Are You Longing for Truth and More of Jesus?

Then what’s stopping you? Are you looking in the wrong places? Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount…

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (or justice),
for they will be filled.
Matthew 5:6 NIV

When you’re hungry, you eat. Once you’re full, you’re satisfied and happy. In a few hours, guess what? You’re hungry again and then you eat again. That’s how humans and all living creatures are made.

However, what about the hunger in our souls? We all have it. Where we go to satisfy that hunger, thirst and longing is where we differ. Righteous, godly people look to the Bible — the Word of God. Unrighteous and ungodly people look to the world — money, wealth, lust, gluttony (thinking that eating more food will satisfy you.) But that’s not really satisfying enough. We just want more and more of it and we are never satisfied. All that leads to pride, vanity, wrath (anger of not getting what you want), envy (wanting what others have) and sloth (not caring about anything – apathy.) Oh, wow! There are the 7 Deadly Sins!

Recently I wrote about seeking God’s Kingdom first and you won’t have to worry about anything because God knows what you NEED (not want-NEE D ) and He will provide!

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33 NIV (bold emphasis mine)

Thirst – Longing

Jesus gives us living water so we will never thirst again!

The word “thirst” in the Bible comes from the Greek work for “longing”. But just like hunger, when we’re thirsty, we drink something, then in a little while, we’re thirsty again. In fact, when I first moved to the Arizona desert from the tropics of Florida, it took me 2 years to get acclimated to the dryness here and drinking enough water. Here, it seems like we never have enough water.

Racism in Jesus’ Day…

Did you know that many Jews were racists? Yeah. They hated the Samaritans. Why? Because back in the day, Moses told the Jews not to mix with the locals — the Canaanites. Why? Because they worshiped false gods and built idols of gold, stone and clay. And we know from the 1st and 2nd Commandments, that God is a jealous God…

³“You shall have no other gods before me.
⁴“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Exodus 20:3-4 NIV

You’d think the Hebrew people got the idea. All God wanted from them was obedience, but, no, they went ahead and married the pagan locals.

Samaria is located north of Jerusalem and south of Galilee. When Jews traveled from Jerusalem to Galilee, to avoid going through Samaria, they went far out of their way around the area. Not this time. Jesus had a purpose.

In John, chapter 4, we read the account of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ²although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
⁴Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
⁷When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
¹¹“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹²Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
¹³Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
¹⁶He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
¹⁷“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
¹⁹“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
²¹“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
²⁵The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
²⁶Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

²⁷Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
²⁸Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
³¹Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
³²But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
³³Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
³⁴“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹And because of his words many more became believers.
⁴²They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
John 4:1-42 NIV

Imagine that. These people believed just by hearing Jesus and the woman’s testimony. A regular rabbi, would never talk with a woman by herself. It was just not the custom. Never mind a Samaritan woman! But, Jesus came to save everybody — both Jew and Gentile — both men and women — no matter what color their skin is or what tribe they came from. That’s what Paul reiterated in the Book of Romans (I did a series through the whole Book of Romans).

In the Book of Revelation, we have the final 3 uses of the word, “thirst” or “thirsty”…

“That is why they stand in front of God’s throne
    and serve him day and night in his Temple.
And he who sits on the throne
    will give them shelter.
¹⁶They will never again be hungry or thirsty;
    they will never be scorched by the heat of the sun.
¹⁷For the Lamb on the throne
    will be their Shepherd.
He will lead them to springs of life-giving water.
    And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 7: 15-17 NIV

Then in my favorite 2 chapters John writes…

⁵And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” ⁶And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. ⁷All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.
Revelation 21:5-7 NIV

¹⁶“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches. I am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.”
¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.
Revelation 22:16-17 NIV

So, I ask again, are you longing for truth and more of Jesus? Are you not getting filled at church? Maybe it’s time you searched for a church who teaches the Gospel truth. They’re not hard to find. Just ask the Holy Spirit to guide you.

When you sincerely seek the truth, you will find it.

Soli Deo Gloria — to God Alone be the Glory!