Christ’s declaration “I thirst” from the cross speaks not only of His physical suffering but also points to His promise that believers would never thirst again. The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus would send after His glorification, brings rivers of living water to flow from within those who believe. This spiritual satisfaction comes with just three simple conditions: acknowledge your thirst, come to Christ in faith, and drink. There is nothing between our believing and the rivers flowing—no delay, no special preparation, only the simple act of surrender expressed in the words “Father, into Your hands I commit my life.” The flowing rivers of the Spirit are immediately available to anyone who truly surrenders to Christ.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] Seven sayings of Christ and we’ve been here for four weeks. How has this happened? If you have been here for all of those, you will know of course that we’ve been talking about the first five in the light of the last two and we left one out and so that’s how we fitted them in. So please don’t feel ripped off at all but we are on the Bible app and you can follow along if you wish. If you don’t use the Bible app you can go to that link and it’ll tell you to get the Bible app but you’ll be able to see the PowerPoint. Here we go. Here are the seven sayings of Christ on the cross. To the best of our knowledge that is the order in which He said them. You understand it’s in the different Gospels, the different things were being said and you have to compare them to each other, piece them together and it appears as though that is the order in which it happened. Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Truly I tell you today

[00:01:11] you will be in me in paradise. Remember he spoke to the thief who was dying next to him and then number three is the one we left out. Dear woman here is your son and here is your mother most probably John and Mary. Jesus said that to them. Then the biggie that was last week I hope you watched online. I had a ball at my house delivering there online with Micah, my soon to be 16 year old son controlling the stuff on the computer with me talking. It was a barrel of laughs and we had a big fight and wrestle afterwards about all the things he did wrong and I reckon I’ve got, he goes to the gym probably five times a week and I reckon I’ve got just another year maybe of having physical dominance. But the saying was perhaps the highlight of them all, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It appears twice and it is the central one and very significant. So if you haven’t watched

[00:02:32] online you should go back and watch that and tonight is my favourite one. I thirst that was read in John 19. I thirst. Let me pray and then we’ll get underway. Lord, thank you for this great opportunity. May the reality of what you’ve done and the benefits that what you’ve done, may that be available to us here. May you, the sovereign saviour of the universe, be present here with us. In your name we pray. Amen. Well it was after the period of three hours of darkness and that time of forsakenness of the father was over that Jesus could quote Psalm 22. Psalm 22 is a famous Messianic Psalm.

[00:03:56] If you read verse 1, it does it say, no I don’t have it there. It says in Psalm 22 verse 1, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then after that he quotes Psalm 69 verse 21 which says, they gave me poison for food and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. Which sounds similar to what was read to us from John chapter 19. It’s not a direct quote but it’s obviously a reference to it and it wasn’t until after that had happened, Jesus says, I thirst it prompts someone to give him the bitter wine to drink. They tell me they used to use that as some, there’s two arguments about it. One is that it was something bitter and nasty that added to the suffering, the sour wine and you give that to the person just to add to the trauma of the crucifixion. There are others who say, no no, it was bitter wine, it was you know, woohoo, fairly strong and the purpose of giving it was that it would cause you to not be hurting

[00:05:18] so bad as it were, it would take the edge off things, that was the two sides of it, I don’t know which it was, all we know is that as far as Jesus was concerned it was in fulfilment of that Psalm and after it has happened he is able to say it is finished, he’d bring to an end all that was forecast in what was happening when he died on the cross. After he said it is finished he could then say into your hands I commit my spirit as he died. Now it shouldn’t be a surprise to us here that Jesus is thirsty, he’d spent a night of injustice and abuse, he was whipped and beaten to within an inch of his life, there is significant blood loss, he was crucified which means he’s nailed through wrists and ankles to a piece of wood, more blood loss. He then is forsaken by the Father as he bears the sins and the punishment of the sins of the world. There would have been physical exhaustion and the height of physical

[00:06:47] need, he proclaims I thirst, I actually think it’s a ginormous understatement, of course he’s thirsty, he would have been literally dying of thirst and there he is hanging out in the open, in the midday sun, the only thing is it had been dark from midday until 3. Now I have been really thirsty, I’ve been riding my bike and I just would like to add in here that I back when I was young was as good as Taddei Pagacha and the benefit of being old is you can look back and say oh look I was that good and the time gap means it can’t be proved wrong and so you know just enjoy that fact even though secretly we all know that’s a load of rubbish it’s something that I have but I’ve been thirsty when I’ve been riding my bike you can make a mistake of not drinking as you enjoy the wind in your hair traveling along and all of a sudden you start to feel a bit funny you start to get dehydrated. I also have

[00:08:19] significantly near an Easter time was in Alice Springs speaking at an Easter convention and then went on a bit of a tour with the pastor there and got bogged out in the middle of nowhere and had to walk through the desert in the midday sun 17 kilometers and all we could carry was all the water we had I think it was about four litres and I drank that in the first half an hour and we walked and walked and walked. I tell you I was thirsty at the end of that and I drank liters of Gatorade from the Hermansburg General Store, just out of Alice Springs. And I tell you what, it tasted good. Gatorade’s not good, but when you’re thirsty, I’ve been thirsty. I’m assuming all of you know what it means to be thirsty. Jesus would have been way thirstier than that, way thirstier, that much blood loss out in the open. There’s no information about Him being given anything to eat or drink, and there He’s been hung out in the open. I thirst, He says.

[00:09:56] But let me tell you that once Jesus had said, it is finished, and once He’d said, Father, into Your hands, I commit my spirit. He never thirsted again. He never thirsted again, and neither should we. Now, one walk out in the desert in central Australia, and I tell you, you will get thirsty. A bit of hard work out in the garden, and you will need to drink. Heaps of people here, heaps. We now carry drink bottles with us, and just a bit of a side note, isn’t it a rip-off? What are they selling water bottles for these days? Bits of plastic, you can spend 30 bucks more on a drink bottle. Just buy the water bottle and just reuse it, that’s what I think. But we all know, hydration is important. So we drink, especially up here in Brisbane, where I grew up in Adelaide, nobody’s carrying water bottles around. No need, nobody’s sweating down there. A bit of hard work in the garden, riding your bike.

[00:11:25] If you don’t drink, you’ll end up in trouble. But that is physical thirst. We all understand that, we all know the need of staying hydrated. But in this age of the Spirit, in this age after the death of Christ and the day of Pentecost, there should be no thirst ever again. Jesus had foretold of this to the woman at the well, back in John chapter 4. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. And the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. And then there’s those wonderful words that Jesus promised in John chapter 7. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and he cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said,

[00:12:45] out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. For as yet, the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Once the rivers of living waters have flowed within us, within us, a man or a woman should never thirst again. Now the occasion of this great statement in John 7 is the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s a great Jewish festival with two significances. One there is the Feast of Booths. People lived in small booths or tabernacles to commemorate the lifestyle lived during the wilderness wanderings, you know, when the people of Israel were set free from Egypt. And also at the same time, there was the Feast of In-Gathering, a bit like the old fashioned Harvest Thanksgiving, where there was great joy for one week and it’s called the Season of Our Gladness and Jesus was there at this festival. And as part of the festival, water

[00:14:06] from the pool of Siloam would be poured from a golden pitcher, like a vase thing, onto the temple altar as a prayer for abundant rain in the year ahead. And it also was symbolic as a prayer for abundant spiritual life under the promised Messiah. So there in a culture where everyone lives off of the land. They’re celebrating the harvest. It’s the harvest time, it’s like wahoo, what a harvest, what a harvest. And there they have this water, let’s ask the Lord to bless the next season, let’s ask the Lord to bless us, and hope that we get the same harvest as we’ve got this year. And then on top of that there’s the symbolism of the Messianic Age and Lord, may you pour your spiritual blessings upon us as well.’ And it was on the last day or as the text says, the great day of the feast that this ritual pouring took on this greater significance. People would be there with psalms and they would quote the Psalms 113 to 118 and they

[00:15:26] would blast trumpets and shout out hosanna, hosanna in this messianic fever as the water is poured as a symbol of the spiritual blessings of the messianic age. And the ritual gave way to excitement and in the middle of it all Jesus stands and in front of all the people proclaims. 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. Jesus had witnessed all the religious activity, all the pomp, all the ceremony, all the ritual that such an external religion could have. But it was devoid of the Spirit and what a picture of the Christian world today this paints. Our churches have worship, we’ve got programs, we’ve got building funds, we’ve got community service, we’ve got a whole lot of religious activity but don’t we need some real spiritual life. Isn’t it true that these words speak to us in this day and age just the same

[00:17:10] as they would have back when Jesus said them 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. Tonight I want us to look at Jesus’s words to see how we can get from the one who knew thirst like no one else. He said it is finished and farther into your hands I commit my Spirit and then he never thirsted again. Three points to this blessing of John 7, the source of the blessing. You’re going all right? Good work. There can be no mistake, what did Jesus say in John 7? He said come to me, come to me. It is Jesus who promises to fulfill every human need. He is the one who paid for sins, he is the one who said it is finished, he is the one who committed himself to God and today

[00:18:38] he stands in risen power to be the source of power and blessing to us through the release of the Holy Spirit. John 7 39 this he said about the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive for as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Things were still yet to happen for Jesus. That was said in John 7, you’ve got calvary, you’ve got resurrection, you’ve got ascension before the day of Pentecost can occur. In Romans 1 chapter 4 he was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. He was glorified when he was resurrected, he was declared to be the Son of God with power. It’s intimately linked to his death, he comes alive again and there as the resurrected Jesus he has access to giving the Spirit. Acts 2 29 explains it for us.

[00:19:54] Brothers I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried. This is the day of Pentecost by the way Peter’s sermon there and he was buried and his tomb is with us to this day being there for a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with a note to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne. He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit he’s poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. By raising Jesus from the dead the Father was exalting the Son as the sovereign Savior of the universe because he’d said it is finished, because he’d given himself to his Father into your hands I commit my Spirit. Then he could deliver all the

[00:21:09] promise of the Father to us until the sin of man had been dealt with until the blood of the crucified Son of God had flowed the rivers of the living water could not be given to flow. Stephen Alford the famous preacher would say Pentecost can be a reality because Calvary was a finality. Pentecost could be a reality because Calvary was a finality. We must have Jesus owned as the crucified Savior in our lives for this spiritual blessing to flow. It happens when Calvary becomes a personal experience for us when we say just like Jesus said Father into your hands I commit my life. As Jesus said if anyone would come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me. Jesus was not only glorified as Savior but he was also glorified as Lord and King. He is the sovereign of the universe. They now did make him for a little while lower than the angels and now has crowned him now with glory and honor and it’s

[00:22:45] as the risen Savior crowned as King that Jesus has the authority to send the Spirit. If you and I are to experience spiritual blessing and the inner workings of God we are to know the rivers of living water we must come to Jesus and say into your hands I commit my life without reservation. I’ll never forget sitting at the dinner table at Bible College with my wife and Jim’s dad at the time he was quite an old man but me and my wife used to love picking his brains which we did for hours every Friday night for weeks and one particular night my wife asked him Doki who who do you pray to who who is it that you’re talking to because you know we’ve been to Bible College we know it says when you pray pray like this our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name and we also had Pentecostal people around the ridges who would tell no you should be praying to the Spirit and we always were taught when you pray dear Lord we’re thinking

[00:24:15] of Jesus and my wife goes who who what pictures should I have in my mind when I pray said my wife and Jim’s dad he he would do this and he left back in his chair and he looked up as if he was doing it and he said he is the sovereign of the universe that’s what he said he is the source of the blessing the supply of the blessing the text says there’s only three conditions number one is thirst you have to desire after Christ that’s not something that you whip up within yourself you just have to acknowledge that it’s there it’s the deepest longing and want of the human soul aren’t you thirsty for life aren’t you hungry for what our Creator wants to give listen to how the Psalmists would talk about it as a dear pants for flowing streams so pants my soul for you oh God oh God you are my God earnestly I seek you my soul thirsts for you my flesh

[00:25:59] faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water what a picture it is I know what that feels like being lost in central Australia and you’re just thirsty you’d give anything for a drink my soul thirsts for you my flesh faints for you we thirst after fame we thirst after fortune we thirst after acceptance but will you let God give you a thirst for Christ it is natural for creatures to long for their Creator. But I see four things that exaggerate our thirst. The first is an empty heart. God has made each one of us to be in fellowship with Himself. Each of us has a God-shaped blank in our hearts that needs to be filled. Each of us has been created for eternity and need the Eternal One to dwell within. There is a thirst in every person that can only be filled by coming to Christ, receiving Him as your Saviour. And so please hear the Word of Jesus afresh. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

[00:27:24] Then there is the thirst of sin. Maybe you’ve received Jesus as your Saviour in the past, but have now walked away from Him and there are sins in your life that are rubbing the joy from your heart. Your life has grown dry and because of the wrong things in your life, there’s nowhere else for you to go but to simply hear the Word of Jesus afresh. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Then there’s the problem of wrong priorities. As we go through life, we come across a whole lot of needs. We need education, we need health, some of us need that more than others. There’s natural things like food and love, sometimes these things become more important to us than Jesus Himself and we start to believe that we cannot be content without this stuff. They may be good things, but when they take

[00:28:37] priority over Jesus, they are wrong and wrong priorities can rob us of joy. They can be good things. I had a couple in one of my churches years and years ago, a long time ago actually, the child of theirs that we’re talking about had her 21st birthday, not that long ago. But when this couple ages ago when they were newly married, they struggled to have kids like many do and she could not fall pregnant for many years and they went IVF, they spent a lot of money and tried and tried and tried and tried and there was nothing, nothing, no children. And then one day at church, there was an appeal for people to come to Christ, like an evangelistic thing and she came and wept and wept. I knew she was a Christian, so I spoke to her afterwards and said, what’s going on? Why have you come?

[00:30:04] And she said, after all these years, I’m finally content to not have a child. I’ve given it to Jesus. She announced her pregnancy a month later. But the timing of it can’t be a chance. The things that we place above Jesus, no matter how real, no matter how natural they may be, they will never satisfy your soul and you’ll get thirsty. Hear the word of Jesus afresh. If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink and out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. The works of the flesh. The flesh is an insidious enemy, we all have it, we all wrestle with it. Paul describes a war between the flesh and the spirit, so severe is the war that it eliminates our ability to choose.

[00:31:36] Choose the spirit or have the flesh is how he describes it in Galatians 5. In our spiritual lives, we think we need certain things to live how God wants us to be and so we’ve come to Christ initially and He is all that we needed and He saves us. Into our hands, into your hands I commit my life, we say it. But soon after, we start to see that it appears to us that He’s not enough and we start to think we need some more extra things. You start to think that you need a little bit more love, you start to think that you need a little bit more power in your ministry, you start to wonder if you’re praying enough and so you think, you know what I need a bit more prayerfulness and whatever it is you start to realize Jesus isn’t enough, you stop trusting Him and you get about the business of making all this other stuff to fill up the gap that there is in your life between how you know how God wants you to be and how you are. But because you’re not getting it

[00:32:47] from Him it’s actually a work of the flesh. We forget who Jesus is and that He is the answer and all of the things we seek to obtain by human effort. They become like Saul’s armour on David. Everyone thinks it’s such a cool idea to put on the best armour if you’re going to face the giant goliath. But David knew, no, that’s the works of the flesh. It’s not by might, it’s not by power, it’s by my Spirit, says the Lord. Jesus is not simply the giver of everything we need, He is all that we need. And our seeking of spiritual things above Christ Himself becomes works of the flesh. And even though they be good things, our hearts will be dry and thirsty as our own efforts will never lead to the satisfaction of soul that we’re longing for, that we’re even doing these things trying to achieve. You cannot get to rivers of living water through the works of the flesh.

[00:34:20] Can I heed the warning of Colossians 2.23 where Paul is talking about basic legalisms like rules to do with food and clothing and festivals and so on. And he says these are matters which do have the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and even severe treatment of the body. Yep, we’re keeping ourselves in check, but the warning is they are of no value against the flesh. Hear the word of Christ afresh, if you’re thirsty then come to me and drink. It’s time to give up seeking to be how God has made you to be in your own strength and rest in His words, it is finished and commit yourself into the hands of Christ Himself. It is the job of the Spirit to show us our thirst and point us to Christ as the only one who can give us a drink.

[00:35:58] After we’re thirsty, we need to come or believe. You have to come believing, you have to go on believing, not just once but all the time. I see Jesus trusting himself to the Father as He died, Father into your hands I commit my Spirit and us believing Jesus is just simply saying the same thing, Father into your hands I commit my life and we do it every day. Nothing more to say, drink. We must receive the promise. The Spirit is given once and for all at your conversion, but as our lives are given more and more over to Christ, the Spirit should get more and more control of our lives. I don’t believe you get more of Him, He is a person, He’s there or He’s not, but He can get more of me.

[00:37:18] For spiritual fullness, we must seek Christ for He is the answer, we must come believing, it’s all in, it’s into your hands I commit my life and then we simply receive His Spirit and power. Finally, the sufficiency of the blessing. It’s no mistake that Jesus called it rivers of living water. We know about rivers up here, last week we had some some of our streets that turned into rivers, rivers of living water, there’s no doubt that Jesus wants us to picture an abundance, an overflowing, He doesn’t want us to picture a drip, He is always sufficient and did you notice how simply it all just rolls off the tongue, if anyone thirst let him come to me and drink and out of his heart will flow rivers of living waters. It just rolls off the tongue and let’s listen, what is there in between us coming, us believing and the rivers flowing? What is there

[00:38:50] in between? Nothing, nothing. You people are smart and no logic and it means simply this, if the rivers aren’t there there’s something amiss with the believing, if the rivers aren’t there there’s something amiss with the believing and I know how hard it is, all that there is within me, I am a sinner who is hell bent on my independence from God, like my parents Adam and Eve, I am by nature a rebel and I resist in many ways often justifying it in godly terms that I do not need Jesus my Saviour and I resist coming to that place where I will open my hands and simply say Lord Jesus into your hands I commit my life and as soon as I’m no longer like that the rivers stop.

[00:40:19] There is nothing more required, I don’t need to prepare myself, I don’t need to get my life sorted out, I don’t need to have some kind of expectation about what the flowing rivers will look like and have some kind of Pentecostal expectation, there’s none of any of that. If you’re thirsty you come drink, believing is the come and the drink, if you believe the rivers flow, there is nothing in between, there’s no delay, there’s nothing there, it’s just what Jesus said, if you’re thirsty you come and if you believe then out of your heart will flow rivers of living water. Who of you here would be prepared to testify that out of your heart is flowing rivers of living water? Put your name in there like I’ve done with mine.

[00:41:58] If Andrew thirsts let him come to me and drink, when Andrew believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart, not might, but will, flow rivers of living water. Do you have his rivers flowing in your heart? Jesus wants you to come to him and drink, it is pictured as you coming and saying into your hands I give my life and I wonder could it be that easy? Could it be that simple? It is very simple but you know it isn’t easy because the one into whose hands you’re giving your life, he was the one who said it is finished, he was the one who said into your hands I commit my spirit and he calls us to be just like him in the light of it being all finished

[00:43:49] we come and we simply say into your hands I commit my life and it’s his promise that the rivers will flow. Do you know those rivers? They are available to you and to me, they’re available to anyone who responds to Christ and believe. It’s interesting, in a room, in a church, where most of you I know have come to faith but the challenge of the rivers is live and fresh. There’s still thirst in this room and Jesus says come to me and drink. If we allow ourselves to offer ourselves to him and to your hands I commit my life,

[00:45:24] the rivers will flow. Do you need to do that tonight? I’m going to give you an opportunity to respond to Jesus. For you to hear his words if you’re thirsty come to me and drink. If you believe, place yourself in his hands out of your heart will flow rivers of living water. Do you believe Jesus? Are you prepared to take him at his word and come so that the rivers can flow? Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, you are the sovereign of the universe. It is to you that we come because Calvary is a finality. Pentecost can be a reality.

[00:46:52] Lord, may you get all of us here tonight. May we each one offer ourselves, there could be any number of reasons that give rise to us being thirsty. Some it’s sin, some it’s wrong priorities, some it’s seeking to live how you want us to live in our own strength. It doesn’t matter what it is, it simply is we’re thirsty. Something has taken us away from that place of simple but deep faith where we offer all that we are. Father, into your hands I commit my life. I pray that you would work through each of our lives and lead each of us to that place where we can truly say that from the depths of our hearts and know the rivers of living water flowing within.

[00:48:25] Lord Jesus, we want to take you at your word. Lead us to believe. In Jesus name, Amen. Well, we’re going to have a final song. I’m going to ask that you stand to sing. I don’t know what the final song is, something good I hope. And while we stand to sing, if you need to come and believe in Jesus afresh, if you need to say to Him, into your hands I commit my life, perhaps in a way that you never had before. If you’re aware of dryness in your life and you need the rivers of living water, don’t seek them, seek Him. It’s placing yourself in His hands that will make the rivers flow.

[00:49:39] If Jesus is calling you to come and believe, I’d invite you to do business with Him in your heart but you can express that in front of us all by coming with your feet and standing out the front. Meaning business with Jesus in that way in front of us all clinches the deal in your heart with Him. You’ve got a mean business to do business with Him. The rivers of living water, He said, for any who will come and believe. Will you come? Let’s stand and sing.