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[0:00] John chapter 19 verses 28-30. We're not going to cover all of that. Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, to fulfill the scripture, I thirst.

[0:37] A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and brought and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

[0:53] And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. That is the word of the Lord of glory. You may be seated.

[1:09] Allow me just to, in one sense, take a few minutes with you in the word to set the stage, really, for the rest of the message, which will be next week.

[1:23] As we said, this is Reformation Sunday. Sunday. Reformation Day is October 31st. On that day, in 1517, the Protestant Reformation began.

[1:40] It was a rediscovery of the gospel in a real sense. The Roman church of that day, the Roman Catholic church of that day taught salvation by faith plus works.

[1:59] The works could be acts of contrition. Things like penance. It could be acts of good works or whatever. But it was salvation by faith plus works.

[2:15] And it's still true. The Council of Trent has not been repealed. This is still the basic teaching of the Roman Catholic church. We're Protestants. Protestants protested that understanding.

[2:29] People like Martin Luther led the way. And returning us to the biblical teaching that salvation is by faith alone.

[2:41] Apart from our works. Apart from what you do. Even apart from your faith. Your faith is not a work. It is a gift. It brought us back to the true nature of the gospel.

[2:56] That it is faith alone in Christ alone. Nothing else and no one else. That's full stop.

[3:08] And so the Reformation brought that home to us. And it continues to be a needed doctrine today. Today, we're always looking to add our works to our salvation.

[3:23] We're always looking. We seem to can't help ourselves. That we can't believe that God saves us by his grace.

[3:34] Grace alone. Through faith alone. In Christ alone. We always want to add plus what I do. It's the nature of our fallen humanity.

[3:48] That we want to save ourselves in some way. But we can't. And we are at a wonderful place in scripture.

[4:03] Where this teaching comes out so well. When Jesus said. It. Is. Finished. Now what did he mean by that?

[4:16] Well let's get into that. Just a little bit today. I'm not. Though I would love to keep it to. To 1.30. 12.30ish. But. I won't do that. If this was resurrected Baptist church.

[4:28] I could do that. Because Eddie Jacks. Preaches for an hour every Sunday. Anyway. I preached here this past Wednesday. Anyway. First of all. Let's. Let's. Let's look at this.

[4:39] The king. Thirsted. To complete. His mission. Now you saw that. We read it. In verse 28. This is.

[4:49] Now. John. Is. As it were. Revealing what Jesus was thinking. After Jesus. After this. Jesus. Knowing. That all was now finished.

[5:01] Said to fulfill the scriptures. I thirst. A jar full of sour wine. Stood there. So that they put a sponge full of. The sour wine. On a hyssop branch. And held it to his.

[5:13] Mouth. Now keep in mind. After our Lord. Makes sure. That his mother was taken care of. We saw this earlier. He now senses. As he's hung there on the cross.

[5:24] For a few hours. He now senses. That all has been accomplished. First. It's striking. That John records. It is finished twice.

[5:35] In this passage. He says. Jesus knew. It was finished. John. By despair. Records. What the Lord thought. He knew. He had done.

[5:45] All that the father. Asked him. And he had done it. Perfectly. He had kept. All of God's law. Never. Never failing. In thought. Word.

[5:55] Or deed. He had preached. The gospel. Of the kingdom. Of God. Displaying. Its presence. And power. In his own life. In ministry.

[6:06] Because he's the king. Of the kingdom. He had won. The hearts. Of many. Especially the poor. Given them. Hope in God. And in him.

[6:16] As their Messiah. He has suffered. The hatred. Of those who lived. For their own glory. Culminating. In this execution.

[6:27] Now. On the cross. And now. Knowing he had done everything. He utters these interesting words. He just says.

[6:38] I thirst. His thirst would have been a great. It would have been a horrible thirst. A body wracking. Type of thirst.

[6:50] Due to the heat. Dehydration. And the pain. His body is in shock. It's seizing up. And the blood loss.

[7:04] Oh the blood loss. They offer him. It says. Sour wine. That they lifted. To his horribly. Parched.

[7:16] Cut. And bleeding lips. They lifted. On a branch of hyssop. Now. The fact that they mentioned it. Means. It has to be somewhat important.

[7:28] Why even mention it? Who cares? How they got it to his mouth. But John did. John. For some reason. Cared. That we know.

[7:39] That it was a branch. Of hyssop. First of all. Let's go back to the wine. It wasn't the good stuff. They didn't. They didn't. They didn't offer him champagne.

[7:51] They didn't offer him. You know. One of my favorite. Dessert wines. They offered him. Something that was diluted. And. And. And. Basically. The kind of drink. That they would drink.

[8:01] As soldiers. Or people working. In the fields. It was not the good stuff. It was inexpensive. And it wasn't tasty. It. It. It. It. So they dip.

[8:16] This. Hyssop branch. Hyssop was a bushy plant. That generally grew. In the arid. Rocky places. Such as walls. It wasn't. It wasn't even a nice plant.

[8:29] Something you just find. In a wall. Crap. And just. Or in a crack. And just. Pick it up. Kind of bushy. And branchy. And they. They dipped it into the wine. And they held it up.

[8:40] Remember he's. He's being crucified. So they got to get up. I don't know if they stood on something or not. How he was. But they get it up to his lips. But Hyssop was. Had a very prominent place.

[8:53] In the old covenant. This little. Dingy. Dingy. Frail. Little branch. Had a very prominent place. In old testament.

[9:03] Teaching. It was. Mentioned. At the Passover. The first Passover. When God has said. I'm going to. I'm done. This is it.

[9:15] The final plague. Is coming upon Egypt. And now. Since they have not listened to me. I will bring them down. You. You will release my people.

[9:26] And he says. The firstborn. Of all the land. Will perish. Of human and animal. Will perish. But you. My people. If you would do what I say.

[9:38] You will be safe. Kill a lamb. Pour out the blood. Take a branch of hyssop. Stick it into the blood.

[9:50] And paint your door frames. With the hyssop. The hyssop. Held the blood. That was spread.

[10:00] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And now. The lamb of God. Now the lamb of God.

[10:10] Who takes away the sin of the world. The final sacrifice. The sacrifice. To which all the other sacrifices. Pointed.

[10:20] Right. Right. The one who is the temple. That the. The temple. Built in the old covenant. Pointed to him. Who is the place. Where we meet God.

[10:32] Yes. Now. His blood. Will drip on the hyssop. Because when they lifted the blood up to his lips.

[10:43] The hyssop up to his lips. You know what happened. Right. His blood got on it. Right. He's bleeding. It's pouring off of him. So when they put the branch to his lips. I know.

[10:54] That some of his blood. Had to get on the hyssop. It's there.

[11:07] So that now. We might be sprinkled. With the hyssop of his blood. Upon our souls. That we might be cleansed.

[11:18] Forever from our sins. I don't know if any of you have ever finished a difficult task. I'm assuming it's true.

[11:31] And we heard about our brothers working in Jamaica in the heat of the day. My wife and I have been in Jamaica in the heat of the day. Working with kids.

[11:42] Kids. I'd rather work on the house. Those kids knew he killed us. Was that Montego Bay area?

[11:53] Flankers? Yeah. Montego Bay area. And these kids. Every time I said line up. A fight broke out. I'm serious. Because they all wanted to be first. Sounds familiar.

[12:04] Don't it? We all want to be first. And working out there. Now he. Every. I never. Every day. I'd be out there. With those kids in the heat.

[12:15] Chasing them down. We even go in the building. And sometimes we didn't have AC in the building. Some places didn't have AC. So. Sometimes we were hot in the building. Some places did have it. But sometimes. So. I would go back to our place.

[12:26] Every. Single. Day. We were there for a week. After. Eight hours. With those wonderful. Beautiful. Children. I'd drag myself back.

[12:36] Like this. I mean really. Like this. I'd go upstairs to my room. Strip. That's not a good sight. Don't think about that. Put on my.

[12:47] Put on my swim shorts. Walk. We were near the beach. Walk across the beach. Float. In the hot water. It wasn't even refreshing.

[13:00] I could only take 15 minutes. And I would come back. Get dressed again. Go into the kitchen. Get a large cup of ice.

[13:14] And a bottle of ting. Ting. Ting. Is my favorite Jamaican drink. Ting. Is the ting. It's like a soda pop.

[13:25] I pour a tall glass of ting. Sit down in a chair. Talk to no one. Don't look at me.

[13:36] And I just sit there and sit. Trying to recover from the exhaustion and the heat of the work. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.

[13:54] Exhausted. Says give me something to drink. Can you see the humanity here? And the glory of our Savior.

[14:07] I thirst. And he sips. And when he's finished drinking. His work is completed.

[14:21] He's worked all day as it were. He's worked for 33 years or so of his life. Every day a fight. Especially the last three.

[14:33] As he engaged physically and spiritually against the forces of darkness. To win our right to salvation. To win righteousness for us.

[14:47] And now he's been tortured and executed and crucified. He has fought the good fight. He has finished the race. He has kept the faith.

[14:58] In ways that we can't even begin to comprehend. And he says. I'm thirsty now.

[15:12] And he takes to sip. And he says. It's done. Mission accomplished. And he gives up his spirit.

[15:26] And now his blood. Can be sprinkled upon us. That we might be made clean.

[15:41] He thirsted. So that our thirst. Might be satisfied. You see. Because we thirst too. Life is difficult.

[15:54] And we work all day. And we get beat up. And we have joys. Don't get me wrong. There are beautiful times. In life. Praise God. Respites.

[16:05] But life still has some difficulty. And all humanity is hurting. And tired. And worn out.

[16:17] Because we're seeking to be our own saviors. And it's impossible. And we as the people of God. Are fighting the fight every day.

[16:28] And yet. And we thirst. We all thirst. But where do we go to get a drink? Where do you go? Every day.

[16:40] Where do you go to find something that will soothe your parched soul? Where do you go to find a moment of satisfaction and respite?

[16:52] Because I want to tell you. A bottle of Tang won't do it. Where do you go? Christians. Where do you go? The world is telling you where to drink.

[17:05] The world is always telling. The culture is always telling us. This is what will satisfy you. This is what will satisfy you. More sex. More people in your life. More notoriety.

[17:17] No. More prosperity. More whatever. It's always telling you. This is what will do it for you. And if you drink.

[17:30] From that stuff. Our culture is offering you. You'll always be thirsty. And sometimes it's downright poison. Amen. Amen.

[17:41] Amen. He thirsted that you may satisfy your thirst in him. Faith in him. Trust in him. Life in him.

[17:51] Every day we get up. We say, Lord, satisfy me with yourself. With your love. Satisfy me with your love. In the day and the night. Satisfy me with your reality.

[18:04] Satisfy me with your presence. Satisfy me with joy in you. Satisfy me with knowing that I'm not alone. Amen. That you're with me always.

[18:17] To the end of the age. So where do you go to satisfy your thirst? Will you go to him who thirsted for you?

[18:27] Or will you go somewhere else? I'm reminding of a story I heard years ago.

[18:40] Guy was traversing in the desert. Sahara desert. He was in one of those jeep things, you know. He's rolling through.

[18:50] So. So. He ran out of gas. I mean, really. You'd think he would have been better prepared.

[19:00] But I think there was a leak. He runs out of gas in the middle of the desert. And so he's out there. And he's trying to get in the shade. He's hoping somebody will come by. And he's in the shade.

[19:12] Trying to get in the shade of the truck. You know. Trying to find any place to keep cool as best he can during the day. At night, you know, it gets very cold. So now he's going back and forth. But here's the thing.

[19:23] Here's what really got him. After five days or so. What got him was the thirst. He's thirsty. He is. He is so thirsty.

[19:35] That he goes to the radiator. And drinks the stuff in the radiator. That's how thirsty this guy got. Now you must understand that the stuff in your radiator is poison.

[19:51] But if you get thirsty enough. If you get thirsty enough, you'll drink anything. Anything wet. Anything wet that will satisfy your thirst.

[20:06] Yeah. Are you thirsty? And if you don't satisfy your thirst in Christ, you will drink anything.

[20:19] Right. Amen. Right. Even if it kills you. Amen. So I encourage you. Satisfy your thirst in the one who thirsted for you.

[20:30] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Satisfy your thirst in the one who bled for you. The water that he gives is life.

[20:42] Amen. Amen. Amen. The cleansing that he gives is new life. New life from the dead. Father, thank you for your word and thank you for allowing us to see Jesus and hear Jesus.

[20:59] In such a brief passage, there's so much there. Oh, Lord. Help us to satisfy our thirst day after day, week after week, even today in Jesus.

[21:09] And Father, if there's anyone here who's been satisfying their thirst in the world's cesspools, in the world's poison, Father, help them to see that Jesus can truly satisfy their thirst and help them to come to him now in faith alone, in Christ alone, knowing that he died, that he might cleanse us, cleanse all who believe in him, and give us new life in him.

[21:34]  Bring them to faith and help us, your people, to come to you.