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.
And from verses 28-36 Jesus explains their problem, and I’d like us to see that this description of the Jews is describing all of us by birth. He says first of all, that they don’t know God (verse 28), that they are not saved (verse 34 where He tells them they can’t go where He is going). And they have wicked hearts (vss 30-32). They want to kill Jesus again so in verse 30 they try to seize Him and in verse 32 they send temple guards to arrest Him.
So, here is their condition: they are biblically illiterate (they don’t know where the Messiah was to be born, and they don’t know God), they are lost (they are not going to heaven as Jesus was, they are not saved), and their hearts are wicked (they hate Christ, they have murder in their hearts.)
And all of this reveals their spiritual condition. The whole nation of Israel at this time period in history is spiritually parched. They are spiritually dehydrated, spiritually parched, they are spiritually dry. You know what the entire nation of Israel was missing at this time, which is why they were spiritually dry? They were missing the Spirit of God. Notice verses 37-39:
37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:37-39 (NIV)
The Spirit of God here is said to be “streams of living water”, and the nation of Israel was missing the Spirit of God, therefore they were spiritually dry. Even the leaders who knew the Word of God, who had memorized Scripture, who had expanded it into 600 laws, even they were a spiritual desert because they did not have the Spirit.
Now let your mind wander for a minute. It’s a hot summer afternoon. The temperature is 110, and its humid. You have just spent the afternoon mowing the lawn in the hot sun. You’re hot, you’re tired, you’re weak, so you decide to go lay down beside your husband who’s sleeping in the hammock. And you say to him, "I’m dying of thirst." Now, be honest. Were you really dying? Well, probably not. You were simply a lot closer than you thought you wanted to be. But what you meant was, you needed a glass of water. You needed a drink of water so bad that you thought you would die if you didn’t get it. Now understand something: that is the very condition into which we were all born. We’re literally dying of thirst spiritually, because we are not born with the Spirit of God in us. You and I are spiritually parched and dehydrated, we’re dying of thirst. Even if we turn to religion, we learn how to live right, we become knowledgeable in the Bible (like the Pharisees were), we are still a spiritual desert, we’re all like Bill Jenkins apart from the Spirit.
And everybody in this world is trying to quench this deep thirst within us. Everybody. The famous poet, Lord Byron, in a diary found beside his dead body, described his attempt to quench his own thirst: he said, "I drank every cup of joy, I drank early, drank deeply, drank from every fountain known to man, and now I die of thirst because there is nothing more to drink."
Some turn to alcohol and drugs, some turn to pornography and sex, some turn to gambling and betting, some turn to habits and hobbies, some simply cram their schedule full, and put their kids in every teaching and sporting and arts event known to man, because they are doing all they can to quench this insatiable thirst. Kids become addicted to sports and to video games, and to TV, because they are literally dying of thirst because they do not have the Spirit of God.
So the obvious question then, is how do we get the Spirit of God? Look at our text. In verse 37 Jesus says “if anyone is thirsty, let Him come to me and drink.” We get the spirit by coming to Jesus. And secondly, verse 39 says, “by this He meant the spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.” Come to Jesus and believe in Jesus. The Jews did not believe in Jesus and refused to come to Jesus, and so did not get the thirst-quenching Spirit.
Now, do you know what Jesus was doing when He made this statement about coming to Him to drink? He was reminding the Jews of something that happened in the history of the nation of Israel. He is referring to an event that every Israelite would know about. Let’s look at it by turning to Exodus chapter 17:
1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?" 3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" 4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me." 5 The Lord answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. Exodus 17:1-6 (NIV)
1. The Rock was the source of life-giving water to the Israelites, just as Jesus is the Source of the life-giving Spirit to the church.
2. The rock had to be struck. It was hit by the judgment rod of God, just as Jesus had to be crucified under God’s judgment that we might drink of eternal life in Him.
3. The people had to actually drink the water, just as we must come to Jesus, believe the gospel and receive the Spirit.
Now, I want to apply this to us today. We know now that the Holy Spirit is Streams of Living Water. I just have 4 points of application and then I’m done:
1. The Spirit of God makes Jesus fresh and new to us. He is described as streams, not a well. Streams bring fresh and new water, not stagnant and old water. This means that believers will always have fresh new discoveries of Jesus. God’s mercies are new every morning, and Jesus will be fresh to us tomorrow, and the next day, because His Spirit is streams of living water.
2. The Spirit of God brings life to us. He is described as Streams of Living Water. But He does so through the Word. Jesus said these words of mine, they are Spirit and they are Life. We only have as much of the Spirit as we have of the Word. On August 8, 2008 Sydney, Australia, A tourist lost in the Outback scrawled the word “HELP” in the dirt next to his dying body. The 53-year-old man had been dead for three days when his body was found by a passing farm worker. Police said there were waterholes and wells all around where he died, but he perished from thirst. People today are dying of spiritual thirst while the Bible is all around them.
3. The Spirit of God blesses the lives of others through us. Look at verse 38: “streams of living water will flow from within him.” Believers actually become a source of life to others. I don’t mean to pick on people this morning, but if you spend any amount of time around Mike or Brian you’ll be drinking from a fountain of life. The same is true of many of you, because Scripture comes bubbling out of you, always pointing to Jesus, always refreshing other believers.
4. The Spirit flows from the cross. The rock was struck and the water flowed. The Spirit quenches our thirst at the cross. If you’re thirsty, go to the Smitten Rock, that’s where you’ll drink living water.
And I’m going to close with this powerful illustration of that truth that our thirst is quenched at the cross:
“Mommy I’m so thirsty. I want a drink.” Susanna Petroysan heard her daughter’s pleas, but there was nothing she could do. She and four-year-old Gayaney were trapped beneath tons of collapsed concrete and steel. Beside them in the darkness lay the body of Susanna’s sister-in-law, Karine, who was one of fifty-five thousand victims of the worst earthquake in the history of Armenia. It was December 7, 1988, at 11:41 A.M. Her fifth-floor apartment had begun to shake. Susanna grabbed her daughter but had taken only a few steps before the floor opened up and they tumbled in. Susanna, Gayaney, and Karine all fell into the basement with the nine-story apartment building crumbling around them. “Mommy, I need a drink. Please give me something.” There was nothing for Susanna to give. She was trapped flat on her back. Feeling around in the darkness, she found a jar of blackberry jam that had fallen into the basement. She gave the entire jar to her daughter to eat. It was gone by the second day. “Mommy, I’m so thirsty.” Susanna knew she would die, but she wanted her daughter to live. The two were trapped for eight whole days. “Mommy, I’m thirsty.” Susanna remembered a television program about an explorer in the Arctic who was dying of thirst. His friend actually slashed open his own hand and gave him his own blood to drink. Susanna found a piece of shattered glass. She sliced open her left index finger and gave it to her daughter to suck. The drops of blood weren’t enough. “Please Mommy, some more. Cut another finger.” Susanna has no idea how many times she cut herself. She only knows that if she hadn’t, Gayaney would have died. Her blood was her daughter’s only hope to quench her thirst.
Beneath the rubble of this fallen world, Jesus pierced His hands. In the wreckage of a collapsed humanity, He ripped open His side. You see, His children were trapped in sin and thirst, so He gave His blood. With His blood, and by His Spirit, He quenches the thirst of all who come to Him and believe in Him.
Prayer:
“He who is a believer in Jesus finds enough in his Lord to satisfy him now, and to content him for evermore, for he finds in Jesus such a spring of joy, such a fountain of consolation, that he is content and happy. Put him in a dungeon and he will find good company; place him in a barren wilderness, he will eat the bread of heaven; drive him away from friendship, he will meet the "friend that sticks closer than a brother." The heart is as insatiable as the grave until Jesus enters it, and then it is a cup full to overflowing. “Only Jesus can quench our thirst.”
