Rivers Of Living Water

A quiet ritual, a circling crowd, and then a voice that breaks the silence: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” We step into John 7 at the Feast of Tabernacles, where Jesus stands in the temple and ties centuries of longing to one daring promise—living water that will flow from within those who believe. As officers are sent to arrest him and religious leaders weigh politics against prophecy, no one can lay a hand on him. The reason is not luck; it’s timing. His hour has not yet come.

We walk through the festival’s vivid symbols—Siloam’s spring, the golden pitcher, the unpoured water on day seven—and see how they point beyond memory to fulfillment. The message connects the dots from Moses striking the rock to Zechariah’s fountain for cleansing and Isaiah’s vision of an outpoured Spirit. Along the way, we tackle the crowd’s questions: prophet or Christ? Galilee or Bethlehem? Using Matthew’s roadmap, we trace how the Messiah emerges from Bethlehem, sojourns in Egypt, grows in Nazareth, and shines in Galilee of the Gentiles. What looks like contradiction becomes a tapestry of fulfillment.

The heart of the conversation centers on identity and invitation. Jesus claims oneness with the Father and speaks with an authority that unsettles power and steadies seekers. He doesn’t offer a ritual; he offers a source. The living water is the Holy Spirit, given to believers to turn dry ground into fruitfulness—at home, at work, and in every weary place. We reflect on how divine timing shapes courage, how fulfilled prophecy builds trust, and how the Spirit transforms us from reservoirs into rivers that bless others.

Listen to be grounded in Scripture, strengthened in faith, and invited to drink deeply from the source that never runs dry. If this episode encouraged you, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who’s thirsty for hope.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

Setting The Scene And Theme

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

He's declaring himself God in the flesh. And he says, What I'm doing here, you don't understand, because you don't know the God that you should know and should worship. Therefore, they sought to take him out, and no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. They wanted to kill him, but it wasn't time. And in God's providence and God's perfect will, there was a time that this would happen, and this was not it.

Jesus’ Identity And Divine Timing

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Have you ever had one of those experiences when your life flashed before your eyes? Maybe it was a car accident, or you nearly stepped out in front of a bus, or maybe you got really sick and you didn't think you would recover. Those can be frightening experiences, but thank God they were only close calls. In his message today, Pastor Carl shares with you that nobody took Jesus and had him killed before it was his time. And when the time came, he gave his life freely because of his love for you. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

Crowd Confusion And Malachi’s Expectation

Sent From The Father

Orders To Arrest And Jesus’ Reply

“Where I Go You Cannot Come”

The Feast Of Tabernacles Explained

Living Water And The Holy Spirit

Prophecies Of A Flowing Fountain

Eyes Opened And Leaders Angered

Prophet Or Christ Or Both

Bethlehem, Nazareth, And Galilee

Matthew’s Prophecy Trail

SPEAKER_02 1:28

The answer is the Lord, and the answer is seeking together the truth that he gives us in his word. So would you join me in turning to John chapter 7? We'll be wrapping up that chapter, beginning in verse 25. You remember this was the Feast of Tabernacles, and in the middle of the feast, Jesus kind of showed up, and he started proclaiming some heavy, heavy words to the people. And in verse 25, we pick up, and some then from Jerusalem says, Is this not whom they seek to kill? But look, he speaks boldly, and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? However, we know where this man is from, but where the Christ comes from, no one knows where he is from. So during these times of festivals, people would come from all over the place. And people that were coming from outside of Jerusalem, they had no idea that the rulers inside of Jerusalem were trying to kill Jesus. And that was reflected a few verses back in the early part of chapter 7. But now we have some folks that are in Jerusalem that recognize that some of the leadership were not so keen on this Jesus fellow, and they were trying to eliminate him. And so they're saying, is this not the one that they were trying to kill? And why haven't they taken hold of him yet? And the answer is because they didn't want to start a bunch of ruckus because they don't want to get Rome angry at this. But then they asked, Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? Have they come to a place where they realize that, you know, this is indeed the Messiah we've been waiting for, and so we're not going to kill him? Could that be? Well, I don't know. We know where this man comes from, and the Bible says no one knows where he comes from. Well, where did they get that idea? Well, that came from this passage in Malachi chapter 3, beginning at verse 1. Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. That's John the Baptist. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. After that, Jesus will come. Even the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. Now let me back up to the messenger that would come would be Elijah that comes before Jesus. And John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah in Jesus' first coming. The Lord would come after that and uh set up his kingdom after Elijah comes. And but in this first coming, he would come to pay for the sin of the world. But the key verse here will suddenly come to his temple, that line right there in the middle, will suddenly come to his temple. And so they believed that meant that nobody knew where he came from. He would just show up on the scene. And in a way, that's what happened. Because he didn't come down with the crowd. He came down on his own, if you remember at the early part of chapter seven. And then he just kind of showed up at the festival and he started proclaiming words of truth in the whole crowd. He just showed up like the messenger that would come, the messenger of the covenant, in fact, because he is. And here he was in the midst of the crowd. He just showed up in the temple and he's declaring mighty words from heaven. Then Jesus cried out as he taught in the temple, saying, You both know me and you know where I am from. He could sense some of the things that the people were saying. And I have come not of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you do not know. But I know him, for I am from him, and he sent me. Now, if we go back to the beginning part of chapter seven, a lot of the things that he was saying was over and over again, saying, basically, he is the Son of God. He comes from the Father. And those that, you know, think that they worship the Father, mainly pointing to the religious leaders, he was declaring, You don't even know the Father, because if you knew the Father, you wouldn't know me. And here he's saying, You know where I came from, you know that I'm from Galilee, you know that I'm from even Nazareth. Some of you even recognize that I was born in Bethlehem. But you don't really know me, and you don't know where I'm coming from, and you don't know where I'm going. And a couple of times he says, I am, and I wonder if that upsets some of the rulers, because that I am is the holy name of God. So he's declaring him the Son of God. He's declaring himself God in the flesh. And he says, What I'm doing here you don't understand, because you don't know the God that you should know and should worship. Therefore they sought to take him out, and no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. They wanted to kill him, but it wasn't time. And in God's providence and God's perfect will, there was a time that this would happen, and this was not it. And many of the people believed him, saying, When the Christ comes, will he do more signs than these which this man has done? This has got to be the Christ. I mean, have you seen what he does? Have you seen what he said? Have you seen the way that other people react? This must be the guy. And many believed. The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning him, and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to go take him. All right, we've got to get this guy. And I'm we're we're sending the special force to go out and get him, the special ops to go and get this Jesus. And so when they came to Jesus, Jesus said to them, I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to him who sent me. You will seek me and you won't find me, and where I am you cannot come. He didn't say, No, you can't arrest me right now. He's just saying, You know, I'm going to be here for a little while longer. You could try to arrest me, but it's not going to work. But when it's time, I will go to a place where you cannot come. And then the Jews said among themselves, Where does he intend to go? That we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? You know, there were a couple of times where Israel was taken captive, the northern kingdom was taken captive by Assyria, the southern kingdom was taken captive by Babylon, and in those times, you know, the Jews went out into different areas, and even now Jews were settling in in different areas, and so they were thinking that maybe Jesus would go to the Greek-speaking areas and start discipling some people there. Now, of course, Jesus never went there, but his disciples did. And they went and they saw great growth in the church in those areas. But that wasn't what he was talking about, was it? Of course, he's talking about going home to be with the Father. And that was part of what his mission was. First to come and pay for the sin of the world, and then equip the church with the Holy Spirit and go home to be with the Father. And to pray with us, pray for us, be our intercessor, our great high priest, until the time that he comes to take his church home. And then he comes with this church to bring judgment on an unbelieving world and to set up his kingdom. So what is this thing that he said, You will seek me and not find me, and where I'm going, you cannot come. To them it was just riddles. They didn't understand what he was talking about, but they understood that he spoke with authority. They understood that he said things that uh they couldn't figure out, so they were left stunned a little bit. Now on the last day of the great feast. Now remember, it was about the third day that Jesus came. He came in the middle of the feast and did his first proclamation to the crowd. Now it's the last day of the feast, the seventh day of the feast. And Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Again, this is the Feast of Tabernacles that was actually the last feast of the year that came at harvest time, September, October area. And it was a time where the people would come together and remember the good things that the Lord did for the Israelites in the wilderness, how he took them out and set them free from the bondage in Israel. And he protected them and he provided for them manna every morning. And he would also provide water for them. Do you remember when he went to the rock? And Moses was instructed to hit the rock once, and water would flow from that rock. That rock represented our Lord Jesus Christ and how he was struck once on the cross, that from him living waters would flow. Because of the work that he did for us on the cross, paying our sin debt. He has also given us the Holy Spirit that we might live and live to him. And so that's a picture of that. And on the last day of the, well, every day of the festival, the priests would go down to what was called the pool of Siloam, which was in the southern part of the town, and they would take a golden picture and they would dip it into the water and get water out, and then take that water up to the altar and pour it out. Now, this water that they got out of the pool of Siloam, they described as living water, because the water was fueled or supplied by a natural spring. And so it came into the pool, natural flowing water, and it went out of the pool to provide water for the whole city of Jerusalem. The Dead Sea, for an example of an opposite, the water would flow into the Dead Sea but never flow out, because I think that's the lowest elevation on earth, so there's nowhere else to flow, and just everything dies. So it's called the Dead Sea. This was living water, and so they took that living water to represent how the Lord provided for them in the wilderness, how they also provided for them in this year. It's a celebration of the harvest that the Lord had provided for them this year. You provided this water for us. And it also points to a coming harvest, the grand harvest that the Messiah would reap when he comes. And so they would come and they would get this water. They would walk around the altar area once, and then the high priest would go up and pour it out on the top of the altar as just a celebration of God's goodness. They would do that for six days. On the seventh day, they would not pour out any water, but they would go around the altar seven times. Does that remind you of anything? How the Lord took the Israelites out of the wilderness and brought them into the promised land was by conquering Jericho. And they did the same sort of thing. Every day they'd go around the city once, and they would be praising and worshiping, and then they'd leave. And on the seventh day they'd go around seven times and the walls would collapse. Well, similar to that on the seventh day, they'd go around with the water seven times, but they would not pour it out because this was looking forward to when the Messiah would come and pour out his spirit and bring about a great harvest in the future. And it was at that point, I could just imagine the great crowds are, you know, very respectfully and just worshipful and quietly watching the proceedings that happen. So you have tons of people, and you have the priest going around the altar, and then all of a sudden Jesus finds an opening and stands in front of the crowd and declares in the midst of all the silence, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Can you just imagine that scene? Wow. He is declaring he's the fulfillment of what we're doing right now. And there will be people in the audience that their eyes are open and they recognize that. He is the Messiah. He has come. Look at this. But at the same time, this is really angering the leaders. Angering those who have gone beyond trying to seek the Lord's will in the word, but are holding on to their power and holding on to what they know is right and how things need to be. And so this is just shaking things up. But Jesus is proclaiming that he is the one that's coming, and he's fulfilling a few prophecies from the Old Testament. Let me just show you a few. One is from Zechariah 13 and 14. In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. He is that fountain that came. And his blood would wash us clean from sin and death, right? And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea, and both summer and winter it shall occur. And the book of Revelation kind of plays off of this. It talks about when Jesus returns, he will come, and he his first place he will put his feet is on the Mount of Olives. And it would split in half. And a river would flow from the east to the west through that split mountain from the throne of God. And there would be trees and vegetation along that that would be in harvest. Every month there would be something coming up. It would be a time of fruitfulness, it would be a time of power, it would be a time of peace and prosperity that we've never seen. And Jesus is declaring, it is here, it is now. There's a couple others from the book of Isaiah in chapter 44 or chapter 55. I will pour my water on him who is thirsty and floods on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit on your descendants and my blessing on your offspring. It is my desire to fill you with my spirit, to bring you life, to bring you abundance and flourishing. And I know we we meshed his first and second comings. In some ways it's a great mystery, but in other ways it kind of flows through because this is going to happen in the future, but it is happening among believers right now. When you receive the Lord, you receive the Holy Spirit. And it's his desire that the Holy Spirit would be used in and through us to bless the lives of others, and that our offspring would come to know the Lord and to be used by the Holy Spirit in mighty ways to be influences in our culture. And he goes on to say, Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come and buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. The living waters that I have for you, I have paid for. You come, you receive, you be changed. And so in this scene, a lot of these things are playing out, and some of the crowd is beginning to see it, and some of the crowd isn't, and the and the leadership isn't seeing it. Some of them are seeing it, but most of them aren't. They're just getting upset. Back at verse 40, then, therefore, many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, This truly is the prophet. Again, the prophet is the one that the Lord gave words to Moses to share with the people. He said, I'm going to send one like me. The Lord is going to send one like me, a man who will speak for God. That is the prophet that was to come. So this is the man that Moses spoke of that the people were to listen and to follow. Others said, This is the Christ. And well, he's not the prophet, he's the Christ. He can't be the prophet because he's got to be the Christ, because the things that he's doing, the things that he's saying, sure, sure point to him being the Messiah. And people started arguing about these things. No, he's the prophet. No, he's the he is. He is both. There are so many things that Jesus is, that the Old Testament describes who he will be and what he will do. He fulfills them all. And let's not get stuck on any one issue. And that happens a lot in the church. It can't be this or this. It's got to be one or the other, you know. But the truth is a lot of times it's together. I mean, the great debate between predestination and free will. It's not one or the other, folks. The Bible talks about them both. And even though we may not understand it, that's what it says. And somehow it comes together. And in eternity we'll completely understand it. But we absolutely cannot work our way to heaven. We absolutely can't seek after God without the Holy Spirit's intervention and drawing us. But we absolutely can't be right with God if we refuse him, if we reject him. And the Bible says, do not resist the work of the Holy Spirit. So both are true and both work. And he was the prophet and he and he was the Christ. But then they start arguing about him being the Christ. Will the Christ come out of Galilee? He's not supposed to come out of Galilee. Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David, from the town of Bethlehem, where did where David was? Well, yeah. But he could still come out of Galilee as well. He came from Bethlehem, he came from Galilee. So there was a great division among the people because of him. Now some of them wanted to take him, but no one laid hands on him. John just he doesn't say why they didn't lay hands on him. He just says the hands weren't laid on him with an implication. It wasn't his time. He said that earlier. It was not the time that Jesus was to be arrested, so they could not arrest him. Now, the apostle Matthew in his gospel, in the story of Christmas, he spells out a lot of these things from prophecies of where the Messiah would come from. That indeed he did come from Bethlehem, and he did come from Galilee. In fact, he came from Egypt too. He came specifically from Nazareth, but also from the overall area of Galilee. Let's look at some of those prophecies. Matthew quotes from Micah 5, 2, but you, Bethlehem Ephratha, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings are from old, from everlasting. This one that would be born in Jerusalem would not had a beginning. He existed from eternity past. That's the great mystery of the incarnation, God becoming man. He goes on and he quotes another verse from Hosea, pointing out that he. Would come out of Egypt. When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. One reason why many scholars in that time would miss that point was that this is talking about Israel. And a lot of times Israel was called the Son of God, the child of God. And Israel was taken out of Egypt. And this nation was established at that time when it was taken out. And so a lot of times they miss the idea of Jesus being the Son of God because they have the idea that Israel is the Son of God. But Matthew, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, recognized that this was also a prophecy of Jesus. That Israel would come out of Egypt, but as a matter of fact, that Jesus would come out of Egypt. And of course, after he was born in Bethlehem, they were told by an angel to go down to Egypt to escape the killing of all the young men to and under by Herod. This is where he was talking about coming from Nazareth. Isaiah 11:1. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jenny, and a branch shall grow out of its roots. And it's kind of a play on words because branch is the word Nesser and sounds a lot like Nazarite, which sounds a lot like Nazareth, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Matthew realizes that this is a prophecy of the coming Messiah coming out of Nazareth. That's in Isaiah 11:1. And then out of Galilee, he quotes from Isaiah chapter 9, beginning at verse 1, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterwards more heavily oppressed her. By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, and upon them a light has shined.

Closing Reflections And Invitation

SPEAKER_00 24:07

You've been listening to the teaching of Pastor Carl from the Mountain Cross on Come On Up. We're in the Gospel of John, and there's much to explore in this exciting book of the Bible. Jesus does all kinds of miracles in the book of John, such as turning water into wine and raising Lazarus from the dead. These were signs that he was far more than human. However, Jesus didn't shy away from expressing his humanity on earth either. When his friend had died, he was sad and he cried. He experienced righteous anger, seeing people abusing and defiling the temple while taking advantage of the poor. He cleared out the temple area with a cord of whips and showed his authority. But he was also tender with children and compassionate to those who were considered outcasts. This is the juxtaposition of the book of John. Jesus was both God and man, and you get to fully appreciate it more and more by reading this rich book of the Bible. If you're enjoying the teaching on Come On Up, would you consider helping us get the word out to others? Simply visit themountaincross.com/slash donate. It's a safe and secure way for you to give online. The Mountain Cross meets Sunday mornings at 10 at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville, North Carolina. If you are nearby and don't have a church home, we'd be delighted to have you join us this weekend. And be sure to come on up to the mountain with us next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come On Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.