Jesus teaches about water that gives people life
37 The last day of the festival was the most important day. On that day, Jesus stood up and he spoke with a loud voice. He said, ‘If anyone is thirsty, he should come to me so that he may drink. 38 It says in the Bible, “God will cause streams of water to pour out from anyone who believes in me. Water that gives life will come out from inside that person.” ’ 39 Jesus was speaking about God's Spirit, who would come to people some time after that. Those people who believed in Jesus would receive God's Spirit at that later time. But God had not yet given his Spirit to people, because he had not yet raised Jesus back up to heaven.
7:39Many verses in the Old Testament speak about ‘water’ that gives life. See Isaiah 44:3; 58:11 and Zechariah 13:1; 14:8. The Jews would read these verses aloud at the Festival of Huts. People argue about who Jesus is
40 The people in the crowd heard Jesus say these words. Some of them said, ‘Surely this man must be the Prophet from God that we have been waiting for!’ 41 Other people said, ‘This man is the Messiah.’
But some other people said, ‘The Messiah will not come from Galilee! 42 The Bible says that the Messiah will come from King David's family. He will come from Bethlehem, the town where David lived.’
7:42See Micah 5:2. The Bible that the Jews read was the Old Testament. 