That Life-Giving Stream | John 7:32-39

If you have your Bibles with you, please turn in them to John chapter seven. If you don’t have a Bible with you, you can use one of those Bibles that are in the blue chairs under the rack beneath. And if you don’t own a Bible, that’s our gift to you. Please feel the freedom to take that home with you.

John chapter seven.

We’re continuing in our series through the Gospel of John. I neglected to say at the beginning of the service. My name is Zack DiPrima. I’m the preaching pastor here at Trinity Church, and I want to welcome each of you in the name of Jesus Christ. What we’re committed to here at this church is what we call expositional preaching.

Preaching is pointless if it’s not grounded in the Word of God. So one of my goals here as a preacher—I prayed earlier that we would be a faithful congregation. I want to be a faithful preacher. One of my goals in Christian preaching is to say what the text says, explain it so that we understand the sense of the text, what the text means.

And then probably the hardest thing to do is to then apply that text to our lives. That can be difficult, but it’s what the Lord requires of us. We need to be able to apply the Word of God to our lives. That’s expositional preaching. Now, normally, what that looks like at Trinity is we just move through books of the Bible.

So I don’t just randomly pick a text each week. No, we’ve been in the Gospel of John for some time now. Last week we finished at verse 31 of John chapter seven. This week we’re going to be at verses 32 through 39. That’s our plan. Listen now as I read John seven, verse 32 through 39.

The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

This is the Word of God.

Rage — Goddess, sing the rage of Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the house of death so many sturdy souls. What god drove them to fight with such a fury? These are the opening lines of Homer’s Iliad, written in the eighth century B.C., and refers to the rage of Achilles towards his enemies.

Later in the epic poem, Hector the Prince of Troy becomes Achilles’ greatest enemy, and after Hector kills one of Achilles’ closest comrades, Achilles exclaims, “Would that my fury could drive me to cut your flesh and eat you raw!” This is the rage of Achilles.

In Britain, so written thousands of years ago, I think it presents an eminently natural posture of a person towards their foes, towards their opponents, towards their enemies. People instinctively hate their enemies. I don’t care who you are. We naturally, by nature, instinctively, intuitively, we hate our enemies. It’s not natural to love them. It’s not even natural not to hate your enemies.

Julius Caesar famously declared in a decisive victory over the Pontic army, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” I conquered my enemies. The Mongol emperor Genghis Khan said, “The greatest joy is to crush your enemies.” He’s often attributed as saying, “It is not enough that I succeed. My enemies must fail.”

General Sherman, the Union Army 150 years ago, who burned much of Atlanta and a lot of Marietta, said, “War is cruelty. There is no use in trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.” You want to be cruel to your enemies, says General Sherman.

Another man somewhere is said, “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the war.” My friend, what about you? What’s your relationship with your enemies? What are we like? Are we more like Achilles? Or are we more like the so-called better angels of our nature?

Well, friends, I think we are so much more like Achilles than any angels. We far more resemble these people who hate our enemies, for we tend to hate our enemies. In your own experience, you’ve had rivals. Maybe people you would call enemies, and perhaps you don’t wish them harm, but you do not like them, and you certainly don’t love them. At best, you tolerate them.

So the question that is basic that I want to ask this morning is, what does Jesus do for his enemies? What is the posture of the Son of God to his enemies?

He invites them to be his friends. He welcomes them. Jesus offers mercy to the violent offenders. Jesus, in the face of profound rejection, indeed, in the face of those who pursued him to death, he welcomes sinners to receive life. Jesus loves his enemies. He poured out his blood for his enemies. He doesn’t just do it because his daddy commanded him to. No, he loves them, and his posture is one of mercy towards them, so he’s constantly inviting them to come: “Eat of me, drink of me, come. The water is fine.”

To the very people who are trying to arrest him. The very people who seek his life. The very people who want nothing to do with him. I’m a preacher and I have a new pulpit, so I’m going to preach the gospel today. And guess what? I got three points and they all start with “P.” Three points for the sermon today.

Point number one: the problem of sin.

Point number two: the promise of the gospel.

Point number three: the posture of Christ.

Point One: The Problem of Sin

Look at verse 32: The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.

Jesus is in Jerusalem. It’s during the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths. This is one of the high festivals among Jewish people in that day and age. It would have been one of the top three festivals that would have marked the cadence of the year. And this is Jesus’ first time back in Jerusalem since John 5.

Now, those who have been with us in the Gospel of John would have known how John 5 ended and what led to some persecution of Jesus in John 5. Listen to John 5:18. This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Now the narrative of John 7 is fascinating. It’s fascinating because it oscillates between sort of hot hatred for Jesus and also growing interest in him, growing faith in him, growing receptiveness towards his message. Now you have some people that are trying to arrest Jesus, some people that are beginning to speak well of him. This is a good man.

You have some people that are trying to kill Jesus. And as we saw in verse 30 last week, there are some people who actually believe in him. And the narrative oscillates between these two. But at the end of the day, there are people that want to kill Jesus. Look at verse 12 to 13. There was muttering about him among the people, while some said he is a good man. Others said, no, he is leading the people astray. Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him.

Later, we see a significant faction try to seize Jesus. Look at verse 30. They were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. And then we get to our text.

I read verse 32 a moment ago. Look at verse 33. Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. You will seek me, and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” What is Jesus referring to here? Rather, Jesus refers to his death and eventual ascension to his Father.

He’s going to heaven. He’s going to be at God’s right hand and they won’t be able to get there. He’ll no longer be with them. Now, it’s noteworthy that Jesus makes these exact same remarks to his disciples in John 13. I won’t have you turn there, but Jesus will say the exact same thing. He says he actually says, “I tell you the same thing I told the Jews in Jerusalem, where I’m going, you cannot come.”

I’m going to a place where you won’t be able to find me. And here’s what’s interesting: just how this text I just read precipitates and anticipates the teaching of the Holy Spirit in verse 39. So when Jesus says the same thing to his disciples in John 13, it anticipates his teaching on the coming of the Holy Spirit in John 14 and 16.

So there’s a connection that, you know, Jesus says, “I’m leaving, but it’s going to be better with you. It’ll be better for you because I’m sending my Spirit, and my Spirit is going to confirm and seal the promises that my Father has made to you. We are in a better place.” When the apostles who had the very presence of Jesus Christ, the bodily presence of Christ is present spiritually with us through the power of the Holy Ghost.

So that’s what Jesus is saying. But look how the Jews respond. In verse 35, the Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks?” All the way? That word “Greeks” just think Gentiles, non-Jews. That’s what they mean.

Verse 36. “What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

Brethren, you see, in the first century, not unlike today, Jews could be found all over the globe as a result of centuries of exile, trade, persecution and migration. They were scattered across the Mediterranean world. So what are they saying when they’re saying, “Is he going to go to the Jews of the diaspora and the dispersed Jews throughout the world?”

What are they implying? Well, friends, I think they mean this derisively. In fact, I think they’re mocking Jesus as saying, this guy is going to go to the Gentiles. And yeah, he might say he’s going to go minister to the Jews of the dispersion. But at the end of the day, he’s going to preach to filthy, unbelieving, uncircumcised Gentiles.

That’s what this guy does. He’s not one of us. And again, we see the irony of John. You see, Jesus wasn’t saying what they thought he was saying. No, Jesus is saying, I’m going to die and I’m going to ascend to the right hand of my Father. That’s what Jesus is saying. However, Jesus actually would do exactly what they suggested he would do: Jerusalem, Judea, the ends of the earth.

Luke 24. This is what the risen Christ says to his disciples. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures—best Bible study of all time. And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

The Apostle Paul in Romans 1: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” The gospel is going to go to the nations. The gospel is going to go to not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles. Paul makes it so clear in Ephesians 2, this is just beautiful.

If you want to understand just the posture of Jesus Christ in getting the gospel to unreached peoples. Ephesians 2:14: “He himself, that is Jesus, is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” That’s the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. It doesn’t matter anymore. We’re all under the New Covenant, and he says that he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.

That’s what Jesus did when he died on the cross: unified and purchased a people for his own possession who would be zealous for good works. One flock, one shepherd. And then verse 17: “He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.” Those who were near—the Jews.

And that’s who Jesus first ministered to. Oh, praise God, he has gone afar off. Praise God we have received this message. Praise God that Jesus didn’t end with the Jews. No, he brought the gospel to the Gentiles. And now the Lord is uniting a people from every tribe, tongue and nation. Did you say, “Will he go to the Gentiles?”

The answer is first and foremost no. Jesus will soon die and return to the right hand of his Father above. But the answer is also a resounding yes. Jesus, brothers and sisters, is building a people comprised of every tribe, tongue, and nation—a people that we call the church. The Almighty God, for reasons known to himself alone and reasons some that he has revealed, he has purposed to exhibit his character to a heavenly host through a cosmic masterpiece known as the church.

Do you know this about the church? It’s the Bride of Christ. The church is the big thing. The church is the master plan of redemption. The church is God’s end and means of saving the world. The church is the Lord’s bride. You cannot have Jesus as your Savior if you’re not a part of the church. You cannot love Jesus Christ if you don’t care about his bride.

You can have no friendship with me if you hated my wife. Do you see how that works? Some of you need to hear those. I don’t know everyone here today. I don’t know what church you come from, or if you even go to church. Or if you’re one of those Christians that say, “I’m one of those people, I love Jesus. It’s those Christians I don’t really like.”

Nothing can be further from real Christianity. The Bible has no category for a Christian who is vitally connected to Christ that is not vitally connected to a local church. I’m talking about more than attendance, not about membership. Whose authority are you under? The Bible? All the letters the Apostle Paul writes assume that you have pastors, that you have a congregation, that you’re a part of, that you have real relationships that have real teeth and real accountability.

And if you don’t have that, you are outside the will of Christ. So I challenge you. If you are not part of a local church, I don’t care if you join this church, you need to join a faithful church. It is outside the will of God for a person who calls him or herself a Christian to not follow the Lord Jesus Christ by uniting himself meaningfully to his bride.

Because the church is the thing that God is doing in the world. You can never truly know God sufficiently, serve him meaningfully, or honor him properly until you have grappled with the magnitude of his purpose in the church. But again, I want to highlight how the Jews wickedly betrayed and denied and rejected Jesus. What’s that got to do with me? Because here’s how the Jews wickedly betrayed and denied and rejected Jesus. What’s that got to do with me?

You know what true crime is? Like true crime documentaries. I read a statistic this week that says 84% of Americans 13 years and older imbibe true crime content on a regular basis. I don’t believe that. 84%. That’s a lot. And if that’s true, a number among the noble 16%. I don’t like true crime. My wife asked me the other day, “You know, how did you hear about Nancy Guthrie?”

Like, I don’t know who that is. I’m not trying to be insensitive here. I just didn’t know who that is. And she says it’s Savannah Guthrie’s mom. Like, I gotta watch NBC. I don’t know who that is. It’s a fascinating story. I have not kept up with it. I hope she’s alive. I hope she’s found. It’s very, very sad.

But have you ever wondered why our true crime podcasts, articles, documentaries, TV shows? Why is that genre so penetrating the people? Why is it so popular? I can tell you this: true crime would have no appeal if people felt guilt for the crimes reported on, rather than sympathy for the victims. Do you understand what I’m saying? Like if people watch true crime and sense some sort of connection with the killer and like, “Oh, I feel like I’ve done this crime or I’m guilty,” they don’t identify with the killer.

No, they identify with the hero, the investigator, the victim, or the victim’s family. And they feel so much sorrow for that. And it’s intriguing and titillating to them. And that’s why they like true crime. And the problem with so many people is they treat the cross of Christ like true crime. They look at it as, “Oh, this tragedy that has befallen the Son of God. What a horrible thing to happen. All these Jews that kill Jesus has nothing to do with me.”

My friend, you cannot benefit from the gospel until you understand why Jesus hung there, why he was nailed to the cross. You butchered the Son of God. He died for our sins. He was bruised for our transgressions. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. I’m the man. It was my sin that drove the bitter nails that hung him on that judgment tree. That’s what we need to hear. That’s why we need the cross. Otherwise, what’s the point? You think the Father killed his Son for kicks? An example of love. What love? No. We needed a sacrifice. We needed the blood of Jesus Christ to atone for our sins.

You see, you need to understand this about the gospel, my friend. Something’s gotta be done about your sin. There’s only two things that can be done about your sin. Someone’s going to pay for your sin. Either you, through the means of eternal condemnation, or the Son of God 2,000 years ago when he said, “It is finished.” You need the merits of Jesus’ blood.

Something’s going to be done about your sin. And you can walk out of this room knowing that your sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. Or you can sleepwalk your way to perdition and pay the price on the last day. I plead with you. Come to Jesus Christ. He will forgive you of all your sins. Trust in him.

Believe in him. This is the problem of sin.

Point Two: The Promise of the Gospel

The promise of the gospel. Look at verse 37.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Now, friends, I’m not going to spend much time interpreting verse 39. So if you have that question, you know, when and how was the Spirit of God given? I’m not going to spend much time answering that. My short answer to that is that happened at Pentecost, where the Spirit of God was given to the church in a meaningful way that it had not yet been expressed before.

That doesn’t mean Old Testament saints did not have the Spirit or were never changed by the Spirit. There’s 1,001 more questions I could answer. I’m not going to spend much time on that today. Rather, under this heading I want to ask three questions. Three questions based on verses 37 through 39.

Question one: What is the promise of these verses? What is the promise and the offer coming from the Lord? Friends, the promise is to get through salvation. The gift Jesus offers is salvation by the power of His Holy Spirit. This is a promise of new and eternal life to all those who believe.

Now verse 38 confuses a lot of people. It’s often interpreted to convey that if you believe in Jesus, look at verse 38. It says, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Some people read this to say, hey, if you believe in Jesus, you become your own independent source of life or independent source of whatever this water is. That’s not what the text is saying. Rather, instead of being made an independent source of living water, those who believe are made conduits of living water.

So the idea is that Christ and the Spirit are living water that will flow in and through the hearts of those who believe in the gospel. Jesus, brothers and sisters, he is that life-giving stream. He’s the ultimate source of living water and freely flows to and through all believing hearts. If you’re being blessed by another Christian, that’s Jesus working through that person, and they’re a conduit of that living water that is flowing from the eternal, life-giving stream of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant age is not a faucet you turn on and off, but an unrelenting river that never ceases to transform believers.

One of the reasons why I know this is what Jesus is saying is because this is what he says in John 4 to the woman at the well. He says in John 4:14, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” You’re just a spring from the greater rushing river.

So what’s the promise? The promise is salvation that can only be accomplished through the miraculous work of the Spirit of God. And so what everybody in this room desperately needs. Okay, the second question.

What Scripture makes this promise? Because Jesus says in verse 38, “as the Scripture says,” and those who study the Old Testament well, like where the Scripture sounds like he’s quoting a verse. Well, the idea Jesus doesn’t have one verse in mind. Rather, he has a larger teaching and theological theme that’s spoken of again and again and again throughout the prophets, throughout the Old Testament.

So here are a few texts. Keep in mind Acts 2, which that’s actually a New Testament, but quotes Joel. It says this: “In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”

Isaiah 44:3 says this, speaking of the Lord’s new covenant people: “For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring and my blessing on your descendants.”

I think the text that was probably most likely on the Lord’s mind is Isaiah 55, verse 1. And this makes sense because it sounds similar. Isaiah 55:1 says, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

So, brethren, the point is this. The new life provided by the Spirit is the great and most fundamental need of every person in this room. I need you really to understand me clearly on this, because there’s some people called Christians that will say the gift of the Holy Spirit is something that happens after you’re saved. That’s not true. So it’s not like you need to get saved, have your sins forgiven, and then there are a certain special type of Christian that receives the Holy Spirit.

That’s not how the Spirit of God works. All Christians have the Holy Spirit. Every Christian has the Spirit of God. Every child of God has been renewed by the Holy Spirit, such that the Spirit testifies with their spirit that God is my Father. Abba, Father. I could say that as a child of God has you had my blood forgiven by Jesus because I had the Holy Spirit.

Every Christian has the Spirit of God, and every Christian therefore bears fruit of the Spirit and fruit in keeping with repentance. So don’t get this idea that this is like a special second blessing, that hey, maybe if you just work really hard enough, you’ll one day attain to, you know, if you’re saying you’re a Christian, that means you ought to have the Holy Spirit coursing through your veins.

You’ve been remade. You’ve been changed. My friend, you say you don’t need. If you’re outside of Christ, a fresh start. Share the gospel with people all the time and often say, “I just need to sort of get my life back on track. I need to sort of clean myself up a little bit. I need to stop gambling. I need to stop drinking. I need to stop sleeping around. I need to just scrub a dub dub, get myself better, make myself clean, present myself to God.” It doesn’t work. Do you hear me? That doesn’t work. Jesus doesn’t work like that.

Do you know what God requires? He requires perfection. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And you know what the Bible says about your righteousness? It’s like filthy rags. It cannot justify man. Now you need something better than that. You need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. You need his blood and righteousness. But you know what happens when you trust in that sacrifice? The Spirit of God rips right through your life. The river runs through it and you change.

I’ve been able to have some membership interviews this week, and I’ve been able to have membership interviews with one or two people that I was able to share the gospel with in the last year. I had a conversation with them last year, and I’ve had a conversation with them this year. They’re different people.

They’re different people. They’re brand new. What happened to them?

They didn’t magically start adhering to some lists of do’s and don’ts. They didn’t overcome one specific sin in their life. They were given a new heart. They now love God’s law. But now I want to be like his Son. They now don’t fear death. No, no. They’re filled with confidence. They’re brand new. They’ve been completely changed by the grace of God.

You don’t need a fresh start. You need to be remade. I’m talking about the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. Listen to what the Bible says about regeneration. The Spirit-empowered regeneration is the heart of the New Covenant. This is what the prophets prophesied in Ezekiel 36. It says the Lord says, “I will give you a new heart, a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules. You shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

And Jesus is saying, if you come to me, if you thirst, you’re going to have that type of change. New heart. Heart of flesh for your heart of stone. You’re going to love me and you’re going to be changed. This regeneration cleanses people from their sins. Paul writes in Titus 3: “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

Ephesians 2:18. We know that Spirit-empowered regeneration grants me you access to God, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. In Romans 8, we see that Spirit-empowered regeneration allows us and makes us able and makes it true to call God our Father. Romans 8:15: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”

If you know God as your Father—Christian name for God is because you have the Spirit in your life, the fruit of the Spirit, the child of God, not for any merit of my own but because of what Jesus has done on my behalf. So what Scripture makes this promise? A number of Scriptures makes the promise.

Third question I want to ask is: What is the condition of the promise?

This matters a ton because I’m rather aware of Satan’s ability to blind people. And one of the ways that Satan blinds people is you hear about the death of Jesus for the world, and you think I’m a part of the world. You hear “God so loved the world that he gave his Son” and think, anything. I’m part of the world. Therefore I’m okay. And I’m right with God. And I’m going to heaven because Jesus died on the cross. That doesn’t make you a Christian.

Jesus makes a very clear promise in this text. But did you hear the condition? Verse 38, “Whoever believes in me,” those are the people that experience the benefits of the cross. “Whoever believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” He says this is about the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive.

If anyone thirsts, let him come to me. Do you know what happens if you don’t see your thirst? Do you know what happens if you don’t come to Jesus? You’re dead in your sins and you’re in desperate need of the grace of God.

The question is, have you met this condition? Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you repented of your sins? Have you come to Jesus? Because it’s only those people. It’s only these people that experience the benefits of the promise. Don’t let Satan deceive you.

I fear for all too many people here this, that, this wondrous gift of salvation, without hearing the crucial condition of faith. Jesus saves sinners, but only those who repent and believe in him. Jesus satisfies the thirsty, but only the thirsty who drink of him. Jesus feeds the hungry, heals the sick, clothes the poor, but only those who come to him in faith.

Unless you, forsaking all others, fly to Christ for mercy, you are dead in your sins. Over those who repent and believe, who believe the gospel, they find life. It’s even a little bit more fundamental than this. What’s Jesus say in verse 37? “If anyone thirsts.” I’ll talk about it to everyone in the room right now. If anyone thirsts, you know Jesus not talking about your body thirst. I am real thirsty and he’s not talking about your body.

He’s talking about your soul, man.

Do you know your soul has eyes? Your soul can either be blind or your soul can see. Do you know your soul has taste buds? You either have a soul that has no taste or desire for God, or you have taste buds that have tasted the Lord and seen that he’s good. And I love sweet, sweet honey, I got it, I want it, I need to have it.

That’s what the soul does. The soul voice sings. The soul pines after things. And the Bible says in the Bible is so true. The soul can only be satisfied by one person. It’s only the Lord Jesus Christ. See, here’s the thing. You all meet that first qualification. I know you thirst. And you look to be satisfied in every other place but Jesus. And you won’t be satisfied. You won’t be satisfied in money, you won’t be satisfied in prestige, you won’t be satisfied in your relationships. You won’t be satisfied in Easter brunches. You won’t be satisfied in music. You won’t be satisfied in any other thing. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can satisfy you.

So if you thirst. No. You thirst. I don’t need to debate you and convince you of that. What are you going to do about your thirst? Will your thirst be slaked by the Son of God? He invites you to come to him. This is the promise of the gospel.

Point Three: The Posture of Christ

I just want us to finish meditating on the heart of Jesus for sinners. In verse 37 he says, on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Jesus stands ready to save all those who come to him. Who needs to hear this today?

Jesus wants you to come to him. Jesus is not just following his Father’s orders. No, he wants you. He wants you. He pleads with you. He invites you and welcomes you. Will you come to him? Everywhere he goes, he’s constantly pleading with sinners to come to him. He says you must be born again, Nicodemus. You don’t love me. You don’t have a new heart. You remember Moses? Shall we put the serpent on the spike? Lifted up in the wilderness? A people were saved from the poison. You can have a similar salvation that will well to eternal life. Look to me. Live, he says to that crowd that wanted to crown him King. You don’t really know who I am, but oh, if you do. Oh, if you receive the bread of life I offer, you could live forever. Don’t work for the food that perishes.

So many of you are working for food that perishes. Jesus passionately. Hear his voice now. He pleads with you. He beckons you to come to him. Will you receive him?

Do you hear his voice in the temple? He preached in his thundering in the pulpit. Now all across the world he preaches still. Jesus does not cease to plead with sinners. Jesus has not ceased to intercede. Jesus has not lost an ounce of interest in any of the needs of men. The mighty voice of Christ summons every soul to find refuge in heaven.

The King of Glory grants perfect pardon for all who repent and come to him. Can you say with the saints in this room I’ve heard the voice of Jesus. I’m following Jesus. I know the one who numbers the hairs on my head. I trust in the one who’s made arrangement for my sins, who died for me and rose from death for me, who ascended to the right hand of God and intercedes for me.

I trust in him. Love him. I repented to him. I’m living my life for him. Have you heard the voice of Jesus? Do you hear him preaching now? He calls you to follow him. Do you know what it’s like to have your sin forgiven? Oh, he hides my sins. He’s covered them. He’s removed them as far as the east is from the west.

I want to close with just this idea once more. Jesus loves his enemies. And he pursued each of us when we were a wayward sheep. And he brought us on his shoulder, rejoicing. How did Jesus do that?

How does he show such spectacular mercy to sinners like us? How does he love his enemies? I told you earlier that the Lord is quoting Isaiah 55. The answer to my question is found in Isaiah 55. It’s because God is not like us. Jesus can love his enemies and show mercy to his enemies, and indeed plead with his enemies to find forgiveness at his cross because he’s not like us.

Listen to this. “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” He says, “Come to me. Apart in you. I’ll show you mercy. I’ll forgive you.”

How is he able to do this? Isaiah 55:8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Praise God, Jesus doesn’t think like us.

Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, we return to this prayer again that we would love not the world, that we would look not like the world, that we would not seek the favor of the world or fear of the world. But, Lord, that we would will to do what you will, and that we would recognize the Holy Word of Christ as your word, and be so changed by its power.

Lord, cause us now to not judge by appearances, but to judge with right judgment. And Lord, may you be pleased for us to see everyone in this room to be like those in John seven, verse 31, that we would believe in Jesus Christ. Help us now. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.