If Youre Thirsty, Go to Jesus

(John 7:37-39)

I. Introduction.
A. Orientation.
During the month of October,
We had the opportunity
To look again at the great honor
Our Lord gives us in His kingdom
That we might be His ambassadors
That we may go to others as His representatives
To tell them how they can be reconciled to God
Through His Son, Jesus Christ.

We saw how to do this

By sharing with them
The simple message of the Gospel:
Believe in the Lord Jesus,
And you shall be saved (Acts 16:31);
By bringing them into the fellowship of the church
If they receive Him;
And by discipling them
By teaching them to know Him
And to worship Him with their lives.

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We saw that we should be ready at all times
And in all places
To share that message
If were not ready,
We may miss one of those precious opportunities
The Lord gives us
Perhaps the only one well ever have
With that particular person
And the only opportunity theyll ever have
To hear about Gods love for sinners
And His willingness to be reconciled to them
Through His Son.

And weve seen where the power to do this comes from

Not from us
Well never find the kind of power we need
From our own resources
But from the Holy Spirit.

This is something Im hoping

The Lord will give us the opportunity
To explore even further this evening.

B. Preview.
This morning,

We see something else

We need to be aware of
As we evangelize
Something Jesus has already told us
And that John seems to emphasize
More than any of the other Gospel writers
And that is the work of the Holy Spirit
In bringing men, women and children to Himself.

We see now the Feast of Booths coming to a close.

Jesus has been at the Feast,
Teaching publicly at the Temple,
Doing many signs,
And many were beginning to believe in Him
Though there were still many who didnt
And who wanted to kill Him.

On the last day, Jesus stands

Realizing that the people are about to leave
And go back to their homes,
Realizing this may be the last time
Many there may see or hear Him
And gives a Gospel invitation:
Is anyone is thirsty, come and drink.

Lets consider three things from this:

1. Why does He give the invitation in this way?
2. What was Jesus actually saying?
3. What must be true of you before you can receive what Jesus offers?

II. Sermon.
A. First, lets consider why He gives the invitation in this way.
God originally instituted the Feast of Tabernacles
To remind His people of two things:
Of how He took care of their fathers
As they wandered for many years in the wilderness
After He brought them out of Egypt;
And how He graciously fulfilled His promise
To bring them into the land
He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
The land He blessed with fruitfulness.

To make it more memorable,

The Lord had them live
In makeshift tabernacles or booths
Or what we might call lean-tos or tents.

This gives us a striking illustration

Of what our lives are in this world:
Our bodies are just that

Just lean-tos, tents,

That are only meant to last for a very brief time
Before we move to our permanent homes.
Were all going to leave this world
Perhaps sooner than we think
The question is, Are you ready?

The Jews lived in these lean-tos for seven days,

But on the eighth day,
There was a Sabbath
A day of rest
And a holy convocation
All the people were gathered together for worship.
We read in Leviticus 23:36, On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation
and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is an assembly. You shall do no
laborious work (Lev. 23:34-36).

They made several sacrifices each day of the feast:

Thirteen bullocks were offered the first day,
And one less each following day
Until seven were sacrificed on the seventh day
For a total of seventy
Along with other sacrificial animals on each day.
According to the tradition of the Jews,
These bullocks were for the seventy nations of the world,

To make atonement,
That the Lord might be gracious to them.

But on eighth day, only one was offered (Num. 29:36)

And this, the Jews understood,
To be for their own nation
Thats what made it special.

They later included two other ceremonies

They would light lamps at night in the Temple
To remember how the Lord
Led them through the wilderness
By the pillar of fire by night;
And they would draw water from pool of Siloam
The same pool Jesus will later send the blind man
That he might wash and see (John 9)
And pour it out on the altar
To remind them of how the Lord
Provided water from the rock at Sinai.
Gill writes, And this ceremony, they say, is a tradition of Moses from Mount
Sinai, and refers to some secret and mysterious things; yea, they plainly say, that
it has respect to the pouring forth of the Holy Ghost.
And as the water was poured out,
They would sing Isaiah 12:3,
Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation.

It was on this last day

Presumably as this water was being poured out
That Jesus stood and gave this invitation:
If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the
Scripture said, From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water (vv.
37-38).
Here is the invitation.
B. But second, what was Jesus actually saying?
Much the same thing He said
To the woman of Samaria:
Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the
water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him
will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life (John 4:13-14).
Jesus is the only One who can save you.
And the Spirit He has to give is the only One
Who can really satisfy you.
John writes in verse 39, But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed
in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not
yet glorified.

Water is often used in Scripture

As a symbol of the Holy Spirit
Likely because He alone has the ability
Not only to create
But to quench the thirst for spiritual things.
And its only through the work Jesus did

That you can receive this Spirit.

I already mentioned
That the ceremonial pouring out of the water
On the last day of the Feast,
That the Jews understood
As a symbol of the future outpouring of the Spirit,
Came from that time in the wilderness wanderings
When the Lord provided water from the rock.

The Lord actually intended that event

To teach them this very lesson.

In Exodus 17, we read, Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed
by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the LORD,
and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink.
Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, Give us water that we may
drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you
test the LORD? But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled
against Moses and said, Why, now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill
us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried out to the
LORD, saying, What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone
me. Then the LORD said to Moses, Pass before the people and take with you
some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you
struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at
Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the
people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel (vv. 16).

The Lord said He would stand before Moses

That is, the pre-incarnate Son of God,
The Shepherd of Gods people,

Who would later become man.

He would stand on the rock

That He commanded Moses to strike
So that when Moses struck the rock
With the rod of Gods judgment
(The one he had used to strike the Nile
And turn the water into blood),
It would pass through Him,
And in a certain sense, strike Him.

And when Moses would strike the rock

Water would gush out to provide for His people.
What did this mean?
When the rod of Gods judgment
Would fall on Jesus on the cross,
He would open a floodgate of grace
And make the way for the Spirit
To be poured out on His people.

The Lord further taught them

That He would be struck only once
That He would die only once.
The next time the Lord provided water from the rock,

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He told Moses to speak to the rock.
Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and
speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus
bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their
beasts drink (Num. 20:8).
Sadly, because Moses was angry at Gods people,
He struck the rock again, instead of speaking to it;
And for his sin,
He was not allowed to enter the Promised Land (Num. 20:11-12).

Now that Jesus has died and risen again,

All you need to do is ask
As He said to the Samaritan women,
If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, Give Me a drink, you
would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water (John 4:10).

Just so you understand

That this isnt some kind of imaginative interpretation,
Paul writes to the Corinthians,
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the
cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the
cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same
spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed
them; and the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:1-4).

Jesus is saying,
If you want that which alone
Can really satisfy your deepest need,
Then you must come to Him and ask.

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C. Finally, what must be true of you before you can receive what Jesus offers?
Jesus tells us in verse 37, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
You must be thirsty.

Theres an old saying,

You can lead a horse to water, but you cant make him drink.
Why not?
If he isnt thirsty,
Hes not going to be interested in water.
If youre already satisfied with what you have,
You wont want any more or anything different.

The same thing is true

With regard to the Gospel:
You can lead someone to Christ
You can share the simple message
Of what Jesus has done to save sinners.
You can tell them they need to trust Him,
To turn from their sins and follow Him,
But theyre not going to do it,
Unless they want to
Unless theyre thirsty,
Unless they feel their need.

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Is this something you can give them?

Not really.
Its the work of the Holy Spirit.
This is that element I told you about at the beginning
That John seems to focus on in Jesus ministry
That isnt emphasized as much in the other Gospels.

You cant give them this thirst

But the Spirit can use you to create it.

One thing He can use is apologetics.

Sometimes He works through arguments
That show more clearly that God exists
To awaken those who are comfortable
To create some concern for their souls.

Sometimes He works through the Law

To convict them of sin,
To show them what their sins deserve,
To make them afraid.

Sometimes He works through conscience

To do the same.

At other times,

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He may work through the promises of the Gospel
Particularly through the revelation
Of Gods love in Jesus Christ.

These are some of the things

He uses to awaken those without Christ
To their need of Him
And so anything you can share
Of these things with others
Can be useful to move them
In the right direction.

But dont forget,

The Spirit works most directly
Through the Gospel itself
What Jesus did to save sinners;
The invitation to come to Him;
The call to faith and repentance.
This is what He makes powerful to save
This is the message He uses
To create that thirst
That will bring them to Jesus.

Make sure that whatever else

You tell those youre trying to evangelize,

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That you tell them the Gospel

The Spirit will do the rest.
He will create that thirst
When and where He wills.
And be sure, He will in some.

When Jesus stood up at the Feast,

And issued this invitation,
He knew not all would come,
But He knew some would
Those the Father gave Him.
When you share the Gospel,
There will be some who come as well.

Finally, what about those of you here

Who havent come?
Why havent you?
You havent because you dont want to
Because you arent thirsty,
Because youve found something else
To meet that need.

The god of this world

Will always provide things

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To keep you happy and content.
And as long as he does,
And as long as youre satisfied
With what he provides,
You wont come to Christ.

Just remember,
Whatever it may be now,
Or whatever it may be in the future,
It will never satisfy
It cant, because its limited
The fun will wear off
And youll move on to something else
You know you will,
Because you already have.

But Jesus will never grow old,

He will satisfy you
From now until the end of time.
He can because He is unlimited.
The one who comes to Him will never thirst.
If you trust in Him,
You will have within you
A river of living water.

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Remember too, that these things

Are a poor substitute for Jesus
They wont help you on the Day
When you will stand before God
The only thing that will help you then is Jesus.

If the Lord has shown you this is true this morning

If He has created a thirst in you by His Holy Spirit
Then come to Him,
Take hold of Him by faith,
Let Him fill you with His Spirit
The only One who can truly satisfy you
And know He will keep you safe
Not only in this life,
But when it matters most
In the life to come. Amen.

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