Series: “When Love Speaks: Words from the Cross”
Part 3
“It is Finished!”
Pastor Jerry
————————————- Message Synopsis ————————————-
On the cross, Jesus shouts: “It is finished.” He died! Yet, it was a cry of victory.
When Jesus died on the cross the Roman Soldiers thought… “He’s finished”; the Religious Leaders thought, “He’s finished”; the disciples thought, “The dream of the kingdom is finished”; and even Satan’s thinking, “The Son of God is finished!”
But when Jesus said, “It is finished!” he was not saying “I am finished. He said, “It is finished.” Because he wasn’t finished, three days later on Easter morning he came back to life. He’s certainly not finished.
In John 19 it says, “Knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said,…‘It is Finished!’…” But what was finished when Jesus said that? His suffering was finished, his humiliation, his pain and his grief was finished.But there is so much more that we’re going to uncover this morning. For Jesus’ entire life here on earth he only had one goal. Here’s the goal, John 4. “Jesus said, ‘My [goal] is to do what God wants!”
What did Jesus accomplish on the cross?
- When Jesus said “It is Finished”, the first thing he finished…He fulfilled the Scripture.
There are over three hundred eighty prophecies in the Old Testament which says the way you’ll know the true Messiah is the one who fulfills the prophecies. Jesus fulfilled every one of those.
In Luke 24 “Jesus said to them…: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law…, the Prophets and the Psalms.’ …He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day….’”
God says I’m going to send the Messiah. He’s going to die for your sins. And Jesus, when he finished suffering on the cross he says, “It is Finished!” I have fulfilled all of the prophecies.
- The second thing Jesus was saying when he says “It is finished,” He satisfied the law.
What does the law require? The Bible says the penalty for sin is death. Romans 8 says “The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature.” You understand that? Nobody has ever been saved by keeping the Commandments. It says the law could not save us because of your sinful nature. “But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son … as a sacrifice for our sins. And he did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.”
The only person who has ever kept every law in the Bible is Jesus. We have all fallen short, except Jesus. So the law, all it did was condemn us, was show us how much we don’t measure up. But the Bible says that Jesus came along and kept it perfectly and then he satisfied the law by paying for our sins.
- The third thing Jesus was saying when he says “It is finished,” He paid my penalty.
It says so in Colossians 2“He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross.”
When Jesus says “It is finished!” He’s saying “I wiped the record clean.” So that when you go to heaven if you’ve put your trust in Christ and you say “About that sin I did…” and he’ll go, What sin? Why? It says he canceled the record. It’s forgiven and forgotten. That is the good news! When Jesus was on the cross he’s saying, I have blotted it out. I have paid in full. Jesus fulfilled the Scripture, he satisfied the law, he’s paid for them in full.
- The 4th thing Jesus is saying when he says “It is finished,” He conquered sin and death.
He broke their grip in our lives. The fear of death and the grip of sin and the power over us is destroyed. Romans 5: “The sin of one man, Adam, caused death to rule over us, but all who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.”
What does that mean? Look in Romans 6:10 “When Christ died, he died to defeat the power of sin one time – enough for all time.” He defeated the power of sin. It means when I invite Jesus Christ into my life I get a new power to stop doing things I can’t stop doing on my own. Not that you’re never going to sin but now you have the power to not sin. You have the power to make that choice.
Hebrews 2, “Jesus became flesh and blood by being born in human form. For only as a human could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.”
Are you afraid to die? That fear is from the devil. You don’t have to be afraid to die. Why? You can know where you’re going when you die. You can die a friend of God. You don’t want to go around with the fear of death. Jesus has broken that power through the resurrection. Jesus fulfilled the scriptures, satisfied the law, paid for my penalty, conquered sin and death…
- The 5th thing Jesus was saying when he says “It is finished,” He defeated the devil.
When Jesus said “It is finished,” a cosmic war was being played out between Satan and the Son of God. From the human standpoint it looked like Satan had won. Here’s Jesus on the cross, battered, bruised, beaten up, bleeding, dying. It looks like Satan has won. And Satan thought he had destroyed the Son of God.
When Jesus said, “It is finished,” Satan goes uh-oh! I’m finished. I thought I could destroy God! The arrogance of that! Three days later, Jesus arises from the grave and says “I’m back!” and Satan was finished. This was a fatal blow on Satan’s plan to destroy your life forever.
You say “Wait a minute! It seems like Satan is pretty alive today.” Oh yeah. But look at this verse in Colossians 2 “God took away Satan’s power to accuse you of sin, and he openly displayed to the whole world Christ’s triumph at the cross where your sins were all taken away.”
No matter what I do in my life between now and death, I’m still going to heaven. Because I can’t lose my salvation. It’s been paid in full. That is good news! I may mess up, but I’m not losing that salvation, because once I put my hand in his hand it is closed and he’s not letting go. And it’s paid in full.
Let me summarize this. What did Jesus do when he died on the cross and said “It is Finished?” What was finished on the cross? He fulfilled the Scripture. He satisfied the law. He paid my penalty. He conquered sin and death. He defeated the devil.
That’s why when He said “It is finished,” those are the most important words you will ever hear in your life. The Bible says back in the Old Testament there were a bunch of people who were getting beat up. They said this: “Lord, we have no power to face this vast enemy that is attacking us. We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
There’s a well known pastor who had finished speaking one night at a revival and a man came up to him. He said, “I need to know what do I do to get to heaven. What do I do to be saved?” The pastor looked at him and said “You’re too late.” The man said, “What do you mean? Too late, because the service is over?” The pastor said, “You’re too late.” The man cried out, Why? The pastor said, “Everything that needed to be done was done two thousand years ago on the cross. You’re too late. All that is left is to accept it.”