1.     During the week long Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), the priests would enact a daily ritual which involved the pouring out of wine and water. Accompanied by the blowing of trumpets, and using a small gold flask, water was drawn from the Pool of Siloam (A place of healing. See John 9:7,11. Some scholars associate this with the ‘wells of salvation’ in Isaiah 12:3; The Greek word sozo can mean both healing and salvation), which was fed by and underground spring of ‘living water’ (Nehemiah 3:15). The ritual was a form of enacted prayer for the coming of the ‘latter rain’ (James 5:7) – a guarantee of the next successful harvest. It was also linked to an expectation of the coming of the Messianic Age of the Spirit. So, when Jesus calls out, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink,’ he is announcing that ‘the time of ritual is over; come and get the real thing!’ Or, as Sammy put it, ‘The time of bottled water is over. The time of encounter and experience has begun!’ Jesus is no longer inviting people only to ‘come and see’, now he is saying, ‘come and experience it for yourselves – enjoy, receive, drink!’ But he promises more than that a satisfying drink; it is the same assurance he gave to the Samaritan woman in John 4:14, of  ‘a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The only condition – you have to be thirsty!

2.     Jesus’ words were, as ever, controversial. John 7:44 informs us that, after this call to come and drink, some people tried to arrest Jesus. After all, he was disturbing a time-honoured religious ritual.

·       Have you ever found yourself getting upset, offended or embarrassed in church (or anywhere else for that matter, but it happens a lot in church!) when familiar rituals weren’t being done ‘right’ or where some people seemed a bit over-enthusiastic?

·       Or did it happen to someone else – a ‘friend’, perhaps? Why do we get like that?

3.     Sammy spoke of how many people are physically dehydrated. We drink enough water to survive, but not enough to thrive. We also get spiritually dehydrated. We have enough of the Spirit to get by, but not enough to pour out to others. The problem is, we become dehydrated before we feel thirsty. In Galatian 5:22-23, Paul lists ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ – evidence that the tree of your spiritual life is getting enough ‘living water’: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (NRSVA)

·       Are you spiritually dehydrated right now? 

·       What fruit are you missing?

·       What are you thinking? Is it, ‘Oh, I need to work on being more peaceful and patient (or whatever)’, or, ‘Oh, I must be dehydrated’? Remember, the fruit is not the problem – it’s the water supply!

4.     Ephesians 5:18 says, ‘Keep on being filled with the Spirit…’ (ISV). Just as it isn’t enough to have once put fuel in your car, it isn’t enough to have once been filled with the Spirit. Living water has to flow! Jesus has just one condition:

·       Are you thirsty?

·       How thirsty really are you for a fresh encounter with Jesus?

·       Are you satisfied with your experience of God, or do you desire more? Do you want adequacy or abundance?

·       When did you last encounter God’s presence in a powerful way?

5.     Pub landlords used to put free salty snacks on the bar to encourage customers to drink more. 

·       What circumstances has God been arranging to increase your thirst for him?

Take time now to pray for each another to be filled with the Spirit once again!