The Lutheran Hour
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"That’s the Spirit!"
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Text: John 7:37-39
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Blessings in the Name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
Powerful words for a powerful day. Pentecost. Today is a day like no other for believers in Jesus! Christmas, Easter are biblical facts. Pentecost says, “Those facts are for you.” Pentecost is the day when the Holy Spirit is poured out on the Apostles so that through their words, people might become believers in Jesus. Jesus says of the Holy Spirit in John 16, “He will glorify me, He will take what is mine and make it known to you” (John 16:14). Today is the celebration of the day when Jesus Christ poured out His Holy Spirit to His church to do His ministry to bring Christ to the world.
What a joy it is to be alive in the Spirit of God. If you are not a believer in Jesus, you are missing out on the elation of being connected to Jesus Christ by faith by the power of the Holy Spirit! But don’t be discouraged, Jesus Christ Himself wants you to have this Living Water today, no matter who you are or where you have been.
For, having the Holy Spirit brings faith in Jesus. Having the Spirit brings His Hope. Having the Spirit overcomes doubt, strengthens relationships, even gives us power to pray. When you realize your need for Jesus, when you realize that Jesus is God’s gracious provision for your life of faith, that’s the Holy Spirit calling out to you today. That’s the Living Water of Jesus being offered to you today. Drink deeply, drink deeply.
To live the Spirit-empowered life of faith in Jesus is to be refreshed by the one who says, “If you drink the water that I give you, you will thirst no more.” To live life without such faith is like trying to live life without the hydrating spiritual drink that makes such life possible.
So, let me ask you a question. Have you ever really been thirsty in your life for the things of faith? Or, how about this? Have you ever really been thirsty period?
Do you remember the classic story, “Moby Dick?” It is the story of Captain Ahab in his obsessive search for the great white whale, Moby Dick. It comes to dramatic conclusion when the whale attacks and destroys his ship and takes Ahab to his watery grave. But you probably didn’t know that Melville’s novel was inspired by an actual event in the year 1820 – the sinking of the whaling vessel “Essex” in the South Pacific. Just like the ship in “Moby Dick”, the Essex was rammed by a whale. As it sank, the captain and crew abandoned ship and they climbed into the three, 25-foot rowboats. Those boats would carry the survivors more than three thousand miles, over a period of 93 days, to the coast of South America for their rescue.
It is difficult to fully imagine the torments and the extreme agonies these men must have suffered, constantly exposed to the brutal rays of the sun, having very little to eat or to drink, starving, and of course, dying of thirst. First mate, Owen Chase, recorded the agony in his journal, “The privation of water is justly ranked among the most dreadful of the miseries of life. The violence of raving thirst has no parallel in the catalogue of human calamities.” On the twenty-third day after the sinking of their ship, he wrote, “[Our] thirst has become now incessantly more intolerable than our hunger, and the quantity of water that is allowed [half a pint a day] was barely sufficient to keep our mouths in a state of moisture. Our suffering during these days almost exceeded human belief.” [In the Heart of the Sea, p. 116]
Nathaniel Philbrick also writes in his book about the disaster of the Essex. He said, “The Essex survivors had entered the ‘cotton-mouth’ phase of thirst. Saliva becomes thick and foul-tasting; the tongue clings irritatingly to the teeth and the roof of the mouth. Even though speech is difficult, sufferers are often moved to complain ceaselessly about their thirst until their voices become so cracked and hoarse that they can speak no more. Severe pain is felt in the head and neck. Hearing is affected, and many begin to hallucinate. Still to come, the “blood sweats” phase, involving ‘a progressive mummification of the initial living body.’ The tongue swells to such proportions that it squeezes past the jaws. The eyelids crack, the eyeballs begin to weep tears of blood. The throat is so swollen that breathing becomes difficult, creating [the] terrifying sensation of drowning.” (In the midst of one’s thirst) [ibid, pp. 126-127]
Are you spiritually at the cotton mouth stage in your life today? Are you spiritually drowning or thirsting for a relationship with the God who created and redeemed you, but don’t know how to make that happen? Have you destroyed a relationship with someone who is dear to you and you don’t know how to make it better? Have you lost someone close and dear to you, lost your purpose for living at the moment and you don’t have any strength to face tomorrow without them? Or, are you just wandering aimlessly, drinking of the things of life, but never feeling quenched from your thirst? Hear Jesus inviting to you to trust Him, shouting His Word of grace to you. “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the spirit.”
One of the most basic things that the Holy Spirit does then is to make you realize your need for Jesus before it’s too late.
Jesus also says of the Spirit in John 16, “When the Counselor (the Spirit) comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment; in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness because I am going to the Father, and in regard to judgment because the Prince of this world now stands condemned!”
So when you feel your spiritual thirst for God and you begin to realize that you can’t quench it. That’s the Spirit and He’s calling you to Jesus.
Unfortunately too many of us look for other ways to quench that thirst. In fact we miss the whole point of what being thirsty is supposed to do for us.
It is amazing in this day and age, with all that we know about the physical body’s needs, how many products we produce that still leave us dehydrated. That still leave us living life without energy. Energy that God Himself intended for you to have. Why do we drink everything but what we really need?
I was reminded of this basic thing the other day. I was running a while back, and my body began to break down. Now I had put a whole lot of liquids in my body that day. I think that I had 4-5 cups of coffee (because coffee’s what you need to get through the day, right?), I remember having 1 or 2 Diet Cokes (because you need that afternoon jolt to give you energy to get things done.) And, as I was sharing my feelings of listlessness and lack of energy with one of my friends, he said…”Greg, did you hydrate an hour before your run?” What? Hydrate? Who talks like that?? Ok, smart aleck, say it simply. Did you drink enough water, Greg? Did you let it seep into your body, prepare your muscles for the run? Did you drink deeply?” “Well, no!” “Don’t you think you should have?” I think he had me there, don’t you?
I don’t know if you’ve seen that commercial called “Obey your thirst.” The commercial focuses on some athlete or some celebrity and after a variety of incredible athletic feats, after a lingering image of a muscled or tanned body with beads of sweat gently cascading down. Then at the very end, they offer you some colorless, carbonated-sugar water that is of no value to any cell in your bodies except maybe the fat cells, and then the imperative, “Obey your thirst!”
But that misses the whole point. Jesus knows that you thirst, that’s the malady of the human, sinful condition, both physically and spiritually. The question of our text today is not whether you have thirst, it’s not about whether you obey your thirst, the question on Pentecost Sunday is what ultimately quenches your thirst, not just in body, but in soul!
Jesus amazingly stood up on that climatic day of the most important religious event in the life of an Israelite believer, the feast of Booths, and He shouts to all, “If you are thirsty, I’m your living water by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Wow! What kind of water is this? Jesus is challenging us all by the power of His Spirit to see Himself as God’s provision for your spiritual thirst.
You see, our commercial gets it wrong. Obey your thirst? No, trust in the thing that really quenches ones thirsts. But like drinking the wrong drink physically, we more often drink the wrong drink spiritually as well.
When it comes to the fundamental issues of life, questions about your identity, your purpose, where you stand eternally before God, what in life really matters, what makes life worth living? The problem with many today is that they are quenching their thirsts with empty calories. Jobs, careers, social status, social influence, the myriad of family events attended for our children’s self-esteem, or athletic status. These are all wrongly in place of the Living Water of Jesus, His Word, His gifts!
So, when you realize in your life that those things are temporal and they won’t satisfy your souls longing for God, when you realize that your life is in disarray, that because of sin or guilt, your soul is parched and in need of living water, when you begin to realize that all the thirst quenchers you have tried before are nothing more than empty calories that actually continue to drain your body of energy, rather than refresh it, when God’s Word leads you to realize that you are thirsty for the things of Jesus, that’s the Spirit!
“Jesus cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.”
Pentecost is one of those great days then when we learn something together. Our bodies and souls need Christ’s Living Water to be refreshed, to receive and to live the life that He has in store for us!
On that first Pentecost Day, the Apostle Peter stood before the crowds from around the world and He convicted them of their thirst. He challenged them to see that they too were guilty before God, that they had rejected “God’s provision of living water,” Jesus. When the Holy Spirit brought the crowd to confess, “What should we do?” Peter didn’t pour empty calories into their parched souls. He didn’t tell them to drink of some moralistic religious drink, of trying harder to do better. He doesn’t offer them some spiritual self-help elixir that might taste good at the moment, but leave them dehydrated in the end. No, those are empty calories before the Lord. He pours out Living Water by the power of the Holy Spirit. He says, “Repent, be baptized in the Name of Jesus, receive His Spirit!”
So, when you realize that the things of Jesus are the things of God meant to satisfy the very thirst in your soul, that’s the Spirit.
Your doctor can tell you that your body needs water. They know the physiological needs of your cells, and your organs. The body needs about three quarts of water a day to operate efficiently. Water helps your body’s digestion; it helps the blood carry oxygen and nutrients to your cells. It is a coolant, a lubricant. You can’t live without it.
Your doctor might know the needs of your physical body for water, but the Holy Spirit knows your need for the Person and work of Jesus Christ in body and in soul. To live life eternally with God, we need God’s gracious forgiveness. To live life temporally with our neighbor, we needs God’s sacrificial, selfless love. To overcome temptation and trial, we need God’s gracious protection and power. Every cell of our being needs God’s gracious gifts for living life as His people.
The Holy Spirit brings the things of Jesus to us, in words, water, bread and wine so that we can be satiated with a Living Water that will not only quench our spiritual thirst, but will also make us fountains of that water for others.
Your body needs refreshment that only pure water can give. But your soul needs living water, the kind that only Jesus can provide by the power of His Spirit. We are not just machines that need lubricants, we are not just rational robots who need an occasional software patch for our operating program, we are living, breathing, redeemed creatures of the Almighty God Who’s very life depends on being connected to His forgiving, loving presence. Man does not live by bread and water alone! Man lives by the Living Water of Jesus, in the power of the Spirit.
So, when you receive the things of Jesus as God’s temporal and eternal provision for you, when you see that Jesus alone can quench your thirst, that’s the Spirit.
So, the Spirit’s work for you today is not only to challenge you to feel your spiritual thirst, not only does He want you to see Jesus as the “quencher of that thirst,” The Spirit’s work today is to challenge you to drink deeply of the things of Jesus. And, if you’re already a Christian, to continue to drink deeply dear brothers and sisters in Christ, for we all need what Jesus so graciously provides.
Jesus said something like this earlier in His ministry, at Jacob’s Well, when He said to the Canaanite woman, “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The Holy Spirit is testifying to you today. The thing that’s needed for your spiritual vitality is the one thing that He brings. He brings Jesus Christ and the blessings of His cross and resurrection for you. He brings you Jesus, God’s soul thirst quencher.
In Jesus, by the power of His Spirit, Christ comes to wash you in the waters of His Baptismal Word, a Word that splashes God’s promises all over you and calls you as His own by His Name.
In Jesus, by the power of His Spirit, He literally places in your hands a Bible that is a watering Word that quenches one’s soul thirst that douses the fire of guilt in our lives, it doesn’t quench the fire of faith. In fact, it stokes that fire!
In Jesus, by the power of His Spirit you have the Promises of God that protect, provide, and empower you in the midst of the world in which we live. Promises of God’s Grace, promises of His eternal care, promises to resource your life of faith in service to others.
When you realize your thirst for Jesus and His grace; when you realize that only His promises, His presence, His Mercy can quench that thirst; when you realize that this Living Water was meant not only for you, but was meant to flow through you to anyone else in need of this life-giving drink, that’s the Spirit!
So, today, this Pentecost Sunday, the day that the church was born to bear Jesus Christ to the world, today, drink deeply of the Good News of real forgiveness, drink deeply of the certainty of life that can only come in knowing the words of Christ and the promises of Christ, drink deeply of the love of God that is the resource that makes relationships between sinners possible again, drink deeply of the mission, the vision that Christ Himself has for your work in His church, a place of real peace, forgiveness, of community for prodigal sons and daughters, a MASH Unit for people who have suffered on the front lines of life and are finally turning to God for answers. Drink deeply. That’s the Spirit!
Today, the Holy Spirit is coaxing us to answer a deeper question. Are we ready to quench our thirst with the Living Waters of Jesus Christ? Jesus, by the power of His Spirit is calling you to Himself today as Living Water for your faith. He’s inviting you to drink deeply, because the reservoir of His “Living Water” is something you cannot exhaust, it’s a well that never runs dry.
So, it’s not obey your thirst, but trust in the One Who truly quenches your thirst. And if you realize that your spiritual thirst was meant to be quenched by the Good News of Jesus, that’s the Spirit!
Happy Pentecost. Amen.
Questions and Answers for June 12, 2011
Topic: Life in the Holy SpiritANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Gregory Seltz responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer and today is Pentecost. We’re talking about life in the Holy Spirit.
SELTZ: Unfortunately, that’s a misunderstood or misused topic, by many people today. Well, maybe we can change that. What do you think?
ANNOUNCER: That would be great. A listener writes, “Pastor, I know that the Holy Spirit is very important to our lives, but how do you know whether you really have a relationship with the Holy Spirit? Are there signs or proofs about this?”
SELTZ: And that question perplexes even believers today. There are many Christians who often think that there is “more to believing than just trusting in Jesus as their Savior.”
ANNOUNCER: It’s almost as if the people would say it’s one thing to have faith, but it’s something more to have the “spirit-filled” life.
SELTZ: There are some who feel that way, that’s for sure. I think that’s why it’s important to have a basic understanding from the Bible as to what the Holy Spirit’s main work is for us as Christians.
ANNOUNCER: Well, is there a good place we could look in the Bible for answers to this?
SELTZ: Well, to me, there is no better place to look than in the chapters 15-17 in the Gospel of John. In these chapters, Jesus, Himself, tells us very clearly about the work of the Holy Spirit.
For instance, Jesus says that one main work of God, the Holy Spirit, is to make the blessings of Jesus’ work, a personal possession for believers through faith. He says it this way, “to take what is His (Jesus’) and make it known to you and me.”
ANNOUNCER: So, a big responsibility of the Holy Spirit is to make sure you and I know and believe in Jesus.
SELTZ: That’s right. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul also says something similar. He says, “no one can call Jesus Lord, except by the power of the Holy Spirit.” So, if the Spirit is doing His job, you won’t be talking about Him so much, you’ll be talking about Jesus.
ANNOUNCER: And it’s also important not to pit the work of the Holy Spirit against the things of Jesus, or to think that faith in Jesus is only a part of God’s gift to us as believers.
SELTZ: Absolutely, It’s vital, because faith’s confidence in Jesus rests on what Jesus has done and what Jesus has delivered to us, not on anything else or anything we do. And such confidence is delivered through the Scripture by the power of the Spirit of course.
ANNOUNCER: Now we’re talking about how a person might receive the Holy Spirit?
SELTZ: Right, and here too, it’s important to see the Holy Spirit’s work in service to the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself says that “His words are spirit and life (John 6:63).” So, while the Spirit can do as He pleases, it would seem to me that the Bible says that the Spirit is pleased to work through the words and gifts of Jesus. Where Jesus’ Name is, there is the power of the Spirit to bring us to faith and life in god through Jesus Christ.
ANNOUNCER: That brings to mind another thought, what about the “fruits of the Spirit?” How do those gifts fit into this discussion we’re having today?
SELTZ: Well, again, I think they fit very nicely. Things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control; these are all aspects of the life of Christ alive in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. So, they’re not to be seen as “signs or proofs” of a greater or lesser measure of God’s Spirit. Rather, they are to be seen as gifts in which we are to grow and mature as Christians in service to our neighbor.
ANNOUNCER: So they’re not our personal proofs of the Spirit’s presence. I think the Word and sacraments of Jesus are meant for that. But, would you say they are signs or fruits, if you will, to our neighbor that Jesus is living in us by the power of the Holy Spirit and that He can be their Savior, too?
SELTZ: Right, believers should desire to grow and to mature in such things because we want to be useful in Jesus’ hands to others. But even the spirit-filled life, though, is rooted in the confidence that Christ has done everything necessary for our relationship to God.
ANNOUNCER: So then, confident in our faith relationship with Jesus we’re ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work to serve our neighbor. As you said in the sermon, “that’s the Spirit.”
SELTZ: That’s right, the Spirit calls us to repentance and to faith in Jesus daily, and He continues to empower our life in Jesus to others. So, when He is doing His work, we’re talking about Jesus, absolutely.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you Pastor Seltz. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this Program
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“Holy Spirit, Light Divine” arr. Dave Horn. Used by permission.
“Holy Spirit, Light Divine” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Komm, Gott Schöpfer, heiliger Geist” by J.S. Bach. From Bach at the Sem, vol. 2 (© 1998 Concordia Seminary)