0:1 - Let's pray before we read scripture.
0:4 - Lord God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing and honorable to you, O Lord, our God, our Rock, and our Redeemer.
0:16 - Amen.
0:18 - All right, our reading today comes from the Gospel of John verses 28 and 29.
0:26 - I thought it was more verses than that.
0:28 - Maybe the title just didn't change.
0:30 - Let me just check here for a sec.
0:39 - Later, knowing that everything had now been finished.
0:42 - You got more than just that one slide there, Ian?
0:44 - That's all you got?
0:46 - What's that?
0:48 - Oh, you do?
0:49 - Okay, I think this is right.
0:49 - I think the title just isn't right.
0:52 - Luke 19, 28.
0:58 - Yeah, okay, that's good.
1:0 - This is right, okay.
1:3 - Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty.
1:12 - A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips.
1:25 - When he had received the drink, Jesus said, it is finished.
1:29 - With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
1:34 - Now it was the day of preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath.
1:39 - Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.
1:50 - The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other.
1:57 - But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
2:4 - Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
2:16 - The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.
2:21 - This is John likely talking about himself.
2:24 - He knows that he tells the truth and he testifies so that you also may believe these things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled.
2:34 - Not one of his bones will be broken, and as the other scripture says, they will look on the one they have pierced.
2:45 - There is so much in this text this morning.
2:48 - There's a lot that we're not even going to get to or talk about, and I'm just going to give you one to start.
2:55 - It didn't make it in the...
2:56 - It would have taken too long to talk about it, but I want you to think about, after this message, I want you to think about the significance, or possible significance, of the fact that Jesus' side is pierced and outflows a mixture of blood and water, okay?
3:15 - That'll make more sense by the time we get to the end of the message, and then maybe you can spend some time this week wrestling with what that means.
3:24 - All right, so this week, like every week, I was playing squash, and like most times, I forgot to bring my water bottle, and every time I forget to bring my water bottle, I pay for it.
3:42 - Sure, there is a water fountain at the squash court, but the water just kind of dribbles out and it's cold.
3:48 - I don't like cold water.
3:50 - You can't drink it fast, and being six foot two inches tall, a water fountain is never a comfortable way to hydrate.
3:59 - Maybe some of you can resonate with that.
4:1 - Drinking doubled over at the waist, engaging your core muscles, slurping small quantities of water, like it's just not ideal at all.
4:10 - So when I'm at squash, I often don't drink much water at all.
4:15 - Then I have good intentions to drink water through the rest of the day, but I often then forget my water bottle everywhere I go throughout the rest of the day, and by the time I'm laying in bed, my mouth is dry and the headache is starting to set in.
4:29 - Are you feeling bad for me right now?
4:33 - Probably not, eh?
4:35 - Maybe that's because this is entirely too common and normal of a problem.
4:41 - You're thirsty?
4:42 - Oh, you poor muffin.
4:44 - It happens to everyone and it's pretty regular.
4:49 - Because our bodies are finely tuned machines, a machine that's made up of roughly 60% water.
4:57 - And if that percentage drops even by a small amount, we notice, we feel it.
5:2 - Our body lets us know we get a dry mouth and we get a headache and some brain fog and maybe a lack of energy.
5:9 - And most of us have never experienced thirst that goes beyond those basic symptoms because we live in one of the most economically rich and water rich, for that matter, countries in the entire world.
5:28 - So when we get thirsty, we drink water and in a few hours we feel better.
5:34 - Some of us are more diligent with this than others.
5:37 - Some of us are forgetful.
5:38 - Some of you might be forgetful like me.
5:41 - And others of you have this weird deep seated conviction where you say you don't drink water.
5:47 - You insist that you get water from your milk or your pop or in your coffee.
5:52 - And then there's the select brand of human, the one who brings water with them wherever they go.
6:1 - The one who has a canteen that looks similar to this here.
6:7 - Some have called this the emotional support water bottle.
6:10 - Are any of you this brand of human?
6:12 - Yeah, okay, we got a few people owning it out there.
6:15 - I appreciate that.
6:16 - I know you're out there.
6:17 - I know there's more of you out there.
6:19 - Drinking water is trending these days.
6:24 - And our world today is very different than the world that Jesus lived in 2,000 years ago.
6:32 - They didn't have near the wealth that we have.
6:36 - Like that's a gross understatement, really.
6:40 - And Jesus' words from the Cross that we're focusing on this morning are his words of suffering when he cries out that he is thirsty.
6:53 - And I think it's impossible for us to understand what this must have been like for him.
6:59 - Impossible.
7:0 - We have no concept.
7:4 - It's hard for us to draw alongside of him in his suffering, even while he is drawing alongside of us.
7:15 - Because that's what these words of Christ make very clear.
7:22 - Jesus is alongside all of us, because Jesus is fully human.
7:33 - Like us, Jesus cries.
7:35 - Like us, he bleeds, he feels pain, he felt hungry.
7:40 - He required food and water to survive.
7:45 - We like to imagine the Jesus who calms storms and feeds multitudes, that version of Jesus comes easily to our minds, and we don't often reflect on Jesus the man, the vulnerable skin and bones Jesus who had body odor and needed haircuts.
8:8 - We don't think about Jesus who would get a headache from not drinking enough water or a stomach cramp when he was hungry.
8:18 - And because I don't think that this is enough of an illustration for you to get the reality of the fact that Jesus is like us, we don't often think about the reality of Jesus himself needing to relieve himself after eating and drinking.
8:35 - And right now you're asking yourself, did he just say that out loud in church?
8:43 - Isn't that inappropriate to talk about Jesus and bowel movements?
8:50 - We don't talk like that here.
8:52 - Look at us.
8:53 - We're all dressed up nice and we're all put together.
8:57 - This isn't the time to talk about such things.
9:1 - Don't talk about the bathroom and Jesus.
9:6 - But this is the reality of being human.
9:11 - This is part of our daily experience.
9:16 - I mean, folks, just outside of this room, there are a couple of bathrooms that are regularly visited by you folks.
9:25 - Don't think we all don't know what you're doing in there.
9:31 - Is that embarrassing?
9:33 - No, it's just the reality of being human.
9:36 - Imagine if we thought, well, I can't go in the bathroom at church because people will know what I'm going to be doing in there and I just can't have people thinking about me like that.
9:48 - All right, I guess I could have just mentioned this and then moved on.
9:50 - And now it feels like I'm on a bit of a tangent here, like just keep talking about it.
9:56 - And although this probably feels like a bit of a digression, like why are we talking about this?
10:3 - I think it's important.
10:7 - Let me give you an example.
10:8 - Have you ever met someone who is arrogant?
10:12 - And they think they have all of the answers?
10:15 - Like they have life figured out into these neat little categories?
10:19 - Like maybe they think they're better than everyone else?
10:21 - Like they could solve all the problems?
10:24 - Yeah, we've all met that person, right?
10:27 - And sometimes there's an instinct or an impulse to remind someone like that, that we all use the bathroom the same way.
10:38 - Because we're human and life is messy.
10:43 - Now, I'm not telling you folks this because I see you all as individually guilty of being that person, although I think if we're honest, we know we can be like that at times.
10:54 - But the church, the church collectively is and can be guilty as charged of this.
11:4 - So being reminded of just how human Jesus is, helps us to draw alongside of him with compassion to better understand him as he seeks to draw alongside us.
11:22 - We can't understand his pain and suffering, our pain and suffering, or his desire to love and care for us on the Cross.
11:32 - If we can't first resonate with him as a brother, as a man.
11:45 - So lesson one this morning is this.
11:49 - Jesus is perfectly human.
11:52 - He's like us.
11:54 - And this should help us to be more gracious and more humble.
12:1 - There's another reality, though, that we must rely on with the exact same level of urgency.
12:10 - Jesus is human, yes, but he's not just human.
12:15 - He's not just a victim.
12:19 - He's not totally vulnerable.
12:23 - He's also God.
12:25 - He's also in control.
12:27 - He's on the Cross, but that is a reality that he has accepted and even decided himself.
12:37 - Remember what it says earlier in John's Gospel, Jesus himself says this, The reason my father loves me is that I lay my life down only to take it up again.
12:48 - No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
12:52 - I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.
12:57 - This command I received from my father.
13:2 - So while we can resonate with Jesus being someone like us, he's also the God of everything.
13:10 - He's also the creator of heaven and earth, and he has power to overcome even death.
13:17 - And so this is where I want us to focus now, because Jesus' cry of thirst from the cross, it's not just a desperate man calling out about his circumstances and suffering.
13:29 - It's not just that.
13:32 - And John, the author of this gospel, has been building this story since the beginning of his gospel.
13:42 - It is only in his story, John's story, that we learn that Jesus says, I am thirsty.
13:50 - You don't read that in any of the other gospels.
13:52 - And John is telling us this for more than the obvious reason of just showing Christ's humanity.
13:59 - And it all centers around water.
14:4 - Jesus is craving water.
14:8 - And John's gospel is full of stories about water.
14:14 - Stories that we would not have without the gospel of John.
14:18 - Stories that are only found in his gospel.
14:22 - And I want to take some time to kind of reflect on those stories to see what we can learn from this.
14:28 - All right, so story number one.
14:31 - This comes all the way back from chapter two of John.
14:34 - Jesus is at a wedding in Cana.
14:37 - I preached on this a while ago and focused a lot on the significance of the water.
14:40 - And they're out of wine.
14:42 - It's still early in the party and it's clear that the party goers, they haven't had their thirst quenched and it's a bit of a crisis.
14:49 - And so Jesus provides, he provides a sign of who he is by turning water into wine.
14:57 - And this story is there to show us that Jesus is God.
15:2 - He has the power to bring new things.
15:4 - It's not just about Jesus doing some kind of slick move to rescue the bride and groom.
15:10 - No, this is a sign that Jesus has come to purify and cleanse in a new way.
15:18 - Only in the Gospel of John do we find that story.
15:21 - Okay, number two, it's late at night and it's dark and Jesus has a meeting with a religious leader named Nicodemus.
15:31 - And Nicodemus would rather not have his reputation tarnished because he's showing up to learn from this rogue teacher.
15:41 - And through the conversation, Jesus tells Nicodemus, you must be born again of water and the spirit.
15:49 - And Nicodemus is totally puzzled by this.
15:51 - He's born again, what does this mean?
15:55 - And in this we see that Jesus is calling this teacher of the law to a new identity and reality.
16:1 - Jesus himself is the way, the truth, and the life.
16:4 - And to be born again is to be baptized into the covenant of grace set forward by Jesus Christ himself.
16:12 - Jesus is not just a man who has some good teachings.
16:16 - He is the fulfillment of the law and prophets.
16:19 - He is the exact one that Israel has been longing for.
16:22 - He is the savior and he teaches this to a religious leader through being born again through water and the spirit, only in the Gospel, John.
16:32 - Number three, Jesus is at a well.
16:36 - He has a curious conversation with a Samaritan woman, asks her for a drink and she points out the cultural awkwardness of his request and he says that if she knew who he was, she would ask him for living water and the point here is that Jesus himself is what nourishes the soul and sustains life.
17:0 - In him is the fountain of salvation and rescue and now only God can make a claim like this and then later in the Festival, so that's in John chapter four and in chapter seven at the Festival of Booths, he once again calls himself living water.
17:21 - Another story, Jesus is at the pool of Bethsaida, water that was said to have miraculous healing powers so the lame and injured, they would sit by this pool and they would wait there all day and they hoped that the water would get stirred up and then they would climb in to receive a healing miracle and Jesus approaches a paralyzed man who sat with this unmet need, this unmet hope next to this pool for years and he asserts himself as the water that heals.
17:54 - He's the only one who can bring true restoration and healing the body and the soul comes from Jesus Christ.
18:4 - Only God can offer that.
18:8 - And then again, another story.
18:11 - Jesus is in a room with only his closest friends and students and followers and he wraps a cloth around his waist.
18:18 - He kneels in the dirt with a rag in one hand and a bowl in the other and he grabs the grimy foot of Peter and removes his sandal and sets out to scrub the day's filth from between his toes.
18:33 - Now this is a job for the lowest of the low, not for Jesus, the son of God.
18:38 - So, Peter says, don't, but Jesus insists telling his friends that they must be washed to have part with him.
18:50 - He tells them to serve each other as he's teaching them and they don't understand, but later they will because when they see Christ crucified and raised from the dead, they know that the water used to clean their feet was a sign of the cleansing of their souls offered to them by living water.
19:10 - It's God drawing close.
19:11 - It's this process of sanctification.
19:17 - We have six stories here.
19:19 - We see Jesus interacting with water, teaching the Israelites and their leaders and his followers and friends how he is living water, how he is sent to cleanse, to heal, and to restore.
19:34 - And we would have none of those stories that I just shared with you, if we didn't have the Gospel of John.
19:41 - We wouldn't know about a guy named Nicodemus.
19:43 - We would have never heard of the Samaritan woman.
19:46 - We would not have such practical examples of the sign and seal of baptism, of God's cleansing and claiming.
19:55 - If you read Matthew, Mark, and Luke alone, we today, the church would not talk about Jesus as living water.
20:4 - It's not anywhere else to be found.
20:6 - And today, you would not have ever heard the term born again Christian.
20:12 - This all comes from John.
20:17 - So these words of Jesus, I am thirsty, also only in the Book of John.
20:23 - It's not just a desperate man who's a victim.
20:28 - This is living water needing a drink.
20:34 - This is the provider of life, the one who restores and sustains, is dying and is thirsty.
20:46 - Well, what does that mean?
20:51 - Fully God and fully man, Jesus has taken our place.
20:58 - It should be us suffering for our own sins, punished for the suffering we inflict on ourselves and others, yet it isn't.
21:9 - It's living water that stands in our place.
21:17 - Because that is the way that God rescues.
21:22 - Sin requires a penalty.
21:24 - The offenses of humanity, it requires justice.
21:29 - And because God is perfectly just, he can't just say, ah, it's fine.
21:34 - I'm just going to let it go.
21:36 - So he deals with sin and suffering, but not by punishing us, the ones who deserve it, but by himself going to the Cross to carry our burden.
21:50 - Because when living water thirsts, it's only living water that has the power to meet that need.
22:1 - Christ dies, but he's also the only one who has the power and authority to raise himself again, paying the penalty and winning the war against sin.
22:15 - There's no better picture of Jesus as both God and man than Christ on the Cross, than the living water crying out in thirst.
22:30 - And so in a second, we're gonna pray together.
22:34 - And when we pray, we'll pray to Jesus.
22:39 - I think we often pray to God, especially when we struggle.
22:45 - We want the healing power of God Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, to come down and rescue and restore.
22:54 - And maybe we picture a distant God who rules from far away, maybe God the Father, the one who's hard to picture, the one who's maybe harder to understand.
23:10 - Some of us might feel like God is very far away, like God is controlling this cosmic universe, creating order from who knows where.
23:22 - But when we pray to Jesus, we pray to God who is visible.
23:29 - It's someone we can picture.
23:32 - It's God coming close.
23:35 - He's still creator.
23:36 - He's still powerful.
23:37 - He's still in control, but he's also human.
23:43 - He is God drawing near to us.
23:47 - He is God that understands our struggles and suffering.
23:53 - And he has already shown us that he can and will heal and restore.
24:1 - Let's pray.
24:6 - Dear Jesus, you are not far away.
24:16 - Holy Spirit, you are as close to us as the breath in our lungs.
24:24 - Jesus, thank you so much for choosing to be gracious and merciful in the ways that you, the way that you have.
24:35 - Jesus, it's hard for us to understand what you went through on the Cross.
24:42 - It's hard for us to resonate with you, but you resonate perfectly with us.
24:53 - You know what we're going through.
24:55 - You know the hard things that we're facing day to day, week to week.
25:2 - You know about our broken relationships, our lack of hope, our worry and fear for those that we love and care about, whether they've fallen far from you or whether they've, they're experiencing sickness or pain.
25:20 - God, you know about all of the things that we wrestle with.
25:26 - Jesus, thank you for rescuing us.
25:30 - Or Jesus, we ask that you come back soon, that you restore things to the way that they were meant to be.
25:39 - In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
25:42 - Amen.