WEEK FIVE THIRSTY

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that 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.

John 19:28-29

It is significant that John’s gospel records the words of Jesus, “I am thirsty.” John carries the theme of water and thirst throughout his writing. He also chooses to emphasize God’s sovereignty, control, and victorious death in the crucifixion, connecting Jesus’s thirst to fulfillment of Scripture. We’ll explore all these themes this week.

…when the Lord Jesus says “I thirst,” he is speaking in this case not from his very real mortal weakness, but from his sovereign control of his own mission. This is the Son of God speaking, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Even in the midst of his helpless condition, he is manifestly aware of his divine destiny … The Crucifixion is not an accident, not a mistake, not an unfortunate slip-up. It is the deliberate self-offering of the Good Shepherd (who said “I lay down my life for my sheep; no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord). So when Jesus says “I thirst,” it is to show that he is fulfilling his purpose according to the plan of God from the beginning.. Fleming Rutledge

Pause and ask God what he would have you fast from this week: meals, social media, being critical, television, etc.

PAUSE and acknowledge God’s presence with you. Thank him for seeing you and being with you.

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that 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. John 19:28-29

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?

My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads. “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”

Roaring lions that tear their prey, open their mouths wide against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me … For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. Psalm 22:1-8, 13-19, 24

ASK God what do you want to say to me? What do you want me to see? What do you want me to believe? What do you want me to do?

LISTEN for God’s word to you from Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

OBEY What is God inviting you to? What will you do today to apply this to your life?

WORSHIP JESUS for all he has revealed to you about himself.

PAUSE and acknowledge God’s presence with you. Thank him for seeing you and being with you.

Video: The Water of Life (The Bible Project) - menlo.church/wateroflife

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” John 19:28

(Jesus) sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” She replied, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” The woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” John 4:6-26

ASK God what do you want to say to me? What do you want me to see? What do you want me to believe? What do you want me to do?

LISTEN for God’s word to you from Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

OBEY What is God inviting you to? What will you do today to apply this to your life?

WORSHIP JESUS for all he has revealed to you about himself.

PAUSE and acknowledge God’s presence with you. Thank him for seeing you and being with you.

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that 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. John 19:28-29

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said, “Sir, always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John

6:32-40

ASK God what do you want to say to me? What do you want me to see? What do you want me to believe? What do you want me to do?

LISTEN for God’s word to you from Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

OBEY What is God inviting you to? What will you do today to apply this to your life?

WORSHIP JESUS for all he has revealed to you about himself.

PAUSE and acknowledge God’s presence with you. Thank him for seeing you and being with you.

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” John 19:28-29

At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man (Jesus) they are trying to kill? Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from. Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.” At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?” The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him. Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.” The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:25-39

ASK God what do you want to say to me? What do you want me to see? What do you want me to believe? What do you want me to do?

LISTEN for God’s word to you from Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

OBEY What is God inviting you to? What will you do today to apply this to your life?

WORSHIP JESUS for all he has revealed to you about himself.

PAUSE and acknowledge God’s presence with you. Thank him for seeing you and being with you.

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” John 19:28

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:1-13

ASK God what do you want to say to me? What do you want me to see? What do you want me to believe? What do you want me to do?

LISTEN for God’s word to you from Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

OBEY What is God inviting you to? What will you do today to apply this to your life?

WORSHIP JESUS for all he has revealed to you about himself.

PAUSE and acknowledge God’s presence with you. Thank him for seeing you and being with you.

Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” John 19:28

The next day John (the baptizer) saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”

Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them,’ nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Revelation 7:9-17

ASK God what do you want to say to me? What do you want me to see? What do you want me to believe? What do you want me to do?

LISTEN for God’s word to you from Scripture and the Holy Spirit.

OBEY What is God inviting you to? What will you do today to apply this to your life?

WORSHIP JESUS for all he has revealed to you about himself.

Thirsty: John 19:28-29, John 4:13-14

• What connection do you see between these two passages?

• How does the cross symbolize God’s sacrificial love?

• How does Jesus’s sacrifice and suffering lead us to live for God and others?

• Which passage of scripture was most impactful for you this week?

• What did you sense God saying to you this week?

• Where did you sense God’s invitation to do or stop doing something this week?

• How did something from the devotionals speak into a particular moment of your life this week?