1. Introduction
a. This morning as we continue our series The Gospel in the Seven Sayings of the Cross we focus on Christ’s fourth statement made from the cross.
b. In the statement we will evaluate today, Christ demonstrates His knowledge of scripture. He also demonstrates His humanity and His deity through a simple statement. And, He does this all through two simple words.
2. Christ Thirsted in Fulfillment of Prophecy
a. Christ’s fifth saying from the cross has caused a large amount of debate among Biblical Scholars. The debate has centered over whether the statement should be taken at face value or is there some deeper theological meaning.
b. Read John 19:28—After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst."
c. Have you ever been thirsty? I mean really, really thirsty—where your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth and all you can think about is water.
(1) Let me share with you a couple of interesting facts about physical thirst.
(2) Thirst is something we experience when the pituitary gland secretes two hormones in the body. One causes a physical reaction in the kidneys and the other causes the more complicated activity of the hypothalamus to send signals to the salivary glands to reduce secretions.
(3) Physical thirst can be excruciating and dangerous, leading to dehydration. Dehydration left unchecked leads to death.
d. There is no doubt that Christ was thirsty, as this was one of the horrible parts of crucifixion.
e. Dr. Mark Eastman, in an article on the Koinonia House website entitled Medical Aspects of the Crucifixion: The Agony of Love, describes the series of events in this manner.
(1) The position on the cross sets up a horrific sequence of events which results in a slow, painful death. Having been pinned to the cross, the victim now has an impossible position to maintain.
(2) With the knees flexed at about 45 degrees, the victim must bear his weight with the muscles of the thigh. However, this is an almost impossible task—try to stand with your knees flexed at 45 degrees for 5 minutes. As the strength of the legs gives out, the weight of the body must now be borne by the arms and shoulders. The result is that within a few minutes of being placed on the cross, the shoulders will become dislocated. Minutes later the elbows and wrists become dislocated. The result of these dislocations is that the arms are as much as 6 9 inches longer than normal.
(3) With the arms dislocated, considerable body weight is transferred to the chest, causing the rib cage to be elevated in a state of perpetual inhalation. Consequently, in order to exhale the victim must push down on his feet to allow the rib muscles to relax. The problem is that the victim cannot push very long because the legs are extremely fatigued. As time goes on, the victim is less and less able to bear weight on the legs, causing further dislocation of the arms and further raising of the chest wall, making breathing more and more difficult.
(4) The result of this process is a series of catastrophic physiological effects. Because the victim cannot maintain adequate ventilation of the lungs, the blood oxygen level begins to diminish and the blood carbon dioxide level begins to rise. This rising carbon dioxide level stimulates the heart to beat faster in order to increase the delivery of oxygen and the removal of carbon dioxide.
(5) However, due to the pinning of the victim and the limitations of oxygen delivery, the victim cannot deliver more oxygen and the rising heart rate only increases oxygen demand. So this process sets up a vicious cycle of increasing oxygen demand-which cannot be met-followed by an ever increasing heart rate. After several hours the heart begins to fail, the lungs collapse and fill up with fluid, which further decreases oxygen delivery to the tissues. The blood loss and hyperventilation combines to cause severe dehydration. That's why Jesus said, "I thirst."
f. Jesus had a real body with physical needs that was at that moment dying. His body was responding just as ours would were it one of us on the cross and not Him.
g. However, the general consensus among scholars regarding this saying is that being knowledgeable of the scripture and the prophecies regarding Him, Christ, knowing the end was near, stated this in satisfaction of prophecy.
3. A two-point picture.
a. Christ stating that He was thirsty brings to mind to points that while not related to physical thirst, this very basic human need points back to significant statements associated with Christ’s ministry.
b. The first image that comes to mind is the questionable understanding that He made this statement only because of His knowledge of scripture and prophecy associated with Him and that He was merely satisfying prophecy.
c. The second image is that His physical thirst reminds of our spiritual thirst.
d. I want us to look at each of these a little deeper.
4. His word in my heart.
a. If it is true that Jesus made this statement simply because He knew it was a prophecy that needed to be satisfied, it demonstrated that He had an in-depth knowledge of the Word.
b. We should have an in-depth knowledge of the Word as well. Without it, how else can we protect ourselves from Satan?
c. Without it, how can we know the difference between right and wrong? Without it, how can we know what we can or cannot or should or should not do in a given situation?
d. The Psalmist said it best in Psalm 119:11—I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
5. Was His thirst purely physical?
a. Was Jesus thirst purely a physical thirst? While He may physically have thirsted for water. I believe he spiritually thirsted for more.
b. How can this be? Isn’t this the man who told the woman at the well as recorded in John 4:13, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Isn’t this the one who said, as recorded in John 7:37“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”
c. We as humans thirst for many things.
(1) True, we thirst for a cool drink of water, but we also thirst for other things too.
(2) We thirst for knowledge, success, peace, love….for relief, and the fulfillment of our hopes and dreams.
d. But Jesus wasn’t just physically thirsting for water. I believe He was thirsting to restore humanity’s relationship with God.
(1) Genesis 1:27 tells us that we were created in God’s image and likeness and that in the beginning we had a relationship with Him.
(2) But sin robbed the world of peace and tranquility when Adam and Eve ate the fruit and were expelled from the Garden of Eden.
(3) It was sin that caused the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah t be destroyed by fire.
(4) It was sin that caused the earth to be destroyed by a flood and only Noah his family and some animals were saved.
(5) It was sin that caused David to cry out in Psalm 51:10 and say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a right spirit in me.”
(6) Sin did all this and more. It also put a barrier between man and God.
(7) Man tried to break through this barrier with the blood of bulls, goats, doves and lambs, but he just could not wash away the stain of sin.
e. This morning, as in the last several mornings, we find Jesus here in our text hanging on a cross to restore our relationship with God.
(1) Romans 5:10–11 says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
(2) The words reconcile and reconciliation in these verses simply means that Christ’s death on the cross broke the barriers separating us from God, restoring the relation we once shared with Him.
f. So Christ was thirsting no just for water. He was also thirsting for man to be filled with the Spirit of God.
g. Do you thirst to be filled with His Spirit, but you don’t feel that you have been or that you have been enough and you wonder why?
h. Illustration:
The story is told of a young student who went to his spiritual teacher and asked the question, "Master, how can I truly find God?" The teacher asked the student to accompany him to the river which ran by the village and invited him to go into the water. When they got to the middle of the stream, the teacher said, "Please immerse yourself in the water." The student did as he was instructed, whereupon the teacher put his hands on the young man's head and held him under the water. Presently the student began to struggle. The master held him under still. A moment passed and the student was thrashing and beating the water and air with his arms. Still, the master held him under the water. Finally, the student was released and shot up from the water, lungs aching and gasping for air. The teacher waited for a few moments and then said, “When you desire God as truly as you desired to breathe the air you just breathed, then you shall find God."
i. Thirst is probably one of the most powerful spiritual symbols in scripture. Just as dehydration focuses our entire physical being on a longing for water, a spiritual void will draw our spirits into a search for deeper meaning for our lives.
j. The Psalmist expressed it this way in 42:1–2, "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…" or in 143:6, “I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.”
k. We must capitalize on that spiritual thirst. We must thirst and long for God and spiritual living just as strongly as Christ did for us.
6. Closing and Invitation
a. We will never have a close relationship with God until we thirst after Him. That is why Jesus said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."
b. When you thirst for Him, you will be blessed. Matthew records these words of Jesus in 5:6, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
c. I wish I could call to this platform the wisest and the richest man who ever lived, named Solomon. I wish he could give us his personal testimony.
d. He drank from the polluted wells of this world trying to find satisfaction and he tried it all.
e. Listen to his diary taken from Ecclesiastes 2.
(1) First he tried wildness—I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?" (vv. 1-2). He became the playboy, the party-boy. It was all play and no work. But that didn't satisfy him.
(2) He tried wine—I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine--my heart still guiding me with wisdom--and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. (v. 3). But he found out, like the alcoholic, wine doesn't work.
(3) Then he tried wealth—I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the children of man. (vv. 7–8) But he found out, as the Bible says, "the eyes of man are never satisfied."
(4) Then he tried women—And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. (vs. 10). He became the Hugh Heffner of his day. We know that he had an eye for the ladies because he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. But along with that came 700 mother-in-laws, so we know that didn't work.
(5) Finally, he tried wisdom—So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. (vv. 12–13) But he found out the more that he learned, the less he knew, and what he did know showed him that everything is futile and foolish without God
f. In the last chapter of his diary he wrote these words, taken from Ecclesiastes 12:13, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
g. Solomon finally found the true source and secret of satisfaction—God—a relationship with God.
h. Lost or saved, you must have spiritual passion and a relationship with God. To get that passion you must come to Jesus.
i. If you are tired of just going through the motions, knowing deep down inside you are spiritually dying or dead, Jesus invites you this morning to come to Him for spiritual renewal.
j. His Words are simple…"if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."
k. Do you thirst? Do you thirst for God and a victorious life? Then I invite you to come to Jesus and drink.
l. He will fill you until you overflow and become a river of living water that will bless others as well.
