Good Friday

Discover how Jesus’s thirst on the cross is the ultimate answer to our deepest needs.

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Transcript

Brokenness And The Cross

SPEAKER_00 0:04

It's a beautiful song to sing on Good Friday. You have two things that you can focus on, right? You can focus on that which is broken. Or you can focus on that which is put on Jesus on the cross. And I wonder when we look at life right now, how much of our focus is on that which is broken and trying to hide the brokenness? And we forget about what's on the cross. And just think about how much time we spend trying to clean up all the pieces or trying to push them away behind us and hide them so it looks like everything's okay. Life's fine. I got it under control. But really, we're just trying to piece together little broken pieces. And we're not even looking at the big picture, the more important thing in our life. And the more and more we do that, like the more desperate we become. The thirstier we get for significance and purpose and meaning because we've shifted our focus away from Jesus who gives us our purpose, and we focus on the things that are broken that we want to just try to be able to fix. And we just can't do that. And so we get thirstier and we get thirstier and we get thirstier. And there's a bunch of things that Jesus says from the cross. There are seven sayings. And most of the sayings are these huge statements that get reconciled on like a big world stage when he says, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Is the them Adam and Eve thousands of years ago? Is the them the people that have caused them to be stricken, smitten, and afflicted? Is the them that he's talking about, you and me? Is the them people that haven't even been born yet? Yes, all of those, a big, huge world problem Jesus is speaking into. When he says, it is finished. What's the it? Well, maybe this is your first time ever coming to church. And you happen into a Good Friday service. The it? It's this amazing, terrible debt of sin that we've created. The sin is where God has said this is what life is supposed to look like and it's going to be good for you. And we say, no, thank you. I'd rather try to figure out all the pieces of my life by myself. And as much as we're doing that, we end up trying to take other people's pieces to make our life a little bit better. And so, like, we take from them and we take from others, and we create this giant debt that we cannot solve. And because we can't solve that debt, there's a wrath against that, there's punishment for that, for stealing from God. But what Jesus does on that cross is he takes the wrath that was meant for you and for me because of what we've done. And he takes it away from us so that we can't pick up anymore. And with his work on the cross, he says, it is finished. That is, that that payment, that debt has been made, it's been cleared, it's all done. It that's for everybody of all time. This is like a big, huge cosmic resolution to a big problem. But it's really hard to get to those really big, big things if you don't go through something that you and I know. And that's this saying from Jesus on the Christ on the cross. In John 19, 28, he says, I thirst. That's just this this is such a human thing for him to say, but it's so confusing because according to his divinity, this is the same Jesus through which all water was created, and all of humanity was created to be able to consume that water. But now, according to his human nature, in the one person who is Jesus, because you can't separate the divine and the human, he says, I don't have enough of that. I thirst. And so I think it's good here that we connect with Jesus in this thirst. And you'll actually find that this concept of of us thirsting for something runs throughout the true story of the scriptures. And as we look at what's in this story, I think we need to figure out two different things. There are some things that you and I thirst for. And then there's what Jesus thirsts for. So what does it mean when I say I thirst? And what does it mean when Jesus says I thirst? And that's what we're going to walk through tonight. So the story of thirst in the scripture, you can pick it up all throughout the woven, intricate story, the tapestry of the Old Testament. There's a part of the story where God's people were enslaved in Egypt, and then they're made free, and they start following the Lord's command, and they follow Moses. And do the people enjoy that? No. In Exodus chapter 17, they look to Moses and they say, Why'd you bring us out of Egypt to wander in this desert where we will die of thirst? It's not just the story that happens, that's like woven into the Old Testament. It makes its way into the New Testament as well. Jesus in John chapter 4 meets a woman at a well. And she's thirsty, and he needs to drink as well. But he knows that this theme of being thirsty is something that she needs to explore in her life. And so they begin to talk about the Messiah who is to come and how this Messiah, even she knows it's going to be good, even for her. And he says, Maybe you should go and talk to your husband about this. And she then discloses that, like, she had a thirst in her life and she began to fill it with so many other things. Not one husband. But when that didn't fill the need that she had for her thirst, then she had an additional husband, a second one after that, and then a third, and then a fourth, and a fifth. And then the person that she was living with at that moment when Jesus was speaking with her wasn't even her husband. So you can see a woman who was trying her hardest to find purpose and find meaning in life because she thirsted so deeply, she was trying to quench that thirst with another person and another person. And she was still coming up dry. And that's where Jesus meets her and says, I'm the living water. You don't need those men, you need this man. And so I think she's a good example of like when we find someone in the story of Scripture that's trying to quench her thirst with something that actually isn't going to do it, but Jesus has a better way. So I believe there's about five ways that just about all of us try to quench our thirst. And I think on a day like Good Friday, where we are being confronted by our own mortality, confronted by our own sin, convicted by putting Jesus up on this cross. It's good to explore those five things. Because the goal of Good Friday is that whatever it is that you've thirsted for so deeply that it's affected your life, that it's caused your life to fall into a shambles, to broken pieces on the bottom of the floor, those are to be left here. Those were put up on the cross. Those things that have struggled you and burdened you were killed by Jesus 2,000 years ago. So, church, there is no reason why you need to leave this place tonight with the brokenness that you had to come in with. So, how about those five things, those five thirsts that we have? The first one I want to talk about is a thirst for control. It started with the story of Adam and Eve. Satan starts telling the story like, hey, don't you want to be like God? Don't you want to have control over your life? I mean, he's probably not doing it the way that you would want to do it. So if you just go ahead and you eat from that fruit of that tree of knowledge of good and evil, you will be like God. This is how sin comes into the world with our efforts to control our broken lives. And we do it a little bit, right? And sometimes very innocuous ways. We're like, we will control the thermostat. So then we're like, we're not quite God, but like we're God-ish, God adjacent, where we can control the temperature that surrounds us. Not a big deal. But then we control what we watch on TV and we control what we listen to in the car on the radio, and then we control parents, we try to control our children so that they end up how we want them, which may not be how God wants them. How's control going for us as a society? Do you know what the other side of control is? The more you try to exert control, the more anxiety you'll have because you're gonna lose it. So if you ever want to see a diagnosis of how control is going in your life in terms of like pieces, if you ever want to see how control is affecting your life, just look at the high level of anxiety that you have in proportion to the amount of control you're trying to exert, and you will find that control is a giant illusion. You have very little to no control over what happens in this kingdom. Yet we still try because we're thirsty for meaning, thirsty for purpose, to exert as much control as possible in this kingdom. But what is it that Jesus says? He says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all of the rest of these things that you're concerned about, that you have anxiety about, that you want to control, those things will be added to you. And so, how's that thirst for control going? In my life, it is not working out very well. Well, that's not the only thirst that we have. I mean, if the thirst for control isn't working out, then we usually shift to a thirst for pleasure. It's like a temporary excuse out of the anxiety and the difficulty and the struggles and the burden. So, what if we looked at another biblical character? What if we looked at the character of Solomon? Solomon had all the ladies. And when I mean all the ladies, I mean like all the ladies. Bro had 700 wives and 300 concubines. If there was ever a lady's man, it was Solomon. And how did that pursuit of pleasure benefit him? The scriptures say that he would receive annually 666 units of gold every single year through tribute and taxes. That equates to about 25 tons of gold every single year was coming to his treasuries. This guy had fat stacks, he had everything that he wanted. He had money, he had power, he had projects like a beautiful temple, he had ladies, and yet, when you read through the book of Ecclesiastes, he looks on all of those things that maybe we chase, and he says, This is all meaningless. He calls it vanity, he calls it a mist that is here today and gone tomorrow. In other works of Solomon, he says, the man who has money will never have enough. Because somebody who's pursuing pleasure will get it for an instant and chase it for a lifetime. The pursuit of pleasure actually creates more thirst. How's that going for you? What you brought in with your thirst for pleasure, endless scrolling, addictions, the gambling, pornography, drugs, booze, beer. How is that going with putting your life back together? How is that going with like trying to satisfy your search for meaning and purpose? Maybe the shift needs to be away from pleasure and back towards Jesus and his righteousness, because Jesus says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they'll be satisfied. And this is what he says in the Sermon of the Mount. Okay, so thirst for control not working out very well for us, thirst for pleasure not working out very well for us. But there's a third one that's where we like get angry because things aren't working out very well. And we don't want to feel angry because we know that the anger that we are feeling is probably not a righteous anger. And so what are we gonna do? We're gonna have a thirst for justice, yes, but justice without mercy. And as an example, you can see the Pharisees. Jesus in Mark chapter 3 has a man brought to him that has a withered hand. And now, back in this day, if you have any kind of extremity that is not gonna be working very well, two things are gonna happen. One, according to Deuteronomy, you cannot go worship in the temple. But then, two, how are you gonna make a living for yourself? How are you gonna keep yourself alive in your family if you have a withered hand? Well, he comes to Jesus on the Sabbath. The Pharisees are actually the ones who orchestrate this man coming there because they're trying to set Jesus up in a trap. Because they are searching and thirsting after justice without mercy. And so what Mark chapter 3 says is that as soon as Jesus heals this man, the Pharisees leave and begin the plot to kill Jesus. So, how is it going, keyboard warriors? When you put all the Reddit comments on there and you respond to all the Instagram posts, tearing people down, canceling them. Do you feel good afterward? I don't know if anybody actually does. Because if that satisfied that deep need, you'd stop. But because it doesn't satisfy that thirst, we keep typing away. Breaking the eighth commandment that you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, which doesn't only mean you're not supposed to not speak bad about them, it means that you'll actually protect their identity, their reputation, all of these things. And yet, we have this thirst for justice without mercy. And what is it that Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount? He said, Blessed are the merciful, and they'll receive mercy. All right, well, anger didn't help us, control didn't help us, pleasure was too fleeting. Maybe we just need a search for human approval. Like maybe we have this really deep dad wound or mom wound. That's legitimate. Like, please get help for that. Talk to somebody at church, talk to somebody you know who loves Jesus. Let us show you a father who actually cares about you. But that's not what most people do. Most people try to find human approval in the ways that don't help anyone, including yourself. They end up hurting you more and more and more and more. And then you begin to look at yourself, not as the way that Jesus has seen you, as his redeemed child, but you begin to evaluate who you are in your identity based off of your performance. But here's the problem. Once you reach this goal right here, and that thirst you think would be satisfied when you get to be the manager, you're gonna hit that and you're gonna say, that's not enough. There's another rung above. And if I just get to the VP spot, if I get there, I'll do whatever it takes. I will work myself to the bone. I will neglect my family because I want the approval to get to that point where I could say I'm a VP. But you want to know what happens? As soon as you get to that position, you're still thirsty. In fact, you're thirstier because the rest of your life is broken into a million pieces. You're sacrificing yourself for human approval. Do you want to know how many leaders in the faith community during Jesus' day acknowledged who he was, but were so afraid of losing their approval of those who are around him that they didn't say a word when it came to death threats and a death plan for Jesus. No matter how much applause you get, no matter what position you attain, if you're looking for human approval, you're still going to be incredibly thirsty. So maybe it's time to listen to Jesus, who says, Whoever drinks the water that I give will never ever thirst. Well, I don't think you've escaped any of those. I know I haven't escaped any of those, but if you have, maybe this last thirst is the one that you entertain the most, and that is the thirst for escape. Escapism, uh just leaving, walking away from all your responsibilities. Turning to someone you know that's not actually going to help you in the long term, but in the short term, it's gonna help you out a little bit. You give away part of your identity, part of your respect, part of who you are at your core and what you believe. The Old Testament is littered with examples like these. God's people, not trusting in the Lord to care for them. They turn to the Aramaeans, they turn to the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and everyone else, and as long as they uh worship their gods, they're gonna be okay, right? How's escaping going for you? Is that satisfying your thirst for life or meaning or purpose? How about instead of escaping life, you lean into it even more fully? To a Jesus who says to you, Come to me. All of you who are weary and burdened, and I'll give you life. Because that's what he's doing right here. And that's how we can actually move to this last piece. If this question of what do we thirst for is answered with these five things that don't actually help us, what if we ask the question of what does Jesus thirst for when he says, I thirst? Now, yeah, there's a surface level fulfillment of this. In the Psalms, it says that his thirst will be quenched with the hyssop. And so to fulfill all righteousness, yes, he thirsted. But you want to know what he really thirsted for. He didn't thirst for approval or control or pleasure or escape or justice without mercy. The whole point of tonight is he's only got one real thirst. It's you. It's you He sees you trying to clean up your own life. He sees you trying to manage your household empty inside. He sees you breaking your back, time after time, pursuing so many other things. He invites you tonight to just leave that here and come to him. And so if we can say then, I thirst means he thirsts for you, we can then move to it is finished, the whole thirst process, what we're trying to look for, that thirst that we have for sin that's quenched in his blood on the cross, that thirst that we have for separation, like we can do this on our own, God, without you. That's reconciled in his suffering on the cross. That thirst that we have for humanity because of our brokenness, it's satisfied in the fountain of his grace, in the blood that gets shed from the cross. If you leave with anything tonight, it's with the invitation to leave your thirsts here. And know that Jesus thirsts for you. Amen. Amen. Let's close with prayer. Jesus, we call this night Good Friday. But after we hear and see and experience all that you went through for us, we see that this is not good for you. But we call this day Good Friday because it's good for us. It's good for us to lay down our lives, good for us to lay down our burdens. It's good for us to have those ripped from our arms. It's good for us to know that you thirst for us. And now it's good for us to know that from this moment forward we thirst for you.