Beloved congregation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, one more time, the Gospel of John is asking you to look at Jesus. And now we're just simply going to look at Him because now it's the end. Now we're getting to the end. We've looked at the cross, then we looked at the soldiers, we looked at the cross, we've looked at Pilate, we looked at the cross, we looked at Mary, and we looked at John. We looked at those gambling for the clothes of Jesus, but always John says, but behold the man. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And one more time now as we go through this text, cast your eyes upon Jesus. I know by faith we tend to see Jesus in His beauty and His dignity hanging there on the cross, but we also know the reality. His skull is beat up and cut from that crown of thorns. His back is bloody pulp. His ribs are open from the beating and the whipping he has taken of. His face is bruised from the slaps of the soldiers. And all around him we hear the mocking. As Jesus cries out, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? They hear him. Is he calling for Elijah, Eli? Is he calling for the forerunner? Let's see, maybe Elijah will appear. And oh, how they laugh. And now how they ridicule And Jesus thirsts as a deer pants for the water. So He thirsts for Almighty God as they look upon Him whom they have pierced. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As He hangs there in the middle of the day, we read from the other gospels, the other three gospels, it is like night. There is a full, blocking of the sun now by the grace of Almighty God. Many believe that the moon now has blocked the sun in a complete solar eclipse and Jesus hangs there because no one can see what God the Father will do to Jesus. And we may not even see what Jesus will be doing for us. so that we might be forgiven, that we might be humbled, that we might repent, that we might believe, that we might be saved, that we might be washed from all of our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ that washes us like water. So one more time, cast your eyes upon Jesus, ece homo, behold the man. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Behold the second Adam. Behold your King. Is He your King? But He must be your King, even as He hangs there on the cross. For all authority has been given to Him. That's why He went. He went because all power has been given to Him. He said it, I lay down my life. No one takes my life for me. John chapter 10. We saw that together. I will lay down my life for the sheep in my way and in my terms. And John has created for us this beautiful gospel moved by the Spirit that we may read and we may believe these things about Jesus. Complete control. Lord of lords and king of kings, as he now submits to the final foot biting of Satan. And yet that wound will not be enough to hold our Lord and our Savior, the blood and the water. John writes in his first letter in chapter 5, Jesus, this is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three are in agreement. We accept a man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it's the testimony of God. which He has given about His Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe that God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about His Son, and this is the testimony. God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I bring to you the good news this morning under the theme, The Lamb of God Dies, The Light in the Darkness. The last Passover lamb, and then we'll see that this is the last Passover. It's an interesting thing of all the things that John would remember, that John would recall, that after this, taking care of him and Jesus' mother Mary coming together, after this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now, we should read there not that Jesus, thinking, hey, I know that in Psalm 42, Psalm 69, and in Psalm 22, it speaks about my parched lips and dry roof of my mouth and my tongue sticks and I thirst as the deer pants for the water, so now I better say I thirst. Rather, the sense is Jesus, who has suffered the ignominy of hell, who has suffered the complete wrath of God. All God's grace, all God's love, all of that has been pulled away from the Son of God. That's why he cried out, why have you forsaken me? And now that has come to an end, the darkness is lifted, but not everything is finished. The sacrifice must be made in whole. The sacrifice must be complete. And Jesus must complete the work that he has been given to do. And so now he says, I thirst. Noticing, knowing that all things had been accomplished There's now one more thing to do. And John, it's very vivid for him. He remembers a vessel full of sour wine, vinegar, we might call it. For those of you who have ever tried that, or perhaps some of you who are athletes, when you're feeling a little low, or sometimes if you've ever been unconscious, they might give you a smelling salt, and that smell just perks you up, it just really wakes you up. The Roman soldiers would drink this kind of vinegar, this kind of wine. They would have a vessel there to keep them going. Maybe some of you know it more like a Gatorade or something like that. But it was something to perk you up, to give you a bit of refreshment. And Jesus now, who is thirsting, looks, and we remember that he had already been offered wine. He had been offered wine with myrrh in it, and that wine was good wine, that wine was alcoholic wine. That wine, the alcohol mixed with the myrrh, was a painkiller. It was the drink of compassion. The women would give that drink so the men that they loved who were being crucified wouldn't feel everything so powerful, like giving them a sedative or giving them a pain reliever. But Jesus said, no. No, I must not take that. I must face all of that full on and now weary and thirsty and tired. He says, I need to face death awake. I need to face death full on and fully conscious. I thirst. Now, children, it's been a long time. It's been two and a half years since we've been doing the Gospel of John. But do you remember another time when Jesus was thirsty? The woman by the well. John chapter 4. And he was all alone. They had been walking through the wilderness, through Samaria, so that he could do some preaching. And that was a really big deal that he walked through Samaria. Because the Jews don't mix with the Samaritans. They keep themselves pure and clean. They don't mix. But Jesus says, I don't care. I'm going to go through. And there's a woman there at the well. And then Jesus said to her, get me something to drink. I thirst. And what was interesting about that is that woman was very surprised by that. First of all, a man asking her. Second of all, a Jewish man asking her. And then she thinks about that and then Jesus in the conversation says, you know, if you knew who I was, you would ask me for a drink and I would give you the drink of water and you would thirst no longer. And he was speaking of the Holy Spirit. And he was speaking of the water that only he could give. And now that that woman might have that water, he thirsts. Jesus thirsts because Jesus must drink. And Jesus doesn't drink just anything. He drinks the bitter dregs of the cup of bitterness. The gall that he's going to drink is sour and it's horrible. But is it more horrible than the cup of suffering that he must drink? Remember he said that the disciples Can you drink of it? Can you be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with? Can you drink the cup that I will drink?" And he said, you will. You will suffer. You will suffer for me, but now Jesus must go the way. He must thirst. He must drink the cup right to its bitter dregs, so that you might believe, that you might have salvation, that you might have forgiveness of sins, so that you can have eternal life. I thirst. It really is a remarkable thing. And then you see God uses the circumstances of Jesus' life. So first of all, we remember that from Psalm 69, we read that, "...see my zeal for your household, my zeal for your household consume me." And that was quoted right after Jesus cleaned out the temple. And then again, in John 15 verse 25, it said, "...they hated me without reason." Again, a quote from Psalm 69 verse 4. My strength is dried like a potter and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. Psalm 22, 15. They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my drink. Psalm 69, 21. Scripture is being fulfilled. God is in control. This is happening by the will of God. God is giving His only Son. Don't miss it. God loved you. God so loved the world. He's going to restore the whole creation. He's going to bring you back into himself. What the law couldn't do, grace and mercy will do. What the law points to, grace and mercy is now given and fulfilled and made beautiful. There's something else there that's really interesting. And there we read that they filled the sponge with the sour wine and they put it on Hyssop and put it to his mouth. Now for most of us, it's like, okay, that's interesting. We're not botanists to be sure. So there must've been some Hyssop bush and they took it down. We remember that the feet of Jesus is probably at the chest of the soldiers. So it's just a short reach to put that sponge on the bushy hyssop. But what's interesting is that hyssop is not normally growing in that area and certainly not growing around an area called Boot Hill. And there's a lot of discussion about this. A lot of people say this is made up. That John simply put that in is another way for Scripture to be filled. But the more honest botanists are saying, we don't know every kind of branch and bush that grew back then. And times change, and climates change. And so things that grow in a certain area then may not grow now. Why would John remember the vessel? Nobody disregards that. That he remembered the gall vinegar, nobody denies that. So the Hyssop, that he remembers it, to him is very important. So what day is it? It's the day before Passover. It's the preparation day. And what happened on the day of Passover? Well, let me read it for you. where in Exodus 12 verses 21 through 23, God through Moses to the people that are in exile still, or sorry, in slavery in Egypt say, take a bunch of hyssop and dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top of both sides of the doorframes. Not one of you shall go out of the door until morning. And when the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and the sides of the doorframe and he will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your house and strike you down. That's what the Jews celebrate every time they celebrate Passover. The Lord passed over our house. Why did he pass over our house? Because the blood of the Lamb, which we have seen together, Jesus is the Lamb of God, that blood has been painted with what? Hyssop. On the doorpost of the house. You think God is missing any detail here? Do you think God is making clear that this is the Passover lamb? That the hyssop reminds us of the blood that we need painted on the doorframe of our hearts. So that when that blood is painted on the doorframe of our hearts, the destroyer passes over and we are redeemed. And we are saved. And we will not die. And we will have eternal life. and believe, and behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." And when Jesus had received the sour wine, He perks up, the hyssop is there, the Lamb of God is there, and He says in the Greek, it's one word, and it's the last word of Christ, And we translated, it is finished. It is accomplished. It is brought to completion. What do we make of it? How do we understand it when the Lamb of God says, it is finished? Is He talking about the pain? Is He talking about the suffering? He's gone through the bowels of hell while He was still alive. He faced it and He is still alive. All that suffering, it is finished. Or perhaps it is the week. It's interesting, isn't it? We read the law together. Why should you observe the Sabbath day? For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and when he created Adam and Eve, when he created Adam, we read that it was very good and then the Lord rested and he was finished with the creation of the earth. For it was completed and then he took a rest. And we live in the violation of that rest. And now Jesus in that 6 day week, think about how that week started. Hosanna! Loud Hosanna! They were singing psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. And the children were waving palm branches. And they wanted to make Him the king. And He said, I can't be your king. And they turned on Him. and in six days the hosannas turn to crucify him crucify him and they mock him and they ridicule him they laugh at him and they scourge him oh my soul why art thou grieving what disquiets and dismays hope in god six days you shall labor and then it is finished and then you have sabbath It's complete. It is finished. All those sacrifices, the bull offering, and the goats, and the lamb, for the guilt offerings, and for the fellowship offerings, all that blood, it's over. This is the Passover lamb. We don't need any more. It is finished. And in the days you eat of the fruit, you will surely die. It is finished. The ground will bring up thorns and thistles. We are beginning the process of the end as we look forward to the new heavens and the new earth. But now Jesus must go the way, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return. And he will die. But he may die now. Because it's all been done. Lifted up was He to die. It is finished was His cry. What's the response of the church? What's your response? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Father, what can I do? How can I thank You? How can I serve You? To give our lives in love, in joy and thanksgiving for all that this Lord and Savior has done. Praise God for the finished work of Jesus Christ. Praise God for His active obedience. It's done now. Praise God for His passive obedience, the suffering. It's done now. And this isn't Jesus now saying, Oh, I'm so tired. Oh, I'm so glad it's finished. He's declaring to God, He's declaring to the world, and He's declaring to you this morning, I have done what I came to do. I have brought salvation to the world. You can hear His cousin John walking there by the Jordan, now in heaven. Saying, it's time for the Son of God to come home. And Jesus says, it is full brought, fully complete. It is finished, Satan, you're done. It's finished, demons, you're done. It's finished, world, you are finished. But for all of you who believe, You can't earn your salvation. There's nothing you can do to make yourself right with God. I have done it. It is finished. Believe me. Honor me. Confess this. This is the good news. It is finished. Drinks the wine. Makes the declaration of the good news to the world. And bows his head. And we look at the last Passover lamb. Quiet. The heart's not beating anymore. And there is no more breath. He's not suffering anymore. He has gone translated through the brutality. And yet though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, do you fear evil? Because Jesus doesn't. Jesus is done now with the trouble of the world and his soul has gone to be with God and the angels are ministering to him. The one who came with all the fanfare, with angels singing, glory to God in the highest, and wise men coming, and shepherds coming. Now he stands there in the midst of all of these drunkards, these men who laugh and ridicule and scorn the sorrow of the women that love him. John looking up and wondering, what just happened? What does it mean it's finished? They won't understand. We will never really understand until we understand the burial and the resurrection of our Lord. But now suffice it to say, what needs to be done for redemption to be accomplished is applied. Repent and believe the kingdom of God is at hand for this truly is the last Passover. Jesus hangs there on the cross, quiet. But the Jews, It's always hard to understand the Jews. There's an irony about the Jews. They're so stuck in these laws. Heaven forbid that these bodies should be hanging on the cross or on the land when we have a high Sabbath. So that year Passover is on the Sabbath. It's on the Saturday. That's what it means it's a high Sabbath. So we read that if a man who is ceremonially clean and not on a journey fails to celebrate the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people, but did not present the Lord's offering at the appointed time, that man will bear the consequences of this. And in light of that, it says they must not leave any of it till the morning, or break any of its bones, that is, the meat of the lamb of the Passover. They're not to leave anyone ceremonially unclean there, And there was also the sense that those bodies have to be taken away from the sight of Almighty God. It's why we're going to read later on in Luke and in Acts that when Judas Iscariot hangs himself, they cut the body down and throw it over. His body can't be out there either. Because that's what matters. It doesn't matter that they killed the Son of God to them, because they don't believe they did. They think they had done the right thing. Wherefore do the nations rage and plot a vain thing? They take their stand against the Lord and against his anointed. Where is your king? They say. Isn't that an interesting thing? Because we would stand there and say, there he is. What, that dead corpse, that's your king? Yes, that's our king. He's impure, he's ceremonially no good. We see it one more time, the humiliation that Jesus Christ must suffer. But there's two other men with him too. So they do the crucifragium, which is to come and to break the legs. They take a mallet and they smack and hurt, break those legs, which speeds up the death with the shock and everything else. If you were a very strong man, you could hang on a cross for at least 36 hours before you died. They gotta get this done. They go to the first man and they kill him. They go to the man on the other side of the cross and they kill him. Perhaps that's the one who that day goes to heaven with Jesus in paradise. And when they come to Jesus, he's dead. Why do they stab him with the spear? It's interesting, isn't it? They know he's dead. Some say, oh, it's compassion, just in case he's not dead. And these soldiers who are part of warfare take their spear, which is probably about three and a half, four feet long, take it, jam it up the side, and then into the heart. That explodes the heart. The sac then is broken. And then we read that the water and the blood flowed mingled down. What are we supposed to make of that? Because there's been a lot of study in that. Some people see in that, by the way, it's very interesting, very romantic. that the heart itself of Jesus had now been decayed because of the crucifixion, water formed around it, and that in fact he died of a broken heart. And that's why there was water and blood. But that really doesn't seem to be part of the text, especially because of the way Jesus said it is finished. That wasn't, oh, it's done, and I feel terrible. This is a Jesus who says, O my soul, why art thou grieving? I will hope in God. I will go to worship God. He's going to worship God now in heaven. It is finished. He's there. His body is hanging, waiting for the soul and the body to be reunited when the resurrection happens. No, it is something that God is doing. The blood is coagulating. And John is mindful of it. Some people actually believe that John made it up. Or that the one who is this witness who saw it, oh come on, water and blood? But again, John's detail and attention to detail is amazing. And from his side we read that the water and the blood came down. Now remember what John wrote? As we started the sermon, this is the one who came by water and blood. Jesus Christ, He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. Jesus, who goes to be baptized by the water, the one who is the water of life, who will give the water of life, the one who is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, comes by the blood and the water that we hope to celebrate with baptism in the week ahead, and that we've celebrated many times this year, witnessing the baptism of Jesus Christ. Water and blood, together, by the power of the Holy Spirit, a washing, a cleansing that only He can give. It's remarkable. It's providential. And it reminds us again that what we needed has been given on that last Passover. Jesus is the Passover of God. If you want to celebrate Passover just to try it or to do it, go ahead. But you don't need to anymore. What it points to has come. What it points to has finished the work. No more lambs, no more bulls, no more goats, no more Passover's. It is finished. See from his head, his hands and feet, sorrow and love flowed mingled down. See from his side, the water and the blood flowed mingled down. All of this that the scripture may be fulfilled. And I will pour on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look at Me, the one they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son." Zechariah 12 verse 10. And in Zechariah 13 verse 1, on that day, a fountain will be opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and impurity. Water and blood. Numbers 9, when it talks about the lamb and the Passover lamb, none of the bones shall be broken. None of the bones of Jesus was broken. Everything that God demanded is now complete, perfected, finished. That's how much God loves you. That's how much Jesus loves God and loves you. This is the power of the Spirit who loves you and says, you need to believe this. Hold on to this, this marvelous great truth. This is why John wrote it, that you would know it and that you would believe it. Repent and believe this is your hope. This is the good news. This is the way back to Almighty God. This is the way you'll bring change into your life. This is the way and the truth and the life. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Passover of God. Behold the man! Behold the man of God! Behold the second Adam! Behold your king! One more time, look at him. With the spear spiked hole in his side. An ugly, bloody, dead mess. What manner of love is this? that even when we were enemies, Christ died for us. Do you not know that all of you who were baptized into his death, into the water and the blood, have been raised new by his spirit? Go then, let us sin no more, but live lives of holiness. And all the more as we see the day approaching, let us confess this before our God and before the world, and before one another. It is finished. God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. It is so. Amen.