Scripture for Today:

Psalm 143       Ezekiel 37:1-14           Acts 2:22-36         John 7:37-39a

 

Dear friends in Christ:

            Water is a very intriguing thing.  Without water, there is no life.  Moving water is harnessed to provide power to run machinery and generators for electricity.  Currents in rivers and oceans move large vessels speedily from one point to another and determine the main shipping routes even today.  Water from even gentle rains can erode away topsoil and seedlings, let alone the forces of rampant floods and violent wind-driven storms that bring such destruction in their wake.  Simple water quenches one’s thirst.  But once the water is gone, the thirst will come back.  Once the water has evaporated the plants wither and die.  Water sitting still in a pool soon becomes stagnant and polluted.  An abundant source of good water is difficult to find and is a treasure everywhere in this world.

           

John 7:37-39a  On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

 

            Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Tabernacles.  This feast was to remember how God had delivered his people through the wilderness and into the Promised Land.  Water was an important part of this festival.  The Israelites remembered how God miraculously provided water from the rock in the wilderness.  It was the fall rains that turned desert-like conditions in Israel into productive soil that raised the crops.  It was water from the fountain of Siloam in the Kidron Valley that was channeled to Jerusalem that enabled the citizens to survive sieges from enemy armies.  As part of the celebration, the priests poured water through a special vessel in the Temple to signify these important events of water.

 

            Jesus takes a posture that we have not seen him take since clearing the money-changers from the Temple early in his ministry.  Normally one teaching would be seated and would speak gently to listeners gathered around him.  Here Jesus stands up and cries out.  It is an impassioned plea for all to hear him.  Instead of quietly telling about the water of life as he did to the woman at the well, he shouts it out for all to hear.  And Jesus promises something very strange.  Drinking from him will produce streams of living water that flow from believers in him.

 

            John, recording this incident many years after Jesus’ ascension, notes that Jesus is pointing forward seven months to today, the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is sent to the disciples and all believers in him.  It is very different thing to hear that instead of thirsting for more water one will produce streams of living water.   This Spiritual thirst was prophesied by Isaiah, They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water. [Isaiah 49:10] 

 

            We hunger and thirst for many things, food, drink, wealth, knowledge, entertainment, power and prestige.  The more we have the more we hunger and thirst for.  It is that way with sinfulness, wanting more and more.  On the contrary, those who hear God’s commands and his message of love thirst for forgiveness and peace from troubled souls.  As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?  [Psalm 42:1-2]  No one can find that peace except in knowing and trusting Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of all sins and salvation to eternal life with him that only he brings.

 

            Today, Pentecost, we celebrate that our Lord sends the Holy Spirit to work faith in the hearts of those who hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We know that we cannot, by our own reason or strength, come to Jesus Christ or believe in him.  But, the Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with his gifts, and sanctified and kept us in the one true faith.  [Luther’s Small Catechism]

 

It was on Pentecost that disciples who a few weeks earlier were hiding in fear behind locked doors, then returned to their boats to quietly fish the waters of Galilee, now were stepping boldly forward and proclaiming the good news of a risen and ascended Savior.  Jesus had died for the sins of all people, giving eternal life to those who would believe in him.  Jesus had risen from the grave declaring victory over death, sin, and the power of the devil.  Jesus then ascended to heaven, returning to his throne of glory at the right hand of the Father, sending his Holy Spirit to enable and empower not just these disciples, but all believers to burst forth with streams of living water, the message of God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ.

 

            To be living water, water needs to have a source of life.  When we read from Ezekiel in his encounter with the dry bones in the wilderness, it was the Lord’s breath of life that brought those parched bones to life.  At creation, God breathed the “breath of life” into man’s nostrils before he came alive.  When Jesus met with the disciples following his resurrection, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” 

 

            It is the Holy Spirit that is that “breath of  life,’ new life in those who are children of God through faith and sealed in baptism.  And from all believers, living waters flow.  Living waters bring life to others.  Martin Luther reminds us, “For that is the special work and office of the Holy Spirit, that He reveal and glorify Christ, that He preach and give testimony concerning Him.”  When any Christian tells another person about the love of God in Jesus Christ, it is the Holy Spirit that works the miracle of faith in that person’s heart.  It is only by the Holy Spirit that anyone can say the Jesus is Lord.  [1 Corinthians 12:3]  Those streams of living waters flow by:

v     your personal witness to another,

v     by open proclamation as Peter and the disciples in Jerusalem on that Pentecost when thousands were baptized in the true faith,

v     by your tithes and offerings that support evangelism and mission outreach to bring the Gospel to others in homes in Des Plaines to distant places throughout the world.

 

Scripture points repeatedly to the important truth that persons who share in the new life that comes in faith in Jesus, exert a valuable and beneficial influence in word and in deed on others through individual witness and through the work of the church at large. 

 

It is only believers in Jesus who benefit from the gift of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Holy Spirit that holds the church together in faith and as one body in Christ.  It is the Holy Spirit that works in hearts and souls today, just as it did on that miraculous Pentecost nearly two thousand years ago when thousands confessed faith in Jesus as their Savior.  As children of God, Christians want to live according to his commands.  As children of God, Christians want to share the good news of salvation with others.  As children of God, he has given us all of himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  As children of God he has given us all blessings of creation, all the joys of knowing saving grace in Jesus, and the gift of the Spirit that makes us holy in Jesus name, enlightens us by furnishing faith and understanding, and illumines our lives knowing the grace and will of God.  As children of God, we rejoice daily in the gifts given in baptism and the strength given in our Savior’s body and blood given and shed for each one.

 

Going with the flow of the Holy Spirit is not an aimless and whimsical journey in life.  It is a very directed and focused life trusting in God’s grace in Jesus and witnessing that love to others in many and various ways.  Pentecost was not a one time thing back then but is still going on.  Believers today are producing rivers of life-giving water just as disciples and other believers were doing then.  Who was the first person who shared with you the story of Jesus.  How beautiful is that person in your eyes today?

 

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"   [Isaiah 52:7]

 

In Jesus name.                   Amen.

 

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.   [Philippians 4:7]