From the Cross to the Tomb
King of the Jews • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.
IT IS FINISHED!
Throughout history the world has issued it inspiring cries of victory and challenges.
But the greatest cry of victory and triumph that has ever been spoken came from a dying man on a cross, when Jesus Christ lifted up His head and with all the strength of His soul shouted out, “It is finished.”
It is finished. The power of those words are so great that they will continue to echo for all eternity, for they are not the words of defeat, but the words of great triumph.
It is important for every believer in Christ to hear and understand the meaning of those three dynamic words when Jesus cried out, “It is finished.” Those three words, “it is finished” are filled with endless power and eternal authority.
His sixth statement from the cross, we heard Jesus speak the words that all of heaven rejoiced to hear when Jesus said, “It is finished.”
When Jesus said, “It is finished,” God’s eternal plan of redemption that He had set into motion before the foundation of the world was now complete.
The moment Jesus said, “It is finished,” eternal life became a reality for all who would choose to believe.
The moment Jesus said, “It is finished,” heaven rejoiced and hell trembled in fear and terror.
I believe the moment Jesus said, “It is finished,” those words echoed and exploded throughout the entire spiritual realm from one end to the other.
Those words were not just spoken for God the Father and for the angels of heaven. He spoke those words for us to hear and remember.
To understand the greatness and power of these words you need to realize that these three English words, “It is finished,” come from the single Greek word, Tetelestai.
Tetelestai means, “It is finished, it stands finished, and it always will be finished!” It means the work is completely done, that everything is accomplished and completed and that what is done cannot be undone.” It means the accomplishment of great success in completing and finishing a task. That’s just one way to describe it.
The merchants also used this word in the market place to mean “That a debt is completely paid in full!”
All of that comes from this one single word that Jesus spoke from the cross. And both meanings of this word apply to the life of a believer.
There is a lot of things we could look at from this point, but let’s keep this simple.
When Jesus said, “It is finished,” He was speaking of the eternal purpose and task that God had set before Him to finish.
Jesus words, “It is finished” takes us all the way to before the world began when we read that Jesus was the Lamb of God slain from the foundations of the world.
When Jesus said, “It is finished,” He was finishing what God had set into motion on that day in the garden when God said to the serpent (Satan), He (the Son of God) will bruise your head and you will bruise His heel.
I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
From the very beginning when man first sinned, it was God’s full intentions to redeem us so that we could have eternal life in His great and glorious kingdom.
It was and is God’s great desire for you to have eternal life in His kingdom and to make that happen, God set into motion a plan to save us from our sins and that plan required that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to die on a cross to pay the price for our sins.
What God began in eternity past came to complete fulfillment at the cross when Jesus said, “it is finished.”
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Remember, the word Tetelestai not only means that something is finished, but it also means the total and complete payment of a debt.
That means the moment you truly repent and confess your sins to Christ, Jesus says to you, “it is finished” and all of your sins are forever forgiven.
Because He said, “it is finished,” I am now covered and clothed with the righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ.
Because “it is finished,” my sin was forever lifted up from me and placed on Jesus.
But hold on, our debt maybe finished and completed, but the story isn’t.
It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three, because the sun’s light failed. The curtain of the sanctuary was split down the middle. And Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” Saying this, he breathed his last.
The curtain was torn down the middle. This was the curtain that separated man from the Holy of Holies. This was the curtain that separated man from the presence of God.
What Christ did was open the throne room of God for everyone who believes. Do you understand how important this is?
Before this very moment, it took a priest to go into the presence of God and sprinkle blood onto the mercy seat of the ark for the sins of man to be forgiven.
Now because of the sacrifice of the spotless Lamb, there is no need for someone else to go before God for your sins. You have unlimited access to the throne room of God. You have the ability to repent of your sins daily by just hitting your knees to the side of your bed and crying out to Him in prayer.
Jesus’ last words from the cross is a prayer.
The first word of Jesus prayer is “Father”
Before Jesus came, God was only known as the Lord God almighty, but not as God the
Father.
Before Jesus came, God was known as the Lord God who commanded obedience to the law, but not as God the Father.
Before Jesus came, God was only known as the almighty and all-knowing God of might and wrath, but not as the loving and forgiving God that Jesus called Father.
All of that changed when Jesus came.
When Jesus came, He showed the true picture of God as God the Father, a God of great love and compassion and mercy.
More than fifty times in the book of John, Jesus spoke of God as Father.
And now in His final moments, and with His final words, Jesus gave the world a perfect picture of the vast greatness of God’s love and that picture is the cross.
When you see the cross of Christ, you are looking at God’s show and tell picture of how much He loves you, and that is exactly why Jesus called Him Father.
This entire sermon series comes down to this one single profound truth. If this one single profound truth is the only thing you learn from this series, then this series would have been worth my every effort in preaching it.
It is vital to your future of how you live your life to understand what this means for us when Jesus called God, “Father” at this moment.
Here’s the message that we must never forget.
It is impossible for us to fathom the depths of what Jesus endured and encountered at the cross, and yet from the cross, when Jesus said “Father,” He was telling us that God is worthy of our trust no matter how dark the situation appears to be.
In what appeared to be the worst moment that could ever be known, instead of cursing God, instead of blaming God, Jesus so trusted in what God the Father was doing, that in faith and in trust, He said, "Father, 'into Your hands I commit My spirit,' "
Jesus is saying here at this moment from the cross that no matter how fearful and dark it looks, God our Father is worthy of our trust and of our faith to believe.
Perhaps you have endured some very dark days, Jesus says God is worthy of your trust
Perhaps you face through suffering and loneliness, Jesus says God is worthy of your trust
Regardless of what you face, Jesus says to you, God is worthy of your trust, not just in the little things, but in everything that you face.
We live in a world filled with uncertainties that we cannot explain or understand. We live in a world filled danger and death and sufferings, but Jesus says to us from the cross, that above all things, God is worthy of our trust.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own understanding;
in all your ways know him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Jesus final words from the cross is all about trust and specifically about placing our full trust in God. When we look at the world and the evil that the world is experiencing, we wonder how can we trust God and then we look at the cross and we hear Jesus final words, “Father, 'into Your hands I commit My spirit,'
And still the story is not finished. If it would finish here, and the death of Christ. Christianity would be just like the other 4200 religions on this earth.
This story goes from a blood soaked cross, to an empty tomb because of a risen Savior. We do not worship a dead prophet or saint, we worship a risen Savior. That is what makes Christianity different, our Savior lives.
But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she was crying, she stooped to look into the tomb. She saw two angels in white sitting where Jesus’s body had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“Because they’ve taken away my Lord,” she told them, “and I don’t know where they’ve put him.”
Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know it was Jesus. “Woman,” Jesus said to her, “why are you crying? Who is it that you’re seeking?”
Supposing he was the gardener, she replied, “Sir, if you’ve carried him away, tell me where you’ve put him, and I will take him away.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
Turning around, she said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”—which means “Teacher.”
“Don’t cling to me,” Jesus told her, “since I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them that I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what he had said to her.
We may recall that only a few remained after being scattered as His arrest. Just a few of the women, and two of the men (Peter and John) managed to stay close and follow Jesus to His mockery of a trial.
Only Mary, His mother, His aunt, and Mary Magdalene along with John stood witness at the cross. They were the funeral procession as His body was laid in a borrowed tomb.
Now the events sharpen in focus. On the first day of the week (our Sunday), only some of the women come back to the tomb to render final respect and love to Jesus by preparing Him for interment.
It’s noteworthy that all four gospels make a point of mentioning Mary Magdalene as witness and participant in the resurrection.
She’s an unlikely choice to utilize as we put our focus on the tomb that morning.
It was enough to her that Jesus had released her from demon possession to cause her to choose to follow Jesus throughout his ministry and to back up her faith with her financial resources.
This is how she finds herself at the entrance to a tomb. This tomb should contain the body of her leader, rabbi, expected Messiah.
Remember, there’s no expectation that Jesus would be resurrected. She speculated with the other women on the way what to do about the massive stone that covered the entrance. They’d brought expensive spices and wrappings to finish death’s work on Jesus.
She anticipated having to endure the sights and senses of Jesus’ badly tortured and abused body.
For three years, she enjoyed a living, walking, talking Jesus. Then Jesus was betrayed, tried, condemned and crucified.
What must Saturday have been like? No Jesus. We go through Holy Week and climax with Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but what must Saturday have been like? Believers were completely without hope, and probably scared for their lives. They were helpless and the only person who could rescue them was dead in a tomb.
But Jesus wasn’t gone long. He rose. (Praise the Lord) He rose and the world has never been without the presence of Jesus since.
I want to end by sharing a story with you.
"A little boy wanted to meet Jesus. He knew it was a long trip to where Jesus lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six-pack of Root beer and he started his journey.
When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old man. He was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons. The boy sat down next to him and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old man looked hungry, so he offered him a Twinkie.
He gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. His smile was so pleasant that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered him a root beer. Again, he smiled at him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.
As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave, but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old man, and gave him a hug. He gave him his biggest smile ever.
When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, “What did you do today that made you so happy?”
He replied, “I had lunch with Jesus.” But before his mother could respond, he added, “You know what? He’s got the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen!”
Meanwhile, the old man, also radiant with joy, returned to his home. His son was stunned by the look of peace on his face and he asked, “Dad, what did you do today that made you so happy?”
Pastor, nice story but what does it have to do with everything we learned.
It is very simple.
Christ taught us forgiveness, salvation, family, heartache, pain, longing, fulfillment, trust, death and life. It is our responsibility to teach that through our lives outside these walls.
Like the boy in this story, would your life , love, compassion, mercy and grace make Christ smile? or something else?