Jesus: Our Thirst-Quencher

John chapter 4. 35-year-old Bill Jenkins had become very thirsty. Having gotten lost from the rest of the desert expedition, he was exactly 4 days in the hot desert sun without any water before he was rescued. He kept a diary during this time and recorded that at the end of the first day without water his tongue clung to the roof of his mouth. A lump formed in his throat, causing him to swallow repeatedly to try to get rid of it. At the end of the second day he began to have severe pain in his head and neck, and his skin began shrinking. On the third day, His hearing was affected, and he began to hallucinate. On the fourth day his eyelids cracked and his eyeballs began to weep tears of blood. His throat was so swollen that breathing was extremely difficult, creating a terrifying sense that he was drowning. Bill later wrote and said, “I’ve never been so thirsty in all my life. I now understand the phrase ‘I’m dying of thirst’ because I almost did.”

And we listen to that and feel bad for Bill Jenkins, that must have been horrible. But I say to you this morning that his experience is your experience and my experience. You say, “wait, I’m not dying of thirst”. Every person is dying of spiritual thirst. We all have cravings of the heart, longings and deep yearnings that are never satisfied, that’s “thirst”.

I have just one point to make today, just one. Here it is: only Jesus Christ can quench our thirst. You can see that from verse 14: 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst." John 4:13-14 The title of the sermon today is “Jesus, our Thirst Quencher.”

I’m going to fill this out a little bit, but this is what I want us to take away from the message today, is that every human being is born thirsty, we live thirsty, and we will die in our thirst, unless and until we learn how to drink from Jesus Christ.

We’ve been in John chapter 7 for a month or so, and we’ve noted that the context of this whole chapter is the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast was one of the three required feasts that every male was to attend. And Jesus is here at this feast and he is teaching. And we’ve seen how the Pharisees judged him as a Sabbath breaker for healing a man on the Sabbath, and in verse 24 Jesus tells them not to judge by external appearances but to make a right judgment. And we have come now to John chapter 7 and verse 25.

25 At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, "Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? 26 Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from." John 7:25-27

“no one will know where Christ is from.” You’re kidding me! The Old Testament says that He would be born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin, that He would go to Egypt and be called out of Egypt, that He would be from Nazareth. Why do they say “nobody would know where Christ would be from?” Because they are ignorant of their own Scriptures, they do not love the truth. Their leaders confirmed this. In verses 48-49 they say: 48 "this mob knows nothing of the law." They are biblically illiterate.

I have to apply this to us today. I wonder what the church is missing today because we are not reading and studying our Bibles. God says, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” He says, “Like newborn babies we are to “eagerly crave the pure milk of the Word.” And when Joshua was about to take over the leadership of the nation of Israel God commanded Him “do not let this book of the Law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night.” So if it was any time other than day or night he could surf the Internet or watch TV. But as long as it was day or night Joshua was to be feeding on the Word. And we think, in our lukewarm culture, “that is so fanatical.” It’s only seems fanatical because we’re ignorant of what the Scriptures actually teach. Paul said the Bereans were of noble character. Why? Because they examined the Scriptures every day, comparing what Paul said with what they read. They loved the Word, they loved the truth.

The Jews were the opposite of all of this: they were perishing for lack of knowledge, they did not love the truth, they did not crave the pure milk of the Word, they did not meditate day and night in it, they did not examine the Scriptures to see if what Jesus said was true. They were biblically illiterate.