Quenching Spiritual Thirst

“Quenching Spiritual Thirst”

John 4:6-18

02/10/08

by

Dcn. Chris Nerreau

INTRODUCTION: May the words of my lips and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in thy sight, giving praise, glory and honor to Your name our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen!

Thirst is an amazing thing, it is the sign that we need refreshing, that something is wrong and it requires our attention and that our bodies are suffering. Actually doctors say that if you wait until you are thirsty to get a drink, you have waited to long! With this said…

I want to begin today by asking you a question – Have you ever been thirsty before? Not just a little thirsty, I mean so thirsty that you could barely breath? I mean so thirsty that your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth? That kind of thirsty…

ILLUSTRATION: I can remember not to long ago experiencing this, I think it was last summer actually. I had fallen asleep with a very stuffy nose, as such I was breathing out of my mouth. Unfortunately, I forgot that there was a fan blowing directly on my face, slowly drying out my mouth and throat. I think it was about 1 or 2 am before it actually woke me up, I thought it was a nightmare, I felt like I could not breathe, my throat was so dry that when I tried to get a drink from the sink in the bathroom, I could barely swallow the water at first. Heck, I am getting thirsty now just thinking about it! Now I understand that, that is a radical case of thirst, but I think you have probably felt something at least close to this in your life.

The reason I am discussing thirst is because today, in our passage, Jesus deals with a similar problem to that of physical thirst, He deals with spiritual thirst. My guess is that many people’s souls are like a sponge that has sat out in the sun all day! They are thirsty for God!

One of the unique things about thirst is that by being thirsty, we presuppose that somewhere there is something to quench our thirst and we look for it until we find it. The same is true with spiritual thirst!

PROPOSITION: If you are thirsty for more of God, then you are presupposing that there is a way to quench that thirst! You presuppose that somewhere out there God has a way to quench your thirst for Him!

ORIENTATION: So in today’s sermon, I want to look at this a little more closely as we see:

1. Who Is Thirsty

2. Why We Are Thirsty

3. How We Quench Spiritual Thirst

TRANSITION: So if you would open your Bible to John 4:6, we will begin by looking at..

I. Who Is Thirsty?

EXPLAINATION:

• The first question I want to look at as we consider spiritual thirst is – “Who is thirsty?”

• In the gospel of John, John makes the statement – “But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

As such, John had to chose carefully the stories he included in his gospel.

Today there are two stories John included (back to back) that help us to define those who are thirsty for God:

A. The Story Of Nicodemus – John 3:1-15

a. Ruler of the Jews

b. He knew who he was

c. Socially A Prominent Figure

d. A Religious Zealot

e. Upper Class and Wealthy

f. Highly educated

g. Zealous about keeping the law of God

h. He sought out Christ under the cover of darkness

i. YET HE WAS THIRSTY

B. The Story Of The Woman At The Well – John 4:6-15

v. 6-7 “It was about the sixth hour… There came a woman of Samaria…”

a. Sixth Hour – This would be high noon, the rest of the woman would go early as a group, she was an outcast and alone.

b. A Woman – Strictly forbidden for a Rabi to greet a woman in public

c. A Samaritan – An enemy of the Jews, Outsider

v. 9 “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans…” A Religious Zealot

d. She knew who she was as well

v. 18 “For you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband…”

a. She was an overt sinner

Interpretation – (v. 13, 14)

• It is likely that John selected these two stories and placed them side by side (chapter 3&4) to give us a contrast of those who thirst for God.

• John in effect demonstrates that EVERYONE is thirsty for God!

o From the rich, upper class, prominent people