Sermon Tone Analysis

God Wants to Quench Our Thirsty Souls

The Gospel of John

John 7:37-39; Leviticus 23:33-43

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - December 7, 2016

(Revised August 27, 2019)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to John 7:37.

Tonight we will look into the glorious truth that God wants to quench our greatest thirst: the spiritual thirst in our souls.

By this time, Jesus was in the third year of His earthly ministry, and He was at the annual Feast of the Tabernacles in Jerusalem.

*The religious rulers of the Jews had been wanting to kill Christ for months.

They claimed that Jesus deserved the death penalty because He violated the Sabbath Day.

But Jesus never disobeyed God's Law even once in His whole life.

The Jewish rulers also accused Jesus of blasphemy, because He said God was His Father, and that made Him equal with God (John 5:18).

*The Lord was telling the absolute truth when He said God was His Father.

And in John7:7, He gives us the real reason why those rulers wanted to kill Him.

Speaking to His unbelieving brothers, Jesus said, "The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil."

*In John 7, Jesus was only 6 months away from the cross.

And here at the Feast of the Tabernacles, He offers to quench our spiritual thirst forever.

Let's begin by reading John 7:37-39:

37. On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

38.

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart (or belly) will flow rivers of living water.''

39.

But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

MESSAGE:

*Have you ever been thirsty?

Really thirsty?

Think about being so thirsty that your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth, and all you can think about is water.

*Joey Mora found out what it's like to be that thirsty.

In 1996, Joey was a young marine standing on the platform of an aircraft carrier patrolling in the Iranian Sea.

Then in a shocking accident, Joey fell overboard, and incredibly, he wasn't missed for 36 hours!

*A search and rescue mission started but was abandoned after another 24 hours.

They thought no one could survive 60 hours in the ocean without a lifejacket.

Joey's parents were notified that he was "missing and presumed dead."

*The rest of the story is a miracle!

Four Pakistani fishermen found Joey Mora about 72 hours after he had fallen from the aircraft carrier.

He had taken off his pants, tied a knot in both legs, and trapped some air in them.

That was the only thing holding Joey up, and he was floating in his sleep when the men found him.

Joey was delirious when they pulled him into their fishing boat.

His tongue was dry and cracked, and his throat was parched.

*Two years later, he told his story to Stone Philips of NBC Dateline.

Joey said it was God who kept him struggling to survive.

And the most excruciating thing of all was the one thought that took over his body and pounded in his brain: "Water!" (1)

*That is the kind of spiritual thirst God wants to quench in our souls.

1. SO HE REVEALS HIMSELF TO US.

*God has a great desire to reveal Himself to people.

And the greatest way that God ever reveals Himself is through His Word: God's written Word, and the living Word, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

*Remember what John wrote about Jesus in John 1:14-18:

14. . .

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

15.

John (the Baptist) bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.'''

16.

And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

17.

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

18.

No one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

*Also remember what Hebrews 1:1-3 says about Jesus:

1. God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets.

2. has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

3. who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

*Jesus Christ is God's greatest revelation of all!

But God loves us so much that He also reveals Himself in a variety of other ways.

Think of the wonders of creation for example.

Psalm 19:1 tells us that "the heavens declare the glory of God," and they surely do for all who will see.

*God also designed earthly things to help us understand everlasting things.

He reveals Himself through good relationships among family and friends.

The relationships between a good father and his children, a godly marriage, and close relationships with friends we love and trust.

All of these can point us to the kind of relationship that God wants to have with people.

*God also reveals Himself through religious ceremonies.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper are object lessons to communicate the truths of the cross to us in special ways.

And that's the kind of thing that happened at here in John 7.

*Jesus and a huge crowd of Jews were at the Feast of the Tabernacles.

And though it was one of the three great Jewish Feasts each year, this is the only time it is specifically mentioned in the New Testament.

*Leviticus 23:33-36 tells us the origin of this feast:

33.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

34.

"Speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord.

35.

On the first day there shall be a holy convocation.

You shall do no customary work on it.

36.

For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.

On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.

It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it."

*Then in Leviticus 23:39-43, the Lord told Moses to say:

39. 'Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest.

40.

And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.

41.

You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year.

It shall be a statute forever in your generations.

You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

42.

You shall dwell in booths for seven days.

All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths,

43. that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.'''

*During this feast all of the people left their houses to live for a week in little huts made out of branches from palm and other trees.

William Barkley explained that these booths sprang up everywhere.

They were on the flat roofs of the houses, in the streets and city squares, in the gardens, and even in the courts of the Temple.

*The people had very precise instructions on how the tabernacles had to be made, because God was reminding them of many things.

When they looked up at night, they had to be able to see the stars through the branches.

*God was reminding them that this is a big universe, and He is in charge of it all.

The Lord was also reminding them of the time when their ancestors were homeless wanderers in the wilderness for 40 years.

That also reminded people of the sin of unbelief, because the only reason they had to wander for 40 years was because they didn't trust the Lord enough to go into His Promised Land.

Looking back on the wilderness years also reminded the Jews that the Lord did lead His people through the wilderness, and He did bring them into the Promised Land.

*Those temporary huts during the Feast of the Tabernacles also remind us that this world is not our home.

We are just passing through.

And in a sense, the houses we live in are just as temporary as those huts made from branches.

*Another fact about the Feast of the Tabernacles was that everybody had to live in the booths.