The Lighthouse - A Harbor Of Safety In A Storm Tossed World

A Ray of Hope - Hope is waiting for God to act in spite of insurmountable odds

A Beacon of Truth - Faith is speaking God’s Truth into impossible situations

A Source of Strength – Strength is found by dwelling in God’s presence at His pools of grace.

A Sanctuary of Protection - Safety is found by dwelling under God’s covering.

A House of Healing - Healing comes as we praise the Lord and give him thanks.

Acts 2:42 NASB95

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Who then is the faithful and wise steward who the Lord sets over His house until He returns? Blessed is that servant whom the Lord finds doing so when He returns.

Let us be that faithful and wise steward of the Lord’s House!

“I Thirst”

John 19:28–29

1st Word - Forgiveness / Mercy

2nd Word - Kingdom-Paradise (Heaven) / Grace

3rd Word - Love / Spiritual Family

4th Word - Forsaken / Holy

5th Word - Thirst / Relationship

“I Thirst” Flows Directly Out Of The Last Word, Forsaken

Isaiah 41:17 NASB95

“The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none, And their tongue is parched with thirst; I, the Lord, will answer them Myself, As the God of Israel I will not forsake them.

God says, “I will satisfy their thirst. I will provide the water sought.”

Why? As proof that He has not forsaken them.

But, as we learned last week, in our sin we are forsaken.

So, Jesus, on the cross became all of our sin, and so was forsaken in our place.

Jesus took on our sin and by grace through our faith in His sacrifice for us, gave us His righteousness.

Through His righteousness, we become holy and thus acceptable to God.

Since we are now accepted by God through Jesus, we will not be forsaken.

So, Jesus was forsaken so that we wouldn’t be.

Likewise, Jesus thirsts, so that we could have our thirst quenched.

“I Thirst”

It’s one thing for the people of God to thirst, but it is quite another thing for Jesus to thirst.

Why of all the physical abuses of the cross, is thirst singled out? That is the question I want to tackle today.

A Fulfillment Of Scripture

All Had Been Accomplished

Highlights His Humanity

His Weakness

Highlights His Deity

What He gave up

Desire for restored communion with God

Highlights His Teachings

internally in the book of John.

spiritual thirst and satisfaction through Christ

Highlights His Desire For Us

Heart’s Cry

Desire For Communion With Us

“I Thirst” - Fulfillment of Scripture

To fulfill the Scripture...

What are some of the fulfillments of Scripture?

I mentioned last week that when a rabbi mentioned a verse from a Psalm or any other text out of the Torah, then the rest of the surrounding context would come to mind for the student.

Jesus does this once again with one word: Dipso. I Thirst. Psalm 22:15

Psalm 69:3–4 NASB95

I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched; My eyes fail while I wait for my God. Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies; What I did not steal, I then have to restore.

Psalm 69:17–18 NASB95

And do not hide Your face from Your servant, For I am in distress; answer me quickly. Oh draw near to my soul and redeem it; Ransom me because of my enemies!

Psalm 69:20–21 NASB95

Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick. And I looked for sympathy, but there was none, And for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

But there is more to Jesus’ one word here than just a fulfillment of Psalm 22 or 69. There are other Psalms and fulfillments of some of Jesus’ teachings as well. But we’ll get to those in some of my other points.

“I Thirst” - All Had Been Accomplished

Thirst carries the figurative thought of to desire.

Jesus desired to do the whole will of God.

John 6:38 NASB95

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

John 17:4 NASB95

“I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.

What had just been accomplished?

The Fifth Cup

God’s wrath upon the nations.

We, by nature because of our sin, deserve the wrath of God.

Ephesians 2:1–3 NASB95

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

The Garden of Gethsemane

Father take this cup from me.

Yet not my will, but yours be done.

On the cross, He drank to the dregs the cup of the wrath of God.

So then, “I Thirst” from this angle:

There is no more to drink.

The cup is empty.

I desired to do your will and now it is done.

“I Thirst” - Highlights His Humanity

We see him in the frailty of his human flesh.

Psalm 103:14 NASB95

For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.

Jesus is described as the Man of Sorrows in Is 53.

Weakness - now understands our weakness

Hebrews 4:15–16 NASB95

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

I am about to go the way of mortal man.

“I Thirst” - Highlights His Deity

Jesus was God in the flesh.

Again we see the figurative thought of to desire

Jesus was expressing a desire for communion with God again.

John 17:5 NASB95

“Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

Pleading for His former state.

He left perfection to become imperfection.

He left glory to become inglorious, humiliated, and lowly.

He left infinite existence to become finite.

He left eternity to become temporal.

He left righteousness to become unrighteous.

He left perpetual life to experience death.

“I Thirst” - Highlights His Teachings And The Psalms

This one directly connects to His Deity.

It’s very interesting that John is the only Gospel writer to record this saying of Jesus on the cross.

Why? There are 2 reasons.

Most of Jesus’ teachings relating to thirst are in John’s Gospel.

There is an aching void in our souls for eternal things that we try to fill with temporal, physical things.

And Jesus’s teachings in the Gospel of John reveal that.

Let’s do a quick survey of those teachings

John 4:13 NASB95

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;

As sinful mankind, we try to satisfy our souls by desiring everything, but God.

What is it man longs for? What do we desire and crave?

Wealth, prestige, fame, pleasure, knowledge

But, God created us and He alone can satisfy us.

John 4:14 NASB95

but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

John 6:35 NASB95

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

Our soul thirst is a thirst for spiritual things, which is why natural things cannot quench it.

Psalm 42:1–2 NASB95

As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?

Psalm 63:1 NASB95

O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Those that desire the righteousness of God and seek it, their thirst for it shall be quenched.

Matthew 5:6 NASB95

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Isaiah 55:1 NASB95

“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.

We can come without cost, but it wasn’t without a price.

Jesus paid that price when he took our place on the cross and died as our substitutionary atonement.

Jesus being forsaken on the cross because of our sin put Him in a place of deep spiritual thirst.

The righteous one who now had become unrighteous is thirsting again for His righteousness.

Jesus experienced the depths of spiritual thirst, so that our spiritual thirst could be quenched.

Finally, the blessing, the fullness of the Holy Spirit is also related to thirsting.

John 7:37–39 NASB95

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

As my spirit leaves this body, Holy Spirit fill those who believe and satisfy their spiritual thirst.

Holy Spirit don’t just flow into and dwell with them, flow out of them so that they might help others come to me to satisfy their thirst.

Isaiah 44:3 NASB95

‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants;

What are some of those blessings?

The spiritual sealing of the Holy Spirit

The fruit of the Holy Spirit

The gifts of the Holy Spirit

The power of the Holy Spirit

The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit

“I Thirst” - Highlights His Desire For Us

His Expressed Desire For Communion With Us

In this there is also a sense in which Christ still thirsts even now.

He is yearning for fellowship with His blood bought people.

Jesus thirsts for fellowship with us. Now achieved through the cross.

Revelation 3:20 NASB95

‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

Often used for unbelievers, but it is actually a word to the Church.

Supping is symbolic of communion / fellowship.

A double supping. He dines with us, and we with Him.

He finds in our communion something His heart longs for.

God desires us to desire Him.

The Body and Blood of Christ forever satisfies our thirst.

Altar Call. Are you in fellowship with Jesus?

Have you asked Him to be your Lord and Savior?

Have you wandered away and desire to return to fellowship?

Communion - The Lord’s Table - A Fellowship Meal.

Communion Song: Come As You Are

Communion

Closing Song: The Blessing

Bless the Food.