Setting the Stage
Leviticus 23:39-43 (New International Version)
39 " ’So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest. 40 On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. 41 Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths 43 so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’ "
The feast of Tabernacles or Succoth as referred to today
There is no party or celebration like this feast - feast of all feasts
7 day celebration with a special 8th day Sabbath added on the end - “Solemn Assembly”
And on that last day there is celebration unlike anything we can imagine
Every person has a bundle of palm branches in the right hand; in the left hand a citrus fruit symbolic, even thought of, as the Eden Apple that Adam and Eve ate
Would then split into 3 groups
Group 1: would remain at the temple
Group 2: gather willow and palm branches for constructing a canopy for the alter
Group 3: Follow a priest from the temple down the Tyropeon Valley, through the Kedron Valley, through the Fountain Gate, to the Pool of Siloam where the priest would fill a golden pitcher from the waters of Siloam.
They would then time their walk back *UP* the valleys, the rivers, so that they arrived at the Temple just as the morning scrifice was being laid on the alter.
As the priest entered the exterior gates a 3 fold trumpet blast would “rock the stadium.
He would be joined by another priest carrying wine as they ascended the rise of the alter.
When they reach the top they see 2 silver funnels - into each funnel wine and water is poured representing the Holy Spirit.
Then the reading of the Psalms (133-118), the “Hallel”, begins
Psalm 113
1 Praise the LORD. [a] Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.
2 Let the name of the LORD be praised, both now and forevermore.
3 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised.
4 The LORD is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens.
Imagine the volume, excitement and momentum as hundreds of thousands, or more, are chanting this together. Then the priests reads the successive verses as they chant back “Hallelu Ya” (Praise the Lord).
And as they shake the branches in their hands - imagine the sight!
And then complete silence until one person yells out from the crowd “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
That’s the kind of excitement that goes on when someone gives their life to Christ!
Can you see now how the crowds react the way they do - some are excited, some are confused - is He a prophet, is He the Christ?
The Invitation is Universal
“If anyone is thirsty…” That means you are not excluded from this invitation.
Somewhere along the way this “image” of what a Christian looks like was made.
Very calm and patient. Very soft spoken and forgiving. Very sweet and copesetic.
All those criteria are man-made, culturally conditioned. God casts a very broad net when He calls people to Himself, “If anyone..” Are you a “anyone’? Then listen closely to His invitation. You may not be as disqualified as you think. God has a way of taking common things and common people and confounding the wise with them.
The great prophet, Samuel, went to the house of Jesse to anoint a king. The last person anyone saw as qualified for the calling was a little shepherd boy named David. God can see things in people that others can not see. In our text, Jesus makes a universal call to mankind.
There is only one prerequisite to Jesus’ invitation. “If anyone is (what) thirsty…” Only thirsty people drink.
God has mercifully created us with a built in need for Him. We are all born with a thirst for God—a longing to know God—a longing to know and be known. There is a thirst, a craving, in every soul for the eternal God. There is a God-given desire to be valued and loved—to express love. There is a deep search for significance, meaning, and spiritual reality in the souls of men. That’s why you find religion all over the world. Man intuitively knows there’s more. Man intuitively knows there’s God.
Jesus is addressing something of great significance, the thirst of the human soul.
The enemy is set to steal kill and destroy and one of the greatest ways he does this is through the power of deception. Let’s not let him try to tell ourselves or anyone else that we are unworthy of the water of life.
The Invitation is ONLY to Christ
“If anyone is thirsty LET HIM COME TO ME…”
There is only one place we can go to eternally satisfy the thirst of our souls.
“Let him come to ME…” not religion, not alcohol, not drugs, not pornography, not adultery, not greed, not materialism, not Buddha, not a bunch of legalistic rules and regulation. “Come to Me, Jesus say, and I will give you rest, I will be your peace, I will be your joy.”
Not even to our church! Not to our doors, or our events, or our Bible Studies - but to Christ alone.
Jeremiah, the prophet, wrote (Jerm. 2:12-13)
12 Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the LORD. 13 "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
Have you ever heard the expression, “That won’t hold water.” It’s worthless. It won’t get the job done. We too can find ourselves going to empty wells for satisfaction. America is full of broken cisterns. “If I could just have that—I would be satisfied. If I could just make
$ 500 a month more. If I could just marry the right person. If I only had that job. If people would just recognize my ministry. One more car. One more house. One more piece of furniture. One more dress. One more hunting rifle.” This list of broken cisterns can go on and on and on.
But Jesus is not inviting us to those things. Neither is he offering to give us those things. He is offering us himself. He is our peace …our joy…our hope. The satisfaction only comes in relationship with him.
So people try to quench their thirst with all the wrong things. The tragedy is this: Their thirst is deceptively quenched. Like a child who tries to satisfy his hunger with more and more candy. The hunger temporarily subsides but no real nutrition is received.
Is your thirst for God being satisfied by a rich relationship with Him?
Are you thirsty or have you been drinking from broken cisterns?
Thirst is a wonderful blessing because it can lead us to Christ.
The invitation cannot be Forced
Notice those last two words in verse 37, “…and drink.”
The old adage is “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”
As much as we may want to help someone receive Christ,
As much as we may even see how someone’s life may benefit from knowing Christ,
We can’t force someone to drink.
When I was a kid I had to sit at the table until all of my food was gone.
... When I was forced to eat I threw it up.
Isa 12:3 “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” NIV
There is a joy, there is a peace, there is love available to all who will come and drink. One of the best things we can do is demonstrate that joy from Christ. Not by forcing, not by chastising, or challenging, not by coercing - but simply by loving, listening, and sharing the JOY of salvation. And if there is no joy in our spiritual life....
The Invitation Overflows in Us
38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
On the last great day of the feast, the people had gone to the Pool of Siloam, a pool that overflows into another pool. They had rejoiced in the ceremony of water drawing.
Now Jesus said, I will not only water your soul. But I will make you a channel of blessing to others as well. (“As the Scripture has said”)—we don’t know for sure which scripture Jesus is referring to in this invitation. But Isaiah 58:11 is a strong possibility.
