The
River Of
Life Is
….
"Christ
in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).
· This mystery
We will learn is the indwelling Christ, the River of life!
· Colossians 1:27 (English Standard Version)
27 To
them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles
are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which
is Christ in you, the hope of
glory.
· WE SING THE CHORUS:
I’ve
got a RIVER
of LIFE
– flowing
out of me
It
makes the lame to walk and the blind to see
Open’s
prison doors and sets the captives free
I’ve
got a RIVER
of LIFE
– flowing
out of me!
Psalms
46:4, KJV There is a RIVER,
the streams whereof shall make glad the
city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles
of the most High.
Psalm 46:4 (English Standard Version)
4
There is a river
whose streams make glad the city
of God,
the holy
habitation of the Most High.
· The CITY of the living God
Matthew 5:14 (English Standard Version)
14
"You are the light of the world. A
city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
· Is The Church
Hebrews 12:22 (English Standard Version)
22But
you have come to Mount Zion and to
the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal
gathering,
· The Lamb's Wife
Revelation 21:1-10 (English Standard Version)
· Revelation 21
The New Heaven and the New Earth
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
5And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
The New Jerusalem
9Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, "Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb." 10And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,
· A Place Of Broad RIVERS
The prophet Isaiah added that Zion would also be a "place of broad RIVERS” (Isa. 33:21).
· Isaiah 33:21 (English Standard Version)
21But
there the LORD in majesty will be
for us
a place of broad rivers and
streams,
where no galley with oars can
go,
nor majestic ship can pass.
· The River From The Rock
Moreover, the River from the Rock is a major Old Testament theme—that "Rock that followed them was Christ”
· 1 Corinthians 10:4 (English Standard Version)
4and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
· Exodus 17:1-6 (English Standard Version)
Exodus 17
Water from the Rock
1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?" 3But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" 4So Moses cried to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." 5And the LORD said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.
· Deuteronomy 8:15 (English Standard Version)
15who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock,
· Psalm 78:15-20 (English Standard Version)
15 He
split rocks in the wilderness
and
gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16He
made streams come out of the rock
and
caused waters to flow down like rivers.
17Yet
they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18They
tested God in their heart
by
demanding the food they craved.
19They spoke
against God, saying,
"Can God
spread a table in the wilderness?
20 He
struck the rock so that water gushed out
and
streams overflowed.
Can he also give
bread
or provide meat for his
people?"
· Psalm 105:41 (English Standard Version)
41 He
opened the rock, and water gushed out;
it
flowed through the desert like a river.
· Psalm 114:8 (English Standard Version)
8 who
turns the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of water.
· Isaiah 48:21 (English Standard Version)
21
They did not
thirst when he led them through
the deserts;
he made water flow for
them from the rock;
he split the rock
and the water gushed out.
· John 7:37-39, KJV
In the last
day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let
him come unto Me, and drink.
38
He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out
of his belly shall FLOW RIVERS
of living water.
39
(But this spake He of the SPIRIT,
which they that believe on Him should receive: for
the HOLY GHOST was not
yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
· Jesus makes it abundantly clear in this awesome passage that one of the major symbols for the indwelling HOLY SPIRIT in the life of the believer is a RIVER!
· "Christ in you” bears the marks of
1. a prophet,
2. a priest, and
3. a king. Likewise, out of your innermost being flows:
· First,
PROPHETIC
RIVER, the river out of the "belly,”
for the word "flow” in John 7:38
is rheo (compare
rhema), from which we get our English word,
"rhetoric.”
“He
that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of
his belly shall FLOW RIVERS
of living water.”
· Second,
PRIESTLY
RIVER that
flows out of the Sanctuary,
the
House of the Lord, His Temple.
· Ezekiel 47:1-12 (English Standard Version)
Ezekiel 47
Water Flowing from the Temple
1Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 2Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side.
3Going
on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man
measured a thousand cubits, and then led
me through the water, and it was ankle-deep.
4Again he measured a thousand, and led
me through the water, and it was knee-deep.
Again he measured a thousand, and led
me through the water, and it was waist-deep.
5Again he measured a thousand, and it
was a river that I could not pass through, for the water
had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that
could not be passed through. 6And he
said to me, "Son of man, have you seen this?"
Then
he led me back to the bank of the
river. 7As I went back, I saw on the bank of
the river very many trees on the one side and on the
other. 8And he said to me, "This
water flows toward the eastern region and goes
down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when
the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh.
9And wherever the
river goes, every living creature that swarms will live,
and there will be very many fish. For this
water goes there, that the waters
of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where
the river goes. 10Fishermen will stand beside
the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it
will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will
be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great
Sea. 11But
its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to
be left for salt. 12And on the banks, on
both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of
trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their
fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month,
because the water for them flows from the sanctuary.
Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for
healing."
· Third,
KINGLY RIVER, pure and living, that flows out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb
· Revelation 22:1-2 (English Standard Version)
Revelation 22
The River of Life
1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
· CONCLUSIONS:
Are you thirsty?
1. Are you searching for strength from an external source, or are you drinking deeply from the Christ within?
2. Have you, like David in his exile, found the refreshing waters of Engedi, the oasis of the leaping fountain and the Rock of Escape?
· 1 Samuel 23:29 (English Standard Version)
1 Samuel 23:28 (English Standard Version)
28So
Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against
the Philistines. Therefore that
place was called the Rock of Escape.
29
And David went
up from there and lived in the
strongholds of Engedi.
· 1 Samuel 24:1 (English Standard Version)
David Spares Saul’s Life
1 When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, "Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi."
3. Is your life, your family, your business, or your ministry a "broken” (wrecked or ruptured) cistern, or is your Source "the Fountain of living waters”?
· Jeremiah 2:13 (English Standard Version)
13for
my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken
me,
the
fountain of living waters,
and hewed out
cisterns for themselves,
broken
cisterns that can hold no water.
Today – return to the
1. Rock Of Escpe
2. The River Of Life
3. The Fountain Of Living Water – "Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).
Compiled By:
Pastor Rev. Stephen Coates
Resources: