All I Want Is Living Water
Introduction:
OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
In 1996, a young marine corporal named Joey Mora was standing on a platform of an aircraft carrier patrolling the Iranian Sea. Incredibly, he fell overboard. His absence was not known for 36 hours. A search and rescue mission began, but was given up after another 24 hours. No one could survive in the sea without even a lifejacket after 60 hours. His parents were notified that he was "missing and presumed dead."
The rest of the story is one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" events. Script writers would pass it up as "not believable." Four Pakistani fishermen found Joey Mora about 72 hours after he had fallen from the aircraft carrier. He was treading water in his sleep, clinging to a makeshift floatation device made from his trousers -- a skill learned in most military survival training. He was delirious when they pulled him into their fishing boat. His tongue was dry and cracked and his throat parched.
Just about two years later, as he spoke with Stone Philips of NBC Dateline, he recounted an unbelievable story of will to live and survival. Who would not give up? He said it was God who kept him struggling to survive. His discovery by the fishermen makes searching for a needle in a haystack a piece of cake. The most excruciating thing of all? Joey said that the one thought that took over his body and pounded in his brain was "Water!" [NBC Dateline: Nov. 1998]
Joey Mora was thirsty. His thirst was so powerful that it kept him alive as he waited for just a drink. Thirst is that "sensation of dryness in the mouth and throat associated with a desire for liquids." Thirst is that "bodily condition (as of dehydration) that induces this sensation." It is "a desire or need to drink." It is "an ardent desire." Thirst is a craving, a longing.
Our physical bodies are created to thirst when the balance of fluids is not right. Our bodies signal our brains and the craving begins, the thirst begins. Thirst extends our physical lives because it makes us drink. When we become thirsty our bodies will not be satisfied with just anything. Our bodies will continue to thirst for as long as there is a need. Our bodies will not be satisfied with less than what they need to find themselves in balance.
Thirst is a part of the human experience physically. There is also a spiritual thirst. In the Gospel of John the word thirst is found on the lips of Jesus five times.
He asks the woman at the well for a drink and then talks to her about thirst.
He talks to the crowd that He miraculously fed about thirst.
In the seventh chapter of John verses 37-39 it reads:
John 7:37-39
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
In this text the Lord Jesus speaks to us of our deepest thirst and how it can be satiated. There is something that only the Spirit of God can satisfy. There is a spiritual drive, a craving that only one thing will quench...
All I Want Is Living Water
BACKGROUND OF TEXT:
For seven days the Jews celebrated the Feast of the Tabernacles living in tents or booths (Deut. 16:13; Num. 29:12).
On the eighth day they had a solemn assembly (Num. 29:35; Lev. 23:36; Neh. 1:18). This eighth day was seen as symbolic of the entrance and establishment of the people in the land of Canaan. Abandoning their tents/booths they went in a procession to the temple and from there every one returned to his house.
It was then that the Lord spoke out and said "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink" (John 7:37).
The allusion to the water was due to the fact that during the Feast of Tabernacles, after the sacrifice, the people, led by a priest, went down from the temple to the fountain of Siloam, located almost next door. The priest filled a golden pitcher at this fountain and carried it through the streets amid joyful shouts of the crowd with the sound of symbols and trumpets.
During the jubilation, the people shouted the words of Isaiah 12:3, "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation."
This was a prophecy of the Messiah.
The Hebrew word for salvation is a word related to The Name Jesus--Salvation.
This was all emblematic of the pouring forth of water from the rock through which the people of the wilderness quenched their thirst (Ex. 17:6; Nu. 20:8, 10, 11; Deut. 8:15).
As He did with every moment of life the Lord Jesus took this as a teaching moment. He wanted the people to hear that He had arrived and He was setting in motion the New Covenant in which He would give the Living Water that would truly quench their spiritual thirst.
The words of this text reveal to us first of all that...
1. Everyone Has A Thirsty Heart
John 7:37a
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts. . .
The word "anyone" signifies that the call is universal. It is for anyone who can hear and ALL are thirsty.
Some are like children running in from play and telling their mother that they are hungry ready to consume something, anything, not knowing that their bodies are really craving life giving liquid. Many do not know what their inner longing is, but it is there.
Just as there is a natural thirst that propels us towards the preservation of physical life, there is a spiritual thirst that draws us towards Eternal Life. Our spiritual thirst can never be satiated by lesser things than Living Water.
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The soul's deepest thirst is for God Himself,
who has made us so that we can never be satisfied without Him.
F. F. Bruce
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The seventeenth century mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote that,
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man
which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator,
made known through Jesus Christ.”
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The Lord Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well:
"Everyone who drinks this water [the natural water of physical life--or the empty pleasure and pains of earthly life] will be thirsty again..." (John 4:13 NIV).
He acknowledged her thirst and the thirst of every human heart.
God created humanity to live in relationship with Him, to be sustained by Him. In the epic creation song of Genesis 1, God spoke to the essence of the thing he was creating in order to create and attach its life to:
When creating the land animals, He sang to the earth saturated by water. This planet is two-thirds water.
When He created the fish He cried out to to the waters. A fish without water is in trouble.
When He created the the birds, He spoke to the waters and the atmosphere so filled with water.
But, as He moved to the crescendo of creation, His most valued creature--humanity, He spoke to Someone outside of all that He had made. When He made humanity, He spoke to Himself.
The environment in which a fish can live is water. The environment upon which animals thrive is earth. Fowl thrive in the air. They all need God who sustains and feeds and satisfies all.
Psalm 145:16 NIV "You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing." He feeds the sparrow and clothes the lily. He sends forth springs of water to satiate the longing soul!
But, while humanity needs water, while he needs earth, He needs something more. While there are so many thirsts we share with all of God's creatures, humanity has a thirst that we experience in a way that the rest of creation cannot. We need God. Our environment is God. In Him we live and move and have our being. Humanity is more than the sum of his parts. Humanity is not just flesh and bones and sinews and chemicals and hormones and minerals. He has an immaterial life that is meant to drink from the wells of God's essence!
Oh, everyone has a thirsty heart. The only way to truly quench that thirst is to be in relationship with Him!
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“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy,
the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
(C. S. Lewis)
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Everyone who drinks at these wells will thirst again...
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"There is a deep dryness of the soul and all of the recalcitrant contrivances of man to quench his own thirst will bring not a single drop of moisture to those parched places, for God and God alone holds the water that satiates the soul."
Craig D. Lounsbrough
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So much of our world lives in a constant state of spiritual dehydration and shriveling. Often not knowing what they are thirsty for. There is a drive and a thirst that humanity has tried to quench with so many things. One lyricists said that:
Some people try to quench the thirst at the bottom of a bottleSome people sip a needle in their armSome people slurp the money in their pocketSome people try to find their thirst satisfied in another's arms
Some people try to quench it with blind ambitionSome people try to quench it where no one else has goneSome people try to quench it in the crowns of victorySome people get dehydrated and lose the strength to carry on...
Max Lucado says that we must be hydrated in our spirits as much as we need to be hydrated in our physical bodies. Physically, if we deprive our bodies of necessary fluid, our bodies will give us signals and tell us. Dry mouth, thick tongue, achy head, and weak knees are all symptoms of the fluid level growing low in our bodies. Max says it’s the same for our spirituality. “If you deprive your soul of spiritual water, your soul will tell you,” says Max. If you notice snarling tempers, waves of worry, growing guilt and fear, Max says those are all symptoms of a dehydrated spirit (https://www1.cbn.com/700club/max-lucado-satisfying-our-spiritual-thirst).
The racial tension in our nation is a symptom of spiritual dehydration.
At the turn of the century when the 20th century Pentecostal movement began to thrive at Azuza St. there were Latinos, and people of European descent, and African-Americans all worshiping together in equality. Women and men worshiping in harmony. William Seymour, an African-American was the leader. Frank Bartlemann wrote that with the outpouring of the Spirit, the color line was washed away in the blood! The most prominent writers and leaders of the early Oneness movement were Andrew Urshan, a Persian (Iranian) immigrant, Frank Ewart, a Canadian missionary to Australia (an immigrant), and an African-American Holiness pastor whose songs we love, who pastored a multi-ethnic interracial congregation in Indiana, Christ Temple-- (the descendant of slaves) the Reverend G. T. Haywood. The heritage of Pentecostals is one in which there is no male nor female, there is no black or white, but Christ is all and in all!
What our nation needs is a genuine baptism of the Holy Ghost to quench the spiritual dehydration that has spun us into a regressive society. A society where some in authority do not respect the lives of ALL those they are supposed to protect and serve. A thirsty society. A society where looters and rioters have no regard for the property of others. We need an outpouring of the Spirit! Our nation is thirsty! Oh, its thirsty... When nation is rising up against nation... there is a thirst. There is a groaning. Creation is looking to its Maker from the parched deserts of lost souls longing for a latter rain! We need an outpouring of the Spirit. When hate is trying to drive out hate, we need the thunderheads to form. When darkness is trying to drive out darkness, we need to hear the sound of an abundance of rain! We need your Spirit, Lord!
Send it, Lord!
Racism is a symptom of a deeper problem. The problem is the thirsty hearts of fallen humanity!
Send the rain, Lord! Send the rain! The early and the latter rain together. I'm not talkin' bout the whether!
PRAYER:
Would you take a moment and pray that God would pour out His Spirit upon our nation! Upon our communities! In our homes!
ILLUSTRATION:
In the fourth century Augustine of Hippo invented a new genre of literature. He wrote the first autobiography. Most autobiographies are written in the fifth decade of life, in the 40s--middle age. During that place where one can stand as it were in the middle of the road of life and look back on the first half and survey what has brought them to the place where they are presently. Autobiographies also have a dimension of looking ahead and asking what one wants to do with the second half of their life! Augustine's first half of life had been spent searching for something to satisfy the thirst in his soul. But, in his second half the One who has the well of Living Waters found Him and Augustine wrote in his Confessions:
“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
(Augustine of Hippo, Confessions)
He realized that everyone has a thirsty heart, everyone! And he determined that he would find himself drinking from the well of salvation!
2. There Is A Well Where We Can Quench Our Thirst
John 7:37b-38
...let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
God has always had a way of providing for the thirsty in the driest of places. In His love He:
Opened the eyes of Hagar when she could not bear to see the death of Ishmael. She saw a well that she did not know was there.
In His love, God brought hidden water from a rock to quench the thirst of His grumbling people in the wilderness.
God does not give us thirst and no way to satisfy it. He is intimately involved in saturating our thirst.
God is so involved that before He could satisfy our thirst He became thirsty. Jesus, the Man, said "...if anyone is thirsty let Him come to Me and drink..."
The Lord Jesus shared in our common humanity. When he sat on the well in John 4 at high noon waiting to speak to a thirsty Samaritan woman, He was weary with His journey. And... He was thirsty. He was physically thirsty. He knows thirst.
Two times in the Gospel of John we find the Lord asking someone for a drink.
The Samaritan woman must have thought it strange that day as Jesus spoke to her. He made Himself vulnerable. He presented her with His need. As He asked her for a drink she did not really understand the Divine Exchange that He was offering!
Oh, Jesus will never ask you for anything that you are looking to quench your thirst that He will not give you infinitely more! He asked for a drink--a cup. But He offered her a well! A well of Living Water that she could carry with her everywhere she went. A Source that she could find herself continually drinking from! A Source that she could not find in all of her relationships!
Give Him a cup and He will give you The Well!
He took upon Himself our Humanity in order that He might give us an opportunity to partake of His divinity!
She was thirsty! She thought she knew what she was thirsty for. She tried to reason theology with Jesus and He affirmed the Truth, but took everything to a whole nother level, by telling her that there was a Well that is not found merely in temples made with hands. Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost!!!
If anyone thirsts, let him, let her, come to Me and drink...
He has what you are looking for. He is what you are looking for!
When Jesus asked the woman to go and call her husband, she said that she did not have a husband. Jesus admitted that she was right. She had had five husbands, but told her that the man she was living with at that moment was not her husband. She was on relationship number six and still thirsty! Number seven--the perfect one--the number of rest was sitting on the well saying, here is what you have been looking for!
He was thirsty, so that He could quench her thirst!
In the other place in John's Gospel where Jesus asks for a drink, it is as He hangs dehydrated upon the cross. All the intensity of the the prayers, the crying, the beatings, the trials, the intense suffering of His passion had left Him parched and dry. His work was now complete and...
John 19:38
After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
Jesus was identifying with us to the fullest extent even in the primordial thirst of flesh and Spirit. He knows what suffering in like. He knows what it is like to thirst for righteousness...
Charles Spurgeon observed of Jesus shortest cry from the cross:
"The sea is His, and He made it," and all fountains and springs are of his digging. He poureth out the streams that run among the hills, the torrents which rush down the mountains, and the flowing rivers which enrich the plains. One would have said, If He were thirsty He would not tell us, for all the clouds and rains would be glad to refresh His brow, and the brooks and streams would joyously flow at His feet. And yet, though He was Lord of all he had so fully taken upon Himself The Form of A Servant and was so perfectly made in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He cried with fainting voice, "I thirst." How truly man he is ...
--Charles Spurgeon The Shortest of the Seven Cries
That day on the cross, His work has been completed. All of the prophecies in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms had been fulfilled to that point. He had thirsted as we thirst. Oh, not only the physical thirst, but He experienced the deep spiritual thirst that we all do. Most scholars believe that Jesus was referring to Psalm 69:21b by saying, "I thirst."
The writer of Hebrews said this of Jesus becoming Man:
Hebrews 5:7-9
7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; 8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
He became thirsty, so that we could be filled. What was He doing as He hung there thirsting? He was becoming a Well!
Isaiah 12:3
Therefore with joy we will draw waters out of the well of Salvation!
When He cried out that day if you are thirsty come to Me and drink. They had just cried out Isaiah's words in 12:3.
The Hebrew word for Salvation in Isaiah 12:3 is Yeshua--Jesus!
The Well where we can quench our thirst is Jesus! He is the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit!
3. You Can Drink Today
John 7:39
39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
On that feast day Jesus was speaking prophetically. He was welcoming anyone to come to Him and drink. He was inviting everyone to believe on Him. He was promising to be the Well that transplants Wells into every human life, but it was before the moments we read about in our last point.
God's Spirit has always been at work in the world. In the opening verses of Genesis we read of the Spirit of God moving over the face of the waters.
The Spirit of the Lord anointed Bezalel to build the furniture for the tabernacle. The Spirit of the Lord moved Samson and came upon him to defeat the Philistines. The Spirit of the Lord clothed Himself with Gideon. The Spirit of the Lord came upon David. The Spirit of the Lord was in the OT prophets. The Spirit of the Lord has always been at work in the world.
But, Jesus said that those who believe on Him would have the Spirit in a way that had never been experienced before. He told the disciples in John 14 that He was with them, but He would be in them! That the Holy Spirit would come and lead and guide them into all truth. That even in His physical absence that He would be with them Spiritually. He would satisfy their thirst.
The Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. In John's Gospel glorification has to do with Jesus death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
The Well was not opened yet that day when Jesus stood and cried, but He wanted them to know that it would be soon.
Today is Pentecost Sunday. On this day churches all across the world remember the birthday of the church. It happened 2000 years ago.
After Jesus resurrection, he spent forty days teaching His disciples the things that were contained in the Law, Prophets, and Psalms about Himself. He appeared to them multiple times and showed Himself to be alive by many infallible proofs. Then He left them with a promise. He said, you have been walking with Me all this time, and the entire creation has been thirsty for even longer.
He told them to go and wait in Jerusalem until they were endue with power from Heaven. He promised them that it was finally time for the Well of Heaven to be open to all.
They waited and prayed,
1And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The Well was opened on the Jewish feast day of Pentecost. It is the traditional day that Jews believe that God gave the Law to Moses and instituted the Old Covenant. God is always so ordered in His methods. On the day of Pentecost the disciples and apostles and Jesus's family members all received the Holy Ghost--the Well was opened--from their innermost being Living Waters flowed! And they spoke in other tongues as the Spirit gave them the supernatural ability! God was saying, "I live her now! This is my temple! This is not dry ground anymore!" The thirst of humanity was being quenched.
In Acts 8 the Samaritans had the same experience. Oh, I wonder if that woman finally got a drink of the Living Water?
A lone Ethiopian eunuch had the same expeience!
In Acts 9 the apostle Paul had the same experience.
In Acts 10 non-Jewish people who loved God to the best of their knowledge had the same experience.
In Acts 19, the apostle Paul found a group of believers who had never received the Holy Spirit. He asked them how they were baptized. They had been disciples of John the baptist. They had forgotten the message of John. He said that the One coming after him would baptize those who believed in Him with the Holy Spirit. He would quench their thirst! When Paul laid hands on them, they received the Holy Spirit and spoke in other tongues, just like those on the day of Pentecost. They had their own Pentecost!
Its Pentecost Sunday! If you have never received the Holy Spirit, today is your day. Its the first day of in-person worship. You are thirsty! You will be filled!
In the closing verses of the Bible. In the book of Revelation we read about a throne. A throne on which sits One who is both Lord God and Lamb. Oh, I believe that throne is the fountain, it is the Well. Jesus died and took your sins upon Him. He took your thirst that He might give you Living Water!
Revelation 22:17
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Matthew 5:6
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Isaiah 47:17
When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
The River of Life flows from the throne of the Lord God and the Lamb. You live on this side of Calvary!
The baptism of the Holy Ghost is for everyone! It was not just for the apostles or the Apostolic church, but it is for everyone who believes in Jesus.
Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?
When was the last time you spoke in other tongues? When was the last time you built up your most Holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost? You've got a Well inside that will not run dry! Spring up oh Well! Stir up the gift that is in you! Its Pentecost Sunday!
Don't worry about not making your way to the altar area. The Holy Ghost fell on the Day of Pentecost where they were sitting. It fell in the house of Cornelius while they were listening to Peter preach. The Spirit fell upon the Ethiopian eunuch as he came up out of the waters of baptism. The Holy Spirit is in your home right now! He is with you at your seat.
CLOSING:
YOU NEED NOT GO ON WITH THIRST
It is said that some years ago a vessel sailing on the northern coast of the South American continent was observed to make signals of distress. When hailed by another vessel, they reported themselves as "Dying for water!"
"Dip it up then," was the response. "You are in the mouth of the Amazon river."
There was fresh water all around them, and they had nothing to do but to dip it up, and yet they were dying of thirst because they thought themselves surrounded by sea water.
People are often ignorant of God and without His Word. How sad that they should perish for lack of knowledge!
- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Quotable Spurgeon, (Wheaton: Harold Shaw Pub Inc, 1990)
The well is here! Don't leave thirsty!
Zechariah 13:1
In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
Receive ye the Holy Ghost! All I want is Living Water!
