I THIRST
TEXT- JOHN 19:28-29
INTRODUCTION
Water has been described as the world’s most valuable natural resource. The Earth contains approximately 326 million cubic miles of water. Almost three-fourths of the Earth’s surface is covered by water.
Water makes up almost two-thirds of the human body. The body needs about 2.5 quarts of water a day to function properly according to some scientist. In an average lifetime, humans will consume over 16,000 gallons of water. The body can survive up to about 40 days without food but only five days without water. I believe that one of the great scientific inventions in medicine was when Doctors learned to re-hydrate the body using IV fluids. If you been in the hospital lately you noticed the first things they do is hook you up to an IV.
Considering that water is so essential in the physical realm, it should come as no surprise that water is important in the spiritual realm.
SERMON
The most immediate need of the human body, outside of oxygen, is water. When being crucified one of worst pains is a need for water. The historians say it was agonizing. As the victims hung on the cross their mouths and throats cried for water. Their lips crack and bleed and their eyes are glazed. Their tongues swelled in their mouths. Their thirst was horrible.
It’s possible that Jesus had nothing to drink for 18 hours, maybe since the Passover meal. The Bible says he sweated blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. Then for a long time He was forced to be on is feet as He was interrogated by Annas, then to stand before Caiaphas, then before Pilate, then before Herod, and back again before Pilate.
He had been beaten by the soldiers, and He was forced to wear a crown of thorns. I’m sure He was bleeding and this meant precious fluid was pouring from His body. Jesus carried the cross until He fell out of exhaustion. Then for 6 agonizing hours our Lord hung on the cross and continued to lose body fluids. I’m sure by this time He was completely dehydrated, so it is no wonder that the 5th statement from the cross was, “I thirst” John says, as a response to this statement, someone took a sponge and soaked in a jar of sour wine- put it on a stick and lifted it up to Jesus’ lips.
I want to point out four important truths that Jesus conveyed with this short sentence, and the first is:
JESUS WAS SAYING, “I AM WHO I SAY I AM.”
I guess you could say that He was saying, “I am the long-awaited Messiah of God.” If you look at the words that precede His 5th statement you can see what I mean. “Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished- so that the scriptures would be fulfilled-said, “I am thirsty.”
Now the word we translate as, “knowing” does not mean to know by experience or to come to know something by research, but it means to know it innately. This knowledge comes to His mind instantly. He knew all prophesy concerning Him up to that point had been fulfilled- everything that was suppose to happen had happened. Every thing except one thing- His expression of thirst.
An average person would probably not have known that because there was so many prophesies to be fulfilled. The scholars say there were 332 Old Testament prophecies that described the Messiah. Jesus fulfilled every one of them during His life and death. The probabilities of a person being able to do this is astronomical. It would be impossible! There is no room for doubt that Jesus was who He said that He was. In the last 24 hours of His life, over 20 scriptures from the Old Testament were fulfilled.
So, in order for all prophesy to be completed, He said, “I am Thirsty.” The prophecy that was fulfilled is found in Psalm 69.
Psalm 69: 21, “ They also gave me gall for food
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
Why do you think that God had so many prophesies to be fulfilled? I really believe so that there could be no doubt about who the true Messiah was, and it was Jesus Christ. He truly was the Son of God. God knew when all doubt was removed that we could put our faith in Him.
2-WITH THOSE THREE WORDS JESUS WAS ALSO SAYING, “I UNDERSTAND.”
Jesus was and is omniscient GOD who knows all things- including the hundreds of prophesies concerning the Messiah. But He was also a MAN-who endured all of the things we endure in our life and more. Theologians put together two important facts, and refer to Jesus as the “THEANTHROPIC PERSON”. This comes from two GREEK words: “theos” meaning God and “Antropos,” meaning man. If you combined those two you get the best word to describe Jesus, and it is the GOD-MAN.
As God He could say, “ I tell you the truth…before Abraham was born, I am”. And as man He could say, “I am thirsty”. Jesus was not a deified man nor was He a humanized God. He was the God-man: forever God and now, for ever Man.
We can find many examples in the Gospels. For example, as a human being, Jesus was tried and fell asleep in the hull of a ship, but as God a moment later, He was able to still the sea and calm the wind. As a man, Jesus was broken hearted over the death of Lazarus, but as God He raised Lazarus from the dead. As a man he suffered a horrible death on the cross, but as God he was raised the third day.
It seems that a lot of people have a problem coming to grips with the fact that Jesus was God and man. Some seem to be liberal and find it difficult to believe that a man was GOD, and some tend to take a very conservative position and find it difficult to believe in His complete humanity.
It is very important that we accept the fact that Jesus was God and man, and our text this morning should help us to that. It tells us that Jesus was not only God but human also and He suffered like a man. The Bible tells us He said, “I thirst.” Since He felt all the pains of life like we do, He understands the things we go through in Life. Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 4:15, “we can approach His throne of grace…”because we know that, “He sympathizes with our weaknesses.”
He knew we would be grief-stricken, weary, disturbed, and angry. He knew what it was like to be sleepy and hungry. He knew we would face pain of the body and the soul, and that we would be thirsty. We might be thirsty for water, or maybe a thirst for righteousness. You see, He understands our plight in life, and I mean everything about us. Jesus is the perfect High Priest and the perfect one to stand between God and us.
If you think of the logic it will make sense to us, because If we want someone to understand our money woes in life had you rather talk to a billionaire who has been rich all of his life or someone who has been broke before? Who do think would sympathize with our problems because he understands?
The 5th statement Jesus made from the cross means He understands. James 1:5 the Bible says when we go to Him for help He responds, “generously to all without finding fault.” With those three words, Jesus was telling us an amazing comforting fact, “I UNDERSTAND! I-GOD IN THE FLESH-UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH!”
3- THE THIRD TRUTH I THINK JESUS WAS SAYING, “GOD’S WILL ALWAYS COMES FIRST.”
I can conclude that because, when Jesus made His 5th statement in verse 28 it says that He said, “AFTER THIS…” Well after what? If you remember the other lessons we’ve had you should remember you’ll see that Jesus expressed His thirst only after He had spoken words of forgiveness to His crucifiers, only after He had lovingly extended His grace to a repentant thief, only after he made provisions for His Mother, only after He had borne the sins of all mankind on His body and experienced the dark forsaken-ness from His Father. Jesus waited until “after this” or until all these things had been accomplished to say, “I’m thirsty.” Really we know He had probably been thirsty from the beginning. I mean the trails and crucifixion had lasted more than twelve hours.
Jesus had been scourged, beaten, spit upon, mocked, humiliated, stripped naked, and nailed to the cross. Through out all of this, no one had offered Him one moment of rest or relief-yet not until the very end of His ordeal, the very end of His life, did he ask for even the smallest physical comfort.
And this was very typical of Him because through out His whole life our Savior knew that GOD”S WILL always must come first. He left us this example for us to follow.
4- AND THE 4TH THING I BELIEVE JESUS WAS SAYING IS THIS: “ I ALONE CAN SATISFY YOUR THIRST FOR GOD.”
You see, I think when He said “I Thirst” that He was referring to more than water. God has put an empty place in man that can only be satisfied by God. Man has tried a lot of different things in order to fill this void inside, but nothing will work but God. The Psalmist said in Psalms 42, “ As deer pants for streams of water, so my soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Like what the Apostle Paul said in Acts 17:28 that only in God that our lives makes sense. It’s only in relationship with Him that we “Live and move and have our being.”
GOD’S USE OF WATER
Like we said at the beginning of this lesson an “I Thirst,” that water was very important in the physical realm it should be no surprise that it would be very important in the Spiritual realm. God has always used water to teach valuable lessons.
In the days of Noah, God used water to separate righteousness from wickedness. Mankind as a whole had turned to evil. Noah shined as a beacon of light in the midst of a wicked generation, according to Genesis chapter 6. God send water to flood the Earth. Noah and His family was spared because of his obedience to God’s command to build an ark(Genesis 7).
In the days of Moses, God used water to separate freedom from bondage. The Egyptians had made life miserable for the Hebrews, and He heard His people’s cry for help, according to Exodus 1 and 2. God sent a deliverer to take them out of the land of Egypt. God used water once again to prove His power, and He closed the Red Sea upon the Egyptian army. God used this method to deliver His people.
In the days of Naaman, God used water to separate purity from impurity. Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, was a leper. Through the influence of a Hebrew slave he was brought to Elijah to be healed. Elijah gave the Syrian instructions to wash himself in the Jordan River. When he finally obeyed, he was healed of leprosy and acknowledged God(2 Kings 5).
In the days of Jesus, God used water to separate darkness and light. Jesus came upon a blind man that had been blind from birth.(John 9). Jesus taught that his blindness was not on the account of sin. He sent the blind man to was in the pool of Siloam to receive his sight.
Since the cross of Jesus, God has used water to separate SALVATION from SIN. Sin brings separation from God according to Isaiah 59:1-2. Baptism in water washes away sin, and we can see this when Annaias was sent to Saul of Tarsus in Damascus after he had witnessed the resurrected Christ, and told him, “ Saul, Saul why tarries thou arise and be baptized and wash AWAY your sins.” Obedience to Christ through baptism washes away our sins. How do we know? When The Apostle Peter rose up to preach the first Gospel sermon following the cross of Christ on the day called Penecost, He convinced many they were in sin because they had crucified the Christ, and they responed with sin on their hands saying, “ Men and Brethren what shall we do?” Peter told them, and I believe everyone even day, to repent and be baptized in the name of Christ for the remission of their sins, and that they would be given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Three thousand were obedient to God that day and received the gift of grace he offered.
Yes, obedience to Christ through baptism washes away our sin, frees us from bondage, delivers us from darkness, saves us eternally, and adds us to the Kingdom of God! Have you done that in your lifetime? If not I urge you to be baptized into Christ and receive the salvation That He made possible on Calvary’s Cross.
