Tetelestai
Notes
Transcript
It is Easter Sunday! He is risen! Today is the day we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. January 1, 1863 was a history defining day in our country. We were entering our third year of the Civil War. President Lincoln then declared, through the Emancipation Proclamation, that all slaves held in the rebellious states would be free. The war would continue until May 26, 1865, but history shows us that slavery in America indeed came to an end. The surrender of General Cornwallis in the American Revolution, the surrender of the Confederacy in 1865, the defeat of Adolf Hitler in World War II all mark momentous events in world history.
Israel had many momentous times in history. Easter begins in Genesis 3:15 with the promise of the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent. As we examine Israel’s history through the lens of the cross, we see how the death and resurrection of Christ is not just the most pivotal moment in Israel’s history, but the whole world. We see that All of Israel’s history points to this moment we celebrate called Easter.
What is it like to experience true freedom? None of us were born slaves or born under the oppressive governance of another nation. Israel faced it for 400 years until God heard their cry and sent deliverance. Let’s journey through some of Israel’s history and see how their history is tied in with our own.
Passover set the stage for Jesus.
Passover set the stage for Jesus.
God had sent plague after plague upon Egypt to establish his supremacy among them. The Pharaoh was a hard-hearted man who saw the Israelite people as more valuable as slaves than a free people. God already promised Abraham hundreds of years prior that his descendants would be enslaved by a foreign nation, but he would bring them back to the land he had promised. The book of Exodus tells the story of God fulfilling that promise.
The book of Exodus also institutes Passover, an annual celebration of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. A final plague was coming upon the Egyptians. If Israel was to be spared, there were instructions they had to follow. No other plague harmed the Israelites in any way, but failure to listen to instructions on this last one, would not automatically exempt them from what was coming.
The final plague is known as the death of the firstborn son of every family in Egypt. If Israel was to be spared, They had to listen to and trust the Lord.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ families, one animal per family. If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each will eat. You must have an unblemished animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight. They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them.
“I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am the Lord; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
The basic instructions were simple: take an unblemished lamb, either goat or sheep, and apply its blood to the doorposts and lintel of the house (the lintel is the upper beam that forms the framework of a doorway). It is the blood of this animal that acts as a covering for all in the house, so that God would pass over the homes where the blood had been applied.
We understand this in the New Testament context to be a foreshadowing of Christ’s sacrifice for us. John the Baptist refers to Jesus as the Lamb of God (John 1:29). Both Paul and Peter connect Jesus to the Passover lamb (1 Cor. 5:7; 1 Pet. 1:19). The parallels are clear. Passover commemorates the deliverance of Israel from enslavement to Egypt. The crucifixion of Jesus purchases our freedom from slavery to sin.
The Passover elements represent the sacrifice Jesus made for us.
The Passover elements represent the sacrifice Jesus made for us.
The timeline of Holy Week moves in the direction of Passover. Everything was moving toward this annual celebration, and it is no coincidence that Jesus would die during this time. There is a long-standing Jewish tradition of sharing a Passover meal called a seder. The word seder means order. This just means that there is a very orderly progression to the meal in which everything has special meaning. This meal the Jews observe today was probably not the exact same meal Jesus and his disciples observed. This meal took place on Thursday night for Jesus and his disciples. We call this the Last Supper because it was the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples before he died.
The story of the Last Supper can be found in all four of the gospels. During this meal, several things are going on. They use unleavened bread (bread made without yeast) as their ancestors did the night before they left Egypt. There were three pieces of this bread that they shared. This night, Jesus did something that had never been done. He changed the symbolism of the bread and wine.
The bread was a reminder of the exodus. The Israelites didn’t have time to wait for bread to rise. When Jesus broke this bread, he may have recited a simple prayer, “Blessed are you, GOD, our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.” After giving thanks to God for the bread, he then tells his disciples and says,
And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
From this point forward, the bread would have new meaning. The bread would no longer remind Jesus’ followers of deliverance from slavery in Egypt, but the greater deliverance from sin and death, of which the price was Christ’s own body. His body was broken for us. It was not broken for him, it was broken for us. Without it, there is no forgiveness of sin.
The wine in a typical Passover meal is distributed four times throughout the meal. Every time the cup is filled, it is called a different name each time. The third time the cup is filled, the cup is named the cup of redemption. This cup originally symbolizes the blood of the lamb applied to the doorposts before the last plague in Egypt. However, Jesus says,
In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Jesus is pointing them toward the his blood that he would shed for the forgiveness of sin. For thousands of years, the Jews were conditioned to understanding that forgiveness of sin could not come without sacrifice. Heb. 9:22 says,
According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
The difference now is that the blood of Christ covers all sins for all who will turn from their sins and believe in him. No longer do we have to provide sacrifices for ourselves. Christ is our perfect sacrifice. For the first and only time in human history a perfect, spotless man laid down his life to save the souls of the rest of us. The Passover elements, the bread and wine, are symbolic of the price Christ paid so we might gain victory over sin and death.
Atoning work was completed when Jesus died.
Atoning work was completed when Jesus died.
The day of the cross had come. Jesus was arrested Thursday night or early Friday morning. There were speedy secret trials by the Jews. They turned him over to the Romans, who found no reason to execute him, yet the Jews persisted. Jesus carried his own cross. One of the last sentences he spoke before he died was one word in Greek: Tetelestai. It is finished.
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.
What was finished? Jesus had made the sacrifice necessary to extend forgiveness and mercy to all people. The sacrifice of Jesus was necessary because the sacrifice needed to be eternal in scope, it needed to be human, and it needed to be perfect. Jesus fit the bill since he was with God in the beginning (John 1:1-2). The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14). Jesus is described as without sin in a couple places:
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.
Every way in which we are tempted, Jesus faced but did not yield.
He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The Bible testifies that Jesus was sinless, unblemished, uniquely qualified to lay down his life for us. A sacrifice of the right kind and caliber was made for us about 2,000 years ago. No other work must be done! Jesus paid it all!
Victory was secured on Sunday morning.
Victory was secured on Sunday morning.
The atoning sacrifice of Jesus means nothing if he stayed in the grave. Easter would be void of meaning if Jesus did not rise. Jesus predicted his resurrection on three different occasions (Mark 8:31-33; 9:30-32; 10:32-34).
Then he began to teach them that it was necessary for the Son of Man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and rise after three days. He spoke openly about this. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning around and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.”
The text says that Jesus spoke openly about this. It wasn’t something he was hiding or keeping to himself. He was honest with his disciples. They should have expected it. They should have been sitting outside the tomb early Sunday morning. Instead, Mary Magdalene shows up to anoint Jesus’ body only to be met by angels who say,
“Don’t be alarmed,” he told them. “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they put him.
Jesus is alive. He has gone to prepare a place for us. Because Jesus lives, there is hope beyond the grave. Death is not the end, and sin no longer has any influence over us. The greatest human problem is that we left God’s design. Departing from God’s design has led to brokenness and separation from God. The only way to be restored is through Christ, his death, and his resurrection.
So many people believe that all religions teach basically the same thing. Those people never studied world religions. All roads do not lead to God. What I find most often is that there is the assumption that because Jesus died, his sacrifice automatically applies to everyone, but that is not true either. The sacrifice of Jesus only applies to those who believe the gospel.
The offer of forgiveness and restoration to God is available to anyone who will respond to the invitation. Have you received forgiveness of your sins? Have you cried out to God to save you by looking to the crucified and risen savior? Have you come to Jesus to be cleansed of all unrighteousness? You must come to make a personal decision about Christ. Family heritage can’t do it. National identity can’t do it. Only believing in the Lord Jesus Christ can save you from sin and death, and when you follow Him, he begins to put the broken pieces back together.
It is finished! There is nothing left for you to do to try to earn God’s favor. Salvation and freedom in Christ has been bought and paid for by his blood.
We have been given two ordinances to observe: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Passover pointed to Jesus. He then changed the meaning of the elements of the Passover meal. He cancelled our debt and rose from the dead, validating his message and securing our victory over sin and death as well. Let us celebrate by taking the Lord’s Supper together.