Parkwood Baptist Church

“It is finished.” – John 19:30

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:9, 10

The work of the cross was necessary for our salvation.  We stood condemned in our sins.  We had been tried, convicted, and sentenced.  There was nothing we could do.  We were “dead” in our sins (Ephesians 2:1).  We were helpless, but “God so loved the world that He gave…” (John 3:16).  God did what we could not do so that our sin could be forgiven, our relationship with Him restored and eternal life granted.  “For our sake, God made Him to be sin who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  This is the work of the cross.  It was the divine work of God through Jesus on our behalf and…He finished it on that Friday afternoon…on the cross…nothing left to do.

“Nothing left to do?  Are you sure I can’t help you with something, Jesus?  It seems too simple.  There must be something else.  He does the work and I get the reward?  What’s the catch?  Surely, there are things I have to do to earn so great a gift…hoops to jump through…a check list…an application to fill out…references…some sort of fee?”

No, the Scripture is clear that the salvation God has provided to us through Jesus is a “free gift” (Romans 6:23).  He has done all that is required.  This is grace…this is the love of God for us…this is the finished work of the cross.

Nothing left to do?  Well, there is one thing that you must do.   This completely free gift of new life is not forced upon you.  As a gift it is freely offered, but you must receive it to make it your own.  The Bible calls it an act of faith…believing that it is real and true and accepting it personally.  Not just believing that God did this, but also believing that we needed it.  Realizing that you stand condemned in your sin…dead…and all the good works that you can do cannot change that.  You are helplessly and hopelessly lost.

But…”God so loved the world…”  The work of Jesus on the cross has opened the door.  The darkness has turned to light!  It is finished.  It is by His work, “grace,” that we have been saved and through our faith that we receive it.  He calls you to walk through that door.

In other words, we are called by God to believe in Him and our need for Him and to accept His provision for that relationship to be restored.  It is our loving and humble response to His act of sacrificial love for us.

Today, let us rejoice that our salvation has been finished!  Our sins have been forgiven and we have been set free!  There is “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).  And all we have to do is come to Him in faith and believe!  Jesus has done the all the work!  “It is finished!”  Hallelujah, what a Savior!

“When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted His eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given Him.  And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.'”                         – John 17:1-5

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished,’ and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”                       – John 19:30

It is a good feeling to be finished with something.  When you have completed a task that you set out to do there is a  sense of satisfaction.  When you have washed the last dish, finished mowing the grass or filed the last form, there is a joy that comes from being done.

Jesus was finished.  He had accomplished all that He came to do.  The Father had sent Him to seek and save the lost…to give them eternal life…to point them to the Father.  In the prayer of Jesus in the upper room, just a few hours before the cross, we get a little preview of this feeling as He pours out His heart to the Father.  He describes a mission accomplished…even as He contemplates the cross to come…the final piece.

It is appropriate that the light illuminates the sky at that moment when Jesus dies.  His death would make all that He has came to do possible.  The greatest demonstration of unconditional love ever made brings light not darkness!  What seems to be a horrific execution of an innocent man is really a willing sacrifice of a loving Savior!  The cross, a symbol of death and pain, has been transformed into a source of hope and new life.  This is beautifully described by hymn writer George Bennard;

On a hill far away stood and old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame; And I love that old cross where the dearest and best, fofr a world of lost sinners was slain.

Oh the old rugged cross, so despised by the world, has a wonderous attraction for me;  For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above, to bear it on dark Calvary.

In the old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine, such a wonderful beauty I see;  For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died, to pardon and sanctify me.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true, it’s shame and reproach gladly bear;  then He’ll call me some day to my home far away, where His glory forever I’ll share.

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down;  I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.

Today, as you wear the cross around your neck or see it atop a church or hold it in your hand…let it bring you a sense of joy and gratitude for it is a precious symbol that reminds us that Jesus finished the work for our salvation on the cross…and the darkness became light!

“Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” – Luke 2:49

“Now is my soul troubled.  And what shall I say?  ‘Father, save me from this hour’?  But for this purpose I have come to this hour.”  – John 12:27

“The Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place.  For all who take the sword will perish by  the sword.  Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and He will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?'” – Matthew 26:52-54

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished,’ and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” – John 19:30

It is 3:00pm. on Friday afternoon.  For six hours Jesus has been hanging on the cross.  Before that He had been brutally beaten several times.  He was mocked, spit upon, and humiliated, and now the end was here.  We have pointed out that the last three phrases of Jesus from the cross were spoken at this time…after three hours of silent darkness…the final moments before His death, He speaks.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

“It is finished!”

“Into your hands I commit my spirit!”

The Scripture tells us that He musters His strength and speaks each of these loudly using His final breaths.  Jesus is wrapping up His greatest work…dying on the cross for us.  The Lamb of God has been sacrificed for all of our sin.  He is dying in our place in order that we might live and be redeemed.  There is nothing else that needs to be done…

“It is finished”.

Once again Jesus makes this simple declaration with one word.  In the Greek it is in the perfect tense which means that it is finished “once and for all time”.  It is the reason He came.  This was the plan all along.  Little did Mary and Joseph know that this was the Father’s business…His purpose for coming in the flesh.  He was determined to go through it until it was completed.  He had been tempted many times to give up this marvelous act of love, but He stayed the course.  He knew His purpose and never wavered.

The words of Jesus to Peter in the garden (above) reveal that He could have called in the reinforcements at any time during this process.  Today, we are reminded again that Jesus was not forced to hang on that cross.  It was the very reason that He came.  He was there willingly and He stayed until the work was finished!  Yes, Jesus is a Finisher!  There was nothing left that needed to be done.  There are no loose ends…it is finished.

Believer, we have a God who is with us to the end.  He does not leave things undone.  This was true in His work for your salvation and it is true when it comes to His work in you.  In this word from the cross Jesus reveals to us that God finishes what He starts.  He will not walk away and leave you hanging…incomplete.  Paul said this,

“And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.”         – Philippians 1:6

Our God is a Finisher!

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” – John 14:1-3

“But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.  Nevertheless, I tell you the truth:  it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send Him to you.” – John 16:6, 7

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”    – Mark 15:34

When Jesus talked to the disciples in the upper room on the night of His arrest, He told them He would be leaving them.  They must have been devastated!  After all, this was a man that they had dedicated their lives to over the last three years or so.  Some had left friends and family and all of them had, at least, put their careers on hold.  They had believed in.  They accepted His claim that He was the Messiah…the one that they had been waiting for…now He was leaving them?

“Jesus, Jesus, why are you abandoning us?”

Jesus knew their hearts were breaking as He was talking to them that night.  He knew that they were afraid and that they would feel forsaken…”I know you are sorrowful”.  So, He calms them down and begins one of the longest narratives recorded in the Gospel with these words, “Let not your hearts be troubled…”

I remember when my kids were small and I would have leave on a trip of some sort.  They would act like I was leaving them forever!  They would get extremely upset.  “Why are you leaving?”  “Do you have to go?”  As a father it would tear my heart apart as I tried to convince these ones that I loved that I was not abandoning them.  I was not leaving forever, but I could see in their eyes that they were feeling…forsaken. “I will be back soon”, I would promise.  “Be good while I am gone and…when I come back I will bring back gifts from where I am going for each of you!”  Then we would hug and kiss with tears and I would go hoping that they were comforted and that they knew that I would be back.

I believe that the one near the cross that felt the most forsaken was John.  He is the one being left behind.  He was going to be alone.  Therefore, I believe that Jesus was expressing a divine sympathy for John while giving him hope at the same time.  “I know how you feel John, and you’re not the first to feel this way.  Remember David in Psalm 22?  Although he felt the pain of loneliness and felt forsaken, the Father had not abandoned him…and He has not abandoned you…or me…Let not your heart be troubled…”

Yes, this word from the cross revealed to us a Savior who empathizes with our deepest fear, but it was also spoken as a word of comfort for you today.  And, though you feel alone and that the Father has abandoned you…He has not.  He is with you and He will never leave you or forsake you!

“Let not your heart be troubled”

“And He will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is  spread over all nations.  He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.  It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, that He might save us.  This is the LORD; we have waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.'”                                             – Isaiah 25:8, 9

“And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'” – Mark 15:33, 34

It was 3:00pm.  It had been dark since noon.  The last three hours of the suffering of Jesus had been an event of cosmic proportions.  All of creation bowed its’ head as the Savior of heaven and earth struggled to breathe.  This makes sense because in our minds “darkness” usually accompanies death.  The “light” of one’s life dims and goes out as they die.   This is the work of death…but…at 3:00pm on that Friday, something else happened.

There were several things that occurred at the “ninth hour” that day.  First, the last three phrases spoken by Jesus were uttered at this moment.  The Scripture tells us that after three hours of silence He rallies to speak three things “loudly” from the cross.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)

“It is finished!” (John 19:30)

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46)

Though the exact order is hard to determine, all three of these statements were spoken as Jesus died.  That brings us to the second thing that happened at 3:00pm…Jesus died.  He “yielded up His spirit” (Matthew 27:50).  He “breathed His last” (Mark 15:37/Luke 23:46).  “He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (John 19:30).  Yes, it is certain that Jesus, the Messiah, the Promised One, the Son of God…our Savior died.

But, there was one more thing that happened at 3:00pm that we sometimes miss and, today, I want us to notice…the darkness ended.  The testimony of all four Gospels is that at the “ninth hour” there was light!  The death of Jesus did not bring the darkness that we normally associate with the end of life…it brought light!  Unlike any other death that had occurred before, the death of Jesus changed things.  The darkness of death was eliminated once and for all.  Just as Isaiah prophesied above, death has been swallowed up and salvation had come!  This is what inspired the Apostle Paul to write,

“Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?  The sting of death is sin…but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 15:54-56

I am reminded of the chorus of that old Gospel tune,

“I saw the light.  I saw the light.  No more darkness, no more night.  Now I am so happy, no sorrow in sight.  Praise the Lord, I saw the light!” – Hank Williams, Sr.

Are you afraid of the dark?  I want to remind you today that the death of Jesus brought LIGHT and not darkness.  It brought victory, not defeat!  We no longer need to fear death and the darkness that it brings.  The death of Jesus ended the darkness.  When He died at 3:00pm on that Friday afternoon…the lights came on!

“Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know that the LORD, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the LORD is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.”                                                                         – Psalm 100

Hey Christian!  There is a noisy side to Sabbath!  In our Sabbath meditations on this journey, we have been emphasizing the quieting of our hearts.  We have talked about focusing our minds on the Lord and worshiping Him…getting into “the closet” for alone time with the Father.  Getting the “rest” God designed us for.  To be sure, the prayerful contemplation of our “peaceful” Shepherd is one of the elements of Sabbath, but there is more…

Another ingredient of worship is NOISE…a “joyful noise” to be specific!  Worship calls us to celebrate who God is and what He has done for us.  When David thought about the Lord he found it hard not to sing…and dance (sorry traditional Baptists).  Even in the more somber Psalms, David would finish in a spirit of joy.  Why?  He loved God and being in His presence!  When you are thinking about the Lord and what He has done for you, do you find your spirit lifted?  Does a song well up in your soul?  Do you feel that you have to jump up and shout?  Today’s Psalm gives us seven reasons to dance and sing and I will pass them on to you today.

1. He is God!  There is no other and you are in His presence!
2. He made you!  That’s right…He is your Creator!
3. You are His!  Oh, how wonderful to belong!
4. You are His sheep…in His pasture!  In other words, He will take care of you!
5. He is good!  Not sometimes…ALL the time!
6. He loves you!  And He will never stop!
7. He will never…never…never let you down!

O Christian, our Lenten meditation should be filled with joy and praise as well as prayerful mourning.  It is a vital part of worship.  I know it may feel a little strange to think of making noise during this time of contemplating the cross, but Lent is the very reason that we can rejoice!  Today…today we can make a joyful noise!  We can serve the LORD with gladness!  We can come into His presence with singing!  On this Sabbath, I challenge you to make a joyful NOISE to the Lord…and maybe even dance a little!

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  – Psalm 22:1

“How can a young man keep His way pure?  By guarding it according to your word.  With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!  I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” – Psalm 119:9-11

“Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” – Psalm 119:105

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry.  And the tempter came to Him and said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread.’  But He answered, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” – Matthew 4:1-4

“”And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ ” – Mark 15:33-35

Jesus lived and breathed the Word of God…the Scriptures.  Throughout His life, He modeled the importance of reading it and studying it and teaching it.  He used it daily to help people understand more about the Father.  He would frequently refer to it in His conversations with the Pharisees to correct them or to expose their hypocrisy.  He used it personally to overcome temptation in the wilderness and He turns to it now to find comfort in His suffering on the cross.  Even in His darkest hour, His mind was on the Scripture.

How much time do you spend reading the Bible?  The Bible is the written Word of God given to us as a treasure chest of strength, guidance, and comfort.  In it we find the written revelation of how God made us and how God loves us and how He wants to take care of us!  It is His story!  If you want to know about someone in today’s world of social media, you just go to their “Facebook” page and there it is.  In a similar way, the Bible is God’s Facebook page.  Do you want to know how God feels about something?  Go to the Bible and you can know.  God provided it for us so we could know Him better.

But, the Scripture is not only knowledge about God it also provides us with the things that we need for our day to day lives.  It is a “lamp” unto our feet and a light to guide us through the  darkness of this world.  We can read the Bible and learn about how God calls us into a relationship with Himself and how He provides us all that we need to live this life abundantly!  Wow!  How often do you read the Bible?

Do you feel alone and forsaken today?  When Jesus did He went to God’s Word for comfort.  In fact, it is in God’s Word that we hear Jesus say, “And behold, I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20) and we hear the Father say, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

We have a God who speaks to us and reveals Himself to us through His Word.  He offers guidance and comfort when we prayerfully read it.  Have you read your Bible lately?  God does speak…there is a Word for you today.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?  O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.  Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.  In you our fathers trusted, and you delivered them.  To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.  But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by people.  All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; ‘He trusts the LORD; let Him deliver Him; let Him rescue Him, for He delights in Him!’…Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help…I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint…For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet – they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.  But you, O LORD,  do not be far off!” – Psalm 22:1-19

“The LORD is my Shepherd; I shall want for nothing.”   – Psalm23:1

“And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'” – Mark 15:33, 34

Yesterday we talked about the darkness that covered the area for three hours as Jesus was hanging on the cross.  Darkness in the middle of the day.  Some have said that it showed the modesty of God that He shrouded the worst of the suffering of His Son as He struggled on the cross.  Others have said that it signified that the Father had turned His back on His beloved Son because He was covered in our sins.  I certainly don’t understand all the deeper meanings of this three hours of darkness, but I know that it was not good.  For Jesus, it was long…it was an intense loneliness…it was as low as He had ever been.  How do I know?

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

When we, as believers encounter prolonged suffering…when we are at the end of our rope…feeling alone and abandoned…we often turn to the Psalms and find comfort.  Why then are we surprised when the One who inspired David to write the words goes to them as well.  This word of Jesus from the cross reveals that His thoughts are holding to the Scripture.  By quoting this prayer of David, Jesus is reminding those around the cross that God is the source of our comfort even in our “darkest hour”.  When we feel that the suffering has gone on too long and the pain seems unbearable…when we feel all is lost, we cry, “Please God, be near me…don’t abandon me…It feels like you have forsaken me!”

It is no accident that this Psalm of desperation and suffering is followed by the most comforting words in all of Scripture…”The LORD is my Shepherd…”   This was also true of the scrolls read in the Temple and synagogues of Jesus’ day.  I believe Jesus is teaching us through His own experience on the cross about our own struggles.  It reveals to us that He knows what it’s like to feel abandoned.  He has gone through the “darkness” of suffering…and, He models for us where we can go for the comfort we need.

Today, read through Psalm 22 again, but don’t stop there…Psalm 23 is right around the corner.

“And it was the third hour (9am) when they crucified Him…And when the sixth hour (12pm) had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour (6pm).  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’  And some of the bystanders hearing it said, ‘Behold, He is calling Elijah.’  And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to Him to drink saying, ‘Wait, let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down.'” – Mark 15:25, 33-36

The crucifixion of Jesus was a long, drawn out event.  We are told that after a sleepless night of trials and beatings He was nailed to the cross at 9am and He did not die until 3pm.  For six hours He struggled for every breath…each one more difficult than the last.  For six hours He hung by the nails feeling the pain…shedding His blood for you and me.  This was not a quick fix that brought mercy and grace into our reach.  Why?  If the only purpose of the death of Jesus was to forgive our sins then why not do it and be done with it?  Why draw it out?

We know that John and the women were there for the whole six hours.  Standing…watching…listening…waiting.  The suffering of Jesus must have seemed as if it would never end to this small group who loved Him.  John had also been up all night.  He must have been exhausted emotionally and physically, but he could not leave his friend.   Maybe John was praying, “Father, if it is your will to take Him, do it quickly so He doesn’t suffer long.”

Six hours…

Jesus speaks seven times from the cross.  We have looked at the first four “words” which probably were spoken in the first three hours between 9am and 12pm.  Then Scripture tells us that there was a darkness that fell across the land.  From noon to 3pm all of nature seemed to close its eyes as the Creator gave up His life for its restoration.  The One who called “Let there be light!” was left in the dark in order to bring about our redemption.

Notice that it was not only dark, but there must have been an eerie silence.  Nothing from the crowd recorded.  Nothing from the soldiers.  Nothing from the cross…and, I can only imagine, nothing from heaven.  Silence.

To ponder this darkness and this silence can help us as we begin to meditate on the final three “words” of Jesus which He spoke as the darkness lifted.  Jesus is the one to break the silence.  These final phrases are spoken differently than the first few.  They are uttered loudly requiring great effort.  They are a dialogue between a dying Son and a grieving Father.  They are emotional…raw…almost unnerving as they are pushed out with His final breaths.

We are preparing to look at words spoken in the last few minutes of Jesus’ life on the earth.  Jesus exerts the extra effort to speak His final words out loud for those around the cross to hear…for us to hear.

Today, let us quiet our souls at the foot of the cross as we prepare to hear these last of the seven words.

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters…”                        – Isaiah 55:1

“There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me drink,” (For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water…everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever.  The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'” – John 4:7-14

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.‘”                         – John 7:37, 38

“I thirst” – John 19:28

Have you ever been thirsty?  Isn’t it ironic that the Creator of all life, the source of the everlasting living water is thirsty?  Yes, Jesus had been thirsty before.  Yesterday on our Lenten journey, we talked about how this word from the cross revealed His humanity.  The God who created us became flesh and experienced life as we do.  He experienced hunger, pain, sleepiness and thirst.  However, I believe that this reveals more than just the humanity of Jesus.  This thirst is more than just a physical sensation…it is spiritual as well.  It reveals a deeper side of what was happening on the cross.  This thirst is showing us how God emptied Himself (Philippians 2:6) out for us.

It makes sense that the disciple John would hear this word while he watched the crucifixion.  It is in his gospel that we read the story of Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) when He tells her that He is the One who can quench her spiritual thirst.  It is also John who records the words of Jesus at another feast when He said that He would not only quench the thirst of those who believed, but that faith would produce “rivers” of that water from the heart!

So Jesus, the giver of the living water of eternal life, the answer to our deepest longings…is thirsty.  He has held back nothing to make your salvation possible.  He has poured out the living water from the cross that you might drink it and have eternal life.  O Believer, He has become thirsty so that you don’t have to thirst anymore.

He invites you today to drink from the spring of living water.  Come to the cross.  Come the fountain of Christ.   “Come all who are weak and heavy laden…” (Matthew 11:28).  “Come, everyone who thirsts…” (Isaiah 55:1).  He can quench your thirst for meaning and purpose in life.  He can satisfy that longing to be loved and to belong.  You are invited to come and to drink.