Pastor Rick’s Notes and Translation:

v. 37 Now during the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood up and, in a loud voice said, “If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink.”

This is the last day as in the day after a seven-day Feast of Booths – representing the temporary housing in the desert as they moved toward the Land of Promise. It’s the Sabbath following the week-long feast of harvest and worship and this is significant. This celebration is noted for joy, abundance, relationship, future. And it was a reminder of God’s plan: He has a mission for His people.

Illustration: Have you gotten so caught up in the moment that you missed the mission? “One Job – that’s all I had to do.”

In the midst of the celebrations, and keeping of the laws and the feast, and checking off the boxes, the mission had somehow gotten lost. And here was the last day of the Feast.

• First of all, everyone hung out for the eighth day since traveling distances was not permitted on the Sabbath. This made for a day to both recover and refresh on the eight day.
• Second, there were special sacrifices and celebrations on this “afterglow” day. This was “celebration” without all the pomp. No trumpets accompanying the special promenades. No pouring out of the waters.
• Third, this is the day that the prophecies of the “ingathering” culminate and are read when the Father will raise a banner over those who are lost and displaced and call them home. The redemptive time has come. The unveiling of God’s characteristics of joy and hope are unveiled. The Kingdom will be visible to the world. That’s the day Jesus stood in front of this throng and said – Come and drink! And our response is seen in the meal of the day: the plainness of matzah and the blended beauty of the wine. We respond with humility and joy. Redemption is here and God’s fulness is being spilled out on the world through His people.

The eight day, because it was a Sabbath, became the “mega-day of the Feast.” Literally. It was the feast of pouring out redemption, the second rain.

Jesus cried out in a loud voice. He was speaking to each person, to the nation, and down through the centuries, his cry is relevant. God’s Spirit is poured out as living water to the thirsty.

What does it mean to be thirsty for the Lord?

• John 4:14 Life here. Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
• Revelation 21:6 Life eternal. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

• Revelation 22:17 Life Offered. 17The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes, take the free gift of the water of life.

v. 38 “Whoever puts their faith in me, streams of living water will flow from deep within them, just like the Scriptures have said.”

All week long, for seven days, the crowd has watched as the water flowed to wash away the blood and grime of the offerings. But more importantly, the high part of the celebration happened when water was brought up from the Pool of Siloam to pour to the blast of trumpets and shouts the water over the altar.. But on the seventh day, this wasn’t the practice. The week of Booths, the offering is complete. Jesus stood in the place of the abundant water and offer clear, pure, living water, not to wash, not to pour, but to fill.

Joel writes in chapter two that “in those days, the father will pour out his Spirit on all flesh.”

It is more plenteous than we can hold, more powerful than we can stand against. Refreshing to all who get wet and drink.

Rivers plural.

The follower of Jesus can’t help but spill over onto others. The river doesn’t strain to spill water over the river rocks. It flows. Jesus does the same through His Spirit. We can choose to impede it or release it.

Ezekiel 47 Water ankle deep, knee deep, waist deep, flowed like a river. But where it came from and where it went is important. It flowed from the place of worship and it flowed toward the desert and the dead sea.

v. 39 Now, he said this about the Spirit whom those who placed their faith in him were soon to be given. But the Spirit had not been given to them yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

This aside is John’s perspective from the moment he heard the Savior cry out in these verses to the point where the Holy Spirit was poured out. In the Temple, the promise; in the Pentecost, the outpouring. Remember that he is writing His Gospel account later than the Synoptics, near the end of the century, and He has the most accurate perspective. He remembers what not being filled with the Spirit was; and he remembers Pentecost.

The Spirit comes in power when Jesus ascends to heaven. That’s the time line. Could he have done it differently? Sure. But while the Son is with the disciples, the Spirit awaited the time when he could be fully in them. Jesus to glory; the Spirit to fill, lead, and empower.

The order is essential, though. Jesus had to be rejected, arrested, tried, sentenced, and killed at the lowest point of any man; then the Father pointed toward His Son who has suffered such demeaning actions, and said “He is worthy, he is glory, and he is who will send the Holy Spirit.”

The Spirit is the source of living water; our willingness to drink is the source of water for thirsty people. Both sustenance and salvation included and intertwined.

v. 40 Out of all the crowd who heard him say these words, some said, “Surely this is the Prophet.”

Some were repeating what they’d heard before, “it’s the Prophet who will be forerunner to the Messiah.” Or perhaps the “prophet like Moses that was promised to come

v. 41 Others declared, “This is the Messiah, the Savior!”  Still other, however, claimed, “There is no way for the Messiah to come from Galilee.”

And others were opening their eyes to this incontrovertible evidence that Jesus brought when he demonstrated the kingdom. He is the Savior.

And others repeated the misunderstanding that Jesus was from Galilee. Not so; he was Bethlehem of Judah by birth. This was ignorance on the part of the Pharisees and the throng; but not on John’s part. He knew the story.

v. 42 “Hasn’t Scripture said the Messiah comes from the descendants of David and from David’s village of Bethlehem?”

This apparently is from the “narrative” the Pharisees are putting before the people according to the verses just after our passage. They were stuck with a Galilean messiah which, according to scripture, was not possible. And they were right. Again, Bethlehem.

v. 43 And a division, therefore, occurred within the crowd because of Him.

The word schism comes from this Greek work. They were passionately divided over who Jesus was.

PRT (Pastor Rick’s Translation)

v. 37 Now during the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood up and, in a loud voice said, “If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink.”

v. 38 “Whoever puts their faith in me, streams of living water will flow from deep within them, just like the Scriptures have said.”

v. 39 Now, he said this about the Spirit whom those who placed their faith in him were soon to be given. But the Spirit had not been given to them yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

v. 40 Out of all the crowd who heard him say these words, some said, “Surely this is the Prophet.”

v. 41 Others declared, “This is the Messiah, the Savior!”  Still other, however, claimed, “There is no way for the Messiah to come from Galilee.”

v. 42 “Hasn’t Scripture said the Messiah comes from the descendants of David and from David’s village of Bethlehem?”

v. 43 And a division, therefore, occurred within the crowd because of Him.