TETELESTAI

TETELESTAI John 19:28-30 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Generous use of Chuck Swindoll, The Darkness and the Dawn; John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ; John MacArthur, The Murder of Jesus; Bruce Milne, Commentary on "John" (Inter-Varsity Press) April 13, 2003 Palm Sunday [Additional Notes] Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction Time and again we've heard it, from President Bush to General Franks, from Ari Fleischer to the soldiers with their boots in the sand: "We are here to accomplish our mission." The beauty of a clearly defined purpose is that you can always know how to respond. Whether it's making a tactical decision in battle or answering the sly question of a news reporter-you know what to do or say, because of your clearly defined mission. The other nice thing about knowing clearly what your mission and goals are is, you know when you're done. The Blues Brothers said they were on a mission from God. The Men in Black said they were on a mission to save the world from the invasion of extra-terrestrials, but what Jesus came to do had nothing to do with fiction. The Son of God came to earth to carry out the most important mission that ever existed. We've studied over the past few weeks the events leading up to the final minutes of Christ's incarnated earthly life. The apostle John records for us some of His very last words. "Later, knowing that all was completed, (TELOS) and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips." [webmasters note: John 19:28] Why would Jesus mention His thirst and receive a drink of this wine when earlier He had rejected the drink of gall offered Him? Two reasons: one, He was thirsty. One of the less obvious forms of suffering designed into crucifixion was complete dehydration and the resulting misery of having every cell of your body cry out for fluid. Jesus experienced the full measure of human limitations in His human body. The second reason, John tells us (verse 28), "so that the Scripture would be fulfilled." That scripture would be Psalm 69 - "my throat is parched . . . and gave me vinegar for my thirst…" (verses 3, 21). Psalm 22:13 - "My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death." So, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, is thirsty. At a natural level, extreme thirst was completely understandable, given what he was going through. But John sees deeper than the natural. Jesus not only fulfills scripture, but plays out a profound spiritual irony as well. He had said to the woman at the well that He could give her "living water that would well up to eternal life" (John 4:10-14). Later, at the Feast of Tabernacles, He said in a loud voice, "If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." (John 7:37-38) This admission of His desperate need for what He had said He could provide for others without limit is the final shot of pain and humiliation that Jesus would undergo before dying. "When he had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' (TETELESTAI) With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." [webmasters note: John 19:30] Let's consider for the next few minutes exactly what it was that was "finished." His Mission of Obedience A constant theme in the teaching of Jesus was that of obeying God. He said on more than one occasion that He was absolutely committed to doing whatever the Father led Him to do. And He proved that when He decided in the Garden, in the face of overwhelming temptation, to submit to the Father's will (Matthew 26:42). Philippians 2:8 says Jesus became "…obedient to death-even death on a cross!" Hebrews 5:8 says "…he learned obedience from what he suffered…" and was made perfect. Now, with a full, albeit short by most standards, life behind Him, He confesses, "It is finished." I am not suggesting that, having completed 33 years of obedience to God, Jesus was glad it was over so that He could relax a little. No. His obedience to the Father goes on eternally, but (please understand this) He no longer has to do it from human frailty and facing the temptation and frustration of this world. Hey, that sounds like us! To a degree, we engage this same process. We give our lives to Him and receive the salvation Jesus offers, and we proceed to live a life of obedience to Him, empowered by His Spirit in us. Romans 1:5 says we operate in the "…obedience that comes from faith…" Then, when this life is over for us, we enter into eternal perfection with Him. There, obedience is no longer difficult like it is here. Our obedient service to Him will no longer be by the sweat of our brow. We'll be free from the carnal restraints that make obedience laborious in this world. That's reward enough, and motivation enough, to stay obedient for the rest of our lives. Listen one more time to Hebrews 5 - "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him." (Hebrews 5:8-9) Jesus taught us what that qualifying obedience is. When His disciples asked Jesus once "What must we do to do the works God requires?" (This is obedience), His answer was this: "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6:29) I want to say it as clearly as I can - this is how you obey God even if you have done nothing all your life but disobey Him - believe in Jesus. Trust Him. When you do, you will not have to worry about being able to obey Him in other things, because you will have the "obedience that comes from faith" (Romans 1:5) More than that, you will have His Holy Spirit living in you, giving you the supernatural power you need to live a life of obedience. One of these days I will leave this world and go to be with the Lord. I think that as I leave this troubled world I will also say, "It is finished". The Mission of Conquering Satan The presence of Satan and His fallen angels, as well as demons, in this world has rendered obedience an unreachable goal. But, as soon as sin makes its entrance into the Garden, God makes a promise that He will ultimately deal a death blow to the enemy. He says to the serpent (and to the woman who is listening in), "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." (Genesis 3:15) Theologians call this the PROTO-EVANGEL (the first appearance of the gospel). I find it immensely interesting that most scholars agree that the Garden of Eden was probably in the area of Baghdad, Iraq, where the Tigris and the Euphrates join. When I think of the drama of the crucifixion, really the final move of both God and Satan on the chessboard of fallen earth, I always get giddy. Here was Satan, making His move, finally arranging through Judas and the other countless circumstances he had meticulously calculated. He is convinced he is the victor as he crucifies the Son of God. But what he is about to discover is that he only thought he crucified Jesus. On Good Friday, Satan thought he had God in checkmate. But God has positioned His pieces on the board, too. And the crucifixion of Jesus was actually His plan (don't forget Isaiah 53:10 - "It was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer…"). By the time the Devil realizes that he was not the victor, but the victim, Jesus had already paid for the sins of the world. All the men and women whom Satan thought were his prisoners, safely locked up in hell's anteroom, were storming through the gates that Jesus tore down! These are the gates that Jesus said would not prevail against Him and His gospel! I can't help but draw a clumsy comparison with Saddam Hussein. There he was, the oppressor of millions, a killer and a madman, a tyrant and a dictator. With a horribly misplaced sense of power, he draws his enemy to his borders. Because of his hideous pride he will not submit to the justice the world around him imposes on him. Instead he sits in his bunker, beaming out telecasts, brimming with confidence of military superiority and breathing out threats against the coalition. Before he knows it, his elite army has splintered., his city (including his palaces) is decimated, and his enemy is across the street. He checks out, running through underground tunnels with his tail tucked between his legs. No more pride. Meanwhile, those helpless souls he had in prisons of fear and manipulation (and some in literal prisons) are being set free! Look at their faces! They are ecstatic! They are being delivered! Of course they're plundering the offices of those tyrants, getting the spoils of war that they deserve. 'You know what? Since Jesus has conquered Satan, we too are deliriously happy-we who have been delivered from the oppressive state of sin and death. We are overjoyed at the prospect of our deliverance and our future hope. And we are plundering the enemy's goods, because we are sharing the gospel with other prisoners and setting them free! What a glorious representation is being broadcast by the news agencies these days! Look a them-dancing in the streets, celebrating freedom from evil! That is a picture of us, saved by grace through faith in our conqueror. Colossians 2:15: "Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." When I see Iraqis dragging the decapitated head of Saddam's statue through the streets, I think of this passage, and rejoice. Hebrews 2:14-15 - "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." The Mission of Atonement The Old Testament sacrificial system provided for offerings daily weekly and monthly as well as at special feasts. One of the types of sacrifice was the cereal offering, consisting of gain and oil. The other four sacrifices, though, involved flesh and blood. The worshipper would bring the live animal as an offering. He would place it before the priest, then, before killing it, he would lay hands (or a hand) on the animal. In this way the worshipper identified with the sacrifice, and solemnly designating the victim as standing in for him as his substitute. Many believe the laying on of hands was a symbolic transfer of the sins of the worshipper to the animal. When the animal was slain, the sins were atoned. Atonement simply means the penalty of sins has been paid, and the sinner is no longer culpable. He is forgiven. He is set free from the obligation of dying for his own sin. The clearest passage that dealing with this act of atonement is in Leviticus 17. Verse 11 says, "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life." The Passover Feast commemorates the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage (all of you have read the scripture in Exodus 12, and/or seen the film "Prince of Egypt"-which, by the way, does an excellent job of relating the historical Passover). On that evening all of the first-born children in Egypt died, except for those in the homes where the people had done what God told them to do. The obedient ones, the people of Israel, took a lamb without blemish, sacrificed it and then applied the blood to the doorframes of their homes. The blood signaled that the angel of death would have to "pass over" their home. But the heart of the event is that the lamb "substituted" for the first born in that house, because it was its blood that prevented death from taking the child living there. What you may not know is that the New Testament clearly identifies the death of Christ as the fulfillment of this prophetic feast of Passover. John the Baptist prophesied this very early on at the outset of Jesus' ministry when he hailed Jesus as the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29, 36). In the book of Revelation, Jesus is worshipped as the "slain Lamb", who by his blood has purchased men for God (Revelation 5:6, 9, 12; 12:11). Paul is emphatic in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, when he says, "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the festival…" God takes great pains to make it absolutely clear that Jesus is the Passover Lamb, and the millions of previously sacrificed lambs were only a shadow, a picture, a forecast, of the One who was to come. The genuine Lamb of God, who was supremely without blemish. "By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." (Hebrews 10:14) Don't miss the fact that Jesus gives His life as our substitute atonement during the Passover Feast. In fact, his tortured body hangs on the cross at the very time during when the Passover lambs were being slaughtered (John 13:1; 18:28; 19:14, 31). This was no accidental happenstance-Jesus dying on the cross at Passover. It had been deliberately, premeditatedly planned by God since the serpent beguiled Eve and Adam. God made a solemn promise in the Garden on that day-that the heel of the son of woman would be bitten (the suffering of the crucifixion), but that that same heel would crush the serpent's head. And it happened when Jesus died. It was in those dreadful hours that Jesus bore the sin, disgrace, guilt and punishment of all the sins of mankind. And Jesus knew it all along. He had said earlier in His earthly ministry, that He had come "…to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45) He said that He came to "…do the will of Him who sent me…" (John 4:24) In John 5:36 He said the Father had given Him "works…to accomplish" and by chapter 17, near the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus said, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do." (John 17:4) The word Jesus used in saying "It is finished" is the word TETELESTAI, from TELOS, which means perfected or completed. What Jesus was saying with dying breaths was, "What I came to accomplish is now finished." TETELESTAI was a very common word in that day. When a citizen paid his taxes, the tax collector would take the a papyrus on which his bill was written out, and turn it into a receipt. He did that by writing across the face of the paid bill "TETELESTAI" which meant "PAID IN FULL". When Jesus said "It is finished," He meant far more than His incarnated pre-resurrection, human life; and He meant more than the ordeal of His six hours of suffering. He meant the PLAN, the BIG PLAN OF GOD had come to its completion. The sins of every person of faith, including you and me, were PAID IN FULL. "He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself." "But when this priest [Jesus] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God." (Hebrews 7:27; 10:12) TETELESTAI! A boy and his father were driving down a country road on a beautiful spring afternoon, when a bumblebee flew in the car window. The little boy, who was allergic to bee stings, was petrified. The father quickly reached out, grabbed the bee, squeezed it in his hand, and then released it. The boy grew frantic as it buzzed by him. Once again the father reached out his hand, but this time he pointed to his palm. There stuck in his skin was the stinger of the bee. "Do you see this?" he asked. "You don't need to be afraid anymore. I've taken the sting for you." We do not need to fear death anymore. Christ has died and risen again. He has taken the sting from death. Ron Rand writes in For Fathers Who Aren't in Heaven: "Michael usually takes his family out each week to see a movie or sports event. When they come home, they make a fire in the fireplace and pop popcorn. During one of these evenings, little Billy made a real pest of himself in the car on the drive home, so he was punished by being sent to sit in his bedroom while the rest of the family had popcorn. "After the family had the fire going and the popcorn ready, Michael went back to Billy's room and said, 'You go out with the others. I'll stay here and take your punishment.' Conclusion To close this morning, I want to bring an exhortation to each of us. We must realize that, because of what Christ has done for us, a whole new possible way of living has been opened to us. Because of the Cross and His obedience, our sins are forgiven, we can walk in the power and leading of His Holy Spirit and we have hope for eternity. I commend to us this morning the words of the apostle Paul at 2 Timothy 4:7-8…"I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. New there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." There is coming for all of us a time when we will say "It is finished." Whether or not we are ready to meet our Father and Judge in that very moment depends 100% on what we do with Jesus' invitation. He has paid the price of your admission to eternal forgiveness and joy in heaven. But you must receive it. In January 2000, leaders of Charlotte, North Carolina, invited their favorite son, Billy Graham, to a luncheon. Billy initially hesitated to accept the invitation because he struggles with Parkinson's disease. But the Charlotte leaders said, "We don't expect a major address. Just come and let us honor you." So he agreed. After wonderful things were said about him, Graham stepped to the rostrum, looked at the crowd, and said, "I'm reminded today of Albert Einstein, the great physicist who this month has been honored by Time magazine as the Man of the Century. Einstein was once traveling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of each passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn't find his ticket, so he reached in his other pocket. It wasn't there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn't find it. Then he looked in the seat by him. He couldn't find it. The conductor said, 'Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I'm sure you bought a ticket. Don't worry about it.' Einstein nodded appreciatively. "The conductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket. The conductor rushed back and said, 'Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don't worry. I know who you are. No problem. You don't need a ticket. I'm sure you bought one.' Einstein looked at him and said, 'Young man, I too know who I am. What I don't know is where I'm going.'" Billy Graham continued, "See the suit I'm wearing? It's a brand new suit. My wife, my children, and my grandchildren are telling me I've gotten a little slovenly in my old age. I used to be a bit more fastidious. So I went out and bought a new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion. You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I'll be buried. But when you hear I'm dead, I don't want you to immediately remember the suit I'm wearing. I want you to remember this: I not only know who I am, I also know where I'm going."   [Back to Top]