It is Finished

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SUNDAY 15 OCTOBER 2023 AM – MR GILBERT BECK

JOHN 19 VERSES 28 – 37

I want to share with you for a short time the text “It is finished”.  The sixth saying of the Lord on the cross of Calvary.  One word in the Greek originally.  He had finished all the Lord had asked him to accomplish on the cross of Calvary.  You need to be saved, put your faith in Christ’s finished work on Calvary.  You cannot do anything to save yourself. When Jesus spoke this word it was one of triumph.  Jesus died with the cry of the victor on his lips.  He had fully accomplished the work he came to do.  The greatest single word ever uttered.  There are 4 things I want to consider.

 

First it is the word of completion.

 

He had finished all the sufferings necessary for the atonement for our sins.  He would no more experience pain, scouring and affliction.  We could never begin to think of what Christ had to suffer.  He would no more have to suffer the mockery of the Jews.  Once for all suffered for us on Calvary’s cross.  No more suffer the divine wrath of God.  No-one knows what he suffered at the hands of God in those hours of darkness.  No-one knows the depths he suffered.  His suffering at the hands of man was finished.  He had fulfilled all the prophecies concerning his death.  We see that over in Psalm 22 – being forsaken in verse 1 “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”  That was Jesus’ own cry on the cross.  Forsaken of God.  That we would never be forsaken.  There was the taunts – verses 7 and 8 “All they that see me laugh me to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head saying He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.”  In Luke 23 verse 35 “And the people stood beholding.  And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.”  They taunted him to come down from the cross.  If he had come down from the cross we would not be here, we would have no message to preach.  He died in my room and stead.  He was my substitute on the cross.  The cruelty of men that gathered around the cross.  Verses 12 and 13 “Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.  They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.”  The terrible treatment he received.   Although he was the Son of God they treated him as a criminal.  We see his crucifixion in verse 16 “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”  You would think the Psalmist was actually sitting at the foot of the cross although he wrote some thousand years before the crucifixion of the Lord.  We see the soldiers gambling for his clothes – verse 18 “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”  All prophesied and in John 19 verse 24 “They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them and for my vesture they did cast lots.  These things therefore the soldiers did.”  We see in verse 14 that not a bone would be broken in his body – “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.”  Think of the pain of having a bone out of joint yet the Lord’s bones were not broken.  Psalm 34 verse 20 “He keepeth all his bones; not one of them is broken.”  Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies concerning his death.  His thirsting in Psalm 69 verse 21 “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”  Yielding up of his spirit into the Father’s hand – Psalm 31 verse 5 “Into thine hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.”  He suffered so much but yet in full control.  He chose the exact moment when he would die.  Isaiah 53 verse 7 “He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”  He never spoke in order to be let go.  His silence was for us.  He was silent before his judges.  Verse 9 formal acquittal “And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death; because he has done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.”   He suffered with the transgressors – verse 12 “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”  There were 2 malefactors crucified with him – verse 10 “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”  Think of the great love of God.  It pleased God to bruise his Son for my sin.  He fulfilled all the necessary suffering, all the Old Testament prophecies concerning him.  Luke 24 verses 44 to 46 “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning him.  Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.  And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.”  This is referring to the 2 on the road to Emmaus and what Jesus disclosed to them.  He spoke in John’s gospel about finishing the work that the Father gave him to do – John 4 verse 34 “Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”  John 5 verse 36 “But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath send me.”  John 17 verse 4 “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”  All the types and shadows of the old covenant have been fulfilled in Christ.  Hebrews 10 verses 10 and 11 “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.  And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.”  The priest’s job was never done.  He never sat down.  He was always offering sacrifices but Jesus when he offered himself he sat down because his work was finished.  No need for any more sacrifices.

 

Secondly it is a word of conquest

 

This word proclaims the triumph of Christ on Calvary, triumph over the world.  Speaking to the disciples in chapter 16 verse 33 he said “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  1 John 2 verse 16 “For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”  Paul in Galatians 6 verse 14 said “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.”  Jesus Christ triumphed over the world so that the world should not triumph over us.  It was triumphed over the flesh – Romans 8 verse 3 “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”  We still have a battle but we have the victory.  Flesh does not be our master.  Galatians 2 verse 20 “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  He triumphed over the devil through his finished work on Calvary.  John 12 verse 31 “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”  Colossians 2 verse 15 “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”  The words “in it” speak of the cross.  Triumphing over them through his cross – Hebrews 2 verse 14 “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.”  He has destroyed the devil.  The old enemy might come to us, tempt us, draw us from Christ but we need to remember we have the victory over him because Christ won that victory on Calvary.  Our last enemy has been defeated.  We need not fear death because he has defeated death.  There in Egypt the Children of Israel were in bondage, enslaved to the taskmasters just as we were enslaved in sin.  Christ has set us free.

 

Thirdly a word of consecration

 

Hebrews 7 verse 28 “For the law maketh men high priest which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.”  We might ask the question when was consecration finished?  When he died on Calvary’s cross he cried out “it is finished”.  Perfect obedience to the Father’s will.  Hebrews 5 verses 8 and 9 “Though he were a Son, ye learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.”  True consecration.  A life of obedience, perfect obedience.  Philippians 2 verse 8 “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”  If the Lord had learned obedience how much more do we need to learn that same obedience.  The perfection of the offering of Christ.  First of all his sacrifice was sinless, spotless.  1 Peter 1 verse 1 “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers.  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”  The perfect Lamb of God.  Hebrews 9 verse 14 “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God.”  We see the perfection of the sacrifice.  The sinless perfect sacrifice, the all sufficient sacrifice.  For having made the perfect sacrifice for sin for ever he sat down at the right hand of God.  It never needed to be repeated.  Once and for all sufficient, perfect sacrifice for sin. We cannot add anything to it nor take anything from it.  Thirdly it satisfied the wrath of God.  Acts 2 verse 36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”  When the Lord cried on the cross “it is finished” the wrath of God was satisfied.

 

Fourthly, a word of challenge.

 

It was not spoken into the empty earth.  It was a proclamation to mankind.  It is the greatest word ever spoken.  Since the beginning of the world the law condemns us but Christ sets us free.  He satisfied the demands of life and death. Galatians 4 verse 5 “To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”  It secures the believers justification – Romans 3 verses 24 and 25 “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”  Justified by the finished work of Calvary secures the believers sanctification.  Set apart in Christ, set apart for Christ.  Romans 8 verse 17 “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”  Some day we will be glorified in heaven with him.  We share in his victory.  It is only through the believer’s certainty.  2 Corinthians 2 verse 14 “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.”  Victory purchased for us on Calvary’s cross.  There is no reason why we should live in defeat because he has won the victory for us.  Romans 8 verse 37 “we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”  2 Corinthians 5 verses 15 “And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ; as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”  We are made righteous in the Lord, in what he has accomplished for us on Calvary’s cross.  If we are saved by the grace of God we should want to share this good news – that Jesus paid it all and all to him we owe.  We have the victory through Christ’s finished work on Calvary.  The only way to be reconciled to Christ.  A man asked a pastor once “what must I do to be saved?”  “It is too late” the pastor replied.  “Is there nothing for me to do?”  “It has already been done, the only thing you can do is to trust him, the one who takes our price.  He is the sacrifice and substitute.”  If we trust in him and in his finished work then he will save us by his grace.