We open the word of God to John
chapter 18 and then John chapter 19.
But first I'd like to read John chapter
18 verses 1 through 11.
When Jesus had spoken these words he went
forth with his disciples over the brook Chidron
where was a garden into which he entered
and his disciples and Judas also who betrayed
him knew the place for Jesus often resorted
there with his disciples.
Judas then having received a band of men
and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees
cometh there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
Jesus therefore knowing all things that should come
upon him went forth and said unto them
whom seek ye they answered him Jesus of
Nazareth.
Jesus saith unto them I am he and
Judas also who betrayed him stood with them.
As soon then as he had said unto
them I am he they went backward and
fell to the ground then asked he them
again whom seek ye and they said Jesus
of Nazareth.
Jesus answered I have told you that I
am he if therefore ye seek me let
these go their way.
That the saying might be fulfilled which he
spoke of them whom thou gavest me have
I lost none.
Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it
and smote the high priest's servant and cut
off his right ear.
The servant's name was Malchus.
Then said Jesus unto Peter put up thy
sword into the sheath the cup which my
father hath given me shall I not drink
it.
Now John chapter 19 verses 28 and 29.
After this Jesus knowing that all things were
now accomplished that the scripture might be fulfilled
saith 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.
Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst
after righteousness for they shall be filled.
Our Lord was crucified at nine o'clock
in the morning and was on the cross
for six hours.
When you open the book of Genesis you
find God creating and the record tells us
that in six days the work was done.
At Calvary you find God recreating.
You find God in the person of Jesus
Christ the son of God doing the work
for the new creation.
The first three hours that he was on
the cross our Lord was in the light
and he dealt with those who were around
him.
First he prayed for his enemies father forgive
them.
Then he spoke to a thief today you'll
be with me in paradise.
Then he talked to his mother and to
John the disciple.
From noon until three o'clock there was
darkness over the land and out of that
darkness came our Lord's cry my God my
God why hast thou forsaken me.
And then there followed three statements one right
after the other referring not to others but
to himself.
How like our loving Lord first to deal
with others and then to talk about himself.
His first statement was I thirst referring to
his body.
His second statement was it is finished.
He made his soul an offering for sin.
His last statement was into thy hands I
commend my spirit his spirit given to God.
And so the last three statements tell us
that our Lord Jesus gave his all his
spirit his soul his body yielded there on
the cross for us.
The shortest of his words is I thirst.
In the Greek New Testament one little word
of four letters I thirst.
It may seem that we could look at
this word and not get much from it
but if Jesus said it then there is
some spiritual treasure in this word that you
and I need to get a hold of
and invest.
I thirst.
Well there are some spiritual treasures in this
statement.
The better we understand this statement the more
we're going to love him and I think
the better we're going to serve him.
Because in this statement I thirst the Lord
Jesus gives to us three portraits of himself.
When you see those words or hear those
words I thirst there should flash upon the
screen of your soul three marvelous portraits of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
First we see the suffering son of man.
He was thirsting just plain physical thirst.
You see Jesus Christ was truly man.
The big problem that's being discussed today is
the deity of Christ.
For some reason or another the old doctrine
that Jesus is not God is resurging again.
Books are being written to prove that Jesus
is not God but that wasn't the problem
back in the early days of the church.
In the early days of the church they
knew he was God.
There was no question about that.
The first heresy that sprang up was that
he was not man.
That he just seemed to be God or
that God came upon Jesus at his baptism
and left him when he died on the
cross.
And those heresies are still with us today
too.
In the early church the battle was not
is Jesus God the battle was was he
truly man.
And he was truly man.
He was born the way men are born.
He grew up the way people grow up.
He went through childhood and youth and young
manhood.
And he lived the way people lived except
without sin.
He ate.
He drank.
He got tired.
One night he was so weary he went
to sleep in the boat in a storm.
I could not do that.
He knew what it was to feel pain.
He knew what it was to weep.
He had all of the sinless infirmities of
a human body and he died.
Because he did have a human body he
died and he suffered when he died.
Jesus Christ felt the depths of physical suffering
when he was on the cross.
And of course a part of the suffering
of crucifixion is an intense thirst.
When you read back in Psalm 22 which
is the Old Testament picture of crucifixion.
You read in verse 15 my strength is
dried up like a pots herd and my
tongue cleaveth to my jaws and thou hast
brought me into the dust of death.
This entire psalm pictures the crucifixion of our
Lord.
They pierced my hands and my feet.
And so Jesus was enduring physical suffering.
Now you will recall that when our Lord
came to the cross a group of Jewish
women were there to help all of the
people being executed.
There was a sisterhood in Jerusalem that was
dedicated to the purpose of alleviating the suffering
of those who were being crucified.
And they had mingled a narcotic.
They had some wine mingled with myrrh.
And this was a narcotic.
If you drank it it would sort of
deaden your nerves and you wouldn't feel things
quite so sensitively.
And the Lord Jesus refused that.
When he had taken a sip of it
he said no I don't want it.
That's a remarkable thing.
No it isn't remarkable.
I would have accepted it.
Every time I've had surgery I've always rejoiced.
I didn't feel it.
I'm grateful for nurses who come in and
say now we're going to put this into
your veins.
You start counting and you never get much
past four or five and you're gone.
I'm glad for all of the devices men
have discovered from God to deaden pain.
But our Lord Jesus said no I'm going
to the cross and I'm going to accept
the full load of physical suffering.
Back in the Old Testament when the priest
when the high priest was serving in the
tabernacle or the temple he was not permitted
to drink strong drink.
My Lord Jesus was not only the priest
he was the sacrifice and he said no
strong drink.
You remember when David had to restore to
God.
God said to him you purchased this property
David you put an altar up here.
And the man from whom David purchased the
property said oh my Lord let me give
it to you.
And David said no this is not for
me this is for the Lord.
I will not give unto the Lord that
which has cost me nothing.
My savior on the cross is saying I
am not going to give unto my father
that which costs me nothing.
I'm not going to take a shortcut.
I'm not going to go the easy way.
I will bear the full price of sin
and I will bear the full load of
suffering.
And therefore he did not drink the narcotic.
I'm glad that he didn't.
For had our Lord been under the influence
of some narcotic he could not have spoken
these marvelous words.
I wonder if he could have turned to
a thief and said today you'll be with
me in paradise.
I wonder if he could have said I
thirst.
We have here the suffering son of man.
Now I say that to say this.
You and I go through suffering.
Each one of us here today has at
some time or another experienced physical or emotional
suffering.
And when we are suffering we are tempted
to say God doesn't know.
God doesn't understand.
And yet the Bible teaches just the opposite.
In the first several chapters of the book
of Hebrews where the writer spells out in
detail the humanity and the deity of Jesus
Christ.
And he says to us let me tell
you why Jesus took upon him a body.
That he might die and in dying he
might destroy Satan who has the power of
death and that he might deliver us.
But he says there's another reason why he
has a human body.
It's so that he might learn by experience
what you and I go through day after
day after day.
And my friend you can never come to
Jesus Christ and say Lord you don't know
how I feel.
Because he does know how you feel.
We have not a high priest who cannot
be touched with the feelings of our weaknesses.
We have a high priest who can be
touched.
Who can say to you I know how
you feel.
I know what you're going through.
And you know what he says to us?
Keep going.
Don't quit.
I was on the cross.
I know the meaning of physical suffering.
And I stayed there.
I didn't take the easy way.
I'm sure there's some heart here today that
says you know pastor if I had been
there I would have given him a drink.
I'm sure you would have.
I'm sure if you and I had been
there knowing what we know today and loving
as we love today we would have given
him a drink.
If we had heard him say I thirst
we would have run and in some way
gotten to him not just a sponge to
wet his lips.
We would have gotten to him a good
drink that would help him.
You say I would have done that.
Then do it.
We say I can't.
He's no longer on the cross.
This is true.
He no longer has a physical thirst.
This is true.
But do you remember what he said in
one of his parables?
Do you remember the story he told about
the sheep and the goats?
When the Son of Man shall come in
his glory and all the angels with him
then shall he sit upon the throne of
his glory and before him shall be gathered
all the Gentiles and he shall separate them
as a shepherd separates his sheep from his
goats.
He's going to say to the sheep now
you enter into the kingdom because I was
hungry and you fed me.
I was thirsty and you gave me a
drink.
I was naked and you clothed me.
I was in prison and you visited me.
And they're going to say well Lord when
did we ever do that?
Oh he said in as much as you've
done it unto these the least of my
brethren you've done it unto me.
You know what he's saying in that story?
He is saying that when you and I
give a cup of cold water to somebody
who needs it we're giving it to him.
That's why we do it.
When you and I visit somebody who needs
visiting we're visiting him.
When you and I clothe someone who needs
it we're clothing him.
Whatever we do to his people in loving
service we're doing to him.
And so when Jesus says I thirst he
says look at this portrait of the suffering
son of man.
I know how you feel.
I know what you're going through and I
know that if you will help others you're
helping me and I can come and help
you.
There's a second portrait though that we find
in these words I thirst.
Not only the suffering son of man but
we also have the portrait of the obedient
servant of God.
Why did Jesus say I thirst?
Listen to the scripture.
After this Jesus knowing that all things were
now accomplished that the scripture might be fulfilled
saith I thirst.
The Lord Jesus Christ was not only the
suffering son of man but he was the
obedient servant of God.
He was on the cross to fulfill the
word and what he said on the cross
fulfilled the word and what he did on
the cross fulfilled the word.
Everything about the earthly life of my Lord
was in obedience to the word of God.
His reference of course is to Psalm 69.
Psalm 69 is one of the messianic psalms
in the Old Testament.
It's one of David's psalms picturing an experience
he went through but in this experience picturing
an experience that Jesus went through.
I look at verse 3 of Psalm 69.
I am weary of my crying.
My throat is dried.
Mine eyes fail while I wait for my
God.
They that hate me without a cause are
more than the hairs of my head.
That's quoted in the Old Testament in John
chapter 15 and verse 25.
Verse 8 I am become a stranger unto
my brethren an alien unto my mother's children
for the zeal of thine house hath eaten
me up.
That's quoted in John 2 17.
The reproaches of those who reproach thee are
fallen upon me.
That's quoted over in Romans 15 3.
Look at verse 21.
They gave me also gall for my food
and in my thirst they gave me vinegar
to drink.
Now this vinegar was the cheap wine that
the soldiers drank.
They couldn't afford the expensive wine.
They had to cheap wine.
But our Lord Jesus on the cross is
obedient to the word of God.
Now he was born by the word.
I come to do thy will O God.
Thy word is within my heart.
In the volume of the book it's written
of me.
How he was born fulfilled the word.
Behold the virgin shall conceive and be with
child.
Where he was born fulfilled the word.
But thou Bethlehem of Judah though thou be
least among the princes of Judah.
When he was born fulfilled the word.
In the fullness of the time God sent
forth his son.
Where he lived fulfilled the word.
They went down to Egypt.
Out of Egypt have I called my son.
They went to Nazareth.
He shall be called a Nazarene.
It's an interesting thing to sit down and
read the Jewish gospel.
The through this book Matthew rings the same
bell.
That it might be fulfilled.
That was spoken by the prophet.
That it might be fulfilled.
Everything that happened on Calvary was in fulfillment
of the word of God.
When they gambled for his garments back in
John chapter 19 verse 24.
They cast lots that the scriptures might be
fulfilled which says they parted my raiment among
them and for my vesture they did cast
lots.
After our Lord died and when they came
and stabbed him they were going to break
his bones but verse 36 says that the
scripture should be fulfilled a bone of him
shall not be broken.
But they pierced him and this fulfilled another
scripture verse 37.
They shall look on him whom they pierced.
My dear friend Jesus Christ in his life
and in his death was obedient to the
word of God.
That's why his death was a victory and
not a defeat.
If you and I regardless of what experiences
we go through are simply obedient to the
word of God then God will see us
through.
Jesus Christ came to be the suffering servant
of God.
Philippians chapter 2 says he emptied himself became
obedient unto death even the death of the
cross.
He came as a servant.
We don't hear much about being servants today.
Most people want to be rulers.
Most people want to be sovereigns.
Jesus came as a servant and he was
willing to obey the word of God even
though it meant suffering and dying.
Now there aren't very many of us who
are called upon if any of us to
obey the word of God unto death.
The writer to the Hebrew says you have
not yet shed your blood in your battle
against sin.
You say oh my Christian life is so
hard life is so difficult you aren't being
crucified.
And the Lord Jesus Christ when he said
I thirst said it because he was obedient
to the word of God.
His words and his walk and his works
were in obedience to the word of God.
Wherefore God also highly have exalted him and
given him a name that is above every
name.
I would say to you today as I
say to my own heart the most important
thing in life is not to escape suffering
and the most important thing in life is
not to escape trouble.
The most important thing in life is to
obey the word of God no matter what
our circumstances may be because when we obey
the word of God then we fulfill the
will of God and as we fulfill the
will of God then we are bringing glory
to God.
That's why we're here.
The suffering son of man he knows what
you're going through.
The obedient servant of God he says whatever
you're going through obey the word of God.
It would be a difficult thing to come
to the end of life and have no
Bible to rest on.
Here is my Lord innocent yet treated as
though he's guilty.
Perfect and yet accused of crimes.
Here is my Lord dying and what is
it that he rests upon as he is
dying?
He rests upon the word of God.
Not the latest researches of the psychologists.
Not the inventions of the occultists.
Not the vague dreams of the spiritists.
He rests on the word of God and
my friend when you come to that day
of your death you'd better be able to
rest on the word of God.
A third portrait comes to us in these
words I thirst.
He is not only the submissive obedient servant
of God and the suffering son of man
but far above everything else in these words
I thirst we see Jesus Christ as the
loving savior of sinners.
Now there's a physical reason why Jesus was
thirsty we don't argue that point at all.
There is a physical reason why Jesus was
thirsty but don't stop on that level please.
There is a spiritual reason why Jesus is
thirsty.
I'm not denying that his tongue was cleaving
to the roof of his mouth.
I'm not denying that he was partaking of
the dust of death.
What I am saying is we don't stop
there.
When Jesus said I thirst he had just
gone through three hours of darkness.
The sun had not been shining on him.
He had not been breathing that hot air
of sunshine.
He'd been shaded from that but he had
just gone through the darkness.
May I put it this way?
The darkness of hell.
He had cried out my God my God
why has thou forsaken me?
Remember David said my soul thirsteth for God
for the living God like as the deer
pants after the cool water brooks so my
soul is panting after God.
But our Lord had been denied the face
of God for a moment.
Our Lord had discovered the face of God
turned away from him.
Thou art of pure eyes to behold iniquity.
And when all of the sin of all
of the world was placed upon Jesus God
wasn't there.
Now God was in Christ reconciling the world.
But for that instant my Lord tasted what
it was like to be in hell.
I don't have to tell this congregation what
people are saying in hell.
Our Lord told us an account of a
certain rich man who had a beggar at
his door.
The beggar was a believer.
The rich man was an unbeliever.
The beggar died and was carried to Abraham's
bosom.
The rich man died and was buried.
And he woke up in the other world
in the place of punishment.
And he cried out and said Father Abraham
I didn't want to talk to that beggar
when he was here on earth when I
was on earth.
I wouldn't pay any attention.
He had nothing to give me.
I had everything.
But oh Father Abraham would you send him
over here.
Let him dip just the tip of his
finger in some water because I'm in torments
in this flame.
You know what people are saying in hell.
I thirst.
You say well pastor you're certainly not going
to try to beat us down a sawdust
trail and talking about all of the punishments
of hell.
I don't care if the trail is sawdust
or marble.
If you've never come to the cross there
will be a day when you will say
I thirst.
Hell is no joke.
When my Lord spoke about hell I'm sure
there was a tear in his eye and
a breaking in his voice.
My Lord never spoke about hell as though
he were glad people went there.
When the Lord Jesus Christ died on the
cross and was made sin for us he
tasted the punishment of hell.
And he said what people say when they
are in hell.
I thirst.
You see there were really three cups at
Calvary.
When my Lord came to Calvary they offered
him the cup of charity.
Drink this and it won't hurt so much.
He refused it.
The soldiers offered him a cup of mockery.
Luke says that from time to time the
soldiers would try to offer him some wine
then they'd pull it back again.
Finally one of the soldiers was sympathetic and
went and moistened his lips with the vinegar.
The cup of mockery.
Oh if you're the king here's some wine
for the king.
Come down from the cross.
Our Lord endured the cup of mockery but
the most important cup at Calvary was the
cup of iniquity.
Jesus said to Peter the cup that my
father has given me to drink shall I
not drink it?
And there on the cross when Jesus said
I thirst it was because he had drunk
of the cup of iniquity and sin never
satisfies your thirst.
You read Psalm 32 where David is crying
out for forgiveness after a year of iniquity
and deception and sin.
You know what David said?
When I kept silence, when I was infected
with sin, I got old.
In fact my body felt like the drought
of summer.
I dried up.
That's what sin does to a person.
When my Lord drank the cup of iniquity
on the cross he cried out I thirst.
Now he did this for you.
He did this for me.
He did this for sinners all over the
world throughout history.
He died for the sins of the world.
He drank that cup for the world.
It's rather interesting to trace water in the
gospel of John.
You ought to do it someday.
In John chapter 2 Jesus goes to a
wedding feast and they run out of wine.
What an embarrassing thing.
And the Lord Jesus has them fill the
pots with water and he turns water into
wine.
Then in John chapter 4 the Lord Jesus
meets a sinful woman by a well and
she's taking water from the well and my
Lord says you keep drinking that water you'll
keep on thirsting.
He wasn't talking about the bucket and the
water.
He was talking about her life.
You keep drinking at those dirty cisterns of
sensuality you'll always be thirsty.
You'll thirst forever.
But you drink of the water that I'm
going to give you, you'll never thirst.
And she trusted him and he put within
her an artesian well of water that springs
up into everlasting life.
And never again did she have to drink
at the sordid cesspools of the world.
Then in John chapter 7 the Lord Jesus
stood up at the feast of Tabernacles when
the priests were pouring out the water from
the pool of Siloam remembering when God gave
water to Israel in the wilderness.
And Jesus said if any man thirsts, and
is there any man who doesn't thirst, if
any man thirsts let him come unto me
and drink.
As it is written in the scriptures out
of his innermost being, out of the Messiah,
the rock shall flow rivers of living water.
Now you get to John chapter 19 where
the one who said I'll give you a
well in your heart, the one who said
I'll let you drink of the rivers of
living water said I thirst.
He thirsted that we might never thirst again.
When John wrote the book of the Revelation,
he must have rejoiced exceedingly when he got
to chapter 7 and verse 11 where it
talks about the saints of God in heaven
where God's going to shepherd them, the Lamb
is going to shepherd them and they're never
going to thirst.
You see hell is a place where thirst
is never quenched.
Heaven is a place where thirst is never
experienced.
We shall never thirst for we shall drink
of the bounties of his blessing forever.
I think that's why the Apostle John when
he got to the end of the last
book of the Bible gave this invitation.
And the Spirit and the Bride say come.
And let him that heareth say come.
And let him that is a thirst come.
And whosoever will let him take the water
of life freely.
You know why it's free?
Because Jesus paid for it.
That's why.
And so the question today my friend is
not do you thirst?
Everybody thirsts.
The sinner is thirsting for satisfaction.
Nothing that he endures, nothing that he experiences
really satisfies.
And he's thirsting for satisfaction.
Everybody has thirst.
So the question is not do you thirst?
The question is simply how long are you
going to thirst?
That's the question.
If you receive Jesus Christ you'll never thirst
again.
And for all eternity the satisfaction and the
sufficiency of his eternal life.
If you don't trust Christ as your Savior
I'll tell you how long you'll thirst.
You'll thirst forever.
Hell is a place of unfulfilled cravings.
Where the things that you craved in this
life you will crave forever never to be
satisfied.
And so we say to you today tenderly
lovingly very simply.
Jesus thirsted for you the loving Savior of
sinners.
That's the portrait that I want you to
see today.
The loving Savior of sinners who drank the
cup from his Father's hand that you might
never thirst.
Now will you receive him?
Will you come to him and let him
save you?
We come our Father thankful that you have
quenched the thirsting in our hearts.
We have drunk of the living water and
are satisfied.
You have placed within our hearts this artesian
well of life that keeps springing up fresh
and pure and satisfying.
And we take it with us.
We don't look to the circumstances of this
world to satisfy us because they are but
broken cisterns that contain dirty water.
We carry with us this beautiful artesian well
that you have given to us.
Thank you Father.
Thank you that the rock was smitten that
the water might come forth.
Thank you Lord Jesus that you thirsted that
we might never thirst again.
And I pray that this hour there might
be many who will trust Christ and experience
that deep satisfaction that comes with salvation, that
changed life that creates new appetites.
O gracious God, work today that sinners will
turn and trust the Savior.
I pray it in Jesus' name.
Amen.