Satisfaction for Mankind's Spiritual Dehydration
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Most of us can remember a time when we were extremely thirsty...
For me, it was a on a backpacking trip with some of my teenage boys, back when I was a Youth Pastor...
Extreme thirst comes from a longing for something our body desperately needs. It’s such a powerful experience that, the longer it goes un-satiated, the more it dominates our brain’s attention. God has wired us this way, to protect us.
Similarly, we all have a spiritual longing within us that is designed to draw us to the Lord. It’s our spiritual thirst. This morning, we will see what Jesus taught about our spiritual thirst, and the only way that thirst can be quenched.
Exegesis of John 7:37-39
Exegesis of John 7:37-39
Verse 37
Seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles...
Each day of the feast, in the morning, the priests would drawn water from the Pool of Siloam, then lead a procession into the temple, and pour the water out on the altar. This was symbolic of God’s provision of water. This was through a petition for rain to water the crops and remembering God’s provision of water during Israel’s wilderness experience, especially the drawing of water from the rock.
It was also a constant reminder that the LORD would pour out His Spirit on His people in the last days.
On the seventh day, the priests would march around the altar seven times, while the people chanted Psalm 118:25.
Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Jesus uses this moment to make a powerful public statement about Himself.
The Need:
The Need:
Everyone suffers from spiritual dehydration.
Everyone suffers from spiritual dehydration.
The world is spiritually dehydrated today...
Dehydration is when you use or lose more fluid than you take in, and your body doesn’t have enough water and other fluids to carry out its normal functions.
The funny thing about dehydration is you can be dehydrated and not realize it. You might not even feel thirsty!
We are born spiritually dehydrated because we were born sinners and choose to sin. Sin brings a dehydrated spiritual life.
Many today don’t even realize they are spiritually dehydrated. They just know something isn’t right. So, most fill their lives with all sorts of things their hearts desire. (“Follow your heart...”)
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
for 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.
Those things only ever further the spiritual dehydration.
The Answer:
The Answer:
Jesus alone can satisfy our spiritual dehydration.
Jesus alone can satisfy our spiritual dehydration.
The Feast of Tabernacles and everything else that went on in the temple was only a shadow of something far more fulfilling.
The Feast was celebrated year after year both to remember what happened long before and to petition God for blessings in the future.
The temple, while valuable to the Jewish people at the time, could never cleanse a person of his or her sins completely.
Neither could truly quench mankind’s spiritual dehydration.
Jesus alone could offer the living water that could and can satisfy a person’s spiritual dehydration.
For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
“And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Verses 38-39
The Way:
The Way:
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to have your spiritual dehydration satisfied.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to have your spiritual dehydration satisfied.
Jesus shares the only way to receive this dehydration quenching living water: belief.
The belief Jesus is talking about isn’t a passive belief that we often talk about today...
It is both life-changing and life-defining...
((Use The Silver Chair illustration))
The Result:
The Result:
Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will overflow with the living water He provides.
Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will overflow with the living water He provides.
The living water comes through the permanent indwelling of Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
Throughout the OT, people will temporarily filled with the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill God’s purposes for them at that time. Now that Jesus has been glorified (i.e. resurrected and ascended) the Holy Spirit dwells permanently with Christ’s followers.
What does this mean for a Christ follower?
We are personally spiritually satisfied.
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
We become a blessing to others so they will seek and find the One who can satisfy their spiritual dehydration.
It is the Holy Spirit than enables the believer to bear fruit for Christ.