All that having been said, I think the method of picking who is to do what was they Took the smallest Saying and gave it to the smallest brain actually Nonetheless Let's read then John a chapter 19 If you're Using your Bible verses 28 through 30
After this Jesus knowing that all things had already been accomplished in order that the scripture might be fulfilled said I am thirsty A jar full of sour wine was standing there so they put a sponge full of sour wine upon a branch of his up and brought it up to his mouth When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine said it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit That's the reading of God's Word. Let us pray
Gracious King We tremble at the thought of Even mentioning Lord the very words that you spoke on the cross as you suffered for us To read in this Lord our very salvation To read in this our eternal destiny to read in this our comfort every day Read in this the hope that we have that we will be different people and that we will walk in love even as you gave yourself in love Lord all of our hopes and dreams and Office bound up in these words and this event and Lord we recognize that the whole history of the world Pivots upon this event and every person's destiny Hinge is upon this Lord give us grace that we will Open this up and that Lord we will hear your word that we will be encouraged by your word That it will have its good and strong effect in our lives to make us like Christ and to cause us Lord to seek your face every day and to seek you in every circumstance and to earnestly desire Lord bless us. We expect you to bless us Lord because we now you've given your word to enrich us and To feed us and nourish us. We look for you to do that. Thank you in Jesus' name. We pray amen
While perhaps you're at your best here in the first couple of minutes I want to deal with a few kind of housekeeping items in this Text that is to talk about a few details that may interest you just to Get some of the facts out in the open one real interesting thing that is often lost in the translation Is that the very word that Jesus speaks in verse 30 it is finished to tell us die in the Greek is also in the first verse verse 28 So if we read it correctly to bring this out we would say this after this Jesus knowing that Everything is finished in order that the scripture might be filled fulfilled set on thirsty and then when you receive the wine said It is finished. So that's lost a lot of times to realize that knowing it is finished the very word Then he took the head it is finished. See that's the sweep of this test and so the very act of the very statement I'm thirsty is caught between these two statements that he knew it and then he Said that it is finished and therefore some people think that the reason he said I am thirsty was to prepare himself For this final declaration and then to give himself up to God So that it would be knowing that everything is finished. He asked for wine. He drew himself up and said it is finished That's oftentimes not seen in just the way the translation occurs though the giving of the wine is an act of kindness not of some might think that it was Something I mean done to him earlier. There was a mean giving of wine a Mocking giving but apparently in the all of the three hours of his suffering and just seeing the demeanor of the Lord Jesus This was given out of compassion to him The branch is probably a fairly short branch the cross was probably not as high as you think this head just a little bit higher than a normal head and and he Was given this sour wine which really was a refreshing wine it was used by soldiers in battle in other places it quints thirst They thought even better than water Now here's another little question that has to be asked of the text and that is this little phrase in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled now You could read it two ways it could belong to what comes before or belong to what comes after So you could read it this way knowing that all things that every yeah, I'm sorry knowing that all things had already been accomplished in order to move He says so that It was not made in order to fulfill scripture But it was a part of what is being said he knew that everything had been accomplished So that the scripture was completed and therefore he took wine and said it's finished I lean toward that but another view would simply be that knowing that all things were accomplished then in order to fulfill the scripture said I'm thirsty even at that point. We're not sure if Jesus said I'm thirsty for a specific fulfillment of scripture If this statement in order that the scriptures might be fulfilled is more John saying he said I'm thirsty and it fulfills several passages such as Psalm 22 and Psalm 69 that spoke of the thirst of Messiah and how it was satisfied with sour wine So those are critically important things, but they're just things that you might find a bit interesting As I you know, they surfaced in in the study, but let me focus having introduced a few items there Let me focus on these three points first of all God's sovereign ordination of the cross if you get this From both the statement that all things had been accomplished and Sure was completed both of those words have the idea of something being finished to the end completed a drawn to a total conclusion But this was because of God's ordaining these things to occur For instance in the next book In Acts chapter 4 these statements that I'm sure you've heard before are made about the death of Christ He was delivered over Acts 223 by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God and This man that was delivered over he said you nailed to a cross by the hands of Godless men and put him to death and then in Acts chapter 4 It says in verse 27 there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the People's of Israel to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur So what we're getting when it says that all things were accomplished these are the things that Jesus speaks of saying John 434 in John 536 when he talked about he had to accomplish his father's will he uses the same word I've got to bring to a conclusion Everything that the father has given me to do So the father has ordained these things to take place they were there for written in scripture that they would take place And so he's need to see the whole process before the world began the father planning and because of this the Scriptures predicting exactly what was going to happen and then every bit of that drawing to a complete conclusion to the work of Christ Jesus himself New about these things as he talked about him and we'll talk about this in the next section But he knew that he would depart out of this world and was going to the father He realized that these things were coming to a head and to a conclusion now The point I want to draw from this for our benefit is that God planned This great good to be accomplished by the worst possible evil perpetrated by any group of human beings But God brought forth the greatest good from the greatest evil and of course in those two passages in acts both abroad He was delivered over by the plan and foreknowledge of God, but you To across by godless men and put him to death and all of those Pontius Pilate and here are their mention they did whatever your hand predestined to occur Now I'd like to pour all of that into familiar passages like Romans 828 that all things work together for good Especially do you need that when the worst possible things are happening to you and the meanest people are doing them to you when you think of the word Providence We need to see that in the most positive sense Providence means provision Provision and if you can think of whatever sometimes we think well This is my providence and we've got to endure it. Yeah, we've got to put up with it We've got to strain through it and hopefully we'll get to the other side of this somehow rather than seeing This is God's Provision for me even if the worst possible things are happening to me and the worst possible people are doing them to me Because God did the greatest good for the earth when the greatest evil was being perpetrated He has a plan for your life and even the worst things he will use in the greatest ways in what ways One is that he will draw you to himself. I believe every providence is an opportunity where God opens the doors of his beauty and his Character so that you might enter in to deeper and deeper aspects of his beauty Now if you don't want that as a girl in your life Then God really doesn't have anything to offer you in life You hear what I'm saying if your goal is not the hunger and thirst after God and to know more of him and have his glory Reveal so that you enter deeper and deeper into the beauty of God That's off you in terms of good providence Because that's the great good that he's doing in your life is showing you Himself that's what happens all about is the bit of vision the vision of happiness that you will taste more of God But if that's your goal in life if that's your treasure no more of God Then every circumstance even the worst ones are opportunities are provisions for you to have more of him The other thing one other thing that God does in his providences is provision is to draw you into more intimate communion with one another As we it depend upon one another as we support one another as we share our own sufferings and our own struggles as we share The promises of God with one another as we encourage one another to live out the new life of Christ as we encourage one another to love and good deeds And so so many times painful things draw people into such intimate bonds And you know this in your life when when there is loss in your family How so close that the relationships that are that come from these are so glorious So God is providing he is giving gifts away Every day all the day every hour Surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the day And that means means God is Hounding you and does nothing but good to you all the time And of course the other aspect then this is this is prominent in Romans 828 is that he is conforming us to the image of Christ And that means that you're being made like Christ both in holiness and happiness his joy is becoming a part of your life His peace is becoming a part of your life. His character is becoming a part of your life And in that context all things work together for good because God has planned to conform us to the image of Christ And he will bring us all along the pathway until that final conformity of Christ So you must see and I must see see Well get the vision from what has happened here with Christ that this horrible thing Dunder our Lord Jesus is in fulfillment of the purpose of God. It was accomplishing his will and purpose According to the scripture and so God will act in your life in the same way This is the way he deals with his people to bring about the greatest good when it will not be expected Secondly then though look at Jesus sovereign sacrifice on the cross. It's not only God's ordaining of the cross but Christ's sovereign sacrifice on the cross It says in verse 28 Jesus knowing that all things had already been accomplished Now Apparently and of course all of this is mystery and we we kind of skirt around the edges of it to try to Understand what was happening completely across and we we won't understand everything about it Because God is doing something and we are the spectators to watch God accomplish his salvation But during the three hours of darkness in which Christ cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me? Generally it's understood that he entered into the second death that is the spring of hell itself and That the statement my God my God why have you forsaken me was Christ crying out because he was forsaken because of sin and he was separated from the Father in that regard so No, no words of personally Now in a sense coming out of the darkness into the light the cherished felt presence of his father and And it says then, knowing that all things had already been finished, knowing that it was done, knowing that the suffering, that is the bearing of hell itself, was done. And this shows the sovereignty of our Lord, that He knew the process and knew what had to happen, and then proceeds to receive the wine and then to pronounce on his own before he had to die, it is finished and he gave himself up. He gave himself up. And I know I'm barging in on Liggins, it is finished, but see, I've got to end it's finished, that I've got to talk about too, so I've got to talk about his a little bit. But knowing that it's finished, he says it's finished, and there was nothing else to be done. You see, the suffering of hell was accomplished now, the last part of it, and Jesus actually suffered the second death, that is hell before he suffered the first death, that is the physical death. But now comes the time where he must give his body up and give up his life actively, give away his life, powerfully, sovereignly, end his life by giving it up to the father. It was not taken from him, and that's what we gathered, knowing that things had been finished, he gave himself up and said it is finished. Now, you were called, I'm sure, then, John 10, verse 18, no one talking about his own life. He says, I lay down my life so that I may take it again, no one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative, I have authority to lay it down, I have authority to take it up again, this commandment I received from my father. Now, a lot of times, of course, emphasize, perhaps the majority, that the father raised the son, but there are other passages that emphasize the son raised himself. You know, the misunderstood statement in John 2, tear this temple down, standing in the temple, they assume he's talking about the temple, and I'll raise it up in three days. And of course, they're saying like, it took 46 years to build it, you're going to build it back in three days. You know, that kind of ignorant comment, and of course, he's talking about his own body. But notice, you tear it down, I will rebuild it. And here he says, the authority that I have to lay my life down is the same authority that I have to take it back up again. Nobody takes it from me. I do whatever I want to with my life. And that shows you, Steve, that it is God's initiative, God's active doing to lay down his life. And this whole thing was absolutely in the control of the Son. I love the fact, they're in John, that when the soldiers come to get him, you know, and they say, well, where is Jesus? And he says, I'm here, and what was the response? They're like, hit the death. You know, where is Jesus? He just speaks a word, a little symbol of the awesome power of this one that they're dealing with, this divine being who can speak a word and lay them flat on the back. And it's almost as though Jesus says, let's get this straight. I am running this shut. Okay, let's go. Right? He was in control. As he said to Pontius Polly, he said, you have no authority except that which is given me. He never calved before any of these people. And he said to Peter, of course, legions of angels. We could smoke Jerusalem off the face of the earth if we wanted to. That's not the problem. Power is a problem. Nobody takes my life. I lay it down. This is himself a way for us. And I hope you'll see in that the great love of a sovereign God that could have done anything at all. He could have left us to our own purposes and our own sin. He could have said, you want to leave me fine. Leave me. You don't want to trust me. Okay, don't trust me. But a sovereign God who would take upon himself flesh and lay that flesh down powerfully because he had a zeal for your salvation. Because he had a zeal, as it says in Isaiah 9, the zeal of the Lord will accomplish. And this should encourage you and encourage me that if he had such zeal and power and incentive and absolute control and purposefulness in laying down his life, then he will have that same purposefulness, that same incentive, that same control, to bring about all the riches of his death into my life. He didn't mean to do this just so the death would sit there hanging but that it would accomplish what he wants it to accomplish. So see the sovereign work of Christ on the cross and think of what it means in your life that he sovereignly then administers his cross, his death to you. Let me just touch on a few items of this so that you can be encouraged by this. I think oftentimes we pray in a very negative and hopeless way. We pray oftentimes like a little kid tugging on his mother's skirt. And suppose we're like back in the 50s and you're at the sink and you've got a skirt on it. You wouldn't have a skirt on that. But we're back in the face and you've got a skirt on it. He's just kind of like this. She's on the phone, she's cooking supper, she's washing the dishes and she just wants to get any gets louder and louder. It's like my own son when I would be not consciously ignoring but I would be talking to people after the service you know and people be just talking around this and the other thing. I remember this in Columbus when he was a little kid and he knew how to get my attention. He would finally just holler. Pastor Darwin! Oh yeah excuse me Jason sorry. He also one time when he was at my in-laws and they had done something to flush to him and frustrate him. It wasn't there for him and they were just wanting him to obey and so in dramatic fashion he ran to the door. Of course we were four hours away in Monroe, Louisiana but he went to the door and threw it out. Pastor Darwin come get me! Oh, Claire for the dramatic. You see that is that kind of praying is like the veil worshippers prayers. They didn't figure veil was going to hear him, right? They knew they probably wouldn't and so what did they start doing? They started dancing and making a lot of noise and finally in an effort that maybe if we did this he would get bothered and kind of have some kind of compassion. At least note that something is going on down there and look at it and they start beating themselves in the hopes that maybe if we bleed he would hear us and listen to them. I know we haven't gone that far but sometimes we act that way but please please not expecting anything or just begging for things rather than praying with expectancy. Hebrews 116 means to and I must expect reward from God. We don't mean physical things but the reward of his presence, the reward of intimacy that there's people, the reward of character and the reward of accomplishing his will in this world. But those are the things that we want. It says you have to believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those that seek him. You have to believe that. You have to expect he wants to do me good. He wants to change my life. So what can help us is to realize that just as Christ sovereignly laid himself out on the cross and sovereignly gave himself up for this he sovereignly applies the work of the cross to you. So text like this I'm going to encourage you to pray text like this and I think it's part of what it means to pray in the name of Christ. Praying in the name of Christ is not saying in the name of Jesus at the end of your prayer. You notice no statements in the New Testament. No prayers in New Testament have that phrase. That's not what it means. It means to pray in the light of everything that Jesus is, to pray in his name, to pray in the full realization and enjoyment and trust in everything that Jesus has accomplished. So here's an example in 1 Peter 2.24 it says he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you were healed and it means being healed more. Now, if he died not only that I would give a nice answer but purposes that would be I will die to sin and I will live to righteousness. That can change the tone of your prayers to say Lord Jesus you died so that and you've got your sin laid out. It's the sin of lust or anger or jealousy or bitterness toward a husband or wife or blowing up at your church whatever it is and you take that sin out and say Lord Jesus you died so that I would die to this sin. Oh Lord, I pray apply your work powerfully to my heart and just as deliberately and sovereignly as he laid himself out, surely. Obviously he is going to accomplish the result of that or to bring about the results of his death. He didn't die just to leave that death there but to sovereignly accomplish it and then sovereignly apply it in the lives of his people so that they would be regularly dying to sin and living to righteousness so that their moral lives would be continually healed and put back together. And so you can pray with expectancy. Here's another passage to use for prayer. I'm sorry, Titus 214 can also be a very convicting passage. He says to gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself of people for his own possession zealous for good deeds. Now it doesn't say here that you'll just do some good deeds as a result of the death of Christ. It says that when his death is applied to you you will have a burning desire to do good and that's not just for a few people with the gift of mercy. It's for every believer the possibility that the potential the real that's why he died. That is the effect of his death. So you need to pray, I need to pray, oh Lord, you died that I would be able to give me the things that lead to that. The Lord show your beauty so that I and seeing you're good to me will want to give away myself as zealously as you gave yourself away and able me to be zealous for good deeds. We see that's just a couple of passages and you can range in all of the statements of Christ's death and apply these things in prayer. Romin 6 for instance when it says in that passage that we died to sin in Christ so that our body that we would no longer be slaves to sin. And when you feel at times I slave to sin to come to this passage and say Lord Jesus you sovereignly laid your stuff down on the cross and I pray in your sovereignty you will apply the result of your death. No longer be a slave to this sin. Lord I expect you will do it. You see you're not ringing from him something that he hadn't thought about or something that he may reluctantly over you know maybe five years he'll get around to. These are the things that he is accomplished for his people to such an extent that Paul says you're to consider yourself dead to sin. You're to consider that the reality of the cross is such that you are dead and to consider yourself alive to God. That's how you would think about yourself and that is absolutely essential if you're going to grow and cross because it's the very beginning of Paul's dealing with sanctification and hellings. You have to think right about who you are and you can do so because the sovereign Christ who laid himself off on the cross is the sovereign Christ who pours his spirit into his people's lives to such powerful ways that Paul can say in Ephesians 3 20 now to him who's able to do exceeding a beyond all that we could ask or think according to the power that works within us. Not just beyond what we can imagine in creation he's able to do beyond what you can imagine inside of you because of the spirit that is in you. So Jesus sovereign sacrifice on the cross and finally then Jesus physical suffering on the cross certainly this is emphasized here you can imagine with all of the bleeding. The fact that he had probably had no fluids all night long bleeding from every place in his body that Jesus had a burning thirst and this is spoken of again and again as people used to describe the crucifixions that their mouths are just dry horrible ovens. It may be it's not that does it now he said it was that he was so at royal hours of being in hell so to speak being under the father's direct punishment as he was separated from the father and it appears perhaps at this point coming out of that awful horrible suffering he even then you know is now settling down to every day kind of horrible physical suffering. You know that that the thirst has come upon him to even realize that he is so horribly thirsty and then of course the other aspect of getting self ready to pronounce that it is it is finished but it underscores the horrible suffering doesn't it doesn't it's not that if he hadn't said this we wouldn't have known that he was physically suffering of course the crucifixion just to speak of the crucifixion. And then the thorns and then the scourging and you can we know anything about these historically we've had enough to understand the horrible physical suffering so this one that said I don't think just to make the point that Jesus was physically suffering but it does at least underscore it and this statement in Psalm 22 and Psalm 69 to Messianic Psalms that speak of the suffering. They're kind of it's it's a kind of emblem of the whole of the suffering spoken of in those those chapters not just the thirst but this represents all the horrible physical suffering that Christ endured on the cross as a final culmination and this this thirstiness was kind of the final death thirstiness so many people have have experienced this perhaps more in the past than now because we generally give people fluids and but before the days of IV this was a common thing that people would have a death thirst as their bodies were giving away and would cry out for water and hear our Lord is doing the same as he is approaching death where there's several things to touch upon in the suffering of Christ. Certainly one is that Christ is presented here then as the suffering servant of the Old Testament this means that when you are called to follow him your fall you're called to follow a suffering servant a king who suffers and that is an offense that was an offense to the Greeks. It was an offense to a stumbling block to the Jews because he hung on a cross and was cursed of God the Old Testament scripture say and you're wanting me to bow down and worship a man who is cursed of God no way and the Romans to say that a man had cried. Their worst death the crucified the death of a common criminal this was no citizen this was just some horrible criminal somewhere that got crucified and you're calling me to worship him to treat him as my savior it was an offense an offense to the Romans and a stumbling block to the Jews. And yet isn't this amazing what offended so many was the very thing that drew so many it's the only thing that really draws us here is God he can do any number of things he might do any number of things to convince us in the Lewis and to turn us and what does he do he presents himself to us as what the suffering servant because who is Jesus he is the revelation of God. He is the word of God he shows us what God is like God humbles himself God lays himself out for his people people himself out and suffers on their back that's who God is. God of love the God who is a servant to his people any wins our heart this offensive death is the very means by which he pierces us as he says in 2nd Corinthians God just like he did in the creation and said let there be light and 2nd Corinthians 460 says he shown in our hearts to see the glory of Christ the beauty of that suffering. The love of God in that suffering and so when you see the love of that God in that suffering then in the words of Hebrews and here he's having to encourage the Hebrews the Jewish people who were wanting to compromise and leave Christ and go back to becoming just Jews and no longer serve Christ because their suffering had been so long. And he urged them to leave the city as he said Christ suffered outside of the city he was rejected and hated and he said let us go out there and bears reproach with him. Let us stand alongside and if we suffer within fine let's adore him and enjoy him and delight in him to that extent that we would identify with him. For his suffering is because he identified with us and he bore our sin his suffering is because of my sin will I not then identify with him as the suffering servant. So the writer of Hebrews urges us let me give you the exact words that he says here Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate so let's go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. And it isn't that well expressed in the very him that we sang where he says oh sacred head what glory what bliss till now was dying yet though despised and glory I joy to call him on the suffering servant and if he suffers will he not identify with you in your suffering. I have in the recent years had some struggle when I will see people suffering in this world maybe a rape situation or children killed by some evil man on the side of the road and I mean I have walked down the hall and I have a crime. And especially when you're thinking of God ordaining and planning a world in which people would suffer. It's so difficult sometimes to get your mind around it but what has helped me more than anything is to know that this God in making the world planned his own suffering. Why would you do that how would you make a world in which you are going to suffer the ultimate pain why would you do that and that has helped me over and over again realize that he entered into it he bore the heart most horrible pain and suffering far more than any human being could ever suffer. And therefore at any point no matter what we suffer and Spurgeon had a cute little thing here he said he suffers thirst that's the common suffering of any man lower higher whatever your situation he has suffered everything such as we and yet without sin and he's able to come to the aid of those that suffer. But the final brief thing just to say about his suffering is that he physically suffered so that you would have an incredible physical blessing in that last day. I've actually begun to adopt the health and wealth gospel except that it's timing is a little off. There is going to be perfect health one day and there is going to be incredible wealth there is a kingdom you are heirs of a kingdom you know sometimes you think of Bill Gates or some other rich guy in a kid might say what would it be like to be his son and I'm going to inherit 30 billion dollars you know what is he what's the interest on that you know just and it's nothing. Compared to being a child of God who promises you honor and glory glory that's not just external to you but glory that becomes you that your body is glorified that you will shine forth as the sun that you will rain that you will judge. That when the rod of iron that crushes the nations it's spoken of you you're so identified with Christ to the church and in revelation to him. And so ours is a kingdom we are people who are our happiness and are willing to emphasize this your physical happiness and pleasure you know when you've worked out or you've done some kind of thing like maybe you've you've raked or you've done some odd kind of thing and you hurt where you didn't know you had muscles you know just like I didn't know there were muscles above my ribs my ribs are killing me God will fill you up in ways that you didn't even know you could be filled. He will open capacities that you don't even know you have to give you joy and pleasure and peace and he did buy here is the one who invited people to come so that their thirst would be slaked and they would have the rivers of living water flowing from within the way he accomplished it was having to say his suffering guarantees the richest spiritual blessings. And the richest physical blessings beyond like any mine could ever conceive and I want to urge you if you don't know this Christ if you don't know this God and have not put yourself under the care of this Christ because it says he who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for a saw how will he not freely give us all things this is a God who convinces you that he is to be trusted and you can put your life in his hands for forgiveness and change and glorious days on into eternity because he has given his son don't ignore him don't ignore him. What a horrible thing to stand before this God one day who had offered you this son for your savior and you said no no I will not have embrace it let us pray oh Lord thank you for your sovereign work your sovereign plan for bringing such good out of such evil thank you Lord Jesus for your active sovereign laying down your life and how I am. Now sovereignly you will bring about the great effects of your death into our lives and how you owe God in the worst circumstances and the most trying difficult things providing the greatest good for your people at all times enable us to believe it and to see it as the pattern was given us even in Christ and no Lord we praise you for suffering for our sake. We would identify with you and say with the him rider Lord we joy to call you our own and we gladly leave the gates and bear your reproach thank you that you identify with us and thank you Lord that your suffering will bring us such eternal good we praise you and honor you in Jesus name.