It Is Accomplished!

Introduction

So anyone know any famous movie lines? Anyone know any famous movie lines before the character dies?

Guess these ones!

Terminator - “I’ll be back”

Titanic (guess which movie and character) - Jack’s words to Rose

Avengers End Games - ‘I don’t feel so good, Mr. Stark’

Harry Potter - Snape - ‘Look at me. You have your mother’s eyes’

Avengers End Games - ‘And I… am… Iron Man’ (after Thanos says ‘I am inevitable’).

Well, Jesus also has a very famous set of last words! ‘It is finished!’ What is finished?

Last week we talked about the power of Christ, the power of the gospel, and we talked about how even though it doesn’t look strong and powerful on the outside, it is the greatest power in this world. We talked about how Christ is greater than any physical power, any political power, or any financial power.

And that greatest power of Christ, is his power to save. It is the power to save each and every single one of us. And we find this power most powerfully displayed in his weakest moment - his death on the cross. This is the work that was finished when he said those last powerful words on the corss.

Let’s read the passage together. Read John 19:17-30.

It Is (Finished) Accomplished!

Now I want to focus on Jesus’ statement ‘it is finished’? Well, ‘finished’ doesn’t quite capture the entire meaning of the word that is used in the original Greek (Τετέλεσται). It also has the meaning of ‘accomplished’ or ‘fulfiled’ so ‘accomplished/fulfilled’ is probably the better translation. And when Jesus says ‘It is finished’, what does he show us?

It shows us that his great work of salvation that he has done for us is something that he has planned beforehand. It is not something he made up last minute, in a panic or a rush. We can see this throughout this entire passage because everything that happens in this scene was something planned by God, which is shown by the fact that so much of it had already been prophesied in the OT - it had already been predicted hundreds of years before.

Read John 19:23–24 “23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things,”

This was prophesied in Psalm 22:18 “18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” When David wrote Psalm 22, he had predicted this already, and the prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus.

Read John 19:28–29 “28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.”

This was also prophesied in the OT. Read Psalm 69:21 “21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.”

Even in this scene, the fact that a hyssop branch is used shows that Jesus is fulfilling so many of the symbols of the OT. If you remember the final plague in Egypt, God commanded the Jews to sacrifice a lamb, and using a hyssop branch to sprinkle its blood on their doorposts, and if they did that their house would not receive the 10th plague, which was the angel of the LORD killing the 1st born son. So here, the hyssop branch shows that Jesus is the lamb, by whose blood we avoid the punishment of God.

And if you read Isaiah 53, there are so many things that Jesus fulfills. We don’t have time to go through it all at the moment, but just some key verses:

Isaiah 53:3 “3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

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

And do you know since when God planned to save all of us? From the beginning of creation.

Read Genesis 3:15 “15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””

In this scene, after the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan, God curses Satan, and as part of a curse, God makes a promise that someone from Adam and Eve’s children will save humanity, and although Satan will bruise just his heel, this child will completely destroy Satan by crushing his head. So from the beginning of time, God knew that we would sin, and he had made a plan to save us.

And in this passage, even in the moment of death we see that God is in control - read John 19:30 “30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

It doesn’t say Jesus was killed; it doesn’t say that Jesus was a helpless victim. When Jesus knew that everything he had come into the world for had been accomplished, he himself gave up his spirit -> even his own death he had control over.

So even though in this scene of Jesus’ brutal death and suffering, it looks like he is just a helpless victim, he is completely in control. In fact, it was something that He had planned since the beginning of creation. And this is important for us in our lives, because there are times in our lives when things look bad, out of control, chaotic. There are times when things seem to be falling apart, and we really question whether God is really in control. There are times when we have to try and believe not because of, but in spite of, our cirumstances. And we can do that when we look at this passage, as this passage shows us that no matter what things look like on the surface, everything has been planned by God, predicted by God, allowed by God; everything is in his loving and perfect power.

It Is (Finished) - Accomplished - Salvation

And what is it that he has finished or accomplished for us? Salvation. Now we throw around that term a lot but what does it actually mean? To put it simply, salvation is God saving us - there is so much that goes into what we mean by God ‘saving’ us, but the term ‘salvation’ covers all of that. It is saving us from sin, darkness, and death.

And the key moment when God gave us salvation is on the cross. What is it about the cross that tells us what it means for God to save us?

To really know what we mean by God saving us, we need to see the sheer brutality and horror of the cross. Death by crucifixion during the Roman period, was such a horrible death that no Roman citizen was allowed to die by crucifixion - it was reserved for non-Roman people. We won’t go into it in detail today because it is just so graphic and gory, but it was one of the most painful ways to die, and for some it actually took them days to die on the cross.

And the cross was something to be extremely ashamed of, something to be extremely embarassed about. We don’t feel or know about this shame or embarassment of the cross today, because the culture has changed, and the cross has become a Christian symbol, something to be proud of. But back in those days, dying by crucifixion, was probably more shameful than anything we can find today in society: social media shaming and being cancelled on the internet, drug addiction, homelessness. Crucifixion was probably more shameful than any of those. But as Christians, we are not to shy away from what the cross was truly like, we are not to be ashamed of the cross, because in the very horrible and shameful embarassing cross, is the heart of our salvation. Why?

Because the brutality, the horror, the shame, the terror of the cross shows us what the judgement and punishment for sin deserves. Most of the time, we don’t really understand the seriousness of sin. But the cross clearly shows us the terrible reality of sin - the evil of sin, is deserving of just judgement and punishment, and the seriousness of sin and the seriousness of punishment, is shown to us on the cross. And that is something that we deserved.

But what else is shown on the cross? It is Christ who died, not us. We were deserving of that death in every single way, but it is not us that died on the cross, but Christ who died for me. He took on our punishment and sin instead of us, so that while he dies, we would live. He took on our punishment instead of us, so that while He thirsts, we can drink the waters of eternal life. He took on our punishment for us so that he could take care each and every one of us, just like he took care of his mother right before he died, by telling his disciple ‘Behold, your mother’. And all this was things that God had planned.

Let’s read Isaiah 53:5 “5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Conclusion

It is only by the cross we can understand and come to know God. God can seem distant, absent, uninvolved in our lives. God can seem cold, unloving, uncaring. But the cross pulls back all the curtains, and reveals to us the true heart of God. Read John 3:16 “16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is the heart of the gospel. This is the heart of John. This is the heart of Christianity. And this is the beating heart that gives us new life and keeps us alive in Christ. So I want you to remind yourself of this every day, every minute, every moment, because it is so easy to forget in the busy-ness and chaos of our lives. Remind yourself of this especially in the difficult moments in your life. Because after Jesus had died on the cross, he said ‘It is finished’ - his perfect plan of love, that he had planned from eternity, was finally finished and accomplished on the cross. And that sacrificial work that he performed is perfect, reliable, trustworthy, complete, and the more we trust in it, think about it, meditate on it, reflect on it, the more we will have peace and confidence in our lives, and bear the fruits of the gospel in our lives.

Ending song:

The power of your love

Discussion questions:

Is there anything else in John’s gospel that show that God is in complete control? Any other predictions or prophecies?

John 1:45 - says Jesus was prophesied by OT prophets

John 3:14 - Shows that the bronze serpent of Moses is actually symbolic and predicts Jesus’ crucifixion, see Numbers 21:8-9

John 12:14-15 - predicted by Zechariah 9:9.

John 13:18 - even the betrayal of Judas is predicted. See Psalm 41:9.

John 19:36 - this is predicted by Exodus 12:46 and Psalm 34:20.

John 19:37 - predicted by Zechariah 12:10.

Many more can be found in Matthew!

What practical things can I do to remember God’s love for me and his work on the cross in the busy-ness of my life?