Rivers of Living Water: The Character It Produces

On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up in the middle of the crowd and made a promise so large it is easy to shrink it down until we miss it.

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.

John 7:37-38

John tells us plainly that Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed would receive. Notice the shape of the promise. When you come to Jesus thirsty, He does two things at once. He satisfies you, and then He turns you into a source, so that life flows out of you to a parched world around you.

Sold Short by a Small Gospel

Somewhere along the way, we let religion sell us short. We were told that the whole point of following Jesus is simply getting to heaven, escaping this wicked world for some far-off destination. And the moment you believe that is all this is about, you miss everything Jesus provides for you right now. So we end up with churches full of people who are supposed to be followers of Jesus, and yet their lives look no different from anyone who is not following Him. The same broken relationships. The same anxieties. The same relationship with money and health. Something essential has gone missing.

What is missing is eternal life, and eternal life is far more than a ticket to be cashed in later. Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly. Scripture says that faith in Jesus brings you eternal life now, not merely someday. Eternal life is the very life of God, which is the only true life in the universe. When God created the first man and breathed into him, man became a living soul. Man lived through God, and God lived through man on earth. That is eternal life. God did it so that we could reflect Him in this world, because in this natural earth there is only one way the natural world encounters and experiences God: through a person.

Man lost that life the moment he chose to live in himself, by himself, and for himself, which the Bible calls sin. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and so mankind now goes hunting for life in the very things that were only ever meant to be enjoyed while living in God. That is why death and degradation are everywhere, and society keeps falling apart. But Jesus announces that eternal life is available again, to you and through you.

Here is the heart of it: whoever God is to you, He will become through you to others. If we have truly received His life, we will be the kind of people others point to and say, I was dying until I met you. My life was a total mess until I met you, and God through you gave me life. So let me ask the honest question the sermon asks: how many people in your life could say that about you?

Where Character Shows: Three Kinds of People

In Luke 9, Jesus shows us in three very practical ways how the person carrying the kingdom's life actually behaves. It comes down to how we treat three kinds of people: those we count as insignificant, those outside our circle, and those who are against us.

The Ones We Count as Small

Jesus takes a child and says, whoever receives this little one receives Me. Many of us grew up with sayings like a child is only to be seen and not heard. We forget that a child can spot the ant on the ground that the tall adult walks right past, simply because he is a child. Jesus says the person who truly has kingdom life is the one who feels no need to relate to people based on rank or superiority, whether by age, achievement, wealth, or possessions.

This is the person who will gladly serve and honor someone the world considers beneath them, treating them as if they were Jesus Himself. Parents who speak to their own children with respect, who can actually say I am sorry to their kids. Jesus says that person has the greatest manifestation of kingdom life in them, especially when it is not a performance to prove anything, but simply who they have become. Test yourself honestly.

• Could you serve under a leader who is the age of your son, and receive his words as if they came from Christ?
• When a little money lands in your account, does everyone around you suddenly become a nobody?
• Can you relate to a boss or colleague who is younger, less educated, or less impressive than you?
• When a stranger walks into church, do you size up their age, dress, and accent before deciding whether they deserve your attention?

Why should we welcome the one we might be tempted to overlook? Because that is exactly what God did for us. He accepted us, waited on us, visited us, and humbled Himself even to listen to our foolish conversations. If God has been that patient and gentle toward you, then He can be the same through you toward someone you would be tempted to dismiss.

The Ones Outside Our Circle

When the disciples tried to stop an outsider from ministering in Jesus' name, He told them, He who is not against us is on our side. Turn that around and it is startling: consider everyone a friend until they personally declare themselves your enemy. Do you realize how many people that includes? Almost everyone. If we simply adopted this one principle, ninety percent of our conflicts would quietly disappear.

Instead, think of how quickly we withhold friendship. We hesitate over someone who does not speak our language, does not look like us, does not dress like us, does not pray or worship or sing the way we do, does not come from our tribe or our culture. We instinctively flock to people who share these surface things, falsely treating them as the basis for accepting a person, and then we make everyone else earn our trust. Meanwhile the person who looks just like us may actually be no friend at all.

Jesus says no. Everyone, regardless of language, appearance, dress, background, tribe, or culture, is your friend until they expressly say otherwise. Everyone has your love until they reject it. In practice, that means everyone is welcome here, and we will pursue friendship especially with those who do not look, talk, or act like us. It also means that if the only people you greet when the service ends are the friends you already know, you are not yet acting like a person carrying the life of the kingdom.

Is this risky? Yes. It cost Rev. Clementa Pinckney and others their lives when they welcomed a stranger into their Bible study who turned on them. And yet Jesus still says this is who the kingdom person is: I did not come merely to sneak you into heaven someday; I came to bring heaven to you now, and in heaven everyone is a friend until they choose to be an enemy. Why does He ask this of us? Because it is exactly how God treated you. Even when you sinned and went your own way, even when you abandoned Him, He sent His Son to die for you and called you His friend, right up until you would say, No, I reject your friendship. Jesus did not die only for good people. He died for the whole world, offering His friendship to the addict, the thief, and the outsider alike. Remember the two criminals crucified beside Him: He was dying for both, but one rejected Him and one received Him. Which one are you? Until you finally say no, God is still pursuing you.

The Ones Who Are Against Us

What is your first reaction when you discover someone has been slandering you, treating you with contempt, going out of their way to hurt you? In Luke 9, James and John wanted to call down fire from heaven, and by the logic of the Old Testament that seemed reasonable. Fire fell on Sodom. Plagues struck Egypt. Elijah called fire down on God's enemies. When people defy a holy and righteous God, there are consequences.

So when someone hates us, the natural instinct is to protect and defend ourselves, which often means quietly destroying them, ignoring them and cutting them off, or getting others to cut them off. But Jesus rebukes His disciples. If that is your reflex, He says, you have not acted like someone who carries the life of God. You are in the kingdom but not yet of the kingdom. Because God did not destroy you when you were His enemy. He came, at the cost of His own life, to save you. If you have truly experienced God rescuing you while you were still against Him, then let that same God live through you toward the people who are against you. Become to them what He has been to you.

So, Are You Thirsty?

Jesus says, if anyone thirsts, let him come and ask of Me. Focus that thirst on the three deep needs we have just seen. The need to be accepted and loved even when we feel inadequate, never quite measuring up. The need to be welcomed by the insiders even when we feel like outsiders, watching everyone else in a club we cannot seem to enter. And the need to be loved even after we have completely messed up and long for a second chance. Jesus says: come to Me, and the Holy Spirit will fill that thirst. He is the most exalted One, and yet He welcomes a clueless child as though that child were God Himself. He is the ultimate insider who calls everyone a friend. He is the most hated One, who died even for those who turned their backs on Him.

And once your own thirst has been quenched, He asks something beautiful of you: will you let Him be through you to others what He has been to you? Will you become a fountain of living water, a source of life to your church, your spouse, your coworkers? Will you let God work through you to receive the one who feels small, to welcome the outsider, to love even the one who treats you with contempt? You do not have to manufacture this on your own. Simply learn to keep asking Him. Holy Spirit, how should I relate to this person? Holy Spirit, flow through me right now. He is here, right now. All you have to do is ask, and drink, and let the rivers flow.