Prophecy from the Cross
King of the Jews • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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This morning we come to the fourth and fifth of the seven statements Jesus made from the cross.
We heard His words of forgiveness when He said, Father forgive them.
We heard His words of salvation when He said, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”
We heard His words to His biological and eternal family when He said, “Behold your mother and behold your son.”
But today as we quietly and humbly stand before the cross, and listen to Jesus fourth and fifth statement; we will hear what I believe is by far the most profound and perhaps the most mysterious words found in the word of God. There seems to be no end to the power and meaning of these words. They are like a bottomless pit. The more you reach into it, the deeper you go.
For the world and the nonbeliever, these words appear to be haunting and mysterious. But for the believer, these words reveal the greatness of God’s love and mercy.
These words reveal the endless depth of God’s love for you.
These words reveal the holiness of God’s character and why God’s holiness matters
These words reveal the great cost and sacrifice that was paid for our salvation.
These words reveal the divine purpose God has for your life and for the whole world.
These words will reveal the fulfillment of prophecy stated in the Old Testament about the Messiah.
I pray that through the power of the Holy Spirit, you will hear these words and that these words will inspire you to open your heart to the great love that God has for you.
Let’s start with His fourth statement
From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the whole land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling for Elijah.”
Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and offered him a drink. But the rest said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
Of all that Jesus said from the cross and of all that happened at the cross, there is one moment that stands out above all the rest. I believe that Jesus fourth statement from the cross, "My God, My God, why have You Abandoned Me?" reveals the most important, the most terrible, the most defining and perhaps the most sacred moment of all that happened at the cross. His haunting words reveal the one single moment that changed everything about history and eternity. This is the moment that blew wide open the doorway of eternity was for all who would believe in the eternal message of the cross.
These words mimic the words David spoke prophetically in
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far from my deliverance
and from my words of groaning?
This psalm is also titled from suffering to praise. Very fitting that it hearkens to what Christ experienced on the cross.
Other than the resurrection, I believe this is the single most divine moment in history. Why?
This is that sacred moment when Jesus reached across the chasm of eternity and paid in full with His blood and sacrifice our eternal debt of sin. You may be thinking, I thought that happened at Jesus death. Jesus paid the price for our sins here at this moment and He sealed the deal with His death and resurrection.
Without this moment there is no salvation.
Without this moment, there is no forgiveness of sin.
This moment reveals the depth of love that Jesus Christ has for you
This moment reveals how far God is willing to go to reach you for His kingdom
But most importantly, this moment, revealed the divine purpose of God for you, and that purpose is for you to spend eternity in God’s glorious kingdom.
Now get this picture in your mind. At 9 am Jesus is nailed to the cross. Over the next three hours, between 9 am and noon, Jesus utters His first three powerful, life changing statements;
Father forgive them
Today you will be with Me in Paradise
Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother.
However, at noon, several things happen that reveal why this moment in eternity is so potent.
First, there is the silence. For the next three hours, from noon until 3 pm, the gospels describe a time of silence. For three hours nothing is said; just total silence.
It is a silence that is so loud it can be heard. The kind of silence that has a language all its own.
All of creation was still and silent in awe of what the creator was doing.
The silence was a physical manifestation of what was happening in the spiritual realm because there were no words deep enough or powerful enough to express what was happening at this eternal moment.
And it was in this silence that Jesus pushed up on the nails in His feet and with great cry of anguish He cries out; My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
His cry of being forsaken, were not His last words which would have meant total defeat and hopelessness.
No, His cry came at this divine moment because this was the most important moment of eternity. It was for this moment that He came into the world. It was for this moment that He chose to lay down His life. It was at this moment that Jesus Christ physically and spiritually became the sacrificial Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.
Why does Jesus cry out at this moment on the cross? Why does the Son of God, the eternal King of glory declare with a cry that He has been forsaken by God? Why?
Why would God forsake His only Son and why at this moment?
Why didn’t He forsake Jesus the moment He was nailed to the cross?
Why didn’t He forsake Jesus when He died?
Because at that moment, that very moment, Jesus became sin. The eternal King of heaven and earth has now instantly become sin.
He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The weight of that scripture is impossible to comprehend, but in simple terms, what it means is that Jesus Christ allowed God to place on Him all the sins of the world. That means every sin, including your sins. At this moment on the cross, when Jesus shouts out His cry, it is because at that precise moment, He is suffering the penalty of sin, your sins, my sins and the sins of every person.
You need to hear this and understand it very clearly; it was your sin that caused Jesus to be nailed to the cross and to endure this moment.
Your sin is what this moment is all about.
Your sin is what caused Jesus to cry out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
When Jesus spoke those words, the angels of heaven watched in silence and the demons rejoiced.
When Jesus spoke those words, the floodgates of God’s righteous judgment that was meant for you and me was poured out upon Jesus as the atoning sacrifice of sin.
When Jesus spoke those words, at that very moment He was paying the price so that you and I could spend eternity in His Eternal Kingdom.
If Jesus Christ is the Son of God, why would God forsake Him? If He is perfect and sinless and the eternal King of kings, why would God forsake Him?
If God’s love for His Son is so great, why would He allow Him to become sin?
The answer is in Psalms 22:3-5
But you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
Our ancestors trusted in you;
they trusted, and you rescued them.
They cried to you and were set free;
they trusted in you and were not disgraced.
Jesus took upon His body and in His soul the wrath and judgment of God that was meant for us. He who had never known sin, at this moment, became sin and because of your sin and my sin, the holy wrath of God’s full judgment fell upon the shoulders of Jesus.
And this brings us nicely to Jesus fifth statement
After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said, “I’m thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was sitting there; so they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to his mouth.
Of the seven final statements that Jesus spoke from the cross His fifth statement is the shortest and would appear to be the simplest to understand, and yet His words, “I thirst,” are power packed with eternal meaning. His words, “I thirst,” does have an obvious meaning, but when you compare His words with how He lived His life and with the word of God, there is a powerful message here filled with great eternal meaning.
This is fulfilling prophecy from Psalm 22:15
My strength is dried up like baked clay;
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You put me into the dust of death.
and from Psalm 69:21
Instead, they gave me gall for my food,
and for my thirst
they gave me vinegar to drink.
we must not just hear His words on a mental and physical level. The challenge is to look beyond the obvious meaning of His words and that you hear His words with your heart and see their meaning through the eyes of eternity.
When I read this passage, two thoughts immediately grab my attention.
First, I am deeply moved that throughout this entire ordeal, this is the first and only time that Jesus spoke anything about His own personal need, but as we will find out in a few minutes there is far more to it than that.
Second, there is a reason why Jesus said, “I thirst,” and it was not just because He desired a drink of water. There is something here far greater than that.
When Jesus said, “I thirst” I believe He was revealing an eternal message for anyone who is willing to listen.
remember that the Gospels tell us that a darkness deeper than midnight covered the land for three hours. It was during that darkness, that the sins of the whole world were poured out on Jesus as He who knew no sin, literally became sin. At that moment, Jesus experienced what no other has ever experienced.
At that moment, as Jesus became filled with your sins and my sins, God poured out the fullness of His wrath of judgment that was meant for us, and He poured out the full weight of His wrath upon Jesus because He took upon Himself our sins.
It was at that precise moment when Jesus paid the price for your sins that He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”
I believe at that moment Jesus suffered the worst agony that could ever be faced or endured. He experienced the agony of hell and separation from God so we would not have too.
And so in that dreadful darkness Jesus experienced the terror of the soul, when for the first time ever, He was completely separated from the light and presence of God. And when He came out on the other side of the darkness, His soul longed for and thirst for the presence of God. And that is one of the reasons why I think He said, “I thirst.”
There are no words deep enough or powerful enough in any language to describe what Jesus endured for you and I. There are no words in any language that can describe the awful darkness Jesus endured as He was separated from God and took upon Himself the agony of hell that was meant for us.
And when He came out on the other side of that darkness, He did not ask to be rescued from the cross. He did not ask for revenge upon those who had crucified Him. He did not ask for a miracle. Instead, He simply said, “I thirst,” and He said those two simple words because more the one thing that He desired the most, above all things, was the presence of God, the Father.
And that is the most important message that you and I as believers in Christ could ever hear. There is nothing more important on this earth than for you to desire a relationship with God, and that relationship begins when you have an unquenchable thirst for Him.
So when Jesus said, “I thirst,” He wasn’t just asking for a cool drink of water. He was speaking of something far greater. And from His words, we are reminded that it is vitally important that we have an unquenchable thirst for God and to never let go of that thirst.
In Luke 16, Jesus described a place called hell and He described it as a place of torment and thirst. In that parable He described how this man in hell begged with all of his soul for someone to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue;' (Luke 16:24
‘Father Abraham!’ he called out, ‘Have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this flame!’
Among many things, I believe hell is a place of thirst, and I’m not just speaking of a physical thirst. I am speaking of an unquenchable thirst in your soul that is so great that it is impossible to describe in human terms. I am speaking of endless thirst for God that will never be quenched and never be satisfied. I am speaking of a thirst so great that it ravages a man soul and yet will be impossible to quench.
Why will people experience this kind of torture? Because they chose to reject and deny Jesus Christ, the only one who can satisfy the unquenchable thirst in your soul. They chose to reject the true Living Water that endures forever.
The Bible also gives us another point of view. God’s word reveals that in His kingdom, your heart and soul will never again experience that deep longing thirst that cannot be satisfied because in heaven, you will always be in God’s presence and love and in His eternal light that will forever quench your every thirst, physically, emotionally and spiritually for all eternity.
This is exactly why the cross is so important to us.
That’s exactly why we need to hear and understand Jesus two words, “I thirst.”
This is why Jesus endured the suffering of the cross so that we would never have to know the pain and suffering that comes from the thirst of our souls. And because of the cross, He has provided a way for us to drink of the Living Water that completely and forever satisfies our soul.
They will no longer hunger;
they will no longer thirst;
the sun will no longer strike them,
nor will any scorching heat.
For the Lamb who is at the center of the throne
will shepherd them;
he will guide them to springs of the waters of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
This is one of the great last invitations in the word of God.
It is an invitation to anyone and everyone. It is an invitation to come.
It is an invitation to quench the thirst in your soul.
If your soul thirsts for God, He says come.
The question for us is not, do you thirst, because we all thirst. The question is what do you thirst for most in your life?
There are only two things that your heart and soul thirst for.
You either thirst for and long for this world and the things of this world, or you have a heart that is thirsty for Christ and His kingdom. Those are your two choices and you have to decide from which cup you will choose to drink from.
You will either drink from the cup of this world that will never satisfy your soul or you can drink from the cup of Living Water that comes from Jesus Christ. Which cup will you choose?
Like the woman at the well, the water of this world cannot satisfy what your soul longs for, no matter how much of it you drink.
So many try to quench that thirst in their soul with alcohol, and pleasure, or with drugs, and riches, and power, and yet none of these things, no matter how great or attractive they may appear to be, they do not have the power to satisfy and quench that driving thirst in your soul.
Only Jesus Christ can do that. Only Jesus Christ, who is the eternal, living water of life, can quench that burning, unquenchable thirst in your soul.
God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you.
I thirst for you;
my body faints for you
in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.
What is it that you thirst for?
There is no question that you thirst for something, because we all thirst. The eternal
question for you is what do I thirst for most? God or the world.
The altar is open for you to make your choice.