Scripture reading
John 19:23-29
Suggested hymns
The old rugged cross Hymn No. 159
At the cross Hymn No. 163
Thought for the day
"Cod help us that we may drink of the pure streams that flow from beneath the throne of God. We can drink, and continue to drink. And, if you thirst for knowledge, there is plenty of it here." E. G. W., 9th Manuscript Release, p. 67.
"Our Redeemer is an inexhaustible fountain. We may drink, and drink again, and ever find a fresh supply. He in whom Christ dwells has within himself the fountain of blessing. . . . From this source he may draw strength and grace sufficient for all his needs." E. G. W., Cod's Amazing Grace, p. 119.
Offering prelude
A man in Travancore, South India, had a coconut grove. When he became a Seventh-day Adventist, he wanted to return the tithe on his coconut trees. He took a brush and a bucket of tar and went through the grove, putting a big cross on each tenth tree.
One of the tenth trees happened to be an unusually small one which had borne no fruit. He hesitated at first to put the cross on this tree, as he felt it would not be right to give the Lord a tree that would yield no fruit. He did mark it, however, and to his surprise, and that of his neighbors, the next year this tree bore as much as any other he had. He felt the Lord had fulfilled His promises to him.
Children's story
A little girl had broken her grandmother's beautiful vase. Her heart was broken, too.
"Oh, Granny," she cried, "can we ever fix it?"
"I think so, dear," grandmother replied. "We will take it to a shop in the city where a man does this sort of work. I believe he can help us."
The vase was taken to an expert who mended glass and china. A short time later it was back with the break scarcely detectable.
"Oh, Granny," "that's just like being a Christian, isnt it? Satan breaks our hearts and lives, but Jesus mends them, and were just as good as new."
God takes these sinful, broken lives of ours, and through the power of His precious blood forgives the past and makes us whole.
Sermon
Jesus thirsted so that we may drink
I. Introduction
At the beginning of His ministry, He began His conversation with a sinful woman of Samaria by asking her, "Give me to drink." He used it as an introduction to talk with her about His kingdom and to give her eternal water. If a person drinks of this eternal water, he will never thirst again.
How significant that Jesus began His ministry by asking for water, and now ends it by asking for water. During the in-between period, however, He has used the figure of speech, thirst, as a theme in many instances. What a great common denominator is thirst, both of the body and of the soul.
II. Jesus suffered many things
Jesus suffered many things How terrible were the enemies of Jesus! During His trial He opened not His mouth, but here on the cross His sufferings are so great that He must speak. See how humanity shines forth in the Savior! He was all God, but He was also all man.
The problem of water has been a perennial one. The classic greeting in all cultures has been to ask for a drink of water and the universal gesture of hospitality has been to give water. Palestine has, in every century, been a dry and thirsty land with few wells. The cry, "I thirst," is always a heart-rending one.
Although this cry, "I thirst," seems mild when compared to the other brutalities inflicted upon Him, in reality, it may have been the greatest. To die of thirst is one of the worst deaths.
Thirst was part of the suffering of our Savior. At the beginning of His ministry, He hungered, being tempted by Satan. Here, at the end, He is thirsty. The devil used every possible means to defeat the Savior by making Him take a shortcut to His Messiahship.
III. Jesus did not shirk His duty
In answer to Jesus' plea, the soldiers gave Him vinegar to drink. When we first read this, we are tempted to suppose, because of the unnatural type of drink offered, that those men intended to insult Jesus. A closer look at oriental historical customs, however, shows that vinegar was the common drink of the Roman army and was most likely to be at hand at the moment.
We read elsewhere that Jesus was offered a drink but He refused it. That was a different situation.They offered Him a medicated potion, wine mingled with myrrh, intended to deaden pain. Jesus refused to meet death in a state of stupefaction.
We may seek to meet pain two ways, through the flesh and through the Spirit. The physician may give us something to deaden pain, but this does not give courage to plant our foot on the serpents head and bear the pain without flinching. Jesus refused because He would conquer sin, not through the flesh, but through the Spirit. Had He escaped from pain and suffering through some kind of medication, He would have not completely borne our sins. The vinegar He received was merely a refreshing draught and did not, in any way, deaden the pain or make Him suffer less for our sins.
IV. Calvary was not a pretty place
The Christmas story is beautiful, but not the message of the cross. Ugly and painful is the story of how Jesus was crucified. The sixty-ninth psalm is certainly a foreshadowing of this dreadful event. Jesus identified with it. When He quoted it, He was saying that He Himself was the very heartbeat of this ancient Hebrew hymn. Jesus identified Himself with all the hope Israel ever had in a Messiah. His cry became a sigh in a dry and thirsty land.
Because Jesus suffered, millions have been blessed with personal salvation and strength for everyday living. Even in His cry for thirst we see Him bearing our sins in His own body on the tree.
He was afflicted in all of our afflictions. Calvary remains as the time of sins victory and yet sins defeat, of God's defeat, and yet God's victory. Sin put Jesus on the cross, but not His sin, rather our sin. God defeated sin once and for all when He raised up Jesus from the dead. But, while it was happening, Calvary was a terrible thing.
V. Conclusion
Do you thirst? Is there deep within you the desire for something better than what you have and to be someone better than you are? If so, God can meet that need. To the Samaritan woman, Jesus said, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14). This is the gift of eternal life. Once we have met the Master, surrendered to Him, and been mastered by Him, life is different. We are no longer "thirsty," because our needs have been met and Cod's Spirit has been placed within our heart.
The message of the cross is that Christ can quench thirst because He once thirsted. He can make alive because He Himself died. In order to give us the living water, Christ passed through "a dry and thirsty land where no water is." We must remember, however, that the Christian life is not an abundance of material things, but rather a realization of spiritual things.
He reminded the Samaritan woman that "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). When He declared to her that He was the Messiah, she received Him and went to town to tell others of her great discovery. You too, will experience this same joy if you will surrender yourself to Him who, even though He thirsted on Calvary, He has the water of eternal life.
VI. Illustration
In 1986 two brothers who lived in a kibbutz near the Sea of Galilee made an incredible discovery. As these two Israeli fishermen monitored their equipment on the beaches of Gennesaret, they noticed something they'd not seen before. Something covered with mud glistened in the sun. Upon examination, the archeologists determined that what the brothers had discovered was a fishing boat dating from the time of Jesus.
The only reason the artifact was discovered was because of a three-year drought, resulting in unusually low water in the lake.
The Bible tells us that in times of spiritual dryness, God may uncover something of fabulous value within, His presence (2 Cor. 4:7-12).
See: Job 23:10; 2 Cor. 4:17; Heb. 12:11.
Natanael Pereira Bruno writes from Guayaquil, Ecuador.
