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8) Rivers of Living Water.

Reading John.7 1 - 40; Isaiah 55. 1 - 3.

References to the Spirit in John 7 are connected with the Feast of Tabernacles, so in order to understand them it is necessary to know something about that feast. It was one of the main feasts celebrated by the Jews, being one of the three that were celebrated at the central Sanctuary (The Tabernacle, then the Temple) from ancient times (Exodus 23.14-17). In Exodus 23.16 it is called the Feast of Ingathering, while in Leviticus 23.3 and Deuteronomy 16.13 it is called the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths).

The other two main feasts were the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Weeks, (also called the Feast of Harvest). The former celebrated the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, but it was almost certainly a feast before that for it was during this week that the reaping of the standing grain commenced (Deuteronomy 16.9) and a sheaf of the firstfruits was waved before the Lord (Leviticus 23.10-11). It was an acknowledgement by the nation of their dependence on God for their harvest, and was accompanied by sacrifices (e.g. Numbers 28.16-25).

From the day on which the firstfruits were offered in March/April, 49 days were counted (a week of weeks, hence the name the Feast of Weeks) during which the grain harvest would be gathered in (Deuterononmy 16.9-12). Then the Feast of Weeks (or Harvest) would be celebrated (May/June) and a cake of the firstfruits of the gathered harvest presented to God (Deuteronomy 16.10; Exodus 23.16; 34.22). This was later called the Feast of Pentecost.

Following this the grapevines would be pruned, the figs (summer fruit) gathered in, and this would be followed by the general ingathering of grapes, olives and citrus fruits. Finally around September/October the Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering would celebrate the complete gathering in of the years harvest. It was a feast of thanksgiving for a good harvest (Deuteronomy 16.15), and was especially associated with fruitfulness, with the ‘fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook’ (Leviticus 23.40).

The feast was a joyful one (Deuteronomy 16.15), and became especially associated with the expected coming age of plenty (Zechariah 14.16-19), so that at this time the minds of people would be directed towards the coming age. The celebrating of it was looked on as a guarantee of the pouring out of rain in the coming months (Zechariah 14.17).

The people were totally dependent on the rain for survival, and during the seven days of this feast a ceremonial procession would gather water each day from the pool of Siloam and carry it to the Temple. There it was poured out before God at the time of the morning sacrifice while the people chanted the words of Isaiah 12.3 - ‘with joy you will draw water from the wells of deliverance’. This reminds us that it also looked forward to the time of deliverance, that time when God would step in and deliver His people from their oppressors, when the land would flourish as it never had before, seeing rain in abundance (Isaiah 32.15) and great flowing rivers (Joel 3.18; Ezekiel 47.1-12; Zechariah 14.8), and when the pouring out of the Spirit would produce fruitfulness of another kind in the hearts of men (Isaiah 44.1-4; Joel 2.23-29).

It was on the last day of this feast, the Sabbath, the ‘great day’ which was the seal and climax of the week’s celebrations, that Jesus stood up and ‘cried with a loud voice’as though he were making a public announcement. His actions would be especially noticeable as it was usual for a Jewish teacher to speak sitting down. What he was saying was thus in the form of a proclamation.

The people’s minds would be filled with the events of the week that had gone before and there would be a feeling of joy and well-being in their hearts as they listened, and we can compare his actions with the cry of the water seller to the thirsty in Isaiah 55.1, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy and eat, yes, come and buy wine and milk, without money and without price”. This was followed by the promise of the renewal of the everlasting covenant (Isaiah 55.3). Jesus words are very similar and must have had Isaiah 55.1 in mind. “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his inner being will flow rivers of living water.” (John7.37-38)

At such a time reference to flowing water would immediately bring to people’s minds the water poured out daily before God at the Temple, symbolising rain and fruitfulness, and the coming deliverance.

Thus the ‘birth from above, birth from water’ (John 3.6) is here seen in the rain which will produce the harvest and fill the springs and fountains, while ‘he who believes in me will never thirst’ (John 6.35) associates with the ‘drawing of water from the wells of deliverance’ (compare also John 4.13-14). Now Jesus promises something even greater. Those who are born from above, and who drink of the water of life through putting their full trust in Jesus, will themselves become the source of life to others.

The rebirth by the Spirit is already taking place in men’s hearts, and they are even now drinking of the water of life as they respond to the words of Jesus, but there is something even more wonderful yet to come, a pouring out of the Spirit which will make them life-giving fountains to the world. ‘This he said about the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit was ‘not yet’ because Jesus was not yet glorified’ (the word ‘given’ is not in the Greek text). We must thus distinguish v.37 from v.38. The promise in v.37 was available to the people as they listened, they could come and drink freely, but the promise in v.38 awaited the death and resurrection of Jesus. Then would a stream of living water flow out from his people to the world.

It is significant that Jesus here speaks of ‘receiving the Spirit’ for these are his very words when he breathes on his disciples and says “receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20.22). Pentecost burst on the world with a loud noise revealing the giving of the Spirit to the many, but John looked back especially to that precious, quiet moment when he received the Spirit at the word of Jesus. It is not good interpretation to degrade this moment as being only a symbolic act, just to fit in with people’s theories. John had no doubt that at that moment he received the Spirit as promised in John 7. The Spirit does not always come with a loud noise (compare the ‘still, small voice’ to Elijah (1 Kings 19.11-12)), and the inner band received Him before Pentecost. They were the first fruits, Pentecost was the wider blessing.

Questions.

1. What is the central theme of the feasts of Israel?.

2. How do you think this theme fits in with the life of Jesus?

3. In what way did the coming work of the Spirit differ from that already happening through the ministry of Jesus, and how was it the same?

9) The Flood of Blessing

Reading. Zechariah 14. 1 - 11; Ezekiel 47. 1 - 12.

The words of John 7.38 - “out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water” - are full of significance.

Coming as they did at the feast at which water was daily poured out before the Lord as a thanksgiving for harvest producing rain, and a cry for rain for the next harvest, they spoke of a glorious harvest that would result from the Spirit’s presence.

They must also have arisen from the vivid scene described in Zechariah 14 (living water connected with the Feast of Tabernacles) which clearly refers to an ‘end of the age’ event. It speaks of the appearance of the Lord on behalf of His people (vv.3-4), with the heavenly host (v.5), with the result that ‘living waters will flow out from Jerusalem --- and the Lord will become king of all the earth’.

The idea behind the ‘living waters’is of a great river which, like The Nile in neighbouring Egypt, will take away the need of the land for rain. This is borne out by the fact that in vv.18-19 Egypt has to be threatened with something other than shortage of rain (see v.17) because of the peculiar advantages of The Nile, which overflowed its banks in a desert country, producing fruitful land despite the lack of rain.

Jesus applies this spiritually to his own mission. Jerusalem as the source of living water is replaced by the ‘believers’ who will flood out from Jerusalem and take God’s message to the world (compare Isaiah 2.3; 55.1-3). God’s covenant will be proclaimed to all, as at the Feast of Tabernacles of old (Deuteronomy 31.11). So possessed will they be by the Spirit that he will stream from their lives in life-giving power.

His words also contain within them the idea that the Lord has come to Jerusalem and is about to take His throne (Zechariah 14.3-9), so that all nations might seek Him and worship at His feet (vv16-21). This will, of course, come to even greater fulfilment at Christ’s second coming, but that will be the continuation of the process which begins with the receiving of the Spirit.

Parallel to the thought in Zechariah 14.8, and in a similar context, is the description found in Ezekiel 47.1-12 of the water gushing out from the Temple to form a great river which produces life wherever it goes. This again has its final fulfilment in the heavenly state (Revelation 22.1-5). But it begins with the believers going out from Jerusalem with the life-giving message.

It seems unquestionably true that Jesus conceives of his followers as replacing the Temple (see John 2.19 with Mark 14.58; Matthew 12.6). He is the one in whom the glory of God now dwells (John 17.22 compare 1.14) as it once dwelt in the Temple (2 Chronicles 7.1-3 compare 5.3), and he prays that that glory might be transferred to his disciples (John 17.22 compare 14.17). This is a thought which is taken up and emphasised by Paul (1 Corinthians 3.16-17; 6.19; 2 Corinthians 6.16; Ephesians 2.20-22), but its source is Jesus.

So the living waters flowing out from the Temple and from Jerusalem in the coming days is to find fulfilment in the effective proclamation of the Gospel by the followers of Jesus.

This ties in with the idea that the Spirit was to come on the ‘servant of the Lord’ to enable him to declare ‘good news’ (Isaiah 61.1-2) and to bring justice to the nations (Isaiah 42.1-4). ,p>‘The Servant’ includes the faithful remnant (Isaiah 49.3), and the Spirit is thus seen as enduing them for witness. The Spirit would make the ‘Servant’ a light to the nations, reaching out with God’s deliverance to the ends of the earth (49.6), see Acts 13.47 where this is specifically applied to the early church.

The idea of ‘justice’ is more than of just ‘fair play’. It includes the idea of the bringing of the nations into a position of rightness before God, resulting in their walking in obedience to His instruction (Isaiah 49.4).

This, then, is what Jesus is proclaiming to the crowds in John 7.38. These Scriptures would be in their minds as a result of readings at the Feast, and he is announcing that they are now about to be fulfilled ‘as the Scripture has said’.

And what will the Spirit come to do? He will come as the Spirit of truth (John 14.17) to convince the world of sin, and righteousnes and judgment. To make it aware of what it has done in rejecting Jesus. To make even more clear the purity and righteous demands of God, even though the perfect exemplar of that purity is no longer with them. And to make the world aware that it stands judged and condemned, evan as the ‘Prince of this world’ is judged (John 16.7-11).

Questions.

1. How does Zechariah 14 find partial fulfilment in the words of John 7.38?

2. What lessons can we draw for Ezekiel 47 about the position of present day believers?

3. How does John portray the fulfilment of the promise of the reception of the Spirit, and what His coming will accomplish?

10) When He is Come

Reading John 14. 1 - 21

The days of Jesus life are coming to an end. He knows that the time has come for him to be ‘snatched away’ from his disciples (Mark2.20 literally). He is under no illusions as to what is in store for him, even though he will give the people a final chance to respond, and he is aware of how despondent and disillusioned his disciples will become, even though he has warned them continually beforehand.

Yet if only they could see it, his going will be the precursor to something that will amaze the world. The work that he has been doing will be as nothing compared with what they are going to accomplish (John 14.12). This is the purpose for which he has chosen them out (John 15.16 compare 13.18).

Up to now he has been with them, showing them how they ought to behave towards one another (John 13.15-16). He has revealed to them the Father (14.6-9), giving them the Father’s instruction (14.24-25; 15.15) and keeping a protecting hand upon them (16.4).

Now he is going away (13.33-36; 14.28; 16.5, 16), he is going to his Father (14.12, 28; 16.10, 28) and they will not see him again. The whole of John 13 to 16 are spoken with these facts very much in mind.

They already knew what it meant to have things revealed to them by the Father (Matthew 16.17), and could perform miracles and cast out evil spirits in His name (Mark 6.13), a sign of the Spirit at work through them (Matthew 12.28), and they certainly had within them the life of the Spirit (John 6.68-69), but they knew that this all resulted from their unique relationship to Jesus, from whom, as it were, they received their authority. What would they do now that he was leaving them? Who would now teach them. Who would be the source of their power?

As those who had received his words they had to preserve them accurately for future generations, and as witnesses to his life from the beginning (16.27) they had to pass on a true account to those who would follow.

Thus in one sense the promises of John 13-16 are of a special nature. While they can be applied to all Christians in a general sense, they must not be pressed too closely and literally. Not everyone receives the same gifts.It is true that the Spirit does bring spiritual awareness to God’s people, and that He especially illumines some men so that they can teach others, but this is in the light of other promises, a continuation of, but not a direct fulfilment of, the words spoken here. The distinctions of Scripture must be carefully preserved.

When for example, Jesus says -- “the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do” -- , he is almost certainly referring to miracles (‘greater’ because works of the new age (compare Matthew 11.11)), but he is not promising these powers to anyone who would like to claim them. You do not need to feel that somehow you are lacking if you cannot perform miracles. He is promising to a select group that what has begun in them can continue, even though he is going away, and that instead of lessening their expectations they should increase them.

(Whether miracles are a present possibility is another question, but it cannot be determined on the basis of these verses).

Jesus then is promising his disciples that he will not leave them to fend for themselves. He will not leave them ‘without help’ (14.18). Indeed his going should be seen by them as a blessing, for until he has gone the Spirit cannot come in all His fulness.

He is going to prepare for them a place of rest where they can dwell with him (14.1-3), and he will one day come again and take them to where he is. But first they have a task to perform. His going will mean that he can act more powerfully on their behalf in response to their requests (14.13). He will be able to send to them ‘another Helper’, who will be to them what Jesus has been and more (14.16-17; 14.25-26; 16.7). The word translated Comforter in AV means ‘one called alongside to help and strengthen, one called to strive on one’s behalf’ (paracletos). Here is one who will more than replace the earthly Jesus, for He will be with them all the time. Indeed He will be Jesus himself come to them in heavenly power (14.18).

Because of this they will be able to know him in a way which was impossible while he was here on earth. They will be able to be joined to him, like a branch is joined to the vine, and will be able to draw on his life like the branches draw their sustenance from the vine (15.1-11). The Spirit will come to make Jesus present with them in his glorified state (14.18), and to make real in them the personal indwelling of Father and Son (14.23).

So the going of Jesus, which will appear to be a disaster, will in fact be a blessing, for they will know him better than they have ever known him before.

Questions

1. How could Jesus going possibly be a blessing for his disciples?

2. In what way would he be closer to them than he was while on earth?

3. How far do you think we can apply these verses to ourselves?

11) The Spirit of Truth

Reading John chapters 15 and 16

The emphasis all the way through in John 13-16 is that the Spirit is the Spirit of Truth (14.17; 15.26; 16.13), as He has already been shown to be the Spirit of Life.

Jesus declares, “I am the way (to the Father), namely the truth and the life” (John 14.6), and thus reinforces the fact that the way to God is through receiving and believing the truth proclaimed by Jesus, and thus receiving life through the Spirit. It is that truth and life, of which Jesus is the source, which will bring them to the Father, being communicated by the Spirit. This is something that all must experience.

But in these chapters there is a deeper meaning to the idea of the Spirit of truth. By the giving of the Spirit he is making provision for the preservation of the truth he has brought, and providing a means for its inerrant interpretation. To apply this beyond the apostles is to go beyond the claims of the passage. It is as witnesses to his life and teaching that they would be so inspired (14.26; 15.26-27). This is a fact which Paul recognises (1 Corinthians 15.8) so that he has to explain how he can claim to share that inspiration (Galatians 1.12, 16-17). He stresses that he finally compared his teaching with that of the apostles (Galatians 2.2), vindicating his claim to special revelation by pointing to the clear agreement between them.

The ‘Spirit of Truth’ will be given by the Father at the Son’s request (14.16), is sent by the Father in the Son’s name (14.26), is sent by Jesus from the Father, ‘proceeding from the Father’ (15.26), and is sent by the Son because he has left them (16.7). So Father and Son cooperate in sending the Spirit who makes Their presence real to men.

His particular task in this context will be “to teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (14.26). Thus the Spirit will make real to them the presence of the Son and the Father (14.18-21 following the statement in v.17). He will guide them into all truth by passing on to them what he has received from the source of truth. He will declare to them things that are to happen. He will glorify Jesus, and take all that belongs to Jesus, that is everything that the Father has, and declare it to them (16.13-15). In other words they will be supremely fitted to be vehicles of God’s revelation to men.

Here is our guarantee, if it were needed, that in the apostles Jesus made full provision for the preserving and expanding of the truth,and in its full sense it is a promise limited to them.

The word paracletos, as we have already seen, means ‘one called alongside to help’. It was used of lawyers called to defend an accused person, and also of the defence witnesses who were called to speak on his behalf. So the Spirit, as the chief witness, will support the witness of the disciples (15.26-27) and help them prepare their case for presentation to a hostile world (16.1-11). He will bring all the evidence to mind (14.26) and will obtain the facts from the highest source (16.13-15), guaranteeing a true testimony. So brilliant will be His defence that the accusers who reject and condemn Jesus will be proved in the wrong (16.8).

What is more, the Spirit will bring home to men the enormity of the crime that they have committed by not responding to Jesus, confirming to them that sentence has rather been passed on the world (16.8-10).

The word paracletos can also refer to an adviser, one who gives assistance (see Psalm 94.19 - paraclesis in the Greek Old Testament), or intercedes and mediates on another’s behalf, something which is said of the Spirit elsewhere (Romans 8.27), but this is not directly in mind here where the emphasis is on His activity in calling to mind, revealing and establishing the truth.

More relevant are the passages in the Old Testament where the writers speak of God ‘comforting’ His people (the same Greek word in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament), where the idea is of strengthening the people in readiness for deliverance (e.g. Isaiah 40.1; 51.12; 57.18; 66.11-13; Jeremiah 31.9 and especially Isaiah 61.2) by bringing home to them the truth about God and His ways.

In a general way we can apply these promises to ourselves. We can recognise in the Spirit one who comforts and strengthens us, one who guides and directs our study of the Scriptures, andone who leads us into truth, as long as we recognise that to us there is only a partial fulfilment. We are not the vehicles of divine revelation.

Questions.

1. What was the main task of the Spirit as the Spirit of truth to be?

2. How is he described as going about this task?

3. How much of His activity as outlined can be applied to ourselves?

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THE PENTATEUCH

GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS 1.1-7.38 --- 8.1-11.47 --- 12.1-16.34--- 17.1-27.34--- NUMBERS 1-10--- 11-19--- 20-36--- DEUTERONOMY 1.1-4.44 --- 4.45-11.32 --- 12.1-29.1--- 29.2-34.12 --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- PSALMS 1-17--- ECCLESIASTES --- ISAIAH 1-5 --- 6-12 --- 13-23 --- 24-27 --- 28-35 --- 36-39 --- 40-48 --- 49-55--- 56-66--- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL 1-7 ---DANIEL 8-12 ---

NAHUM--- HABAKKUK---ZEPHANIAH ---ZECHARIAH --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-16 --- 2 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-13 -- -GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS 1-6 --- 7-10 --- 11-13 --- JAMES --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- REVELATION

--- THE GOSPELS

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