Auto Generate Transcript
I want to say Happy Easter, Resurrection Sunday to you. This is a day that if we don’t celebrate, no one else will. And so we want to look at this today through this passage we’re going to examine in John chapter 19 with some energy, some excitement over what Christ has done and overcoming the grave. And at the end of the service, we’re going to let you know we’re just going to give away a few prizes to some random individuals out there. You will. I’ll tell you how we’re going to do that in just a little bit, but you have an opportunity to win. Some things would encourage you out the door today. But John 19 is an important passage for us because it deals with the death of Jesus. And most importantly, as we look at the death of Christ, we know that his victory over the grave and resurrection shows us and demonstrates to us proof that as Jesus overcome the overcame the grave, we now have opportunity in him to overcome the grave that Jesus has conquered sin, Satan, and death. And for that this morning we have reason to rejoice. One of the things we’ve been looking at together over the last three weeks leading up to this Easter season are the specific statements that Jesus made from the cross, which we have. We have dubbed the red letter days because typically within passages of Scripture in the Bible, when you read statements Jesus makes, they oftentimes place them in red.
When Jesus makes the statements upon the cross, he makes seven statements. And those statements are very important for us to look at, to acknowledge, to understand, to comprehend exactly what Jesus did on the cross. The reason is because of the the strength and the energy. It would have taken Christ to make such statements from his cross. You can imagine if you were such a person as Jesus and during the torture that Jesus went through, even having led up to the cross before he was even on the cross, most men would not have even survived that torture, being whipped by the cat o nine tails to the point where organs and bones were exposed, being beat beyond recognition, having the crown of thorns placed upon his head, most people would not have survived that. Then, on top of that, Jesus is nailed to the cross. He’s got a beam of £65 placed upon his shoulders. He’s nailed both his feet and his hands to this cross. The way in which an individual died upon this cross was from asphyxiation. Their lungs would literally collapse on themselves. And so as someone would hang up on the cross for them to create the energy to to create the oxygen, to say anything as they’re hanging on the cross, they would have to press into the nail upon their feet to wedge themselves up high enough to take a breath of air, to be able to exert any sort of statement out of their mouth at all.
And so these statements Jesus makes on the cross, isn’t Jesus just wasting energy to make these statements? These statements are very pointed. They’re very profound. They’re very specific, and they’re very significant for us to understand what Jesus accomplished on the cross. We’ve looked at five of them together. Some of them we’ve just brushed past, some of them we’ve dove into very specifically. But as you examine this passage of Scripture, these are the statements Jesus has made as he makes these statements on the cross. They’re very interactive in his relationship, both to man and with the father. Jesus would often say something to the father and then back towards the men. And the first statement that Jesus gave was this father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. He goes on and says, truly I say to you, you shall be with me in Paradise, which we looked at last week. He then goes on and says to the father, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Which we examine the weight of the sin placed upon Jesus’s shoulders as he became the propitiation for our sins. And that word propitiation is found in a few places in the New Testament. But it means this, that Jesus absorbed the wrath of God by taking sin upon his shoulders, but not just absorbed the wrath of God. He’s also attributed to your account his righteousness, so that when God looks at you, he sees the beauty of who Jesus is because of what Christ has done for you on the cross.
This statement on the cross demonstrates to us that Jesus is absorbing the weight of sin. He is making that payment as the Lamb of God. When John saw Jesus coming to the the Jordan River to be baptized, his declaration of Christ was, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John and his gospel makes it a very pointed and specific statement of Jesus’s crucifixion happening around the noon hour, the time in which the Passover lamb would be sacrificed, wanting us to recognize how Jesus, being the Lamb of God, has now taken place. The Passover lamb as the sacrifice for all time, for the weight of sin. Jesus on the cross says this My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And as if for us to recognize that Him and His sacrifice has take the weight of sin, he says in John chapter 19, we’re going to look at today in verse 30 he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the spirit. This statement in which Jesus is declaring over sin says this literally. This phrase, it is finished means paid in full. The weight of sin Jesus carrying for you and for I, that as we acknowledge Him as Savior, we receive the righteousness of Christ in our lives.
And Jesus giving this declaration to the people around the cross and throughout all of history, want us to understand by his sacrifice. Jesus has paid it all. And Jesus. Then it says in Luke chapter 23. Father into your hands. I commit my spirit. Having said this. He breathed his last. And these are five of the statements that Jesus gave up on the cross this morning in celebration of Easter, we’re going to look where three of these statements come together, starting in John chapter 19 and verse 26, all the way to to verse 30, where he gives this final statement. But the last two that we haven’t touched on together specifically found in John 1926 to verse 28, Jesus gives two more pointed statements that we really want to highlight this morning. And I don’t want to say one of them, we’re really going to breeze past the other one we’re going to highlight. But this is what makes this one of these statements so important for us. This morning in John chapter 19 and verse 26 to 27, Jesus is giving all of these theological applications to, to his life, these these profound statements. And and then he gets to, to John 19 and verse 26, and he shows us that this idea of God impacts the heart of our lives. Exactly who who Jesus is. He doesn’t just leave these pie in the sky thoughts. He makes it very practical in the way that he he demonstrates himself on the cross.
So much so that at the end of his life, if any of you are ever thinking, you know, Joseph’s already dead, Jesus has got his mother, who’s going to be taking care of Mary. Well, Jesus, in the moments of losing his life as he’s proclaiming or giving up his life as he’s proclaiming his death on the cross, takes a moment within that. To show concern for his mother. And some of you may be come to Easter to celebrate because you’re thinking, you know, my mama won’t me be here today, right? And Jesus carries a heart of love for his mother. And says, when Jesus then saw his mother in verse 26, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son. And he said to the disciple, behold your mother. From that hour the disciple took her into his own household. When when Jesus is acknowledging this, he’s he’s actually using terminology for adoption. You know, one of the things that’s pretty interesting to look at when you see this passage of Scripture is that Mary had other children. But what you find at the cross or none of those children are present. But what you do find is John, the disciple of Jesus the Apostle, the one who wrote the book of revelation, the book of John that we’re reading today. He is the one with with Jesus.
And that’s the one Jesus entrusts to Mary, not not her own children, but but John to take care of Mary. And so when we talk about the, the theological application to, to these concepts in which Jesus shares with us in Scripture, I say everything that you believe about God, if it doesn’t impact your heart and the way that you live your life and the relationships around people around you, that faith is dead, right? And Jesus is demonstrating this here. And the reason that Jesus gives us opportunity to love the way that he’s called John to love his mother and his mother in return, is because we’ve seen the extent of love being demonstrated here upon the cross. We know what it means by Christ example to love one another because Jesus himself and love for us is giving up his life, though he need not to, or though he didn’t have to. For our sins. And then Jesus in verse 28. It gives a very unique statement. Wanting to be honest, when you read the seven statements of Jesus on the cross, you would look at it and say, no. I mean, this is like a no duh statement, right? I mean, Jesus, of course you’re going to be what the statement says, and this is what it says here. After this, Jesus knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the Scripture, said, I thirst. What do you what do you do with that? You’ve been beaten to death.
You’ve been cooking in the sun all day. You’ve been abused. You’ve lost a lot of blood. Of course. Jesus. The most obvious statement that you can make in these moments is I thirst. What? What in the world does this mean? Yeah, I’m thinking Jesus is really like he is a hipster before hipsters. If you consider this this phrase, I mean, today in our society we have like the iPad, the iMac, the iPod. But Jesus was I thirst before it all ever happened, right? All right. That was cheesy. Thanks for laughing. What does this mean? And why would such a statement be found in Scripture? Out of all the things Jesus could tell us at the end of his life, if he just got energy to say seven things? Why I thirst. You know, one of the applications that we can draw from this passage and understanding why Jesus is saying this phrase, I thirst is as the thought that he shares just before that statement. He says this to fulfill the scriptures. Jesus said, I thirst. And one of the pictures that Jesus is creating for us in these final moments for us, he’s quoting and fulfilling scriptures, and so he gives this statement. Then I thirst is a further fulfillment of Scripture. If you go back into the book of Psalms and chapter 69 and the 69th chapter of Psalms, you’ll find in this psalm is an example of King David sharing his life, being persecuted by others.
And Jesus in this statement at the end of his life, is relating his life as a prophetic statement. Back to Psalm 69, chapter 69. And just as David was King of Israel, Jesus is acknowledging his lordship as King over all of creation. And Jesus as it goes throughout this Psalm, throughout the book of John, Jesus refers back to the 69th Psalm as relating to him. It happens in John chapter two. It happens in John chapter 15, and Jesus does it again in John chapter 19. He quotes Psalm 69 and verse 21 at the very end of his life, where it says that he has given vinegar to drink, that Jesus then declares in John 19 that he thirst, and then after that the vinegar is offered to him to reflect what exactly happened in Psalm 69 as it relates to the life of David. Jesus is showing us that this Psalm as though David expressed himself. Well, simply a psalm of foreshadowing of what the Messiah would endure. What Jesus is saying to us through through his crucifixion, as he’s quoting the 69th Psalm, is that everything Jesus is doing is intentional. And God is showing us that the cross was no accident, but an intentional part of his demonstrated plan that’s been fulfilled prophetically in the Old Testament, to the point that Jesus is now giving up his life as John, as John has shown us, was forecasted.
Throughout the Old Testament. Not only is God’s hand been in this crucifixion. This idea for thirst is also symbolic. When you look throughout the Bible as it describes our relationship to God, this this thought of hunger and thirst continues to be reflected in the Bible. In fact, Jesus on his sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five and verse six, it says, blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness. In Psalm chapter 42 and verse two, it says this my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. This idea of thirst is symbolically in Scripture, deals much more with just the physical need for something to drink. But it’s it’s acknowledging within our soul. There there is a deeper need within us. For satisfaction. So this idea of Jesus saying I thirst is to maybe encourage us from this passage, not to undermine this thirst as an obvious statement. But to recognize it as a symbolic happening. Because Jesus is literally taking your place. The wrath of God that belong to us for sin. Jesus is thirsting. In my place. In fact, in the Book of John, John uses this illustration of thirst within a few stories, but maybe one of the most popular is what happens in John chapter four. If you’re familiar with the story Jesus has is traveling through the land of Israel. And here in this region, there’s this place of Samaria that sort of separates Israel.
And anyone that traveled through Israel would have to go through this land of Samaria. But but Jews wouldn’t go through this Samaritan land. They didn’t like the Samaritan people. They wouldn’t even speak to the Samaritan people. They always viewed the Samaritan people as beneath them. But Jesus passes through the land of Samaria, and it tells us within John four that his disciples prepare to go into the town to get something to eat. They leave Jesus. Jesus stops next to Jacob’s well. As he stops next to Jacob’s well, there is a young woman who’s been ostracized from society. So not only is she Samaritan, but the Samaritan people don’t even accept her. She she is a complete outcast. She doesn’t experience love and human relationships because she’s just been cast aside. She is a nobody by everyone else’s standards. But Jesus makes a divine appointment to appear before her. And he says this in verse six. So Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well. And it was about the sixth hour, which is noon. And there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. And Jesus said to her. Give me a drink. The story goes on from there. And the. And the Samaritan woman is dumbfounded that a Jewish individual would come to her and ask her for a drink. Jews didn’t talk to to Samaritans, and they didn’t talk to Samaritan women, for sure. But then Jesus goes on from there and says this.
And Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. And verse 14, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst. But the water that I will give him. Will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. Jesus comes to this woman. Thirsty? But now, in these moments, he he finds in in her thirst, offering her a drink of living water beyond the temporal satisfaction of just of just the physical water of earth, something that satisfies her soul. And that’s Jesus hangs upon the cross and declares to us that he thirst. The reflection in our hearts and our lives should should demonstrate the same as this individual, this lady at the well, that just as she recognizes her need, her thirst, and her life, that Jesus upon himself is taking our thirst, that we in him could satisfy and quench the depths of our soul to find ourselves refreshed in the living water. Well, Isaiah 53, it says, He himself bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. The cross shows us that God is not ignorant of our sorrows. The cross shows us that God is not unmindful of our distress and anguish. For becoming incarnate God in flesh. He himself has suffered.
That’s why first Peter in chapter five, Peter says this in verse seven, cast all your cares upon him, because he cares for you. It’s demonstrated in his life. It’s the reason, honestly, I love to worship God at ABC. You think about Jesus’s death? Jesus didn’t die in a fancy cathedral. He died on a garbage heap around cynics talking trash, thieves cursing him and soldiers that abused him. It wasn’t a beautiful death. In that physical sense. But it’s a beautiful death and what Jesus has done for us. And in the murkiness of sin and the filth, that is what life can become or is apart from God. Jesus in that still comes for you, to rescue you, to redeem you, to restore you, to renew you, to give you life in him. That you may drink deep from who Christ is. You think about what it means for us to worship here as a church? From the beginning of what we are as a church family. Our emphasis is always this that, that Jesus has called you and created you for relationship in him. It’s not about the building, but it’s about what he does on the inside. And not just physically in the building, but in the inside of you. Jesus wants you to to drink deep from who he is. That’s why when you walk in on Sunday, it looks scary from the outside, all right. But on the inside, it’s full of the goodness of God.
It reflects what he does in our lives looking at Jesus. He’s not surrounding himself with the religious elite. But with those that just acknowledge their need. There need. For living water. Jesus didn’t come. To make bad men good and good men better. He came to bring the dead to life. He came to renew within us what we need because we’ve been separated from God. He he paid sin’s debt so that we could celebrate in him life for eternity. And to look at Easter and undermine anything that Jesus has accomplished here. Is to spit upon the cross of sacrifice in which Christ has made. Because if there was another opportunity, if there was any other way to reconcile ourselves to God, Jesus would not have hung on the cross, and he would not have pushed up against the nails, and he would have not had said, I thirst. And that’s why Hebrews 414 to 16. It reminds us of his sacrifice. And Jesus now being our high priest, that we can come directly before God because of what he’s done. And he goes on in Hebrews 416 and says this therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. When you look at John 19. Verse 29 and then says this A jar full of sour wine was standing there. This is the the cheap man’s drink at the time.
And so they put a sponge full of sour wine upon a branch of hyssop, and brought it up to his mouth. Now John uses his story to relate back to the Passover lamb, to show how the Passover lamb is being sacrificed and Jesus is being sacrificed as the ultimate lamb. You know, when the first Passover was celebrated in Exodus chapter 12, that they would take the the blood of this lamb on a branch of a hyssop, and they would apply it to the doorpost and the death angel and the first and the first Passover that celebrated in Egypt, the death angel was coming into Egypt. And God said, whoever takes this a branch and applies the blood of the lamb over the doorpost, the death angel will pass by. And here. Jesus’s death. Soldier takes the branch of a hyssop. And smacks it across the face of Jesus to give him a drink. As if to smear the blood of the lamb. Jesus goes on and it tells us in verse 30 something very significant that Christ says here. It says, therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Jesus when he he bows his head and he gives up his spirit. One of the the most interesting thoughts that it says in verse 30 isn’t that Jesus died. It isn’t that Jesus lost his life.
It’s that Jesus gave it up. Can I tell you? Maybe, perhaps the point of I thirst. Isn’t that Jesus is thirsty? Rather. The point is that he’s willing to thirst at all. It’s not the statement I thirst isn’t the profoundness of it isn’t that we just look and expect that Jesus is thirsty, but that rather Jesus would be even willing to thirst. Warren Wierzbie said it like this. It is true. Yet how comprehensive, how expressive, how profound, and how tragic. The maker of heaven and earth with parched lips. The Lord of glory. In need of a drink. Why? The profoundness of it is, is that Jesus didn’t even have to. He didn’t even need to. But that he was willing. He willingly. Gave up his spirit. He willingly. Died. And your place. He was willing to thirst so that we would thirst no more. You know when you read the story about the woman at the well? And John chapter four and verse six tells us. Jesus goes to the well at the noon hour. And he asks the woman for a drink. The woman shocked by it. The woman then asks Jesus some questions, and then Jesus says, you know, lady, if you had known who was saying this to you, you would have asked me for a drink of water, because I have the living water flowing from me, and out from you would flow living water. You know, one of the most interesting things about the whole story.
Is that the story never tells us. Now Jesus ever took a drink. He went to this woman in thirst. And he offered himself. To satisfy her need. Jesus found himself satisfied. And the giving of himself to this lady. For her well being. And on the cross Jesus says, I thirst. And his declaration of of thirst is taking upon himself this depravity of sin, that that in his thirst you find yourself satisfied as you drink deeply in Christ. My encouragement for you this morning. Because we could walk away from this story as one of two people. The people that stood around the cross and mocked Jesus. Are the people that decided within their lives to finally drink deep from what Christ offered them by dying for their sins. And their imperfections and their brokenness and in their sins, their king still chooses to lay their lives down from him. There was a Christian artist named Holman Hunt. He was born in the mid 1850s, died in 1910. So he’s been dead a little over 100 years. But in his artwork he he would often paint pictures of Jesus. But can I tell you one of the most beautiful things that he would do within his paintings? He painted one specific of Mary reaching out for her son. He painted one of his of his earthly father, Joseph, working in the carpenter’s shop as his son’s, learning to maneuver and work with the toys on the ground.
But you notice something unique about Jesus as he’s painted as a young child. And these pictures. Holman Hunt always painted Jesus with the shadow of a cross. His life. Was about his death. And the worst thing that you could do on a day like today. Is to look at the sacrifice of what Jesus has done for you and offering living water in him. And to reject it. Because his whole life was about you. His whole life was about the cross. In giving himself that you could drink of the richness of who God is. And on a morning like today, knowing that this is Easter, you celebrate within your soul that the gates of hell cannot prevail, that sin and Satan have no more authority over you, and that Jesus gives you eternal life in him. As you confess in your heart the need for him and His sacrifice for you, that in that you drink deep from his waters, because Jesus knows you thirst, because He Himself was willing to thirst in your place. Because that’s your battle cry. And that is your anthem. That God with open arms, just as he’s run to marry as a young child with open arms, has been running to you, that you may drink deep from the living water.