It Is Finished

In one paragraph

Pastor Nathan walked the congregation through the final week of Jesus's life on Resurrection Sunday 2019, moving chronologically from the triumphal entry into Jerusalem all the way to the Great Commission, using a series of early fourteenth-century frescoes by the Italian painter Giotto as a visual guide through the story. He wove together Gospel accounts with Old Testament prophecy to show that...

Read together

1. John 11 (Lazarus narrative) Jesus cries out 'Lazarus, come forth' and commands the crowd to unbind him
2. Zechariah 9:9 quoted as fulfilled by the triumphal entry, 'your king is coming to you, humble, mounted on a donkey'
3. Matthew 21 the triumphal entry, crowds shouting Hosanna, and the city asking 'who is this'
4. Isaiah 56:7 quoted as fulfilled when Jesus cleanses the temple, 'my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples'
5. Isaiah 35:5-6 quoted as fulfilled when Jesus heals the blind and lame in the temple
6. Psalm 8 Jesus quotes it to the chief priests: 'out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise'
7. Luke 22 (dispute among disciples) the disciples argue about who is greatest and Jesus says he is among them as one who serves
8. John 13 Jesus washes the disciples' feet, identifies Judas as betrayer by dipping the morsel
9. John 17 described as Jesus's prayer in the garden, asking for unity and sanctification of the church
10. John 18 Jesus crosses the Kidron ravine to the Garden of Gethsemane; Judas arrives with the Roman cohort
11. Isaiah 53 read as the Old Testament crucifixion passage, describing the suffering servant pierced for our transgressions
12. Psalm 22 Jesus quotes the opening from the cross, 'my God, my God, why have you forsaken me,' and the psalm describes pierced hands and feet and casting lots for garments
13. John 19:28-30 Jesus says 'I thirst' so scripture might be fulfilled, then says 'it is finished' and gives up his spirit
14. John 3:16-17 cited as Jesus speaking to Nicodemus: 'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son'
15. 1 Corinthians 1:18 the message of the cross is foolishness to those perishing but the power of God to those being saved
16. 1 Timothy 1:15 'the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'
17. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 Paul's summary of first importance: Christ died, was buried, raised on the third day, appeared to Peter, the twelve, 500 brethren, James, all apostles, and Paul
18. Matthew 28:18-20 the Great Commission: Jesus says all authority is given to him, commands to make disciples of all nations
19. Hebrews 13:20-21 spoken as the benediction: 'the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead make you complete in every good work'

Talk about it

1. Pastor Nathan pointed to the moment in John 11 where Jesus raises Lazarus and then tells the people standing there to unbind him and let him go. What does it look like in practice for a community of believers to help someone get loose from what is tangling them up?
2. Pastor Nathan read from Isaiah 53, written seven hundred years before the crucifixion, and walked through how specifically it described what happened to Jesus. How does seeing that many prophecies fulfilled in one person affect the way you think about the reliability of scripture?
3. When Jesus said 'it is finished' from the cross, Pastor Nathan explained that the Greek word carries the sense of a final payment that has been fully and permanently made. How does understanding it that way change the way you think about what you still owe, or what you still need to do, to be right with God?
4. Pastor Nathan mentioned that the Latin translation of what Jesus said to Mary Magdalene at the tomb came out as 'do not touch me,' when the actual meaning was closer to 'there is no need to keep clinging to me.' Can you think of other ways the church has passed on a version of Jesus that keeps people at a distance from him?
5. Pastor Nathan closed by reading the Great Commission, where Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, and then says 'I am with you always, even to the end of the age.' What is one specific thing that commission asks of you personally, and what difference does the promise attached to it make?