Final words, eternal impact. Completely satisfied. Can you recall a time in your life, I mean, maybe like what was the worst time you were parched, thirsty, to the point where you’d say like, I am dying of thirst. I can remember it for me, and I was only 10 years old. On the farm back in South Dakota, out bailing hay in that hot South Dakota sun covered in dust and sweat. Even as a 10-year-old, I was dying of thirst. I was parched. Then I remembered this makeshift canteen. My mom had put together a bot, a former bottle of bleach, thoroughly washed out. Okay? And then rinsed out and then filled the night before putting the deep freeze with that big chunk of ice in there. The only trick was you had to be careful not to, you be too quick and on the draw, and you know, just kind of pound into your lips. So you gotta let that ice hit and then let that water just pour in. It was the best water I’ve ever tasted, ISTed. Mm, how about you? Parched, thirsty to become completely satisfied. Our Bible text today, it’s in John chapter seven. If you want to turn there in. Your Bibles are on your devices. It really captures really a similar moment of profound thirst where Jesus stands up at a festival in the Jewish temple and declares that he is the source of living water, the only one who can truly and eternally satisfy and quench our deepest longings. So I want us to look at just how thirsty we really are, not just for water, but for something that quenches the deepest part of us. I’m gonna begin reading at verse 38. John chapter seven. On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the spirit whom those who believe in him were later to receive. Up to that point in time, the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified. The gospel of our Lord. Pray. Lord, let me pray as we continue. Lord Jesus, may we today, across centuries and from these pages of scripture, hear your call, your invitation to each of us to come drink of you and be completely satisfied. Help us lay aside our empty pursuits and fix her eyes on you. I ask in your precious name. Amen. Amen.
Dear friends, grace to you and peace. From God, our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. You know, it’s actually quite incredible how Jesus chose really the perfect moment to make his offer of living water. Let me explain. During the Feast of Booths of the Feast of Tabernacles, there was a daily water ceremony for seven days straight. A priest would lead this jubilant procession complete with music from the temple down to the pool of Siloam, and fill a gold pitch of water from the pool. Process it back up, everyone singing again. And then he would pour the water on the altar and a priest on the other side of the altar would pour wine. And during this whole time, the people were singing from their hymn book The Book of Psalms, from the Psalms one 13 to one 18. But on the eighth and final day, no water pouring procession or procedure. So picture the one day when there isn’t water being poured out, Jesus suddenly stands up in the temple and as our text says in a loud voice declares that he himself is the source of living water. And that moment it would just hit everyone like a thunderbolt. There was no water. And yet here’s the Messiah offering living water, the Holy Spirit and eternal life to any who would come to him in faith. It’s a profound picture of who Jesus is and what he came to give us. So I wanna explore three vital truths in this regard. First, hear the wide open invitation of God. From the earliest pages in scripture, we find God inviting people to draw near to him where the Lord speaks through Isaiah. What Jim read for us earlier, come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters and you who have no money. Come by and eat. I actually needed that one. In this, the prophet, uh, shouting God’s words is announcing this open armed invitation. No restrictions, no prerequisites, just an invitation come. And this same invitation, it stands behind Jesus’ words in our text in John seven, as well as in his dialogue. Remember with the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman. It’s in John chapter four. To whom he said this, if you knew the gift of God, he would’ve given you living water. Just trying to establish that God’s heartbeat from cover to cover in the scriptures is a call for us to come to a relationship with him and notice the inclusive language in our text. Anyone who is thirsty or to the woman at the well, whoever drinks, anyone, whomever. In other words, our father has always been calling out for everyone to come. It’s God’s will that all people come to faith in Christ Jesus and have eternal life. So today, if you might be sitting here and maybe feel undeserved of God’s love or attention or distant or maybe just too messed up. Hear this, Jesus opens the door to every thirsty soul. And if that’s you, hear that invitation and come, there is no sin, too great, no past, too tangled, no burden, too heavy to keep you from his life giving water this feast that Jesus spoke at. It’s a commemoration of what actually happened. Back with the people of Israel in the wilderness wanderings, they were grumbling and ine due due to a lack of water. They were thirsty and they were quarreling with their leader, Moses, about this, and they were doubting God’s provision. So in response, God instructed Moses to strike a rock at hob just northwest of Sinai, with his staff miraculously producing water, the whole nation to drink. And then so this act of divine care and provision, it’s commemorated.
Then during this Jewish festival of booths or Sukkot, which celebrates God’s faithful provision, even in the middle of the desert, even the in the middle of shortage and thirst, God provided throughout Israel’s wanderings and calls them to trust him and look to him for provision. There’s a praise and worship song of invitation that has these lyrics, all who have sailed on the rivers of heartache. All who are weak, all who are weary, come to the waters. That’s Jesus’ invitation, and that’s us sometimes, isn’t it? And maybe you’ve been battered by life storms. Feel like you’re living in a parched desert, be it of rejection or abandonment or confusion. Drifting along rivers of of disappointment or even regret. And listen, our Lord sees every tear. Hears every unspoken prayer, and he says to you and to me, come, come to the rock. Come to the fountain. Just as Jesus broke the silence of ritual and religion in the temple, so to today, he can break through our barriers, our shame, our regrets, our doubts, and he offers that same invitation. Come. The promise of Isaiah continues, listen. Listen to me and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest affair. I love that phrase. This invitation is not just for mere survival, it’s to find abundant, satisfying life in him. The delight in the richest of affair. What is your favorite food? I, here’s mine Godfather’s Pizza, humble pie on Golden Crust, and I know there’s some located at truck stops at three corners of the compass here coming out of Phoenix. How about you imagine a Feast of the Lamb with the richest affair? And we come and we’re invited, not because we are the great guests. We don’t come with the best version of ourselves. We come thirsty and hungry and broken. Searching precisely so that God’s grace can find us and and pour over and into us. And then God promises to seat us at a feast with the best of affair. So here, God’s wide open invitation. Second, stop spending your life on what doesn’t satisfy. Can you kind of feel that tension in our Bible passage today? Jesus shatters that silence of religion and ritual, and the prophet Isaiah invites the thirsty to come and then asks this penetrating question, why spend money on what is not bred and your labor on what does not satisfy?
In other words, why pour yourself into empty pursuits? Why labor? For what leaves you still feeling hungry or thirsty, broken or exhausted? We really need a reality check because we live in a world that offers endless solutions for our inner thirst, new gadgets, promotions, entertainment, quick fix, spiritualities that never fully quench.
It was a church father named Saint Augustine who said this about God, our heart is restless until it rests in you. Jesus alone says Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. He’s not offering a temporary fix. He’s promising a soul, satisfying, life altering relationship that can fill you from an inside out. When you feel restless or dissatisfied, where do you tend to go? When heartache gnaws, when disappointment sinks in, you just kind of try to, you run to social media to escape or to comfort food or a destructive habit of some kind, or to an angry outburst. Jesus gently exposes those patterns, not to shame us, but rather to free us. And then he beckons us away from these shallow streams that cannot sustain us and then draws us to his. Endless spring of living water. So hear God’s wide open invitation, stop spending your life on that which doesn’t satisfy. And finally, remember God’s invitation even at the end of time. This is a fitting conclusion that scripture gives us at the very end of the Bible. In Revelation chapter 21, it declares to the thirsty, I will give water without cost. From the spring of the water of life Isn’t that beautiful? And the very last chapter of the last book of the Bible, at the end of time it says, let the one who is thirsty come and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. I love it that these verses are found at the very end of the Bible and they mirror exactly what. Jesus had declared in John seven what Isaiah the prophet had prophesied, come and drink. In other words, God’s revelation. It’s throughout scripture, front to back, cover to cover, and this matters because in a world searching for meeting. Jesus words and revelation. They stand as this cosmic call to every generation, to every nation, to every person, to you. And just as we might read the back of a novel to see how the story ends, we can open the final pages of the Bible and see that even in eternity, Jesus still invites, he still satisfies. In other words, it doesn’t matter how far along in life’s journey you might find yourself. Jesus’ invitation, remind remains given to you, to the very end. Come to the rock, come to the fountain, come and be set free. And I don’t want you to miss how this satisfaction is provided because it was purchased from his cross. Our savior said, I thirst. Jesus took the dryness of our sin, the full measure of suffering and death so that we would never have to experience spiritual drought and out of Christ. There’s flows, the living water of forgiveness, and as he rose victorious, he ascended so that the Holy Spirit could be poured out upon all believers fulfilling Jesus’ promise. That we read about in John seven, the Spirit who had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified. But now, especially now as we’re approaching Holy Week marching on through Monday, Thursday, good Friday and holy Easter, through Christ cross, his resurrection and his ascension, the floodgates are burst wide open. All who believe in him are filled with the very spirit of God with rivers of living water flowing. From within. So scripture from beginning to end, it shouts this one glorious invitation. Come, come to Jesus taste and see that the Lord is good. Find in him the spirit who is the living water welling up to eternal life. And today, right now, Jesus stands and says to you. Yeah. Anyone who’s thirsty come to me.
Remember that Christ himself is the one who bids us to come and be satisfied in him. And you know, all the blessings and promises given to us in the scriptures forgiveness, God’s presence, everlasting love, they’re made real and ready for us in Jesus’ broken body and shed blood. And that’s what we’re about to be invited to. To come to the Lord’s table. Christ’s invitation is to his to is to his table. So prepare your hearts and come to the Lord’s table where the bread and the cup they testify to. The sacrifice made once for all on your behalf. Here at this table, Jesus renews us. He restores us and fills us with his grace. Come one and all. And be completely satisfied. Join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for inviting us to come and drink of your living water in Christ. We do confess. We’ve tried to quench our thirst in so many other ways, but only you can truly satisfy. So fill us now with your Holy Spirit. Heal our wounds, renew our spirits, and send us out then. To share your refreshment with a parched and thirsty world. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen.
