John 19:28-37

[0:00] So we'll just pick up there and continue moving through this chapter. What you feel this morning is humidity. Just so some of you don't know what that is. You feel that. You're uncomfortable.

[0:11] That's what it is. It's not your sin, and it's not the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You're probably going to start sweating while you're in church today, and it's not because the air is not on. It's just humidity. Maybe it is your sin.

[0:22] I don't know. But it's a sticky feeling today. And thank God it's pretty dry here. I've come to enjoy it a lot. But I was talking to Brother Donovan last night.

[0:34] He's in Pensacola, and we just were talking about walking on a treadmill, of all things. And he said something about working up a sweat, and we copied it back and forth. I said, well, the difference is it's very dry here.

[0:46] You sweat, and you don't know you're sweating as much as you are. If I was in Pensacola, I'd be drenched, too, just from pretty much doing anything. It's just a difference. And so I'm glad not to deal with that every single day of the year.

[1:00] All right, enough of that. John 19, before we go into anything, let's pray, and then we'll get into the Holy Word of God. Lord, it's with grateful hearts that we are gathered this morning, grateful for your Son, and grateful for this church.

[1:11] Thankful that we have a copy of the Holy Scriptures that we can study and read together. And we pray that you'll illuminate our hearts and minds to the truth that's in these words. Help us to believe them.

[1:22] Help us to understand them and make application where we can. And just give us a true love from our hearts for these words. And help us to make them part of our daily diet.

[1:36] And consult them in all manners of life, in every direction that we need to go. And we ask that you'll train us up in these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

[1:47] Amen. Amen. So we'll start verse number 28. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

[2:03] So he knows that everything has fallen into place. He's got full awareness of the situation. And so there's something yet that hasn't been done.

[2:14] And so he calls out saying, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar. And they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon hyssop and put it to his mouth.

[2:25] When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. We know from the other gospel writers, there's a few other details to go along with.

[2:40] And in between all of these, John just kind of leaves some gaps there, if you will. And we don't need to study it out. We don't need to get every single portion and moment that we can. But this is the very end.

[2:51] That's verse 30. He gave up the ghost. That's the end of his earthly life as a man. The ghost, the spirit departed from him. In Luke, it says that when he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

[3:06] And so just putting two verses together, the spirit and the ghost, that's the same thing. They're synonymous. And so we call the person of God the Holy Ghost, also called the Holy Spirit.

[3:17] And it's nothing that's contrary there or different. It's the same terminology. So he gave up the ghost. Before that, he said, it is finished.

[3:27] Now, you know what? Let's do something else. Let's go to, let's run down this prophecy here. Go back to the Psalms. And we don't do this very much, but I felt like let's do this a little bit today because I know that not everybody in here is raised with a Bible in their lap.

[3:47] And you maybe have never even seen all of these things that is happening and being fulfilled in this moment. Many, many things are being fulfilled. So Psalm 69 is where you need to be tonight or this morning.

[4:00] And I'm going to read a few verses here leading up into this prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ and that another thing that he fulfills before he says it is finished.

[4:11] So you want Psalm 69 and the verse that is directly the prophecy is verse 21. But I'm going to back up and get a little of the context and show you how this applies to the Lord Jesus Christ.

[4:26] So start in verse 18. Draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it. Deliver me because of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonor.

[4:38] Mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart and I am full of heaviness. You remember him saying that similar to that earlier in the night.

[4:50] That is, he was full of heaviness or that his heart was heavy and sorrow and all that. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found none. Now verse 21, they gave me also gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

[5:08] And so there it is fulfilled. And we studied one earlier that's later in this portion, a little bit later that applied to Judas Iscariot from verse 25. And so in these Psalms, they're rich with prophetic material pointing to not just Jesus Christ, other elements that surround this evening and the crucifixion.

[5:28] And portion or parts of his life. So in John 19, that particular Psalm was to be fulfilled. And so it says when Jesus, when he knew all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, sayeth I thirst.

[5:42] And so then that one, if you want to call it like that box was checked. I don't want to just belittle this down to checking boxes, but just to give you an idea, there was many, many things that were written of this Messiah and things that were accomplished.

[5:58] And here he comes to the end. And now he cries out and says, it is finished. Now I know that we all would like to kind of just make songs about this and talk about he finished paying for our sins.

[6:11] And the work of the atonement was finished. And the reality is, that's not exactly true. The gospel was not complete when Jesus Christ cried out, it is finished.

[6:21] And so those three words are not really, in my opinion, not a reference to, I did what I had to do to pay for the sins of the world. And now the atonement's made.

[6:33] I shed my blood. It's all good. They could be saved now. He's not talking about man's salvation. He's talking, just stay in the context. Verse 28 said, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture should be, might be fulfilled.

[6:46] There was this one more thing that he had to be part of. And then when that was done, it is finished. Now, not all scripture is fulfilled yet. But as far as his part is fulfilled, there's some more things that are going to take place very soon.

[7:01] But it's not something that he has to do. Now look at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. When Christ cried, it is finished.

[7:11] I believe he's referring to fulfillment of scripture and things that he was personally responsible to accomplish that the scripture foretold of him.

[7:23] Look at Hebrews chapter 10. And notice with me verse number seven. And this is a reference to the son of God.

[7:35] Then said I, lo, I come, parentheses says, in the volume of the book, it is written of me to do thy will. Oh, God. Now, if we parse that out and just read it straight through without the parentheses, lo, I come to do thy will.

[7:51] Oh, God. And what is the will that God has? It's written, it's already been written in the book, what he's come to do or what he's come to accomplish. These are specific prophecies of the son of God.

[8:03] And he's going to fulfill every single one of them. And so as that night comes to its culmination and he's coming to the end of his life, he says it is finished. He finished the work that God gave him to do.

[8:15] It's something that he said back in chapter 17. So verse 30, when he had received that vinegar, he cried. He said it is finished and has bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Now, verse 31, we've already commented on.

[8:27] And I'll just brush up on that as we go by. The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day. And John gives this insight that no one else gives in the Bible for that Sabbath day was an high day.

[8:43] So automatically, everybody assumes that's Saturday, the seventh day of the week, the remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. But John says, no, this is something different. And we understand with connection of Passover, this is the first day of the holy convocation mentioned in Exodus 11.

[9:02] And we looked at it in Leviticus 23 last week. This is a special day. It's one of their Jewish feast days, and this just happens to fall on that day, not on a Saturday, but likely it's falling on a Thursday.

[9:16] And then there's a gap of Friday in between. And then there is the Sabbath day. And then he resurrects on the first day, or he's up already out of the grave by the time the first day of the week shows up, giving him three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

[9:29] Otherwise, you just can't make three days and three nights. And so, John, this is an important little piece to putting this puzzle together of understanding it. So the Sabbath day, it was a high day.

[9:41] It says that at the end of the verse, they besought Pilate. Man, besought Pilate that their legs might be broken. They got to speed this process up. It's taken too long.

[9:51] So let's break their legs, get them dead quicker so that we can get them off the cross, that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers and break the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified with him.

[10:05] But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs. Now, the scripture had said this, and it's actually a little bit later in verse 36.

[10:17] It tells us that was a fulfillment of scripture. So we'll get to that in a minute. The scripture said that would happen, and it did. Now, that wasn't one that Jesus himself had to fulfill, like that his bones wouldn't be broken.

[10:29] He didn't have to do that. So when he cried out, I thirst, that was the last thing he had to physically do in that moment. And then some other things would still fall into place as far as fulfillment of scripture.

[10:43] So they don't break his legs. He's already dead. And we read that earlier in verse 30. Verse 34, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water.

[11:00] And he that saw it bear record, and his record is true. And he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. And we'll come back to that in a minute. So the soldier, instead of breaking his legs, he still wants to just verify his death.

[11:13] And so he takes that spear and jabs it up into his corpse, into his torso, into his side, and outflows what was probably pulled up inside of him, his water and blood.

[11:27] And there's no question that he's dead. Now, there's been these theories. Everybody that doesn't want to believe the Bible and submit themselves to the Word of God tries to come up with a way to make it wrong.

[11:39] And there's been a handful of theories and thoughts all around that. Well, one of them is that when he received the vinegar, they put something in there. And they put it in there, and they knocked him out.

[11:51] And so he passed out on the cross. He appeared to be dead, but he really wasn't dead. And what they're really trying to get away with or get around is the resurrection. They're trying to say that, no, he never died. That's the way he never resurrected.

[12:02] He was just a man. And so throughout the years, there's been several different theories. One's called the swoon theory, if you've ever heard of this. Some of it has to do with his disciples, even in that day that his disciples stole him away, things like that.

[12:16] Did he die or not? According to the Scripture, according to eyewitnesses, they believed him to be dead. They jammed and pierced a spear into his side and outflowed blood and water.

[12:30] And then they decided he's dead. So do the soldiers know what they're talking about, or are they just big dummies? Or was he passed out and then they jammed the spear into his side and all flows out of him and he still passed out, didn't come to when that happened?

[12:46] Look back at Mark chapter 15, just if you want a little, I believe, a little stronger verification from the Scripture that would settle speculation.

[12:56] Mark chapter 15. And we won't take the word of these followers of Jesus and the ones that are going to benefit from his resurrection.

[13:11] But we'll take the word of those that were involved in executing the command of their authority and their superior. So verse 44 and 45, Mark 15, 44.

[13:25] And Pilate marveled. That means he asked or questioned if he were already dead. The governor wants to know. The guy in charge of this whole thing that oversaw it and gave permission to allow it to happen.

[13:39] He wants to know, is he already dead? And calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. Is the centurion going to be one of his disciples?

[13:50] Is the centurion going to lie to Pilate? Verse 45, and when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. So there's verification there from the centurion, the man that's the authority overseeing the physical, the events of the crucifixion that stood by the cross.

[14:09] He's mentioned, let's see where he's, he's mentioned in Luke. Look at Luke 23. Is he here? Pretty sure it's Luke.

[14:23] Yeah, Luke 23. And he stood by the cross when Christ took his last breath and when he gave up the ghost.

[14:35] Verse 46. Luke 23, 46. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

[14:51] And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God saying, certainly this was a righteous man.

[15:02] He beheld the whole thing from start to finish. And he recognized this man was innocent, as did many other people in that night. But that's not the point we're driving at here.

[15:14] The centurion witnessed his death. The centurion had nothing to gain from lying or being deceitful about this whole thing. It was his duty. He was on duty that night, just doing his job, killing people, overseeing the execution of prisoners.

[15:30] He's not, he's neutral. He's just being obedient to his superior. And so he was asked a direct question. He gave a direct answer. And we have no reason to disbelieve him, even if you might want to disbelieve any of the other disciples of that night, if that's your angle.

[15:46] So coming back to John chapter 19, the centurion gives verification and good reason why they didn't break his legs, because he already was dead. And they pierced his side, and out came blood and water.

[16:02] Now, they pierced his side, did they? Why did they do that? Why did they pierce his side? Well, the scripture says that he would be pierced. And then, just to get this together, look over, let's see.

[16:16] Well, we'll take it separate. Flip backwards, you'll find Zechariah. It's just a little bit before Matthew, so don't go too far back to your left. Find Zechariah.

[16:37] And it's chapter 12. Chapter 12 and verse number 10.

[16:54] This is some 500 years before the fact. The prophet Zechariah. Zechariah. And by the way, just if you study the first, I don't know, six, seven chapters of Zechariah, he's seeing all of these crazy visions, one after another, just little, just real snapshots of these visions.

[17:16] And every single time, he says, what is that? And then they say, don't you know what that is? No. And then he explains what it is. The next thing, well, what are these? Like, this guy is just a normal guy.

[17:27] That just, he sees this vision and he doesn't know what it is. He's not some scholar intellect. He's just a normal guy. And when he comes down, he's just, he's writing what the Spirit told him to write. And in verse 10, it says, I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications.

[17:46] And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

[17:58] Look at that. The firstborn only son. And they're piercing him. Interesting. But there's more than that. That's an applet. That's a fulfillment in John 19 of a prophecy that they would look on him whom they pierced.

[18:13] But there's more application then. Look at Revelation chapter 1, just to take this a step further and kind of make a point that you and I don't know the Bible as well as we think we might.

[18:27] Because when Zechariah has something to say that's just back there tucked away in chapter 12 and in some kind of obscure format of wording, when Christ is crucified and when they pierce his side, then all of a sudden it's a light bulb comes on.

[18:46] That's what happened. There was a prophecy of that tucked away in the Bible. But little do you know, little do you and I know, until John gets a revelation and he pens this, that what Zechariah said didn't just apply to Calvary.

[19:02] It applied to a second coming of Jesus Christ to both Advents. Look at Revelation chapter 1. And I'll start in verse 5.

[19:12] And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

[19:29] Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth, shall wail because of him.

[19:44] They're going to see him that was pierced. Isn't that what the prophecy said? They're going to behold him? And here it is on Calvary being a fulfillment of that, and yet the fulfillment carries a double application.

[19:59] That's kind of the term that's been adopted to describe this. A double application, one to the first coming and one to the second. And we wouldn't really put that together until John tells us in Revelation 1.

[20:12] So without additional revelation, how much of this Old Testament is going to be, has a double application or has another segment to it that's yet to be fulfilled?

[20:24] And maybe it is all written down. Maybe it's there and it's up to us to study and find it out. Or maybe there's just things that I don't doubt for a moment that we skim over and miss, and our eye is just veiled to us even today.

[20:36] And we're blind to certain things. Truth that has just been penned here hundreds of years ago. So there's a piercing that takes place. John 19, verse 34, they pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water.

[20:52] It's often described, these two represent the two divine, or the two natures of Jesus. The divinity, the blood comes from the Father's side. It's divine.

[21:02] It's precious blood. And then the water to represent his humanity. But then some even flip-flop that and take it the other way. And so at any rate, that's what came out.

[21:14] So sayeth the scripture. You can cross-reference that with 1 John chapter 5 if you want to at some point. Moving on, verse 35 says, Now this is the apostle John, the one that's writing these words, and he's saying, I know what I'm talking about because I stood there and I saw it with my own eyes.

[21:36] He that saw it bear record. I wrote it down, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true. I know what I'm talking about, the reason being that ye might believe.

[21:48] Now this is what we pointed out from the very beginning of this entire book was John's theme and John's purpose. He stated it clearly and plainly throughout. It goes all the way, look at the end of chapter 20.

[22:01] The very end of chapter 20, a great synopsis of why he wrote the entirety of the gospel. John 20, verse 30. Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written, just like John said, I bear record.

[22:20] These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing he might have life through his name. So he states it once again throughout, as I pointed out, through many, many, many of these individual works and miracles that he did.

[22:34] All of this was for some to believe on Jesus Christ. So verse 35, that ye might believe. Now verse 36, and these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled.

[22:45] A bone of him shall not be broken. And again, another scripture saith, they shall look on him whom they pierced. So there's the Zechariah reference. Let's catch the other one, the bone one.

[22:56] Look back at Psalm 34. This is where this is found, Psalm 34. So various places in the Psalms this morning. And Zechariah, among the others that we've already kind of breezed past in previous studies.

[23:13] This morning, just thought we'd take the time and point these out so you can see them with your eyes and realize this is a literal fulfillment of sometimes a thousand years old, 500 years old scriptures that have been penned, been read, been copied, been believed, and yet not understood until the Holy Spirit sheds light on it in the life of Jesus Christ.

[23:37] Psalm 34, and this is wild to me. I read through this Psalm. This is a beloved Psalm. And it's about, they've got this section toward the end about crying out to the Lord and him hearing and delivering.

[23:54] It even carries from earlier in verse 4, sought the Lord, he heard me and delivered me. Verse 6, this poor man cried, Lord heard him, saved him from his troubles. The Lord, he's like protecting his saints.

[24:07] And so in verse 17, the righteous cry, the Lord heareth, delivereth them out of their troubles. Same theme, the Lord's nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

[24:17] Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all. And then just dropped right in the middle of that. Verse 20, he keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken.

[24:29] And then just right back into it. Evil shall slay the wicked and they hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. All this like uplifting, the Lord's got me.

[24:41] And then this thought of he keepeth all his bones. Is that a reference to the righteous man? It would be in the context, the righteous that cries. But that's always in the plural, I think.

[24:54] I didn't look at this yet till just now. The Lord is nigh unto them. Saveth such as be. Now there's him out of them all.

[25:06] That's singular. But he keepeth all his bones. That's an odd thing to say when just talking about the Lord's got you. He keeps you safe. To say he keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken.

[25:17] It just seems so out of place. You can make sense of it and saying, yeah, God's protecting. But the reason it seems a little out of place is because it's something very strong there.

[25:28] It's about Jesus Christ. And it's a fulfillment that we understand here by John 19. Now there's more than that.

[25:39] Look back at Exodus chapter 12. Let's just take it one step further because there's a type and a picture of this Lamb of God that's been ingrained in the Jewish culture from the very beginning of them as a nation.

[25:58] And that is what they know of as a Passover Lamb. This Lamb is a Lamb that's going to be without blemish.

[26:19] It's mentioned in chapter 5. And I'm looking for the verse. And do I have it noted? I probably don't. A note here.

[26:30] Does anybody have a note about his bones? Or that might be in numbers. His head with his legs.

[26:46] I'm not seeing it there. Oh, okay. Here we go. Verse 46. 46. In one house shall it be eaten. Thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house.

[27:00] Neither shall you break a bone thereof. That's a specific instruction about the Passover Lamb. Now if you don't think that's a big deal, it is.

[27:12] You don't break a bone of that. You don't miss. It's like you. They have to take care in preparing and in carving up and however you want to say it.

[27:22] In presenting it, this animal, this meat to eat. It's red meat, right? And they're eating that meat.

[27:33] And they have to be cautious. Don't you dare break a bone of that thing. Why? Because that's a picture of the Son of God. And there's a prophecy of how that was going to all take place all the way to cross the Calvary.

[27:44] And so that's some important stuff. While we're back here, take a look at, there's another prophecy here I kind of skipped past. But look at Deuteronomy. And we'll start to wrap up with this.

[27:57] Been taking you around a little bit. Deuteronomy. I don't have this one written down either. 21. The very end of 21.

[28:08] Remember that they had to get his body off of the tree, off of that cross, because the high day was approaching. Look at Deuteronomy 21.

[28:21] Another way that Christ fulfilled the scripture in dying an accursed death in the sinner's place. In verse 22. If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, he shall be put to death, and thou shalt hang him on a tree.

[28:37] So not everybody got stoned with stones, like is in verse number 21. Some got hanged on a tree. His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day.

[28:51] For he that is hanged is accursed of God, and that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for inheritance. So in another way, they had to get him down. And they had to show and fulfill that truth about the Lord Jesus Christ coming down.

[29:06] All right. So in John 19, there's another fulfillment of scripture, back to back to back to back. It's just one happened after another. You'll notice, though, as a point made earlier, that when he said it is finished, what he had to do is finished.

[29:19] The work he had to do is finished. But there were still some others. The piercing, that wasn't something he had to do. The bone not being broken, that was after his death while he broke the legs of the other.

[29:29] But that wasn't him. And so then we'll quit a little early here, and we'll stop with that and finish this part up with Joseph and Nicodemus next week.

[29:41] And continue throughout the events as he's dead, getting him down, and what they do to get him in the tomb. These are some rich men and powerful men that have a place in this.

[29:53] And the Bible says he made his grave with the rich in his death. And there's another fulfillment of scripture, just one after another, coming up, coming up, coming up. And who saw that, and who understood any of that, and as they taught that in their theology schools, they didn't even know what they were teaching in the particulars and how it was going to be fulfilled.

[30:14] Just no idea that Joseph of Arimathea was the guy that was going to be the one, the rich, that the scriptures spoke of. He was just one of their guys. He was somebody they knew, a normal guy, yet he was fulfilling scripture.

[30:28] So wild stuff that takes place here. But let's take a break with that and then give you some time to enjoy each other's fellowship and enjoy the outdoors a little bit. And there's new colors in the flower bed.

[30:38] I'm so excited. So go check that out. All right. Let's take a break.