Lesson 7 The Spirit Flows From The Cross
Questions 3 and 4
Yes! Those coming to Jesus and believing in Him would have their thirst quenched and rivers of living water would flow out of their hearts. Jesus is pouring His thirst quenching water into you and I when we “come to Him” and “believe in Him” and what pours out of us is “rivers of living water.”
This is the life of the believer who has come to the cross and has looked and seen, Jesus, the “man of sorrows” nailed to the tree, becoming a curse. They have seen Him become thirsty while fighting for them on the cross, pouring out His life unto death, yet able to quench the thirst of those who come and believe.
Friend, the heart of the believer is one that has received and then pours out to others what he himself has received. We see this illustrated when Paul said, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received” (1 Corinthians 15:3). And the Thessalonians “welcomed the message” of the cross, and then the message “rang out from them” (1 Thessalonians 1:6-8).
The gospel of Jesus Christ always comes to us and then pours out of us like a river to others. We are no longer broken cisterns (Jeremiah 2:13) or stagnant and broken water sources, but like a flowing fountain of life where rivers of living water pour into us from the cross and flow out of our new hearts into the lives of others.
Romans 5:5 ESV and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Isn’t this incredible? God’s love through the gospel of Jesus Christ has been “poured into our hearts.” Once our hearts were cut and healed from hearing and believing the gospel, God’s love would now pour into us through the work of the Holy Spirit which he has given us. We believed that Jesus purchased us with His own life on the cross to buy us out of the market of slavery, He gave us a new heart and put a new spirit in us (Ezekiel 36:26).
John 7:37-39 ESV If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. 39 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.
Question 3: What event(s) took place before the Spirit could be given according to John 7:39?
Question 4: The rivers of living water is referring to the Spirit not yet given. Who would receive the Spirit?