Let us turn once again to the
Word of God and we turn to the 23rd chapter in the Gospel according
to Luke, chapter 23 and reading at verse 34. Then said Jesus' father, forgive
them for they know not what they do and they parted Israel and
cast And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them
derided him, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself,
if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked
him, coming to him and offering him vinegar. As we've been continuing
now some weeks in considering Luke's accounts of the experiences
of the Lord Jesus at the end of his life, his sufferings in
the garden of Gethsemane, the mockery of the trial that he
has to endure and now we come of course to the crucifixion
itself and last time We were considering the content of this
thirty-fourth verse and I said then that this is really the
first words that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks from the cross,
seven savings in all that he makes there in his great sufferings,
but this is the first of them. And as we observed last week,
he speaks of forgiveness. Here is His prayers and Father
forgive them for they know not what they do. And having considered that first
word of Christ from the cross last time, I want us this morning
to turn to verse 36 where we have the first action that was
undertaken by those Roman soldiers. It was the Roman governor of
course Pontius Pilate who had passed sentence just as the Jews
had desired. There in verse 24 Pilate gave
sentence that it should be as they required and Barabbas was
released onto them and then they take Jesus away, the soldiers
lead him away to the place of execution. And here in verse
36 I told the first things that they did after they had set Christ
upon the cross. The soldiers also mocked Him,
coming to Him and offering Him a drink. But the drink was a
bitter drink. it was vinegar. In fact it was
a sort of concoction. We're told elsewhere it was wine
mingled with myrrh. It was bitter, sour to the taste
and so on another occasion it's spoken of as vinegar mingled
with gore. This is what they offered the
Lord Jesus Christ, but he would not drink it. That's what we're
told in the other accounts. In Matthew 27, verse 34, he would
not drink. Mark says much the same. Mark
15, verse 23, he received it not. And I want us to consider
the significance, really, of that refusal by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Why was it so? He would, of course,
be fully conscious in all of his sufferings. That is the principal
reason why, although experiencing a great thirst, and that thirst
very much part of his suffering, and yet he refuses this comfort
that the soldiers are bringing to him. And it is because he
is desirous that he should be fully conscious throughout all
his sufferings. His sacrifice of course was a
voluntary sacrifice. No one was able to take his life
from him. He says as much himself in John
chapter 10. No one could take his life from
him. He had the authority, he had the power from God. to lay
down his life and he had power to take it again. This was the
commandment that he had received of the Father. This commandment,
of course, was that that goes back to the Councils of the Trinity
and the Great Covenant of Grace, that covenant that had been entered
into by the three persons in the Godhead. And there, as the
servant of God, the Lord Jesus Christ will do the will of his
Father, and his Father's commandment was that he should make a sacrifice,
the one sacrifice for sins forever. And so his sacrifice is a voluntary
sacrifice. He gives himself as the great
ransom price for the sins of his people. Theologians like
to speak of the obedience of Christ in terms of his life and
his death and they speak of the life that he lives as his active
obedience. As throughout life he is obeying
the will of God and he is fulfilling all the commandments of God.
He is the end of the law for righteousness, remember? To everyone
that believeth he is honoured the law, magnified the law by
his obedience in every detail. He is that man who is holy and
harmless and undefiled and separate from sinners. And so his obedience
is definite, active. But then they speak of his death
as his passive obedience. But really the distinction is
rather misleading, I would say, because even in dying the Lord
Jesus Christ is still active. He's not just being acted upon.
Oh yes, he is crucified through weakness. as we are told by Paul
writing to the Corinthians. But in dying he is giving himself,
and here we see his determination that he will be very conscious
of these things. And so the theme that I want
to bring before you can be summed up as this, that the sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ were sufferings that he very much
felt. He felt all that he suffered, all that he endured upon the
cross. First of all then, as we come
to the words of the text here in Luke 23 and 36, we see that
there is an offer, a repeated offer being made. The soldiers
also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar. Now, the verb that's used here,
at the end of the verse, this offering, the tense is such that
it indicates to us that this was a continual offer, a repeated
offer. Although they do this at the
beginning, when He is first set upon the cross, it's their first
action, they keep on offering. That's what's indicated in the
tense of the verb as we have it here. And as I said, we're
told in Mark's account, Mark 15 and 23, just what this drink
was. What the precise mixture was
that they were offering to the Lord Jesus. It was wine mingled
with myrrh and it was very bitter to the touch. and so it is spoken
of by Matthew in his account Matthew 27.34 as vinegar mingled
with gore. Now it was a sort of drug really
and they would give it to these people who were being crucified
to stupefy them to deprive them in some way of their sensibility. Now it's mentioned as we've said
as they arrive at Calvary. And Calvin, interestingly, makes
this remark. They give it to him, or they
want to give it to him, right at the outset. And Calvin says
it's suited to make the blood to flow. That's what his observation
is. That this particular concoction
will hasten his dying, really. But the Lord Jesus Christ refuses. refuses to drink that they offer,
not only at the beginning, but keep on offering to him. In Matthew
27, 34, when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. Oh, the Lord
Jesus Christ, we see so clearly here, is a man of deep feelings,
and he is determined that he will experience the very bitterness
of dying, and the bitterness of dying, the cruel death of
the cross. Remember how in Hebrews chapter
2 verse 9 we read of him as one who has tasted death. How he has tasted death. Do you
ever contemplate the very words that are employed in the scriptures? descriptive they are, and the
beauty of course of the authorised version with its literalness
in a sense, its determination, or the determination of the translators
to render each particular word and to try to bring out the real
significance in the particular English word that they use in
the translation. And there in Hebrews chapter
2 and verse 9 the word taste is used. He tasted death for
every man. Clearly in the context here,
the every man is all those that the Father had given to him.
Those children, those sheep, that church that the Father gave
to him, you can read the context there in Hebrews chapter 2, but
it says quite definitely that the Lord Jesus tasted death. He drank. a cup, he wouldn't
take this that they are offering to him, but there was another
cup that they offered to him, or not so much they offered to
him, that cup that was given to him by the father. Does he
not say, the cup which my father has given me, shall I not drink
it? He will drink that cup. And so
he refuses the offer that these are making. He's going to taste,
he's going to experience all the bitterness of that death
of the cross. That death wherein he is making
that one sacrifice, bearing in his holy soul all the wrath of
God against the sins of his people. Those striking words of Hebrews
5, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayer
and supplication, with strong crying and tears unto him, that
was able to save him from death, and was hurt in that he feared,
though he were a son, yet learned the obedience by the things that
he suffered. Here he is suffering and he feels
the suffering. They give him this concoction
then, this mixture because they in some measure want to help
him, they want to stupefy him, they want to deaden his senses.
And yet at the same time we can say that there is a sense in
which these soldiers are mocking him, they're offering it to him
in the way of mockery. They were those who of course
would be repeatedly mocking him. when he was arraigned before
Pontius Pilate, did they not mock him? The opening verses
of John 19, then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him and
the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head
and they put on him a purple robe and they said, Hail King
of the Jews and they smote him with their hands, they mocked
him in his trial And now they will mock him, you see, by bringing
this concoction to him. They deride him in a sense. He refuses it. But they keep
offering it to him, taunting him. They kept on coming. They kept on setting this drink
before him. The soldiers also mocked him,
it says. Coming to him and offering him
vinegar. And he was thirsty. All this
raging thirst that he's enduring was very much part of his suffering. Is that not one of the sayings
that he makes, one of those seven sayings that he utters from the
cross? He cries out in John 19, I thirst! Now remember what we're
told concerning Lazarus and the rich man here in Luke chapter
16 the Lord Jesus speaks of these two the rich man and Lazarus
and how each come to that appointed hour of their death and each goes to his appointed
place As the preacher says in Ecclesiastes, where the tree
falls, there it shall lie. And the one dies in a state of
grace and is taken to paradise, the bosom of Abraham, heaven
itself, and the other dies in his natural state of unbelief
and he goes to that place of torment. And there how graphic is the
language of the Saviour. Verse 23 in chapter 16. Concerning
the rich man we are told in how he lifted up his eyes being in
torment and said Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom
and he cried and said Father Abraham have mercy on me and
send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water
and call my tongue for I am tormented in this land. Oh, you see, part
of those sufferings was that thirst that he is having to endure.
He is tormented. He just wants Lazarus to come
and to just wet his tongue. And the Lord Jesus, you see,
is he not tasting the sufferings of hell here? And part of those
sufferings, I say, was that thirst that he had to endure. And he
would feel these things. He will feel these things. as
he suffers for his people and so though they bring him this
vinegar this wine mingled with myrrh to put to his lips yet
he refuses it he received it not he would not drink it he
is conscious in here of his sufferings he will feel the pain of what
it means to be bearing the sins of his people. And he's not stoic as he goes
through with these things. Have we not considered previously
the prayer that he makes to his father there in the garden? Or
that cup, you see, that the father had given him to drink, that
he's now really tasting and drinking to the very dregs how he prayed
to the Father there in chapter 22 verse 42 saying, Father if
thou be willing remove this cup from me nevertheless not my will
but thine be done and there appeared an angel unto him from heaven
strengthening him being in an agony he prayed more earnestly
and his strength was as it were great drops of blood falling
down to the ground. Well this isn't Christ actually
bearing the punishment of the sins of his people in the garden.
It's here upon the cross of course that he makes a great atoning
sacrifice. But all the intensity of his
feelings as he anticipates that that he knows to be before him. He's in an agony and he prays
earnestly And the agony seems to affect
him so deeply, his sweat was as it were great drops of blood,
falling down to the ground. And the Father displaces an angel.
He is lower than the angels, you see. He is ministered to
by the angels here. There appeared an angel unto
him from heaven, strengthening him. He is feeling something
there in the garden of Gethsemane. And still the Lord Jesus Christ
is feeling these things. He's a man of very real passions. He's the Saviour of sinners.
And we felt it. And yet, in the midst of all
these things, that determination. We're not to think of the Lord
Jesus Christ, you know, as some superhuman person. Oh yes, he is God and he is never
anything less than God. But he is also a man and he is
a real man. His humanity is as real as any
of our humanity. And this is what we are witnessing,
is it not? The truth of that human nature. And Christ having human experiences. knowing something of human emotions
and the determination in all of this. The cup which my father
hath given me, shall I not drink it? He says to his own disciples,
to Peter. It's Peter, of course, who will
jump to his defense there in the garden and it's Peter who
comes forth and draws his sword and strikes off the ear of one
of the servants of the high priest and it's in answer to Peter that
Christ makes that statement, shall I not drink the cup? They
would seek to defend him if they could. Peter, certainly most
definitely would Peter do it. Bold, impetuous Peter. But no,
the Lord is determined. What do we see then? We see quite
clearly as a Christianity is very much a feeling religion. And I say that again, let us
recognise what Christianity is, it is a feeling religion. Now it's not just a religion
of feelings. And there's a difference. Some
think that that's all Christianity is. It's just feelings. Frames. It's not that. But in saying
as much, we're not to lose sight that there is a place for feelings
in Christianity. True faith is more than a mere
intellectual assent to the truth. There has been an erroneous teaching
amongst Christians, and certainly Bedevil the Baptist in Scotland
in the 18th century, a view of faith that sees faith as nothing
more than an intellectual thing. And that heretical teaching has
been given the name of Sandemanianism, after Robert Sanderman. There
was a Baptist there amongst the Scots in the 18th century. And
that's what they taught, that all that matters is that it's
just intellectual. Here is a body of truth set before
us in the scripture and what do we have to do in order to
be saved? We have to assess that truth. We ascend with our minds. We believe these things. And
so there was a negating of any idea of the emotions. In some
ways, I suppose, we have to acknowledge that it was a reaction to an
overemphasis upon the emotions and upon the feelings. But Sandimanianism
brings barrenness into the soul. True faith is more than intellectual
ascent. True faith involves trust, does
it not? Not just ascending to Christ,
but looking to Christ, and leaning upon Christ, and casting ourselves
upon Christ, and feeling our need of Him, and experiencing
a complete and utter dependence upon Him. In, I suppose in many
ways, one of the best known of his sermons, Mr. Philpott, that
sermon on growth in Christ, he says there that a true beginning
is a beginning felt, there's something felt. When we compare
the New birth, a spiritual birth to the natural birth, is that
not evident? Doesn't a newborn baby evidently
feel things? There's evidence of life, it
cries out. It feels the pang of hunger, it wants the mother's
breast, it cries. There's feeling in that child.
And so too where there is a spiritual birth. And there in that little
sermon, it's one of his longest sermons, Winter of Four Harvests,
he's dealing with the whole matter of grace and how grace begins
and how grace grows and develops. But he makes that very telling
point that a true beginning, a real beginning, will be felt
in the soul. True religion is more than notion,
something must be known and felt. All the believer has feelings,
what does he feel? Doesn't the believer feel something
of the bitter thing that sin is? When there is that blessed
awakening in the soul, there's that realisation that he's a
sinner, he's a transgressor of God's holy law. And he feels
sin to be a burden, a great burden, a grievous burden. Well, the
Lord Jesus Christ, you see, he felt sin. He felt sin as he was
bearing there upon the cross that punishment that was the
desert of the sinners. He must feel these things. Why? Because he is one who is going
to sympathise with his people. That's part of his office as
the Great High Priest, is it not? We have not a High Priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity. Paul says he was tempted in all
points like us, we are yet without sin. He knows nothing of sinful
infirmity, but he knows the reality of our human nature. He knows
sinless infirmities, and he is able to understand it. But here
we see him upon the cross, you see, experiencing the bitter
thing that sin is, as he makes a great sacrifice in the room
and in the stead of his people. And so, although they repeatedly
offer this drink to him, what does the Lord Jesus do? He refuses
it. He will not partake of it. He
will see his work through to the end. He will make that one
sacrifice. And he will then minister to
his people. As he comes to experience death
and the grime He goes before them, he understands them and
he can sympathize with them. Remarkable are the words of the
Apostle there at the end of Hebrews 4, the emphasis. I know I've
remarked on it before, I make no apology for doing so again. Now we have those two negatives. Paul doesn't just say we have
an High Priest touch, with the feeling of our infirmity. Or
he wants to really lay emphasis upon it and so we have a double
negative, we have not, which cannot. We have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmity.
What is Paul saying? Oh this saviour, this high priest,
he is most surely, most definitely touched, he feels for us. If
religion, real religion, The Christian religion is a feeling
religion. It should not surprise us that the Saviour will feel
these things as He comes to make this great sacrifice. The soldiers
also mocked Him coming to Him and offering Him vinegar. He does refuse this and yes,
at the end what do we see? Finally He makes a request. At first and throughout the sufferings
He will not partake of anything, but then John tells us what happens
right at the end, there in that 19th chapter. Verse 28, After this Jesus, knowing
that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
said, I thirst. There there was set a vessel
full of vinegar, and they filled the sponge with vinegar, and
put it upon Hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore
had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he
bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. Here we have the final
request of the Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout he has been so very
conscious of all his suffering, Quite deliberately so. But now
he comes to the end. He's about to yield up his spirit
onto his father, commending his soul into the hands of God, dying. But what do we see as he comes
to the end, as he comes to die? Well, two things in this final
request that he makes, the last word that he utters, well not
quite the last word because afterwards of course he commends his spirit
to his father, but when he utters this word I thirst. First of
all in it we see the Lord Jesus having a great reverence for
the word of God, a reverence for the scriptures of truth.
Jesus knowing that all things are now accomplished that the
scripture might be fulfilled. And that introduces really a
purposive clause. In order that the scripture might
be fulfilled is the strength of what is being said there.
He knew that all was now accomplished. But the scripture must yet be
fulfilled. And what is the scripture that
must be fulfilled? It's that word that we read.
In the 69th Psalm, verse 21, they gave me also gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. And that
scripture had to be fulfilled. Because there in Psalm 69, David
is not just writing of himself, he is doing that. He is writing
out of the fullness of his own experience, God's dealings with
him. But more than that, David is speaking of his great son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes of the seed of David, of course.
Psalm 69 is a Messianic psalm and the great beauty of the psalms,
as the game is set on so many occasions, is that there in the
psalms we have the veil drawn aside and we are permitted, as
it were, to look into the very soul of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What David is saying out of his soul are the very things that
the Lord Jesus Christ would experience. He's a man, I say, of deep passions
the same. Read the Psalms and see something
of the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ. But how Christ has such
a reverence for the Word, for the Word of God. Because all
these things that come upon him are the very things that are
spoken of throughout the Scriptures. And we see it so clearly here,
of course, in the last chapter. Remember Christ's words to those
two on the road to Emmaus? Their eyes were holden, they
didn't recognize who this stranger was. And they were full of confusion,
they couldn't understand what had happened. with the crucifixion
of Christ, and here he is now, he's with them, the risen Saviour.
And there at verse 25, in chapter 24, he says, O fools and slow
of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things, and enter into his glory? And beginning Moses and all the
prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures, the things
concerning himself. He knowestly, those things that
were written, those things that must yet be fulfilled and enlightened. When he appears to those who
are gathered in that upper room and gives proof of the reality
of his resurrection, it's a real body. He asks if they have any
food. and he receives a piece of royal
fish and honeycomb and he eats it, they see him partaking of
food, this is no phantom spirit, this is the glorified body of
Christ. He took it and he ate before
them, we read at verse 43 and then in the next verse he says,
these are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written
in the Lord of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms, the
threefold way in which the Hebrews divide the Old Testament Scriptures,
the law, the Torah, and the writings, or the Psalms is the principal
book of the writings and the prophets. He is speaking of the
totality of the Old Testament, all that was written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
them, then opened in their understanding that they might understand the
Scriptures. And he said unto them, Thus it
is written, and thus it beholds Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day. Thus it is written, thus it beholds
Christ. There must be a fulfilment of
all these things and Christ has such a regard for the Scriptures,
so reverence is the Word of God, it must be fulfilled, it must
be accomplished in him. For that we, friends, might have
such a regard and reverence for this blessed book. Saint Christian,
which thou thrive in knowledge of thy Lord against no Scripture
ever strive, no Scripture. We're not to strive against anything
in the Word of God. We are to be those who would
embrace it in all its totality and delight in it. We are not
to deface it. We are not to deface it by our
disobedience, by walking contrary to God's commandments. So a Christian
would so thrive in knowledge of thy Lord against no scripture
ever strive but tremble at his word. Or that we might be those
friends who know what it is to tremble. at the Word of God. The Lord Jesus then in his final
request manifests to him such a reverence for God's work that
also again, I want to end on this note, we see the reality
of his sufferings. He's not just fulfilling the
Word in a mechanical fashion. When he cries out, I thirst,
he's not just saying that because it was written in Psalm 69, he's
feeling it. Why is he feeling it? Because,
as we said at the outset, when they would first seek to come
and to, in some way, comfort him, we might say, by
giving him this drug, really, to ease him of any lengthy sufferings,
to increase the blood to flow, as Calvin understands it. or
to deaden his sensibilities, he refuses all of that, because
he will feel his sufferings, or the profundity of those sufferings,
the depth of those sufferings. And John Milton says, did Christ,
my Lord, suffer? And shall I reply? What are any of our sufferings
compared with his sufferings? Can there be any real fellowship
between this Saviour, this broken hearted Saviour and the whole
hearted sinner? Or that we might be broken hearted
sinners and we might see what sin is. See the horror of it
in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody is to mourn
over Him and to weep over Him. You know those that mourn are
blessed, are they not? those who hunger, those who thirst
after righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ says they shall
be filled. The Lord Jesus knew what it was
to thirst, or that we might be those who have a thirst after
him. If any man thirsts, says Christ,
let him come unto me and drink. And what do we drink? Well, we
have to eat his flesh, we have to drink his blood as we read
in John chapter 6. His flesh is meat indeed, His
blood is drink indeed. Not some carnal partaking, we're
not speaking here of the blasphemies of the Romish mass and the doctrine
of transubstantiation. Not a carnal partaking and feeding
upon Christ, but a true spiritual partaking. ought to be those
who, as we come together, do have that blessed appetite. Blessed is that man who hungers
and thirsts after righteousness, for such a man, we are told,
shall be filled. Will the Lord be pleased to bless
his word to us for his namesake?