Fifth Cry From The Cross

I Thirst

John 19:28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.[1]

Introduction:

Jesus started His seven cries from the cross by asking His Father to forgive people for their actions due to their lack of knowledge.  Through the pardon for the one on the cross beside Him, He reminded us that forgiveness is timeless and immediate.  He saw His mother and the one so familiar and He took care to insure that His mother would be taken care of because He so wants us to take care of each other.  While carrying our sin on the cross, He felt what we should feel as we carry our sin.  He fulfilled the prophecy of Psalm 22 even as He felt forsaken by His Father.  His Heavenly Father turned away because of our sins that Jesus carried to the cross that day. 

As God was preparing me, I asked what great spiritual thing could possibly be gleaned from such a simple sentence as, “I thirst.”  Several commentaries agreed that this particular verse shows Jesus in all His humanity.  It is physically normal for Jesus to have been thirsty considering the loss of fluid that He suffered.

Well I knew that before I looked through the commentaries.  That is just common sense.  Jesus was thirsty!  There has to be much more in this simple sentence.  Surely Jesus was thirsty much earlier.  He had been beaten so badly that His flesh was torn.  He carried that heavy cross on that spring day and went through the torment of having spikes driven into His body.  Surely He had been thirsty for quite a while.  Why did He wait until this particular time to say so?

When we rush things we mess up.  The Holy Spirit places desires in your hearts when we accept Jesus as Lord.  Placing desires and setting up obstacles I think is how the Holy Spirit guides us but we must move at God’s speed, not ours.  Otherwise we are not obedient to God’s will.  Jesus waited until just the right time, His Heavenly Father’s time.

Scripture:  Please turn in your Bibles to John 19:28.  When you have found your place please stand as we read God’s word.

Prayer:       Let us pray… Please be seated

Message:

I. Jesus was thirsty but He did not ask until the time was right. Other things were taken care of and when it was the perfect time, Jesus said, “I thirst.”

I.A.  Jesus did not ask until He felt every kind of hurt that we feel.  The shortest verse in the Bible is “Jesus wept.”  He knew what it felt like to lose loved one as He learned of His cousin / predecessor’s death at the hands of Herod.  The dumbest thing that anyone can ever say to someone hurting is, “I know how you feel.”  We feel sympathy for our friends and family when something bad happens but we can not know how they feel unless it has happened to us.  Jesus felt more than sympathy, He felt Empathy.  He had been there and done that.  Jesus felt the pain that the ones beside Him felt that day.  They were tied to the cross and He was nailed there.  We should feel those nails.  Instead Jesus did.  Instead of being raised up on the world’s stage Jesus was raised up on the cruelest form of punishment.  He knew how it felt even as He forgave.

I.B.  Not until Jesus met the needs of those around Him and us did He ask anything for Himself.  Only can Jesus forgive sin.  Before anything else, Jesus asked His Father to forgive.  He saw His grieving mother and the one He knew could be trusted to take care of her.  Through that He gave us instructions on how to care for each other.  He reminded us of our greatest need that we most take for granted when He felt His Father turn away from the sin He carried.  God the Father is holy.  We need to know how desperate we are when He looks away from us.  Jesus met that need as His Heavenly Father turned away.

II. Jesus came to this earth as a humble child. Paul says in Philippians 2:5-11,

“5 † Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashiona as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” [2]

II.A.  The New American Standard translates verse seven as, “but emptied Himself.”  God’s attribute of Omniscience or all knowing is not a human trait.  When we come into this world we fully trust our parents for everything.  We have no other choice.  As time goes by we learn to depend on others and our selves.  Jesus emptied Himself of all divine knowledge when He chose to obey His Father and come here as a human being.

II.B.  His divine knowledge was available when He needed it.  Only when the time was right for Him to know all things did He request something for Himself.  He then knew all that God the Son should know.  He knew that it was nearly finished.

III.  Turn with me now to Psalm 69 and read along as we listen to the words which King David said so many years before Jesus would come to earth.  This prophetic psalm tells of the agony of the cross in a way that David could not have experienced.  Starting at verse nineteen,

Psalm 69:19 Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. 20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. 21 They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. [3]

III.A.  Jesus was truly obedient to His Father even to the point of when to say He was thirsty. Not until all things that were written about Him did Jesus give in to His human need.  He knew that the prophecies written concerning Him must be fulfilled.

III.B.  Turn with me now to John 5:39,40.  Jesus told those who were against Him that it is not enough to have a knowledge of all things written about the Messiah.  Unless you come to Jesus through faith, there is no way to heaven.  He warned the doubting Jews starting in John 5:39, “39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” [4]

In life here on earth, time is of the essence.  Things happen for a reason and a season.  Solomon wrote in Ecclesiates 3:1, “1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:[5]”  Jesus waited until the proper time.  Though there were those who wondered why He waited to go where Lazarus was until after Lazarus was already dead, Jesus knew the right time.  He never thought about Himself or worried about what might appear strange in the eyes of the neigh Sayers.  He went about the work of His Heavenly Father.  He went about the work that He came here for.  He accomplished the cross that would lead us back to a relationship with Him.

Prayer:

Invitation:

Are you like me?  Do you want things when you want them?  Perhaps you are also like me in that you think it’s OK to wait until you are ready to move.  We want things to happen on our schedule, especially when we are hungry or thirsty.  When we feel need we feel it’s OK to stop what God has for us to do.

To be Christ-like means that your life will not be your own design anymore.  Things will change.  People will become more and you will become less.  If this sounds like a strange invitation today then perhaps today is not your time.  Only He knows that, I don’t.  This I do know, there is a time when it is too late.  Then He will leave you to your own designs.

Here is the answer to the age old question, “Why do good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.”  Because God wants the world to see how saved people react to Satan’s attack.  Paul told the Philippians, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  If you want to go through life having what you want when you want it, do not accept this invitation today.  If you keep telling God no, He is gentleman enough to accept your response.  Keep telling Him no and one day He will most certainly leave you alone.  If you want His strength to enable you to endure the trials of this life and have a relationship with Him that will last through eternity, today is your day to say yes Jesus yes.

Perhaps you have accepted Him but you thirst for a closer walk, leave that care here at the altar today.  Get on with being a Christian.  This world is thirsting and we can quench needs if we will only follow Him.  Please respond as we sing…

[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (1995). (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version., Jn 19:28). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

† A Greek word occurs that is not directly translated in the King James Version. 
Greek Strongs: 1063

a fashion: or habit

[2] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (1995). (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version., Php 2:5–11). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[3] ibid., Ps 69:19–21.

[4] ibid., Jn 5:39–40.

[5] ibid., Ec 3:1