A Fruitful Life: 4/1/07

The following is a message that I delivered at Grace Covenant Church at the 2005 Good Friday service. It has been mildly edited for the purpose of this blog. --DG

‘When he received the drink, Jesus said,
“It is finished.”
With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.’

It has been said that these words were
“The greatest words ever uttered by the Greatest Man who ever lived!”

Allow me to briefly set the stage: Just over 33 years before these words were spoken, an angel named Gabriel was sent from heaven to a young virgin girl in Nazareth in Galilee. Gabriel told this girl, who we know was called Mary, something that greatly troubled and confused her. But the angel comforted Mary and said, “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High!...” And to Mary’s betrothed, a man named Joseph of the line of David, the angel spoke, “Do not fear...that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins!” And so it was as the angel Gabriel had said.

As the years passed, this baby named Jesus, from the town of Nazareth, grew and became a man. At the right time, He called twelve men out from their professions to forsake all to follow him and become his disciples. He began to travel and testify to others about God and himself. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, even raised the dead to life....and then on a day which we refer to today as Palm Sunday, as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, we see what is likely the biggest false profession of faith in history, as the Jews there waved their palm branches high and threw there coats at his feet shouting, “Hosanna, Hosanna!”

Just five days later, those same people were standing on those same Jerusalem streets, but this time, there were no palm branches in their clenched fists and no shouts of joyful celebration. Instead, Jesus met a mob of his accusers and murderers. This time they shouted “Crucify him! Crucify him!” and it was done as they requested.

As we look at the Apostle John’s account of the last moments of Christ before His death, we are told that Jesus spoke three important words, “It is finished.” In the Greek text, however, the phrase actually just one word: tetelestai.

“IT...IS...FINISHED!” and he died there on that tree.

The question that is begged is simply, “WHAT is ‘finished’?”...

Well, I believe that Scripture clearly shows us elsewhere, outside of this passage in John, exactly what Christ meant when He made this proclamation.

Here we are going to look at 3 ways in which Jesus Christ finished the job.

I. He fulfilled prophesy.

Matthew Henry: "[At the moment of this utterance], The hatred of his persecutors had done its worst!" They had finished their evil deed of crucifying a faultless man.

But what many, if not all of his persecutors did not realize was that they were playing a huge role in fulfilling Old Testament prophesy.

The first prophetic words in the Bible were given by God Himself in the Garden:

Genesis 3:15—“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers; and he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”

Though God was specifically addressing the serpent here, He said it for Adam and Eve to hear the promise He was making so that in this they could hear the hint of grace and see the door of hope opened to them in spite of their tremendous fall from perfection. We are also led to understand that it was by faith in this promise that the patriarchs were justified—they believed God’s promise of a Savior to be true.

And now, here in our passage in John, we see the fulfillment of this promise—the seed of the woman was Jesus. And we can see as Christ hung on the cross with nails through both of his feet that Satan had now truly struck and bruised his heel. But at the same time, when Christ said “It is finished,” and he gave up his spirit, he put the head of Satan under his foot, and I believe that on the Last Day, He will crush him forever!

He fulfilled the first prophecy in the Bible in three simple words, “It is finished!”

Elsewhere in the Old Testament, we see prophesy pointing to the crucifixion of Christ.

Isaiah 53:5—“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”
(also Psalms 22 and John 3:14-15; 12:32-33)

When Christ said, “It is finished,” he was saying, “All of the types and prophesies of the Old Testament pointing to the sufferings of the Messiah, I have now accomplished and answered.”

It is finished!

II. He did the will of His Father.

Just a year ago a motion picture came to movie theaters that caused quite a stir in Hollywood

and around the world. The movie, of course, was The Passion of the Christ. Before its World Premiere, a number of outspoken Jews criticized the film for being anti-Semitic because it portrayed the Jewish people as the ones responsible for Christ’s crucifixion. Obviously, those offended Semites had not read the New Testament Gospel account very closely! And I wondered also why the Italians were not speaking out because it likewise portrayed the Roman soldiers as rude and violent and torturous, and just as responsible for putting Christ on that cross.

At the center of the controversy was the movie’s creator, a very wealthy and charismatic Catholic man named Mel Gibson. In a post-premiere television interview with Gibson, Dianne Sawyer asked him a very pointed question, “So who is responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus?”

Gibson gave a reply to the effect of, “Well, we all are; I am, you are, everyone is responsible for the death of Jesus.” While I was surprised and initially pleased with his bold response and agree with it from one perspective, I think that we need to consider a greater, ultimate perspective.

We must realize that the death of Christ was on one hand, the doing of sinful men while on the other hand, at the same time, the will of God the Father. Christ could have in an instance leaped from the cross upon which He hung and swept every last one of his murderers into hell! But he didn’t!

When Jesus gave his disciples the Lord’s Prayer—a prayer by which to pray by—he prayed to His Father, “Thy will be done.” And now, it was as if he was saying, “Thy will IS done!” Christ told his disciples in John 4:34,“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.” He was on a mission from the Almighty, a divine, heavenly errand which only He could complete! Later on in Acts we see that the whole thing was part of God’s plan and purpose:
Acts 2:23—“This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge...”

What an amazing God we have who would love us enough to give up His only Son to die for us! And what an amazing Savior we have who would do the will of His Father, though it meant humiliating Himself as a man and dying a torturous death on the cross! Thank God it is finished!

III. He finished the work of atonement. (John 19:30)

First, Christ did not come to merely set us an example. In his book, Manly Dominion, author and pastor Mark Chanski shows his readers how Christ was a good example for men to imitate and follow:

He lived his life serving and helping others, while simultaneously, He was the greatest leader to ever live!
He was obedient to God in all circumstances.
He was patient in suffering and affliction.
He was humble.
He was loving.
He set the standard for love by His own sacrifice.
Et cetera.

Throughout history there have always been those who refuse to see Christ as anything more than a good man and a wise Jewish teacher. They’ll say he was a role model, a good example, an icon of morality, but they will refuse to accept Him for who he really is!

In his gospel account, John gets to the point right off the top: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”

I was teaching this to my third and fourth grade Sunday School class just a few months ago, and they came to understand that the “Word” that John speaks of here is the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, God’s only Son! And we need to accept that Jesus is not only the Son of God, but is God Himself, otherwise, His atonement was useless and empty.

In the final hours leading up to Jesus’ death, he faced, what Chanski calls, “wholesale desertion.” First, one of his own twelve closest friends betrayed him for a meager 30 pieces of silver. Then, in the Garden, in the moments of extreme mental and emotional agony, his disciples slept while he prayed, and once they woke, they fled. Then one of his dearest disciples, Simon Peter, denied—not once, not twice, but THREE times—that he even knew this man named Jesus!

But the ultimate desertion came at Christ’s darkest hour—as he hung upon the cross under the unbearable weight of the sins of you and I as the sole object of His Father’s wrath. But it was at that moment of Christ’s death that mankind’s liberation from the bondage of sin was procured by a merciful Lord!

Spurgeon: The last word but one, "It is finished." There is the complete justification of the believer, since the work by which he is accepted is fully accomplished.

He hung there until His Father’s will was accomplished, until his errand was completed, until his chore was done, until His people had been redeemed, until He said resolutely, “IT...IS...FINISHED!”

Philip Graham Ryken: When Christ said, “It is finished,” he was not merely uttering a sigh of relief or a moan of resignation...He was announcing a victorious proclamation: “IT IS FINISHED!”

Secondly, He came to deliver us from the wrath of God and to take away our sins.

(Romans 1:18, 3:21-26, 5:6-11) When John the Baptist proclaimed in John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world,” he was giving Christ more than a name or title. He was supplying us with a wonderful description of Jesus the Messiah!

In the Old Testament, the priests would shed the blood of animals which symbolized a covering of one’s sins. But Christ’s death and the shedding of his blood did much more than cover the sins of sinners, it took their sins away entirely!

Matthew Henry says that with Christ’s statement, “It is finished,” came an end to transgression and the bringing in of an everlasting righteousness to those who call upon His name!

Many people have criticized Christianity for holding the cross in such high esteem. They see the cross as a symbol of death and suffering; but as Christians we look at the cross and see life! “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”

Hebrews 9.27-28—"Just as it is appointed for man to die once and then to face judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him!"

He came and died once to bear our sins on himself, and after that...It Is Finished!

APPLICATION:

Hebrews 12:1b-2—“...And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

We must understand that as Christians, we have been called of God to live a life holy and pleasing to him. We have been called out of our worldly pasts, out of our sinful lives, to be lights that reflect the Glory of God! However, it is important for us to acknowledge that this was not of our own choosing! If it were left to us, as many professing believers believe that it is, we would still be clinging to our much-loved sinful flesh, doing the works of evil, in complete rebellion to God’s Law, and under the full condemnation of God’s judgment! But God, in his infinite mercy and grace, decided before the foundation of the world, before the beginning of time and space, to call a people for His own, not by anything good in themselves, but entirely because it pleased Him to do so!

Though the Christian life is long and hard and full of trials and temptations, Christ said it: “It is finished!” God, through the death and resurrection of His Son, has given us an object to put our faith in, a faith that He Himself initiates in us and carries out to completion! He gave us this promise in I Thes. 5:24—“He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it!”

Let me share with you a quick story that Warren Wiersbe, in his commentary on John, gives. It’s the story of a rather eccentric evangelist who was once approached by a young man. The young man asked the evangelist flippantly, “What must I do to be saved?”The evangelist was quick to respond, “It’s too late!” and continued what he was doing. Naturally surprised, the boy asked, “Do you mean that it’s too late for me to be saved?!... Isn’t there something that I can do?!?”

“Too late,” said the evangelist. “It’s already been done...Now just believe!”

To the unbeliever: There is no one work or series of works that you could do that would add to the one work that Christ finished that day on Calvary! Just as “money can’t buy you love,” money can’t buy you heaven! Nothing can get you to heaven, save the righteousness of Jesus.

Anything that we in our own devices may attempt to do to earn our own salvation is done in vain. WHY?—Because Scripture says that all of our deeds are sinful, like filthy rags before Him who is holy.

But consider Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, who came to earth as a baby boy, lived a life of perfection, and then died a faultless man at the hands of angry sinners just like you and I! It was for you that He came! It was for you that he suffered! It was for you that he poured out his life unto death and rose again on the third day! Put your faith in Jesus! Turn from your sins with a repentant and sorrow-filled heart and call upon the name of the only one who saves you, the name of Jesus Christ!

And to you, dear Christian, take comfort here in that you do not have to work for your own salvation—It has already been worked out for you! Even if you tried your best to work toward heaven, as some teach that we can do, you would fall miserably short and would only find eternal death and damnation as the fruit of your labors! Stop trying to win His favor! Stop trying to climb to heaven! Jesus has already climbed that mountain for you and at the end of your life, He’ll carry you to the top with him!

In conclusion dear friends, when Christ cried, “Tetelestai!......It is Finished!” he sealed our pardon with his blood. It was all done. There was no more pain to be inflicted upon this spotless lamb. He had suffered all that the Father willed, and now He died with the weight of the sins of the world upon His back.

It had been completed. The law and prophesies of the Old Testament had been fulfilled perfectly throughout his life, and now, ultimately in his death.

The debt had been paid. The holiness and justice of God demanded a penalty for Adam’s sin; and now Christ, the one and only Son of God, had paid that ransom which relieved men from God’s eternal judgment.

The door had been opened. Now there was a way for sinners to directly meet with God the Father through God the Son. At Christ’s death, the curtain in the temple tore, symbolizing a new-found access to the very throne room of the Almighty. Christ became the new High Priest and Mediator between God and man.

And it could not be reversed. The death of Christ was once-and-for-all! It was a perfect, eternal atonement that could not and need not be altered or added to. Praise God for His Infinite Love!

The Captain of our Souls has already won the Victory! And on that Last Day, the trumpets will blare, the clouds will part, and Christ, the Servant-King, will ride triumphantly threw the ranks of His servants and will take each faithful follower up into Heaven to eternally live with Him!

He speaks now from on high,

“Behold, I am coming soon!

My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega,

the First and the Last,

the Beginning and the End.”

It is finished, indeed! Amen.