John, the gospel of faith by Harrison, Everett Falconer, 1902- from Everyman's Bible Commentary series. There have been times, and the days may come again, when faithfulness to Christ has entailed exclusion from what is called "society." Perhaps, dear sister, you carry about with you a gnawing disease which eats at your heart, but Jesus took our sicknesses, and his cup was more bitter than yours. It is so with each one of you? That man is a fool and deserves no pity, who purposely excites the disgust of other people. Ray Stedman I am not the One anointed of God to save mankind. John 1:21. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid: It shows he was afraid all along the coward the vacillating coward and now a fresh superstition seizes upon him. He must love his chosen whom he has once begun to love, for he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Behold, my King is not without his crown alas, a crown of thorns set with ruby drops of blood! Nor does the grief end here, for have not the best works we have ever done, and the best feelings we ever felt, and the best prayers we have ever offered, been tart and sour with sin? Lloyd-Jones opens John 19:31-37 to answer that very question. If we be true to our Master we shall soon lose the friendship of the world. Amen. who would stand in your place, ye richest, ye merriest, ye most self-righteous sinners who would stand in your place when God shall say, "Awake O sword against the rebel, against the man that rejected me; smite him, and let him feel the smart for ever!" (7) Luke 23:46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, "Father, INTO THY HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT. I cannot say that it is short and sweet, for, alas, it was bitterness itself to our Lord Jesus; and yet out of its bitterness I trust there will come great sweetness to us. When our Lord cried, "Eloi, Eloi," and afterwards said, "I thirst," the persons around the cross said, "Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him," mocking him; and, according to Mark, he who gave the vinegar uttered much the same words. It began with the mouth of appetite, when it was sinfully gratified, and it ends when a kindred appetite is graciously denied. I have heard sermons, and studied works by Romish writers upon the passion and agony, which have moved me to copious tears, but I am not clear that all the emotion was profitable. It was pain that dried his mouth and made it like an oven, till he declared, in the language of the twenty-second psalm, "My tongue cleaveth to my jaws." Every word, therefore, you see teaches us some grand fundamental doctrine of our blessed faith. He believed, as a Roman in gods many. I wonder he has ever received them, as one marvels why he received this vinegar; and yet he has received them, and smiled upon us for presenting them. A river of the water of life, pure as crystal, proceedeth to-day out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and yet once he condescended to say, "I thirst," before his angelic guards, they would surely have emulated the courage of the men of David when they cut their way to the well of Bethlehem that was within the gate, and drew water in jeopardy of their lives. Did not the high-priest bring the scape-goat, and put both his hands upon its head, confessing the sins of the people, that thus those sins might be laid upon the goat? I have already told you that such was our Lord's mystical desire; let it be ours also. Are you so frozen at heart that not a cup of cold water can be melted for Jesus? Christians, will you refuse to be cross-bearers for Christ? Glorious stoop of our exalted Head! Think of that! My Lord is not altogether without his espoused one. London shall see the glory of the one: Jerusalem beheld the shame of the other. "I thirst," is his human body tormented by grievous pain. Alas, man is the slave and the dupe of Satan, and a black-hearted traitor to his God. He was innocent, and yet he thirsted; shall we marvel if guilty ones are now and then chastened? These are silken days, and religion fights not so stern a battle. He also knew well the terrible joy that comes only through suffering as he lived quite afflicted (both by illness and slander). The Church, the bride of Christ, was there conformed to the image of her Lord; she was there, I say, in Simon, bearing the cross, and in the women weeping and lamenting. First, they teach and confirm many of the doctrines of our holy faith. "Weep for yourselves," says Christ, "rather than for me." Christ did but transfer to Simon the outward frame, the mere tree; but the curse of the tree, which was our sin and its punishment, rested on Jesus' shoulders still. Weep not for him, but for these. Can they be compared to generous wine? For his sake we may rejoice in self-denials, and accept Christ and a crust as all we desire between here and heaven. John 19 He preached in the same church as C. H. Spurgeon over one hundred years earlier. The mind of man is like the daughters of the horseleech, which cry for ever, "Give, give." I will give you one of his thirsty prayers "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." No longer sink below the brim; But overflow, and pour me down A living and life-giving stream.". Do we not see here the truth of that which was set forth in shadow by the scape-goat? High in the air ye bid your banners wave about the heir of England's throne, but how shall ye rival the banner of the sacred cross, that day for the first time borne among the sons of men. 19:1-18 Little did Pilate think with what holy regard these sufferings of Christ would, in after-ages, be thought upon and spoken of by the best and greatest of men. March 1st, 1863 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892). For him they have no tolerance. My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein." Appetite was the door of sin, and therefore in that point our Lord was put to pain. O thou blessed Master, if we are indeed nailed up to the tree with thee, give us a thirst after thee with a thirst which only the cup of "the new covenant in thy blood" can ever satisfy. After preaching his first sermon at the age of 16, he became pastor of the church in Waterbeach at the age of 17. No, no; we must not make a cross of our own. One word: transformation. If he was so poor that his garments were stripped from him, and he was hung up upon the tree, penniless and friendless, hungering and thirsting, will you henceforth groan and murmur because you bear the yoke of poverty and want? What but for the juice of the vine that he might be refreshed? This is a kind of sweet whereof if a man hath much he must have more, and when he hath more he is under a still greater necessity to receive more, and so on, his appetite for ever growing by that which it feeds upon, till he is filled with all the fulness of God. "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." John 19:30. Simon had to carry the cross but for a very little time, yet his name is in this Book for ever, and we may envy him his honor. But such is not the truthful estimate of man according to the Scriptures: there man is a fallen creature, with a carnal mind which cannot be reconciled to God; a worse than brutish creature, rendering evil for good, and treating his God with vile ingratitude. You may sit under a sermon, and feel a great deal, but your feeling is worthless unless it leads you to weep for yourselves and for your children. John and Herod 1549 - Good News for Thirsty Souls 1550 - The Unspeakable Gift 1551 - Today! There can be no shadow of doubt but that our Lord was really crucified, and no one substituted for him. But what shall be your cry when you shall say, "Good God! Our Lord, however, endured thirst to an extreme degree, for it was the thirst of death which was upon him, and more, it was the thirst of one whose death was not a common one, for "he tasted death for every man." Have you prayed for your fellow men? We may well remember our faults this day. The "I thirst" was the bearing of the last pang; what if I say it was the expression of the fact that his pangs had at last begun to cease, and their fury had spent itself, and left him able to note his lessor pains? The reed was no mere rush from the brook, it was of a stouter kind, of which easterns often make walkingstaves, the blows were cruel as well as insulting; and the crown was not of straw but thorn, hence it produced pain as well as pictured scorn. Will your thoroughfares be thronged? You young believers, who have lately followed Christ, should father and mother forsake you, remember you were bidden to reckon upon it; should brothers and sisters deride, you must put this down as part of the cost of being a Christian. "'Twere you my sins, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors were; Each of my grimes became a nail, And unbelief the spear. The great Surety says, "I thirst," because he is placed in the sinner's stead, and he must therefore undergo the penalty of sin for the ungodly. It is done. "And they took Jesus, and led him away." Spurgeon's Bible Commentary John 19 John 19:1-16 John 19:1. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Thirst is no royal grief, but an evil of universal manhood; Jesus is brother to the poorest and most humble of our race. There is the complete justification of the believer, since the work by which he is accepted is fully accomplished. The ceremonial of the Jewish religion denies him any participation in its pomps; the priests condemn him never again to tread the hallowed floors, never again to look upon the consecrated altars in the place of his people's worship. Christ must die a felon's death, and it must be upon the felon's gallows, in the place where horrid crimes had met their due reward. As for yourselves, thirst after perfection. John 19:16 . Did not the prophecies say that man would give to his incarnate God gall to eat and vinegar to drink? Take up your cross daily and follow him. You may think that this remark is not needed; but I have met with one or two cases where it was required; and I have often said I would preach a sermon for even one person, and, therefore, I make this remark, even though it should rebuke but one. Nor is this all. Oh! Oh! Commentators like Thomas Manton and John Calvin are represented in this series. Methinks Death thought it a splendid triumph when he saw the Master impaled and bleeding in the dominions of destruction; little did he know that the grave was to be rifled, and himself destroyed, by that crucified Son of man. Perhaps they are your children, the objects of your fondest love, with no interest in Christ, without God and without hope in the world! 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken,"[ a] 37 and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."[ b] Read full chapter Footnotes It seems to me very wonderful that this "I thirst" should be, as it were, the clearance of it all. While thus we admire his condescension let our thoughts also turn with delight to his sure sympathy: for if Jesus said, "I thirst," then he knows all our frailties and woes. Beloved, if our Master said, "I thirst," do we expect every day to drink of streams from Lebanon? It was one of Death's castles; here he stored his gloomiest trophies; he was the grim lord of that stronghold. In the former cry, as he opened Paradise, you saw the Son of God; now you see him who was verily and truly born of a women, made under the law; and under the law you see him still, for he honours his mother and cares for her in the last article of death. Lectures to My Students - Charles Haddon Spurgeon 1889 Lessons from the Apostle Paul's Prayers - Charles Spurgeon 2018-02-19 Why study and pray the prayers of the Apostle Paul? He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. It is the empty cup placed under the flowing stream; the penniless hand held out for heavenly alms." . I have touched that point very lightly because I want a little more time to dwell upon a fourth view of this scene. NOTICE the connection, or you will miss the meaning of the words; for at first sight it looks as if our Saviour taught us that it John:6:29 The Marvellous Magnet Some of these were persons of considerable rank; many of them had ministered to him of their substance; amidst the din and howling of the crowd, and the noise of the soldiery, they raised an exceeding loud and bitter cry, like Rachel weeping for her children, who would not be comforted, because they were not. According to the sacred canticle of love, in the fifth chapter of the Song of Songs, we learn that when he drank in those olden times it was in the garden of his church that he was refreshed. We should love the cross, and count it very dear, because it works out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Thus have I tried to spy out a measure of teaching, by using that one glass for the soul's eye, through which we look upon "I thirst" as the ensign of his true humanity. The next time we are in pain or are suffering depression of spirit we will remember that our Lord understands it all, for he has had practical, personal experience of it. What, then, dear friends, should be the sorrows excited by a view of Christ's sufferings? What if the bread be dry, what if the medicine be nauseous; yet for his thirst there was no relief but gall and vinegar, and dare we complain? All nations gathered about my Lord, both great and mean men clustered around his person. One would wish to be as a spouse, who, when she had already been feasting in the banqueting-house, and had found his fruit sweet to her taste, so that she was overjoyed, yet cried out, "Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love." They put his own clothes upon him, because they were the perquisites of the executioner, as modern hangmen take the garments of those whom they execute, so did the four soldiers claim a right to his raiment. That impenitent thief went from the cross of his great agony and it was agony indeed to die on a cross he went to that place, to the flames of hell; and you, too, may go from the bed of sickness, and from the abode of poverty, to perdition, quite as readily as from the home of ease and the house of plenty. Hunger and thirst after righteousness, for you shall be filled. I believe there was a tenderness in Christ's heart to the Jew of a special character. If we weep for the sufferings of Christ in the same way as we lament the sufferings of another man, our emotions will be only natural, and may work no good. I saw the other day the emblem of a serpent with its tail in its mouth, and if I carry it a little beyond the artist's intention the symbol may set forth appetite swallowing up itself. Jesus is formally condemned to crucifixion, but before he is led away he is given over to the Praetorian guards that those rough legionaries may insult him. It showed that he had laid down his life of himself. They place the cross upon Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country. ye Christian men, who dream of trimming your sails to the wind, who seek to win the world's favor, I do beseech you cease from a course so perilous. Oh, wondrous substitution of the just for the unjust, of God for man, of the perfect Christ for us guilty, hell-deserving rebels. The most careless eye discerns it. Hail, everlasting King in heaven, thou dost admit to thy paradise whomsoever thou wilt! Say not that the comparison is strained, for in a moment I will withdraw it and present the contrast. There was nothing behind in the price, but there is something behind in the manifested power, and we must continue to fill up that measure of revealed power, carrying each one of us the cross with Christ, till the last shame shall have been poured upon his cause, and he shall reign for ever and ever. So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. You may die so, you may die now. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He must love, it is his nature. John 19:1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. Now recollect, if Jesus had not thirsted, every one of us would have thirsted for ever afar off from God, with an impassable gulf between us and heaven. Some of them have no objection to worship with a poor congregation till they grow rich, and then, forsooth, they must go with the world's church, to mingle with fashion and gentility. 1 So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. IV. See, it has been blackened with bruises, and stained with the shameful spittle of them that derided him. He thirsted to pluck us from between the jaws of hell, to pay our redemption price, and set us free from the eternal condemnation which hung over us; and when on the cross the work was almost done his thirst was not assuaged, and could not be till he could say, "It is finished." Includes cross references, questions, verse by verse commentary, outline, and applications on John chapter 19 for small groups. (John 19:11) Jesus answered, . How they led him forth we do not know. In that cry there is reconciliation to God. Jesus said, "I thirst," and this is the complaint of a man. O souls, burdened with sin, rest ye here, and resting live. and they smote him with their hands. I will not say it is because we are unfaithful to our Master that the world is more kind to us, but I half suspect it is, and it is very possible that if we were more thoroughly Christians the world would more heartily detest us, and if we would cleave more closely to Christ we might expect to receive more slander, more abuse, less tolerance, and less favor from men. It was, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!" "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" is the first. "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" Sister, thirst for the salvation of your class, thirst for the redemption of your family, thirst for the conversion of your husband. All this is a blessed clog upon us, and a means of keeping us more near the Lord. 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