St. Matthew Lutheran Church & Holt Lutheran School
  • HOME
  • PASTOR
    • Meet the Staff
    • Sermons
    • SML Daily Prayer Card
  • SML MINISTRIES
    • SML Mission & Vision
    • SML MISSION NEWS
    • Holt Lutheran School
    • Sonshine Early Childcare Center
    • LWML
    • Youth
    • Jim Jackson Blog
  • I'M NEW
    • Seekers
  • CALENDAR
  • PICTURES
  • LINKS
  • CONTACTS
Pastor's Sermon

rivers of living water

5/28/2023

Comments

 
​Pentecost – A                                                                                                 LSB #’s 849, 589, 540
Text – John 7:38
 
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’
 
RIVERS OF LIVING WATER
 
 
The Great Salt Lake & the Dead Sea are examples at the other end of the spectrum.   Life giving water flows into them, yet those bodies of water are a dead end.  Since the water has no further place to go, it evaporates there.  This leaves behind the minerals & nutrients in such high concentrations that, rather than feeding normal plants & fish, they are poisoned instead.  
Selfishness & greed have the same effect on the human soul.  When we hoard the blessings God showers upon us, not allowing them to pass through us & on to others, then you & I become a dead end.  All the gifts that our Lord intended for good serve to poison us & the people around us.  What God intended for good becomes a curse instead. 
Though still early in Jesus’ ministry, the opposition to His teaching has become hostile.  The Gospel reading for today skips over all the early material in chapter 7.   However, it is important for the context of the Gospel reading especially because that reading is so short. 
Verse 1 tells us that Jesus could not publicly attend this major & days long celebration because the Jewish leaders there “were seeking to kill Him.”  Verse 5 says that, “…not even His brothers believed in Him.”  By the words of the Gospel reading, the great Feast of the Tabernacles had reached it’s climax & closing day.  On that day Jesus stood up & cried out,
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me & drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”  (John 7:37-38 ESV)  The leaders of the Jewish people were examples at the other end of the spectrum.  They were all take   & no give.  They taught the law, but did not practice some of the most important points of it, such as justice, mercy & faithfulness to God.  They obeyed the minutiae of the law such as tithing spices, but not the more challenging matters of the law such as repentance & humility.  Even though they saw Jesus do miracles that could only come from God, they refused to receive the guidance & counsel of God’s Son.  Jesus came to counteract what the Jewish religion had become. 
Like all other false religions, the Judaism of Jesus’ day had become focused solely upon the works of man.  No matter what any purely human guru teaches, all of us know instinctively that we fall short of the glory of God.  Our works are no match for earning our way to heaven.  We know & we feel the weight & the number of our sins. 
Every fiber of our being thirsts for relief from the brokenness of this world.   Miraculously, so does our Creator.  He did not simply dip His toe into the stream of human life.  He took on human flesh in order to experience, as we do, as His entire creation does,   the full effect of the horrors that sin brings into human existence.  Jesus expressed that from the cross:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  (Mark 15:34b ESV)    During those moments of time, Jesus experienced hell, for you, for me.   Jesus knows what it is to be the Dead Sea: “For our sake [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin…”  And God the Father did that, “…so that in [Christ] we might become the righteousness of God.”  (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)    
Knowing what we know, having experienced what all human beings experience, after living in this sinful world for 30 years as one of us, Jesus cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me & drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”  (John 7:37-38 ESV) 
The Feast of Tabernacles, or Pentecost as we Christians refer to it, was a festival to celebrate the harvest of crops.  It was similar, though many days longer, to what our Thanksgiving holiday was meant to be.  It was a feast to celebrate God, with the purpose of thanking Him especially for the harvest of food that He provides.  The majority of Americans no longer give any thought to the heavenly Father at our Thanksgiving holiday.   And judging by the few people who believed in Jesus as Messiah in His day, it would appear that most of His fellow Jews no longer gave thought to the true God then. 
That thoughtlessness regarding God the Father is but a minor symptom of the disease of sin.  We have the war in Ukraine destroying the lives of millions of people.    We have the hatred & bitterness of the divisions in our society.  As a whole, our government & all its institutions are displaying corruption, greed & selfishness with wanton abandon. 
And the worst of it – they no longer even care if it gets found out.   They know they can bury it & face zero consequences in any court of law.     All of our struggles in life are a direct result of the sin that lives in the heart & soul of every human being.  Trying to cancel sinners will not isolate it, solve it,   or in any way make up for the evil that human beings do to each other. 
Only hell, for every one of us, for all of eternity can do that.    So God the Father sent “His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16 ESV)    That is why Jesus stood up & cried out:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me & drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”  (John 7:37-38 ESV)    God has so blessed His children on earth that our well is overflowing.  You & I are overloaded with the nutrients & minerals that give spiritual life to the human beings around us. 
If we hoard the blessings God showers upon us, by not allowing them to pass through us & on to others, then you & I are a dead end.  Then, all the gifts that our Lord intended for good serve to poison us & the people around us.  What God intended for good becomes a curse.      Is the culture around us filled with selfishness & greed?   Certainly!    Have you & I been corrupted by the same sins?   Without a doubt!   Along with the thief at the cross, all that we can say is, “…we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”  And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  And [Jesus] said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  (Luke 23:41-43 ESV) 
Repentance is always the answer to our sin, because turning back to Jesus, & away from our sins, is the only path to life.   And our heavenly Father prepares that path for us in advance.  It is not a path that you & I need to hew out of the granite of our sorrows & struggles & sins.  Jesus created that path with His suffering, humiliation & death.  He did that for you out of love. 
The world’s method of dealing with sin is demonstrated by today’s cancel culture.  It says we should erase anyone who is deemed by the culture to be evil.  In their minds, the epitome of that is to ban someone from Twitter, or other forms of social media.  And what does the cancel culture do?    It brings more sin, more bitterness, more death.    Jesus brings life!  
In fact, He brings rivers of it as He sends the Holy Spirit into our world, into our lives, into our heart & soul.  And from there He will reach out to bless the people around us, & every other aspect of the old & broken creation in which we live.    So, Jesus stood up & cried out,
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me & drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”  (John 7:38-39 ESV)    For now we live that by faith.   One day, in heaven, we will live that by sight.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Speak, O Lord, Your servant listens, let Your Word to me come near; newborn life & spirit give me, let each promise still my fear.  Death’s dread power, its inward strife, wars against Your Word of life; fill me, Lord, with love’s strong fervor that I cling to You forever!  Lord, Your words are waters living when my thirsting spirit pleads.  Lord, Your words of bread life-giving; on Your words my spirit feeds.   Lord, Your words will be my light through death’s cold & dreary night; yes, they are my sword prevailing & my cup of joy unfailing.  Amen.  LSB 589:1, 3.  
Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Pastor Dean R. Poellet
    (517) 712-1798

    Welcome! Here at St. Matthew Lutheran Church we share the ancient truth of God’s Good News with a modern world. We are in that world, but because of Jesus Christ, we are not of that world. Our goal is that you may know Jesus’ love for you, that you may rest in it, and then joyfully serve each other because of it.

    “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God’s own, that you may tell others about the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
    (1 Peter 2:9)

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • HOME
  • PASTOR
    • Meet the Staff
    • Sermons
    • SML Daily Prayer Card
  • SML MINISTRIES
    • SML Mission & Vision
    • SML MISSION NEWS
    • Holt Lutheran School
    • Sonshine Early Childcare Center
    • LWML
    • Youth
    • Jim Jackson Blog
  • I'M NEW
    • Seekers
  • CALENDAR
  • PICTURES
  • LINKS
  • CONTACTS