3. Raging Pharisees (Joh_7:47; Luk_5:30; Luk_6:7; Luk_7:30; Joh_7:32; Act_23:9). (S. S. Times.)
Jesus the Christ
I. JESUS’ CLAIM TO DIVINE FULNESS (Joh_7:37-39).
1. It was tabernacles. The last day had come. It was Sabbath. All hearts overflowed with joy. With water from Siloah the priest came, pouring it upon the altar in the presence of all the people. That water was a symbol of salvation (Isa_12:3). Seeing it, Jesus makes, regarding Himself, this proclamation: “If any man thirst, let Him come unto Me and drink.” How emphatic the word “thirst!” It means all the needs of the soul and the deep cravings of mankind. The word “drink” is equally strong. Jesus here offers Himself as a complete satisfaction to man. The claim here set forth is one and the same thing with Isa_55:1. The same person speaks in both places. Jesus thus declares Himself to be God, i.e., the Christ.
2. The same thing is claimed in verse 38. The believer, having received Jesus, becomes himself a fountain of eternal life--rather is he a channel through which the grace of God flows to bless other hearts. This is the effect of the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. This Spirit is secured for the sinful world by the atonement of Jesus Christ. The cross has two sides--one turned towards God the Father, reconciling Him to man a sinner; the other turned towards man, securing for him the Holy Ghost. Under these two aspects Christ’s sacrifice is always presented in the Bible. It is to the last of these that verses 38, 39 refer. Hence Jesus declares Himself the Christ.
II. THE PEOPLE CLAIM JESUS AS CHRIST (verses 40-44).
1. Some declared that He was “The Prophet” (Deu_18:15). The person here spoken of was held by the Jews to be the coming Messiah Act_3:22-23).
2. Others bolder, pronouncing His name: “This is the Christ” (verse 41).
3. A third party, while they seemingly rejected Him, bore a testimony to His being the true Messiah (verses 41, 42). He had both the lineage and birthplace which they required to convince them. Only their own ignorance stood in the way. Observe:
(1) It was Christ’s strong claim regarding Himself that won Him confessors. So in teaching, we must present the truth in strong terms, leaving results with the truth itself.
(2) A little ignorance often prevents men from receiving the gospel (verse 42).
(3) Anything for an excuse is the motto of some persons. The cry now is, “He is a Galilean!” If not this, then something else, equally untrue.
(4) The plain teaching of the Word is apt to attract the attention of all and cause divisions among the people (verse 43). Nothing is talked about so much as Christianity.
(5) No one can damage the truth, except so far as God gives him permission, and then it is for a wise purpose, as the future will show (verses 32, 44). His hour did come. Then He was crucified. The greatest crime secured the world the greatest blessing!
III. THE OFFICERS CLAIM JESUS AS CHRIST (verses 45-49). Their testimony in His behalf is contained in verse 46. It was the same as saying: “His speaking is that of a Divine person.” Those hard men, that went to arrest Him, were overcome by the love shown in His speech; by the truth which impressed them; by the persuasion His words carried with them and by His authority as a teacher. These all were so marked that, returning, His enemies had to declare. “Never man so spake”--none, save God, could show such love, truth, persuasion and authority.
1. These are all divine qualities, man having them in proportion as he is “endued with power from on high.”
2. The gospel has these four great elements--Love, Truth, Persuasion, and Authority.
3. Those who will not receive the gospel pronounce such testimony as this “deception” (verse 47). The belief of the humble-hearted is foolishness unto the intellectual-proud (verses 48, 49).
IV. Nicodemus claims Him to be Christ (verses 50-53). The charge against Jesus by the Pharisees was that He claimed to be from God, the true Messiah. Nicodemus virtually said this: “You have not disproved this claim; nothing has been done to prove the falsity of Jesus’ words” (verse 51). He might have made His testimony stronger. We must remember that a secret disciple is not bold in word or deed. The reply of the Pharisees was weak, showing that their cause was based on ignorance and prejudice (verse 52). Such is the cause of unbelief to-day. (A. H. Moment, D. D.)
If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink
The thirst of humanity anticipated and met
On the last day of the feast of tabernacles the priests stood near the altar and poured water over it copiously from large capacious vessels. Perhaps the day took its name “the great day” from that circumstance. It was a symbolical act intended to connect itself with the predictions that in the days of the Messiah God would pour out His Spirit, and was something like a prayer that they might live to see those days and share that blessing. It was our Lord’s custom to connect His teaching with occurrences before Him, and so, perhaps pointing to that act, He said, “If any man,” etc., proclaiming His Messiahship.
I. HUMANITY IS THE SUBJECT OF INTENSE SPIRITUAL DESIRES. We know how intense the animal appetite of “thirst” may become. How terrible it has been in the burning desert or the besieged city i That is here taken to indicate the character of spiritual desire, and is an ordinary rhetorical figure used by our poets and philosophers when they speak of the thirst of gold, ambition, etc. But Christ offers no drink for the appetites or passions.
1. There is the thirst of the intellect--the desire for truth. It is very wonderful how soon the mind of a child will begin to speculate about the mystery of life, of death, of God, and the soul.
2. There is the thirst of conscience in two forms.
(1) There is the consciousness of moral weakness. A man feels the moral obligation he is under, sees the beauty of duty, has a conviction of right, but a sense of infirmity of purpose--makes his strong resolutions and scatters them the next day. And so the moral nature thirsts for strength to perform.
(2) The conscience is burdened by a sense of sin, and yearns for its forgiveness and removal. This has given rise to priests. The people create the priests. No priesthood ever yet originated itself for the purpose of trampling on the people.
3. There is the thirst of the heart: not merely a desire for happiness. You are made for something greater than that. There is a thirst in looking at the dislocation of things around us. What tears of soul bereavement and pain let out the waters of bitterness in times of darkness I So the soul wants something to rest upon, to feel that we are not in a neglected and fatherless world.
II. JESUS CHRIST IN THE GOSPEL MEETS THESE DIVERSIFIED WANTS.
1. Christianity professes to be a revelation of spiritual truth. It interprets nature and adds communications of its own about all that it is necessary for us to know.
2. Christianity meets the thirst of conscience in a special way.
(1) By the revelation of the Person of Christ. The gospel does not come as a system of thought, nor are its preachers philosophers; it presents a Saviour, through whom we may obtain forgiveness of sins.
(2) Connected with this is the mission of the Spirit to renew, to strengthen the will, to purify the affections, to make duty a delight, and bring the whole man into harmony with duty and God (Rom_8:3-4).
3. Christianity meets the thirst of the heart by providing a large measure of rational and manly happiness, and that in two ways.
(1) By the life of faith--faith as a daily habit, looking to God in all things; and along with that it gives spiritual consolation and grace.
(2) By the character it creates and sustains, delivering us from the torments which attend passion, sin, disharmony with God.
III. CHRIST NOT ONLY MEETS THE THIRST OF HUMANITY, BUT IS URGENT TO MEET IT. “Let Him come.” Do not mystify yourselves with the metaphysics of the Divine decrees. Take Christ in His plain utterances and remember that secret things belong unto God. He says, “if any man will, let Him come”--believe in His honesty of purpose, and that He means what He says, “It is not the will of my Father that one of these little ones should perish.” “You may perish, but that will be from your own acts, not God’s.”
IV. CHRIST IN MEETING THIS THIRST DOES OF SET PURPOSE MAKE US A BLESSING TO OTHERS. “Out of Him shall flow,” etc. (T. Binney.)
Thirst relieved
“A word spoken in season how good it is!” Much of the force of an observation depends upon its being well-timed. The orators of Greece and Rome attended to this. But there was One who “spake as never man spake,” who seized all occasions. Here is an instance of it.
I. THE APPETITE SUPPOSED.
1. Let us account for it. When man proceeded from the hand of God he was a stranger to thirst. He was formed for the enjoyment of God, and God became the source of his enjoyment. Then he was in his element. But sin has removed man from the fountain, and he now wanders through a parched wilderness. “My people have committed two evils,” etc.
2. Its nature. It includes
(1) Want and emptiness. The mind has an aching void. We might as well expect light in a beam cut off from the sun, the source of all radiance, as expect satisfaction of mind without God.
(2) Restlessness--the fever of the mind. Hence the anxiety of change, “seeking rest and finding none.”
(3) Misery. Disappointed in the objects of pursuit men turn away in disgust, saying, “miserable comforters are ye all.” Hence despondency and suicide.
3. Its universal prevalence. It is felt more or less intensely, but none are strangers to it.
(1) The inquiries of men prove this. “Who will show us any good.”
(2) The pursuits of men prove this. The toils of the studious, the slumbers of the voluptuary, the cell of the hermit, the hoards of the miser, all.say, “I thirst.”
(3) The regrets of men prove this. “Vanity of vanities,” etc.
II. THE SATISFACTION PREPARED.
1. The person who offers the refreshment. The eternal Son of God who became man, to die for sin and rise and ascend into heaven to “receive gifts for men,” even the Holy Spirit. The “living water.” Christ has the Spirit without measure for the enlightenment and salvation of men. Here is all that can satisfy the thirsty, soul--pardon for the guilty, liberty for the enslaved, peace for the distracted, and finally heaven.
2. The means of getting the living water. Note
(1) the approach of faith, “let him come.”
(2) The application of faith “drink.”
III. THE EXTENT OF THE INVITATION. “If any man.”
1. As to character. There is no description of the persons invited. “If any man,” be he who he may, whatever his age, country, condition. This is better than any specification of name, for others might bear the same.
2. As to the simplicity of the qualification. All men thirst. Don’t say I am not thirsty enough. If you thirst at all you are meant.
3. As to the sincerity of the Inviter. Can we doubt this? Is He not able, and willing to relieve us.
Conclusion:
1. Learn why Christ is imperfectly appreciated--because men do not realize their moral condition.
2. If this is not assuaged here it never will be in eternity. Read the parable of the rich man. (G. Clayton.)
Rivers of living water
1. These words were spoken on the last day of the feast--therefore on the last opportunity for doing good to that multitude. The dispersion of a mighty crowd is always affecting, as we forecast that it is a final parting with some, and see in it a foreshadowing of that last separation. Our Lord was sensitive to such feelings, and could not suffer the vast assemblage to break up without giving them something which might reveal itself in their hearts when far from the excitement of the city.
2. It was the great day, when, after the solemnities of the previous week and their august associations and suggestions, all susceptible souls would be open to elevated thoughts. So Jesus, seizing the moment when the metal was molten to give His own impress to it, cried, “If any man,” etc.
3. Christ’s gift is living waters. He speaks to us as subject to desires for which nature has made no provision, and offers Himself as a fountain of relief and eternal satisfaction. His words sweep the entire circle of humanity, for every man thirsts. The only question is, Can His religion do what everything else confessedly fails to do? “Yes,” said Jesus. The Holy Spirit as given by Him is as rivers of living water, because
I. THE SPIRIT IS THE CHANNEL OF GOD’S LOVE TO SOULS.
1. Man thirsts for love. It is the nobleness of our nature that food and raiment and gross pleasures do not satisfy it. What makes childhood’s blessedness, but that its whole atmosphere is love? Yet how far all human love comes short of satisfying our craving all know. But let a man be thoroughly certified that God loves him to save him, and that every moment he has access to God to tell Him all his griefs, what a river of refreshment must this love prove in his heart.
2. God’s love to us is His love in Christ--love, the most ample in its measure, the most intense in its power, the most complete in its adjustments to our condition. But it is not this love in a book that will give us relief. The testimony of the Book must be transferred to the heart to become a living reality there. The Spirit adds nothing to its dimensions, but makes it approved and accepted to the soul. Divine love is the sovereign element of all blessedness: Christ is the Divine Vessel holding that love which flows over with sweet waters, but it is the Spirit which witnesses of this to the soul.
II. THE SPIRIT IS THE CREATOR OF BLESSED AFFECTIONS IN THE SOUL. “Shall be in Him.” Man thirsts for an inward blessedness. Not in his circumstances but in his heart, in noble views, pure affections, generous aspirations, lies the true well-being of man. He may have millions and yet be haunted with fears of starvation. He may allow himself every luxury, and yet his soul be a level of monotonous wretchedness. Malignant self-centred passions are the fever of the soul. Place a man amidst the splendours of royalty, and a jealous spirit will make him miserable. It is from a right state of the heart that its blessedness must flow; therefore the true salvation of man is not outward but inward. It has its outward elements in an alteration of man’s relation to God; but what were it worth for the outcast to be delivered from his rags and poverty, and be received back if he retained all the evil passions which ruined him? He must become an altered man to become blessed. All experience and Scripture bear witness that this is a work not for man but for the Spirit of God. It is the almighty spirit of love, whose living waters flowing into the heart destroy its bitterness and impurity, and make it a fountain of brightness.
III. THE SPIRIT IS THE POWER OF SPIRITUAL COMMUNICATION.
1. As the waters of a fountain gush forth by their own pleasure, so do the living waters of spiritual life impart themselves to all around. Every refreshed soul is constituted a well of refreshment, like a fertile spot in the wilderness. How is this done? By the gifts and service which it prompts. Whenever He is in the heart, our families, neighbourhoods, churches will be refreshed. Stagnant waters which have no outlet become corrupt and bitter like the Dead Sea.
2. Man thirsts for successful, useful action. You are not content with the result which your daily calling gives you. Without despising common duties, you feel that you were made for nobler things. Well, the noblest course is open to all. You need not acquire rank or money. If renewed by the Spirit, you can make your course as a shining river. No other life is worth living: all other is vanity and vexation.
3. This blessedness and usefulness must be habitual, a river not a brook. Nothing can be more remote from the true idea of the Holy Spirit than transcient excitement. Conclusion:
1. This gift of the Spirit is acquired by faith. “Coming” is
“believing.”
2. This gift assumes different forms in different believers.
3. This gift every believer is bound to use. (J. Riddell, M. A.)
The incident
While the morning sacrifice was being prepared, a priest, accompanied by a joyous procession with music, went down to the pool of Siloam, whence he drew water into a golden pitcher capable of holding three log (rather more than two pints). But on the Sabbath they fetched the water from a golden vessel in the Temple itself, into which it had been carried from Siloam on the preceding day. At the same time that the procession started for Siloam, another went to a place in the Kedron valley, close by, called Motza, whence they brought willow branches, which, amid the blasts of the priests’ trumpets, they stuck on either side of the altar of burnt offering, bending them over toward it so as to form a kind of leafy canopy. Then the ordinary sacrifice proceeded, the priest who had gone to Siloam so timing it that he returned just as his brethren carried up the pieces of the sacrifice to lay them on the altar. As he entered by the “water-gate,” which obtained its name from this ceremony, he was received by a threefold blast from the priests’ trumpets. The priests then went up the rise of the altar and turned to the left, where there were two silver basins with narrow holes--the eastern, a little wider, for the wine; and the western, a little narrower, for the water. Into these the wine of the drink offering was poured, and at the same time the water from Siloam, the people shouting to the priest, “Raise thy hand,” to show that he really poured the water into the basin which led to the base of the altar … As soon as the wine and water were poured out, the Temple music began, and the Hallel (Psa_113:1-9; Psa_114:1-8; Psa_115:1-18; Psa_116:1-19; Psa_117:1-2; Psa_118:1-29.) was sung … Salvation in connection with the Son of David was symbolized by the pouring out of water Thus the Talmud says distinctly, “Why is the name of it called the drawing out of water? Because of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, according to what is said: ‘ With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.’”… We can now in some measure realize the event. The festivities of the week of tabernacles were drawing to a close. “It was the last day, that great day of the feast.”… It was on that day after the priest had returned from Siloam with his golden pitcher, and for the last time poured its contents to the base of the altar; after the Hallel had been sung to the sound of the flute, the people shouting and worshipping as the priests three times drew the threefold blasts from their silver trumpets--just when the interest of the people had been raised to its highest pitch, that from the mass of the worshippers, who were waving towards the altar quite a forest of leafy branches as the last words of Psa_118:1-29, were chanted--a voice was raised which resounded through the Temple, startled the multitude, and carried fear and hatred to the hearts of their leaders. It was Jesus who “stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.” Then by faith in Him should each one truly become like the pool of Siloam, and from his inmost being “rivers of water flow.” “This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.” Thus the significance of the rite, in which they had just taken part, was not only fully explained, but the mode of its fulfilment pointed out. (A. Edersheim, D. D.)
The significance of the incident and Christ’s use of it
In the latter days of Jerusalem, as we learn from the history of the period, a ceremony was added to those of the ordained feasts of booths, intended, evidently, to commemorate the thirst in the wilderness, and the supply that was provided from the rock in Horeb. On the last day of the feast, towards evening, the priests formed a procession, and, having drawn water from the pool of Siloam, bore it to the Temple, and poured it on the ground, so that it should flow down to the lower streets of the city. This symbol pointed, probably, to Ezekiel’s grand vision of waters issuing from the Temple, small at first, but rapidly increasing, until they became a river that could not be passed over--a river to swim in. The precession of priests has gone to Siloam and returned to the Temple. They have poured the water from the golden vessel, and a rivulet is making its way along the unwonted channel, forth from the hallowed courts towards the city. The assembled crowds are ranged on either side, watching the progress of the mimic stream. The beams of the setting sun strike the water, where in a hollow it spreads into a pool, and golden glory flashes for a moment from the spot that had been dull dry earth before. The multitude gaze in ignorant superstition; but some of the Lord’s hidden ones are there, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and spelling painfully out of these dead letters the name of their living Redeemer. Jesus looked on the crowd as they gazed wistfully on the symbolic water. His heart was yearning for them. He knew what was in man: He knew that the Jews made idols of these significant signs, as they made idols of the scriptures which were printed on their clothing. He saw them drinking that which cannot quench the thirst of a soul. He pitied them, and came to the rescue. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
The Preacher’s last sermon for the season
I. THE INQUIRY FOR THE THIRSTY.
1. It is very wide. “Any man” of all that heterogeneous mass.
2. It is anxiously narrowed down. “If”--as if He had said the mass of you do not thirst; do any of you thirst? He reads their genera/indifference only too well. Alas I the thirsty are few: self-content possesses the minds of many, and world content steals over others. They are in a desert; no drop of dew falls about them, and the water-bottle has long since been dry; but they are mocked by the mirage, and they put aside their thirst with the fond idea that they can drink to the full.
3. It is painfully clear. The thirsty know what thirst is. It is a self-explaining pain.
4. It is being continually repeated. It is as urgent to day as then.
5. What is this thirst? Nothing actual or substantive; it is a lack crying out of its emptiness. When our system needs drink, a merciful providence creates a pang which drives us to a supply. Thirst rings the alarm bell, and mind and body set to work to supply the demand. It were a dreadful thing if the system needed water and yet did not thirst; for we might be fatally injured before we knew that any harm was happening to us. So with spiritual thirst.
II. THE ONE DIRECTION FOR THE RELIEF OF ALL SUCH THIRSTY ONES. “Let him come,” etc.
1. Christ who gives the water which quenches spiritual thirst, invites us to Himself personally. What creed you are to believe will do by and by, just now your duty is to come to Christ. At this time Christ had not been crucified, risen, etc., but the text was spoken with a foresight of all that should transpire up to His glorification. Come directly to Him, who by all this has become a fountain of living water--not to creeds, ceremonies, sacraments, priests, services, doings, or feelings. Salvation lies in Him only.
2. All that a sinner wants is to be found in abundance in Him, and all that every sinner wants.
3. In Jesus is a varied supply. The thirst of the soul is not like the thirst of the body which is quenched with one liquid; the soul thirsts for many things--peace in distraction, pardon of sin, purity from pollution, progress ingrace, power in prayer, perseverance; and all this is in Christ.
4. We must come to Christ and bring nothing of our own except our thirst, and that coming is believing.
5. Having come we must drink--the first action of the infant, the easiest act of the man.
III. THE PERMISSION HERE GIVEN FOR THEIR PARTICIPATION.
1. There is no limit as to what thou has formerly done, in the way of sin, unbelief, hardness, denial.
2. There is no limit put as to where thou hast been before. A man went to a merchant to ask the price of a certain article. He then went to others and tried to buy at a cheaper rate, but found that the first had quoted the lowest price. So he went back, but the merchant refused to serve him, not caring for such customers. But if you have been to Moses, to Rome, yea, even to the devil, Christ still says, “Come unto Me.”
3. There is no limit because of any kind of lack. Some think themselves deficient in tenderness, or penitence, or disqualified by age, poverty, illiterateness. Some are locking the door with the very key that was meant to open it. “I am afraid I do not thirst;” “I have not the sense of need I ought to have;” but this means that you are sensible that you are more needy than you think you are. The fact that you need a sense of need proves how horrible is your need. Would you come if you did thirst? Then come and you shall thirst. The more unfit the more you are invited; your very unfitness is your fitness.
4. When Christ says “Come” nobody else can say “Nay.”
IV. THE ENTREATY FOR THEIR COMING. “Jesus stood and cried.” It was the last opportunity, hence the urgency. Surely we ought to entreat Him to let us come. Instead of that we are callous. When a man has charity to give does he entreat people to accept it? How strange that you should be so unwilling and Christ so anxious! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The great invitation
I. WHO THEY ARE WHO ARE INVITED. The thirsty.
1. In all thirst there is
(1) A sense of want. Every man is sensible that he is not self-sufficient.
(2) Desire of supply. The soul of man is ever desiring.
2. The object of this thirsting
(1) The end where the soul may rest, and that is happiness. For this every man thirsts.
(2) The means leading to the end. He that desires refreshment, desires also to drink, though he may by ignorance take a cup of poison.
3. There is a two-fold thirst
(1) Natural and common to all men. It is as natural for a man to desire happiness as it is for him to breathe. But men miss the way and seek it in the world, and hence, disappointed, say, “Who will show us any good?”
(2) Supernatural, experienced by those only whose heart God hath touched. “My soul thirsteth for the living God.” There is no happiness unless this is satisfied.
II. TO WHAT THEY ARE INVITED.
1. To come to Christ, i.e., to believe on Him (Joh_7:33). Unbelief is a departing from the living God: faith is coming back.
2. To drink, i.e., to actually make use of Christ for the supply of this need. This points out three things in Christ.
(1) The fulness of Christ for needy sinners.
(a) In Him there is a fulness of merit to take off the fulness of our guilt.
(b) A fulness of the Spirit to take away the power of sin, and to actuate us in all good.
(c) A fulness of grace.
(2) The suitableness of Christ. In Him there is a remedy for every disorder.
(3) His satisfactoriness. This drinking also implies three things in us.
(a) The soul going out for a supply of its particular wants, renouncing all confidence in itself or any creature (Jer_17:5).
(b) The soul’s going out in desire after supply from Christ upon His invitation.
(c) Believing application of Christ to the soul in
(i) catching hold of the promise suited to our case.
(ii) Venturing our case upon the promise and proposed supply.
(iii) Confidence in Christ answering our necessities.
III. MOTIVES FOR ACCEPTING THE INVITATION.
1. The supply of the needs of sinners is the great end of the mystery of Christ.
2. He is able to supply all needs however great they may be. Christ is a fountain that is never dry. The creatures are broken cisterns and soon exhausted.
3. Consider your need of Him.
4. If you come now you will drink of the rivers of God’s pleasures for evermore. (T. Boston, D. D.)
We must drink in the gospel
A celebrated minister was once taken ill, and his wife requested him to go and consult an eminent physician. He went to this physican, who welcomed him very heartily. The minister stated his case. The doctor said: “Oh it is a very simple matter, you have only to take such and such a drug and you will be right.” The patient was about to go, but the physician pressed him to stay, and they entered into pleasant conversation. The minister went home to his wife and told her what a delightful man the doctor had proved to be. He said, “I do not know that I ever had a more delightful talk. The good man is eloquent, and witty, and gracious.” The wife replied, “But what remedy did he prescribe?” “Dear,” said the minister, “I quite forgot what he told me on that point.” “What?” said she, “did you go to a physician for advice, and came away without the remedy?” “It quite slipped my mind” he said, “the doctor talked so pleasantly that his prescription has quite gone out of my head.” You must receive Christ by faith. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ a Divine Fountain
“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. What man would dare to say of merely physical things, “If any man lacks knowledge, let him come unto me.” Neither Humbolt, nor Liebig, nor Agassiz would dare to say this, even of the departments in which they are pre-eminent, how much less of the whole range of learning! yet Christ, disdaining physical things, appeals at once to the soul with all its yearnings, its depths of despair, its claspings--like a mother feeling at midnight for the child whom death has taken--its infinite outreachings, its longings for love, and peace, and joy, which nothing can satisfy this side of the bosom of God, and says, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.” He stands over against whatever want there is in the human bosom, whatever hunger there is in the moral faculties, whatever need there is in the imagination, and says, “He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” (H. W. Beecher.)
The gospel a general offer of grace
I was travelling some time ago, and I had a little child with me, and I was not acquainted with the law of the railroad respecting children, but I happened to see this announcement, “All children under five years of age free.” I did not ask any questions. My child was under five. Neither did I buy a ticket. I took the announcement to mean what it said, and did not pay a halfpenny. (D. L. Moody.)
We must feel our need of Christ before we come to Him
Suppose a man were to call upon the physician and say, “Well, sir, I want your services.” “Are you sick?” says the physician. “No; not that I know of.” “What, then, do you want of me?” “Oh! I want your services.” “But what for?” The man makes no reply. “Are you in pain?” “No.” “Is your head out of order?” “No.” “Nor your stomach?” “No; I believe not. I feel perfectly well; but still I thought I should like a little of your help.” What would a doctor think of such a case as this? “What must Christ think of those that ask His help, not feeling that they really need it? (H. W. Beecher.)
The thirsty should drink
During a revival in a town in Ohio, a man who had been very worldly minded was awakened, but for some time concealed his feelings, even from his wife, who was a praying woman. She left him one evening in charge of his little girl of three years of age. After her departure his anxiety of mind became so great that he walked the room in his agony. The little girl noticed his agitation, and inquired, “What ails you, pa?” He replied, “Nothing,” and endeavoured to quiet his feelings, but all in vain. The child looked up sympathizingly in his face, and inquired, with all the artlessness and simplicity of childhood, “Pa, if you were dry, wouldn’t you go and get a drink of water?” The father started as if a voice from heaven had fallen on his ear. He thought of his thirsty soul famishing for the waters of life; he thought of that living Fountain opened in the gospel; he believed, and straightway fell at the Saviour’s feet. From that hour he dates the dawning of a new light, and the beginning of a new life.
The patience of Christ
It was the last day of the feast of tabernacles. It was the eighth day which was spent as a Sabbath, but the Saviour did not cease to preach because the festival was almost over. Till the last day He continued to instruct, to invite, to entreat. It is but one instance out of many of the Saviour’s pertinacity of lovingkindness. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Faith is easy
Drink! That is not a difficult action. Any fool can drink; in fact, many are great fools because they drink too much of poisonous liquors. Drink! Thou canst surely do that. Thou hast only to be as a spunge that sucks up all that comes near it. Put thy mouth down and suck up that which flows to thee in the river of Christ’s love, open wide thy soul and drink in Christ, as the great northern whirlpool sucks in the sea. If any man thirst let him receive Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The spirit dwelling in, and flowing from, the Christian man
Now was the time of the autumn heats. The effects of the harvest rains had long passed. The crops were just removed from the face of the ground. Above was the burning Syrian sun. Beneath--as with us, now--was the scorched and arid soil. All was dust, and weariness, and heat. It was the time of a great festival--the great autumnal feast of tabernacles, commemorative of the fruits of the earth now gathered in.
I. Here you may observe we have AN INVITATION--“Jesus stood, and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let Him come unto Me, and drink.”
1. There seems to me something emphatic in that word, “stood.” It expresses in a teacher the attitude of prominence, energy, aggression. It was well suited to High, who, as tie was there placed amidst that perishing throng, came “to seek, and to save that which was lost.”
2. And the voice is still more marked than the attitude. “Jesus stood and cried.” This term is applied to those who arc labouring under some strong passion or affection of the mind, whether of grief, fear, desire, or other. Here it expresses earnestness and energy. At least, let ministers shew by their manner that they have a deep interest in the salvation of those they address.
3. But from the attitude, and the voice, turn we to the words themselves, to the gracious invitation of the Lord. Whom does He address? Those who thirst. A large class, as many will testify. For they who thirst include all who are not satisfied.
(1) There, for example, are they who are disappointed. On them life opened fairly and brightly, but its horizon became overcast. Full of joyous anticipation they sprang forward with alacrity in the race of life. But unlooked for difficulties arose, They experienced treachery and falsehood. Life to them lost its charm. They found not what they sought. They thirsted, but were not satisfied.
(2) Then there are the prosperous who cannot be satiated with prosperity. In their fulness they are empty; in their joyfulness they are sad; pleasure pleases not; slumber soothes not.
(3) And there are those, too, who, having tried to slake the thirst of their undying souls with dying things, and discovering their error, are now seeking in things heavenly, unfailing sources, and perennial fountains. These do not, now, thirst for the creature. They have found out their error, and plainly see that the creature cannot satisfy. Now to these, and to all others, unsatisfied, anxious, craving, desiring, thirsting, Jesus cries, “Come unto Me, and drink.” And it is thus that Jesus meets the cravings of our humanity; His providence supplies our bodily wants. “As thy day, so shall thy strength be.” In the same way man’s intellect meets in his God, that on which it can repose. Who should satisfy mind but He who made mind! But, oh! the storms and tempests of thought! Then there is the way in which the Saviour meets man’s spirit. The heart of man must have something whereon to repose, something to love, something wherewith to sympathize. The Saviour in His humanity here meets the heart of man.
II. Nor must we omit to notice THE EXTENT OF THE LORD’S INVITATION--“Any man.” “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.”
III. Having thus spoken of this invitation of our Lord, we have now to notice HIS PROMISE, WITH JOHN’S COMMENT THEREON.
1. “Water.” Refreshment and purification are presented to us in this figure.
2. “Living water.” Not stagnant, much less putrescent. Life belongs to the Christian; and this life he must seek to impart to others.
3. “Rivers of living water.” Here are presented to us ideas of depth, copiousness, perpetuity. Eternal life in believers is not to be scant, or shallow. A joyous and abounding river, it is to flow with waters exuberant and vivifying to all around.
4. They are “flowing waters.” “Out of Him shall flow rivers.” The Spirit which God has given is not to be restrained.
IV. But in WHAT MANNER may this water of the Spirit in a man be said to flow out of him?
1. One main method of the manifestation of the Spirit has already been alluded to--by the words of our mouth. But we would not restrain the symbol of these flowing waters only to a man’s words.
2. His actions also may be included. The Christian’s life should be a continual call to turn from the path of death.
3. Influence we would also name as another most effective mode of making these waters flow to the benefit of our fellow-men. Influence! Influence voluntary, and involuntary! How wide its extent, and how incalculable its power!
V. We have expounded and illustrated the text. Let us conclude by some INSTRUCTIONS drawn from it.
1. See the diffusive character of the dispensation of the gospel I A man is not made partaker of the Spirit of God for His own mere individual salvation, but for the salvation of others also.
2. But let us be careful to avoid a common error. The water of life must be put in us for our own salvation before it can flow out of us for others’ good. It is not like the spider’s web which she spins out of herself.
3. But how encouraging the promise, “He that believeth on Me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water.” Christ here expressly declares that if we believe on Him we shall be made partakers of His Spirit.
4. Holy gracious the invitation! “If any man thirst let him come unto Me, and drink.” If our lips are to feed others, those lips shall themselves be first fed.
5. Contrast here these living waters of the soul with that perishing water of Shiloah of the ceremonial before alluded to. Here is the contrast between religion spiritual and religion ceremonial--between sacraments (or signs) and the things by them signified. The Jewish populace saw nothing but the water--heeded for the most part nothing but the ceremony. (M. Brock, M. A.)
The affinity between God and man in regard of man’s wants and God’s fulness
1. This saying of our Lord’s produced among some the conviction that He was the Christ (Joh_7:40-41). We gather from hence that it met some instinct of the human heart. He struck a note which vibrated in their inmost souls. What was the secret of this effect. It was no doubt that many of the audience felt that they were spiritually athirst, that there was a craving in them after light, truth, love which nothing on earth met. They felt that He was making an offer of which hey had need to avail themselves. They are convinced of His claims by offering them exactly what they had felt the want of.
2. In order to the existence of love between two parties, there must be a secret affinity between them in virtue of which one supplies what the other needs. Take the case of friendship between the sexes. The man needs sympathy and confidence, which the woman supplies; the woman needs support, protection, counsel, which it is the man’s part to furnish. This principle lies also at the foundation of commercial intercourse. A. produces what B. wants, and B. what A. wants; and this mutual want draws both together. The same mutual interdependence is observable in nature. Plants are fed by the light and air of heaven, and return the perfumes which some of them exhale. It is so with man and God.
I. MAN HAS AN URGENT NEED OF GOD. When this makes itself felt he cries, “My soul is athirst for God,” and then he is arrested by the offer of the Son of God, “If any man thirst,” etc. Of course all things need God for their continuance, but man has needs which distinguish him from the inferior creation.
1. His understanding is never satisfied with the truth it contrives to reach.
(1) There is nothing more interesting than discovery. It is as if God had proposed to us in nature and life certain enigmas, and had challenged human ingenuity to the solution of them. But observe how, upon a discovery being made, it loses its interest, and we immediately go in quest of fresh truth. Just as the pleasure of hunting is not derived from the game which is caught, but from the excitement of the pursuit, so with the quest of truth. You see this restlessness in the pursuit of religious as well as scientific truth. The inbred curiosity of the mind, which desires above all to know where it is precluded from knowledge, is the fruitful source of heresies and fantastic speculations.
(2) But is there nothing corresponding to this restless thirst? Is the mind to fret itself for ever and never reach the goal? Is there no highest truth in which the understanding may at length acquiesce? Not so. The Scriptures say that God is Light, and that in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. When, therefore, man displays an insatiable desire to know, he should remind himself that God is its only satisfaction, and this Light is to be enjoyed, not by any painful straining of reason, but by entire submission of the will to God’s will.
2. Man craves after Infinite Good.
(1) This is attested
(a) By the mischievous excesses of intemperance. The instinct that prompts man to this is peculiar to him. There is nothing of it among the lower creatures. The real account of it is that by the constitution of his mind man thirsts after a good he finds in no created object. The instinct misdirected by the Fall, goes astray. Having a hungry spirit, he makes a desperate effort to extract from bodily enjoyments what may appease its cravings, but the body, like a people, is impoverished and enfeebled by excessive taxation.
(b) But there are more refined ways in which men endeavour to satisfy this craving. They seek preeminence of ability or position or wealth; the flattering speeches which are a sort of homage to superiority--how dear are these things to the soul! Not that the soul rests on them; having tasted them it immediately craves for new enjoyments, a wider reputation, a higher pre-eminence.
(c) The best of earthly good with which the spirit seeks to satisfy its thirst is human sympathy. It plants for itself a domestic and social paradise, but the trees, alas I like Jonah’s gourd, are apt to be smitten. And, independently of this, no mere natural affection can satisfy the craving for love.
(2) But the Creator can satisfy every craving. Do we long after a joyous exhilaration of the Spirit which shall tide us over our difficulties? “Be not drunk with wine … but be filled with the Spirit.” Do we thirst after esteem? Human esteem is but a taper; the real sunlight of the soul is the smile of
God’s approbation. Is pre-eminence our aim? He is the Fountain of Honour. Do we long for sympathy? He is Love.
II. DOES GOD DEPEND ON MAN? Yes, as a field of display for the Divine perfections. God longs to surround Himself with intelligent and joyous creatures to lavish on them the resources of His infinite goodness. Here we may catch a glimpse of the reason why evil was permitted. To be bounteous to creatures retaining their integrity is a very inadequate effect of God’s goodness. Mercy could never have poured itself forth, had there not been vessels of mercy to receive it. And vessels of mercy could never have existed had there been no transgression. We may therefore recognize between God and man a natural reciprocity. He is the only Being who can satisfy the deep wants of the soul. And from His intrinsic goodness He longs to satisfy them. (Dean Goulburn.)
Christ our fountain head
I. CHRIST THE CLOVEN ROCK.
1. The smitten rock. Moses smote and Christ was smitten to save a perishing people.
2. The spring of life flowing therefrom.
3. Its inexhaustible fulness (Joh_4:14). The spring in the desert is now dry.
4. Its wonderful adaptability. Tropical suns cannot evaporate it, nor Polar breezes freeze it. It is adapted to every climate, and wise and foolish, rich and poor, must drink and cleanse themselves here.
II. THE SINNER AND THE FOUNTAIN.
1. The sinner thirsts. Life is a desert, provoking craving for satisfaction.
2. His consciousness of it. Desire for higher, purer experiences will awake in every rational soul. Then do what he will he cannot reason it away.
3. Its evidences. Man’s endeavour to find rest somewhere; unnatural activity of mind and body; oft a desperate effort to drown the voice of God.
4. False waters.
(1) Wilful blindness.
(2) So-called innocent pleasures.
(3) Sinful indulgence--Marahs, or Dead Seas.
5. The thirst assuaged.
(1) By recognizing the terrible malady of sin.
(2) By confessing guilt.
(3) By coming to the fountain. The first draught allays the burning fever of the soul.
III. THE BELIEVER AND THE FOUNTAIN.
1. The disciple’s thirst. Every draught creates a new longing. He thirsts for a sanctified life, for Christian work, for victory over sin, for conformity to Christ.
2. His need for the fountain. Only near the fountain can he live and grow.
3. Its reflecting power. Here he learns to know himself; what he ought to be and what he is.
4. Its purifying power.
5. The visits to that fountain the thermometer of the Christian’s inner life. (H. Dosker.)
Come and drink
I. THE TIME. The last and great day of the feast when Israel’s joy, in appearance, was at the fullest, and when there seemed least need of any other joy.
II. THE PLACE. Jerusalem--the Temple. What need of anything else than what the Temple afforded: particularly through the teachings of this feast.
III. THE GIVER. The Son of God, and not merely a prophet, who knew what they needed, and what He had to give; Himself God’s own gift. To Himself He, as ever, turns their eye. “Come unto Me.” Feasts, altars, sacrifices, doctrines, ceremonies, were all vain.
IV. THE GIFT. Living water; the Holy Spirit; a gift sufficient to fill the soul of the emptiest, and to quench the thirst of the thirstiest, and then to overflow upon others. There are two gifts of God which stand alone in their priceless greatness--the gift of His Son and the gift of His Spirit.
V. THE PERSONS. Not heathen and irreligious, but religious Jews, engaged in Divine worship. Before it was to the Samaritan that He presented the living water. In Rev_22:1-21. it is to Jew and Gentile alike. So also in Isa_55:1-13. But here the thirsty one is the Jew. His rites and feasts cannot quench his thirst, which calls for something more spiritual and Divine. So to those who frequent the sanctuary--who pray and praise outwardly--the Lord now speaks. External religiousness may help to pacify conscience, but it does not confer happiness. Only Christ can do that.
VI. THE LOVE. It is all love from first to last. In love Christ presents the full vessel of living water, and presses to their parched lips. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Christ’s call to thirsty souls
1. These are bold words, and they would be as false as bold if He who speaks them were no more than man. Shall a mere man presume to invite, not a small number for knowledge and sympathy--that we might understand--but the whole race for the satisfaction of their most vehement and spiritual ideas. The presumption would be as blasphemous as absurd. But He who thus speaks has a right to speak, and is conscious of it.
2. All human desire and need is expressed in the one word “thirst.” Consider the different kinds of thirst, and see how coming to Christ will satisfy them.
I. The lowest and commonest of all, the thirst for HAPPINESS.
1. A man may come with a desire which is not gracious, but simply natural, since every creature desires to be happy, and which is universal, since no man is perfectly satisfied, and drink the cooling waters of the gospel. Those who limit the invitation to the graciously thirsty undo the grace they seek to magnify, and take all the freeness from the gospel. The words “any man” shatter such a fancy in pieces. Let him come with the feeling he has. It may be inward disturbance, brooding fear, gnawing heart pain, weariness of disappointment, inner longing--whatever it be he is welcome.
2. If he does not see how Christ can be of any service let him trust Him as he would a man who has the credit of being trustworthy, so far as to try His specific. Two men once followed Jesus because they heard another speak well of Him. They did not know very well what they wanted, so they asked Him about His home. He gave an answer He is giving to all the thirsty, “Come and see.” They went, and never left Him more.
3. But coming so, a man soon begins to be conscious of higher desires.
II. Thirst for RIGHTEOUSNESS. If the desire for happiness is to be fruitful it will and must take this form.
1. A moral creature can never be happy without rectitude. If a man has the feeling “let me be happy, but let me enjoy the pleasures of sin,” he either does not come or coming does not drink. The thirst therefore continues, and becomes a pain.
2. But to come to the righteous one is to see righteousness and to become conscious of unrighteousness.
3. Can I be right, and How? How can these stains be cleansed? Christ alone can answer these questions, and satisfy this great desire. His blood cleanses. His righteousness avails. It is to be in them as a principle as well as on them as a garment.
III. The thirst for LOVE--the love that shall love us, and the love that shall go out to those who love us. When this desire is fully aroused it will not rest until it finds Jesus Christ. It is but a little way when you can say, “He or she loves me,” “I am loved of husband, wife, parents, friends.” This will never satisfy an immortal nature. Take the earthly love that is good and pure. It is the gift of God. Rut that you may have that faculty fully developed take first the love that passest knowledge.
IV. There is a thirst profounder and vaster which Christ alone can satisfy--the thirst for LIFE. The others may be traced back to this. It is the deep organic desire which has been implanted by its Author for its perpetuation. Every man has it. The shrinking from annihilation is instinctive. Out towards the realm of life it stretches imploring hands. But where? Reason cannot demonstrate its existence; imagination cannot find it in her loftiest flight. Philosophy says, “You give me no data, and I can give you no conclusion.” Ah, yes! no data; for the departed never return. And yet we thirst for them; and, if we are Christians, we are sure we shall see them again. But how? By His word who is the Life, and drinking of Him we live indeed. “Any man.” That is you. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
I. MAN AS A THIRSTY CREATURE. Every man thirsts.
The soul’s thirst satisfied in Jesus
1. Constitutionally. Not as accidentally excited, but as made by God to thirst. It is in our nature to thirst.
(1) For life. In deep sorrow we may cry, “O that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave!” In unrest we may say, “I would not live alway.” With heaven opened, we may desire to depart and be with Christ. But Satan spake truly, “All that a man hath will he give for his life.”
(2) For pleasure; according to our idea of felicity and our capacity for bliss. Man is not naturally a lover of misery.
(3) For activity. Men are net naturally lazy.
(4) For society. The results of the solitary system in our prisons show that the desire for association is constitutional.
(5) For knowledge. The subjects upon which we seek information vary; but all men desire to know.
(6) For power, from the moment in which we seize and shake the rattle to the hour in which we dispose of our property.
(7) For the esteem and love of others.
(8) For the possession of objects of beauty.
(9) For God. That this thirst is natural is proved by the fact that religion of some kind is universal. There is not a nation of Atheists.
2. There are derived thirsts, dependent upon the particular condition of the individual, and grafted on the natural thirst. Thus a desire for wealth may arise from a thirst for enjoyment, or power, or honour, or social connections. A thirst for freedom may arise from desire for activity, and for religious unity by desire for religious enjoyment. Any natural thirst creates others.
3. The natural, and many of the artificial, thirsts would have existed had man kept his first estate; but the entrance of sin has produced depraved thirsts. Sin itself is a morbid thirst, and actual sin is the offspring of such thirst (Jam_1:14-15). Covetousness, envy, etc., are depraved thirsts.
4. The return of man to God and his salvation by Christ involve new thirsts. There is the thirst
(1) Of the quickened spirit for particular religious knowledge.
(2) Of the penitent for pardon.
(3) Of the new born for righteousness.
(4) Of the child of God for being filled with all the fulness of God.
5. There are a few facts connected with these thirsts that we may not overlook.
(1) Those thirsts which are natural cannot be evil in themselves; and those which, being artificial, are lawful expansions of the natural are equally good.
(2) The influence of our thirsts is most extensive and important. In some cases our thirst is a ruling passion; but in all cases they govern thought, prompt the imagination, affect the judgment, awaken or quiet the emotions, guide the will, lead to action, and form our characters.
(3) Most potent, therefore, are they. A man is raised or cast down, destroyed or built up by his thirsts.
(4) When a man is sick, he needs not medicine irrespective of its nature, but the specific for his particular disease. Poisoned food is more dangerous than continued hunger. He is blessed, not whose thirsts are for the moment slaked, but whose thirsts are slaked at Divine fountains.
II. JESUS CHRIST AS THE FOUNTAIN OF SUPPLY. Take the invitation in connection
1. With our lawful natural thirsts. We thirst
(1) For continued life, and Jesus says, “Come unto Me and drink” (1Co_15:21-22; Joh_11:25-26).
(2) For activity, and Jesus says, “Come,” etc. (Joh_14:12).
(3) For enjoyment, and Christ gives joy in every gift, and promises it in every promise, and makes every duty its instrument (Mat_5:1-8; Joh_16:24; 1Pe_1:8).
(4) For power, and Jesus makes His disciples the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and kings and priests unto God.
(5) For society, and Christ satisfies it (Heb_12:22-23).
(6) For the love of others, and Christ directs streams of kindness to every one who comes to Him by means of His new commandment (Joh_13:34-35).
(7) For knowledge, and Jesus is Himself the Truth, in the knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life (Joh_17:3).
(8) For God, and He manifests God’s name to us, and shows us the Father.
2. If we here speak of depraved tastes, it must be to say that they who thirst morbidly cannot come to Christ and drink; but they may come to Him and be cured of their evil craving. As the thirst of a fever may be removed by a physician, so sinful thirsts may be removed by our Saviour.
3. The thirsts of the returning prodigal and repentant sinner are specially recognized in these words (Psa_51:1; Psa_51:8-9; Luk_18:18; Mar_2:5; Mar_5:34; Joh_8:11).
4. All the thirsts of the God-born spirit are here recognized.
Conclusion: From these words
1. We might preach humanity, and show what is in man. We might exhibit him as a dependent, receptive, desiring being; that he is not like his Maker, self-sufficient.
2. But we will rather preach Christ. Here we see
(1) The knowledge which He had of human nature. He knew the thirsts of the multitude in whose midst He spake.
(2) His recognition of all that pertains to man. His words and works meet most entirely all human needs. They are not like flowers given to the starving,.or gauze raiment to the naked in winter; but like bread to the hungry and clothes to the beggar.
(3) But what must be the resources of one who is justified in speaking thus? Can any individual be a fountain of supply to every man? There is One continually named by the sacred writers who is a Sun, Fire, Door, Rock, Bread, Fountain. To Him, who can be represented by these figures, any man may surely come and drink. No creature imparts all, or even many, kinds of good; but God is the spring of all that is beneficial, and Christ is the manifested God. To how few of our thirsty fellows can any of us say, “Come to me and drink”? But Jesus says that, and standing in the centre of all time, as in the midst of all men. Did we need proof of the Deity of Jesus Christ we have it here.
(4) But what shall we say of His love? “Any man.” The man may be Atheist or idolater, broken-hearted because all his cisterns are broken, be conscious that he deserves only to die with thirst;
