Our Existential Thirst
Joel Van Hoogen
Existentiality affirms that humans experience everything with themselves at the center. We are at the center of our awareness of the universe. We relate everything to ourselves. It is how we experience our existence.
Now, I wish to address the topic of evangelism within this context. Among present-day Christians, evangelism is not highly regarded. Yet Christian apologetics is. We want to refute the idea that our faith is blind. It isn’t. It is quite reasonable. Also, while not many wise have been chosen and called of God (1 Cor. 1:26), we strive to prove otherwise.
We have honed our arguments for God’s existence. We may start with the cosmological argument. First, whatever begins to exist has a cause. Second, the universe began to exist. Third, therefore the universe has a cause behind its existence. This cause would have to be uncaused, extremely powerful, timeless, immaterial, and personal. This is God.
We might, then, move to the teleological argument. We seek to demonstrate that the order of the universe requires an intelligent designer.
Beyond that, we may unfold the moral argument for God’s existence. We argue that there is no objective ground for moral good apart from an objective, absolute moral lawgiver.
Building on these foundations, as Christian apologists, we will want to prove the God of the Bible. Therefore, we must prove that miracles are not unreasonable. The argument is simple. Given the existence of God, miracles are possible. God is all powerful. He is overseeing the affairs of his creation. He is free to interact with his creation as he wills. He does so both through natural laws that he has established and through altering those laws in miraculous expressions.
Beyond this, we seek to demonstrate the reliability of the biblical accounts. At this point, the evidence becomes the most convincing. This finally brings us to the factual evidence for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Once again, the evidence for this historical event is impressively strong.
There you have it. We have established the credibility of Christian faith.
Here is my suggestion: Do not put the weight of your evangelism in apologetics. Logical arguments serve the purpose of lowering and even removing certain barriers to faith. They increase the certitude of the truth we profess. Barriers need to be removed. Confidence in the gospel as held out in the Bible needs to be established. But it will take something more than logic and empirical evidence to move a person towards faith in Jesus Christ.
At the same time, the task of carrying on such debates may feel daunting for most believers. Such an approach to evangelism can leave many believers feeling unqualified. Perhaps most importantly, when starting with apologetics, we generally assume an adversarial posture toward those we engage. Such a starting point is not helpful in our quest to bring people to Christ.
I suggest, instead, that we begin by getting on the same side as the person we are seeking to win to Christ. To do so, we will need to access a person’s thirst and then offer them something that can satisfy that thirst. This is what Jesus did.
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38, NASB).
Here we find a starting point from which to engage others with the gospel.
Start with their existential desires.
“If anyone is thirsty…” This is a rhetorical and hypothetical “if.” It is a gentle and kind way of inviting personal reflection by those to whom Jesus is speaking. He is stirring up their consideration. Let’s learn from him.
Remember that existentially we assess all our experience of existence in relation to ourselves. This holds true as we contemplate the stars, the sun, the moon, and the seas. It is true as we consider the past and the future. In the same manner, we follow the evidence (empirical and logical), strewn throughout nature, to the throne of an uncaused cause that is all powerful, personal, eternal, and immaterial. And then we decide how we will relate ourselves to this astounding being. We relate ourselves to everything. God made us with this capacity so that we may relate ourselves to him.
This pattern of existentiality stirs within us certain desires. These are human desires. They are universal and undeniable. We all have these thirsts.
We thirst for what is good. We want things to be right. We desire a sinless world.
We thirst for moral fitness. We want to be right. We were designed for righteousness; from our earliest age, we wanted to be good.
We thirst for justice. We want the universe to be right with us. We recognize that things are not as they should be, but we want them to be.
We thirst for transcendent love. We know that nothing is right without it. Everyone feels somewhat like a stranger in this world. All of us want to be hugged by the heart of the universe.
These desires echo in the heart of every person. We cannot deny this reality any more than we can deny ourselves. It is existential. This thirst to exist in a world of goodness, righteousness, justice, and love stirs us to pursue knowledge. We are motivated to seek because we want to satisfy these longings.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 explains how these desires come to rise in the human heart: God has set “eternity in their heart.” Jesus taught that the Spirit stirs up these desires within every person to prepare them for the gospel (John 16:8-11). He is constantly at work convicting all of sin and righteousness, and their lack thereof, and therefore of judgment. It is God who awakens these thirsts, and God keeps them active in everyone.
The Spirit of God both awakens these desires and then underscores our failures to gain them. We thirst for what is good. We want things to be right. We know things are not all right. We know sin is in the world and in us. We thirst for moral fitness. We want to be right. We know we are not in the right. We want to be righteous, but we know we are not as righteous as we want to be. We thirst for justice. We want the universe to be right with us. We know that justice eludes us and that justice sets itself against us. Sin and unrighteousness cheat us and demand justice. Deep down, people know it; they feel it. We thirst for transcendent love. We know that nothing is right without it. We suspect that transcendent love is possible, but we are not confident in finding it. So, we thirst. All this is brought to bear upon individuals by the gracious, convicting work of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus knew the existential desires of people. The seven-day feast of Tabernacles, under Jewish custom, had been stretched to eight days. The feast celebrated the wandering of Israel in the wilderness after their rescue from bondage in Egypt. During that season, God provided water for them. In order to commemorate how God satisfied their thirsts in the wilderness, water was drawn each day of the feast from the pool of Siloam and brought in a parade through the Water Gate and to the altar in the Temple. The people chanted portions of the Hallel (Psalms 113-118) and, most likely, the words of Isaiah 12:3, “you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation.” As they did so, water was poured out on the side of the altar.
This was repeated on each of the seven days of the Feast. On the eighth day, no water was drawn up. Jesus knew the existential thirst for the wells of salvation had not been met. On that final day Jesus stood up to proclaim that he is the water of life. Come unto me you who are thirsting. I satisfy those desires that you know you have.
Then, be convinced that Jesus satisfies our existential desires.
He is the eternal One who answers the ache in our hearts for the eternal. He satisfies what all people long for and need.
The existential longings people have can only be met in a relationship with God. But sins separate people from the One who satisfies. Not only are they separated from God by their sins, but those sins have infected them with an antagonism towards God. The Bible reveals that humans are running from God. They are not seeking him. And yet, desires that only God can meet still inflame their thirsts. Their desires for what is good, for moral fitness, for justice, and for transcendent love remain. Therefore, they pursue new avenues of fulfillment. Among them are man-made religions—a strange mixture reflecting the sinner’s flight from God, and at the same time, the Spirit’s witness of the truth of God. Every false religion has its own list of sins, its own way of righteousness, its own judgments to avoid, and its own pursuit for connection. But none of them will satisfy the thirst that the Spirit creates in people.
All around us, individuals seek desperately for an answer to these deep thirsts. Yet they are just as motivated to turn from God, the fount of life. As a result, they gulp down poisonous experiences that, on the face of it, ruin and harm them.
To some extent, we in the church have let them go there because we have been unwilling to engage them at the point of their thirst. We have offered them purpose, meaning, significance, and self-esteem and avoided the great undercurrent of desire that the Spirit himself has provoked in them: to have their sins addressed, to gain righteousness, and to escape judgment. As a result, this generation has largely left our moralistic answers and evangelistic offers for a better life in Jesus and instead invented new categories of sin to deflect their consciences, new modes of righteousness to establish themselves as virtuous, and new forms of judgment as well. Yet they continue to feel unloved, unhugged by the heart of the universe.
Christ, on that feast day, was promising to satisfy all existential longings in himself. We desire to be right with everything we relate to, which is everything. Jesus satisfies that desire by making us right with the Creator of everything.
Finally, understand that Jesus not only meets your existential desires, but he meets them so fully that he overflows our lives to bring satisfaction to others.
“Come to Me and drink… He who believes in Me… From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” Jesus promises such abundant satisfaction of our existential longings that it will not only satisfy us, it will breach the banks of our lives and overflow into the lives of others. When you drink of Jesus’ fullness, your life becomes an instrument through which his word, his work, and his life flow forth in benefit to those around you. You shall have enough for yourself. You shall have a blessing for others. Our world needs what would flow from us if we came and found our fullness in the Lord Jesus.
Two starters for applying these things to our lives.
Drink from the right well. If our lives and our church fellowships are not oases of promise and hope to those around us, we must ask, “Where have we been seeking our satisfaction? Are we really drinking in the Lord Jesus as our life? Is His presence and power overflowing from us?” If not, get thirsty. Abandon all other wells you have been gathering around. Go to Jesus alone. Do not try to satisfy those existential desires with something or someone else. It won’t work… and you’ll have little to offer anyone else. If you are to come and drink of Christ, he will have to be the one thing that you really desire. Those other things you hoped would satisfy you must be left behind. Come to Christ without them.
Use your advantage. Remember this about those you seek to reach: they have desires that God has shaped in them that only God can meet. The Spirit of God has been stirring those desires. We are not the leading edge of evangelism. The Spirit is. We do have this advantage: we know what is stirring in their hearts. And we have the Spirit of Christ within us to aid us in this work.
Four ways you can stir up that desire in others as you seek to bring the gospel to them.
In intercession, ask God to work up those desires more and more intensely in their lives. Pray that their experience of good things from God will turn them to himself. At the same time, pray that God will dry up their alternative sources for satisfaction and make them increasingly thirsty.
Live before them as one who drinks deeply of Jesus. He will overflow your life without you even trying to make an impression on them.
Listen to how these desires are expressed in their lives. Ask them about their thoughts on God. Engage them on what they think their world needs. They will easily talk about what is wrong with the world. Ask them what they think is wrong with themselves. Ask them what they do to try to be more righteous and how well they think they are doing. Ask them where they think we are all heading in our day and age and where they would like to be heading themselves. Ask good questions. Then listen well.
After praying, living, and listening before them, show them that you have been listening. Tell them of the desires you hear coming from their words. Then, only after that, you must tell them how Jesus has met those desires in your life and can meet that thirst for them. Here is where the gospel comes in. Share how Jesus Christ addresses their sin, how he provides for their righteousness, how he delivers justice while delivering us from judgment, how he restores/reconciles to relationship and a realized love. Share with them how they too can be taken up in the arms of their Creator and hugged by the one who has made everything.