Title: Thirst for Your
Savior
By Pastor Lohn Johnson
|
||||
Text: John
7:37 On the last and
greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me
and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,
streams of living water will flow from within him." 39 By
this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to
receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not
yet been glorified.
INTRODUCTION: My dear
friends in Christ, Thirst is something
we have all experienced. Maybe not
quite like this, but it does make a point for us: [Video: Three Amigos –
dying of thirst scene] In a way those
three Amigos represent how we handle our thirst, which we will see in a
minute.
|
||||
I.
Jesus understood the importance of drinking
water. He cried, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” Now notice that Jesus does not simply say,
“Come to Me and drink.” He says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come...”
|
||||
|
A. Our human body is designed in such a way that it
needs water even when we are not aware that we need it. Anyone can feel thirsty after working out
in the hot sun. We drink a lot of
water very quickly at such times. But
when we’re not perspiring, not out working hard, our body deceives us. It still needs water, but we are not
thirsting for it, and so it’s easy to go through the day without stopping at
all to grab a glass of water. The same
is true of us in a spiritual sense. Jesus has the only water that quenches
our thirst spiritually. We need Jesus,
the Water of Life. So often we aren’t aware of this or ignore this fact.
|
|||
|
1. But much of the world doesn’t even
know about spiritual thirst at all.
And there is much thirst out there. The world is devoid of grace and
dying of sin—that’s thirst.
|
|||
|
a. Too often,
however, the thirst goes unnoticed. The world has no Promised Land to look
forward to, so it does its best to make the desert look like paradise. To make the desert look inviting, the world
produces idols like materialism, promiscuity, and selfishness, in order to
make this wilderness seem like paradise. But none of these things offer
eternal life. There is great thirst, and the world is dying as it seeks to
make the most of itself. This may be like the Martin Short Amigo, who only
got dirt out of his canteen.
b. And the world
often goes further than merely dying of thirst. The world contends with God
and shows contempt for His salvation. Christ and Christianity are seen more
and more as politically incorrect and the white man's imposition on the
world, while the Gospel is held in contempt. People look anywhere for
salvation but to the Savior as they place their hope in false gods, their own
works or inner meditations. The thirst is great, and sadly many are
dying.
|
|||
|
B. And even among
Christians, who were raised on the living Christ, get into the habit of
drinking less and less of Christ here, so that many weeks and months go by
and they are not even aware that their eternal soul is dying of thirst. We may become like Steve Martin’s Amigo –
only a drip of water which can be reduced to dust.
|
|||
|
1. We can
even become a lot like this:
A
wealthy family from Massachusetts used to take a month’s vacation every
summer to the coast of Maine, taking their maid with them. The maid had an
annual ritual at the beach. She wore an old-fashioned bathing suit, complete
with a little white hat, and carried enough paraphernalia to stock Wal-Mart.
She would settle herself on the beach, cover every inch of her exposed flesh
and journey down to the water’s edge. There she would hesitate while taking
deep breaths and working up her courage to enter the icy-cold water. Finally,
she would daintily extend one foot and lower it slowly into the water until
she barely had her big toe submerged. Then she repeated the act with the
other foot. Then, having satisfied her minimal urge for a swim, she would
retreat to her chair and umbrella and spend the remainder of the vacation
curled around a book.
I’m afraid that may be a parable of our partaking of the water of
Christ. We come to the point where we
touch our toe to the water and flee, going back to being oblivious among our
distractions.
|
|||
|
2. But Jesus does not just love His Christians who
faithfully drink of Him. He also loves those who are not very thirsty. He loves those who don’t know they thirst,
too. And He does not want any to die of thirst apart from Him. And so Jesus does something wonderful for
us. We may not think that it’s too
wonderful, but it is. He allows us to become thirsty.
The hot sun can drive a person to his bottle of water. So Jesus allows His Christians who are not
feeling much of a thirst for Him to become parched and dried out from
troubles, pain, and suffering. He
allows such problems to come into our lives so that we thirst for our Lord in
ways that we were not thirsting before we had troubles. He also works to bring those who don’t know
they thirst to realize their thirst, often in the same way.
|
|||
|
a. Just as any
good father does not shelter his son from hard work, or from the sweat, and
aching muscles, and the unbearable thirst that comes from such work, so God
does not keep troubles from coming to us, for without them we may not
thirst for His Word and Sacraments.
Without struggles, pain, and sufferings we may lose the habit of
drinking of our Savior often.
b. We should not
groan, therefore, when troubles come in life.
We should not pity ourselves, or complain that God is forsaking
us. Just the opposite. Whatever suffering you and I are enduring,
see the grace of God behind it. He allows
it because of His love for us. He
desires greatly to keep us thirsty in our life; thirsty so that we have the
habit of drinking Jesus regularly. And
whoever is thirsty, Jesus promises that he or she can come to Him and
drink. He will not turn us away. All who come to Him may freely drink of
Him.
c. In other words, this living water always flows towards
the desert, the parched land, and where the desert is the greatest and the
human needs are most painful. The living water always finds its way there.
The stream of living water finds its ways to the parched, brown land of human
suffering. Pentecost signifies the mighty rivers of God suddenly flowing into
the people. Maybe a little like Chevy
Chase’s Amigo, without the selfishness and silliness– because he had an
abundant supply.
|
|||
II. “If
anyone is thirsty,” Jesus says. As
He was dying on the cross, Jesus cried out, “I thirst.” But His thirst
was not for water; His thirst was for us.
His thirst was to set us free from our sins. His thirst was to remove God’s curse from
us. His thirst was to bring us to God
through His own blood. Jesus’ thirst
was quenched. He did what He set out
to do. And now He wants us to thirst
for Him. Not just now and
then...always, daily, weekly, all your life.
And to everyone who thirsts, Jesus gives that one living water to
drink.
|
||||
|
A. He cries out
the good news, the truth: Living water is found in Him, and He is the only
source of salvation.
|
|||
|
1. The people
cannot be saved by the dry dust of the Pharisees as they teach their many
rules and regulations. They cannot be saved by the parched promises of the
Sadducees with their "eat, drink
and be merry" lifestyle. They cannot be saved by the deluded deserts
the world offers. They will be saved by the One who dies in their place, who
takes upon Himself the burden of their sin, who thirsts on the cross as He
suffers the wrath of God for the sin of the world.
2. He gives you
living water. He who died for you, but
now lives, comes to live within you. He puts His Spirit in you as His words of
grace and mercy come into your ears.
And the more you drink this living water, the more you desire it, the
more you thirst for it, and the more your faith in Christ is strengthened,
the more assurance and confidence you have in your living God.
|
|||
|
B. On Pentecost day, the Lord sent the
Holy Spirit; and it is no coincidence that the Spirit's coming was followed
by preaching the Gospel, by Baptism and by the Lord's Supper. These are the
means by which the Spirit works to pour the water of life into the people of
the world.
|
|||
|
1. Now as we
proclaim to you the Word of God, the Spirit is at work to bring Christ to
you, that He might forgive your sins and dwell within you. The Holy Spirit
brings your risen Savior to you this day, that Christ might cleanse you of
sin and satisfy your thirst with living water, that you might be His people forever.
The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God. We proclaim to you the Word of
God, and living water flows to you.
|
|||
|
2. We also rejoice
that the Holy Spirit works through the waters of Holy Baptism.
|
|||
|
a. For the
youngest infant or the oldest man or woman, the Holy Spirit delivers Christ
by water and the Word. There He washes our sins away; there the only-begotten
Son of God makes us sons of God and heirs of His kingdom. By water and the
Word, the Spirit delivers Christ; and Christ delivers His living waters of
salvation to us, that we might be His forever.
b. What comes to your mind when you think about
water? The seashore? A beautiful lake?
Swimming? Fishing? A cool drink on a scorching day? If we could ask Helen Keller that question,
she would probably say, "a water
pump," because it was at a pump that this blind and deaf girl
learned that things have names. [Video Disney’s Miracle Worker] She was brought to realize – to connect the
substance water to the word water. And
a whole new world opened to her.
Likewise Baptism opens up a whole new world to all of us. The next time
you take a shower or a swim, or the next time you take an icy drink on a hot
day, remember your baptism. Water is the outward element used by God to give
you his Spirit.
|
|||
|
3. Furthermore,
the Holy Spirit delivers Christ to you in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus, who
turned water into wine at Cana and who multiplied bread for the 5,000, now
gives you His body and blood in with and under the bread and wine of the
Lord's Supper. There He grants forgiveness and nurtures faith; there He
strengthens and preserves us in the one true faith.
|
|||
CONCLUSION: Pentecost
is the signal for us that the supply of the water of Christ never dries
up. God’s love never dries up. Our love dries up; my love dries up; your
love dries up; but God’s love, the Holy Spirit alive in us, keepings flowing
and flowing. In Word and Sacrament it
keeps flowing in a flood to us. Never fail to Quench your thirst with this
water. Amen.
|
Friday, June 13, 2014
Thirst for Your Savior
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)