I Thirst Series

The 6 Last Phrases of the Christ

“I Thirst”

4/4/04 ACC

Alan Scott

C.T. – Jesus words of “I thirst” point to different levels of spiritual levels of thirst we all have.

Text – John 19:28; Psalm 69:21; Hebrews 4:14-16; John 4:13-14; Rev. 3:20

INTRO:

Seeing “The Passion Of The Christ” again on Thursday night with Brooklynn and Lauren. It seems odd to say this, but I had two favorite moments in this movie. They were both personal vignettes or flashbacks into Jesus’ life. (PASSION PIX #1) One showed Jesus building a table and teasing his mother. The other one happened as Jesus was carrying his cross through the streets of Jerusalem. Jesus falls, and his mother (PASSION PIX #2) has a flashback to when Jesus was a little boy and falls. I’m fairly confident that this scene tugged on all the maternal instincts of every mom in the theatre.

These two “favorite scenes” made Jesus very real. It drew you to him. These scenes helped to bring the Messiah closer to your own heart.

While on the cross, Jesus says a short phrase that makes him real again. It’s a phrase that draws us to him. In the Greek, in fact, it’s only one word.

John 19:28-29 (pg. 753) … read

(Illus. – my kids playing warm, warmer, hot, hotter – you know how this is played? – I was on the couch watching the NCAA basketball tournament – I was under a big blanket, dosing in and out of all the basketball – suddenly I hear Lauren yell, “Warm!” – Brooklynn was trying to find my red-headed monster, Morgan – As Brooklynn came into the living room Lauren yelled, “Warmer!” – As Brooklynn came over by the TV and me, she cried out, “Hot!” – by this time I’m trying to get them to take it into the other room – they had awakened me and were interrupting my precious basketball/nap time – Brooklynn came over to the couch and Lauren yelled, “Hotter!” – I told them that I wasn’t playing… I wasn’t the one they were looking for – Brooklynn raised up the blanket and there found Morgan… she had crawled under my blanket when I was asleep and hid)

Mother Teresa – “The closer you come to Jesus, the better you will know his thirst.”

The closer you are to Jesus, the better you will understand his words, “I thirst.” If this is true, then there are four levels of closeness… warm, warmer, hot, hotter… that you can get to Jesus. Let’s try to determine where you and I are at.

(four chairs – four signs… warm, warmer, hot, hotter)

WARM: Jesus’ Thirst Is My Proof.

This first level is NOT a bad place to be. At this first level you begin to see proof or evidence that Jesus is really real.

When Jesus said, “I thirst,” on the cross, he was fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. Look at John 19:28 again. Read…

The prophecy being fulfilled came from the Old Testament book of Psalms…

Psalm 69:21 (pg. 405) … read.

In Jesus’ lifetime, Jesus fulfilled some 330 Old Testament prophecies. Things written about Jesus centuries earlier, actually came to pass with the life of Jesus.

Peter W. Stoner (Mathematician & scientist) calculated one man fulfilling just 8 Old Testament prophecies:

1 in 10to the 17th power! 100,000,000,000,000,000!! 100 quadrillion.

To help us understand the number 100 quadrillion, Stoner came up with this comparison:

If you covered the state of Texas with 100 quadrillion silver dollars, the entire state would be covered with silver dollars two FEET deep! Take just one silver dollar and mark it with a big “X”. Stir up the silver dollars all over the state. Now take a blindfolded man and tell him he can travel the whole state of Texas, but he has to find that one, marked silver dollar. What chance would he have in finding it? 1 in 10 to the 17th power. 1 in 100 quadrillion!

Are you seeing the point yet?

Victory Publishing Company out of Denver, CO has a standing offer to anyone who can find someone, other than Jesus, who can fulfill just half of Jesus’ 330 Old Testament prophets. If you can find that person, Victory Publishing will give you $1,000.

(PASSION PIX #3) As Jesus says, “I thirst,” he is fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. This was one of 330 other prophecies he fulfilled. As Jesus says, “I thirst,” He is giving us evidence that he really is the Messiah. He is the real deal?

By the way, the chance of any one man fulfilling all 300 prophecies, as Jesus did, is 1 in 840 untrigintillion… that’s 97 zeroes!

Why didn’t the religious leaders, the elders, the chief priests, the teachers of the Old Testament law see Jesus as the Messiah? These were experts of the Old Testament. Why didn’t they see Jesus fulfilling scripture? They weren’t thirsty.