Water from the Innermost Parts AM Sermon 3/13/11

Since I have been young I have fascinated with two things and they are rivers and old church buildings. I love fast moving water, rapids, rocks and high bluffs coming down to the water’s edge. I love old church buildings where you go in and sit and think about what it would have been like to be a worshiper a long time ago.
That is why I guess I love going to the Smoky Mountains and Cades Cove- the streams you go by on the way out and the old home places with the churches.
Some of my fondest memories of childhood is the canoeing trips that I went on with my Dad. We would canoe the Sipsey River through what is called the Bankhead Wilderness area. The wilderness area is inaccessible by vehicle but you can canoe through it.
Everything is neat about that trip but one part. There is a rapid about ¾ through called the 100 yard dash. People that have canoed that stretch know about the hydraulic called the dash. There is not turning back when you get too close. The current sucks in your canoe through an opening about 15 feet wide.
Once we didn’t realize that the water level was lower than we thought and a rock we usually went right over caught us underneath and flipped us over. I was probably 12 years old and was terrified. On that particular trip my Dad put me in the canoe with a man that we went to church with who was a decorate soldier from the Vietnam war. He was gung ho and was afraid of nothing. We flipped over and I did just as I had always been told to do and that is pull your legs up and go with the current. I ended up 100 yards down river and Elton was also there. Elton’s first words to me were, Have you seen my paddles? It wasn’t are you alright, or are you hurt but it was where are my paddles. My first impulse was to tell him I would like to hit him with his paddles if I found them.
One thing about Rivers is that the Rivers bring life. Everywhere you see a river you see beautiful lush foliage. You see lots of animals that depend on the river for life.
This morning we are going to see a River that brings more life than we could ever imagine. We will be in John chapter 7 this morning for our sermon.
We have made our trek through John’s Gospel. We have been introduced to a cosmic vision of Christ in the Prologue with its glory and grandeur.
We have witnessed miracles that are sings that point to something greater.
We have seen Jesus point to greater spiritual truth that man must be born again – born not of flesh and blood but of God’s Spirit born of above.
Jesus wants to give living water that if a man drinks he will never thirst again.
Jesus brings Healing and a New Sabbath Rest – and continues to work even on the Sabbath because His Father is working.
He is the true bread from Heaven – He is not like the temporal Manna that came to the Israelites but is the true bread that gives His very flesh as our spiritual food.
He gives his entire self up on the Cross for us because He loves us that much.
Today we continue with John’s theme that will run through Chapter 10 with the feasts of the Jews.
The text tells us In John 7:1 that it was the feast of Tabernacles. On our calendar this would have fallen around September or October so it was a Fall Feast.
This is the final feast of the Jewish Year.
This feast occurs five days after the Day of Atonement or what is called Yom Kippur and it ends the Jewish time called the Days of Awe.
It is called the Feast of the ingathering or the feast of booths.
This feast was significant in the history of the Jews because it was during this feast that Nehemiah read the Law and renewed the covenant when Israel returned from Exile.
This was also the feast in which Solomon dedicated his Temple that he built for the Lord.
By the time of Jesus it was considered the most holy and sacred feast of the Jews and this is attested to by Josephus.
For some reason it had grown in popularity beyond even the Passover Feast.
Now this feast fascinates me because I think of camping out as a kid. All kids love to camp out and I can imagine that it wasn’t any different for the Jews of Jesus time.
They would collect twigs of willow, myrtle and palm branches and would build a booth to stay in during the feast.
They would also bring an ingathering of the best of the Fall crops with them to the feast and they would hang up examples of their best of the crops in their booth.
It was a time to remember the Exodus and the wandering in the wilderness as well as God’s Provision.
This would be a time the people would celebrate God’s Shekinah presence leading them through the wilderness as well as the water from the rock that God provided for them.
On the eighth and final day of the feast, the high priest of Israel, in a great processional made up of priests and tens of thousands of worshipers, descended from the Temple Mount to pause briefly at the Pool of Siloam.
This would also think back to the time of Moses and the water from the rock.
A pitcher was filled with water, and the procession continued via a different route back to the Temple Mount.
Here, in the midst of great ceremony, the high priest poured the water out of the pitcher onto the altar.
The people would cry out from the book of Isaiah,
“With Joy we shall draw water from the wells of Salvation!”
And with this trumpets would blast as this ritual took place.
Since in Israel the rains normally stop in March, there is no rain for almost seven months!
If God does not provide the "early" rains in October and November, there will be no spring crop, and famine is at the doorstep.
This ceremony, then, was intended to invoke God's blessing on the nation by providing life-giving water.
Jesus is at this great feast and the last day of this 8 day feast Jesus will cry out.
John 7: 37-39
37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' " 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive ; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
This is the day that they pour water out from
97 % of the Earth’s Water is found in the Oceans as Salt water, 3 percent is drinkable water.
2 % is found in the ice caps which leaves just 1 percent for us to survive on.
The good news is that 1 percent is enough for planet earth to survive.
The Jews understood that water was critical to life.
Living water was even more critical – living water had to be moving and was not stagnant. Living water was life giving.
As I said earlier this feast was a time when the Jews celebrated God giving the water to them in the wilderness from the rock.
The Apostle Paul ties together this teaching of Jesus with the wilderness wanderings.
I Corinthians 10: 1-4
1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea ; 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea ; 3 and all ate the same spiritual food ; 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.
Paul tells us specifically that the rock in the wilderness was a foreshadowing to Jesus – it was pointing forward to a time when God would provide more than just water from a rock but spiritual water that would quench our soul forever.
This feast looked forward to God’s provision of water.
Physical water is so important but God in Christ wants to give us much more than just physical water.
Christ wants to give us water that is going to transform us and make us new creatures.
Now in this passage Jesus repeats something almost identical to what He said to the woman at the well in John 4 – John repeats a theme and it means that it is very important.
Jesus changes the message that he said in John 4. He makes it different than the woman at the well.
The differences is that now Jesus is speaking at a great feast to a crowd of people instead of just one person.
One word that inverts our understanding of our relationship with God.
STREAMS OF LIVING WATER WILL FLOW FROM WITHIN HIM
WE ARE THE SOURCE OF THIS WATER – YOU WOULD EXPECT THESE STREAMS OF LIVING WATER TO FLOW TO US FROM JESUS.
THIS IS NEW STUFF- SOMETHING SPECIAL IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.
STOP AND LISTEN TO WHAT HE IS SAYING!!!
It is coming from us and not to us – this water will come from us.
Christianity is different – what Jesus is bringing to the world is new – God wants people that have hearts that have been transformed. God wants people that have been transformed from the inside out. It is our heart that he wants.
So many people in Jesus time were caught up in pomp and circumstance- Just look at the feast he was at – So much pomp circumstance and things and moving parts but what does Jesus say,
Things are different God wants to start this transformation inside of you – it starts with your heart your innermost person and works its way out.
He is claiming this so much when we look at the Greek of this passage it even makes more sense.
FROM WITHIN – Translators from the Greek to English made if very vague and not general. Somewhere vaguely within us.
The actual Greek word is out of HIS BELLY – From his belly or stomach these streams will come forth. What is He talking about?
Ancient world – certain body parts contained certain attributes. The believe blood was the container of life force – which we would in a sort agree.
Soldiers before battle would drink blood because they felt that it was like energy drink or full of life.
The Belly and kidneys they believed that that was the seat of our emotions and feelings and our emotional life. If you remove the belly you would have no more feelings or emotions.
Jesus is saying this water that I will give you, that you find welling up in you, is fundamentally something that will control everything about you. It will alter your emotions and your thinking.
This is critical because emotions can take us captive and can even overrun our mental faculties – but not with Jesus – His living water will take us over and change us.
Two things are necessary to understand this teaching of Jesus.
1) You must be thirsty – As I get older and more mature I am starting to understand this part of what Jesus is saying.
I get so frustrated when you think other people don’t care about spiritual matters.
I would get so frustrated when people seem unmotivated about Church and their spiritual life.
But Jesus makes it clear – you have to be thirsty – Come to Me if you are thirsty is what he says.
You have to be thirsty but also realize that you are thirsty. There are people here that are thirsty for what Jesus wants to give but you don’t realize it.
THRIST:
1)Anger - Here is what I mean – some people here are angry – that is a thirst for God’s Justice- Only God can put it right for you.
2) Some are lonely - You need companionship – but it is not human companionship that we need but we need the help of God. We need God in our lives
3) We are anxious – if you are anxious today it means that you need God’s peace.
4) If you are empty- God wants to fill that empty feeling with His love
We have to see this thirst
From this story we can take three things to APPLY to our Situation:
1) We can GRASP Christ – we can take hold of His promises
He proclaims COME TO ME – an open invitation to all to Come to Jesus
There is a story told of an author named Elsie Wagner. She and her husband were in town shopping, they ran into some friends who invited their whole family to have dinner with them that evening. Elsie said she would check with the others and call to confirm plans.
Later Elsie phoned to say that there would be five of them coming for dinner at six o’clock. At the other end of the line, there was an ominous silence. "Have I got the wrong number?" Elsie asked.
"I sure hope so," came the reply.
Well she may have had the wrong number but in Jesus you will never be rejected.
You can take great confidence in the call of Christ that He will not turn you away if you come to Him Thirsty for the Living water that he wants to bring to your life.
Isaiah the prophet makes the invitation:
Isaiah 55: 1
1 "Ho ! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters ; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.
2) We must GULP away – the water Jesus has for us will do us no good if we don’t buy in.
We have to jump in all the way. There cant be any half way with Christ – Jesus offers a free gift that costs everything – Jesus wants us to crucify our old person and put them to death. He wants us to be brand new and take hold to his water of salvation that He wants to give us.
Pliny the Elder, was a Roman writer who lived during the same time period as Jesus. He told a story of the setting of an obelisk, which when erect would stand 99 feet tall.
Twenty thousand workers where chosen to pull on the ropes and activate the hoisting apparatus.
There was great responsibility and risk in the operation. Just one error could cause the obelisk to fall, ruining years of work. The King demanded one act which insured the complete attention and best direction of the engineer. He ordered the engineer's own son to be strapped to the apex of the obelisk, so that his heart as well as his head would be given to the task.
When we come to Jesus it is the same type of commitment that we need.
It must be something where our heart and head are tied together.
Imagine dying of thirst in a hot desert while holding a huge glass of cold water, that would be ridiculous.
The same is true for a person to not be all out committed to Jesus.
Jesus is here to fulfill all of our longings that the world has warped out of whack.
We must give up all the things that will not fill us up and drink from the waters of life that He wants to give.
Conclusion:
In the book Sahara Unveileda story is told of an Algerian named Lag Lag and a companion whose truck broke down while crossing the desert:
They nearly died of thirst during the three weeks they waited before being rescued.
As their bodies dehydrated, they became willing to drink anything in hopes of quenching their terrible thirst.
The sun forced them into the shade under the truck, where they dug a shallow trench. Day after day they lay there. They had food, but did not eat, fearing it would magnify their thirst. Dehydration, not starvation, kills wanderers in the desert, and thirst is the most terrible of all human sufferings.
Physiologists…use Greek-based words to describe stages of human thirst. For example, the Sahara is dipsogenic, meaning "thirst provoking."
In Lag Lag’s case, they might say he progressed from eudipsia, "ordinary thirst,"
through bouts of hyperdipsia, meaning "temporary intense thirst,"
to polydipsia, "sustained excessive thirst." Polydipsia means the kind of thirst that drives one to drink anything.
There are specialized terms for such behavior, including uriposia, the drinking of urine, and hemoposia, the drinking of blood.
Radiator water is what Lag Lag and his assistant started into when good drinking water was gone. In order to survive, they were willing to drink, in effect, poison.
Isn’t this just like human behavior and doesn’t this story describe us here this morning.
If we were really honest and open we are all thirsty for something. We all want something and we are frustrated when we don’t get it.
WE are willing to quench our thirst on the poison that Satan will give us. Satan gives us drink to quench our thirst but it is the type that leads to more and more despondency.
Jesus gives us water that quenches forever and leads to fulfillment and contentment in our life.
John Piper puts it this way…
“He frustrates the human race again and again. He causes every wreath to wither, every gold cup to tarnish, every muscle to sag, every face to wrinkle, every sexual exploit to go sour, every sin to sting, until we have put Him off too long.”
Piper puts it so well.
All these things of this life lead to nothing – the pleasures that we pursue that crowd out God will fade away.
We may chase winning, money, working out or our physical appearance but they are all going to fade and all that is left is nothing.
God is calling us and he wants us as Ephesians 5 tells us to be fruitful in His Spirit – God wants to gush out his living water from our very innermost being
He wants to start His work of setting things right in this world with each one of us. DO YOU THIRST FOR HEAVEN TODAY?