Do You Thirst for More? Come and Drink!

One day, long ago, Jesus stood in the temple courtyard and shouted aloud: “Whoever is thirsty must come to me and drink!”

Sisters and brothers, (Drink from glass.) when was the last time you were thirsty? (Drink.) I mean, really thirsty? (Drink.) Thirsty down to your soul? (Drink.) What about the kind of thirst that Jesus spoke about? Do you thirst for more out of life?

Millions today seek to quench their thirst with drink, with drugs. They are thirsty.

Both married and unmarried, people long for more sex. They’re thirsty.

Millions, millions bet that more money will buy them more of the good life. They’re thirsty.

Many, clambering over their neighbors, seek more power, more prestige. All these people thirst for better living. They would soak up some thirst-quencher. Anything to dampen the dry, withered soul inside.

Even more dangerous are the kind of people that you and I can be. People here taking church just as seriously as we have always taken it. People trying to be as good as we have always been. People not very thirsty for more. See the danger? We do what we do out of habit and routine. Can we be smug with who we are? Self-satisfied?

Who, after all, sent Jesus to the cross? Was that dastardly deed done by the despised ones? The lepers? The prostitutes? The thieving, traitorous tax-collectors? How Jesus loved to be with such obvious sinners! Did they send him to the cross?

Or was it the people who judged themselves good? The religious people? The Church people. The “moral majority” and their leaders?

In today’s Old Testament Reading, God showed Ezekiel a valley full of dried bones. (Show skeleton.) These were not the bones of some foreign nation. These were the bones of Israel. God’s own people. They had given up. They believed God could do no more. Are we like them? Bone-dry? Parched? Hopeless? One of the things this 2020 Pandemic has revealed are the many people who are controlled by fear and anxiety. Can God do no more for us?

“Lord, break our hearts! Break our hearts of those things that break yours! Quench our parched spirits with your forgiveness. Satisfy our lives with your goodness and your love. Irrigate our bone-dry souls with your gifts and let your Spirit saturate every area of our lives. Let us be satisfied with nothing less than Jesus! Make us to be like him. Deliver us from becoming self-righteous skeletons. Lord, let us be spiritually thirsty! Let us gulp down the living water that is Christ!”

Nothing can quench our soul’s thirst

Except God’s Good News; that’s why Jesus, standing in the temple courtyard long ago, shouted aloud (Shout!), “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!”

Can you picture the scene? From all over the world, pious Jews had poured into Jerusalem. Waves of believers had washed in for the Feast of Tabernacles, their great harvest festival. The family of God had come together to celebrate in one place.

From the courtyards ringing God’s holy temple, on down through the streets of Jerusalem, packed shoulder to shoulder – forget about “social distancing – the people came. What brought them? even from the furthest corners of the earth.

“A full harvest, so full!” They came to give thanks. To pray. “Thank God! He watered our lands, turned pastures to vibrant green. He watered our vineyards. He drenched our orchards, showered us with succulent fruits. Thank you, God, for water!”

As a California boy, living many years in the central valley, numerous highway billboards announce: “water is life!” God has always given water, even miraculously. In the Exodus, when God’s people grumbled, “Why, Moses, did you free us from Egypt? There we were slaves. But here, we with our children, will die of thirst!” God commanded Moses, “Take your shepherd’s staff. Strike that rock” and out of a rock gushed water! Life-saving water (Exodus 17)!

The miracle came new each year. What would God’s Promised Land be with no water? Just beyond their green hills, everything is dried-out, a sun-scorched wastelands. But in Israel that year, God had poured out his generous rains. Thank God for water! Worship him! Praise him! How? With water.

The crowd began gathering down at Siloam, the pool, the water reservoir, at the foot of Jerusalem’s holy hill. This spring had watered Jerusalem since King David’s day, a thousand years before Jesus. Even against huge armies besieging them, God’s people had lived by this water. From that spring the priest took a golden pitcher. From Siloam, he drew a full draught of the life-giving water.

The whole parade of worshipers, wildly waving palm branches, roared. Then the priest led them up the hill towards the temple. Joyful trumpet blasts greeted the water. Beaming choirs sang out from Isaiah 12. “With joy [we] will draw water from the wells of salvation!” (v 3). And the priest with great ceremony poured out the water on the sacred rock—the very rock where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac. This same ritual, day after day, was repeated for all of the feast’s seven days. And the people wildly rejoiced. It was more than just water? The ceremony means much more. The rabbis, quoting the ancient prophets Ezekiel (Ezekiel 47:1) and Joel (Joel 3:18), taught the crowd God’s promise.

“God sent Moses to save us in that desert. Moses struck the rock, and out flowed water! Just so, God will send the Messiah, the Anointed One. The Messiah’s life-giving water will pour out. For God’s Word stands written, ‘A spring of life-giving water will stream out from the house of the Lord!’ ”

In that moment, the city fell into a prayerful hush. (Stride out into congregation’s center.) One man was standing. He shouted out (Shout!), “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (Let Jesus’ words sink in as you retreat to the pulpit.)

Who could he have been? Did he speak for God? Was he a prophet! Could he have been the One whom the Lord would send? Him, the Messiah! Or was he just that crazy carpenter from Nazareth there were warnings about? You who are hearing this message— Who do you say Jesus is? Perhaps the answer depends on whether or not you are thirsty!

Once, with his shepherd’s staff, Moses struck the rock. Out gushed water, life-giving water. On a rock outside Jerusalem God’s enemies raised a cross that held God’s Son. From it flowed life-giving water! From the wounds of Jesus, gushes out new life!

And John, standing there at the foot of Jesus’ cross, saw this with his own eyes. To us, John (19:34) swore to tell the truth. “He was already dead. . . . One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given his testimony, and his testimony is true.”

Why did John have to be so graphic? John insisted that we know. Jesus was dead. His heart stopped pumping. His body fluids separated. He didn’t just pass out. He wasn’t playing dead. Jesus was clinically, certifiably dead. We must know this and we must know our sins killed Jesus.

Nothing can quench your soul’s thirst . . .

Except the “water” that flows from Jesus.

The Pentecost Good News! Jesus pours out from heaven his Holy Spirit. Jesus floods the world with his Good News. Jesus pours out his Spirit that we might trust him. Like a river, sparkling, fresh, life-giving water poured out on dead-dry bones, Jesus pours out his Spirit on us.

Jesus here addresses our spiritual thirst, our yearning for forgiveness, peace, love, meaning, acceptance, hope, and connectedness.

Jesus invites us to himself, to come and drink from the stream of satisfaction.

Jesus places no restriction on those who would come. His gift, too, is for everyone. “Whoever believes” in him will receive the living waters (v 38).

To believe is to have faith.

Hebrews 11:1 NET

1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.

Illustration: The following story illustrates the nature of faith as reliance on what God has done and will do, even if we do not fully understand.

“I will not believe anything that I do not understand,” said a man in a hotel one day.

“Neither will I,” said another.

“Nor will I,” said a third.

“Gentlemen,” said one who sat close by, “on my ride this morning I saw some geese in a field eating grass; do you believe that?”

“Certainly,” said one of the three listeners.

“I saw pigs eating grass; do you believe that?”

Of course,” said the three.

“I also saw sheep and cows eating grass; do you believe that?”

“Of course,” was again the reply.

“According to the marvelous working of God’s creation, the grass was turned into feathers on the backs of the geese; into bristles on the backs of the swine; into white wool on the sheep; and into hair on the cow. Do you believe that, gentlemen?”

“Certainly,” they replied.

“But do you understand how it happens?” After a pause, they replied, “We do not quite understand how it happens, but we believe that it is true.”

“Gentlemen, that is the nature of faith.”

How can we have faith in the midst of this loveless, hopeless, thirsty world full of walking, working, meaningless dry bones (Ezekiel 37)? It comes by God’s Word in concert with the activity of his Spirit.

We are hopeless until the Spirit of God blows upon us, creates in us faith, and gives us hope by connecting us to Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again from the dead.

Even the Spirit poured out in Baptism!

The Spirit, poured out on us individually in Holy Baptism, works in us to create faith. The Spirit lives in us, and becomes the source of streams of living water flowing from within us.

First, always first, we look to Jesus, a man accredited to us by God with miracles, wonders, and signs (Acts 2:22), and raised to life by God (Acts 2:32). He is not dead, dry bones. He has been exalted to the right hand of God.

Next we remember Jesus receiving from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and abundantly, graciously pouring that Spirit out upon all who come at his invitation to be baptized (Acts 2:33, 38, 41).

The invitation is followed by the promise:

John 7:38 ESV

38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

Acts 2:38–39 ESV

38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

The Spirit-filled life of service is not a point we reach but a life-long process in which we’re involved:

“Whoever continues to believe” is the force of the Greek present participle in v 38. Such a person will continue to have living water pure, spiritual, life-giving, living water which will flow out to others.

Illustration: A mother called her son in from playing baseball to eat dinner with the family. She told him to clean up and come to the table. After the table prayer, she looked and saw dirt on the back of the youngster’s hands. She asked, “Didn’t I ask you to clean up before coming to the table?” The lad replied, “Sure. I did. I washed them just a few hours ago, before lunch.” Just as this young man needed to wash his hands again and again to continue to keep them clean, we also need to continue in faith. We do so by leading a life of repentance and faith, remembering our Baptism daily and receiving forgiveness. Faith in Christ is a continuing trust, not a one-time event.

The Holy Spirit is the “water” that flows from us to bless others with faith in Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

There are days when you and I may feel like dead, dry bones. Lifeless. Loveless. Hopeless. It’s God’s way of making us thirsty for more! In our Baptism, Jesus promised us, “Whoever is thirsty . . . come to me and drink.” He provides streams of life-giving water that flood us with life. In him we are alive. His life and his love flow in us out from us to our world!

Lord, more and more, let us come alive with your love, your care. More and still more, let us come alive with your Spirit to share! Quench our thirst! Let us be drenched; let us be overflowing in the mighty mercy of the Father, Son, and Pentecost Spirit.