It Is Finished
Notes
Transcript
Preliminary:
Preliminary:
Invite you to two places this morning - John 19:30 and 2 Corinthians 5.
Thanks: Testimonies etc
Resurrection Sunday has past - Ascension Sunday is coming up in two weeks - but I want to go back and visit part of what its all about - and that begins with one of the last things Jesus said from the cross -
Turn with me to John 19:30
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
Now I want to tie in what was finished with what Paul tells us in 2 Cor 5:16-21
16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Without painting the gory scene in all of its bloody and painful detail - Christ has already gone through the agony of flogging, beating, scorning, humiliation, nails pounded through his flesh in his hands and feet and is now in the throes of agony and dying.
John 19:30 (KJV 1900)
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
“It is finished” what a wonderful statement.
In the Greek there are not three words but one “FINISHED”
“FINISHED”
How the demons of hell must have shuddered and flown away at that one word uttered from the cross.
“FINISHED”
The word “finished” means to be fully accomplished or perfected.
There is a point when an artist steps back and views his work and says - it is finished
A point when a cook pulls their carefully prepared dish out of the oven and declares it finished - or done
B. R. Lakin once preached...
As He hung yonder upon the cross round and round the cycle of suffering. Until at last He dropped his chin upon a pulseless chest while bloody locks dripped in his eyes and spattered and cried out between parched and swollen lips “It is finished”
ANd I think the blood dropped down to his beard
and on down to the ground to the sand
and the drop of blood whispered to to the grain of sand and said “it’s finished”
And the grain of sands whispered to the tiny green blades of grass and said “its finished”
ANd they waved their fingers to the boughs of the tree and and branches and said “its finished”
ANd the branches whispered ot the little birds and said “its finished”
ANd the birds took off to the fleecy floating clouds above and said “its finished”
and they gathered it up and carried it to the gates of Heaven and resounded it down the streets of Glory and said “Its finished” Salvation is complete.
FINISHED - completed accomplished
When Jesus in the last moments of life says “It is finished” he is saying something.
Here are just a few realities that “It is Finished” brings into focus...
1. It Is Finished because Jesus Finished It
1. It Is Finished because Jesus Finished It
Leonard Ravenhill made the observation that...
It is finished. This is the language of earth. Why? Because in heaven they never say, "It is finished." Because it is never going to be finished, for all eternity.
...We are going to live and reign with Him for ever and ever. And Gabriel isn't going to blow the trumpet one day and say, "Hey, you've been living in this super millennium for four billion trillion years and it's over." NO SIR.
I like that part of the Messiah where it goes up and up as they sing "And He shall reign for ever and ever. King of Kings." Nobody wants it to finish in eternity. We are going to be with the eternal Bride Groom.
But wait a minute.... They never say it in hell either.
There will be people in hell today and people in hell a billion years from now. No messenger will come from another world and say, "It is finished. Your judgment is passed. You've no more suffering for your sin. The wrath of God doesn't abide in you anymore." No. If we are going to escape that eternal judgment, if we are going to enter that eternal rest, it must happen now. Isn't it amazing that people withhold their petty little lives from Him? That they love their sin enough to get the anger and wrath of God? Rather than repent, and believe, and be saved?
Christ's love is, "so amazing and so divine,"
That He bore our sins in His body,
That He took the curse and the wrath of God upon Him.
That He took our sins and His heart was broken that ours might be healed.
He was an outcast that we might be brought in.
He suffered without the gate that we might enter into heaven and said,.
IT IS FINISHED!
Source: Leonard Ravenhill http://www.ravenhill.org
Paul reminds us that
God hath reconciled - oh I like that word reconciled.
Reconciliation is an act - means “the act of reestablishing of friendly relations after disagreement or enmity”
We were certainly at odds with God - we were enemies Paul tells us in another place - our sin kept us from Him
but God through Christ has reestablished friendly relations - he has bridged the gap and Christ says I have put the last brick in place - man can now cross through me!!! IT IS FINISHED
It is finished the battle is not ours to fight
It is finished the battle is not ours to fight
In Beth Moore’s devotional book Voices of the Faithful, a South Asian missionary named Janessa tells of how her Muslim neighbors prepared for the Eid Al-Adha festival, in which cows are sacrificed in commemoration of Abraham’s sacrificing his son on Mount Moriah. On the morning of the slaughter, Janessa sensed a somber feeling in the air. The Muslim pastor came to kill the cows, holding in his hands the names of those for whom the sacrifice was made, and Janessa could hear the moaning of the cows as their throats were cut. Shortly thereafter, the neighbor, covered with blood, passed by with a smile and said to her, “It is finished.”
Janessa later recalled, “That statement sent chills up my spine as I remembered the words of Jesus on the cross, the true sacrifice for sin.”
Because Jesus offered Himself on the cross, we should bow in humble adoration. He finished the work of redemption that we, His people, might gaze in wonder at the cross and worship Him.
But so often we have as the Gaither’s wrote so powerfully several years ago -
WE have battlefields of our own making...
Hiroo Onoda a Japanese soldier deployed to Lubang in the Philippines in 1944 was instructed to hold the remote island until the Japanese Army returned.
The problem was the Japanese army surrendered in 1945 before they could alert Onoda - and so he believed he was still under orders. Surrender was unthinkable.
For more than 10,000 days or 30 years Hiroo Onoda took the orders to hold the island very seriously and fough a guerrilla war. He finally surrendered in 1974.
This is an absolutely true story. It's not like his country forgot him.
People tried to tell him the war was over - it is finished
but...Search parties could not convince Onoda that Japan had lost the war. They carried photos from Onoda's family members, but he thought they were fakes because, since his hometown had been bombed and rebuilt, the buildings in the images didn't match his memories.
When Onoda returned to Japan, he wrote a bestselling memoir, married and lived quietly until he died at age 91 in 2014.
If we think we can conquer sin on our own we are like Onoda fighting with no hope and alone
If we think we can fight our own battles we are in for a big surprise its not going to happen -
2 Cor 5:18 “18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;”
John 19:30 “30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
It is finished we’re victors
It is finished we’re victors
2 Cor 5:19 “19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; ...
God had every right to say it is finished and destroy us - instead He reconciled us to Himself through Christ and his suffering and when Jesus said “It is finished” is it our victory
2 Cor 5:17 “17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
We don’t have to fight the same old battles anymore - there is victory in Jesus
We don’t have to fight alone - It is finished we are victors
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
We can be partakers of Him - transformed renewed reconciled.
It is finished we’re ambassadors
It is finished we’re ambassadors
We are made ambassadors
2 Cor 5:19-20 “19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”
THis should be our cry - our motivation our message to tell
every opportunity we have we should be sharing this great message
It is finished - the battle is over
It is finished there’ll be no more war
It is finished the end of the conflict
It is finished and Jesus is Lord.