8-7-10 Baptism: Are You Thirsty? – Part Two

Edited from Shane Hipps’ message “From Your Belly.”

(Review of last week and recent ideas: physical birth and spiritual birth, physical thirst and spiritual thirst)

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. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. John 7:37-38

Last week I preached about a woman at the well and Jesus said something to her almost identical to this. What’s interesting about this is that anytime you see something repeated in scripture, especially when it’s close together, here it’s only three chapters apart, where Jesus uses the same basic metaphor and says the same basic thing, it means that it’s really important. Here Jesus is repeating himself because he wants to reemphasize his point because it’s important.

Now, the really interesting part about this is that Jesus doesn’t repeat himself exactly. Instead, he changes it ever so slightly, to reveal another layer to his teaching.

The first thing that makes this teaching of Jesus unique compared to the one we looked at last week with the Samaritan woman at the well, is that this one takes place on the last and greatest day of a very important feast or festival.

For these people, there were two major festivals that they celebrated. One was called Passover, you may have heard of it, and we celebrate it at Easter. This festival was to commemorate or celebrate when God, with 10 mighty plagues, freed the Israelites from 400 years of slavery under the mighty hand of Egypt. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt revealing His mighty power and giving the Israelites freedom where they had none.

The second festival was the festival of the booths or the festival of the tents; that is the festival that is being referred to here. This is the festival where Jesus stands up and say, “Come to me all who are thirsty.” This festival is even bigger than Passover. It lasted for 8 days and on the last day there was huge ceremony that took place. This festival was commemorating or remembering the time after the Israelites were freed from slavery when they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because they did not had enough faith to trust God and enter the promised land where there were said to be giants.

During this festival, the Israelites would set up tents in their yards or near their place of residence and make it hard on themselves, so that they could remember what it was like to be wandering and homeless. So they would create this feeling of homelessness to amplify their appreciation for the way that God has provided.

Now the other thing that happened during this festival is that it became not just a commemoration of looking back and celebrating what God has done, but also there was a part of this celebration centered around the growing of their crops. When your whole culture is centered on agriculture and you live in a dry, hot, arid land, water becomes very important for life. Without water their crops don’t grow, their animals don’t have enough to eat and die, and if the crops die and the animals in their herds die, then they understood that they were next and so God’s provision of water became a huge part of this festival. They understood very clearly that without water they would die.

So the festival had a twofold purpose. One, it was to celebrate how God had delivered them from slavery, from bondage, from captivity and made them free, and two, it was to celebrate God’s faithful provision of water to sustain them day to day. Because what good is freedom without life. Freedom is only good if you have the provision to enjoy it, right. Freedom is not much good if you’re dead, right? Freedom is only good as long as you have your basic provisions met so that you can live.

So on the last and greatest day of the feast, there was this huge and elaborate water ritual in which the priest would enter into the temple there would be a bowl and a cup made of gold. The priest would take the cup and walk out of the temple, through the city, and proceeed down to the Pool of Soloam where the high priest would dip the cup into the pool, and at this time the whole city was gathered around to watch and they would shout this phrase from the prophet Isaiah: 

With joy you will draw water from the wells of Salvation Isaiah 12:3

Then these trumpets would sound off with a very official and royal trumpeting as the high priest made his way back to the temple and poured the water into the gold bowl in the temple.

Now, here’s what the deal is. This whole reason for this ritual was to help them remember when their ancestors had lived for 40 years in the wilderness, and just for the record, a wilderness is one step away from a dessert. There is some plant life in the wilderness, but it is minimal. A wilderness is a hot, arid, dry land and during these 40 years more than 1 million people and all their livestock traipsed along in this wilderness and so water was a really important thing for them to continue to live. Without water they would die.

This ceremony and ritual commemorated an event that happened at the very end of the 40 years in the wilderness, when the Israelites encountered a time where there was no water to be found anywhere and they were literally dying of thirst. Listen to the account:

The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. Exodus 17:1-6 (NIV)

Moses struck the rock and water came out and the people were saved by the Lord from their thirst. These people were thirsty and dehydrated and God provided for their needs. They were thirsty and God gave them something to drink.

So this festival is a reminder and a celebration of what God had done to sustain them and to give them what they needed in order to satisfy their thirst. During this festival it reminds the people of how God provided for their ancestors when they were thirsty and it is a time of dedication to God to say, “Would you provide water for us to, because water is essential for us to live.”

In case I’ve lost you in all the detail here’s what I just said:

1. The people of Israel were homeless and were camping for 40 years in the wilderness, and then, by faith, the people entered the Promised Land and took it and it became their home. God provided their home.
2. During their 40 years of camping, water became scarce and they would have died, except that God provided water out of the rock to give them life.

That’s what the festival of the booth or the festival of the tents is all about. During these 8 days, there is this tremendous fixation on water, and there are all these ceremonies regarding water, and then, up steps Jesus on the eighth day.

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. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.

The question we answered last week was, “What is living water?” Is there such a thing as dead water and if so what would it be? In the ancient world, living water was considered to be anything that could sustain life. Living water was understood as water with oxygen in. Living water would be anything that fish could live in, as compared with a swamp or a pond that is covered in algae and lily pads. Living water is water that can sustain and give life. It is water that you and I could feel good about drinking. It was always understood as water that was moving like a river or stream, with oxygen in it.

The very beginning of Jesus’ statement is, “If anyone is thirsty”. In other words, not everyone is thirsty. Jesus states this in the positive, but the negative statement would be, “Don’t come to me if you’re not thirsty.”  There is a difference between thinking that you’re thirsty and being thirsty. When you are really thirsty, it is the only thing that you can think about. “Water, I need water.” To be thirsty is a mechanism of survival. It is a warning signal. It is like when your car’s service engine light is blinking on and off. The light comes on and stays on when things are in caution mode, but if that light begins to blink, you need to shut the car down because your car needs something and it needs it fast, otherwise it’s going to die a painful death. To be thirsty is a survival mechanism.

Jesus wants to know if you’re thirsty, but what is he talking about. Is Jesus talking about physical thirst or something else? Jesus is talking about spiritual thirst, an inner thirst, a desire to be more than you currently are – to be a better father or mother, to be a better husband, to be a better wife, to be a better son or daughter, to be a better friend, and here it is . . . Jesus is asking you and I if you’re thirsty to become a better human being.

To be a better human being doesn’t start on the outside. It doesn’t start with more money, or more things, or more vacation, or more success, or better relationships, or better parents, or a job, or a more stable job, or a higher paying job – it  doesn’t start with anything on the outside, it starts on the inside. Jesus says, “Are you thirsty to be a better you? Are you thirsty to become full of life? Are you thirsty to become more loving, more peaceful in here (hand on chest), more joy filled in here. Are you thirsty, I MEAN REALLY THIRSTY for becoming the man or woman that God created you to be?

If so, Jesus says, “Come to me and drink”. Come to me, not just once, not just when you feel like it, not just when it’s convenient, but come to me everyday, all day. Whenever you are thirsty for physical water that Jesus is saying to you, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” Let us be reminded that when we drink water and it satisfies our thirst, that Jesus and his Spirit is the one who satisfies our inner thirst.

Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty” and that’s the way God works. God never forces you to take what he’s offering. God never forces his will on anyone. God created us free, with free will, with the ability to choose our own way. God offers us a chance to follow him, to live our lives in accordance with the way that he created us, but we have to choose it, we have to desire it, we have to be thirsty for it, we have to be thirsty for living water, thirsty . . .for life.

Some people are thirsty for money, for others, they’re thirsty for things, for others they are thirsty for success, for some they thirst for beauty and good looks, for others, they’re thirsty for their kids to succeed or rise to some level in academics or a sport, for others they might be thirsty to have their house look a certain meticulous, everything just so, sort of way.

Jesus says, “If anyone is thirsty for what I have, let him come to me and drink.” This metaphor of thirst is a brilliant one of Jesus’, because he wants us to understand that what he is talking about is life and death, just as the Israelites who were in the desert were very aware that if they did not find water they would die. This thirst for Jesus is about life and death, but what Jesus is talking about is in regard, is not to our physical self, but our spiritual self or our inner self. It is about the inner you being filled with living water, it’s about the inner you being fully alive and fully the way that God  created it to be, it’s about a deep passionate love for God and others without expectations, it’s about being filled with great joy that bubbles over into all those around you, and it’s about this tremendous peace that fills you no matter what difficulties in life come your way, because you know that God is in control and that he loves you and will take care of you.

If you are thirsty and you read a book about water, you will not have your thirst quenched, if you are thirsty and you look at a picture of water, you will not have your thirst quenched, if you are thirsty and you talk about water with others, your thirst will not be quenched, but if you are thirsty and you drink water, your thirst will be quenched. It is not enough for water to be on the outside of you. Water must be on the inside of you to satisfy your thirst and give you life.

If you’re drinking that water and somebody comes up to you and says, “Your thirst is not being quenched”, you would laugh at them. It is not something you debate; it is something that you fundamentally experience.

Jesus is saying at a fundamental level, “Pay attention to your emotional life. Get in touch with your inner you.” What is it saying? What does it want? What is it truly thirsty for? Sometimes we get so busy and so tired and so strung out on anxiety that we lose touch with what our inner self is telling us. At a fundamental level our soul is thirsty for Jesus, but we’re just not in touch with it. We were created to be filled with this living water that Jesus is talking about.

Are you angry? That is a thirst for justice. Are you lonely? That is a thirst for companionship, for connection, for love. Are you anxious? That is a thirst for peace. Are you fearful? That is a thirst for security. Are you filled with guilt because of something that you’ve done? That is a thirst for forgiveness. Are you depressed? That is a thirst for joy. Do you crave knowledge? If you do then you are thirsty for wisdom.

All of these thirsts find their answer in the thirst of thirsts, which is a thirst for the one who can quench all your thirsts with his Spirit living fully inside of you. Jesus is a spring that never runs dry. He can pour into you every day, all day.

Jesus said, If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. And then John, the writer of this account of Jesus’ life said, 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.

The Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Jesus is the one who enters into us when we ask for forgiveness of our sins and when we say to God, I know that I’ve done so much wrong in my life, so many things that I’ve done have been contrary to your will, so please forgive me, Lord Jesus whenever I’ve been wrong, and give me the gift of the Holy Spirit, because I’m thirsty for streams of living water to flow into me in such a way that it satisfies my thirst, but also in a way that that life, goodness, rivers of living water flows out of me into the lives of my children and my spouse and my family and my friends and my boss and my coworkers and my community, so that I can make a positive difference in the world that I live in.

Because eternal life doesn’t begin when we die. It begins when we are born of the Spirit, and when we ask the Spirit of Jesus or the Holy Spirit to enter into our soul and to plant that eternal seed inside us.

This Spring I planted a garden as I have for the last 10 years. I tilled all the soil and planted all the seeds and then it rained, and then it rained again, and then it rained really hard, and then it rained some more. And I want you to know, my seeds flew out of the ground this year. They germinated and pushed through the ground in record time this year, and I learned something that I didn’t fully understand. Seeds need a lot of water to begin growing. They need to stay wet and I never really realized how much water they need, because I always water my garden seeds, but I never water them like God watered them this year.

Jesus says, “Out of you will flow streams of living water” That’s a lot of water! Your soul can only come alive by the Holy Spirit planting a spiritual seed, an eternal seed in your soul, and then it takes a lot of water, it takes a lot of seeking Jesus, and asking him to heal all the thirsts of our heart and make it thirst for him.

When we are thirsty for the living water that Jesus offers, it waters the seeds that the Holy Spirit plants in our soul and it grows those seeds into a full grown, fruit-bearing plants.

If you’ve never been baptized, and you desire streams of living water to come out of you, if you want the inner you to grow and become like a river of life that fills you and those around you with love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness and generosity, if you want the inner you to be a better husband or wife, a better father or mother, a better son or daughter, a better  friend or co-worker, a better . . . PERSON, then Jesus stands in front of you today and says, “If anyone is thirsty – spiritually, emotionally thirsty, thirsty to become all that God created you to be, come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.