Are you thirsty?
Are you looking forward to your cup of tea after the meeting? When we are physically thirsty, our bodies need one thing – water. All our drinks, our tea, our coffee, our coca-cola, our orange juice, are basically just coloured and flavoured water. It is the water that our bodies need. Over half of our body is made of water. When our water levels start getting low and we need a drink, sensors in our brains pick up rising salt, urea and creatinine levels in our blood, and we feel thirsty. If we do not take the water that we need we get thirstier and thirstier, and eventually our cells start shrivelling up and then we die. Drinking petrol or cooking oil will not satisfy, nor any other non-water containing liquid.
But thirst does not have to be physical, it can occur whenever we have a deep desire or need for something. It can be a thirst for riches, for fame, success in a given field, attention, love. It can be a spiritual thirst when we know that there is a desire and need deep within our souls for something that we know cannot be provided by our physical and material world. It might even be a spiritual craving – when our whole being seems to be screaming out for something and it occupies all our thoughts and energy, when all that we are and all that we can be seems to be focussed on getting that which we thirst for.
I hope that we are here today because we are spiritually thirsty, craving for that peace, satisfaction, joy and fulfilment that all the fashions, fads, prosperity, riches and fame that this world has to offer cannot give. If so Christ has a message for us:-
John 7:37
If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
KJV
Are you thirsty? The drink that Jesus offers us is the Holy Spirit.
What is it that we thirst for?
Christ offers satisfaction for our thirst. But to be satisfied by it, we have to be thirsty for the right thing. If you are physically thirsty your cup of tea after the meeting will quench your thirst for a while, but a cup of bleach will not.
Today is Pentecost Sunday when we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. We heard this morning how He came with power on the gathered believers, how he gave them gifts and special abilities. How he showed His almighty power on that day. We also know that he still comes to His Church, that he gives us believers gifts, some gifts of healing, some of talking in tongues, some of prophecy, or teaching, of abilities and powers to carry out many different ministries within the Church. The coming of the Holy Spirit is certainly very exciting.
Sometimes people come to the Army or another Church on Pentecost craving and thirsting to see God work in power or to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is all very good and right. We are told in 1 Corinthians 12:31 and 14:1 that we should desire and crave for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We should long to see God move in power, to see people brought to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But what is it that should be our primary thirst? What is it that we need above all else? Psalm 42 gives us a clue. It is not wonderful powerful gifts or dramatic manifestations. It is quite simple:-
Ps 42:1-2
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:
KJV
It is simply God himself. He made us for himself. For fellowship with him through his Spirit. That is what we were designed for. That is a need as basic to a human being as water or food. That is why humans throughout all continents and centuries have invented religions, in an instinctive drive to find that fellowship with the Holy Spirit that comes from the only true God and his Son. The devil has taken advantage of this instinct and led many astray in false religions.
Yes, it is wonderful when we see God’s power, when his Holy Spirit gives us His gifts. But our basic need is fellowship and friendship with him.
Let’s listen to Christ again. As the crowd in the temple on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles watched water being poured out by the priests in memory of the water that God brought out of a rock for the Israelites in the wilderness to drink and as they remembered the promise of the prophet Isaiah that they should joyfully draw water from the well of salvation, he stood up and said:-
John 7:37-39
If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
John then explained what he meant:-
39(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
KJV
It is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit that satisfies our thirst. It is the Spirit himself that we should be thirsting and craving for.
I have got a cousin called Roger. Roger is quite a few years older than me, probably about twenty – or more (he has now got three grandchildren!). When I was a little boy I always used to like to go and visit Roger and his mum, my Aunty Ruby, because he always used to give me something, normally money, 10p – which was a decent sum of money for a kid in those days, particularly one like me who would never spend any money and just liked to horde it (Rhonda says that I am still the same today). I would always look forward to visits to their house. But was I looking forward to seeing Roger, or was I looking forward to getting 10p? Did I want Roger – or did I want his money? I am not sure, but I do think that sometimes I was pleased to be going on a visit because I wanted some money!
There is a real danger that we can be like that with the Holy Spirit. We can thirst after His power, crave after His gifts, but not really want Him for Himself. In that case we would not be thirsting for what Christ offers us. We would not be thirsting for what we spiritually need which is fellowship with our creator. We could be searching and seeking and thirsting for our own egos to be massaged and strengthened, for others to look at us and think that we are good or somehow because we have these gifts. Or perhaps it is to make us feel good about ourselves. Maybe we are desiring the gifts or the power of the Holy Spirit for our own benefit, not for the benefit of the Church or the kingdom of God for which the gifts are intended and designed to be of benefit.
But here Christ gives a corrective to that. If we thirst spiritually and come to him and him alone, he will give us the Holy Spirit who will satisfy. That promise is clear. But to come to him we need to be thirsty. We need to come to him to drink because we have a deep need and thirst for that which will satisfy. We need to thirst for the Holy Spirit because we want the Holy Spirit, because we desire Christ, whose Spirit he is, not because we want Him to do things for us, or to give us gifts or displays of his power.
The results of drinking
Although Christ calls only those who thirst for him and his spirit, he promises to satisfy the thirst of everyone who comes to him – no matter who, no matter from what background, no matter what lifestyle they have previously lived. If you are thirsty, then come to Christ and he will give you living water to drink – his Holy Spirit who will satisfy and quench your spiritual thirst.
But he promised more than that, wonderful though it is. Although we should come to him because we want him, not because we want what he will give us, he does promise to give us more than spiritual satisfaction and thirst quenching. He promises us that if we drink his living water, that is receive his Holy Spirit that he promises to give to all who come to him for it, the living water shall start flowing out of us as well, like a never ending stream, continuously being renewed by Christ. Others will be drawn to Christ by seeing and tasting the living water flowing out of us.
Of course he does not mean that real water would flow out of us, that everything we touch or come near would become wet, but what he did mean was that all that we do, everywhere we go, will be blessed by him. That in all our doings, whether we are preaching or whether we are going about our day-to-day lives, will impart something of Christ and the joys of his salvation to the people we meet and the situations that we are in. That is a direct result of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let us thirst for that. Unlike some forms of craving for gifts that is not a thirsting for our own benefit and glory, but a thirsting for the glory of Christ, a thirsting for the joy of the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
Pentecost is when we remember God’s gift of his Spirit to the Church as a whole and also to the lives of individual believers. When mankind was restored to the fellowship and friendship with God that was lost as a result of sin. The only way we can get this Spirit is through Christ, the Son of God – he will give it to anyone who comes to him. When the Spirit comes to us, he gives us gifts – it is important to be open to them and not to spurn what he has to offer. But above all thirst for the giver, thirst for the Holy Spirit himself, thirst for that tremendous fellowship with your creator and mine that he will bring. He will satisfy our deepest longings. Thirst for Him, and then accept his gifts. In that order.
