What Is Living Water and How Can I Get Some (Er, Him)?

Posted on April 8, 2017 by Pastor Foley

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John 4:7-26

What is the “living water” that Jesus offers the Samaritan woman in this passage?

Sometimes when we are reading a book, if we come to a new vocabulary word in the book, we will either look back through the pages we have already read to find the definition, or we expect the author to tell us right away.

But the Bible—especially the Gospel of John—doesn’t work that way at all.

In the case of “living water”, for example, Jesus first mentions the term in John 4. But he takes his time in telling us what he means. In fact, the definition of the term only appears several chapters later, in John 7, long after the Samaritan women has left the well and Jesus and his disciples have left Samaria. Long after everyone else has forgotten about living water (including many readers of the Gospel of John), Jesus is in Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles. He suddenly stands up and cries to the crowd, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

John adds—finally–“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.”

When Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that he can give her living water, unbeknownst to her, he is actually offering her the Holy Spirit.

Now that John has finally given us the definition of living water, we are left with a new mystery: Who is the Holy Spirit? What does he do?

The Nicene Creed tells us that the Holy Spirit is, with the Father and the Son, worshiped and glorified. The Creed also says he is the Lord and the giver of life. It says, further, that he has spoken through the prophets. That means that the Holy Spirit is a person and not a force, and that is exactly how Scripture presents him. We learn in Genesis 1:2 that the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters at the creation of the world.  At Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit is again hovering over the waters as he descends upon the newly baptized Jesus.

As Christians, we believe in one God that is three persons, not three separate gods or one God appearing in three modes. We believe that all three persons within this Trinity are to be worshiped and glorified. The scriptures frequently show all three persons in the Trinity at work jointly.

Scripture also shows us that the persons of the Trinity are united in love. This is reflected in their speech. The Bible opens with the Father, and yet the Father does not only speak about the Father. The Father speaks about the Son, through the Holy Spirit who speaks through the prophets. Then in the New Testament, when the Son talks, he does not only speak about the Son but also about the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, as the Nicene Creed says, proceeds from the Father and the Son. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals Father and Son to us, guiding us into all truth.

When in our Bible study method we ask, “What is God’s action in this passage?”, we would reply that Jesus, who is God the Son, (1) talks about the Holy Spirit, who is God, and (2) offers the Holy Spirit to people through the Son’s glorification. Because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God, we could say that God (1) talks about God, and (2) joyfully offers God to all.

So what does John 4 specifically command us to do in response? Nothing–yet. We must keep reading further into the gospel of John. Why? Because in John 7 we learn, “the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” We should rightly ask: If Jesus was not yet glorified in John 7, then when was he glorified?

As with the “living water” of John 4 that we only come to understand in John 7, we must keep reading and awaiting God’s revelation, which comes later in John.

While I won’t give you a specific answer—as it is a golden opportunity to practice prayerfully seeking God through the scriptures—I will tell you that Jesus has most certainly been glorified, and in a way that only God could have imagined. Because he has been glorified, he can now offer us the “living water”—the Holy Spirit.

But this raises another question:

Is all of this just religious language, or does it really make any difference?

To understand what it means to receive the Holy Spirit, let’s look at verse 14.

“…But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Never being thirsty again sounds useful, but this examination of verse 14 has given us more questions than answers. And this is intentional. It is part of God’s character. He does not seek to quickly resolve our questions with clear and easy answers. He speaks always to increase our thirst—intellectually, spiritually, relationally. His speech leads us to ask: What is eternal life?

As you might have guessed, God calls us to keep reading, seeking, and thirsting for the answer.

As we keep reading in John—way ahead to John 17:3—we learn that eternal life means something far greater and more grand than living forever. Jesus says, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” Eternal life, in other words, means being drawn up into the Trinity itself. It means sharing in the knowledge—the love-defining relationship—that is shared between the Father and the Son. That love is so real, so deep, so completely God that the love is a person: The Holy Spirit.

This is why Jesus says in John 4 that a time is coming when people will not worship on mountains or in temples, but in the Spirit.

The Nicene Creed says that the Holy Spirit is the Lord, the giver of life. When we are baptized and are born into the Spirit, we receive life—spiritual birth—from the Holy Spirit. Through that life, we are drawn up into the fellowship of the Trinity. It is a fellowship where the Father is always loving the Son and the Son is always loving the Father. Because in baptism we are born into the Spirit, we are located where the Spirit is: proceeding between the Father and the Son.

When we are first born into the world, we have our physical being in God—as Paul says in Acts 17:28, “For in him we live and move and have our being.” But because we are born as fallen beings into a fallen world due to the sin of our first parents, we are born physically alive but spiritually dead. Our spirits not only cannot fellowship with God, we cannot even understand him. Only through the gift of the Holy Spirit can we have the spiritual life that makes knowledge of God and fellowship with the Trinity possible.

But how do we know if we have the Holy Spirit?

Some say that speaking in tongues is the litmus test: If you can’t speak in tongues, they say, then you do not have the Holy Spirit. However, speaking in tongues is a gift that comes from the Holy Spirit, and it is one of many. We should not confuse gifts given by the Holy Spirit with the gift of the Holy Spirit himself.

Instead, the Bible is very clear that the Holy Spirit is received through baptism. When Christ was baptized, the Holy Spirit came to rest upon him. When we confess Christ as Lord and are baptized into the death of Christ and raised into the life of Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us. More correctly, we come to live in the Spirit, and because we are in the Spirit we can come to know God and live within the personal love that is shared between the Father and the Son. You can’t get that no matter what church building or mountain you go to. You can only get the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, as a result of the Son’s glorification.

So, when and how is the Son glorified?

Ask the Holy Spirit, and keep reading in John!

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Christianity As Putting On and Throwing Off

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Pastor Foley

The Christian life can be defined by what we put on and what we throw off.

“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” commands Paul, “and make no provision for the flesh.” And, “since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,” writes the author of Hebrews, “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”

Putting on and throwing off is not only a spiritual matter, because what is in our spirits and in our minds is exactly what shows up on our bodies. What’s in our spirits and our minds impacts what we wear, what we show to other people about ourselves, what we seek to throw off from ourselves.

40 minutes north of here is the border between North and South Korea. On that border every day, there is a clash between two very different ideas of what you should put on and what you should put off. And it’s easy to hear, because they broadcast to each other over giant loudspeakers.

North Korea calls for people to put off any foreign influence and to put on Kim Il Sung. And North Korea is quite serious about that. It spends 40% of its national budget on all the ways people are to put on Kim Il Sung. There are 40,000 statues of Kim Il Sung. It’s impossible to walk from your home to school or your office without passing by these statues. But you must do more than pass by these statues. North Koreans must wear Kim Il Sung buttons, so that every time you see another human being, you are reminded of Kim Il Sung. You are created in the image of Kim Il Sung.

It’s a bizarre situation, and it affects the people of North Korea deeply. They look different than South Korean people. Not just because of the buttons, but because putting on Kim Il Sung shapes them in every way.

But is it really so different on the south side of the border?

South Korean society also answers the question of what we should throw off and what we should put on. And you can hear the South Korean answer to that question at the border also. Because at the border, what is broadcast into North Korea is KPOP. What is launched by balloon and drone and smuggled into North Korea is Korean dramas. And KPOP and Korean dramas have a very clear answer to the question of what you should throw off and what you should put on. The putting on part is easy: We should put on whatever the stars wear. Whatever clothing, whatever hairstyles, whatever words they use.

But there is also a throwing off. First of all, we are to throw off the clothing, hairstyles, and words that were used in last week’s popular drama, popular KPOP song, because those things are now out of date, out of style. And we also are to throw off all of the other things that are out of date and that don’t make us happy any more. Relationships, even marriages that have lasted 40 years. Now in Korean society we are told to throw these off. We throw off limitations on our morality because they make us unhappy. So we throw off the idea that we should not live together unless we are married. We throw off the idea that we should not have sex until we are married.

Now today there are new things coming to Korean society that we are going to be encouraged to put on and throw off. We are to throw off the limitations that sex should be between men and women and put on the idea that sex should be with whoever makes you happy. Put on whatever makes you happy, and put off whatever makes you sad. And then next week, when you are taught through Korean dramas and KPOP to be happy about something different and sad about something different, then throw off everything from last week and put on everything from this week.

It turns out that what happens on the north side of the border and what happens on the south side of the border are both problematic. In fact, they share a common root. The common root is that we are to throw off the glorious image of God in which we are created, and put on the tattered uniform of the human imagination, whatever it dreams up and idolizes that week.

And that is why, in truth, God is not welcome on either side of the border. On either side of the border he is thrown off, and you are urged to put something else on.

As Christians living in South Korea, we should not pretend that South Korean culture does not affect us. Of course it does. It affects us deeply. If you look at Christians, we look no different than others in South Korea. If you listen to us, we sound the same as others in South Korea. We are putting on what South Korean culture encourages us to put on, and throwing off what South Korean culture encourages us to throw off.

And very soon we will see the church struggle in South Korea. Because South Korean culture moves further and further away from any kind of biblical root. South Koreans are being urged to put on more and more things that are hostile to God and throw off more and more things that reflect his image. The South Korean church is both asleep and silent as more and more of these things slip into the church. And soon the South Korean church will have to face to question of homosexuality as a lifestyle and gay marriage as an acceptable form of marriage. The churches in America and Europe had put on so much of their culture and thrown off so much of God’s that when homosexuality and gay marriage came, they meekly put those on, too.

What about you?

What are you throwing off, and what are you putting on? Whose directions are you following in making that decision? If you think you can put on both the things of Christ and the things of popular Korean culture, you are lying to yourself. You know that when you get up in the morning you can only put on one outfit. What some of us do is to put on the things of Korean culture six days a week and then put them off one day a week so that we can put on Christ when we come to church.

But the thing that we must remember about putting on and throwing off is that the Bible teaches us that putting on anything other than Christ will ultimately make us miserable. It may make us happy in the short term, but that will never last. And we certainly see that in Korea. Worldwide surveys say that this is one of the least happy countries in the world to live in. Because we are always dissatisfied with what we have put on, so we throw it off and put something else on, and it doesn’t make us any happier.

But to put on Christ will bring you permanent joy. Yes, it will make you look and sound different in South Korean society. You will look and sound more out of place here than a North Korean would. But that is what you are called to do: Not to put on KPOP stars and Korean drama actors and actresses, but to put on Christ. It is a costly thing to put on. It will cost you more than designer clothing. Those who bear that image north of the border, it costs them their life. But the time is soon coming when those who put on Christ south of the border will suffer serious consequences for that, too.

Are you ready?

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What is the Purpose of the Law for Christians? Doing Matthew 5:21-37

Posted on April 1, 2017 by tdillmuth

Before reading this post on doing Matthew 5:21-37, please make sure to read our post on hearing Matthew 5:21-37. You can also see a quick overview of our DOTW Bible study method.

What action does God take in Matthew 5:21-37?

Matthew 5:21-37 is a part of Jesus’ most famous sermon, The Sermon on the Mount. Christ’s action throughout the whole passage is teaching, although this is not directly mentioned in these verses.

What action does God call me to take toward God? Toward others?

There are several direct actions that God calls us to take:

Vs. 23 – Remember that your brother has something against you.

Vs. 24 – Leave your gift before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Vs. 25 – Come to terms quickly with your accuser

Vs. 29 – If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.

Vs. 30 – If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

There are also several indirect actions that Jesus calls us to take in this passage of Scripture. For example, Jesus says that whoever divorces his wife makes her commit adultery (vs. 31-32). This indicates (although never given as a direct command) that a man shouldn’t divorce his wife. Similar conclusions could be made with regard to anger and lust.

What actions did I take? Or, what actions will I take?

Jesus’ instructions in verses 23-24 are often skipped over in light of the more astonishing revelation that the command not to murder applies not only to outward acts, but also to inward anger.

The remembering and reconciliation that Jesus commands us to undertake is embedded within the setting of “offering your gift at the altar”. This gives us a picture of a formal religious ceremony whereby one offers a lamb or a pair of doves, given to God at the temple in Jerusalem.

As New Testament believers, this passage can remind us of Paul’s admonition in 1 Corinthians 11:27 against eating the Lord’s Supper in an “unworthy manner” and the need to examine oneself before eating the bread and drinking of the cup.

However, Augustine suggests that we can interpret this in a spiritual manner as well by saying,

And so we may interpret the altar spiritually, as being faith itself in the inner temple of God, whose emblem is the visible altar. For whatever we present to God, whether prophecy, or   teaching, or prayer, or a psalm, or a hymn, and whatever other such like spiritual gifts occurs to the mind, it cannot be acceptable to God, unless it be sustained by sincerity of faith, and, as it were, placed on that fixedly and immoveably, so that what we utter may remain whole and uninjured. (On the Sermon on the Mount, Book I, Augustine)

The implications of Christ’s command is that before one can meaningfully worship God, one must reconcile with a brother/sister in Christ. This would not only apply to formal worship within a church, but also our daily worship that takes place anywhere and everywhere. Worship that emphasizes praying and Bible reading would not be more important or effective than worship that is a reconciliation between two brothers in Christ. In fact, our praying and Bible reading could be hindered if we don’t remember and reconcile with our brother or sister in Christ.

Augustine also suggests that timing of reconciliation is of the utmost importance in these verses. Verse 22 shows a progression towards greater levels of punishment with regard to anger, thus making it important to deal with any anger or bitterness right away!

How do we fulfill Christ’s commands in Matthew 5:22-23? By taking every opportunity to remember our relationships with each other and by taking every step necessary to reconcile with each other.

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