Bible Passage: John 7:37-39
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: May 24, 2026

Bulletin – May 24, 2026

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

On the last and most important day of the festival. (v. 37) Thus begins our text. The “festival” referred to was the Feast of Ingathering, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles. On the Jewish calendar, this was the final of the three great festivals that required every male to be in Jerusalem. This festival celebrated the fruit harvest and was also a remembrance of the way the Lord took care of the Israelites when they wandered in the desert those 40 years before entering the Promised Land. It was the most joyous of all the festivals. It lasted a full week. It was a “biggie”!

An interesting ritual had developed during the week of this celebration. Every morning as the morning sacrifice was prepared, a delegation led by a priest would walk to the Pool of Siloam and scoop a pitcher of water and bring it back to the Temple. They would enter the Temple area through what became known as “The Water Gate.” The water was then poured out at the altar of burnt offering. No other sacrifices required or involved pouring water. Just this Festival.

Now imagine, if you will, that the moment after the water is poured out, a voice is heard from the crowd loudly and clearly proclaiming, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! (v. 37) Heads jerk. “What? Who said that? It’s Jesus of Nazareth!” As Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me. (v. 38) Jesus used this occasion to talk about an outpouring that was going to far surpass them all. Jesus speaks about an outpouring that can take a man From Dehydrated to Overflowing! John helps us understand what Jesus was talking about: By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. (v. 39)

Let’s carefully examine Jesus’ words. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! (v. 37) What is “thirst”? Thirst is the urge you feel to drink. It is your brain telling you that you are lacking fluids. People can be spiritually thirsty, too. Are you? Do you, to use the term Jesus used in his Sermon on the Mount, thirst for righteousness. (Matthew 5:6) Do you know that you are not all that God demands that you be? Are you aware that you lack the righteousness requisite to enter heaven? Are you thirsty for a drink that will quench this gnawing spiritual thirst? That should not surprise us. We are dehydrated and dead by nature. Sometimes the Old Testament lesson on Pentecost Sunday is the reading from Ezekiel where people are portrayed as dead, dry bones! It doesn’t get more dehydrated than that! Sin has caused this dreadful dehydration! To dehydrated sinners like you and me, Jesus says, Come to me and drink!

Here is where the Spirit of God is at work! The work of Christ, the love of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ and the peace of Christ are “poured into” our hearts by the Holy Spirit. St. Paul says exactly that in Romans 5 when he writes, God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). It is the work of the Holy Spirit to pour Jesus into hearts! Another way of saying this is what Paul said in our second lesson today, No one can say, “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3) And in Christ, we have everything our thirsty soul was dying for! Forgiveness, a restored relationship with our God, peace, heaven.

Now, when the Holy Spirit is given and poured, this is not like an eye-dropper which drips a couple teeny drops. The Spirit gushes and flows! Jesus says in our text the Scriptures tell us this. Perhaps he was referring to verses like Isaiah 35:6 where we are told, Water will gush forth in the desert, and Isaiah 44:3, I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on us and in us overflows to others.

That is really what is happening on Pentecost with the disciples in Jerusalem. Jesus was now glorified. He had died. He had risen. He had returned to the right hand of the Father. Now the time had come to pour out the Holy Spirit. We heard Peter explain what was going on that day. He quoted the prophet Joel, In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people (Acts 2:17). And in his own words he explains, Exalted to the right hand of God, [Jesus] has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. (Acts 2:33) The Holy Spirit had poured Jesus into the hearts of the disciples, and now the Holy Spirit empowered them to proclaim Jesus to others.

Friends, we too have gone from dehydration to overflowing! The Spirit’s work overflows in our lives, too. The Bible tells us, Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. (Matthew 12:34) Our hearts overflow with Jesus and it spills out of our lips. The Lord Jesus has not withdrawn the gift he gave on that first Pentecost. His Church on earth still has the gift. The water of life still fills your heart and gushes to others by the Spirit’s power!

And it doesn’t stop there. As our reading from 1 Corinthians 12 today reminded us, the Holy Spirit also gives us gifts. Paul says there are various kinds of gifts (v. 4). He says there are various kinds of service (v. 5). He says there are various kinds of activity (v. 6). So there are lots of different gifts and lots of different ways to use our Spirit-given gifts. But here is where they converge at a point: Each person is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. (v. 7) This work of the Holy Spirit deep within you is to overflow in love and service to your neighbor.

We are living the fulfillment of what Jesus proclaimed on the last and greatest day of the feast! By the Spirit’s work, our thirst has been sated in Christ Jesus! By the Spirit’s work, the love of Jesus overflows in our lives to others! We have gone from dehydrated…to overflowing…by the promised, and given, Holy Spirit!

Amen.