Pastor Rick Warren continues his enlightening series, The Seven Greatest Words of Love, with a focus on Jesus’s statement “I Thirst.” This phrase goes beyond its literal meaning to reveal Jesus’s dual nature as both fully divine and fully human. Discover the rich symbolism and fulfillments of prophecy embedded in this moment, and learn how it impacts our understanding of suffering, spiritual thirst, and the mission of Christ.
00:00:02 Introduction to The Seven Greatest Words of Love
Thanks for joining us here today on Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope, the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren. Today we continue in a series called The Seven Greatest Words of Love. There are seven words in particular that Jesus spoke during his final hours on the cross that hold the keys for finding fulfillment in your life, relationships, and even your career. Right now, here’s Pastor Rick with part one of a message called The Word of Humanity.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, your body is about 60% water. I don’t know if you knew that. In fact, if you weigh 150 pounds, you’re actually carrying about 12 pounds of water in your body. Some of us are carrying a little bit more than that. But you can’t live without water. In fact, people don’t realize how bad dehydration is for you. When you get dehydrated, you get headaches, you get muscle cramps, your brain just shuts down. Your brain has to have water to think. In fact, most people don’t realize this, the number one cause of fatigue, when you’re fatigued, you need a drink of water. Dehydration is the number one cause of fatigue because you’re not getting enough water and your body runs on water and you become lethargic and you can’t think clearly and it shuts down. If you’ve ever had surgery, You know what I’m talking about when I tell you that the least fun part to me is after the surgery, you know they put that tube down your throat while you’re sleeping and when you wake up from the anesthesia and your throat is sore and your mouth is parched and your lips are dry and they won’t give you anything to drink. They give you a little glycerin swab. He goes, are you kidding me? I want a big gulp. Because when you’re thirsty, you’re thirsty. Now we come to the fifth word of Jesus on the cross. Now the first four words were in the first three hours on the cross. He’s now been on the cross for six hours. Jesus hung on the cross for six hours, which actually isn’t long, because sometimes crucifixion would take days. before somebody would die. It’s a very foul form of torture. But Jesus gave up his body, gave up his life, and he’s in the final moments and in the final seconds of his hanging on the cross, he makes three more statements. And this one I call the word of humanity. It’s simply, the fifth word is, I’m thirsty. And Jesus says this after hanging on the cross for six hours. Now, Jesus said a lot of things in life that only God could say. And we couldn’t say them. But this is something you say all the time. I’m thirsty. I’m thirsty. Everybody says that. I’m thirsty. And so this is what I call the word of humanity. Because anybody could say this one. Not everybody could say, you know, you’re gonna be today with me in paradise. But anybody could say, I’m thirsty. And so this is actually the word of humanity. And actually in the Greek, in the original translation, it’s only one word. It’s dipsao. Dipsao means I’m thirsty. I’m thirsty. Simple word, but literally packed with significance. And we’re going to unpack that today. John 19 tells us the context. John 19, verse 28 and 29. Jesus is hanging on the cross here. It says, after this, we’ll come back to that in a minute. After what? After this, Jesus knew that everything had been completed. So, so that the scriptures would come true, he said, I am thirsty. Now there was a jar full of vinegar there at the foot of the cross. So the soldiers soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a branch of a hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ mouth. Now here’s an interesting thing about this. Here Jesus says at the end of six hours, he says, I’m thirsty. Earlier, actually earlier in the cross, the Roman soldiers had offered him something to drink and he turned it down. So what’s going on here? Why is he doing it? Let me show you a verse on the screen. In Mark 15, 23, it says this. This is after they immediately put him at the cross. The soldiers tried to give Jesus wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he refused it. This is six hours earlier. He refused wine mixed with myrrh to drink. Now, why did Jesus refuse it? Well, because what was in the drink? And it was that wine. that spice called myrrh. Myrrh is a narcotic. Myrrh is a painkiller. And remember when Jesus was born and the wise men came and they brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh? Yeah, and each of those were predicting that he would be a king and he would be a priest and he would die because myrrh was what you gave to people as they were dying in pain. There was no Advil, there was no narcotics, no Vicodin, no Oxycontin or anything else. And so people would mix myrrh, a narcotic, with wine and give it to people who were in pain. Now why in the world would the Roman executioners offer a drug to Jesus hanging on the cross? Well it certainly wasn’t out of humanitarian efforts. They weren’t trying to ease his pain. Here was the real reason. Crucifixion was excruciating. And it often went hours and hours and hours and often days and they had to stay there until the guy died. And often the criminal who was being hung on the cross would scream for hours. They didn’t want to hear the screams. And so they offered Jesus, when they nailed him to the cross, they offer him a drug so he won’t scream. It’s not for his benefit. It’s for their benefit. They just don’t wanna hear Jesus screaming for hours in the agony of the cross. It was long and drawn out. Now why did Jesus refuse it? Because Jesus wanted to feel the full impact of the pain of carrying the sins of mankind. He was not gonna go into dying for the world drugged. He was gonna go into it with his full faculties. He was gonna feel every ounce of physical and emotional pain. So he refuses a drink that is drugged at the beginning. But now at the end, he’s in his final moments. Now he says, I’m thirsty. It says now, notice on your outline, it says after this, circle the after this. After what? Well after he’d finished paying for our sins. After the needs of all humanity had been met. after God’s justice had been satisfied, after the scripture had been fulfilled. He’s paid for the sins of mankind now, and he’s been separated from God. Remember, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We looked at that last week. You know, one of the Christian creeds of classic Christianity says he died, was buried in the ground, went to hell, and then rose again. Well, there’s not really anything in scripture that talks about Jesus going to hell. He didn’t need to go to hell. He went through hell on the cross. And he experienced all the judgment and all the separation from God on the cross, not needing to go to hell, because he experienced it there. Why have you forsaken me? And when he cries out, I thirst, that’s the word of somebody who’s gone through hell. You see, the Bible says that in heaven, there’s a river. The Bible says there’s a river in heaven, but there’s no water in hell. There’s no water in hell. And he’s been going through hell for these many, many hours. And he now knows everything has been completed. And so he says the word of humanity, I thirst. Now what I want to do this weekend is quickly do three things. What does this mean about Jesus? What does this mean about the people around you? And what does it mean to you? What does it mean about Jesus saying I thirst? What does it mean about the people around you who are thirsty spiritually? And what does it tell you about your own spiritual thirst and your hunger for fulfillment and unsatisfaction and cravings in your own life? Let’s look at these three things. First, what do we learn from this statement, when Jesus said I thirst, what do we learn about Jesus? Well, the thirst of Jesus shows us three things. Write these down. You see, by the way, this is the only statement Jesus makes about his pain. Now think about this. Jesus was beaten. He was tortured. They made a crown of thorns and crushed it into his skull and those thorns are going into his head. They spit on him. The Bible says they plucked his beard. The Bible says he was scourged, which means you get whipped 40 times with a cat of nine tails. That’s 360 lacerations on your back before you even go to the cross. His back is a bloody pulp even before he hadn’t even gone to the cross yet. He’s been beaten. He’s been, you know, gone 12 hours without water. He’s dehydrated. He’s had a loss of blood. He hadn’t been to sleep in 24 hours. And so there’s a, why does he say I thirst? Well, there’s a couple reasons. There’s a practical reason, and that is he wanted to have enough energy to say the final words, which are coming up in the next two weeks. He wanted to be able to shout out his last two words. But there’s also a theological reason, and there’s a prophetic reason, and there’s a personal reason. Here are the three reasons. Number one, first thing happens when Jesus says, I thirst, is it showed Jesus was truly human. It showed that Jesus was truly human. Now some people think actually that Jesus was not really human. He was just God with human skin on, but he wasn’t really fully human. Some people think he was like half human and half God. No, he was not half human and half God. He was 100% human and 100% God at the same time. And so he fully experienced the pain. The Bible says this in Philippians chapter two. Jesus gave up his place with God and he made himself nothing. He was born to be a man and he became a servant. And when he was living as a man, he humbled himself and was fully obedient to God, even when that caused his death on the cross. Now this word, I thirst, counters a false belief. In ancient times, it was called docetism. And docetism was the idea that Jesus’ body was just an illusion. That he wasn’t really a man and the doset comes from the Greek word which means to seem. He appeared to be a human being but he wasn’t really a human being because God would never become a man. And that idea was called dosetism. Well, this is obviously disproving because Jesus was a man with real thirst, real desires. Now, today, nobody even hears about docetism. But there’s another belief that believes that Jesus, that God would never become a man. It’s called Islam. Anybody heard of that one? Yeah, Islam teaches the same truth as docetism. In fact, let me read it to you from the Koran. Quote, Surah 4, 1, 20, 57. Quote, this is from the Koran. They say, indeed, we have killed the Messiah Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah. But they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him. But it was another person who was made to resemble him to them. and indeed those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following assumption, and they did not kill him, that’s for certain. That’s what the Koran says. The Koran does not, Koran believes that Jesus existed, and they believe he was a prophet, but they do not believe that God would ever become a human being, and God would never die on a cross. So they say that when the cross happened, that they switched bodies. And somebody, a fake, took Jesus’ place. That’s what Islam believes. 2,000 years ago, it was called docetism. Today, it’s one of the beliefs of Islam. But Jesus clearly was human being. He says, I thirst, I thirst. If he wasn’t fully man, he couldn’t have died. If he wasn’t fully man, he couldn’t have gotten thirsty. You say, well, God can’t die. Well, God can’t die, but a human being can die. What I’m trying to teach you is this. It’s just as wrong to deny Jesus humanity as it is to deny Jesus divinity. Does that make sense? Jesus was both fully God and he was fully man at the same time. So it shows that Jesus was human. Second thing we learn from this phrase, I thirst, is it showed he was the promised savior. It showed that he was the promised savior. In verse 28, John 19 says, so that the scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty. What’s that all about? In the Old Testament, for thousands of years, God had been telling humanity, I’m gonna send a savior. I’m gonna send a messiah. I’m going to send the anointed one. I’m gonna send the savior of the world. And in those thousands of years, and they’re all in the Old Testament, there are over 380 predictions about what the Messiah would be, and what he would do, where he’d be born, and all these different things. 380 predictions. And this was so people would know, this is the guy. Because there were lots of people who claimed to be the son of God, but how did you know it really was him? Well, there were 380 prophecies, and you had to fulfill every one of them. For instance, you know that the Bible says he would be born in Bethlehem. It’s kind of hard to pick your birthplace. He had no control over that. They said he would be taken to Egypt as a young baby, and he was. They said that he will be raised in Nazareth. The prophecy said he’ll do miracles. He’ll raise the dead. There were prophecies in the Old Testament that say he’ll be betrayed by a friend. He’ll be falsely accused, but he’ll be innocent. And then there’s prophecies that he’ll be hung on a cross. Now, here’s a problem. That prediction in the Bible was a thousand years before the Romans invented crucifixion. Nobody had even heard of it. What’s a cross? And so for hundreds of years, nobody would even know what that meant. but it was predicted he will die on a cross. They said the torturers will gamble for his clothes, which they did. They said his bones will not be broken, which they weren’t. Why would he say that? Because often, to hasten a person’s death on the cross, they would nail your hands against the cross, bend your knees a little bit, and nail your feet to the cross, because in this position, you can breathe in, but you can’t breathe out. So you have to pull yourself up to stand up on your feet that are nailed across to breathe out. And you hold that position until you can’t stand it anymore and then you let yourself down again. And then you hold it until the pain in your lungs is unbearable and you stand up again. And the death on the cross was up and down and up and down and often took hours. It was a vile form of torture. When the Romans wanted to end it quickly, they’d break the legs because you couldn’t stand up anymore and you’d suffocate. But Jesus didn’t have any bones broken because he died sooner than they expected him to die. The Bible says he will be buried in a rich man’s tomb that’s never been used, which is true. And he will come back to life three days later. That’s the hard one. And he did. Now, at this point, Jesus is dying on the cross. There’s still a couple of prophecies or predictions to be fulfilled. And one of them was he’ll say in his dying moments, I’m thirsty. I’m thirsty. And so that’s just another sign. But there’s an interesting little thing here that you may not know about that I need to explain to you. And we’ll come to it in a minute on how they used the hyssop. Notice a thousand years before, Psalm 69, look at this on the screen. He says, when I was thirsty, they offered me vinegar. That would be one of the predictions. What in the world is a jar of vinegar doing at an execution site? Isn’t that kind of a wild, out of the way prediction? He’ll be given vinegar to drink in his final moments? What is that jar of vinegar doing there? Well, let me explain it to you. They didn’t understand that thousands of years earlier, but what Jesus was offered by the soldiers was commonly known as Posca, P-O-S-C-A, Posca. Posca was the drink of poor people for 300 years in the Roman Empire. The Greeks drank it and the Romans drank it. And what Posca was is it was sour wine, wine that had gone spoiled, and they would mix it with herbs and water, and they would drink it. It was the common canteen drink of the Roman Legion. Now, it was a very popular drink because it was cheap, and it was a standard canteen drink, as I said, in Greece and Rome. And people liked it for a couple reasons. One, it used wine that had gone bad. Wine that had gone sour, that had spoiled, was turning acidic and vinegary, they would dilute it with water, and they would put herbs in it. And there are actually some benefits to this. The sourness hid the bad taste of water. Because water wasn’t as purified as the kind of water we drink today. And that sourness actually quenched thirst for a soldier better than water did. Because it had that sleeking thing to it. And there were actually other benefits they didn’t know at the time. But there were actually the acid and the impasta killed harmful bacterias inside of you. Now they didn’t know that then, but we know it now. Now here’s the important part. It says that when Jesus says, I thirst, they took a hyssop stick, they put a sponge on it, they dipped it in the pasca, this vinegary water, and they hold it to his lips so he can slake his thirst and cool his parched lips. What is the significance of a hyssop stick? Any Jew standing around the cross would know the meaning of that. Because 1500 years earlier, When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and they had the Passover night. And remember, all the firstborn were going to die in Egypt. And God said, I want you to take a lamb and I want you to go and I want you to spread the blood on the doors of every Jewish family. And then we’ll pass over. That’s where the word Passover comes from. We’ll pass over these homes and they’ll go free and they won’t be touched by the death and the destruction. And in Exodus 12, this is 1500 years earlier, here’s what it says. God tells Moses, and Moses tells the people, take a branch of the hyssop plant, same plant, dip it into the bowl filled with blood, and then wipe the blood on the sides and top of the door frames, and that’s a symbol, this is not an Egyptian family, this is a Jewish family, this is a believing family, they’re the ones that are going free. And they get passed over from the death and destruction. Now, when the Roman soldiers do this, they don’t have any idea the symbolism that’s going on. But they take the same hyssop stick, dip it in the water, and when they hold it to Jesus’ mouth, every Jew around the cross knew what that meant. It was a fulfillment. It was another symbol. It was another metaphor that the Passover lamb who saved the lives many years before because of its blood, Jesus’ blood was going to save them. with a very powerful symbol. So through these two words, I thirst, tibsao, we know Jesus is truly a man. And second, we know Jesus is truly God. He’s the Messiah. He’s the anointed one. He’s the one that all these 380 predictions, even that one comes down to being fulfilled in the last seconds. But there’s a third one. This is important. It shows how much Jesus loves me. It shows how much Jesus loves me. That Jesus Christ would go through all of this pain for me is an amazing thing.
SPEAKER 01 :
That was such an encouraging message from Pastor Rick. And now to encourage us more, here’s Rick with a letter from one of our listeners.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hi everybody, today I wanna share with you a special testimony from Delia. Delia says that Daily Hope has helped her with deep anxiety. But then she also shared about what happened as she began to share Daily Hope with her parents. And she writes this, Pastor Rick, a couple years ago, I found myself pretty lost. My company had a merger and all the senior management were changed overnight and I was among them. At the same time, my long-term relationship ended. Then a couple months later, my father was diagnosed with colon cancer. I was in shock and I fell into a deep depression from all these changes. In fact, every day I experienced a panic attack. But then I found your teaching on Daily Hope. And it just seemed that you understood every emotion that I was going through, emotions that I didn’t even know how to verbalize to other people. but it was Daily Hope that helped me get out of bed every morning and gave me the strength to get through each day. Through your teaching on Daily Hope, Pastor Rick, I was able to experience God’s love and power like never before. You know, I even translated the Daily Hope devotional for my parents who don’t speak English. And they accepted Jesus too. That’s amazing, Delia. I am so grateful for you and the team at Daily Hope because it has become the morning routine that I can’t live without. Now, Delia, you have been through more pain than I can possibly imagine. Some very, very challenging times. And I’m sorry. I really am. I’m sorry. Sometimes we experience multiple traumas at the same time. And when that happens, that’s when we really need the hope of Jesus Christ. And I’m so glad you experienced that, that you found God’s love and found God’s power. And what a blessing that you translated the Daily Hope devotionals for your parents, and then they accepted Christ. That’s amazing. I am celebrating with you that they are now in the family of God.
SPEAKER 01 :
Did you know that you can start every day with hope and encouragement from Pastor Rick? Well, you can when you sign up to receive his life-changing Bible study teaching delivered directly to your inbox. Just go to pastorrick.com and sign up for this free Daily Hope devotional. Be sure to join us next time as we look into God’s Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope and your generous financial support.
