Notes on John 7: 37 – 39

This passage gave us a very interesting discussion which followed on from last week’s discussion about the Trinity. This is a brief passage which we felt needed amplification, from the beginning of chapter 7 to its end. This passage is a suggestion for Pentecost which we found difficult, but felt that, if used, it should be read before Acts to help the flow of the narrative. That led to a brief discussion on when the Gospel should be read. We felt that sometimes it should come before the epistle.

We discussed how Jesus used opportunities to preach from the circumstances around him. The feast in question, Tabernacles, is a feast that ends with a procession to the Temple, where the priest would pour water at the foot of the altar. We assumed that Jesus chose His moment well to stand and speak about living water, knowing the impression this would make on worshippers. We thought that we should attempt to use our circumstances in like manner. We noticed how, in previous verses, Jesus goes from being reluctant to go to the festival to going and teaching quietly in the Temple courts to loud declamation.

We noted how the Spirit at this point had not been given, and yet we know that God’s Spirit had been at work during Old Testament times at creation, and in the prophets and also sometimes in people who were not Israelites. This led to a discussion on how the Spirit seemed to change between the Old Testament and the New. In the Old Testament God placed His Spirit on the people He chose, even if they did not know they had it, or even if they did not want it. This seemed to us quite different from the Holy Spirit that is now available to all who believe in Jesus. We discussed whether during Jesus’ lifetime the Spirit of God was embodied in Him, and whether that meant that it was only seen in Jesus and through Jesus. This would link with John’s first chapter where Jesus is seen as the Logos or word of God through which all things were created. Therefore Jesus is God’s Spirit that hovered over the waters at the beginning of creation. While Jesus is alive and human the Spirit therefore can be seen only in Him, but once Jesus has died and been raised it is free once more and now available to all who believe in Jesus. This led us to think again about the Trinity and how we understand Jesus as a man.

Jesus as a man is filled with God’s Spirit so that He is the embodiment of God. Therefore our discussion last week about Jesus being separate from God links to this idea, because Jesus the man is separate until the moment of death when He rejoins God as Spirit. God’s Spirit is now free for all to access.

We discussed whether it was at His baptism that Jesus received the Spirit or whether He was aware of it in His youth. We went on to discuss the fruits of the Spirit and being Spirit filled. We thought about how some denominations insist on speaking in tongues as a measure of faith, and how this can make those Christians who do not have this gift feel like outsiders. We thought that we would be given gifts that suited our abilities and appropriate to our lives and talents; that sometimes the gift of the Spirit would be a quiet affair.

We did look closely at verse 38 “as the scripture has said” and wondered which scripture Jesus meant; and if he meant that this scripture described the living water or the belief in Him!

Our conclusion was that we should concentrate our thoughts on the availability of the Spirit for all who believe in Jesus. This seemed to us to be a very Wesleyan idea, and we finished on that thought.