John 7 is a pressure cooker passage. The temperature is rising, the tension surrounding Jesus is growing, and the questions about who He really is are becoming impossible to ignore.

Jesus arrives in Jerusalem during the Festival of Tabernacles, one of Israel’s great pilgrimage festivals. It was a celebration of God’s faithfulness—remembering how He sustained His people through the wilderness and looking forward to the day when God would again bring life, restoration, and deliverance.

And right in the middle of the celebration, Jesus makes a stunning invitation: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.”

Do We Really Know Jesus?

The crowds thought they had Jesus figured out. They knew where He grew up. They had heard about His miracles. They had watched His ministry. Some believed. Others were skeptical. Still others wanted Him arrested.

But Jesus exposes the deeper issue: they had assumptions about God that were keeping them from recognizing what God was doing right in front of them.

Jesus tells them, “I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true.” The people thought they knew God, but Jesus makes it clear that to truly know the Father is to recognize the One the Father sent.

That question still confronts us today: What conclusions have we drawn about Jesus based on faulty ideas?

Maybe Jesus becomes someone we turn to when life gets difficult, but we still struggle to surrender control. Maybe we pick and choose the parts of Jesus that fit our preferences. Or maybe we believe His work on the cross isn’t quite enough, so we carry the exhausting burden of trying to prove ourselves through a performative faith that says, If I DO enough, I’ll BE enough.

Jesus offers something better. He invites us to come to Him, believe in Him, and receive the life only He can give. 

SLIDE PLACEMENT: This is the strongest place for the N.T. Wright quote slide on page 9: “Often people look at Jesus and draw conclusions about him based on faulty ideas of God and the world.” It reinforces the question at the center of this section.

Come to Me and Drink

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stands and says in a loud voice:

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” — John 7:37–38

The timing matters.

During the Festival of Tabernacles, a priest would carry water from the Pool of Siloam to the temple and pour it onto the altar. The people remembered how God provided water in the wilderness, prayed for rain for the coming harvest, and looked forward to the promised day when living water would flow from Jerusalem to the nations.

And Jesus stands in their midst and essentially declares: What you have been waiting for is here.

You pour out water on the altar? Jesus will be poured out on the cross. You pray for life-giving rain? He will give the Holy Spirit to dwell within those who believe. You are waiting for God's promised deliverer? Here He is.

Jesus chose the perfect time and the perfect place for maximum impact.

But there is another repeated phrase throughout John 7: His hour had not yet come. Jesus had been pushed to become king, urged to make Himself known, and targeted for arrest. Yet none of those pressures could change His timing.

Jesus’ timing is on Jesus’ timeline.

We cannot coerce the work of Jesus, control the will of the Father, or manipulate the outcome. That can be difficult when life does not unfold the way we hoped. But even when we cannot see or understand what God is doing, Jesus continues to offer the same invitation:

If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink.

Not a select few. Anyone. And what Jesus promises isn't a drip, a trickle, or even a fountain.

It's a river.

River or Reservoir?

That image of a river gives us one final question: Are you a river or a reservoir?

The Jordan River flows into the Dead Sea, but the Dead Sea has no outlet. Water comes in but doesn't flow out. It becomes salty and unable to sustain the kind of life found in fresh water.

The religious leaders knew Scripture. They had spent their lives studying the Law and practicing their faith. But their hearts were closed to Jesus and the life-giving water He promised. They had received much, but there was no outlet.

The same danger exists for us.

We can hear the gospel, attend church, study Scripture, receive God's grace, and experience His provision—yet hold it all tightly to ourselves. But Jesus didn't describe His followers as reservoirs collecting more and more. He said rivers of living water will flow from within them.

So what are we doing with what we have received?

Are we seeing people outside the faith as threats, or seeing the world as Jesus does? Are we stepping into broken and thirsty places and allowing the Holy Spirit to flow through us? Are we accumulating what God has given us, or offering our lives and resources back to Him in sacrificial obedience?

Jesus' message is clear: Believe in Him. Drink deeply from the living water He provides. And become a source of living water for others.

A river is fresh. A river is flowing. A river brings life.

May the living water Jesus has poured into us never stop with us.

Message recap adapted from the July 26, 2026, message by Minister Jed Logue.

Message Notes & Slides

‍