If you have your Bibles with you, please grab them and turn with me to John chapter 7. The gospel according to John chapter 7. And we'll be looking at verses 37 through 39 this morning. John 7 verses 37 This is the word of the Lord. On the last day, that great day of the feast, 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. Let's bow our heads in prayer. God, we thank you for this wonderful gospel invitation that anyone who is thirsty is welcome to come drink and that we will receive the rivers of living water and they will be so super abundant, Lord, that they will not only be within us, but they will flow from us. We thank you that. We thank you, Lord, for the promise of your spirit. I pray that your spirit would fall fresh upon this congregation today, that we would receive an immense outpouring, a downpour of your spirit, not merely a trickle, but a deluge of your spirit, Lord. We pray for that. God, I pray right now that as I begin to preach, Lord, I would only speak in line with your Holy Spirit, that you would guide me and guard my mouth from uttering something false or distracting. I pray that your Spirit would pierce into the hearts of everyone listening, that they would hear directly from you, Lord, and that you would renew within us that well and that river of living water. God, we ask your blessing now on this time together. In Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. Even though this is a short section of scripture today, only three verses, I feel like there are just, there's just a ton of information that we could draw from it and apply to our hearts and to our consciences. So I feel that even though it's a short section of scripture, we'll be leaving meat on the bones. And that's okay. As we're going through these verses, we're gonna look primarily at three points. First point will be the significance that we see of the eighth day. The significance of the eighth day. The second point is that Christ freely offers his spirit in abundance. Christ freely offers his spirit in abundance. And then the third point is that in the new covenant, our experience of the Holy Spirit is widened and deepened from that of the old covenant. In the new covenant, our experience of the Holy Spirit is widened and deepened. So that framework in mind, let's dive right into our first point here. This is the significance of the eighth day. So our section of scripture that we're working through opens with these words. John says, on the last day, that great day of the feast. Remember this feast in question is the Feast of Tabernacles. We've been working through Christ's words and actions at this feast for a few weeks now. And first, if you recall, The first thing we learn about Christ and the Feast of Tabernacles is he delays briefly from going with his brothers and he goes secretly to the feast. It was not yet the God-ordained time for Christ to reveal himself publicly in Jerusalem. Then we learn about midway through the week, probably on day four of this feast, Jesus went into the temple court and began to preach in the open air. And both the doctrine that he preached and the way that he preached were powerful testimonies that he was, in fact, the God-sent Messiah. John tells us that many people believed in Christ. And even those who did not believe, even those who hated Jesus and wanted to destroy Him, even they just stood there listening, fastened to the spot by the Spirit Himself, unable to say or do anything against Christ. It is a wonderful testimony to Jesus's authority that the powerful rulers of this world could not lay one finger on him without the will of his heavenly father. And then now at long last, we come to the end of the feast. John here says that these final events took place on the last day or on the great day of the feast. This is a detail that I don't want us to ignore. It's very easy when we're reading the Bible, I'm guilty of this myself, it's very easy to just ignore or run right past little details like names or places or dates or whatever it might be. It's true that we don't want to read extra meaning into things. We don't want to over spiritualize every detail of God's Word. We don't want to fall off the cliff of what has been called interpretive maximalism, something promoted by James Jordan, which can easily really in practicality end up meaning that you take a seemingly mundane chunk of scripture, and you get on whatever creative flight of fancy you want, and you proclaim you're just finding the spiritual maximalist meaning of that text, drawing out meanings completely foreign to the word itself. So there is a danger there in dialing into the details without a Christ-like and canonical spirit about it. This danger is especially true, I think, for preachers who sadly often read the Bible more for mining good sermon material than they do for meeting the Lord Jesus Christ. But I think the more common issue is not looking too closely at the word, I think the more common issue we run into today is that we just don't notice enough in our Bibles. We don't notice enough. It's not even a deep mind that we have to labor earnestly for sometimes. Sometimes the gold's just sitting right on the surface and we just look right past it and keep walking, thinking that it's just ordinary dirt and dust. So here I wanna draw our attention to a few things about the fact that the events of John 7, 37 through 39 occur on the last day, or as the apostle tells us, on the great day of the feast. I'm going to read just briefly from Leviticus 23 first, where we find the Lord telling Moses how the Feast of Tabernacles is to be observed. This is what God says to Moses and then Moses relates to the people. The 15th day of the seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day, you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. Also, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days. On the first day, there shall be a Sabbath rest, and on the eighth day, a Sabbath rest. So the context for Leviticus 23 here is God telling Moses how his people are to worship him. God is so gracious to tell us exactly step-by-step how we're to worship him. He's not like, you've got to figure it out. Hope you get it right. No, he's very gracious. He reveals to us what he requires. The Jews were of course to observe the weekly Sabbath, which was on the seventh day of the week, which today we call Saturday. but also there were other feasts commanded by God that were to be observed throughout the year. Now, these other feasts did not overshadow or replace the Sabbath at all, but like the Sabbath, they were additional ways in which God's people were commanded to remember His work for them and proclaim His goodness to them. And one of the interesting things about these other feasts is the emphasis that God often gives to the first day and the eighth day. Here's a question for the children. I want you to answer if you know, okay, children, how many days are in a week? Very good, seven days in a week. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So hang with me for just a minute here, children. The first day of the week is the same as the eighth day of the week. Think about that. because the week only goes Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, then the eighth day, guess what? It's a Sunday again. It's the first day again. The first day is the beginning. The eighth day is also the beginning, or we could say it is the day of new beginnings. The eighth day is a day of renewal because it's when the week starts over again. That's Sunday, what we call it today. Well, in these commands to worship God, we see the first day and the eighth day giving special privilege here. First day and eighth day, either in a week, most commonly, or just in a beginning of a festival cycle. These first and eighth days are given special importance by God. For example, in Leviticus 23, the place we just looked at a moment ago, we read things like this. For the Feast of Firstfruits, God says the priest is to wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. Now the Sabbath is the seventh day. So the day after the Sabbath is the eighth day. or we could say the first day again. That's the Feast of Firstfruits. Then for the Feast of Weeks, which became known as Pentecost, we read this in Leviticus 23. And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. So once again, we see that the eighth day is marked out as important. You count seven Sabbaths, and then the day after the Sabbath, that's the eighth day, that is Pentecost. Then for the Feast of Trumpets from that same chapter in Leviticus, we read this, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel saying in the seventh month on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. So this is not necessarily the first day of the week here, but nevertheless, it's the first day in a new cycle marked out as special. And then, of course, for the Feast of Tabernacles that we read, the first and the eighth days were specially marked off as Sabbaths to be observed by the people of God. And John highlights here for us, he says, and Jesus steps forth on this eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles. This eighth day, which is a day of rest, a Sabbath day, a day designated for holy convocation and a solemn assembly. And he lifts up his voice and he cries out. And what does he cry out about? What is the content of his message? Jesus says, 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. So Jesus stands up on this eighth day and he preaches about the salvation that he is soon bringing through the Holy Spirit. Just six months after these events occur at the Feast of after the Tabernacle's Feast occurs, just six months later, we have the Feast of Passover, and on the first day of the week, or on the eighth day, Jesus is resurrected from the grave. This inaugurates a new era in the life of God's people. He was raised for our justification. This is the era of the Spirit. And then on Pentecost, which is on the first day of the week, or the day after the Sabbath, the eighth day, the promised Holy Spirit is in fact poured out from heaven upon all flesh. So there are a lot of eighth day Sabbaths here and eighth day remembrances. Some people may wonder why do churches even worship on Sunday? Is that just a pious tradition that the early church invented? Or is it something that Constantine decided and mandated for the churches of God? Well, one of the catechism questions we've taught our children is this, on what day does the church observe the Sabbath? The answer is on the first day of the week called the Lord's day. Then the next question is, well, why is it called the Lord's day? The answer is because on that day, Christ rose from the dead. That's the chief reason that we as Christians worship on Sunday instead of on Saturday, because Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week. It was a day of new beginnings. But the timing of Christ's resurrection is not a bare, isolated fact. All throughout the Old Testament and in the New Testament as well, we see this theme of first day or eighth day worship. Jesus is the fulfillment of all these types and shadows that made up the old covenant worship that now is done away with. We no longer obey the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, expressed in typical, unique ordinances to the Old Testament. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, he says. So all along the Old Testament was pointing to this new beginning for God's people. And in fact, this new beginning for the world, this great eighth day on which the Lord of glory would rise from the grave. In fact, some modern day so-called religious Jews, I've encountered this with friends who've done evangelism in Israel and online. You can go on religious Jewish websites. Some modern day Jews will admit to you even that when the Messiah comes, there will be a great eighth day Sabbath. And they're totally missing that Messiah has come. And that's why we worship on this day. Like I said, we don't want to make every little detail of the Bible into a long theological treatise. But nevertheless, we don't want to overlook themes and motifs just because they may not be so obvious to our non-Jewish 21st century eyes. And one of these themes here is that Jesus chooses the day of new beginnings. to announce the coming of a new era for the people of God. It would not have been wrong if Jesus had made this pronouncement on the fourth day when he began preaching or the fifth or the sixth or on the Sabbath day. But he chooses this day of new beginnings intentionally to announce the new grace that will be coming through the Holy Spirit poured out on his people. So we need to take joy in this eighth day and worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. Another interesting note about when Christ chose to make this wonderful free offer of salvation that he does here in verses 37 and 38, is how it relates to a custom that the Jews had during this Feast of Tabernacles. This is gonna lead us on into our second point for today, that Christ freely offers his spirit in abundance. Christ freely offers his spirit in abundance. Over time, Old Covenant Jews had added other ceremonies and rites on top of the holy ordinances of God. I don't mean that God had revealed new ways of worshiping Him to the Jews. Rather, I mean that God's people had mixed in human innovations with the worship of God. This is a temptation that we always want to be wary of. We must worship God as he has commanded, not merely as we in our minds or in our flesh would like to worship him, or as we might imagine he enjoys being worshiped. We have to worship God as he has commanded. Well, at some point throughout the history of the Old Testament church, a particularly poignant ceremony was added to the Feast of Tabernacles. Each day, with great pomp and circumstance, probably even overshadowing the commanded offerings that God has laid down in His Word. Each day, the high priest would draw fresh water from the pool of Siloam. He would walk into the temple and he would pour the water on the altar. And why did he do that? If you remember, the Feast of Tabernacles was a great time of remembrance, remembering how God provided richly for His people during their 40 years of wilderness wanderings. And this water rite, though man-made, was meant to add to this theme by reminding the Jews of the water which God had miraculously provided for their fathers in the desert. And it was to proclaim, in fact, the coming messianic age in which God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh. So there was probably some good motivation here, although we should not add and make up new ceremonies and new ordinances and come up with new sacraments on our own. Well, this water rite had been happening for a whole week now. Day after the day, the people are watching. They would come and watch, and they'd watch the priest draw the water, they'd watch him carry the water, and then he would go off into the temple where they couldn't see, and he would pour the water out. And then at the end of the feast, on that eighth day Sabbath, the Messiah stands up and he cries out. He says, 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. I guarantee the imagery was not lost here on our old covenant brothers. They had just watched day after day after day, all the adult men together, standing there staring as the man carried water and poured it out on the altar. They have been remembering and anticipating God's great provision for them of water. And then they hear Jesus preach these words. Water was a priceless possession in the ancient world, especially here in the Middle East, where pretty much the whole Bible is set. It's a desert place. It's an arid place. Water is scarce. Our old covenant brothers knew what a great blessing water was. I remember reading in high school about how salesmen would go to the Oregon Trail while pioneers were traveling to the West and they would sell water to thirsty travelers. I mean, it seems like a good business idea, right? There's a high demand and there's a very low supply. So here comes the salesman, barrels and barrels of water on his covered wagon. So he brings his water to the trail and he sets up and he's ready to sell it. But these salesmen were not godly men. They would charge just absolutely exorbitant prices. It seems like the records bear out that they would charge like $100 sometimes for a cup of water. And I looked up online how much that glass of water would cost today when adjusted for inflation. And it's something like over $4,000. $4,000 for a glass of warm, probably to some extent dirty water. Can you believe that? That's the hardness of the human heart on display. One glass of water, a whole family, $4,000. Now contrast that with Jesus. Jesus says, if anyone thirsts, Let him come to me and drink without money and without price. And I won't just give you a single glass of warm, dirty water. I will put a spring of everlasting water within you that you won't even be able to contain. And it will cost you nothing. You'll have so much water. It'll just start flowing out of you and going everywhere. That's what Jesus says. The image of being thirsty and of having that thirst satisfied is powerful across all times and across all cultures. But especially in the Bible, we see it coming up over and over. Hell, for instance, is described as a place of great thirst that cannot be quenched. Remember the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Two men die and their souls go down to the grave. Lazarus goes to be with Father Abraham and with all the faithful departed. The rich man goes to a place of torment. But Lazarus and the rich man, interestingly, they can see each other. There's a chasm between them that's impassable. No one can get from one side to the other, but they can see each other and they can hear each other. And what does the rich man say to Abraham? Says, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. He didn't even, he was so desperate. He wasn't even asking for a glass of water. He said, let this poor man that I rejected in life, dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. That's how desperately he wanted any amount of water. Think of what Christ said on the cross as he was spiritually enduring the pains of hell in our place. Jesus cried out, I thirst. This is the man who made all the water. He's crying out from the cross, I thirst. Being truly thirsty is a painful experience that our old covenant brothers and sisters could relate to very well, much better than we can today. And Jesus says, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. As Jesus is sounding out this gospel invitation, I'm sure his hearers' minds are once again, just as they were during the water rite, going back to that miraculous provision of water in the desert. As Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10, all our fathers, the whole congregation of Israel, all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, that's the manna, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Even though they did not perceive it, it was Christ himself who gave their forefathers water in the wilderness. And it was Christ who was offering them water on that eighth day of new beginnings. And John tells us exactly what this water is. This is no mere physical water that will quench your thirst for a moment only to leave you wanting more in half an hour. Christ here is promising the great outpouring of His Holy Spirit. Up until the day of Pentecost, 10 days after Christ ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit had not been poured out on all flesh. But from that great Pentecost day onward, now 2,000 years later, God pours out His Holy Spirit on every single one of His children when they are born again. That means that if you are Christ's son or daughter by faith, you have the Holy Spirit within you. You have a greater experience of God's Spirit than all of our old covenant brothers and sisters had. Jesus says the Spirit was not yet given. And you have the Holy Spirit within you. In the old covenant, the temple of the Holy Spirit was the temple. This big physical building that housed the altar and the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy of Holies. And the Holy Spirit filled the Holy of Holies. But when Christ died, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple and, in fact, from all the world, it was torn in two, showing there was no longer any barrier to God, that God's Holy Spirit would, in fact, indwell all of God's people in a new and powerful way. And why, we might also ask, why has God given us His Holy Spirit? Why has He done this? Well, He sent the Holy Spirit for a lot of reasons. The Holy Spirit prays for us. He works faith within us. He convicts us of our sin. He sanctifies us. He bears witness within our hearts of the righteousness of Christ and His ways. He comforts us. He teaches us. The Holy Spirit blesses us in innumerable ways. It is a greater blessings than we will ever realize on this side of eternity. But Christ doesn't only send His Spirit within you to live within you for your own benefit. It's not just for you that Christ has given the Holy Spirit. No, what does Jesus say here in John 7 and verse 38? He says, he who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Having a well of water that you can always depend on is great. We'll never get thirsty if this well is within us and it's springing up to eternal life. But how does a river flowing out of us, flowing away from us, how does that help us at all? What's that for? What's that about? And there are a few things going on here that I think we can learn from this imagery. First, we could say that we are blessed by the sheer super abundance of the Holy Spirit. The river language here shows us that God is given to us without measure, completely super abundant, just an unlimited, unending, infinite supply of grace, an unending connection with the triune God that will never run out, that will never dry up, that will never be broken. Secondly, Christ says that out of our hearts will flow living water because when we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we will praise and glorify God. It is impossible to have the Spirit of God within you and you not worship the God of heaven and earth. So Christ sends his Spirit into us that Spirit-filled praise might flow back out from us, back to God. And then thirdly, Jesus tells his hearers about this river of living water, because when his spirit comes to live within us, we will bless others. Our salvation is first and foremost for the glory of God. Our salvation is not first and foremost for us. But it is for our everlasting benefit, no doubt. God so loved us, that's why he sent his son and sent his Holy Spirit. He wants us to worship him and be with him forever and ever. We will never suffer the pain and the sorrow and the unquenchable thirst of hell if that river of living water is flowing out of our hearts. But also our salvation is for the benefit of those around us. God saves you, not just for you. God saves you for those that you're gonna spend your life with. It is through the Spirit's enabling that we obey the law of God. And what does Jesus tell us that the law of God is? He says it's to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Paul even says that's the whole law, to love your neighbor as yourself. That's the law, love your neighbor. We can't obey that without the spirit within us. You have been saved so that you can love others. Christianity is not just a religion of personal, private, individual salvation. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are drawn into a corporate reality. We are drawn into the body of Christ, and we are called by God and empowered by God to love and serve our neighbors, especially, the word says, those of the household of faith, our brothers and sisters in Christ. The apostle Peter says this, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. we are saved so that we might serve. We're to serve one another. We're to submit to one another. We're to build one another up. We're to teach one another. We're to confess our sins to one another and so on and so forth. The church is blessed that we may be a blessing to each other. And in fact, God's word tells us that we might be a blessing to all the families of the earth. Once the Spirit came, the church was to go from Jerusalem. Remember, Old Covenant worship, everyone came into Jerusalem, and now the church is to go out from Jerusalem, just like that river of living water, out to Judea, out to Samaria, out all the way to the ends of the earth, carrying the good news of Christ's gospel. Through the Spirit, we are ambassadors who have been charged with bringing the whole world into the obedience of faith. So that's just a quick look of what it means for the spiritual river to flow out of us. Now we come to the final point of our sermon today, that in the new covenant, our experience of the Holy Spirit is widened and deepened. In the new covenant, our experience of the Holy Spirit is widened and deepened. The apostle John says here in chapter seven, verse 39, that Jesus was speaking while he was preaching on this eighth day, that Jesus was speaking concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Last week, we talked about the differences in milk doctrines and meat doctrines. What does it mean that the Holy Spirit was not yet given? Well, this is a meat doctrine. This is not a milk doctrine. This is something for us to grow up into full understanding of. We already discussed that under the old covenant, the Holy Spirit dwelt in the Holy of Holies in the temple. That was his special, unique abode. Rank-and-file Israelites were not allowed to go into the Holy of Holies. They weren't even allowed to go into the holy place. In fact, no one, no one was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies where the Spirit of God was, except one day per year, the high priest could go, but only if he was covered with the blood of a perfect sacrifice. So a natural question arises here. Did people before Pentecost not personally experienced union with the Holy Spirit? If the Spirit was not given, if they couldn't go to the Holy of Holies, did they have no experience of the Holy Spirit? How could anyone, in fact, have the Holy Spirit within themselves? before he was poured out on all flesh. These are good and difficult questions, and they are questions that we cannot answer with absolute perfect and technical precision, but they are questions we can answer, and we can answer with confidence. To the question, did our old covenant brothers and sisters experience the blessing of the Holy Spirit, or even more specific, did they have the Holy Spirit within them? We must answer, yes, they did. First off, the Bible is abundantly clear that the Old Testament saints were saved in the exact same way that we are saved, by grace, through faith, in Christ. That's how everyone that's ever been saved or ever will be saved was saved. Paul even tells us in 1 Corinthians 12, no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's clearly at work, even in the Old Testament. Now, someone might say, well, the Old Testament saints didn't say Jesus is Lord, did they? And we must answer, well, they didn't know the name Jesus, that's true, but they had a real and living faith in the promises of God and in his Messiah. Paul even tells us in Hebrews that Moses considered the reproach of Christ. You hear that? Moses considered the reproach of Christ. That means he thought about it, weighed the cost and made a decision here. He considered the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. Or think of Job who says this, says, I know that my redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know that in my flesh, I shall see God. How in the world could Job prophesy about the humanity of Christ and about the resurrection of the body apart from the spirit? That would be truly impossible. But there he is, he's prophesying about the humanity of Christ and the bodily resurrection that he knows he will experience, even though there's not a written word about it when Job's alive. But our Old Testament brothers and sisters didn't just have knowledge from the Spirit, like God sent knowledge down from heaven and tossed it into their minds. They had an intimate relation with the Spirit as well. Joshua, for instance, is said explicitly to have the Spirit within him. The prophets not only spoke by the Spirit, but Peter says they were carried along by the Spirit as they spoke from God. John the Baptist, who even though he appears in the New Testament, he is an Old Covenant prophet. John was dead before the New Covenant was inaugurated. He's dead even by this Feast of Tabernacles here. The Bible says that he was filled with the Spirit even from his mother's womb. And listen to this wonderful word from God in Isaiah 57. The Lord says, I dwell in the high and holy place. That sounds maybe far off. Then he says, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. God, even before the coming of Christ, revived people by his spirit and dwelt with people by his spirit. Well, that sounds comforting, but someone might still say, well, if all of this is true about the Spirit's presence and activity before Christ, why does Jesus say that he has not yet been given? The answer is that prior to Pentecost, the Spirit had not yet been given in such a wide and deep and visible way as he would be then after Christ was glorified. Listen to how expansive the promise of the Spirit is in Joel. This is what Peter quotes immediately after Christ sent the Holy Spirit on his disciples. Joel says this, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. And also on my menservants and on my maidservants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. Think about how expansive that is. Everyone, everyone, young and old, men and women. In the Old Testament, it was incredibly rare for someone to prophesy or have a vision or meet God in a dream. And generally speaking, it was only prophets, priests, judges, kings, people like that who experienced these wonderful revelations from the Spirit. We sometimes can fall into the trap of thinking that visions and prophecies were everyday occurrences in the Old Testament because we read about it a lot in the Bible. A lot of prophets and wonderful works of God, we read there, but we forget there were millions and millions of Israelites and that the Old Testament from Abraham to Jesus covers about 2,000 years. When we think about that, we think, you know what? Maybe it was a lot less common. Maybe I'm reading multiple prophecies on one single page, but I don't realize this is one man in one generation who has the word of the Lord. No one else has the word of the Lord in that special way. These things were not common in the old covenant. In the new covenant, however, God makes us all priests. I might stand up here and preach the word of God, but I'm not more of a priest than any one of you. Each week when we gather in his name, no matter where on earth God's people gather, each week when we gather in his name and sit under the faithful preaching of his word, we are participating in a prophetic ministry. There's not only one prophet for the whole people of God, or we're not going through 400 years of silence right now. We are participating in a prophetic ministry when we sit under his word proclaimed. And think with me, which one of the apostles was by blood, a priest or a patriarch or a king? As far as we know, none of them. But after the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost, these mostly poor, uneducated men preach with more authority and perform more miracles than even the holy men of old." People are being healed just by the apostle's shadow touching them as an apostle would walk by. Shadow? We don't even see something like that happening in Jesus's ministry. We have the fringe of his robe, someone touches and he's healed. But think, an apostle's shadow just touches you as he walks past and you're healed of your infirmity. Or a handkerchief that Peter had, and it touches someone and it heals them. Something amazing and new and wonderful is here in the new covenant. And there are, like I said, not just one prophet, there are 12 apostles, plus Paul, plus their companions, all at once. In the old covenant, ordinary believers, like we said, could not even go inside the temple. Now in the new covenant, ordinary believers are the living stones which themselves make up the temple of our God, and His spirit dwells within us. We can at any time, day or night, enter into the heavenly throne room and not be destroyed, but be blessed and be drawn into intimate union. Sometimes we can think, This is wrong of us. We're materialistic in our thinking. We can think, oh yes, James, we'll enter into the throne room symbolically when we pray. No, no, no, no, no. The old covenant rights were the symbolic part. We are in the real thing. We are really and truly spiritually drawn into the throne room of God when we pray to him. This isn't just representative or symbolic. The experience of the spirit is greater for us. Also, before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given almost exclusively to ethnic Israelites. Now, here in John 7, he is about to be poured out on all flesh. People from all tribes, all tongues, all nations are, at the end of time, and even this day, we get a huge glimpse of it, experiencing the blessing of the Spirit. male and female, young and old, Jew and Gentile, all receiving the outpouring and indwelling of the Holy Spirit if they have living and true faith in Christ. Picking up on the imagery that Christ uses here in John 7, we could say that the Old Testament experience of the Holy Spirit was like a trickle or maybe like a creek, while the New Testament experience is like a mighty rushing river that will take over the entire world. So the spirit was not distant or aloof from the Old Testament saints, but he is nevertheless given to us in a much freer, wider, deeper, and richer sense after Christ is glorified. The new covenant is a covenant of ever increasing glory and grace. Now, as we close our sermon today, I have two specific applications for us. First, if anyone is here who has not come to Christ in faith, then just come. Right now, even today, the qualification that Jesus gives for drinking from the Spirit is that you are thirsty. Not that you are holy, not that you were born of the right family, not that you've gone through all the right steps. Are you thirsty? Is your soul thirsty? If it is, water is here for you to drink. Come and drink freely from the water of life. And then secondly, for those who have drunk freely from Christ, continue to take joy in the fact that the river flowing out of you is for the blessing of your loved ones. It is for the upbuilding of the church of God. It is for the healing of the nations of the world. Sometimes we might not feel like we are making a difference in the world. But if you are living by the Spirit, God will use you to serve and bless those around you. You don't have to travel thousands of miles away to change the world. Sometimes you can change the world just by helping mom with the dishes. Sometimes that river of living water will bless people by your sacrificial labors. Sometimes it will be for you sharing the gospel. That will be a blessing to someone when you tell them about Jesus. Sometimes it will be through something as simple as your example of having a cheerful disposition. The world is so unhappy. If we just smile with the love of Christ on our faces, we can be a blessing to those around us. Whatever it is, be encouraged. If the spirit is within you, God will use you. He has prepared good works for you to walk in. God did not make any useless people in his church. There are no useless vestigial organs in the body of Christ. Every Christian has a glorious purpose in God's kingdom. Are you serving your children, your spouse, your parents, your friends? Wonderful, praise God that you have been given this glorious gift to do that. Are your home, your family, your church, your community better places because you were saved and the Spirit of God is within you? If so, then praise God. And if not, then ask God, say, Lord, in what ways have you blessed me that I might be a blessing to others? You don't have to ask God, have you blessed me? Is there anything I can do? Just say, God, show me the way. In Christ, we have been given a super abundant, inexhaustible river that can flow out from us and bless our world. Let us not damn it up and try to hoard these blessings for ourselves. Let us open the floodgates wide and show the world the wonderful grace of the Holy Spirit poured out on his people. And may the knowledge of the glory of the Lord fill the earth as the waters cover the seas. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you have promised a new beginning for the world in Christ, that you have promised a new beginning for your people, that you have promised a new beginning for everyone who would call upon you in faith. God, let us return even today to the rivers of the water of life and drink freely of Christ's love. Jesus, thank you so much for preaching this message and for having it divinely inspired here and written down so that we would know that you did this. Thank you, God. And thank you for the truth of what you preached, God, that you did send your spirit, that you were glorified, that you are blessing the nations even today. God, draw us to renewed faith and repentance in you, and we ask your blessing on the rest of our service, in Christ's name, amen.