I Thirst
March 13, 2005 - John 19:28-29
Open It
What is one important event you have witnessed?
What is your idea of "expensive"?
What is one project of yours that is still unfinished?
Explore It
What did Jesus know during His last moments on the cross? (19:28)
What did Jesus ask for during His last minutes of life? (19:28)
What was Jesus given to drink? (19:29)
What did Jesus do once He had received the drink? (19:30)
Why didn't the Jews want the bodies of those crucified left on the cross? (19:31)
What did the soldiers do to the men who had been crucified with Jesus? (19:32)
What did the soldiers discover when they came to Jesus? (19:33)
What did the soldiers do to Jesus? (19:34)
Why did John record the details of Jesus' death? (19:35)
What was fulfilled by the circumstances of Jesus' death? (19:36-37)
Get It
How important are the historical eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection to your faith in Him?
What did Jesus mean when He said, "It is finished"?
How does this account of Jesus' crucifixion make you feel?
What does Jesus' death mean to us?
What is significant about Jesus' death on the cross?
What price did Jesus pay for our sins?
How was Jesus able to endure the suffering of the Cross?
What significance does the fulfillment of Scripture in the Gospels have for your belief in Jesus today?
Whose testimony persuaded you to believe in Jesus?
How has your testimony influenced others to believe in Jesus?
Apply It
How can you thank Jesus today for His sacrifice on the cross?
How can you use the testimony of Christ's crucifixion in telling others about Christ?
Notes
John 19:29: This vinegar was a cheap wine that the Roman soldiers drank while waiting for those crucified to die.
John 19:30: Until this time, a complicated system of sacrifices had atoned for sins. Sin separates people from God, and only through the sacrifice of an animal, a substitute, could people be forgiven and become clean before God. But people sin continually, so frequent sacrifices were required. Jesus, however, became the final and ultimate sacrifice for sin. The word finished is the same as "paid in full." Jesus came to finish God's work of salvation (John 4:34; John 17:4), to pay the full penalty for our sins. With his death, the complex sacrificial system ended because Jesus took all sin upon himself. Now we can freely approach God because of what Jesus did for us. Those who believe in Jesus' death and resurrection can live eternally with God and escape the penalty that comes from sin.
John 19:31-35: It was against God's law to leave the body of a dead person exposed overnight (Deut. 21:23), and it was also against the law to work after sundown on Friday, when the Sabbath began. This is why the religious leaders urgently wanted to get Jesus' body off the cross and buried by sundown.
John 19:31-35: These Romans were experienced soldiers. They knew from many previous crucifixions whether a man was dead or alive. There was no question that Jesus was dead when they checked him, so they decided not to break his legs as they had done to the other victims. Piercing his side and seeing the sudden flow of blood and water (indicating that the sac surrounding the heart and the heart itself had been pierced) was further proof of his death. Some people say Jesus didn't really die, that he only passed out-and that's how he came back to life. But we have the witness of an impartial party, the Roman soldiers, that Jesus died on the cross (see Mark 15:44-45).
John 19:32: The Roman soldiers would break victims' legs to hasten the death process. When a person hung on a cross, death came by suffocation, but the victim could push against the cross with his legs to hold up his body and keep breathing. With broken legs, he would suffocate almost immediately.
John 19:34-35: The graphic details of Jesus' death are especially important in John's record because he was an eyewitness.
John 19:36-37: Jesus died as the lambs for the Passover meal were being slain. Not a bone was to be broken in these sacrificial lambs (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12). Jesus, the Lamb of God, was the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world (1 Cor. 5:7).