At the heart of this chapter is Jesus’ amazing words, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”
We all have needs, and there’s a sense in which we’re all “thirsty” for something. What Jesus is claiming is that if anyone is thirsty you can go to him to have your deepest needs met.
It’s a huge claim. So we’re going to look at Jesus himself in this chapter, and then we’ll look at the other people around him and try to work out what they’re thirsty for. As you do that, you just might see yourself, and see just how much Jesus satisfies your thirst.
These notes accompany a sermon delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church, Wirral in May 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Go to Jesus in your thirst
One of the recurring themes in John’s gospel is that Jesus is sent. He frequently refers to God the Father as something like “the one who sent me.” Read John 7:15-17.
In light of being sent, it might be sensible to ask who sent him and where from? Again, read John 7:28-29.
The people think they know where he came from: Galilee, as they see things. But then they’re confused by what he said next: Read John 7:33-34. That doesn’t sound like Galilee in anyone’s atlas.
We know from John 1 that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, and that he entered the world by choice. And John 3:17 speaks of how God sent his Son into the world. So the things Jesus did and said were all revelations of the Father to you: He is the representation and communication of the Father to you.
And he was sent because God wants you to know him.
Authority
This explains why Jesus was so authoritative.
In chapter 5 he drew opposition for healing a man who’d been disabled for 38 years. The opposition was because Jesus healed him on the Sabbath – and then went further to say that he was working because his Father was working (a claim to divinity).
He points out that circumcision still takes place on the Sabbath in v21-24. Read John 7:23-24.
The Lord requires mercy, not sacrifice. He looks for a heart of grace, not a list of tick-boxes. We saw so much through Deuteronomy how the law reflects God’s heart of care – while exposing our sin and selfishness. So Jesus owns the law, and lives out all its moral and ethical care and wisdom to the full. People were intimidated by such searching authority.
Fulfilling
And Jesus was fulfilling.
The Feast of Shelters was a happy festival of thanksgiving. It came at harvest time, and was an opportunity for the community to give thanks to God. Water was a key feature, since there are no crops without rain. Jugs of water would be carried around in procession at the temple in gratitude to the Lord who Provides.
So when Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink” he was ‘owning’ the Feast itself. In the light of passages like Zechariah 14:16-19, it’s a huge claim (look it up!).
Yet again, the gospels show us how Jesus knew he was the fulfilment of all that had gone before.
And it’s that cry to everyone present that is so powerful.
Transforming
His claim is transforming. Read John 7:37-39.
Everyone thirsts for something. You go looking for satisfaction in all sorts of things. But they’re like sipping saltwater: It dries you out and makes you more thirsty; it poisons you. All forms of idolatry will do that to you; they cannot fail to fail. You go looking for meaning, purpose, hope, love in all the wrong places – things outside of you. But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it (Deut 30:14).
As you come to faith in Christ, you are given the Holy Spirit. He is God, the Third Person of the Trinity. And he will dwell within you. Forever. He is life-giving, transforming, powerful, gracious.
The Spirit in you will change your desires. You will hate the sins you once enjoyed, because you know they are not who you are in Christ. Someone who claims to be a Christian but who isn’t transformed from their sinful past must have their claim to Christ questioned. The Spirit is like a river, bubbling up from within you, changing your heart – not a set of external rules you’re trying to keep to keep God happy.
He is the Life of God within you, mediating the presence of Jesus the Son of God to you, bringing you to the Father. In you he will produce the fruit you can’t muster for very long on your own: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, godliness, self-control. And when you fall, you can’t extinguish his work in you – he will always be at work in you, for his own love and glory.
Commanding
So hear Christ’s words very carefully: Read John 7:37.
That phrase “let him come to me and drink” isn’t permission; it’s a command. In English we have imperative verb forms, a way of giving a command: Jump up, stand up, go there, etc. In Greek (and Hebrew), there’s a 3rd person imperative, saying that something must happen: “Let there be light” is a command. So Jesus is actually commanding you: “If you are thirsty, you must come to me and you must drink.”
Consider Jesus: Sent from God the Father to save you. Authoritatively teaching spiritual realities that you couldn’t work out yourself. Fulfilling all the Bible’s promises of life. Transforming everyone who believes by the internal change from death to life, darkness to light, indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
And he commands you: If you are thirsty, go to him.
Don’t go looking for hope and life anywhere else; nowhere other than him will you find meaning, unconditional love, an unchanging, unending relationship. You are already a sinner before him; don’t add to your sin by the terrible, self-destructive sin of unbelief, of rebellion, of deliberately disobeying his direct command. His invitation is a command. Disobey and die; obey and live.
Brothers
We’re going to look at others in the account and see how they related to Jesus, starting with his brothers. These are (presumably) sons of Joseph and Mary.
Before any of them went down to Jerusalem for the feast, Jesus’ brothers were egging him on: Read John 7:3-5. More than anyone else in history, they knew him intimately in a family setting: As a boy, a teenager, a working man.
But they didn’t really know him. They were over-familiar. Close, but without understanding or reverence.
Sometimes people who have been going to church for years without actually coming to faith can be like them.
- I hear a lot of testimonies from Christians who grew up in a Christian family, and sometimes there’s something of these brothers in what they say.
- They knew the stories, knew the lingo.
- Often, they could explain what Christians believe and even tell you the Bible verses.
- But they were over-familiar; close, but without worship.
As they look at other believers, they know they have a thirst for depth, for truth, for a living faith.
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink,” says Jesus.
Crowds
What about the crowds? There’s so much confusion about Jesus! Read John 7:15, 25-27, 31, 40-44.
There’s a line from a film that says, “It’s not the despair – I can stand the despair; it’s the hope!” The people here in John 7 are full of hope, desperate for a promised Messiah. Jesus isn’t what they were expecting though. So they’re weighing his words and actions, looking to see how other people react, afraid to stand out alone.
So many people have a craving for spiritual things. They try Christianity, and Islam, and Buddhism, Hinduism. A little transcendental meditation maybe, or just Yoga. Witchcraft is far more common than you’d realise. All because God has set eternity in our hearts and we thirst for hope.
But Jesus isn’t just one item on a spiritual menu. He is the unique Son of Man, Son of God. He was sent by God the Father to save you; his teaching is authoritative because he is the Son. Jesus fulfils all God’s promises, transforming all he saves.
And he commands you to go to him in your thirst for hope in life.
Servants
These were a kind of temple police, there to keep things in good order (including keeping Gentiles out). So read John 7:32. They went, and they heard Jesus speak about going somewhere no-one else could follow – meaning his death and resurrection. The servants heard Jesus cry: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink,” and then speak of the streams of living water of the Holy Spirit.
To go and hear Jesus, to see him in his authority and power, blew the servants away. They went back to the men who had sent them. They’d been sent to arrest Jesus, but they didn’t. The servants were going back empty-handed. Their respect for Jesus, the supposed Galilean carpenter causing all the fuss, was greater than for the Pharisees. It was mutinous! They hadn’t realised their own thirst for authority – a spiritual authority not found in religion.
They weren’t searching for Jesus themselves; they didn’t expect to be so greatly affected by him either.
Many people are driven by circumstance to Jesus without otherwise looking for him: Illness, addictions, grief, Christian friends. And they are surprised to have their thirsts quenched.
Pharisees
And so what of the Pharisees? The religious elite who knew their Scriptures inside out, and who genuinely wanted to keep every line of the law? Read John 7:32.
Was that a genuine enquiry? They might have remembered Isaiah 35:5-6, looking forward to the Messiah’s time, saying Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer [cf. John 5], and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for water will gush in the wilderness, and streams in the desert…
But presumably they thought it wouldn’t happen on a Sabbath..? In truth, their religious orthodoxy had no room for Jesus. Read John 7:46-49.
Jesus shook their understanding with his own authority. They were too sure of themselves. Where humility gives way to self-analysis, pride always attacks.
They were thirsty for certainty in matters relating to God, and they looked to their own understanding to secure it.
They thought Jesus threatened their certainty, when really he was the answer to all uncertainty.
If anyone is thirsty, go to Jesus now
Everyone is thirsty for something. Everyone has needs, and we all go sipping saltwater that only deepens your needs even as it poisons you.
Those brothers were close to Jesus but didn’t understand him. He calls you to know him: Son of God, Son of Man.
The crowds desperately wanted Jesus to be the answer to their hopes. He is, and all your hopes for life and death are fulfilled in him.
The Pharisees wouldn’t even go to him; they sent others. They were so sure of their religious system that they didn’t see their need of Jesus. But he is the very God they thought they were pleasing.
So be more like the servants: “No man ever spoke like this!”
Go to Jesus, listen to him, see him for who he is. And hear his call: Go to him and drink.
He is the eternal Fountain of Life. By his grace, you become something of a water fountain – not the fountain – but he will pour out his Holy Spirit in you and through you to others.
Your thirst will be quenched nowhere else. Go to him and drink.