Easter 23 John 7:37-39

John 7:37-38 Water for the Thirsty

Water, Water,....Oh look water!

question for you today....How thirsty are you?

The word thirsty is used in interesting ways in our culture.

I had a college roommate name Flavio. He always discouraged me from dating because he would say, That girl is thirsty. Apparently he thought that every girl at Moody was desperate or something.

If a boy does not work hard or try hard in sports or in school. The coach or teacher might say the boy is not thirsty enough.

We are a thirsty people. We have a lot of desires, wants, wishes. We are not very often content.

Longing for more and something better is a part of the human experience.

This word was used in a similar way in Jesus day and by Jesus Himself. To talk about people who are searching or in need of something.

We know this because Jesus speaks directly to thirsty people in John chapter 7 when He says.

John 7:37–38 (CSB)

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”

The background of Jesus statement. (Sukkot)

I feel like it would help us some to know the context for why Jesus said these things.

He was at a Feast or holiday gathering of the Jewish people in Jerusalem.

(Picture Jerusalem)

Normally at Easter we think of the Passover because that is the time of year that Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead. In the spring at this time.

however the Feast that Jesus said this at was at the opposite end of the year. It happened in the fall. Late September or early October depending on the Lunar cycles. The Jews followed a lunar calendar. That is why Easter falls on a different Sunday every year in our Gregorian Calendar. This was the feast of Tabernacles or booths.

Josephs calls this “the holiest and greatest feast of the Jews”

It was a feast that celebrated the Children of Israel’s time in the desert and their escape from Egypt and how God provided for them at that time. I was a feast celebrating the harvest and God’s provision. It was a feast that looked forward to God providing a messiah for His people. It looked back to God’s provision in the wilderness and forward to God’s provision of a Messiah.

(picture of a map of the city and the route of the water parade ceremony.)

Let me tell you what they would do at this feast because it might explain what Jesus meant when he yelled out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to men, and drink.”

Every day of the feast early in the morning in conjunction with the morning sacrifice the priest would leave the temple courtyard with a golden pitcher. He would carry this golden pitcher through town down the hill to the pool of Siloam. He would fill the pitcher and begin his journey with everyone back.

They would time it just right so that as they entered the temple through the water gate the other priests would blast on the trumpets 3 times. The whole ceremony was quite a scene.

they would circle the alter on each day. on the last and most important day they would circle the alter 7 times.

The crowd would shout pour the water. Raise your hand. (they did this so that they could see the water being poured)

One the 7th day which was the last and most important day as we see in verse 37... The people would chant Hosanna! from Psalm

Psalm 118:25 CSB

Lord, save us! Lord, please grant us success!

On the 8th day they would set the golden pitcher on the alter and say, “let the Messiah come and fill it. When he did not they would say maybe next year.

it was at this time either on the 7th or 8th day of the feast, probably the 7th day, as you can see in verse 37 that Jesus cried out!

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 7)

37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and drink.”

I had a pastor tell me that, “This is perhaps the greatest claim to messiahship that Jesus ever makes.”

Water & Thirst in John’s Gospel.

In John Chapter 2 Jesus preforms his 1st miracle and He turns water into wine.

Next Chapter John 3 Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about being born again. This is the famous John 3:16 passage.

John 3:5 CSB

Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

The next chapter after that is John 4 and the famous story of the women at the well.

John 4:7–14 (CSB)

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Jesus said to her, because his disciples had gone into town to buy food. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked him. .... Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.” “Sir,” said the woman, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this ‘living water’? You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.” Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”

John 4:14 CSB

But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.”

3 chapters in a row to start the book of John and they are all about water and thirst or drinking. Do you see that water and thirst are a theme in the book of John?

and there are a lot of other references about water and thirsting in the book of John that we could talk about. But I would like to show you just 1 more at the end of the book. In chapter 19 Jesus is hanging unjustly on a Roman cross

John 19:28 CSB

After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said, “I’m thirsty.”

The Psalms had predicted that Messiah would thirst in 22:15; 69:21

I have never really fully grasped what Jesus meant when He said this. I always thought that He was just thirsty. But could it be that he was making a statement about His death. Could it be that this was a declaration that He would not only take our sins upon Himself but that he would also take our thirst?

I started this sermon by talking about how we are all thirsty. That is true. We are have wants and desires that we will never have fulfilled. But it is also true that Jesus takes our thirst.

If we believe in Jesus, He will give us living water and we can give Him our thirst.

from this prospective I find it fascinating what happens next.

John 19:34 CSB

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.

We know scientifically that once the heart stops beating that the water in the body separates from the blood and organs.

He did not just pour out His blood…Truly He also poured out the living water of which He promised.

John 7:37–38 CSB

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”

there is another, very practical reason Jesus said, “I thirst,” from the cross. The Lord asks for a drink so that He might clearly and powerfully declare His final statement, “It is finished.” He could declare that he had finished the work of saving us and taking out thirst.

Jesus takes our thirst!

I heard that in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The commanders had to tell the troops to drink water. The forced water on the soldiers because the soldiers did not realize that they needed it but they absolutely did!

You might not realize it but you need Jesus and you need Jesus to take your thirst! (Apply Here)

Jesus does not quench our thirst, He takes our thirst.