I Am Thirsty!

Series: “When Love Speaks: Words from the Cross”

Part 2

"I Am Thirsty!"

Pastor Jerry

------------------------------------- Message Synopsis -------------------------------------

Your body is about sixty percent water. Which means if you’re about a hundred fifty pounds – kind of like me – then how much water are you carrying around in your body? You cannot live without water. We know that when you are dehydrated you get muscle cramps and headaches. It is the number one cause of fatigue and why you get tired is you don’t get enough water in your system. Your body cannot function well without water. If you’ve ever had surgery you might agree with me that one of the worst parts of surgery is when they won’t give you water. The words Jesus said from the cross in this series “When Love Speaks”…is simply: “I Am thirsty.” He’s not just saying, I’m thirsty, physically. There are other things that are involved here. John 19 says “Later after this, Jesus knew everything had been completed.” After what? After the plan of salvation had been completed and the payment for the sins. Now he says “I Am Thirsty!” That’s a cry from hell. The Bible says there’s a river in heaven… but there’s no water in hell.  When Jesus says, “I Am thirsty.” He was taking hell for us. What I want us to do in this message this morning is three things. I want us to look first, what did it mean to Jesus when he said I Am thirsty? Second, what does it tell us about the thirst of other people? And third, what does it say about your own spiritual thirsts?

THE THIRST OF JESUS

So what do we learn from the thirst of Jesus about Jesus. What does it tell us about him? I. 1st thing we learn about Jesus saying “I Am thirsty” was it shows he really was human. We know that Jesus was God, but Jesus was also human. Some people think he was not human. The Bible says in Philippians 2 “Jesus gave up his place with God and made himself nothing. He was born to be a man and he became a servant.  When he was living as a man, he humbled himself and was fully obedient to God, even when that caused his death on the cross.” When John was writing the gospel of John, there was a group of people who held the idea that Jesus was God but he wasn’t a human being. Now, it’s just as wrong to deny Jesus’ humanity as it is to deny that he is God. Both of them are important. When Jesus declared “I Am thirsty” it shows that Jesus really was human. II. Second, it shows that Jesus really was the promised Savior. The Bible says “So that the Scriptures would come true, Jesus said ‘I am thirsty.’”  What’s he talking about – so that the Scriptures would come true? For years and years, God kept telling the Jews, I’m going to come to earth as the Messiah. Over 380 times, over thousands of years, God tells the Jewish nation in the OT, here’s how you know it’s the true Messiah. He says you’ll know it’s really me when this happens, when He says this, when He does that. For Jesus to be who He claimed to be He would have to fulfill every one of those 380 prophecies. And actually he did. The probability (mathematic) of one person fulfilling 380 different predictions, completely, predicted over 1,000s years, is astronomical. Jesus is hanging on the cross and there is one last prophecy that has not been fulfilled. It’s this, a prophecy in the book of Psalms talking about the Messiah says he will be given vinegar to drink. In Psalms 69:21 it says, “When I was thirsty they offered me vinegar.”   III.  Third, it shows how much he really loves me.  Jesus loves reveals He was willing to suffer, to thirst for me in order that I might go to heaven. Jesus had done nothing wrong. He had never sinned. Yet He’s willing to die for me. The Bible says in Romans 5: “God demonstrates his love for us [in other words he proves it] in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”   Jesus on the cross going through hell so you don’t have to. He is covering you from the punishment, from the flames, from the pain. It shows how much he loves you.

THE THIRST OF OTHERS

We can quench the thirst of Christ by helping others who are thirsty. Love in action is when we meet the needs of other people in their thirstiness. Many people are spiritually thirsty. Nobody is ever going to say to you, I’m spiritually thirsty. They will say, I’m bored – I’m unhappy – I’m unsatisfied – my life feels empty. These are symptoms of spiritual thirst. People want God. They’re looking all over for it and not knowing how to find it. In the book of Amos it says this “… People will be hungry, but not for bread; they will be thirsty, but not for water. They will hunger and thirst for a message from the Lord.”  What is our responsibility as believers to these people, to the world? Let me give you three truths.    A.  I serve Jesus by serving others. The only way you can serve God is by serving other people. Jesus talked about this. Here’s what he says in Matthew 25 “’Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you?  Or Lord when did we ever see you thirsty and gave you something to drink?’  And he [God] will say to them ‘I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers you were doing it for me.’”  We serve God by serving others. We quench Jesus’ thirst, by quenching the thirst of other people.    B.  The second truth we learn is that God notices the smallest service. A lot of times we think, “I want to do something great for God.”  God says, no; don’t do something great for me. Just do something! Because the small things are all around you every day. It’s not the size of your service that matters. It’s the amount of love you put into it. Matthew 10:42 “If you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.” A CoB initiative is the Pure Water Project. We’re building wells around the world. This is what being a Christian is all about. Showing love in practical ways. Helping people in need when they’re thirsty – physically, spiritually and in any other way. There are thirsty people all around you.    C.  The Most Christ-like service is to enemies. When I serve Jesus, I serve him by serving others. He takes notice of the smallest service.  And the most Christ-like service is actually to people I least feel like helping out. Jesus said it like this “If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they’re thirsty give them water to drink.”  Jesus said give enemies something to drink. That’s what it means to be my follower. He says you show love to the very enemies that don’t like you.

YOUR SPIRITUAL THIRST

Let me wrap this up by talking about your spiritual thirst. What do we learn from Jesus’ word “I thirst” about you? About satisfying your spiritual thirst?  If you feel unsatisfied with your life and you want to live a fulfilled, satisfied, meaningful life – you’re going to have to do 3 things.

1. One is realize what I’m really thirsty for.

Because what I really need is God. Nothing else can fill that emptiness. Nobody can meet the needs in your life more than God can. Psalm 63 “O God, you are my God, and I long for you.... my soul is thirsty for you.” And as long as you’re looking to other things – they’re called idols, you’re putting those things in the place of God – what you’re really thirsty for is a relationship with God. Only God can fully satisfy you.

2. The second thing you need to know: I need to realize that Jesus understands my pain.

The Bible says in Isaiah 53:4-5 “He took our suffering on himself and felt our pain for us… He was wounded for the wrong we did and crushed for the evil we did.  The punishment [which he took] which made us well, was given to him, and we are healed because of his wounds.” Have you gone through despair because of all the pressures in your life? He knows that. We have a Savior who understands what we go through because he was one of us.

3. The third thing. You need to stop looking for satisfaction elsewhere.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 2 “My people have done two evils: [one] They have turned away from me, [God] the spring of living water. And [two] they have dug their own wells, which are broken wells that cannot hold water.” God says not only have you rejected me and not looked to me to meet all your needs and satisfy your life; you’re going out there trying to meet it on your own. You’re trying to find satisfaction in life without God. Here’s what Jesus said, John 7 “… Jesus stood and shouted this to the crowds, ‘If you’re thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare rivers of living water will flow out from within you.”   Anytime you put something in the place of God it’s going to make you more thirsty. But Jesus says when you look to me you’ll be permanently satisfied. I’ll put a spring within you. Here’s the question. If you feel unsatisfied with your life, that’s called Spiritual Thirst. You’re spiritually thirsty. And the only one who can quench that thirst is the one who thirsted on the cross so you don’t have to thirst. He paid for what you don’t have to pay for. He became thirsty so you never have to be thirsty again. The amazing thing is He wants to give you living water right now. That’s why the Bible says “…the water I give …takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within … giving …eternal life.”  Are you thirsty? Are you ready to come and take a drink?