It is Finished: Good Friday Message

Intro

I have to tell you, Good Friday has always been a paradoxical day for me. What do I mean when I say that?

Have you ever felt two completely different ways about the same thing at the same time before? Or has there ever been a situation where your pre-supposition about something proved to be the exact opposite of what would make the most sense.

In fact the name “Good” Friday is a paradox. When you and I consider what we are remembering today, really it is a tragedy.

We are celebrating, and even the use of that word doesn’t seem right, but we celebrate the brutal execution of not just an innocent man, but the very Son of God.

And what makes it even more strange is that when I think of what took place…

Arrested, beaten, stripped naked

Whipped, flogged, crown of thorns

Carry cross, fatigued

Nailed, hung, suffocated

The climax, IT IS FINISHED!

John 19:29-30 NLT 29 A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. 30 When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

When I think of that, it gives me peace. What should give me nightmares, gives me peace. Why?

Big Idea

Because I am forgiven, and get to go to heaven? I think that is the most obvious reason. That as a human being who has violated God’s word over and over again, I can be forgiven and receive eternal life as if I never sinned.

That is reason enough to celebrate. And for many Christians this is as far as they go theologically when they think about Jesus' death on the cross.

But the truth is, what Jesus did on that cross, and what we are remembering tonight is about so much more than our individual salvation. It has cosmic ramifications. When he said it is finished. What was finished, his suffering, his pain, his life, perhaps our guilt? No...

Jesus’ death on the cross didn’t just pay the penalty for your sin, it destroyed it.

Jesus’ death defeated sin, evil, and death. It broke the hold it has over the human heart.

Creation itself was changed at the cross on a cosmic level. Nothing was the same as a result of the cross.

New Testament Scholar N.T. Wright describes this cosmic salvation by saying this “Something happened when Jesus died as a result of which the world is a different place. No one realized until Easter day, and it took them a while to realize even then, but something happened.

And this is very difficult for us to talk about, because it’s to do with there being dark forces in the world which we humans give power to by worshiping them—whether we call them gods or whether we just think of them as money, and sex, and power, or whatever it is.

And then they have power over us. We worship them, which is idolatrous; our humanness fractures, which is sin. How are we rescued from that? ... Jesus rescues us from all the things that get in the way of our being the genuine human beings we are supposed to be”

Did you catch what he says here? That Jesus' death on the cross rescues us, not just for heaven, but rescues us for this life too by destroying the power of the very thing that gets in the way of us being who we were always created to be. He destroys the power of sin.

The penalty of our sin is removed, but so is the curse. It has been broken.

Power in the Text

The apostle Paul describes this cosmic salvation over the forces of darkness in the book of Colossians. Speaking of God, Paul says…

Colossians 1:13-14 NLT 13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

We were the spoils of a spiritual war, like exiles in a kingdom that wasn’t made for us. We were captured by the enemy of God and made slaves in his kingdom. God the Father not only forgives our sin because of the cross, he shatters the chains and unlocks the prisons that our sin had held us in since the fall.

He takes us by the hand and leads us out of this kingdom of darkness and takes us to the kingdom we were always meant to live in, the kingdom of God with his son Jesus.

Paul goes on to say to the believers in his letter to the Colossians...

Colossians 2:13-15 NLT 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Not only are we given new citizenship, but he strips our captors of the power to ever enslave us, rule over us, or hurt us ever again.

Why it Matters

Jesus proclaims this overcoming of evil in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus states that his disciples will go through tribulation, but he leaves them with peace. This is a unique peace; even though they may go through tribulation and persecution for believing in him, he (Jesus) has overcome the world.

John 16:33 NLT 33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

The Greek words for “victory,” “conquer,” and “overcome” all come from the same family. The words nika, nikē and nikaō paint a picture of receiving victory, much like an army in battle.

The word world is derived from the Greek term kosmos. New Testament scholar Robert Cook gives a definition of the context of “world” within John, stating, “It is a way of life ordered apart from and contrary to God, ruled by Satan, and encompassing all mankind who are not in the family of God, through faith in Jesus Christ”

In other words, because of what Jesus did on the cross, everything about this life that runs contrary and in opposition to God has lost its power to hurt us or control us. The world here literally means all that has been created.

Yet for so many of us, we live as if coming to faith in Christ changed nothing.

Seriously, we accept what he did, we believe him for salvation but then we live our lives as if nothing has changed. As if we are still bound and enslaved to the same sin we were enslaved to before we came to faith in Christ.

We live as if Jesus' death changed nothing other than maybe where we end up when we die.

The apostle Paul in his letter to the young Pastor Timothy wrote to warn him about a certain type of Christian, ones as he put it that have a form of godliness, but denying its power, have nothing to do with people like that.

Why would he say that? Why would he say to avoid people like that? Because he knew that people who claim to be believers, yet live like they aren’t, are dangerous because they can lull others into this false belief that Jesus did not accomplish what the Bible claims he accomplished.

When Jesus cried out on that cross 2,000 years ago “it is finished”, he was saying that for a time sin, you held people captive. For a time evil, you spread like a cancer. For a time Satan you had your way. You were in control. You in your defiance of a Holy God plunged all of creation into darkness.

Enslaved God’s children and wreaked havoc upon the earth. But that time is over. By saying “it is finished”, Jesus marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. The end to darkness, sin, and death. The beginning of freedom, victory, and life everlasting.

One where holiness and righteousness would prevail. One where grace, mercy, and love would rule the day. One where God’s children would be set free forever. And sin, evil, and death would lose their power with every person who would put their faith and their hope in God’s son, in Jesus.

Application and Closing

This is what we are celebrating today. Yes his death was brutal and hard to imagine. But it was that death that…

Gave us life

Set us free

Heals us

Empowers us

Let’s live like it. Let’s stop living like nothing has changed and start living like everything has changed.

May Good Friday be a constant reminder of the new life Jesus died to give us. And what better way to remember that than by doing one of the last things Jesus taught his disciples to do so that they would remember him and remember his sacrifice.

We are going to celebrate with communion...