SEVEN STATEMENTS FROM THE CROSS
JOHN 19:28
“I THIRST”
By this time in our study you have already been made aware of the physical torture which Jesus endured on the cross for each of us. Tonight’s simple little scripture once again gives us evidence of His physical condition. The signs and symptoms that Jesus exhibited that Friday afternoon were a precursor to death. The condition of thirst is one of the prime signs and symptoms of the condition of shock.
As the body enters into the condition of cardiovascular collapse, God has designed it to try and take care of itself. The body will compensate for the injury and will try to keep the body functioning as it should. One method of doing that is by “shunting” the blood and body fluids from a place where they are not needed to a place where they are needed.
For example, the body will push the blood and fluids located in the skin and cause them to move toward the vital organs. The blood gives the skin its warmth and color. That is why a person entering into shock will become pale, cool and clammy.
Another example is thirst. The fluids in the mouth are shunted back toward the vital organs. This leaves the patient with “cotton mouth” or thirst.
Lest you think that Jesus endured the cross by means of “supernatural”, God-like, miraculous powers; John explains to us that Jesus was thirsty. John was standing near enough to the cross to hear the words come out of the parched lips of the Savior. He was eye-witness to the fact that the Savior, who had created all the waters on the earth; was dying for just one sip of that cool water, and none was offered.
The physical Jesus, the man Jesus, the human Jesus had entered into that condition of cardiovascular collapse. His circulatory system was shutting down and he was experiencing the condition of thirst. He was feeling that Insatiable need for fluids.
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But as I thought and prayed about this little two word portion of scripture I came to the conclusion that the thirst Jesus was experiencing was more than physical thirst. Oh, yes He was burning up. He was craving “just a cup of cool water” to relieve the burning in his body, but there was more. Jesus was thirsty for more.
Let’s consider some of the “thirst” that Jesus experienced.
1. THE SALVATION OF THE LOST: Already in this series we have seen that Jesus came to “seek and save that which was lost”. That was His purpose. When He met a man on the street, or talked with a woman by the well, His desire was to share that “living water” with them. I believe that He could see them in their lost state and He was “thirsty” to share the good news with them.
As Christians, who are supposed to be Christ-like, that should be our thirst too. We should not be comfortable passing people on the street without somehow sharing Jesus with them.
Many years ago when I was stationed in Yorktown, Virginia, I felt this burning desire to share Jesus with others. I made God a promise at that time. I told God, “I will not let one day pass in which I don’t share Jesus with someone”. That sounds like an honorable desire doesn’t it? Well, that promise and desire succeeded in making me live a very defeated life for a while. You see there were days that would go by in which I did not have the opportunity to speak to someone about Christ. And when I would have one of those times, when I would go through a day or two and not share Jesus verbally, then I felt defeated. I felt like I had lied to God and that I was sinning.
I don’t know if it is practical or not, that we verbally share Jesus with someone each day, but I want to have that thirst don’t you? I wish that I could love them enough to be thirsty for their souls. Jesus was.
2. THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE BELIEVER: I believe with all my heart that Jesus came to set us free. Not only did He come to set me free from the guilt of sin but He also came to set me free from the chains of sin. It was not His intent to come and live an example for us that He did, die the death for us that He died, send His Holy Spirit to us to empower us and make us Holy and then just to watch us go back to being what we were before with the excuse of “ Well, I’m just human”. There should be a Holy difference between you and a non-Christian. Not because of your power but because of the power within you.
It is not the desire of God that His children, His family, people called by His name should live a life chained to the habits, and obsessions and proclivities of sin. Holiness is the desire of God, no, much more than that, Holiness is the command of God! Jesus hung there on that cross that afternoon and was thirsty for the time when “rivers of living waters” that would flow from those who surrendered to His will.
3. LOVE UNENDING: When you have been around the church as long as I have (Some of you might say when you have been anywhere as long as I have) you will naturally see people “come and go”. I’m sure you know people who have had “an experience” with God. Perhaps they have confessed their sins, made a public confession, started coming to church and working for the kingdom and yet…where are they now?
You may know of someone who was once a vibrant, on fire servant for God at one point and now they have totally gone in the opposite direction. There have been folks, who have stood in our sanctuary and testified of the saving grace of God, but now they are gone and not living the life they promised to live. Oh, there are a lot of excuses for people like that. They might blame it on:
· Their parents
· Their teachers
· Their church
· Their pastor
But the truth is those are excuses. If a person turns from God it is a choice just as tuning toward God is a choice.
When you sign on with God’s army it’s forever. You don’t sign on and then get old and say, “I’ve done my part. Let someone else work for a while” or “I’ve done enough this year. Let someone else do something “. God doesn’t need “part-time” Christians. He doesn’t need “week-end” Christians. He wants Christians who are willing to “sign on for the long haul”.
There is a Southern gospel song that says “When He was on the cross, I was on His mind”. I wonder if while He hung there in torture that Friday afternoon, He could see me. I wonder if He looked down through the corridors of time and realized that the thought would come through my mind that “I’ll just throw up my hands and quit”. If He did, then I made Him thirsty. Just like my sins caused Him to have to go to the cross, my weakness, my laziness, my attitude of “it’s too hard”, made Him thirsty for Christians who will not quit!
REFUSING THE SUBSTITUTE: In Matthew 27:34 we are told that even though Jesus was thirsty He refused to accept the easy way out and He refused the substitute for what He really needed.
Normally, the Romans would give a cup of wine to the condemned prisoner. This was to help him endure the pain a little. I guess you could call it the compassion of the executioner. But Matthew says that when Jesus tasted what they offered Him that He refused to drink it. The Son of God needed a drink of water and the world offered Him something else. They offered Him sour wine and bitter tasting gall. He refused to accept a substitute.
The church today seems to offer people a lot doesn’t it? Look at some of the bigger churches around us or some that advertise on the internet. They offer nursery programs, children’s programs, “middlers” and pre-teens, youth programs, music programs, senior adult programs, programs for unwed mothers, programs for single parents, meetings for drug abusers, home missions, foreign missions, and just about any activity that you could name. (No wonder we old people turned out so awful. We didn’t have any of that stuff when we were growing up in church. All we had was good Christian people who loved us).
In the little church where I grew up, I don’t think we even had a children or youth program. But I can remember clearly my Dad putting us in the car and driving over to the home of a man and woman who had lots of kids that he was trying to get into church. He took a baseball and bat and some old baseball gloves on Sunday afternoon and we played baseball out in their cow pasture. That’s been well over 50 years ago and I can still remember the fun we had to this day.
I remember him taking a group of young boys on a hike. We hiked from one exit to the other when the new I-65 was being built. We walked along what is now being used by thousands of cars each hour. Then it was just a cleared off strip of land that a bunch of young boys and a middle age man play on. No program, no budget, no planning session, just a Christian man who loved the kids and wanted to do something with them.
We mentioned a few weeks back that people are leaving the church in “droves”. Churches are changing their names from Baptist, Methodist, and Nazarene to something more “catchy” in order to woo those people back into the fold. But I don’t believe it is the lack of programs that are causing people to leave the church. I don’t believe it’s the name on the church that is keeping people out. I believe it is the fact that we are not offering them the “real thing”. I believe we as a church are offering them substitutes.
They are thirsty for Salvation and we are offering them church membership. They are thirsty for a holy heart and we are offering them “situational ethics”. They are thirsty for fellowship and we offer them “programs”. They are thirsting to death for love and we offer them services.
I’ll use a Lucado quote here. “Religion pacifies, but never satisfies. Church activities might hide a thirst but only Christ, The Living Water can quench the thirst”.
And you know what? Just as Jesus would not accept the “fake” relief for His thirst, neither will our world accept the fake relief we offer for their thirst.
Folks your loved ones and my loved ones, your neighbors and my neighbors, your co-workers and my co-workers are thirsting to death for someone to love them. Do we dare offer them a fake solution to their need? Dare we offer them “sour wine” when what they need is the pure, clean water from the river of life?
CONCLUSION: Where will that “water” come from? Let me tell you a story. (John 7)
The Jewish people of Jesus’ day held many celebrations. One in particular was called the Feast of Tabernacles. It was a celebration commemorating the blessing that God has given them during the year. It also is a time when the Hebrew people remember when they were delivered from bondage in Egypt.
It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 7th month. (September-October of our year). It is similar to our Thanksgiving. There are several things done during this celebration. The people all live in “booths” for seven days. These booths must be constructed out of something that grows from the ground. Tree branches, corn stalks, and palm branches are examples of the things that they use.
The people celebrated this event by sleeping in tents or booths all week long to remind themselves that their ancestors were nomads, wonderers, and pilgrims. Each day of this special week, the priest would walk to the Pool of Sloam which is a stone pool fed from the Gihon springs. He takes a golden pitcher which he fills with water and slowly walks back to the temple through streets lined on both sides with people there to celebrate this occasion.
When the priest entered the temple he would walk around the altar and pour out the water at the base of the altar. He would do this once a day for seven days. On the last day of the celebration, the great day, he would make the trip to the spring 7 times. Seven times he would walk down the people lined streets and seven times he would pour out the water around the altar.
I wonder how many times in His life Jesus had stood among the crowd and watched this reenactment. But this day, the day John tells us about in John chapter 7, was special for Jesus. This would be the last time Jesus would ever see this celebration held while He was on earth. In six months from this time, Jesus would be led down these same streets carrying a cross beam. He would be led to a hill called Calvary and there He would die for the sins of these very people. So Jesus felt a desperate need to divert His countrymen’s attention from the past to what was about to happen.
We normally think of Jesus as a quiet, reserved teacher. But in this case He could stand it no longer. John tells us that “Jesus stood and cried out”. Normally, when a teacher or Rabbi taught he sat down and his “talmed” or followers would sit around him to listen to his teaching. We see Jesus in this setting many times during His ministry, but not today. He stood. And He shouted.
The word used here is the same word used in other occasions in the Bible. It was used when the blind man desperately shouted to gain Jesus’ attention and ask for healing. It was used when Peter, who had been walking on the water, started sinking in the storm and cried out to Jesus to save him. It was used when the demon possessed man shouted from the clutches of the demons that held him to ask Jesus to free him.
Jesus stood, and shouted. “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me, and drink”. Don’t worry about the traditions. Don’t worry about the ceremonies. Don’t fret about the rules and regulations. Come to Me if you are thirsty. Come to Me if your soul is dry. Come to Me if you have a crusty heart.
And when you do what will happen?
Jesus said that those who come to me, “He that believes in me….out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. (John 7:38)
That living water is supposed to be coming from us. Oh, not that we can do anything by ourselves. Jesus is that living water. He is the solution to the problems of our world. But we are the conduit. We are the pipes that bring that living water from its source to the place where it is needed. We bring Jesus to a thirsty world.
I heard a good illustration of that just this morning. Someone said that “what the hand is to the glove, The Spirit of God is to our lives”. It is our lives, hands, feet, mouth that do the touching but it is His hand, His Spirit that does the work.
It’s pretty obvious that the world is thirsty. It’s pretty obvious that people are dying for that water that living water that Jesus spoke about. It should be clear to us that Jesus was and is thirsty to share that water with those in need. What is not clear is my state of thirst. Do I want what Jesus wants? Do I want it bad enough? Am I thirsty enough to share the Word with the world? Are you?
God make us thirsty.
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