signs, from parting rivers, to feeding multitudes to healing every sort of illness and infirmity.
Sometimes we get to participate in the miraculous, and it is wonderful when we do, but more often God’s Spirit flows out in our day-to-day work. What aptitude or special gift has Jesus given you?
Are you a teacher, a parent, a plumber, a doctor, a nurse, a chef, an accountant, an artist? Whatever our work, whether paid or voluntary, it is the Holy Spirit who inspires our imagination and lends the skill we need to serve God’s purpose and bless others.
As we remain in Christ, the Spirit of Jesus welling up from within will gradually have a purifying effect on our character; influencing the way we handle ourselves through the highs and lows and the stresses and strains of this life.
I’m thinking about the fruits of the Spirit here: In Galatians 5, Paul writes…
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.
You see, it’s not just what we say and do that matters; it’s also the way we say it and do it. Our words and our deeds are to be offered in the Spirit of God’s holy love.
Conclusion:
In verse 39, John explains that the living water Jesus is talking about is the Holy Spirit. At the time Jesus made this offer, the Holy Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
In John’s gospel, Jesus’ glorification refers to his crucifixion and death, together with his resurrection from the dead and his ascension to heaven. For John, the suffering of Jesus is an essential part of Jesus’ glorification. There is no glory without suffering.
The point we should not miss here is this: Sin had to be dealt with first [by Jesus on the cross] before we could enter life in the Spirit. [1]
Jesus’ atonement for sin made it possible for the Spirit to be poured out at Pentecost. This means we are fortunate, for we live at a time in history when the Holy Spirit is available to all who repent and put their faith in Jesus.
Now, we don’t always feel fortunate do we. Life is difficult. Sometimes our faith can feel more like a burden than a blessing. We might hear these words of Jesus about the living waters of God’s Spirit welling up from within us and think, ‘Yea right, I wish’.
At various points on our journey through this world, we can feel weary, tired and empty; like God is absent. You are not alone in feeling that way. Many faithful believers before you have walked the same path.
Is the well of your soul dry, browned out? Do you thirst for God’s presence?
Before the Spirit can flow out of you, He must first flow into you. Ask Jesus to fill your heart with his Spirit and wait in hope for him.
29 The Lord gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Not everyone here will feel browned out and empty. Some of you may feel very close with the Spirit. Is the well of your soul full to overflowing? Enjoy the experience for the gift it is. But remember, the Spirit is not given merely for our own private enjoyment. The Spirit of Jesus is meant for sharing.
We cannot be everything to everyone, but we can be something to someone. So ask yourself, what particular gift has Jesus given you to share? And who might he want you to share it with this week?
Let us pray…
Lord Jesus, go on filling us with your Spirit we ask. Make our souls like a well-watered garden, bearing good fruit for the praise of God’s glory and the wellbeing of others. Amen.
Questions for discussion or reflection:
- What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
- What role does water play in your life? How do you use water? How long could you survive without water?
- What is the significance of Jesus’ announcement on the last day of the festival of shelters? What does this tell us about Jesus?
- How do we drink in the water of God’s Spirit? What is your experience of waiting for and / or receiving the Holy Spirit?
- What did Jesus mean when he said, “Rivers of living water will flow from within them.” Discuss / reflect on the various ways the Holy Spirit may flow out of us (based on your own experience &/or your reading of Scripture).
- Is the well of your soul dry, browned out? Do you thirst for God? Ask Jesus to fill your heart with his Spirit and wait in hope for him. Who can support your prayers in this regard?
- Is the well of your soul full to overflowing? What particular gift has Jesus given you to share? Who might he want you to share it with this week?
Bibliography
- William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Vol. 1, 1975.
- Leon Morris, NICNT The Gospel According to John, 1995.
[1] Leon Morris, NICNT John, pages 379.
Tawa Baptist 