If You Are Thirsty, Drink

This morning, I'm gonna do something somewhat a little different than I typically would do as I lead people in the proclamation of God's word. We're gonna be looking at John chapter seven. If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn to that at this time. John chapter seven. We're just gonna be reading a few verses from that.

As I mentioned, my name is Jack. I came here this month, actually eleven years ago, to Australia after serving churches in Canada for twenty-five years. That's why I don't sound like a fair dinkum Aussie. I've got that Canadian twang to my voice. But, anyways, after serving churches, established and new churches, planting churches in Canada, God called my wife and I to come down under to help the churches here in Australia to impact our communities with the gospel.

We realise that every single Sunday, less than seven per cent of our population are actively engaged in a local church. And so we realise how important it is to see the gospel go out into the tens of millions of people in Australia who don't know the gospel, who don't know what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Often people come to me as I speak in churches and as I work with pastors and they say, well, I really don't know how to share my faith. Like, what is the gospel really all about? How can I tell someone else about the truth of God's word?

And so this morning, I'll do what I often share with people. I'm saying, well, take any scripture that you might wanna look at and use that scripture to open it up so that people will be able to see Jesus and come to that point of understanding who He is and give their hearts and lives to Him. So this morning, we're gonna do that in John chapter seven. I'm gonna read there just a few verses, beginning at verse thirty-seven of John chapter seven. This is part of a larger discourse in John's gospel that I'm going to be talking about and referring to.

But this is just one day, the last day of the greatest feast, which is the feast of tabernacles, the greatest day of that feast, the seventh day where Jesus stands up and speaks. And as I read what I'm reading out the NIV today, and I don't know if you ever notice this is just a little freebie today for you. If you ever read your Bibles and you notice that there's footnotes, it's sometimes good to read the footnotes because sometimes those alternate readings of a particular verse are the preferred reading. And I believe that to be very true in John chapter seven. And so I'm not gonna be reading it straight from the verse that I have here in my Bible, but from the footnote because to me, the footnote gets at the very heart of what Jesus is saying.

So let's listen to these words of John. Just reading three verses. On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up 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. 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. Let us pray. Father, may the words of my mouth and may the meditations of our hearts be found acceptable in Your sight. You are the rock. You are our redeemer.

You are the one in whom we want to find our help, security, and hope. And so we pray in Your name, Jesus. Amen. Let me ask you, have you ever been thirsty? I mean, really thirsty.

I mean, like this past week, I mean, the weather has been stifling hot and you've been outside in the garden perhaps as I did last week just spending a few hours just cleaning up stuff and you come back and you're sweating. You're hot. You're thirsty. You're longing for a drink. Or maybe you're playing on the footy field and you've been chasing the ball and the opposing team up and down the field.

You're tired, and you're very thirsty. So what do you do? You look for a drink. You look for something that will quench your thirst. In the mid nineteen-sixties, there was a football team in Florida in the United States and they realised that the reason why they were constantly losing the game and playing so poorly the game of football was because they were dehydrated.

And so the team doctors got together and they invented a drink that would keep the players well hydrated. Now the football team was in the heart of alligator country and so they called their drink Gatorade. And this drink became a thirst quencher and believe it or not, that year, that team in Florida went on to win the Orange Bowl. I mean, if you're thirsty, I mean, you look for something to drink. Something to pick you up, to give you energy, to give you a boost.

I mean, the drink of choice for most Australians is Coca Cola. I mean, every single day, one billion nine hundred million bottles of Coca Cola are consumed. I mean, single day. And that's worldwide and it's no wonder. Because in the nineteen-twenties, they told us that thirst knows no season.

And in the mid nineteen-seventies, they say if you drink Coke, you'll get life because Coke adds life. And today, they tell us if you open up a can of Coke, you open up happiness. So are you thirsty? Thirsty for a drink, for life, for happiness? Well, grab a Gatorade, grab a Coke, something to quench your thirst.

For thirst knows no season. I mean, we know something about thirst here in Australia, don't we? I mean, we moved, as I said, into Australia toward the end of the millennial drought which lasted for twelve years from nineteen ninety-seven to two thousand nine. And with all the wildfires that we are seeing, especially here in Queensland, we know that the drought is really not over. So many parts of Australia are experiencing drought-like conditions.

It's so dry. I mean, the rivers are drying up. The land is parched. Crops are burning up. Livestock are dying and farmers are suffering.

Our neighbours to the south in places like Dubbo, they tell us that they need another two and a half years of constant rain for the drought to be officially over. So many people and especially our friends and neighbours up north in Queensland, I mean, they're just longing for the miracle of rain. Lots and lots of rain, not only to quench the fires, but to fill up the dams and allow the rivers to flow freely again and for life to abound. Now the people of Israel, they knew a lot about drought. In their country, there were months of no rain, absolutely no rain, and everything would dry up and die.

But then the winter and the spring rains would come and the crops would begin to grow and the harvest would come. And at harvest time, the people would gather together to celebrate. For seven days, they would have a feast and they would give thanks to God for the miracle of rain. And that is where we find Jesus here in John chapter seven. He's at the feast of tabernacles.

And every day there at this feast, there would be this water ceremony. The people would go down to the bottom of the brooks and they would fill up pitchers of water and they would bring up the water and they would bring it in a long procession to the temple and they would pour water over the floor of the temple. This was their way to celebrate and to give thanks to God for the miracle of rain. They were giving thanks to God because they knew that it was God who satisfies the thirsty. It was God who turns desert into pools of water and parched ground into flowing springs.

Yes. It was God who supplies water to the thirsty. And so as people are celebrating the miracle of rain, the people also remember a time in their history, a long time ago when their nation would have all died in the desert if it were not for the miracle of life-giving, refreshing, thirst-quenching water. They had no water to drink and they were facing death. And God told Moses to go to a rock and just simply speak to the rock and water would gush out of that rock.

God would provide water. But Moses thought that God needed some help and so rather than just speaking to the rock, he took his staff and he beat the rock. But irregardless, water gushed out of the rock and the entire nation and their flocks and herds had life-saving water to drink. And so as the people are celebrating the miracle of rain, as they're remembering how water had gushed out of the rock, Jesus stands up. And on the last and most important day of the feast, He raises His voice so that everyone could hear and He shouts, if anyone of you is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink and let him drink who believes in Me.

As the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow out from within him. Jesus here makes a massive claim. You want your thirst in life to be quenched? Then go to Him. Go to Jesus and drink the living water that He provides for streams of living water are gushing out of Jesus.

It's not gushing out of us. It's gushing out of Jesus. Water is gushing out of Jesus, and it will satisfy your every thirst. All you have to do is drink. Remember how water gushed out of that rock for the people of Israel in the Bible?

We read about that in Numbers chapter twenty. Well, the apostle Paul tells us that that rock was actually a spiritual rock that pointed forward to Jesus because that rock was Christ. Jesus is the source of life-giving water, clean refreshing water. Streams are flowing out of Jesus, gushing out of the rock. All you have to do is drink.

Just drink. That's all you have to do. Just drink. But drink what? What is this life-giving water that is gushing out of Jesus?

And what does it mean to drink? How do we drink and what is it? What does Jesus give us? What is this massive claim that Jesus is making? Well, to drink is to believe, to believe in Jesus.

Let him drink who believes in Me, Jesus tells us. And to believe is to put your trust in Jesus. That's the claim that Jesus is making about Himself. And to believe that means to say, you know, I really believe that this claim that Jesus is making about Himself is actually true. You believe the claims that Jesus makes and you entrust yourself to Him.

But believe what? What is this massive claim that Jesus is making about Himself? What difference does it make if we believe it or not? Well, the Bible tells us from cover to cover that all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God. You see that passage from Romans chapter three.

All of us say that's me. That's me. It's everyone. In fact, there is no one righteous, not even one. No one who does good, not even one.

Look over the millions of people here in Australia and you look at the scores of people who are here today, not one of us can say we've never sinned. See, our standard for what is good is God. I mean, Jesus reminded us of that. There's only one who is good and that is God. God is good.

He is sinless. He is absolute moral purity. In fact, the Bible tells us that Jesus Himself was holy. He was blameless. He was pure.

He was set apart from sinners. Totally blameless, holy, exalted above the heavens, higher than any one of us. Measure anyone up to Jesus. Measure yourself up to Jesus, and we all come up short. No matter how tall you are.

I mean, K.J., me, anyone, no matter how tall, I mean, we all come up short when it comes to measuring ourselves up to Jesus. And because of sin in our world today, there's misery, there's brokenness, and death. That's because the wages of sin is death. And death here does not just mean simply physical death, but spiritual death. Because of our sin, we are separated from God and from the life that He offers us.

And all around us, we see the misery that sin brings in our world. We see it in families that are fractured, in people who are hurting, in a world where there is fear, unrest, sickness, death, disease. And the claim that Jesus makes is simply this, for God so loved the world that He gave. He gave what? He gave His one and only Son.

Why? So that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, will not experience the effects of sin, but will have eternal life, will have God's life, will have new life. That's Jesus' claim, that He is the one and only Son of God who came into this world and that He came down to this world because God loved the world so much. He loved you. He loved me.

He loved your neighbours, your family, the world. He came down from heaven to earth. God sent His one and only Son to become the penalty for our sin, to pay it, and die He did on an old rugged cross almost two thousand years ago. The Bible says for Christ died once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God, to bring you and me to God. That's why Jesus went to the cross, to pay for the penalty of sin, your sin, my sin, the sins of the world.

And we know that the penalty of sin was paid because on the third day, Jesus arose again. He died. He was buried, but He rose again on the third day from the grave. He conquered sin and death once and for all. And this Jesus, He comes to us and He says, come and drink.

Believe in Me. Believe because of My death and resurrection, your sins are all forgiven. The sins of your past, you know. Maybe sometimes you pray that prayer that David, the psalmist, prays in the book of Psalms where he says, God, don't remember the sins of my youth. And maybe there's sometimes at night in the quietness of your bedroom that you just remember the sins of your youth, the stuff that you did.

You wish you never did it, but you did it. But all of that in the past, forgiven. The stuff that you struggle with today, the words, the thoughts, the things you do, all of that forgiven. And the stuff this side of glory, I mean, I mean, none of us will reach perfection. None of us will reap the full stature of the height of glory and the holiness and blamelessness of God.

All of us will keep on struggling. But even all that stuff into the future because of Jesus is forgiven. Nothing now separates you from God and from the life He offers, the life that you can have today and forever. And all that Jesus says is come. Come to Me and drink.

Believe because of My death and resurrection, all of the stuff in your life that you struggle with is paid for. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This life God offers to us is a gift. All you have to do is receive it. All you have to do is drink.

Jesus says to the thirsty, I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Without cost. So let me ask you again. Are you thirsty? Are you thirsty for life?

For the life that God offers you? For the blessed assurance that all of your sins are paid for? For the promise that God will be with you today and into all of your tomorrows, for the blessing of life and all of its fullness so that in the place of your weakness, you will find strength, in the place of your failures that you'll find success, in the place of brokenness that you'll find wholeness. And when the whole shooting match of life is over on earth, you will not die, but you will continue on with life forever with God. Are you thirsty?

Are you thirsty for this kind of life? Then drink. All you gotta do, life-giving water is gushing out of Jesus. Living water is gushing out of Him for you. All you have to do is drink.

Accept the claims that Jesus is making. Believe convicted in your heart that the life that you are searching for is found in Jesus, that everything He said and promised is true. So let me ask you. Have you taken the drink yet? The drink of life-giving water?

Maybe you're here this morning like many people in this world today who are not yet ready to accept Jesus' free offer of forgiveness, the offer of eternal life and to receive it. Perhaps you don't think the offer is real. You don't think that Jesus is who He said He was. Well, let me just tell you that there are only two alternatives. Either Jesus' claims about Himself were false or they were true.

If they were false, either Jesus was a liar or a lunatic. If Jesus knew that He wasn't God and yet He made the claim that He was God, then that made him out to be a liar. And if He was a liar, He was a hypocrite because He lived the lie. His entire life was based on that fact of who He was. And more than that, if Jesus was lying, then He was not just a liar, but He was completely evil.

Because He told people that they would trust in Him, that their sins would be forgiven, that they would have eternal life. And if He was a liar, then that also would make Him a real fool because He went to His death because He claimed He was God and had the power to forgive sins. Even as He stood before the magistrate, Pontius Pilate, before He was crucified, Jesus hung onto that claim that He was who He said He was. That was the truth. He was Jesus, the Son of God, come down to this world for our salvation.

Somebody who lived as Jesus lived, who taught as Jesus taught, and who died as Jesus died could not have been a liar. Then He must have been a lunatic. He thought He was God, but He was mistaken. But if His claims were true, then Jesus is both Lord and God and there are only two options, only two options available for you. One, you can accept Him as the Son of God who died on a cross to pay for the penalty of sin so that you could have the free gift of the water of life for now and for eternity or you can reject Him.

And you can face the consequences of that decision for eternity. Perhaps you're here this morning and you say, well, I don't need help. You're not that bad. Why do you need to be forgiven? I mean, if you're gonna get forgiveness or if you're gonna get, you know, maybe you're at that stage in your life, you know, when and you look back to your own childhood.

I mean, you were taught as a child that golden rule and you've been trying to live it. You know, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I mean, you've been doing that. So you're not that bad, are you? Well, the Bible is very clear that every single one of us needs the forgiveness that Jesus offers us.

The Bible says that if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And if we claim we have not sinned, we make God out to be a liar and His word is not in us. My friends, we all have sinned. I have sinned. You have sinned.

We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Perhaps you're here this morning and you just simply refuse to accept anyone's charity. I mean, if you're going to make your life right again, I mean, you're gonna do it on your own. You believe you have to pay for your own mistakes. I mean, if you're gonna get forgiveness or eternal life, it's because you've earned it.

And you know my friends, that is what every single major religion in our world today teaches. This is what our politicians teach from a secular point of view. This is what the Buddhists and the Muslims and the Hindus and every single other major religion in our world today teaches. If you wanna be saved, if you wanna reach nirvana, if you wanna get to paradise, if you wanna be successful in life and reach your highest dreams, if you wanna be set free, then you gotta do something. Make a pilgrimage.

Make that investment. Say your daily prayers. Do some fasting. Do this or that or the other thing and you'll finally get there to heaven, heaven on earth. Follow a bunch of rules, and one day you'll learn it.

The Bible tells us, come, all of you who are thirsty. Come to the waters. And if you got no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. You want life?

It's free. It's free. All you have to do is receive it. And that is what sets Christianity apart from every single other worldview and religion in this world. Salvation is not earned.

Life is not something you have to pay for. The water is free. Without cost, it's a gift. All you have to do is drink. Or perhaps this morning you're here and you just feel too guilty to believe that you could ever be relieved of your guilt.

You know the sin in your own life, the sins of your youth, and guilt is condemning you. Well, if you turn the page in John chapter eight, you find Jesus kneeling in the dirt and He's writing with His finger in the sand. And in front of Him, there is a woman who is caught in adultery. And the people of that day felt that anyone who had committed adultery had so much guilt that that guilt had to be punished by death, death by stoning. And so all around him, there are people with rocks in their hands and they're ready to throw these rocks at this woman to put her to death.

And Jesus looks up at the crowd, and He tells them. He says, let anyone of you who is without sin be the first one to throw a stone at her. And one by one, you hear the rocks fall onto the ground, and the people are leaving until all that you find around that place is only Jesus and the woman. All that was left was Jesus alone with her. And Jesus asked her, woman, where are they?

Has no one condemned you? She said, Jesus, not a one. No one, sir. And Jesus says, neither do I condemn you. Just go.

Go now and leave your life of sin. Maybe you know the sting of guilt because there's lots of people in your life that have been throwing stones at you, criticising you, condemning you, telling you you're good for nothing. Sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words hurt too. But Jesus says to you, come. Come and drink the living water that I'm offering you.

Receive the forgiveness I give you. I know what you've done. The sin, all the wrong of your past, the stuff you struggle with today, I don't condemn you. I invite you now to be free from all of that. You don't have to keep struggling with that stuff.

You can be free from it. You don't have to jump from bed to bed like this woman did with one man to another just so that she could be used and abused and left for the scorn of society. You don't have to do that. You don't have to do that anymore. Because when you drink the living water that Jesus gives, when you believe in Him, you receive the Holy Spirit.

Because the rivers of living water that are gushing out of Jesus is really the Holy Spirit. By this, He meant the Spirit, John tells us. So when you put your faith and trust and entrust yourself to Jesus, when you believe in Him, you're born again and God fills you with His Holy Spirit and He gives you victory over sin. And filled with the presence of God in your life, you can now go and leave your life of sin behind. All you have to do is drink.

Come. Come all of you who are thirsty. Come to the waters. Come and drink. In the final pages of the Bible, the invitation is given one last time.

In fact, this invitation to come and drink the living water that God provides is given to us four times in the Bible. And then in the very last part of the Bible, on the last page of the Bible, as if God is saying, I'm gonna give you one more chance, one more chance to listen to my invitation, to come. The Spirit and the Bride say come, and let him who hears say come. Whoever is thirsty, let him come. And whoever wishes, whoever wishes, do you wish it?

Do you want it? Whoever wishes, let them take the free gift of the water of life. Listen to that invitation. The Spirit and the Bride say come. Yes.

God says come, but so does the Spirit. The Spirit-filled people of God, the Bride. The Bride also says come. Perhaps you've come already. Maybe there's been a time in your life where you've taken that free gift of the water of life and you've put your trust in Jesus.

Then you're part of the Bride. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are the Bride. That's you, His Bride. You've heard the gospel. You've responded to the gospel, and now it's up to you to go to other people, maybe a family member, a neighbour, a coworker, someone at uni.

And all you need to do to them is say, hey. You know what? Let me tell you about Jesus. Just come. Come and drink.

Say to the many, many people in this world who are lost, whoever is thirsty, let him come. And whoever wishes, you wanna come? You wish to have life? Are you thirsty? You want your thirst quenched?

Then take the free gift of the water of life. No matter what group I'm with, I never assumed that every single one of the people that are there in the room have actually come yet to Jesus. And in just a moment, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to come. You've heard the gospel. You've heard the good news about Jesus.

In just a few moments, I'm gonna invite you also to come if you haven't done so yet. But before you do that, just listen to the words of this song. So won't you come? You say, well, what does it really mean to come? To come to the water?

Come and drink? It's actually quite simple. It's just ABC. Just admit. Admit that you don't measure up to God.

That your life is filled with regrets and mistakes, sin. Just say, God, that's me. Confess. Admit. Admit you're a sinner.

And it simply means to believe in Jesus, that He is your Saviour and Lord, that every single claim that Jesus makes for Himself here in John seven, but throughout the Bible, that the claims that Jesus makes about Himself are actually true. Just believe it and trust yourself to this Jesus. But don't just believe it, confess it. Tell it to somebody else. The Bible tells us that if you believe in your heart that Jesus is who He said He is, that God raised Him from the dead, and if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you've taken that drink.

You're saved. Just invite everyone just to bow your heads and close your eyes. Just there's an opportunity for us just to come to God in prayer. And as your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed, maybe there's some of you this morning that God has spoken to you and you're thirsty. You want this life-giving water that's gushing out of Jesus, and you want it because you know your own story, your own life.

I don't know it, but you do. If that's you, just just put up your hand just so that I know that I'm praying for you this morning. Wherever you're sitting, just put up your hand. Thank you. And this morning, as I just lead you in prayer, I'm gonna pray slowly.

And God has been speaking in your heart and has put that tug in your heart to drink from Him, then just say this prayer in your own heart. I'm not gonna do anything weird now. Nothing silly. Just just quiet in the quietness of your own heart, just repeat those words to yourself and make that your prayer. Lord Jesus, I need You.

I'm thirsty for the living water. I believe that You are the Son of God, risen from the dead. Thank you for dying on the cross for all of my regrets, all of my mistakes, all of my sins. Thank you for forgiving me and giving me life now and forever. I take this drink and fill me with this life-giving water.

Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and help me by Your power, Your strength, Your presence in me. Help me leave my life of sin and be the kind of person that You have made me to be. In Jesus' name. Amen.