For those of you who are visiting with us today, we have been considering the words of our Lord that He spoke on the cross. This morning we come to His fifth saying, I am thirsty. So turn with me to Psalm 22 as we read verses 14 through 21, and also John 19 as we read verses 28 to 37. Our focus being verse 28. Psalm 22, once again, a psalm that clearly points forward to our Lord Jesus Christ and the things He suffered during His crucifixion. Beginning at verse 14, hear now the Word of God. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax, it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me, a band of evil men has encircled me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. People stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. But you, O Lord, be not far off. O my strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. Rescue me from the mouth of the lions. Save me from the horns of the wild oxen. And turning over to John chapter 19. Our text tonight also comes from John chapter 19. That will be verse 30. This morning, verse 28, but we'll read beginning at verse 28 through 37. Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty. 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. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, It is finished. With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Now it was the day of preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews 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. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that He tells the truth, and He testifies so that you also may believe. These things happen so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. Not one of his bones will be broken. And as another Scripture says, they will look on the one they have pierced. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior suffered unimaginable and indescribable agonies on the cross as the tortures of hell flooded His soul. But not only His soul, also His body. Yes, as He suffered the torment of hell for the sin and guilt of His people, the mortal flesh of Jesus shared in the agony of the inward spirit. He suffered as the catechism says sin ought to suffer. He suffered extreme, everlasting punishment, and He did so of soul and of body, and He did so in the place of His people. His body, as it were, was broken for you. His blood was shed for you unto a complete remission of all your sins. Now, of course, we are familiar, at least some of us are familiar, with pain. Whether it's the pain of a migraine headache or a severe backache or maybe a stomachache of some sort, and we are familiar with how that physical pain in one of those areas wears us out physically and mentally and simply saps us of our strength. But you see, beloved, even if you know that kind of pain, you cannot begin to imagine how along with the physical torture of the crucifixion, how the spiritual desolation and agony of hell ripped through His physical body. and stripped the Savior of his strength and left him exhausted. Physically speaking, after six hours on the cross, no doubt his blood vessels were almost dried up. He had a dreadful fever raging through his worn and tattered body. And his tongue, as the psalmist says in Psalm 22, was parched and stuck to the roof of his mouth. His lips were swollen and burned like fire. Would he speak again? Well, praise God, we know the truth of that. Yes, we know the answer. But he had not yet asked for anything for himself. His goal was always us and our salvation. Yet at just the right moment, as the text says, later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty. Having satisfied the wrath of God and showing that he himself is the Messiah foretold many times in the Old Testament. As our great high priest prepares to hand himself over to death, he says, I am thirsty. Now, boys and girls, that seems like a simple phrase, doesn't it? We've all said it. Maybe some of you say it every day, many times in the day. Ma, I'm thirsty. It seems so simple, it's something that we can identify with, right? Absolutely not. We cannot begin to identify with the thirst of our Savior. You see, beloved, this is the Savior's expression of agony. As we said last week, He had to be God, true God, in order to bear in His humanity the burden of God's wrath. But we must not forget, beloved, that he felt that burden of God's wrath as well in his humanity, in his physical body. And though that expression of agony was bitter for him to say, it is sweet to the ear of the believer because that expression of agony is proof of his humanity in the first place. It marks the pit of his humiliation. Secondly, the third thing we want to consider this morning is that it is a profession of his hope. First of all, it is proof of His humanity. Now, humanly speaking, we understand the need for water. Even as boys and girls in health class, we are taught that our bodies need water, that our bodies are made up, mostly, of water. We can't do without it. Water satisfies us. It revitalizes us. We can go for a longer time without food, but our bodies need water. Very simply, no water, no life. And maybe even a little bit we can understand the excruciating agony of thirst because there is no greater torment known to man. And I don't speak from experience. But there is no greater torment known to man physically and mentally than slowly suffering and dying from unquenchable thirst. Again, we might think we understand. Oftentimes we are miserable if we go for a short time without a drink of water. We complain, I am so thirsty. I cannot continue to go on. I've got to have a drink. But we don't truly understand the excruciating agony of thirst. One who is truly deprived of water, maybe one who is stuck out in the hot desert without any sort of resources whatsoever, begins to suffer hallucinations of mind and the malfunctions of the body. As the major organs cannot function. They begin to deteriorate. And of course, this is especially true with regard to crucifixion. One of the excruciating agonies of physical crucifixion was thirst. Yet not even the crucifixion, as horrible as it was, can produce the kind of thirst that hell creates. And our Savior suffered both. He suffered both that painful crucifixion coupled with the punishment of hell that tormented both his soul and his body. And beloved, our Savior's thirst, physical thirst, is undeniable proof of his humanity. Throughout his ministry in the Word of God, often he gave undeniable proofs of his divinity in the words that he spoke, in the works that he performed. Even the storms and the wind obeyed Him. But also, there were many undeniable proofs of His humanity. He was born as an infant, wrapped in strips of cloth. He laughed. He cried. He thirsted. In His life, He was physically thirsty. He was like us in every way except for sin, the Bible says. Angels do not get thirsty. Spirits do not get thirsty. God does not thirst. But the man Jesus did. Because as 1 Timothy 3, verse 16 says, He was God manifested in the flesh. He asked the Samaritan woman, you remember, for a drink. He really partook of humanity and all the created needs of human beings. And you remember that He began His ministry with gnawing hunger. He fasted for 40 days, during which time He was tempted by the devil. And here, in a sense, he closes his ministry on the cross with agonizing thirst. But he not only thirsted in his life, he thirsted in his death. His thirst in life was a small beginning of the infinitely more severe thirst that he would suffer in death. Here, the man Jesus thirsted. At the beginning of the crucifixion, he rejected that wine vinegar that the soldier offered him because it was like a sedative that would dull the pain. Maybe the only act of mercy that was shown toward Him. But He rejected it. He would have nothing to do with it. Instead, He gave Himself completely in mind, in body, in spirit, including the physical pain, to the curse of the cross. But now He would drink to fulfill Scripture. Once again, to remind them that He is who He claimed to be. The Messiah for whom they had waited for so long. Now He would drink to refresh Himself for just a moment from the dulling effects of thirst that He might utter His last two sayings before He gave Himself over to death. His saying of triumph, it is finished, that we hope to consider tonight, the Lord willing. And his saying of confidence, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit that we hope to consider on Friday evening. A man by the name of C. Truman Davis wrote, it's a bit of a lengthy quote, so please bear with me. He wrote, a medical doctor provides some of the physical descriptions of what it is like to be crucified, especially in relation to thirst. He writes, as the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through the muscles, nodding them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push oneself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the bloodstream, and the cramps partially subside. Asmonically, he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen. Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins. A deep, crushing pain, deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level. The compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues. The tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain. Jesus gasps. I thirst. now the purpose of that lengthy quote beloved is not that we might focus on his bodily suffering to the exclusion of the suffering in his soul not at all many have done that and our lord would not have us look at him and say poor poor jesus oh how sorry we feel for him but at the same time we cannot separate the two man sinned body and soul man must pay body and soul, and our Savior endured the ravages of hell in both his body and soul, and he did so in the place of his people. Otherwise, we would have. We would have suffered not only as we often think of in our spirit, in our soul, as it were, but with our body as well. And even as we remain in this life, this is to be comforting for you and me because we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses, even our earthly physical weaknesses. So often in our physical struggles, we often think that we have it so bad, no one has it as bad as me or understands what I am going through. For those of you who have had chemotherapy like I have, you know that you're miserable from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. But that doesn't even compare to what our Lord endured. There is suffering in this life. Suffering because of the effects of sin. Maybe because of a personal sin. Could be. But we are called upon to suffer. We will suffer affliction in this life in different ways because of sin in the world. Yet when we do suffer, whether we are lying in a hospital bed not even allowed to have ice chips, or whether we are down with a high fever, with aches and pains, or whatever you might be called upon to endure. You and I are called to gaze upon the cross and be comforted that Jesus knows. He knows. He knows the worst pain you have ever dealt with. He knows your rejection. He knows your loneliness and mental anguish because His was the worst it could ever be. So that ours would never be. He says, I am thirsty. He also understands the preciousness of a few drops of moisture for the body and the touch of relief for the soul. He says, cast all of your burdens on me, beloved. Because of His entire suffering for our salvation, our comfort, is not just for the life to come. Indeed, it is for the life to come, but not just for the life to come. But our comfort is also for this life, that our suffering here is only temporary because the sin which makes that suffering happen has been atoned for by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His expression of agony is not only proof of his humanity, but also in the second place marks the pit of his humiliation. He could not be humbled any lower. We know, we confess the truth of his humiliation when we say that he was born of the Virgin Mary, he suffered under Pontius Pilate, he was crucified, dead and buried, he descended into hell. And as we considered last week, his suffering, he suffered the hell of God on the cross during that deep darkness and he expressed that when he said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In a sense, as we said, a question of astonishment that it was that bad. That it was so terrible. And when he said, I am thirsty, he gave expression to the result of being in the pit. He gave expression to the result of being roasted in the fires of hell. This cry tells us of the intensity and the awful severity of that conflict through which He had just passed, being stripped of all refreshment and all comfort in body and soul. Of being forsaken by God. And being forsaken had an effect on His body, too. Unlike the criminals who were crucified with Him. As Lamentations 1, verse 13 says, From on high He sent fire, sent it down into my bones. He made me desolate, faint all the day long. But we must also rejoice in what we might call the inability of His humiliation. His humiliation, beloved, did not strip Him of His deity. Not even for a second did He stop being God. The God who created the heavens and the earth. The God who scooped out the ocean floor. the God who carved the mighty rivers of the world, even the Nile, the Amazon, the Mississippi. He never stopped being the God who formed the lakes, even the great lakes that we are aware of. He never stopped being the God who determined and still determines the timing and the course of the falling rains. He never stopped being God and He never stopped being the owner of all the resources of heaven and earth, yet he deprived himself of what he had made. Not only could he have called 10,000 angels to come and destroy the world and set them free, but he could have commanded the rain to come at that moment, in that very place, to refresh his whole feverish body. But instead the Creator asked aid from his executioners, from those who should have asked aid of him. Now we know, beloved, that to be thirsty is to be dissatisfied because of a lack of refreshing water. Spiritual thirst is also to be dissatisfied. It's the result of sin, the result of a lack of fellowship with and the comfort of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered that lack of fellowship with and comfort of His Father. And our Savior taught that the torment of hell results in eternal agony. It results in eternal thirst of the lost soul. We see that in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. You remember those two men whose fortunes were reversed from this life to the next life? The rich man who had everything he could ever want, every kind of refreshment or cool drink that he could ever want in this life. had nothing in hell. He was parched. But Lazarus, who had nothing, no refreshment in his life, was completely, totally refreshed in the glory of heaven. And the rich man says, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, my neighbor. Yes, my neighbor. Oh, I know I never was a neighbor to him, but he's my neighbor. Send Lazarus, my neighbor, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. Beloved, the torture of hell on both body and soul is very, very real. Our Savior's expression of agony tells us loud and clear that He descended into and He had gone through the depths of the pit. And not only did that cause unquenchable thirst for His body as He suffered in the lake of fire, but it also caused thirst in His soul for the living God. as He became sin for us, beloved, He was deprived of that living water, that fellowship with His Father. And this was the ultimate pit of deprivation, of His deprivation and humiliation in order that He might become our Redeemer. He is the one to whom the psalmist points in Psalm 69. In verse 3, the psalmist says, I am worn out, calling for help. My throat is parched. My eyes fail looking for my God. The beginning of verse 18, Come near and rescue me. Redeem me because of my foes. You know how I am scorned, disgraced, and shamed. All my enemies are before you. Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless. I looked for sympathy, but there was none. For comforters, but I found none. They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst. Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ revealed his love for you and me and his willingness to suffer the burning thirst of body and soul in order that for his people he might be the everlasting fountain of living water. He experienced the agonies of the damned so that we might be counted among the redeemed. And that's the reason that his expression of agony also in the third place is a profession of his hope. A profession of His hope because of His completed work, knowing that all was now completed. He had endured the wrath and punishment for sin. The debt had been paid. And it was so perfect that though He must still offer His body to death and though He must still rise again, it was as if those things too were already done. He knew already that nothing could keep him in the grave. And his profession of hope is also because of his comfort of victory. See, our hope, boys and girls, when you tell your mom or dad, I'm thirsty, you hope that they'll give you something to drink. That they'll give you some refreshment. They might not. They might say, wait for dinner. I don't want to ruin your appetite. But Christ's hope is not uncertain. He knew that He had fulfilled all that He came to fulfill and therefore in this spirit with confidence He could say, I am thirsty. And God answered that cry physically through His enemies in order to fulfill Scripture. And also He would answer it spiritually as God the Father would once again shine His face upon His Son and receive Him and His work into His favor. our savior's profession of hope was also in his father's approval that he would give his approval as he always had before you remember in the beginning of his ministry at his baptism and also in the middle of his ministry on the mount of transfiguration god the father said this is my beloved son in whom i am well pleased and now after being forsaken by his father with that that perfect love and fellowship with his Father interrupted. And knowing that God's anger was satisfied, Jesus once again was thirsty for the well done, for the I am well pleased of his Father. And his thirst was indeed satisfied in his death as he says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And our Savior's profession of hope also is that which opens the way for his people as his profession is of our hope as well. Our hope in him. Christ's satisfied thirst provides a way for our spiritual thirst to be satisfied. He has opened the way to the well of life. And as he said to the Samaritan woman, whoever drinks of the water that I have to give will never thirst again. And in a sense, we can say that he is still thirsty. He is still thirsty. His thirst is to draw his people to himself. His thirst is for his people and their salvation, and through repentance and faith, his people would receive of the living water and never thirst again. Beloved, Jesus died that second death, that eternal death, before he gave his body over to death. If he hadn't, he could never have said, it is finished. but He died that second death, that eternal death, before giving His body over in order that we might never die that second death. And still today, He thirsts for communion with His people, not because we do Him good, but because He already did us good, the greatest good. And in sincerity and truth, beloved, He calls sinners. He calls sinners to look with a believing eye of faith to His fullness and hold out our emptiness that He might supply it. And that's the truth of the Lord's table, isn't it? That He feeds us till we will no longer ever again be in want. But He will not be satisfied until every last of His elect is gathered in. And we know again that apart from Him there is only one end. And that is to suffer the eternal thirst of hell. But for all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for all who embrace Him by faith and trust in Him and His sacrifice alone, for you, for me, for all who call upon Him, He endured eternal thirst that we might never thirst again. That we might be made perfect in the glory of heaven and enjoy eternal satisfaction in our God and Savior. Refreshment in, the comfort of, and peace with God without end. And until then, beloved, as our living water, He gives His people strength to live confidently in His triumph, refreshed in all circumstances. Because He fills us with His Holy Spirit. He fills us with the knowledge and assurance that all of our needs are met in Him both now and forever. Horatius Bonar wrote it beautifully in these words of one of his hymns, I heard the voice of Jesus say, Behold, I freely give. The living water, thirsty one, stoop down and drink and live. I came to Jesus and I drank of that life-giving stream. My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him. His was eternal thirst. And in Him, ours is sweet communion with God forever. Satisfied thirst for eternity. What a reason to glory in the cross of Christ. The cross. Peace is there that knows no measure. Joys that through all time abide. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we must confess that there are so many things that we don't understand when it comes to Your Word. When it comes to the suffering of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We praise Your name, O Lord, that You have sent the One that we needed, true God, and at the same time, true and righteous man. to accomplish for us that which we so desperately needed, that which we could not even begin to accomplish for ourselves. We praise Your name for such a great salvation. And may we meditate upon that salvation day by day, and through that would You draw us closer to Yourself. Strengthen us and help us, O Lord, that we too might have a heart and have a desire for those who do not yet know You. That Your Word may continue to go forth through those whom You have called to preach the Word in other places and through our efforts as well of support. That Your Word may continue to go forth powerfully and effectively. And that You will continue to build Your church until the day of Christ Jesus. Oh Father, we long for that day. But help us to be patient, even as you are patient, not desiring that any should be lost, but as you continue to bring your elect home once and for all. Hear our prayer, O Lord, for Jesus' sake. And in His name alone we pray. Amen.