Thirst for Your Savior

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.