WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast. 00:00:02.479 --> 00:00:07.040 We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:08.640 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:21.120 This thing. 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:27.120 These things have caught fire, or literally didn't catch fire. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:28.559 I guess that's the point. 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:32.880 They got well Stanley, Stanley cups, right? 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:38.079 Okay, I know some of you are judging me, you're looking at it, you're like, that's not a Stanley Cup, that's a fake. 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:38.719 You're right. 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:41.119 We don't have a Stanley Cup. 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:42.240 Thank you very much. 00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:47.439 Someone last service was like, I have a couple of them, but they were gifts. 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:48.560 Okay, I didn't pay for them. 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:49.359 I'm like, it's fine. 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:50.640 You can own a Stanley Cup. 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:51.520 That's great. 00:00:52.159 --> 00:00:53.200 They caught fire. 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:56.320 They're wildly, uh, wildly popular. 00:00:56.479 --> 00:00:57.200 They caught fire. 00:00:57.280 --> 00:00:58.159 Well, they didn't catch fire. 00:00:58.240 --> 00:01:03.520 That's the story is um a car caught on fire, but this did not. 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:05.680 Well, not this one, you know what I mean. 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:09.280 Uh, and it was the rage. 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:19.439 I mean, it was uh the I don't know what it is about this generation, but one thing we know for sure is you will not be dehydrated. 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:20.000 Okay. 00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:43.280 I mean, you have everyone's carrying, these are heavy, you're gonna have buff arms too, uh, but you're carrying this thing everywhere, they're out of stock, people are waiting in line, camping out, uh, shelves completely annihilated for a stainless steel water container. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:56.079 In fact, uh one article I read said, why in this world of seemingly endless things do we yearn for multiple indestructible drinking vessels? 00:01:56.640 --> 00:01:58.879 That is the question, isn't it? 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:03.519 Um by the way, uh, did anybody does it, did anybody no shame. 00:02:03.920 --> 00:02:04.560 I mean, awesome. 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:06.480 Did you bring your Stanley cup with you? 00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:07.120 Anyone? 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:07.760 No? 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:09.039 How about Hydroflast? 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:11.280 Anybody like, hey, I'm a Hydro Flask? 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:11.919 There you go. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:12.159 Okay. 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:13.520 They're a little bit more bold. 00:02:13.599 --> 00:02:14.159 I don't know why. 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:16.000 They hold up their thing. 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:21.840 We crave things, don't we? 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:32.560 And there's something about scarcity that causes us to um really crave it. 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:34.800 If you got it, I want it. 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:37.120 And not everybody can get it. 00:02:39.120 --> 00:02:56.879 And there's things that happen and come and go that we just crave, that we want, we desire, we we we run after, we pursue, um, we'll wait in lines, endless lines, we'll get up early, we'll camp out, we'll spend our hard-earned cash on because we crave, we desire. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:01.039 Let me ask you, what do you really want? 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:04.240 Not maybe a stainly, maybe you do. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:08.319 Um it's green, by the way, and that was accidental too for St. 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:09.680 Patrick's Day. 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:12.719 Um, but what do you really want? 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:21.039 You know, it's interesting, there's a few times where Jesus is talking, and before he heals someone, he asks him that question. 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:23.520 Like, what do you really want? 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:29.280 At one point he looks at him and says, Do you really want to be well? 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:33.199 Because sometimes we actually don't want to be well. 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:43.840 We are so identifying with our hurt, with our brokenness, with who we are, that that we we love it, we hold on to it, we are not ready to let go of it. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:50.479 But what do you really want? 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:56.080 What is the deep desire of your heart? 00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:15.120 We live in this world and we're distracted by so many things, and we're caught up in running after whatever this is that I don't think we fully take the time, and these are wonderful and nice, but we don't fully take the time to like identify like what my deepest desire actually is. 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:22.959 Because we're chasing, we're running, we're we're thirsting, really. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:26.319 The human experience is we thirst. 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:28.560 We crave. 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:31.120 We're parched. 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:36.399 We thirst for belonging. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:58.399 We long to belong, we thirst for acceptance, we thirst for approval, we we we thirst for meaning and importance, we thirst just for peace life and power or justice. 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:06.639 We thirst for justice, we thirst for the human experience because we just thirst, isn't it? 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:16.000 And the question is, can anyone or anything fully satisfy that soul craving, that thirsting? 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:28.639 And then you step foot here, and maybe a different question: how does a crucified God make any difference in the human experience? 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:41.199 To my thirst, to this craving, this longing that I keep trying to fulfill, but never can quite quench. 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:50.480 We're in the series Savior, we're actually uh looking at Jesus' final statements from the cross. 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:52.560 It's the cross, his pulpit. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:55.360 He he has seven sayings. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:06:00.079 On Easter Sunday, we'll finish out the series with it is finished. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:11.199 On Good Friday, we'll be going through Jesus' saying and unpacking this saying of Jesus where he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:14.800 Today we're looking at just two words. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:31.040 Surprising words, pain-filled words, incredibly powerful for us in our human experience. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:36.720 Where Jesus simply says, I thirst. 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:39.759 I thirst. 00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:47.199 In John chapter 19, we pick up the full story. 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:49.439 Begins this way in verse 28. 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:56.879 Later, later, by the way, later, we don't really fully understand what that means. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:09.920 If you remember Jesus the night right before, right, and midnight mob comes, grabs him, seizes him, he has a complete corrupt trial. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:22.480 He's then brought before the Roman authorities, he's falsely condemned, he's flogged, his back is ripped open, gaping wounds. 00:07:22.959 --> 00:07:30.160 Later means actually at this point, he has been hanging on the cross for about six hours. 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:37.920 You can only imagine, we can only try to imagine the agony, the anguish. 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:51.439 And he says this, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I'm thirsty. 00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:53.680 I thirst. 00:07:54.079 --> 00:08:02.879 A jar of wine, vinegar was there, and so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:07.279 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, It's finished. 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:12.480 With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:20.639 The human experience is we thirst, we crave, we seek fulfillment and belonging and freedom and meaning. 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:32.320 And at the center of Christianity, if you've been around a bit, you you get this, you know this, but but if you haven't, or maybe you've just kind of been around church, you may not realize this. 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:43.440 At the center of Christianity is not a philosophy, it's not a dogma, it's not a set of rules, it's not a sacred script or text, even. 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:50.399 At the center of Christianity is a person, a crucified man. 00:08:51.279 --> 00:08:55.279 At the center of Christianity is Jesus himself. 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:12.399 And in this moment, we see something incredibly profound for our human experience and condition, and the pain and the suffering and the thirsting that we all go through. 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:13.840 Jesus. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:17.759 Jesus is the God who suffers. 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:22.159 Jesus is the God who suffers. 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:30.159 Now okay, let me explain Jesus real quick to you. 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:32.320 You're like, don't we already know this? 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:40.320 Actually, the other day uh I had somebody, a friend of mine, ask me, he's like, so Jesus, and he he grew up in the church. 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:45.360 He grew up kind of in, you know, like going to church and some of these sort of things. 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:49.840 He like, like, okay, when Jesus, do we do we pray to Jesus? 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:51.440 Is Jesus God? 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:54.240 Like, how does God and Jesus work out? 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:56.799 I mean, do we like use Jesus to get to God? 00:09:56.960 --> 00:09:59.519 Like, like, how is all of that? 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:18.799 And in Christianity, we we actually believe in something called the Trinity, that there is uh God, one God that's revealed in three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, fully God, fully distinct. 00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:23.840 And Jesus is God the Son. 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:31.279 He is not just a good man, he's not just a godly man, he's not just an incredible wonder worker and nice teacher. 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:35.440 He was fully and is fully God and fully man. 00:10:35.600 --> 00:10:44.960 He's not like part God and part man, he is fully, completely God and man at the same time. 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:53.600 In the ancient day, around Jesus' time, there was uh a little bit later after Jesus, there was this religion popping up called Gnosticism. 00:10:53.679 --> 00:10:58.720 And Gnosticism fundamentally believes that the spirit is good and the flesh is bad. 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:06.639 And so as Jesus took off, his you know, people began to follow Jesus, uh, Gnosticism came alongside and said, guess what? 00:11:06.799 --> 00:11:13.519 Jesus actually wasn't really human, he was just spiritual because to be physical is bad. 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:19.279 And so there was this uh belief that people were starting to buy into, and they're like, no, no, no, no, no. 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:25.440 Jesus actually is fully human and fully God. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:27.840 Today we flip it. 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:33.279 Today we kind of believe, oh, Jesus is fully man and kind of godlike. 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:43.360 Jesus and the truth and the reality, Jesus is God who suffers. 00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:46.559 There's a there's an old PBS special called The Christian. 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:54.879 It says this Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central focus the suffering and degradation of its God. 00:11:55.360 --> 00:12:04.480 Never in the history of humanity did anyone ever conceive of worshiping a crucified man. 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:17.039 In fact, John Austin Baker says the crucified Jesus is the only accurate picture of God the world has ever seen. 00:12:21.120 --> 00:12:24.559 Philippians 2, 5 and 8 says this about Jesus. 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:34.639 In your relationships with one another, had the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:48.799 Rather, he made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:54.559 This is the Apostle Paul talking about Jesus, this God man. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:01.039 See, God stepped fully into the human condition. 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:03.039 Not partially. 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:09.200 He didn't just kind of dip his toe in it. 00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:14.960 God stepped fully into the human condition, and here's why. 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:24.960 Someone once wrote, he said, A love that does not suffer with the suffering of the beloved is not love at all. 00:13:26.559 --> 00:13:28.480 And as parents, we get this. 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:37.840 When you see your kid in pain, especially you know when they're babies and they're helpless and they can't do anything. 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:47.120 Like you suffer with your kid, and you would do whatever it takes and whatever you could to trade their place, to take their pain. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:52.159 And God says, I've done that. 00:13:52.639 --> 00:14:02.480 I was not content to just be a distant deity that kind of looked at you and stepped back and went, like, oh wow, you really messed this whole thing up, didn't you? 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:07.120 Oh gosh, that looks really bad down there. 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:10.159 But you're getting what you deserve. 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:15.039 You made all these poor decisions, you really ruined this incredible place that I made for you. 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:19.519 Distant, apathetic. 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:25.120 God says, no, no, no. 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:28.639 I suffer. 00:14:29.919 --> 00:14:34.799 Experience the same suffering that you're experiencing. 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:43.759 Which means, see, I need, whether you need it, when you ask, what is your need, what do you really need? 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:45.679 We need a God that suffers. 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:48.559 We need a God that suffered. 00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:55.200 Not just a God out there somewhere, but a God in the middle of the mess with us. 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:02.559 Because Jesus is the God that suffered, and as a result, he's the God who understands. 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:08.240 He actually understands what you're going through. 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:14.399 Not in like that, you know, oh, oh, I can imagine that. 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.039 That sounds so difficult. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:23.679 He understands because he's walked through it. 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:36.960 You know, it says something interesting here that it says a jar of wine vinegar was there, so they sucked it in a sponge and uh put that sponge on a stalk of hyssop plant and lifted it to his lips. 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:40.399 Now, in the ancient day, a sponge was used for two things predominantly. 00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:43.120 Uh, one was for the wealthy to wipe their rear end. 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:45.519 Um, it was it was toilet paper. 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:53.840 The other was for soldiers, they would put it on their head uh and it would keep the sweat uh off of them and it would help keep their head cool. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:16:04.399 So in this moment, Jesus hanging on the cross, surrounded by people who are mocking at him and jeering at him, and he's calling out and crying, think about this. 00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:17.039 This is, I thirst, like the God who created all there is is then experiencing the pain of just unquenchable thirst. 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:27.840 And a soldier takes a sponge filled with his dirty, sweaty mess, dips it in this vinegar-ish thing, and puts it up to his lip. 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:29.759 This is about the size of a cross. 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:31.279 It wasn't that high. 00:16:31.919 --> 00:16:38.559 The last taste that Jesus had on his lips was that. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:43.039 God understands. 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:53.600 Psychologists tell us that understanding is a basic element of intimate uh connection and is what allows us to feel emotionally safe. 00:16:53.759 --> 00:17:01.120 To the extent that we feel accurately and emphatically understood, we can trust and feel close to one another. 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:13.119 Goes on, says it may well be that the feeling that feeling understood is a prerequisite for our other desires to be satisfied, satisfyingly fulfilled. 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:18.160 Jesus, the God who understands. 00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:24.960 He's not like um hijacking the conversation, nothing worse than that. 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:29.599 You begin to tell with somebody like, oh man, this has been so bad. 00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:31.440 Well, let me tell you about me. 00:17:31.680 --> 00:17:34.160 Let me tell you about what I went through. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:36.240 That's not that bad. 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:39.759 He's not giving advice. 00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:44.799 Let me tell you what you should have done, what you need to do. 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:48.319 He's not negating the pain. 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:50.960 He's not, you'll be fine. 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:55.200 He's not giving you, oh, I'm sorry for you. 00:17:57.599 --> 00:17:59.279 He says, I'm with you. 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:04.079 I don't know what it was growing up. 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:08.559 I don't know if it was um, I'm a middle child. 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:15.680 So I had kind of that middle child syndrome of like not really belonging, not feeling like I was apart, uh, maybe overlooked a little bit. 00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:22.240 I don't know if it was when we I was born in Texas and moved to Santa Cruz when I was uh nine. 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:30.000 And then, you know, as this hick kid in Surf City, Santa Cruz, I did not fit at all. 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:34.799 And then I had three schools in four years in that time frame. 00:18:35.279 --> 00:18:41.759 I I'm not exactly sure, but but I distinctly remember as a kid nobody understood me. 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:51.680 I remember feeling that stayed with me far longer than I ever dared wish that I just really didn't belong or fit. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:55.839 I remember we had this dog, his name was Spike, or her name was Spike. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:57.680 I didn't know it was a girl when I named it. 00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:09.119 Um we found we found her uh it was uh at church in Texas, uh it was pouring down the rain, and there's this little shivering dog under a van. 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:12.480 And I'm like, Dad, can we keep this little shivering dog? 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:15.039 We thought it was a puppy, it wasn't. 00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:23.279 Um it was full grown, it was just a mutt terrier, uh, and I named him Spike because it had spiky hair from the water, you know, the rain. 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.039 It just I'm like, Spike. 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:27.680 And so Spike's with me in California. 00:19:27.839 --> 00:19:37.680 I remember sitting in the backyard and just pouring my heart out to that dog. 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:42.240 They don't get me. 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:44.079 They don't understand me. 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:10.480 When we think about the cross, we think of our view of the cross. 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:22.640 But we don't always or often think of Jesus' view from the cross. 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:30.880 Like what he was seeing and what he was experiencing. 00:20:32.960 --> 00:20:37.440 And we know that like while he was on the cross, he was actually quoting Psalms. 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:44.799 By the way, when you're going through life's hells, you need to lean in and hold on to the Psalms. 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:48.400 They are anchors and they are guides for us. 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:51.920 He quotes Psalm 22, it's a messianic psalm. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:59.359 It's a psalm of David that uh he's praying, but also later on began to foreshadow this coming Messiah. 00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:02.559 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:07.680 And many scholars believe he quotes Psalm 69, another messianic psalm. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:13.920 As he's quoting it, you just you can see this is Jesus' view from the cross. 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:21.519 He says, You know how I'm scorned, disgraced, shamed. 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:23.839 All my enemies are before you. 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:28.160 Scorn has broken my heart and left me helpless. 00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:30.880 I looked for sympathy, but there was none. 00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:32.960 For comforters, but I found none. 00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:37.279 I put gall in my phone and gave vinegar for my thirst. 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:39.920 That's what he was fulfilling was this song. 00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:47.920 And the beautiful, powerful, life-changing truth is God understands from the inside of your world. 00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:52.880 From the inside of your experience. 00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:56.960 You know Jesus was a refugee. 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:04.559 You know Jesus lost one of His parents, probably around his teenage years, his father died. 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:07.680 You know, he was falsely accused. 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:10.799 He had a corrupt and unjust trial. 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:13.119 He was betrayed by a close friend. 00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:15.200 He was abandoned by his friends. 00:22:15.359 --> 00:22:18.400 He was beaten and abused and lied. 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:24.000 God understands from the inside of your world. 00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:28.000 Hebrews 4.14 says this. 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:37.599 Therefore, since we have such a great high priest who's ascended into the heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:38.559 And here's why. 00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:43.200 For we don't have a high priest who's unable to empathize with our weakness. 00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:48.400 We don't have a high priest who's like, I don't really get what you're going through. 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:53.279 But we have one who's been tempted in every way just as we are, yet did not sin. 00:22:53.519 --> 00:22:59.359 He even gets what you're going through in the temptations and the internal battles that you're struggling with. 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:13.200 Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:29.839 Like whatever you're walking through, whatever you're going through, whatever you're struggling with, the doubts that are surrounding you, the hurt that has a hold on you, the bitterness that has strangled you, whatever it is, he says, come, come to the throne of grace. 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:33.599 You don't have to pour your heart out to a little dog. 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:37.839 That little dog doesn't even know what you're saying. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:42.240 I love dogs, honestly. 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:45.039 Side note. 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:56.480 When you can pour your heart out to the suffering God who suffered for you and understands everything you're going through. 00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:00.319 And he says, you know what I have? 00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:02.720 Mercy and grace in my hands. 00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:05.599 Mercy and grace. 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:09.039 That's what I'm meeting you with. 00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:12.559 See, we need we need a God who suffered. 00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:17.440 Because we desperately needed a God who understands. 00:24:19.359 --> 00:24:21.039 And it's better than that. 00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:25.519 Because Jesus is the God who fulfills. 00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:36.720 Because we desperately need a God who can do something about the brokenness and the pain and all the things that we're walking through, the human condition. 00:24:36.799 --> 00:24:40.319 We need a God who can do something about the thirst. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:45.359 You notice he said. 00:24:46.079 --> 00:24:50.720 Later, knowing that everything had now been finished. 00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:52.880 We'll talk more about that Easter Sunday. 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:54.000 I can't wait. 00:24:54.319 --> 00:24:57.200 So that scripture would be, read this with me. 00:24:57.920 --> 00:24:58.799 Fulfilled. 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:08.079 Isn't that amazing wherewithal, by the way, that Jesus is on the cross, he's in excruciating pain, and yet he never lost sight of why he was there and what was happening? 00:25:09.440 --> 00:25:11.920 Jesus said, I am thirsty. 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:20.240 And it goes on, a jar under of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked up the sponge in it and sponged on a stalk of the hyssop plant. 00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:23.200 You ready for a little Bible geekiness? 00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:25.759 Hyssop plant. 00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:29.519 You're like, why is John so like specific? 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:32.400 Like, who cares what kind of plant it was? 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:33.279 You know? 00:25:33.759 --> 00:25:35.359 A hyssop plant? 00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:42.079 In fact, there's like all these little Easter eggs in the Gospel of John that are really fun and really fascinating. 00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:46.960 Uh, in fact, like if you want to do one, it's uh charcoal. 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:48.559 Charcoal's really cool. 00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:53.599 So uh Peter denies Jesus three times, and you know where he's standing? 00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:56.079 Around a charcoal fire. 00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:03.519 When Jesus restores Peter, uh, you know where Peter, uh Jesus restores him? 00:26:04.079 --> 00:26:05.279 John's real specific. 00:26:05.440 --> 00:26:07.680 Sitting around a charcoal fire. 00:26:08.079 --> 00:26:19.119 Sitting around in the moment where you had your biggest defeat, your greatest embarrassment, Jesus takes them right back to that moment and says, You're mine. 00:26:19.759 --> 00:26:23.920 And that no longer gets to define the way you see yourself. 00:26:24.079 --> 00:26:27.200 There's all these incredible Easter eggs in the Gospel of John. 00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:29.359 Hyssop plants one of them. 00:26:30.720 --> 00:26:38.640 Much to kind of get it up there, but for a Jewish person, immediately they know what John's talking about. 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:43.599 Hyssop was used for two purposes in ancient Judaism. 00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:48.240 The first was for ritual cleansing, ceremonial cleansing. 00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:55.680 They would take uh the bush side of it, and then whether it was water or blood, and then they would use it to sprinkle all around. 00:26:55.759 --> 00:27:05.680 This word David, after his you know, great sin uh where he, you know, raped Bathsheba, killed her husband, and then he's crying out for mercy. 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:07.759 Psalm 51 is that cry. 00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:12.880 And he says, Cleanse me, O Lord, with hyssop, and I'll be clean. 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:19.920 And the truth is we need somebody to clean up the mess inside of us. 00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:32.640 We try to cover it up, we try to ignore it, we try to distract ourselves and chase after things uh that make us feel fine in the moment, but we need somebody just to clean up here. 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:42.400 And Jesus is the God who fulfills, the God who cleans, the God who purifies. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:51.839 I love how the script psalmist says it, as far as the east is from the west, so have you removed my sin from me. 00:27:55.279 --> 00:28:07.599 The second, the second is even more like um more apparent to the Jewish people. 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:15.599 The day that Jesus is being executed on is the preparation day for the Passover festival. 00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:23.759 It's a festival that the Israelites had uh held ever since they were delivered out of Egypt. 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:28.160 Uh and it goes all the way back, if you want to read it, and it's in Exodus chapter 12. 00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:37.039 Uh, is the people had been in bondage and slavery under the tyranny of Egypt, and Moses is trying to liberate them. 00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:49.519 They're unwilling to negotiate, and eventually it becomes to this point where God says, the destroyer, the angel of death, is gonna pass over the land. 00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:58.160 And as he passes over the land, the firstborn child will die. 00:28:59.920 --> 00:29:17.200 He says, but if you take a hyssop plant, you dip it in blood, you kill a lamb, dip it in blood, and paint it on the sides and the threshold, the destroyer, the angel of death, will pass over your house. 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:21.680 Death will pass over your house. 00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:42.960 And Jesus is the fulfillment of the foreshadowing that we all need death to pass over us, and there is a sacrificial Passover lamb, and he says, I am the ultimate lamb, the deliverer. 00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:46.480 I long to bring deliverance into your life. 00:29:49.839 --> 00:29:52.400 I long to deliver you from that addiction. 00:29:54.480 --> 00:30:01.759 I long to deliver you from that incessant thirst that you keep striving after others' approval. 00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:09.680 I long to deliver you to purpose and meaning in life. 00:30:10.400 --> 00:30:15.039 The human experience is we thirst. 00:30:16.480 --> 00:30:21.920 And in John's gospel, there's actually a lot of talk about water and thirsting. 00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:34.720 The irony of Jesus saying, I thirst, is three other times we'll find in John chapter 4, 6, and chapter 6, and I believe chapter 9, Jesus says, I am the living water. 00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:39.759 Whoever comes to me and drinks of me will never thirst again. 00:30:39.920 --> 00:30:42.880 In fact, the first time is with the woman at the well. 00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:50.400 He's meeting a Samaritan woman who's coming out to draw water from a well to quench her thirst. 00:30:50.480 --> 00:30:52.240 And Jesus is thirsty in that moment. 00:30:52.480 --> 00:30:54.880 He says, Could you give me some water? 00:30:55.119 --> 00:31:05.359 And because they were supposed to be enemies, she begins to give some, you know, playful pushback. 00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:12.480 And Jesus says, If you knew who I am, you would ask me for water. 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:19.119 And I give you water that will satisfy your soul. 00:31:19.279 --> 00:31:23.200 And she's looking at him, going, like, you don't even have a bucket, you don't have a rope. 00:31:23.519 --> 00:31:25.759 How does this thing work? 00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:27.680 And he answered her. 00:31:36.559 --> 00:31:42.319 Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. 00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:46.799 Eternal life doesn't mean just life later after you die, which it does. 00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:55.119 It means life to the full now, like the quenching of your deepest need and thirst now and forevermore. 00:31:56.240 --> 00:31:57.839 North African bishop St. 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:01.200 Augustine of Hippo writes this. 00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:13.920 She first found him thirsting in order that he might drink of her faith. 00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:17.440 And when he was on the cross, he said, I thirst. 00:32:17.839 --> 00:32:24.559 Although they did not give him that for which he was thirsting, for he was thirsting for them. 00:32:25.440 --> 00:32:29.599 Augustine would later on go to say, Our hearts are restless. 00:32:30.160 --> 00:32:35.599 Our hearts are striving until they find the rest in thee. 00:32:39.599 --> 00:32:40.799 What do you need? 00:32:41.680 --> 00:32:45.599 What's the deep longing of your soul? 00:32:47.599 --> 00:32:49.039 We're all thirsty. 00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:52.960 We're all looking for something to satisfy. 00:32:55.359 --> 00:32:59.440 Interesting though is I think a lot of us just have a lot of knockoffs. 00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:03.680 Jeremiah would call it broken cisterns. 00:33:04.640 --> 00:33:11.920 There are things that were intended to hold water, but because there's cracks in them, it just pours through. 00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:15.839 We look for substitutes. 00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:22.319 And we still thirst. 00:33:23.680 --> 00:33:25.200 We still crave. 00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:37.519 I think there's some you've never the belonging, the hope, the purpose, the approval, all the things, the fulfillment, I am it. 00:33:39.599 --> 00:33:41.279 I will satisfy. 00:33:41.920 --> 00:33:46.799 And we're looking after fitting in to fill it. 00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:52.240 We're looking after being successful to fill it. 00:33:52.400 --> 00:33:56.799 We're looking after to date the prettiest guy or girl. 00:33:57.039 --> 00:34:02.559 We're looking after whatever it is. 00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:06.319 And aren't you just tired of being parched? 00:34:08.719 --> 00:34:14.880 And what we kind of do if you're in church world is we go, yeah, I got Jesus, but I got this too. 00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:19.599 Because we're not sure he'll fully satisfy. 00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:30.079 And would you just simply call out to him? 00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:33.920 Where are you disappointed? 00:34:36.719 --> 00:34:38.480 Where are you struggling? 00:34:41.199 --> 00:34:47.840 What's the internal world that you are wrestling with that you haven't even said to anyone out loud? 00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:57.039 The longings, the things that you're like, if I said it, I'm not sure anybody I thirst. 00:35:00.719 --> 00:35:02.320 And what if today? 00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:10.159 What if today you just simply put that one down? 00:35:12.559 --> 00:35:14.960 Instead of pouring your heart out to your dog. 00:35:17.519 --> 00:35:21.599 What if today in this moment you simply come to Jesus and say, I thirst? 00:35:24.480 --> 00:35:25.679 Jesus, I'm thirsty. 00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:28.320 I mean, he said I'm thirsty from the cross. 00:35:28.480 --> 00:35:30.639 The God of the universe said it, you can say it too. 00:35:39.440 --> 00:35:41.360 Gotta pray for my friends. 00:35:46.880 --> 00:36:00.320 And in this moment, for the first time, maybe in a long time or even ever, we're just honest with you and ourselves. 00:36:02.239 --> 00:36:10.800 About the longings and the desires, the thirstings, the craving, the stuff that we have tried that just doesn't really fulfill. 00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:18.239 And we call to you and just say, I thirst Jesus made me. 00:36:18.559 --> 00:36:23.119 You answer that prayer every single time. 00:36:24.480 --> 00:36:26.800 We hope you are blessed by this message. 00:36:26.960 --> 00:36:31.440 Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded. 00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:33.679 And hey, we'd love to connect with you. 00:36:33.840 --> 00:36:39.760 Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.com slash card.