INTRODUCE: Have you ever lacked access to clean water? Explain.

READ: John 19:28-29, Psalm 22:7, 14-18, Psalm 69:21, John 4:13-14

Begin the time by praying together.

DISCUSS:
1. Today’s focus is on the fifth of Jesus’ utterances from the cross. John 19:28 begins with the word “later”. As a group, summarize what Jesus has said in the four previous utterances.
2. Review the passages in Psalm 22 above. How is the statement “I am thirsty” a fulfillment of prophecy?
3. Read Psalm 69:21. How is the fact that vinegar was offered a fulfillment of scripture?
4. How do you react to these predictions from the Old Testament written centuries before Jesus’ time on Earth being fulfilled on the cross? (Is it confusing? confounding? encouraging? scary? Explain. )
5. To say “I am thirsty” speaks to a basic human need that was unmet. Jesus was a man with a body who experienced unmet needs. How does this affect how you see your own unmet physical needs?
6. Pastor Robert suggests that turning to the world to meet our spiritual hunger and thirst is like licking dirty plates for nourishment. Can you think of ways you try to get nourishment from a world that cannot satisfy?
7. Read John 4: 13-14 above. Jesus offers us water that satisfies. It is always there for us. Take some time to think of what we can do in this physical world to drink that spiritual water.

PRAYER: Jesus, You who have known thirst, know our thirst.We want to drink the water you offer. All of You is more than enough for all of me. For every thirst and every need You satisfy me.

Scriptures for further study that connect to the Cross:
Psalm 41:9
Even my close friend , someone I trusted , one who shared my bread, has turned against me.

Zechariah 11:12
I told them , “If you think it best, give me my pay, but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.

Isaiah 53:7
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Psalm 27:12
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me , spouting malicious accusations.

Amos 8:9
“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight…

Psalm 34:20
He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.

Zechariah 12:10
And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

Isaiah 53:9
He was assigned a grave with the wicked , and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.