Jn 19.28-30.It Is Finished
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Introduction.
"It is finished."
This short phrase in English is only one word in the Greek New Testament.
Yet, I believe that it is one of the most important statements that our Lord ever uttered.
And certainly it is the most full of the seven sayings from the Cross.
"It is finished."
The purpose of this simple message tonight is to seek to discern the meaning of Jesus' statement.
Some have said that this was a cry of relief since the anguish of the cross was over.
Others have said that this was a cry of anguish since Jesus' ministry ended in failure.
But in my estimation, those interpretations do not simply fall short of the meaning B they are downright wrong.
Jesus did not die as helpless martyr.
This was not the last gasp of a worn-out life.
Well, what did Jesus mean?
The ancient Greeks long ago boasted that with the Greek they could give an ocean of meaning in a drop of language.
And truly this is what happened when Jesus uttered this word from the Cross.
Jesus was making a divine declaration that all for which He had come into the world was now accomplished.
Jesus hung that afternoon, suspended between heaven and earth;
Darkness veiled the glowing face of the sun.
And the very foundations of the earth rocked and reeled in the wake of that which Christ was working on those timbers.
It was a word that shook the foundations of hell itself.
That word is τετέλεσται.
The translation in your Bible, I'm sure, is very good.
But there is much involved here that cannot be rendered into a simple translation.
For in these words, our Lord Jesus Christ bespeaks the entirety of His work.
If you recall in the great prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in John 17, Jesus prayed,
"I have finished the work thou gavest me to do."
And this statement on the cross is an affirmation of that.
Please notice that Jesus did NOT say, "I am finished."
Now the rulers of the day thought Jesus was finished.
The demons of hell thought Jesus was finished.
But Jesus said,
"IT is finished."
Now, when we look at that statement, "It is finished," I want us to see this under two simple headings.
I. WHAT WAS FINISHED and
II. HOW IT WAS FINISHED.
(But the truth is, I'm only going to get to the first one.)
First,
I. WHAT WAS FINISHED?
Jesus said, "It is finished."
What was it that was finished?
I mean, this is a pretty open-ended statement.
There are, no doubt, many things that we could say here, but I believe that the things that were finished may be summed up under three categories.
And the first category of things that were finished were
A. The Prophecies Concerning His Sacrifice.
Look at John 19:28,
"After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, "I thirst."
And look at verse 30:
"When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished."
The "therefore" lets us know that there was one last prophecy that had to be fulfilled before Jesus could die.
And it seems like such a little thing on the surface.
But friend, the phrase "that it might be fulfilled" occurs over and over in the Bible.
You see, every jot and tittle of prophecy had to be fulfilled.
Of course, we do not have time tonight to mention all the prophecies concerning Jesus that were fulfilled by Him.
But the prophecies concerning His crucifixion are amazing in and of themselves.
Take Psalm 22 for example.
Psalm 22:1 says,
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Psalm 22:7, 8 say,
"7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him."
That's precisely hat the said of Jesus when they crucified Him.
Notice Psalm 22:14,
"14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels."
And when Jesus died, blood and water poured out.
Another thing that crucifixion does is disjoint the bones.
Notice Psalm 22:16,
"16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet."
The point I'm trying to make is this:
As you read the 22nd Psalm, it sounds like it was written by an eyewitness to the crucifixion of Christ.
But the amazing thing is that when David wrote this, the Jews exercised capital punishment by stoning.
In fact, crucifixion itself was the Roman form of execution, and it was never even thought of when David penned this psalm.
Yet, here is a detailed description of what happened to Christ.
Look at Psalm 22:18,
"18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture."
And so, down to the most minute detail of giving Jesus vinegar to drink, and the guards gambling for Jesus' robe, God gave an exact prophecy of Christ's death.
And one of the points I want to make is that just as the first prophecies about Christ were fulfilled literally, I am just as sure that those prophecies concerning His second coming will be fulfilled literally.
And one of the things that Jesus meant when He said, "It is finished" is that all the prophecies about His crucifixion were completed.
But there is something else that was finished, and that was
B. The Payment for Sin.
My dear friend, the Bible makes it abundantly that there is a penalty for sin.
Sin is real and there is a penalty for it.
People tend not to be aware of the fact they are sinners.
[No, they know they're not perfect, but they do not consider their "imperfections" as a confrontation to a holy God.]
They are not aware of their sin.
Now they tend to be very aware of whatever neurosis they may have.
Bi-polar
ADD
ADS
Manic depressive
Victims of whatever abuse
They are very aware of that.
But most are NOT aware of personal sin.
But sinners we are.
And the penalty for that sin is death B eternal death.
When the very first couple, Adam and Eve, God warned them that if they sinned they would die that very day.[1]
And they sinned and they died.
Over and over, the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death.
Every time the Jews sacrificed an animal to God, they were reminded of Ezekiel 18:20, "the soul that sinneth, it shall die."
Every Jew who ever walked on the earth knows that the wages of sin is death.
My dear friend, there is an awful, binding, bleeding penalty for sin.
And because God is holy, He must punish sin.
20th century Christendom tends to think of God as some kind of celestial teddy bear, all cuddly and cute, and lovey dovey.
And many today treat the church as some sort of support group for the latest abuse victim or whatever neurosis that happens to be faddish at the moment.
And our society today tends to think of God as all sentiment and no backbone.
But dear friend, if you doubt that God will punish sin, you're woefully ignorant of two things:
15 You're ignorant of just how serious sin really is;
16 You're ignorant of just how holy God is.
And while God is truly a God of love, God is also holy and just.
In fact, the love of God springs from His holiness.
And it is God who says, dear friend, that the wages of sin is death.
And friend, I want you to know that since the payment for sin is death, then someone's got to die.
Now, most folks don't believe that.
And they try to do all kinds of things to pay for their sins.
But there is only one payment for sin B death.
You see, the payment for sin is not baptism....
Nobody dies when you're baptized, and the payment for sin is death.
The wages of sin is not joining a church...
Nobody dies when you join a church and the payment for sin is death.
The wages of sin is not penance...
Because nobody dies when you do penance and the payment for sin is death.
And sin brings death B eternal death.
Now, death in the Bible NEVER means a cessation of existence.
It does not mean annihilation. That idea has its roots in humanism and atheism reaching as far back as the ancient Greek philosophers.
No, death in the Bible refers to a separation from God in a place of eternal torment and punishment called hell.
And the Bible teaches clearly that if a person dies without Jesus, he goes there.
And friend, that's what Jesus paid on the cross.
When Jesus said, "It is finished," He was saying that the anguish and horror of the cross was finished.
There is not a one of us in this congregation tonight that can even remotely understand what Jesus endured on the cross that day.
I believe that only the damned in hell can begin to know what Jesus took on Himself.
And even they don't know.
Because an individual in hell tonight is only paying for his own sins.
But our blessed Lord Jesus took ALL of the sins of al the ages of all the populations upon Himself.
2 Cor. 5:21 says,
"For he had made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
Jesus took upon Himself all the sins of al the ages.
Every murder,
Every blasphemy
Every rape
Every immoral thought and deed
Every sin.
My friend, I cannot explain it...
But in those hours on the cross, all of the sins of all the ages were distilled upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
And with the bearing of those sins upon Calvary came all of the punitive wrath of the thrice holy God.
Every punishment that every man,
every woman,
every boy,
Every girl would ever have to pay for sin...
Jesus paid!
When I'm trying to say is this.
That if you and I were to die outside of Jesus Christ, you and I have to pay for our sins.
Why? Because the wages of sin is death.
And sin has eternal consequences.
And the just and righteous penalty we would pay would be an eternity in separation from God in everlasting torment and anguish.
But our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ paid in just six hours, all of the hell and all of the anguish that you and I would suffer fro all eternity.
How is that?
I don't know.
But turn with me to Psalm 49:7 B
"7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: 8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)"
Now, I admit that the language in the King James is somewhat convoluted B but it's also convoluted in the Hebrew.
But it is clear that this is talking about giving to God a ransom for a soul
And verse 8 says,
"For the redemption of their soul si precious, and it ceaseth for ever."
The NIV says, "No payment is ever enough."
And that's a little more clear, but the KJV is more accurate.
The King James, "It ceaseth for ever" is King James talk for "It's always stopping" which means that it never stops.
For example,
When I'm driving down the road and press the brakes on my car, I say I'm stopping, but in reality I am still going.
As long as I am in the process of slowing down the car, I am stopping the car, but the car is still moving.
I mean it hasn't stopped yet, right?
If you understand that, nod this way.
OK, I'm in the process of stopping the car, but it hasn't stopped yet.
But if I'm always in the process of stopping the car, then in reality the car never stops.
It is in the process of stopping all the time, so it never really stops, it is in the process of ceasing for ever, only it never ceases completely.
This is the same thing B the payment for a soul is precious it stops for ever.
Always in the process of being paid, but it never gets paid off.
Listen to how the NIV captured the thought here:
"No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him B the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough."
You see, if I have to pay the price for my sin I have to pay it for ever, but Jesus paid it in a few hours.
Now, how could He do that?
Well, frankly, being God helps. Amen?
It not only helps, but it is demanded.
Seriously, sin has eternal consequences, and I am finite.
And there is not way a finite being can pay an infinite price.
Therefore, if the payment for sin was ever to be paid in full, God would have to do it, because only God is infinite.
Because you will remember that Jesus said in Matt. 19:26,
"With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."
You'll remember when God announced to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son, they questioned God and God asked,
"Is any thing too hard for the Lord?"
Well, is it?
Amen?
That's a good question.
Because remember that since Jesus is God, Jesus is infinite.
And once we remember that Jesus is infinite then the whole things makes sense.
Because Jesus, being infinite, could pay in a finite period of time what I, being finite, would have to pay in an infinite period of time.
And Jesus paid the entire payment for sin.
All the sin of the world was distilled upon Jesus.
And all the wrath of God for all the sin of the world was also distilled on Jesus.
Bless God! Jesus did not just take my sin;
Jesus took OUR sin.
Understand something, my friend B
It was not the physical suffering of Jesus that paid the price for our sin that day.
Those things took place in those first few hours.
And in all of the beatings, Jesus never said a word.
In the scourging, the Scriptures record that Jesus uttered not a whimper.
The Bible says that as a lamb before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not His mouth.
The NT doesn't tell us, but the OT says that they plucked out his beard.
Isaiah says that His visage was marred more than any human being.[2]
But the Bible tells us He said not a word.
But then at midday, the sun refused to shine, and the glowing face of the sun was hidden.
And the veil of midnight and darkness crept across the face of the earth, symbolizing the greater spiritual darkness Jesus was in.
And Isaiah 53 tells us that it was the soul of Jesus that was made an offering for sin.
And I tell you that when the soul of Jesus was made an offering for sin, it was at that time that Jesus cried out those words from Psalm 22,
"My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, the tongue cannot tell;
artists cannot paint;
lyricists cannot write;
And words cannot tell the utter midnight,
And the agony,
And the suffering that Jesus endured on that cross for you and for me.
Jesus Christ hung on that cross between God and man B forsaken by God and deserted by man.
And Jesus died alone for sin . . . suspended between heaven and earth.
And God the Father forsook God the Son.
The Bible says in Habakkuk 1:13 that the Lord is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity.
And since Jesus became sin for us, He was separated from God for us.
In the 23rd Psalm, David could say,
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me."
But Jesus couldn't say that.
Jesus walked that lonesome valley B alone.
And so many today seem to think that God will not punish sin?
Listen, very carefully.
If there could ever have been a time when God might have wanted to go soft on sin, it would have been when His Own precious, blessed son hung on that cross.
It would have been when the soul of His own Son paid the price for your sin and my sin.
But He didn't do soft then, and He won't go soft if you have to pay the price for your sin.
If God spared not the angels that sinned B He won't spare you.
If God spared not His own son B he won't spare you, if you pay the price for your sin.
Jesus paid that awful price.
And finally, at the end of this time, when the price had been paid, and Jesus died.
Not only the physical death, but the spiritual death and separation from God the Father.
Finally at that time, He cried, " τετέλεσται," "It is finished."
Praise God He'll never suffer again.
Praise God He'll never go to the cross again.
The payment for sin was finished.
But I want to tell you that not only were
A. The Prophecies Concerning His Sacrifice finished, and
B. The Payment for Sin finished, but
C. The Plan of Salvation was also finished.
Remember Romans 1:16 B
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
When Jesus died and rose again, all that was necessary for you to be forgiven and be saved was done.
You see, dear friend, Jesus didn't come as a great teacher;
Jesus didn't come to be our great example;
Jesus didn't come to be the great healer.
Though He was all of those.
Jesus came to be our Redeemer.
Jesus didn't come to deliver from some disorder.
Jesus came for one reason and one reason only B to seek and to save that which was lost.[3]
And to do that, He had to pay the price for your sin and my sin that we might be forgiven.
And Jesus did that, and when He did, He said, "It is finished."
τετέλεσται .
And the form of this word means that it is completely finished.
There's nothing else to do;
and it never has to be repeated.
It's done.
The wages of sin is death, and Jesus died the death.
But there's one last thing that Jesus meant when he said, "It is finished."
Not only the prophecies of His sacrifice;
Not only the payment for sin;
And not only the plan of salvation, but also
D. The Power of Satan was finished.
Hebrews 2:14 speaks of Christ who
". . . through death, destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil."
I must stop because my time is gone.
But dear friend, when Jesus said, "It is finished," He also meant the devil is finished.
And by that I mean he is a defeated foe.
The word "destroyed" in Heb. 2:14 does not mean to annihilate but it means to render helpless.[4]
And I want you to know that, through Jesus, the days of the devil using you like a ping-pong ball are finished, too!
Amen? Why?
Because it is finished.
And because it's finished, there's absolutely nothing left for you to do.
But there's everything for you to receive.
John 1:12 says,
"But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."
Friend, Jesus paid it all . . . there's nothing left for you to pay.
Jesus did it all . . . there's nothing left for you to do.
But to have what Jesus did to apply to your sins and your life, you must repent of your sins and receive Jesus Christ into your life.
And by receiving Jesus into your life, you are willing to turn from your sis and make a full-faith commitment to Jesus Christ B turning your life's control over to Him and letting Him call the shots.
And when you ask Jesus to come into your life that way, God takes the blood of Jesus Christ that was offered for you and washes away every sin for ever.
The Bible says in Isaiah 1:18,
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
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[1]Gen. 2:17.
[2]Isaiah 52:14.
[3]Luke 19:10.
[4]καταργήσῃ (Heb. 2:14). The term always denotes a nonphysical destruction by means of a superior force coming in to replace the force previously in effect, as e.g., light destroys darkness (Thayer).