WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:12.000 ! Our passion is to experience and express grace. Join us. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:16.000 ! Hallelujah! What a Savior! 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:25.000 ! What a wonderful thing to contemplate as we consider the cross of Jesus particular. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:32.000 As we sang last week, we're going to stay near the cross in our sermons for a few weeks. 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:39.000 Marvel at our great Savior. Consider what His love and sacrifice means for us. 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:49.000 Some of you were concerned that we were going to reach the resurrection in the Gospel of John before Easter. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:54.000 You expressed that the pace we were going at wasn't tracking right. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.000 And I just want to listen. I got you! Okay? 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:06.000 Pastor Will can talk for a very long time about a very few number of verses. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:10.000 You know that about me. We've got this under control. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:16.000 We'll hit John 20 on Easter. Lord willing, just, you know, hang in there. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:21.000 We're slowing down a little bit. But not just for the schedule. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:31.000 Really, we're slowing down at the cross to see the heart of God for us on display in our crucified Savior. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:38.000 There's so much here in this most significant event in all of history. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:47.000 We said last week that the cross draws all of our little stories and tiny moments into His big story. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:02:01.000 And even more wonderfully, perhaps, God does that, not as some distant, divine puppet master who stays far away from us, 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:17.000 but rather, God does that by taking on flesh, entering into our world, becoming one of us, living with us, suffering like us, even dying. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:21.000 So John has set the scene for us. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:28.000 Jesus hanging on the center cross, the sign above Him reading, King of the Jews. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:33.000 The soldiers nearby dividing up His clothes. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:39.000 John and Mary beneath the cross, attracting the attention and the affection of Jesus. 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:46.000 And then we know from the other Gospel accounts there are three hours of darkness. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:57.000 Here in the middle of the day, as Jesus hangs on the cross, and we continue reading at verse 28 of John 19. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:06.000 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the Scripture, 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:08.000 I thirst. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:19.000 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to His mouth. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:20.000 This is God's Word. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:21.000 This is God's Word. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:23.000 Let's pray and ask for His help. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:34.000 Father, we can see Jesus there on the cross in our minds. 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:44.000 We pray that you would give us clarity by your Spirit to see truly what's happening. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:47.000 To know Him. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:53.000 To be transformed by the reality of relationship with Him. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:04:02.000 Use your Word this morning to speak to my heart, to our hearts, and to change our lives today and for eternity. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:04.000 We ask in Jesus' name. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:05.000 Amen. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:15.000 You've probably heard before that to err is human. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:22.000 I wonder if we might say as well that from one perspective, to thirst is human. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:33.000 I mean, from our earliest moments as newborn babies, we cry out for milk to live. 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:43.000 If you've ever gone on a long hike on a hot day and realized halfway through that you left your water bottle in the car and you had to keep hiking all the way back, 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:49.000 you may know how your body feels when it starts to ache for a drink. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:51.000 Your mouth is parched. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:58.000 You know that feeling, kids, when it gets sticky and you need something to wet your mouth? 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.000 I've never run a race longer than 5K personally. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:05.000 Don't really want to. 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:14.000 But I know the experience of being at the one-mile mark and thinking, I can't go any further. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:19.000 And then there's a paper cup of water. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:23.000 And just that little bit, you get that taste. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:25.000 You think, I can go one more mile. 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:31.000 Now, I imagine that at mile 13 or mile 24, it's only more intense. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:33.000 But again, I can only imagine. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:36.000 So some of you can tell me how that feels. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:42.000 But saying to thirst is human could also be true in a figurative sense. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:44.000 It's not just a physical thing when we say that. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:50.000 There's that longing for something even intangible in our souls, isn't there? 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.000 You've heard of someone having a thirst for truth. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:06:02.000 We thirst when we desperately ask, why am I here? 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:04.000 We long to know our purpose, right? 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:06.000 Thirsting for significance. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:09.000 I want a matter. 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:12.000 For joy, for peace, for hope. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:21.000 We so deeply desire not only our physical thirst, but also this existential thirst to be satisfied. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:29.000 To thirst, it seems, is at the essence of being human. 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:41.000 So, when Jesus on the cross says, I thirst, something really profound is happening. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:47.000 We are seeing the full humanity of Jesus on display, right? 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:50.000 He feels thirst like us. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:57.000 Now, I'm not saying that Jesus is only human in this moment. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:06.000 He remains certainly fully God, fully man, those two natures mysteriously in one person. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:16.000 But remember that Jesus throughout the Gospel of John, one of the main things he's been doing is he's been revealing to us God in the flesh. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:22.000 The Word became flesh so that, for example, at the tomb of Lazarus, do you remember that? 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:24.000 That was many months ago. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:29.000 Jesus showed us the heart of God as he wept. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:37.000 That God in the flesh, that God as man grieves with us in the face of death. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:50.000 Just like that here, Jesus shows us God who has truly and fully entered into our humanity as he thirsts on the cross. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:56.000 And I think the text pushes us to understand this from two important perspectives. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:01.000 Both Jesus' physical thirst and his spiritual thirst. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:05.000 The two kinds of thirst that we understand, don't we, as humans. 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:10.000 Jesus' full humanity will make all the difference in both of them. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:11.000 Okay? 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:13.000 So, those are the two things we're going to look at. 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:16.000 Let's consider the physical thirst. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:22.000 Jesus enters the struggle we experience. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:26.000 This is the most obvious meaning of Jesus' words, I thirst, right? 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.000 It's certainly what the soldiers understood. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:29.000 What'd they do when he said that? 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:32.000 They went to get the sour wine in response. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:34.000 Something to drink. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:45.000 Any person undergoing the torturous process of dying on a cross would have experienced dehydration. 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:47.000 Losing blood. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:51.000 Hanging and gasping for air. 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:54.000 Aching all over. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:00.000 And so, the most basic thing Jesus acknowledges here is that he's human. 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:07.000 His body is experiencing what mine or yours would in the very same situation. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:12.000 And he says this to fulfill the scripture. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:16.000 Not meaning, by the way, that Jesus is feigning thirst. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:18.000 Just to check a box. 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:19.000 No. 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:23.000 It's just highlighting that we can remember again God is in control, right? 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:26.000 It's been over and over through the story heading to the cross. 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:29.000 Jesus is submitting to his Father's will. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:32.000 They are together following their eternal plan. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:38.000 There's something of cosmic significance happening and God is at the wheel. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:41.000 What scripture then? 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:43.000 Perhaps Psalm 69. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:50.000 They gave me poison for food and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:56.000 Or perhaps Psalm 22 that Jesus keeps coming back to describe the cross. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.000 Remember, we've seen it multiple times. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:01.000 He talks about being poured out like water. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:03.000 All my bones are out of joint. 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:05.000 My heart is like wax. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:07.000 It's melted within my breast. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:09.000 My strength is dried up like a potsherd. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:11.000 It's like a piece of clay pottery. 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:13.000 It's just cracking. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:16.000 And my tongue sticks to my jaws. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:20.000 You lay me in the dust of death. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.000 Clearly this is a physical reality, right? 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.000 A thirst. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:28.000 When your mouth is almost too dry to open. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:32.000 Your tongue swollen in the way of your getting air. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:43.000 Jesus is entering into the struggle, the thirst of this world painfully and personally. 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:48.000 Lindsay just sang some words from Isaiah 53. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:53.000 Jesus came as a man of sorrows. 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:56.000 To be familiar with grief. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:10:59.000 In fact, to bear our griefs. 00:10:59.000 --> 00:11:03.000 To carry our sorrows, the prophet adds. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:06.000 Jesus thirsted. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.000 He hurt. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:09.000 He hungered. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:11.000 His skin cracked. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:13.000 His eyes watered. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:16.000 His back hurt. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:18.000 His head ached. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:19.000 He needed sleep. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:21.000 He was thirsty. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:26.000 Isn't that remarkable? 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:28.000 Think of who this is. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:32.000 The one who created the universe. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:38.000 And when he did so, separated the waters of the heavens from the waters on the earth. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:45.000 The one who spoke and the raging waters were still. 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:50.000 The one who walked on water. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:53.000 The one who turned water into wine. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:59.000 Longs for a drop of water. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:03.000 Jesus is really suffering. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:05.000 He's in agony. 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:06.000 Physical. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:07.000 Real. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:08.000 Bodily. 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:09.000 Torment. 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:16.000 Now why is that so important for us to know? 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:18.000 Why spend so much time? 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.000 You could have just said, fully God, fully man. 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:22.000 Let's move on. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:23.000 That's easy to understand. 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:28.000 Why is it important for us to know that? 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:33.000 Well, I think first because Jesus relates to us. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:37.000 Jesus understands our suffering. 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:41.000 The things that make us want to give up. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:45.000 The pain some of us bear every day. 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:52.000 The despair we feel that tempts us to escape through substances or worse. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:13:01.000 There may be nothing worse when you're in pain than feeling like no one understands. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:04.000 Have you felt that? 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:13.000 The doctor looks at the scan and says, I don't see anything in there to cause your pain. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:16.000 The friend says, oh yeah man, I hate headaches. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:21.000 If you just close your eyes for a few minutes, it'll get better. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:24.000 And you think you have clearly not had a headache like this one. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:31.000 But your savior, your God is not like that. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:37.000 Hebrews says, he knows our weaknesses. 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:43.000 He's felt those temptations in every way like us. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:50.000 He's known the feeling of if I just do what I want rather than what God wants. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:55.000 If I just get down from this cross and he could have, I'll feel better. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:58.000 Have you thought that? 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:04.000 If I just do it my way rather than God's way, I'm going to feel better. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:05.000 Maybe I should. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:11.000 You can really run to him for help. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:17.000 He really sympathizes, not just in theory, but personally and experientially. 00:14:17.000 --> 00:14:23.000 He's got mercy and grace for your time of need. 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:27.000 Friend, don't keep suffering alone. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:33.000 Cry out to a God who understands, who is really with you. 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:40.000 I love to think of this picture of Jesus' presence with us in our pain. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:46.000 The story is told of a young boy whose father went overseas on a military assignment. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:53.000 And the young boy took a picture of his father and was right there beside him on his, next to him on his bed. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.000 And he would look at it all the time. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:03.000 Sometimes, when he felt afraid, he would look at the picture and imagine his dad protecting him. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:05.000 And it was comforting. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:11.000 But when he was really hurting and overwhelmed, that wasn't enough. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:20.000 One particularly bad night, his mother heard him crying in pain and came to ask what was wrong. 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:23.000 Through tears, he said, 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:26.000 I want daddy to come out of the frame. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:40.000 Maybe you've experienced that with God because you just know lots of things about what the Bible says he would be like as your father. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:46.000 Maybe you grew up in the church and you've heard a lot and you've thought it sounds nice. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:16:00.000 But the message of the cross and our thirsty Savior is that your heavenly daddy has come out of the frame. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.000 He is with you in your pain. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:11.000 In the last 24 hours alone, Jesus has sweated drops of blood. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:12.000 He's been betrayed. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:15.000 He's been abandoned by friends. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:17.000 Unjustly accused. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:18.000 Lied about. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:21.000 Beaten within an inch of his life. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:22.000 Mocked. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:25.000 Publicly exposed and humiliated. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:28.000 Racked with pain and thirst. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:29.000 Washed. 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:42.000 I want you to, I want you to contemplate that because some of you this morning are hurting in ways that I can only imagine. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:46.000 I don't know exactly what it's like. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:49.000 But Jesus knows. 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:51.000 Jesus feels your pain. 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:56.000 Jesus has come out of the frame for you. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:58.000 To be with you. 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:09.000 Finally, someone you can talk to who understands, who responds mercifully, who cares perfectly for you. 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:10.000 Cry to him. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:12.000 Hope in his love. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:15.000 Rest in his arms. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:24.000 There's a second thing that Jesus' thirsty humanity helps us with, I think. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:36.000 Most of us at some point have wrestled with this idea of a good God and really evil suffering. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:40.000 A good God and bad stuff in the world. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:41.000 How does that work? 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:54.000 We've wrestled with it either as we undergo awful suffering ourselves or as we look around us and watch others in this world go through unspeakable pain and grief. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:18:01.000 How is it possible that a good God allows such awful evil in his world? 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:03.000 Or why, God? 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:04.000 Why? 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:06.000 Why is this happening to me? 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:08.000 Why is this happening to them? 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:12.380 Why, God, it's a puzzle that we often don't get every piece of, isn't it? 00:18:12.380 --> 00:18:12.380 00:18:12.380 --> 00:18:12.380 00:18:12.380 --> 00:18:12.380 00:18:12.380 --> 00:18:12.380 00:18:12.380 --> 00:18:18.860 every piece of, isn't it? And what I'm about to say doesn't answer every question, especially 00:18:18.860 --> 00:18:31.040 specific whys every time. But the cross says the God of the Bible uniquely enters our suffering. 00:18:31.040 --> 00:18:41.120 He's not aloof. He's not removed. He's not just standing idly by, watching, helpless to stop evil. 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:48.519 No, no, no. God has come out of the frame and hurt. He himself has done that. 00:18:51.099 --> 00:18:57.939 Theologian John Stott wrestles with these tough questions in his classic book on the cross of 00:18:57.939 --> 00:19:05.779 Christ called The Cross of Christ. That's how you know it's a classic. This is what he writes. 00:19:05.779 --> 00:19:14.299 I could never myself believe in God if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the one 00:19:14.299 --> 00:19:22.500 Nietzsche ridiculed as God on the cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was 00:19:22.500 --> 00:19:30.299 immune to it? And Stott says he's looked at all sorts of other religions and other gods, but I have turned 00:19:30.299 --> 00:19:39.240 to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross. Nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, 00:19:39.240 --> 00:19:48.279 limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken 00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:58.419 darkness. That is the God for me. He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and 00:19:58.420 --> 00:20:06.860 blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of 00:20:06.860 --> 00:20:14.400 his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:26.180 the cross that symbolizes divine suffering. I love that image. A question mark with a cross 00:20:26.180 --> 00:20:32.019 stamped over it. It is so true that I don't know all the answers and lots of question marks. 00:20:34.259 --> 00:20:43.140 But I trust the one who thirsts like me, the one who bleeds like me, the one who suffers like me. 00:20:43.140 --> 00:20:53.299 Friends, in case you're uncertain, there is no other God like this on offer anywhere. It's utterly 00:20:53.299 --> 00:21:01.659 unlike any other religion. None of the idols that we chase after, money, comfort, pleasure. None of them 00:21:01.659 --> 00:21:09.379 suffer with us. None of them enter in. No other God steps out of the frame and says, I'm coming into 00:21:09.380 --> 00:21:23.520 the suffering. If you're hurting today. If you hurt every day, some of you do. 00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:35.100 If you've stopped feeling altogether and decided you just need to numb things out, 00:21:35.099 --> 00:21:45.439 because thinking of God at all hurt so much one time and you just needed to numb everything out. 00:21:47.019 --> 00:21:57.319 Can I urge you to run to this Jesus? Today, tell him how you hurt. Ask for his help, 00:21:57.319 --> 00:22:03.459 for his grace, for his healing. Jesus relates to you. 00:22:05.099 --> 00:22:13.159 In the wake of the horrors of World War I, Edward Shalita wrote a poem entitled, 00:22:13.659 --> 00:22:21.959 Jesus of the Scars. I want to share it with you. It's about the only God to trust in devastating pain. 00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:30.639 If we have never sought, we seek thee now. Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars. 00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:38.280 We must have sight of thorn pricks on thy brow. We must have thee, O Jesus of the scars. 00:22:39.640 --> 00:22:45.400 The heavens frighten us. They are too calm. In all the universe, we have no place. 00:22:45.780 --> 00:22:53.420 Our wounds are hurting us. Where is the balm? Lord Jesus, by thy scars we claim thy grace. 00:22:53.420 --> 00:23:01.259 If when the doors are shut, thou drawest near. Only reveal those hands, that side of thine. 00:23:01.560 --> 00:23:09.340 We know today what wounds are. Have no fear. Show us thy scars. We know the countersign. 00:23:11.220 --> 00:23:13.480 I love this last stanza. Listen. 00:23:13.480 --> 00:23:23.059 The other gods were strong, but thou wast weak. They rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne. 00:23:23.960 --> 00:23:33.519 But to our wounds, only God's wounds can speak. And not a god has wounds, but thou alone. 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:49.259 Jesus alone. A wounded Savior. A human Savior. A thirsty Savior. Thirsty. 00:23:50.879 --> 00:23:59.059 But not just physically. I wrestled with this this week. Pastors and commentators seem to have lots of 00:23:59.059 --> 00:24:06.799 different opinions about what was going on when Jesus said, I thirst. I'm convinced that Jesus here 00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:17.579 also experiences that other kind of human thirst. Spiritual thirst. He means that too when He says, 00:24:17.740 --> 00:24:25.659 I thirst. There's several ways we see this, but biblically thirst is often a metaphor for our good 00:24:25.660 --> 00:24:33.640 longings for God, right? Our deep need for relationship with Him. As the deer pants for 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:42.560 streams of water, so thirsts my soul for you, O God. You're the one I long for. Prophets talk about that 00:24:42.560 --> 00:24:52.460 existential thirst for purpose in life, fulfillment, being met only in God. And we've heard Jesus talking 00:24:52.460 --> 00:24:56.140 that way throughout John's gospel, haven't we? You just have to go back a couple years because it took 00:24:56.140 --> 00:25:02.059 us a long time to get here. But back in chapter 4, He tells the woman at the well that He gives water 00:25:02.059 --> 00:25:08.840 that you can't find in a well that will make you never thirst again. Some non-physical water and 00:25:08.840 --> 00:25:16.319 you'll never thirst again. He tells the crowds in chapter 6 that believing in Him leads to a life 00:25:16.319 --> 00:25:24.359 where you will never thirst again. No more thirsting. In fact, He tells the people in Jerusalem for the 00:25:24.359 --> 00:25:33.960 feast in John 7 that those who come to Him will leave with rivers of living water flowing out of them. 00:25:36.679 --> 00:25:43.319 Even more incredible, isn't it, for Him with living water now to say, 00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:50.039 I thirst. Now notice verse 28. 00:25:51.519 --> 00:25:56.359 Jesus, knowing that all was now finished. 00:25:58.539 --> 00:26:02.359 We'll talk more about what was finished next week, verse 30. 00:26:05.059 --> 00:26:07.419 But more than physical thirst, 00:26:07.420 --> 00:26:20.100 it had to include that Jesus has just endured the suffering that we deserve. A huge part of why 00:26:20.100 --> 00:26:29.080 He's come to the cross. He's just endured three hours of darkness. One of the descriptions of hell, 00:26:29.220 --> 00:26:37.060 right? Hell itself, outer darkness. Hell itself, which burns like fire with an unquenchable 00:26:37.059 --> 00:26:48.200 thirst. I'm thirsty. The wrath of God due to all our sin poured out upon our Savior. You know, 00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:55.879 when we say in the Apostles' Creed, He descended into hell, at least the primary part of that was 00:26:55.879 --> 00:27:04.559 actually when He was physically on the cross. While He still lived a living hell, if you will, 00:27:04.559 --> 00:27:16.940 the Father turned His face away from the sin bearer for the first time. Jesus had never known sin. 00:27:17.480 --> 00:27:29.539 He'd never tasted this disruption in relationship. So Jesus thirsted. Oh, how He thirsted. He longed for 00:27:29.539 --> 00:27:39.859 that relationship with His Father to be restored. He sought peace and joy. His soul ached for rest. 00:27:39.859 --> 00:27:58.779 You've been there? Wandering in your own sin, distant from God? Wounded by others' sin? Despairing of God? 00:27:58.779 --> 00:28:14.119 Jesus knows the feeling. He says, I thirst. And they bring Him some cheap wine the soldiers would drink 00:28:14.119 --> 00:28:25.160 on a sponge on a hyssop branch. Certainly plenty of hyssop around because it's Passover weekend. 00:28:25.160 --> 00:28:33.640 One of the things that happens every year on Passover weekend, part of that ritual was taking 00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:41.600 the blood of a lamb and putting it on a hyssop branch to put it on the doorframe of the house. 00:28:42.600 --> 00:28:54.980 And now, they hold it up to the lips of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 00:28:55.160 --> 00:29:03.580 And again, in this spiritual respect that all of these things are pointing to, 00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:12.019 Jesus' full humanity is vital. It's really important that we see Jesus here fully God, 00:29:12.140 --> 00:29:20.720 but particularly as fully man. He endures unthinkable spiritual thirst, the soul torment due to sin, 00:29:20.720 --> 00:29:27.839 the wrath of God that must be poured out on human flesh for the sins of the human race. 00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:38.819 Jesus had to be human to endure this suffering in our place. Not sure about that? Listen to Hebrews 00:29:38.819 --> 00:29:46.200 chapter 2. Talk about Jesus sharing in our flesh and blood. Therefore, He had to be made like His 00:29:46.200 --> 00:29:53.600 brothers in every respect. Why? So that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the 00:29:53.600 --> 00:30:03.220 service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. The one to stand before God and offer a 00:30:03.220 --> 00:30:14.519 sacrifice, propitiation for sins, had to be a faithful priest. A true representative of humanity. 00:30:14.519 --> 00:30:24.039 One who really thirsted. It couldn't be pretend. It couldn't be theoretical. It couldn't be 00:30:24.039 --> 00:30:32.099 hypothetical. It couldn't be hypothetically. Jesus had to thirst. And He thirsted for us. 00:30:32.099 --> 00:30:45.240 He not only relates to us in our thirst, but also redeems us from our thirst. Hallelujah. What a Savior. 00:30:46.439 --> 00:30:55.019 We need Jesus to redeem us from our thirst. Jesus not only knows our deep need, He not only meets us 00:30:55.019 --> 00:31:06.579 in our need, but He rescues us from our need on the cross, body and soul torn apart, wracked with pain 00:31:06.579 --> 00:31:16.639 and agony, thirsty in every way you can imagine, so that we won't thirst forever. 00:31:16.640 --> 00:31:29.660 In many ways, to thirst is human. It's the common human experience in a fallen world, right? 00:31:31.520 --> 00:31:39.220 But Revelation chapter 7 tells us it will not be the experience of redeemed humanity. 00:31:39.220 --> 00:31:48.680 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat. 00:31:49.500 --> 00:31:54.880 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs 00:31:54.880 --> 00:32:01.799 of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. You see what's happening? 00:32:01.799 --> 00:32:10.180 It's because we are constantly in His presence. Because we are in relationship with Him, the one who wipes away 00:32:10.180 --> 00:32:16.839 every tear, the one who satisfies every hunger and every thirst, in relationship with Himself, 00:32:17.259 --> 00:32:26.339 we will not thirst anymore. Ever. I was at a wedding recently after a long day. I was longing for 00:32:26.339 --> 00:32:31.259 something sweet. And I got to the reception, and you know what was there at the reception? There was 00:32:31.259 --> 00:32:36.399 wedding cake, and that's great, but sometimes the cake runs out. There was a chocolate fountain. 00:32:37.439 --> 00:32:48.339 Kids, have you ever seen a chocolate fountain? Layer after layer running over, and then it pools at the 00:32:48.339 --> 00:32:55.599 bottom, and you can dip every… marshmallows and pineapple in your hands and all of it. That's what you do. 00:32:55.599 --> 00:33:00.639 That's not what y'all do. That's what you do at a chocolate fountain. Every… all this chocolate. And 00:33:00.639 --> 00:33:08.000 then you know what happens? It keeps coming up, flowing over and over and over all night. 00:33:08.799 --> 00:33:12.199 All the chocolate that I could ever want. 00:33:12.200 --> 00:33:24.380 There's another wedding that you're invited to. And at the wedding supper of the Lamb, 00:33:25.240 --> 00:33:33.759 it's not just a chocolate fountain. It's this wedding where you're united forever in relationship 00:33:33.759 --> 00:33:40.940 with Jesus. So it's not just chocolate. It's not just physical hunger and thirst, although I believe 00:33:40.940 --> 00:33:50.000 that will be part of it. But no longing of your body or your soul will go unsatisfied. None of them. 00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:59.740 There will be a peace fountain and a joy fountain and a hope fountain because Jesus is the fountain of 00:33:59.740 --> 00:34:07.220 life, and you're united to Him. So it just keeps flowing. All the peace, all the joy, all the relief 00:34:07.220 --> 00:34:12.099 from pain, all of your thirst quenched forever. 00:34:12.099 --> 00:34:12.260 Forever. 00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:22.280 Friend, if you're thirsty today, this promise is for you. 00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:31.780 According to God's word, if you will but wash your robes in the blood of the Lamb. What do you mean, 00:34:31.960 --> 00:34:41.340 will? If you will but find your life, your forgiveness, your hope, your righteousness in 00:34:41.340 --> 00:34:50.900 Jesus. You don't have to do it. You find your hope in the cross where Jesus thirsted in your place 00:34:50.900 --> 00:34:58.180 so you wouldn't have to forever. You say, Jesus, I need you to do that for me. I need the gift of the 00:34:58.180 --> 00:35:07.559 fountain of life. And Jesus gladly gives it. He has entered our struggle, experienced our sorrow, 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:16.639 endured our suffering that we might drink forever from the fountain of life, the river of living water, 00:35:16.639 --> 00:35:28.440 and never thirst anymore. I want to close this morning praying with one of the prayers that I love 00:35:28.440 --> 00:35:36.359 from a little book called The Valley of Vision. It's called Love Lusters at Calvary. And I hope you 00:35:36.360 --> 00:35:49.440 can contemplate the wonderful love of Jesus for you as we pray. Father, what wondrous love is this. 00:35:51.480 --> 00:36:00.120 Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy, cast off that I might be brought in, 00:36:00.119 --> 00:36:09.960 trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend, surrendered to hell's worst that I might 00:36:09.960 --> 00:36:17.639 attain heaven's best, stripped that I might be clothed, wounded that I might be healed, a thirst 00:36:17.639 --> 00:36:25.679 that I might drink, tormented that I might be comforted, made a shame that I might inherit glory, 00:36:25.679 --> 00:36:34.460 entered darkness that I might have eternal light, my Savior wept that all tears might be wiped from my 00:36:34.460 --> 00:36:41.819 eyes, groaned that I might have endless song, endured all pain that I might have unfading health, 00:36:42.359 --> 00:36:49.099 bore a thorny crown that I might have a glory diadem, bowed his head that I might uplift mine, 00:36:50.139 --> 00:36:54.960 experienced reproach that I might receive welcome, closed his eyes in death, 00:36:54.960 --> 00:37:03.740 that I might gaze on unclouded brightness, expired that I might forever live. 00:37:05.539 --> 00:37:18.139 Hallelujah. What a Savior. Might we drink of him afresh even now. Might we find water for our 00:37:18.139 --> 00:37:26.199 parched, thirsty souls. Jesus, thank you. Amen. 00:37:27.519 --> 00:37:31.099 For more information, visit us online at southwood.org.