"Drink Deeply from the Spirit" (Sermon on John 7:37-39) | May 24, 2026

Sermon Text: John 7:37–39
Date: May 24, 2026
Event: The Day of Pentecost, Year A

John 7:37–39 (EHV)

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and called out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! 38As the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.” 39By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive. For the Holy Spirit had not yet come, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Drink Deeply from the Spirit

Thirst is one of those universally understood needs. Now, at certain times and in certain places, the need may be more or less pronounced. In some places, people are struggling to find any clean water at all, while perhaps it’s more common around us to make sure we’re drinking enough of the readily available water to maintain our health. But regardless, water is a basic need shared by all people—by all life that God has made. So if we describe a different need as a thirst, it is intentionally or unintentionally communicating something about the strength or severity of that need.

Jesus regularly uses the picture of thirst to express our spiritual needs. Perhaps the most famous is the conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, where he describes his ability to provide Living Water, initially misunderstood as something that would permanently quench physical thirst, but Jesus makes clear that he is addressing the spiritual thirst she and all people have.

This morning, as we observe the Day of Pentecost, we have another instance in which Jesus uses the picture of thirst to describe our spiritual needs. The context of our brief Gospel is that Jesus is in Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles (also called the festival of Shelters and, on our modern calendars, most often referred to as Sukkot). This festival was a reminder of the time when Israel lived in the wilderness as nomads, wandering for forty years after God had rescued them from their slavery in Egypt. Among other things, God specially directed the people, “You shall live in temporary shelters for seven days—every native-born person in Israel shall live in shelters—so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 23:42-43). Along with Passover and Pentecost, the Festival of Shelters was one of the three main festivals around the harvest.

This context can help us understand where Jesus is coming from. The time in the wilderness is bookended by the famous accounts of God providing water for his thirsty people from the most unlikely source—a rock. In the moment of their greatest need, God sent miraculous water to sustain this nomadic nation.

With the context of that national and spiritual history surrounding them, at the most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and called out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!” Jesus provides water, unending streams of living water. This is the same point and picture Jesus had made with the woman at the well—Jesus provides “water” that will be self-replicating, water that will eliminate thirst forever. This proposition is tempting in our day, but how much more in the near-desert regions of Israel, where labor-intensive trips to the well were the only way to get that life-sustaining water!

Of course, Jesus wasn’t talking about physical thirst with the woman at the well, nor is he doing so here. He’s not promising to crack open one of the large stones around the temple complex to let people drink their fill. He’s promising to quench their spiritual thirst with this eternal, life-giving water.

Like physical thirst, spiritual thirst is something common to all people of all times. Our sin creates spiritual dehydration within us. Despite the fact that our sinful natures love sin and think it is where we should be focused all the time, the reality is that it is literally killing us. Piling sin upon sin is like trying to solve being thirsty with a spoonful of salt; not only will it not help, but it’s going to just compound the problem, making things much worse.

The problem is that we can’t just go to the tap, the hose, or the water bottle to solve this problem. In fact, we can’t do anything. We are like a person admitted to the hospital with severe dehydration that requires doctors and nurses to be involved to run hydration through IVs to get our body stabilized. Our sin makes us helplessly thirsty.

And so we need the Physician of our souls to come to us and tend to us. Jesus’ work is giving us the living water of his forgiveness that solves the dehydration of sin. His life lived for us and his death died in our place solves this spiritual need that we could not meet ourselves. He refreshes us, restores us, and forgives us.

As we celebrate the first Christian Petentcost day, we’re celebrating what is essentially the birthday of the Christian church. And lest we get it confused, this is not the first time the Holy Spirit ever did work—he’s been active in the hearts of all believers for all time. But, this was the special sending of the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised to his disciples, the reminder of everything he had said to them, the “click” of understanding they needed to fully comprehend what Jesus had actually done, to truly get how Jesus was a spring of living water for them and for all people.

And what did the Holy Spirit enable the disciples to do on the first Christian Pentecost day? To share it. Whether it was drawing a crowd through the sound of wind and the flickering tongues of fire or being able to communicate to this metropolitan group in their own individual native languages, the Holy Spirit empowered his people to share the good news about Jesus, that is, “the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:11).

As the Holy Spirit sends the disciples with the gospel message of sins forgiven in Jesus, he is at the same time creating faith to trust this message in the hearts of those who hear it. Beyond the verses of our First Reading, we learn that on that first Christian Pentecost Day, God solved the spiritual thirst of more than 3,000 people; not bad for a church whose total numbered just about 120 earlier that day.

This faith is what Jesus is talking about in our Gospel when he says, “streams of living water will flow from deep within the person who believes in me.” As a believer, you are not merely relying on things outside of you to bring you comfort and peace, to quench that gnawing spiritual thirst we all have by nature. No, because of the faith God has given, the Holy Spirit lives within you, so yes, the external means of grace, the gospel in God’s Word and the sacraments, are the singular way that God tends to that faith inside of you, but that faith is also a strong testimony to God’s love and comfort from within you. It is a competing voice to the sinful nature inside of us that only wants to rebel against God.

From this indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you have the comfort that your God loves you and care for you. You have the refreshment that your sins are truly forgiven because of God’s love and work for you. In the heat of all the hardship of this life, you have the cool waters of God’s assurance that one day you and I will be with him forever in heaven.

This week, we finished up our midweek Bible Class on the End Times, which we’ve been through this academic year. Jesus is so consistent in picturing his love and forgiveness as water that quenches thirst, that that is even how he describes eternity, the glorious rescue and never-ending perfection we are looking forward to because Jesus has saved us. Consider how God describes this life in the famous picture of the New Heavens and New Earth near the end of the book of Revelation: It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To anyone who is thirsty, I will give freely from the spring of the water of life. The one who overcomes will inherit these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son (Revelation 21:6-7).

Jesus’ call is consistent: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!” My dear fellow Christians, don’t neglect your spiritual thirst. Drink deeply from the Spirit who testifies to God’s love for you. Immerse yourself in the refreshment of Jesus’ forgiveness. Come and drink, listen to his Word, receive his sacrament, and meditate on his love for you. Continue to go to our Savior, the spring of the water of life, and drink for free from his love and forgiveness. And let’s also bottle up that love to share with those wasting away in the desert of this life so that they, too, may know and enjoy the refreshment of their loving Savior. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.

"Jesus Ascended for You" (Sermon on Ephesians 1:15-23) | May 17, 2026

Sermon Text: Ephesians 1:15-23
Date: May 17, 2026
Event: The Ascension of Our Lord (Observed), Year A

Ephesians 1:15-23 (EHV)

This is why, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I never stop giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17I keep praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing Christ fully. 18I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, just how rich his glorious inheritance among the saints is, 19and just how surpassingly great his power is for us who believe. 20It is as great as the working of his mighty strength, which God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and above every name that is given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22God also placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the church. 23The church is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Jesus Ascended for You

Have you ever had to do something for someone who didn’t understand why you were doing it? The clearest example I can think of occurs around animals. If you have a pet—especially one that exhibits some sort of separation anxiety—they might not understand why you need to leave them to go someplace like work or the store. If you could reason with them and explain how the economy works, you might be able to explain that you need money to purchase food so they can eat. But, since you can’t, what are they often left seeing? You left them alone while they wanted you to stay.

If we take that picture and apply it to our spiritual lives, we are the pet, and Jesus is the owner. We wish we could see Jesus, be with Jesus, have him right here in front of us all the time, but that’s because we often have as good a grasp of what we really need as a sad dog has of exchanging money for food. It’s why we need to always pray, “Your will be done,” because we know that God’s will is better than ours, his understanding is more complete than ours, and we know his promises that he’s going to work all things out for our eternal good, whether we “get it” or not.

Sometimes we are left just having to trust that God knows what he’s doing, while other times, through his Word, God does reveal why he’s doing what he’s doing. And we have that before us in our Second Reading this morning as God speaks through the apostle Paul to explain why Jesus ascended and what he’s doing now.

Paul’s relationship with the Christians in the city of Ephesus was very special. Ephesus was one of the places where Paul spent the most time during his ministry—years rather than weeks or months. If you look at his farewell to the leaders of the Ephesian church in Acts chapter 20, you see the immense love as their final departure brings with it intense emotions of thankfulness and sadness at Paul’s goodbye. These Ephesians are fellow believers whom Paul dearly and clearly loves. And so very early in his letter to them, he lets them know that he’s praying for them and then is specific about what he is praying: I never stop giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep praying that… (Perhaps there is a lesson here in making it so that telling someone, “I’m praying for you,” is not just an empty platitude. Be specific with them! What is it that you are praying? Even if you don’t know what exactly to pray about, but you’re entrusting them to God’s care, what a comfort it is to hear that as the person being prayed for!)

But on this observation of Jesus’ ascension, let’s focus in on what specifically Paul is praying about. He is pleading with God to give the Ephesians the Spirit of wisdom and revelation [to know] Christ fully. In other words, Paul is praying for God to increase and strengthen their faith. “Lord, let them know who you are, let them know what you’ve done, let them know why you’re doing what you’re doing so that they are confident of your unending grace.” I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, just how rich his glorious inheritance among the saints is, and just how surpassingly great his power is for us who believe. Notice how so much of what Paul is praying for is that they may be able to see what they cannot actually see, that they may be able to see how things actually are, not as they appear.

And that is the “trouble” with Jesus’ ascension. He’s gone. Well, not gone-gone, but we can’t see him anymore. The disciples stared up into the sky until the angels asked them what they were doing. “He’ll be back,” they assured the group; they promised that he would return exactly the same way that he left, with the clouds. But until then? They couldn’t see him. We can’t see him. The ones who had traveled the dusty roads of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee with Jesus would now walk alone. And so would those who believed through their message—like the Christians in Ephesus, like you and me.

We look around us, and we wonder where Jesus is. Perhaps we’re not staring into the sky waiting for him to appear, but we probably look around and wonder just what his plan is. Look at what’s going on in the world. Look at what’s going on in our country. Look at what’s going on in your city, your neighborhood. My goodness, look at what’s going on in your home among your closest family. If you spend enough time thinking about it, it’s enough to make you want to cry, or give up, or just scream at the top of your lungs. But where, in all of this chaos, hardship, suffering, and pain, is Jesus?

Sin darkens our ability to see the true joy in Jesus’ ascension. We can’t see him physically because his earthly work is done. And yes, it’s done despite the sorrows and suffering of this life because Jesus never came to solve that—at least, not now. Jesus’ goal was, is, and always will be eternity; he wants to rescue us from the here and now and bring us to that place of never-ending peace with him.

That’s what his work was all about. His perfect life was lived not as an example for us, but to substitute for our lives that are caked in sin. His death was not an illustration of patience under trial and suffering, but the actual payment for your sins and mine, the sins of the entire world. His resurrection from the dead was proof that death had no hold on him (because he had no sin) and that his work was complete—finished. As we’ve seen over and over again throughout this Easter season, his empty tomb means that our tombs will also be empty. He will raise us from the dead just as the Father raised him. And Jesus’ ascension is the cherry-on-top of this salvation sundae. Because at this point, his work is truly complete. He had made clear over the past 40 days that he had, in fact, been raised from the dead. The disciples knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this Jesus, who had died, was in fact alive. And the Holy Spirit would bring them extra clarity in just a few days so that they could begin their work as his witnesses to the world.

Which brings us back to Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians. If any of the members of this congregation in what is now far-western Turkey had actually seen Jesus with their physical eyes, they would have been in the vast minority. No, for most, if not for all, Jesus was not someone they met, but someone they learned about. They found him in the promises God had made in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the testimony of those who, like Paul, went out to share the good news of sins forgiven in Jesus.

That means that you and I have a lot in common with these first-century Christians. Because we, too, have not seen Jesus in the flesh, yet we know him, love him, and believe in him as our Savior. Why? Because just as God answered Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, he has answered that very prayer for us as well. We have had our eyes opened as God has created faith in us. So amazing is that faith that trusts Jesus as our Savior that Paul says that the same power that created this faith is the power that raised [Jesus] from the dead. And it would have to be because it’s a miracle no less amazing to raise the Messiah from the dead than it is to raise us from the spiritual death of unbelief to the spiritual life of faith; faith so powerful that it, as the writer to the Hebrews describes it, makes us sure about what we hope for… convinced about things we do not see (Hebrews 11:1).

And yet, while we don’t see him, he is not far from us. He is not some distant, absentee God and Savior. No, Jesus promised to be with us to the end of this age, throughout this life (Matthew 28:20), and so he is. What is he doing? Working everything out for your eternal good. Paul said that God also placed all things under his feet and made him head over everything for the church. Jesus rules everything for us. That means those horrible things going on in global events are, in some way, being worked out for the good of those who believe in him. That heartache and frustration that you feel is in service of the end-goal of eternal life in heaven with your Savior.

And Paul underscores that by describing us as members of Jesus’ body. His love for us is so great that the one who is the fullness of him who fills everything in every way made himself incomplete without us. It’s very much like his own observation at creation before he made Eve, “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Jesus himself says, “It’s not good for me to be alone, it’s not good for me to not have my people, my loved ones, my family with me.” And that explains all of his work for us. Why would the divine set aside that glory and power to take on our human nature? Why would God suffer and die for the sins that people, that you and I, committed against him? It was not a requirement. He could have been God and remained God, perfectly just, without ever doing any of that, all the while rightly condemning each of us to hell. No, it wasn’t need that drove him, it was love. His love decided that he was incomplete without us, so he created us. His love decided that he was incomplete without us, so he saved us when we sinned. His love decided that he was incomplete without us, so he now prepares a place for us to spend eternity with him face-to-face.

So we are not far removed from Jesus—quite the opposite! We are members of his body, the finger on his hand, the toe on his foot, the rib in his side. We are so close to him that we are one with him by grace through faith. His blood that purifies you from every sin unites you to him. His love that sacrificed everything for you rules the universe for your eternal good —all things are under his feet! And his strength for you is so great that he will return in the same way we’ve seen him go—with the clouds—to pluck us out of this world of misery, sin, and death and bring us to the eternal safety of his visible presence forever. There we will find a clear reunion with the rest of our body—his body—all of our fellow believers.

Until that day, my dear brothers and sisters, try to see the trouble in your life like the pet owner going to work. Even if you don’t understand why God is allowing this or that, trust that the one who loves you has only love behind it, that he’s going to work all things out for your good, that your Savior is literally ruling the universe to make sure that you are safe with him in eternity.

Christ is risen! He has gone up with a shout! Alleluia! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

Sermon prepared for Gloria Dei Lutheran Church (WELS), Belmont, CA (www.gdluth.org) by Pastor Timothy Shrimpton. All rights reserved. Contact pastor@gdluth.org for usage information.