Drinking Jesus (9/9/18 The Book of John Series #39)

ATTN: I think it is good to think about our eternal home time to time. I just finished reading the Bible last Thursday, reading the last 3 chapters of Revelation. No, it is not the first time I read through the Bible… currently I’m on a 3 year cycle where it takes me roughly 3 years to read through the Bible because I’m reading slowly and meditatively. And in it is the description of the new heaven. Now, it is a city with four walls and it’s dimensions are roughly 1400 mi x 1400 mi x 1400 mi. It’s a perfect cube. What’s interesting is that its dimensions are given in three dimension rather than two. Now, 1400 mi x 1400 mi is roughly 2,000,000 sq miles. That’s half the size of the U.S. Imagine a city half the size of the u.s.! There’s a massive wall all around this gigantic city and the wall is made of jasper. I think Trump will be jealous of this wall! And the city itself is made of pure gold. I think it speaks of the rich and precious nature of the city. But what I couldn’t get over was that it’s 3 dimensional. A city or a region is always given in terms of two dimensions – width and length, but the new heaven is in 3 dimension – width, length, and height. Why? My mind started to wonder – will we be flying in heaven? Or maybe there is no gravity in heaven? Or maybe it will be 4 dimensional in heaven since its city is in 3 dimension… and i started getting excited about the city. That’s my future home, and there will be many rooms. I will never die. I never have to worry about getting old and getting sick. Never have to do work that I do not like. And there will a tree that bears 12 different kinds of fruit. When it is all over in just a few years – i’m 47 and let’s say I live to 87, I got 40 years left – that’s very short – I’ll be there forever with Jesus enjoying all that he has prepared for us.

That helps me get through today. Knowing the sure future helps me deal with the troubled present. Jesus, of course, knew about this place because He and the Father have built it together. And He wants us to go there and live with Him forever. But we are not fit for it. So, He came down to earth, where we are, and went to work to make us fit for that awesome place.

With that said, let me make a few observations about today’s passage in continuing with the John series. First, the background:  

Background: “V. 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” What feast? It’s called the Feast of Booths (or little tents). The ceremony reenacts the water coming forth from the rock during Moses’s time in the wilderness where God provided water for the Israelites in the middle of the desert. With this backdrop, Jesus says, “if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Now, the temptation is to think that Jesus is simply reenacting what Moses did in the desert years ago. He’s using that as an illustration to help the people understand his role. But it was not Jesus copying Moses, but it was Moses copying Jesus. But Moses lived before Jesus. Yes I know, it was what the theologians called a foreshadowing or previewing what is to come. Just like a trailer is a snippet of the movie to come out later, what Moses did in the desert, making water come out from the rock and what the Israelites have been doing for a thousand years every year at the feast of the booths is to lead up to Jesus fulfilling it on this day. Why do I say this? Because Jesus makes the claim (one better than moses is here. Even abraham) all scripture is about me)

There was a controversy as to who Jesus was. They weren’t quite sure as to His identity. Again, that is the right question to ask. It is not a matter of what He taught, but who He was. What got him in trouble is not so much what he taught as much as who he claimed to be. So, in today’s text Jesus says, “come to me and drink!” He doesn’t say come to me and I will teach you to drink. He’s telling them to drink Him! Just like He was telling the crowd before to eat Him as the bread. So, He doesn’t just give bread and give water, but He IS the bread and HE is the springs of living water.

Observations:

1. There is soul thirst.
2. 37, “If anyone thirsts…” Jesus said.  This is not referring to physical thirst. It’s a metaphor that points to our soul thirst. But there must be some parallel between physical and spiritual thirst that Jesus used this metaphor. What is it about physical thirst that parallels the spiritual/sour thirst? When we are thirsty, our body is signaling to us that it is lacking something essential to it. Our brain is an amazing mechanism. As you become dehydrated, there is less water in your blood, and neurons in your brain send out the word that it’s time to look for water. God made it that way to keep us alive. Our body is running out of something it absolutely needs – water – and sends a signal to the brain to get it. So, when our soul is thirsty, it will feel like we are missing something. We are lacking something that our soul absolutely needs. Different names are used to describe it – emptiness, meaninglessness, feeling like something is still missing even though you have everything you wanted, a need for companionship, void, feeling incomplete,

That’s our soul signaling to us that we are lacking something that we absolutely need. This is especially acute when our physical needs are met. You seem to have everything, on paper. You should be happy. But you are not. Something’s missing. What could it be? Jesus. What you were created for. What our soul is crying out is “I need God! I need Jesus!” And to this Jesus says, “Come to me and drink!”

A prayer of St. Augustine: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”

 

2. This offer is for everyone.

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Everyone has soul thirst. The rich and the poor. The whites and blacks. Old and young. Jesus is good news because no matter who you are and where you are from, He can quench your thirst. He’s not a regional or a ethnic God. Jesus is the answer. Well, what is the question? The question is, and everyone asks this at some point in their lives: How do I find satisfaction for my soul? How do I fulfill my need for acceptance, significance, and meaning? The answer? Jesus. Jesus accepts me as I am. He gives me significance by creating me and redeeming me and therefore I am twice His. And He makes my life meaningful as I am more than just about myself but something far bigger.

ILL: You know how I try to picture everyone walking by me wherever I go? At school, at Barnes and Noble, at church…? A flock of thirsty and needy people. People who are thirsting and hungering for acceptance, significance, and meaning…

I see it in teens taking every opportunity to be with their friends – the need for acceptance. It is no longer enough that their parents accept them. They need to be accepted by someone other than family.

I see it in moms sacrificing themselves to take care of their children – the need for meaning. We find pleasure in giving ourselves someone/something beyond ourselves.

I see it in businessmen working 60-70 hours a week no longer for money but for significance. He wants to leave his mark in the world…

Everyone has a soul thirst. This is a universal experience. Not only in all places, but also in all times. In the 21st century and in the 1st century…. Just in the book of John, 1) Nicodemus visits Jesus at night because he had a soul thirst. He knew following the laws and rituals weren’t enough. There had to be something more to life than that. 2) The Samaritan woman was married 5 times seeking for love and acceptance yet still not finding it. 3) The invalid man at the pool wanted to be made whole and be accepted by the community. 4) Even the crowd who followed Jesus after Jesus fed them with bread, had a need for security and love, but they mistakenly thought that all they need is food and drink. And Jesus is telling them, “No. Food and drink are there to remind you that just like your physical body needs food and drink, your soul needs me find satisfaction.”

 

3. Drinking from him is believing on Him.

V.37  “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me….” So, Jesus equates coming to Him to drink and believing on Him. He said something very similar in chapter 6: 35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Again, equating coming to him to eat with believing in Him.

So, believing in Jesus is more than just a mental assent. “Oh, I believe Jesus is the son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity.” Even the demons believe that! Knowing, agreeing that Jesus is the Son of God is not true salvific belief. True faith in Jesus, a belief that leads to salvation involves more than simply knowing in our heads that Jesus is the son of God. Then what is believing in Jesus? Is it then trusting Him? Relying on Him? Depending on Him? That’s kind of obscure, too. What does it mean to trust Jesus? We do it His way rather than our way? In other words, we will ourselves to live His way even though in our heart we don’t really want to so that in the end we will go to heaven? That doesn’t sound right either, does it? Then, what is believing in Jesus, if not a simple mental assent or even bending our will to His?

 

4. Believing in Him is finding pleasure in Him.

I believe believing in Jesus means to find our satisfaction in Jesus. In other words, we find Jesus pleasurable and we go to Him to satisfy us in our quest for acceptance, meaning and significance. It is implied in the very metaphor Jesus uses to believe in HIm – come and drink! Jesus is not just gas to engine, but water to those thirsty and bread to those who are hungry. There is pleasure associated with eating and drinking, isn’t there?

There is no pleasure like quenching our thirst when we are thirsty. Have you ever been so thirsty and you can think of nothing other than having a swig of water? Summer days, growing up in korea, you sweat a ton and there weren’t bottled waters evreywhere like now in the u.s. We had to wait until  we got home to have water, and our throats would be hurting b/c they are so dry. And then finally to get home to gulp that cold clear water from the well, wow, there is nothing like it. That is satisfaction like no other. Jesus said that He is that water. Jesus is enjoyable. Jesus is not someone we have to endure until we get to heaven, he is someone to be enjoyed.

Let me be more specific in how Jesus might be enjoyed.

Have you ever had someone you count to be valuable affirm your value that you didn’t care what others said about you? And you felt your soul literally swelling because you were affirmed and encouraged?  

– Women in particular struggle with their identity. It’s not just teenagers that struggle with this but also grown women. They struggle with the question of who am I, am I beautiful, am I acceptable? Questions of identity, acceptance and significance. Imaging someone who knows you better than you know yourself. And that someone is more significant than all your heroes combined. His name is Jesus. And He says to you, “Look at the nail marks on my hands, and the spear on my side. They are for you. You are this important to me. You are loved, my daughter.”

Teens. Believing in Jesus means finding Jesus is better than your friends. He is to be enjoyed more than your friends. Imagine yourself not endlessly tossed about emotionally because of what they think of you or how they are responding or not responding to you on social media. Why? Because you know that Jesus thinks a world of you and your sense of identity is grounded in Him – “I want friends, but even if all my friends ditched me, Jesus, my best Friend, will never abandon me!” Incidentally, that kind of confidence will make you more attractive to your potential friends.

Men – Imagine if our worth is not riding on how well our family is taken care of, how much we get paid at our work, how our colleagues see us, but on what Jesus thinks of us. He sees us as He saw the younger and older brothers in the prodigal son story. Love and compassion. He doesn’t think we are failures just because we have failed to meet up to our parents’ expectations or even our expectations. You are not what you do or how much you earn. You are a child of God and that’s enough!

Is there pleasure associated with all this? Absolutely. When I’m down, when I feel myself getting depressed, I preach to myself gospel: “You are more wicked than ever dared believe and yet, you are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than you ever dared hope.”

 

– Would you come to Jesus and drink? Find your identity, acceptance, meaning, and significance in Him!