Easter ’09: Thirst
John 4:10
Rev. Brian Bill
4/12/09
Note: The general idea for this message is from Pastor Bill Hybels and is used with permission.
I want to begin this morning with some questions.
* How long can an average human being go without food? Thirty days. If any of you think you’re starving right now, you’re not. If you don’t think you can make it until lunch, there are probably some leftover muffins you can scarf down after the service.
* How long do you think a person can go without sleep? It depends on how long the sermon is, right? The record for going without sleep is 10 days. You can hang in there for at least 30 more minutes.
* How long can a human body dance? It’s hard to believe but Jon Dewald once danced for 100 hours straight.
* How far can a human being walk? The record for a man is over 600 miles. The record for a woman is a little over 500 miles. One pastor did some research on this and figured out that these two were actually married and got in a fight and started walking different directions. The man must have been 100 miles madder than his wife.
The human body is amazingly resilient in a lot of ways, except we’re wimps when it comes to water.
Do you know how long the human body can last without water? About three days, maybe up to a week. If you’re working outside in a hot place and you get dehydrated, you could croak in two days. Do you remember what happened at the Chicago Marathon in 2007? It was so hot that organizers ran out of water because runners were not only drinking it but also dousing water on their heads. More than 200 were sent to the hospital, and one person died.
In general terms, we require about four times as much fluid as food because we’re made up of about 60% water. That means I’m lugging around approximately 100 pounds of water up here. I wonder how much more I’d have if I actually drank eight glasses of water a day, like you’re supposed to. How many of you actually drink that much water each day? If you do, I should tell you now where the bathrooms are located. Maybe when you’re out there you can pick me up a muffin.
The geographic area where most of the Bible encounters take place is a very arid, parched and barren land. Back then water was a life and death deal because people literally died of thirst. The Bible uses the metaphor of thirst in a number of places. Here’s one from Proverbs 25:25: “Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.”
Have you ever been really, really thirsty? [Hold up water bottle and take a drink]
--> Play clip from “The Three Amigos.”
4 Easter Images
We have four visuals up on the stage today. I’m going to use them to tell the Easter story…and maybe to even tell your story. I want to propose that: You won’t be satisfied until the Savior washes your sins away.
1. Washed hands. This first visual brings us back to the time shortly before Jesus was put to death. Things are starting to heat up for Him. The crowds have turned on Him and have been shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
When Pilate, who was the government official in charge, was faced with a dilemma, he deliberated as long as he could. Finally, he has to make a decision. Matthew 27:24: “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood,’ he said. ‘It is your responsibility!’” [Demonstrate]
But, no matter how hard Pilate scrubbed, there was no way for him to wash away the guilt in his heart or satisfy the thirst in his soul. You see, he can’t have it both ways. He’s trying to say what a politician said recently, “I voted for it, before I voted against it!” Pilate is guilty. He has wet hands and a wicked heart.
He’s doing what many people do when he protests his innocence and goodness. He had enough information to make the right choice but he refused to make a decision. A lot of people don’t hate Jesus but many do what Pilate did – they admire Him, but they wash their hands clean of His blood. According to Chuck Colson, legend has it that years after the crucifixion, Pilate was still frantically washing his hands trying to cleanse his conscience from the blood of Christ (www.breakpoint.com).
The cover story in the most recent issue (4/13/09) of Newsweek is called, “The Decline and Fall of Christian America.” The article points out that Christians now make up a declining segment of the American population and that the percentage of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith has doubled in recent years, to 16 percent. Meanwhile, the number of people willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic has increased about fourfold in the past twenty years.
Some of you have washed your hands of Christ and you’ve moved on…or have you? You may have been hurt or you’ve experienced some incredible pain and loss in your life and you find yourself angry with God. Or maybe a Christian has wronged you. You might be wandering, or even worse, and yet there’s some kind of thirst that brought you here today. You won’t be satisfied until the Savior washes your sins away.
2. Leaky jug. After washing our hands of Jesus, some of us have tried to satisfy our thirst for meaning and purpose through a person, through possessions, or by pursuing pleasure…only to find that our souls are still parched. There’s a verse in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah that is quite descriptive. God is speaking in Jeremiah 2:13: “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.”
A cistern was a container that captured rain water and was often chipped out of rocky ground. In a dry and thirsty land, people worked hard at preserving water. God says that they messed up in two ways. First, by washing their hands of Him, they left the source of spring water that brings life. Second, they had constructed containers to catch water but that didn’t work because they were broken. [Demonstrate]
Friends, we all have what could be called, “Broken Cistern Syndrome.” Actually, we’re born broken. Broken lives need more than broken cisterns.
Here’s the problem. Most of us try to pour activities or experiences into our lives hoping that they will satisfy our thirsty souls, not realizing that whatever we put in just runs out the bottom. We’re all hoping for something and hoping in someone.
When a container is cracked it can only hold a small amount of water that eventually becomes dirty and filled with disease.
What do we look to today to satisfy our thirst? What are people thirsty for? [Shout out] Here are some things that come to my mind – love, purpose, meaning, acceptance, significance, security and forgiveness.
Two articles about drug use in Livingston County appeared on the front page of last Sunday’s Pantagraph. I was saddened to read a 28-year-old woman’s story. In high school, she was involved in basketball, softball, volleyball and track. At 15, she was introduced to marijuana and alcohol—and everything changed. She writes: “I was trying to fit in with the crowd and the people who were using it. It made me feel like I had friends.”
After awhile the marijuana didn’t do it for her anymore. She tried heroin when she was 17 or 18 and was hooked at the outset. She described that time in her life: “…I didn’t care about anybody and I didn’t care about who I hurt. That drug was all that I wanted.” Did you know that Livingston County is considered a “heroin hotspot”?
Please understand that if you’re using drugs, I’m not trying to shame you. I understand because I used to drink heavily and smoked pot when I was in college.
What I am saying is this. No substance will satisfy your thirst. That’s why the buzz always wears off and you need another hit or another six-pack. Whatever you put in will run out. Friends, settle this today. Only a relationship with the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ can fill you up! Everything else will leak.
While not everyone has a substance problem, the Bible says that we all have a sin problem. We’re broken by our sinfulness and we try to satisfy that brokenness by pouring stuff into our lives, only to see it leak into the ground. And, because we’ve forsaken God, our sins have caused a deep divide between us and Him.
Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Our sins have separated us from God, leaving a chasm of chaos that is impossible to bridge on our own.
From the outside, this jar looks pretty nice. But if you get close enough you can see that it’s full of holes. Maybe you feel like you’re pretty messed up and everyone else has it all together. You’re not alone. We’ve all sinned because we’re all broken. If we could hear what people are really thinking, we’d be surprised…and we wouldn’t feel so alone.
True Confessions
Female 1: As I walked through the doors this morning, I looked around and saw people that seemed like they have it all together. I feel so uncomfortable. I can’t but wonder if they knew the life that I’ve really been living. It’s a small town you know. I drank so much last night I can’t even remember what happened. I want to make a change but I don’t know how.
Male 1: Coming into the high school this morning, I felt like such a hypocrite. I yelled at my kids on the way here for the umpteenth time. But when we walked in the doors, we all put on our “happy faces.” You know, loving parents and happy children? What am I doing to my children? My children are the walking wounded. I want to change that but how do I deal with my anger?
Female 2: When I came into the auditorium this morning, I was already feeling guilty. When I took that money out of the drawer at work I always intended to put it back. But now I’ve done it so many times. If I get caught, I’ll lose my job or worse. It’s like I’m trapped and don’t know how to get out.
Male 2: I’m sitting here trying to sing and be happy but all I can think about is what if my wife checks the history on the computer? Did I forget to erase it, again? I can’t stand the pain it causes her but I can’t seem to find my way out. If it’s true that Jesus rose from the grave and can do anything, then why can’t I stop looking at that stuff?
Young Female 3: I wore a long sleeve shirt today and mom asked why. What do I tell her? Do I pull up the sleeves to reveal the new scars? Do I make her feel like a failure again? It’s not her fault I’m not enough - not smart, pretty, or popular enough. It’s my fault. But I sit here smiling, like an idiot. I wonder what these people sitting around me would think if they saw my arms?
Young Male 3: My mom and dad told me that they were going to get divorced two nights ago. How can I have a Happy Easter? Whatever! I came here with my grandma and I just can’t seem to understand how this has anything to do with my life. I know it’s my fault they are splitting up. I haven’t been the best kid and getting suspended from school was probably the last straw. I lie, cheat, and fight with my sister. I feel like I want to die. My life is falling apart. What does Easter have to do with all this?
Healing Rain (video)
3. Cleansing Shower. Please don’t resist the cloudburst of God’s healing rain. No matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been, you can be washed with forgiveness because healing rain is falling down. Are you ready to soak your dry heart in God’s downpour? Did you notice that holy healing only comes for those who choose to come into it? [Walk into shower] You won’t be satisfied until the Savior washes your sins away.
I don’t really get very dirty in my present job but I sure did when I was younger when I would help my dad cut down trees and split wood in the middle of the summer. I loved taking long showers after a long day like that. When I went to Biloxi with our church I got pretty dirty – I didn’t do much work but I got dirty nonetheless. I couldn’t wait to get back to the church where we were staying in order to take a shower. Last summer when we went to Mexico and worked at a Community Center we got really filthy. In fact, my jeans were so soiled by the end of the week and my shoes so dirty that I just left them there.
Friends, we’re all pretty dirty in a moral sense as well. In Psalm 51, King David, after committing a sexual sin and then the sin of murder, cried out in confession: “Wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin…cleanse me and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.” There’s not a person here that hasn’t had the desire to be washed clean from their moral dirt.
The Bible is very clear that it is only through the death of Christ on the cross that our sins can be forgiven – that’s what we remembered on Good Friday. He took all your moral mess-ups and your dirty deeds, along with the sins of the whole world on His shoulders. When he died, he assumed your sin and mine and paid the price for all that we’ve done wrong. But we must step into the shower and ask Him to wash away our sin.
I have a mound of moral dirt…and so do you. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. I love the song that Dan and Sandy sang earlier: “How far is the east from the west? From one scarred hand to the other. I know you’ve washed me white, turned my darkness into light. I need your peace to get me through, to get me through this night.”
How much longer are you going to go through life dirty and guilty before you get cleansed? You need a shower to wash off all your shame. You need a gulley of grace to get rid of all your guilt. Jesus is extending a cloudburst of forgiveness to you but you must receive the Savior before your sins can be as white as snow. Some of us need a shower so badly that we don’t even know what it’s like to be completely clean. We’ll give you a chance to do that in just a moment.
4. Living Water. This fourth visual shows a bubbling fountain, with water cascading from the Cross. One day Jesus sat down by a well and met a woman who was wounded and wandering. He asks her for some water to drink. She came to the well at noon instead of earlier in the day because the other women didn’t want to be around her. She was an outcast because of her sinful lifestyle. Jesus has a conversation with her about water, and as He reveals Himself, she finally understands herself. She thought she had hidden everything behind the curtain, but Jesus knew it all and loved her anyway. Her sin is just hanging in the air, dirty and foul and then Jesus offers to cleanse her in John 4:10: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
When she speaks of a well, she’s thinking of a cistern containing still and sometimes stagnant water. When Jesus talks about water, He is talking about a gushing, overflowing fountain of life. This woman has two problems. First, the water she is drawing is not very good water. The second is that that however much she drinks, she remains thirsty. None of her relationships have replenished her.
Like a dehydrated runner, she is shuffling and stumbling through life. The bitter disappointments, the poor decisions, the shattered dreams, the broken promises, the embarrassing moments, the constant gossip, and the endless shame have taken their toll and she’s shriveling inside. Not only is her body dehydrated, her soul is parched. Her thirst is unquenchable, that is, until she drinks of Jesus. (Note: Some of these ideas in this section are from Max Lucado).
Later, Jesus was at a religious celebration in which the people were taking part in an annual reenactment of a miracle in which a rock gushed out some water for Moses. In honor of their nomadic ancestors, the people slept in tents and in tribute to the amazing stream that appeared in the desert, they would pour out water on an altar for seven straight days.
On the last day of this festival, as water is being poured out on the parched ground (much like the scene from “The Three Amigos”), Jesus stood up and shouted these words in John 7:37-39: “‘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.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive…”
The invitation of Jesus stands today: “Are your insides starting to shrivel up? Are you parched for purpose in life? Then drink Me.” Like water, Jesus goes where we can’t. His Spirit satisfies by flushing our fears, dislodging our disappointments, and purifying what is putrid. Jesus makes this invitation to “anyone” who is thirsty. Are you anyone? If so, step up to the fountain because you qualify. Welcome Him into the inner workings of your life. Let Christ be the water of your soul.
When Jesus was raised from the dead, He appeared to hundreds of people who could verify the truthfulness of the Resurrection, and then He ascended into heaven. In His place He sent His Spirit so that life-giving water can flow in those who put their full faith in Him. Jesus uses a verb that suggests repeated swallows. Literally, “Let him come to me and drink and keep drinking.” Regular sips satisfy thirsty throats but first you must take a big gulp and receive Him into your life.
The water of the Spirit is flowing strongly and the question of the ages can be heard if you listen carefully: What will you do then, with Jesus who is called Christ? Will you try to wash your hands, or will you surrender to Him as your sin substitute?
It’s time to take a long drink of cool water. Some of you have parched throats and dehydrated hearts. His living water is free for the taking, regardless of who you are or what you’ve done. Do you have a deep dryness and a shriveled soul? It’s time to come thirsty, drink deeply and be fully satisfied.
The gift of grace is given without cost. In the next to the last chapter of the entire Bible, we read these words of Jesus: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6).
You’ve no doubt heard the phrase, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” That’s certainly true with our dog Charlie. There have been times when I thought he needed to take a drink and so I’ve tried to force his snout down into the water bucket. It doesn’t go over so well. [Show pictures]
Likewise, no one can force you to come to Christ but you need to know that He’s been sending His healing rain your whole life long. The question is whether you’re open to it. Will you stand under it? Will you receive it?
Water only works if you drink it and the Savior won’t save you from your sins unless you swallow Him. I know this to be true: You won’t be satisfied until the Savior washes your sins away.
This isn’t about the person you came with or about anyone around you right now. This is about you and God on Easter ’09. If you’re thirsty to know Him, will you stand under His healing rain? Will you admit that you’re morally dirty? Will you believe that Jesus died in your place and will you receive the shower that He offers you right now? Come and drink the free water of forgiveness.
If you’re thirsty for the forgiveness that comes from the death of Christ and you’re eager for the power to live a new life that results from the Resurrection, I want you to stand. If you’re ready to stop washing your hands of Jesus and instead you want Him to wash you, then please stand to mark the moment. If you realize that you’ve just been pouring stuff into your life only to have it leak right out, then stand and admit that it’s time to receive the shower of forgiveness so that your heart will be hydrated with living water.
God will deliver on this. He’s said it in the Bible. And that’s what Easter is all about. No matter what Newsweek says, millions of people all around the world have received the refreshing rain of God in their lives, and I’m one of them.
As you leave today, we want to give you a free bottle of water. On it you will find a verse from Revelation 22:17: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” It’s free…but you have to take it. If you want your thirst satisfied…you must come to Christ. If you want to be morally clean…you must allow God’s grace to rain on you.
Invitation Prayer
Lord, I admit that I’ve tried to wash my hands of you. I confess that as sin. I’ve turned my back on you. Not only that, I’ve been trying to satisfy my thirst in ways that are wrong. Please forgive me. I now step into the shower of your forgiveness and ask you to save me from my sins. I believe that you died as my sin substitute and I now receive you into my life. I’m thirsty and so now I come. May your streams of living water flow from within me, as I surrender to your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your grace that falls like rain. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Grace Like Rain
