It Is Finished
First B Jackson
2021-02-22

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

----
Was written seven hundred years plus before this crucifixion even happened. Like Psalm 22, they divided my garments among themselves, and they threw dice for my clothing. The fulfillment of scripture is awesome. Yesterday, Ray, you did a fantastic job. You did.

It was wonderful. I love the Old Testament reference because Jesus is the Old Testament revealed. And that... That's why it's important to be familiar with the Old Testament because Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He's the fulfillment of all those prophecies, including this one in Psalm 22.

How about twenty five and twenty six? Standing near was Jesus' mother, his mother's sister, Mary Magdalene, and John was there too. This part really gets me. Dear woman, here is your son. And to John, his disciples, here's your mom.

You're gonna take care of each other now. Caring for his mom to the very and saying those words from the cross with every little breath he he had, it would have been, again, excruciating to even say anything from that cross. You know what that really was? That's Jesus going, love one another as I've loved you. Serve one another as I've served you.

And John goes, okay. K. I get it now. I get it. Here's more.

Sorry. This one chokes me up. I... I'm actually... I'm not sorry.

It's not... It's it's okay to be... To feel the weight of Jesus on that cross. It's okay to get teary. It's okay to get choked up.

He says, I am thirsty. He fulfills John 22 in that one. Here were just a view... A few verses from that psalm. I feel like we get the full weight of it when we go back.

My strength has dried up like like sun baked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You've laid me in the dust and left me for dead. My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs. Think about all the people around him, really.

Crucify him. Crucify him. He's not the king we wanted. We wanted an earthly king. We wanted somebody that would overthrow Rome.

We wanted somebody that would rule with an iron fist, and instead Jesus came as the sacrificial lamb. Why? Because his kingdom is not of this world. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones.

They hadn't been broken. My enemies stare and gloat. They divided my garments among themselves. All this was happening right there at the crucifixion. Verse 29.

They offered him sour wine. These prophecies, they just grabbed a hold of me this week. Psalm 69, that speaks to that one. Their insults have broken my heart. Oh, it must have been awful.

Here, Jesus is laying his life down for all these people who were hating him. Hating on him. Crucify him. Kill him. Do away with him.

Jesus is willingly laying down his life for them, saving them. Their insults have broken my heart. I'm in despair. If only one person would show me pity. If only one would turn and comfort me.

But instead, they give me poison for food. They offer me sour wine for my thirst. Wow. The point that I'm I'm trying to make when I go back to the Old Testament scriptures is that Jesus fulfilled every single one of them. Every word of the law, Jesus fulfilled it.

Every single prophecy of scripture, Jesus fulfilled it. And once he had, when his work was done, he said, it is finished. It's finished. It's accomplished. It is complete.

It's done entirely. He did not leave anything out. His work on earth was everything that you and I would need to be reconciled to God. Jesus did it. Take confidence in it, please, church.

Take confidence in everything that Jesus needed to do to reconcile us to God, to give us right standing, a right relationship with God. Jesus did it. What does he ask for?

Our

belief. He lived the perfect life that we could not live. He died the sacrificial death in our place. It was done. What does he say?

What does he ask? Believe it. Believe that the work truly is finished. Believe that his work truly is enough to make us right with God. Church, let's stop trying to earn God's favor because we won't.

We already have it. He showed it. He has showed it by laying down They asked Pilate to hasten their death by breaking the legs. The the part... That that part is absolutely brutal.

But, again, what struck me here is they didn't have to break Jesus' legs. He had already died. And it fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy that the Passover lamb that was required at that Passover, it had to be perfect. No blemishes, no broken bones. And it was the blood of that lamb that they brought to the temple that saved people from God's judgment.

The point is Jesus was that lamb, was that Passover lamb. He was that perfect sacrifice without blemish, no broken bones to take away the sins of the world. Are you are you with me? I I know that you know this, but let's be reminded of it. He was the Passover lamb.

They missed the point of the whole meeting of that celebration because they didn't believe. They didn't believe. However, this is the part that I love. There were others who did. There were others who did.

Look at verse 38. Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Jesus. So in Mark, Mark says he was an honored member of the high council. He was waiting for the kingdom of God. He saw something different in Jesus.

Here's Luke's account. Luke says that he did not agree with the decisions and actions of the religious leaders. So Joseph asked for permission to take Jesus' body away along with who? Nicodemus, another religious leader from chapter three. He was the one who secretly visited Jesus at night.

The one who said, hey. We know that God sent you. We know that he's with you. And Jesus tells them, hey, Nicodemus, if you want to enter the kingdom of God, you've gotta be born again. And I think these guys who had heard Jesus teaching early, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, I think they'd been chewing on it for a while.

I think the Holy Spirit was grabbing ahold of them that they recognize that Jesus is who he said he was, and they had been pondering this. And it caused them to believe to be born again. You know, I I think about just a modern day application of this. Sometimes there are some that might wander into the church, and they hear this message about Jesus, and they walk away, but God's working on them. And they chew on it for a while, and God brings them back around.

I think these guys had come back around. They'd heard the message. They believed in it. So Joseph and Nicodemus prepared Jesus' body for burial, and they lay his body in a tomb. I believe it was Joseph of Arimathea's tomb.

That was meant for Joseph. And tonight, I wanna end with Isaiah 53. This was written some seven hundred years before Jesus came on the scene. It's a prophecy about Jesus. I feel like this is just so spot on.

It speaks for itself. Everything that we've just read about the the crucifixion. Let's visit Isaiah. It says this. Who's believed our message?

To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the Lord's present like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows acquainted with the deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.

Catch this. Listen to this. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weakness he carried. It was our sorrows that weighed him down, and we thought it was his troubles that were a punishment from God.

Oh, no. No. Verse five. But he was pierced for our rebellion. He was crushed for our sins.

He was beaten so that we could be made whole. He was whipped so that we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We've left God's path to follow our own. Yet, the Lord has laid on him the sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. Think of him before Pilate. Pilate is saying, who are you? Tell me. Are you a king?

Are you gonna overthrow? What are you doing here? And what did Jesus say? You wouldn't have any authority except what was given to you from above. I'm here.

I'm willingly laying down my life. That's what Jesus was doing. Verse seven, he was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before his shearers, he did not open his mouth.

Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream, but he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong, and he'd never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal. He was put in a rich man's grave.

Wow. Seven hundred years earlier, and they're predicting about Joseph of Arimathea. God... Did God not know what he was doing? Church, oh, really, though, When we read this, isn't it...

Don't... Shouldn't it just scream to us, God, you knew what you were doing, don't... Didn't you? Verse 10. But it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and cause him grief.

That was God's plan. Yet when his life is made as an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord's good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous for he will bear all their sins.

Wow. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier because he has exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels, crucified between two thieves. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels. So I'd like to end there tonight.

I know that's a lot of scripture, but, again, I just... I feel like it's important. This whole week, I've been carrying this that that it's important to feel the weight of Jesus' death and burial. It really is. There's no Easter Sunday without the Friday that Jesus was crucified.

Right? How can we appreciate Jesus' resurrection if if we don't truly meditate on his death and what his death means for us, death and burial? That we're crucified with Christ. We no longer live, but Christ lives in us. What he endured on that cross to reconcile, to to bring us back to God.

And that his work is finished. Like, it truly is finished. What does he ask for? He asks us to believe it. Joseph and Nicodemus, they stand out to me tonight.

They had heard the message earlier, and eventually, they came back around. They believed it. So that's what I've got from John chapter 19, and I'd love to open it up for discussion. If there was something from the text tonight from John 19 or Isaiah 53, just a word of encouragement for for the room tonight or for anybody watching, I wanna give you an opportunity to to do so. I think we've got a a microphone that we could pass around the room.

You don't have to share, but if there was something that grabbed ahold of you, I would love for you to be able to share it. Would anybody have anything?

You don't have to. We

love to make that.

And I guess it was a couple of weeks ago. I was reading about the covenant that God made with Abraham and you kind of read through that and you're like, oh, okay, a covenant but back in those days, I guess, then, the when they split the animals in half, it was never the king that walked through, and the king never walked through without the servant. And so, when I was just studying and reading the word, and he made Abraham fall into a deep sleep, and in the sleep or the fog, God himself was the one who walked through the animals and so it speaks so much to the prophecy and to the fact that like that is the gospel. Right? He he came down and he did the work for us and he took the cross and he...

So it's just really neat to me that that was paralleled from Genesis and Isaiah and all these other books of the Bible.

Yep.

I just think that's...

It is. I love it. Testament prophecy. Old testament stories that reveal who Jesus really is, and it gives us kind of the full picture. He's rich.

Yeah. Thanks for sharing that.

Who's next? The proto euangelion.

That's a fancy word. Write that down. Write that down.

Well, I don't have much to share, but I just wanna pray. That's how I feel.

Please.

Heavenly father, I thank you so much for the salvation that you provide for us. Thank you with all my heart for taking the the cross and dying for us and paid for the sins so we can be made at peace with almighty God. Oh, Lord, I'm thankful. Right now in this very moment, I'm thankful for what you have done for us. I pray that if there is anyone here tonight in this room and is not sure about the salvation, Lord, would you please touch that heart?

And may the person be encouraged to say, I need you, Jesus. I need you. And I remember when I did that many years ago. And the Lord... Dear God, you you you say in the word that when one accepts you in their heart as as a savior, there's joy in heaven.

And yet, when you see that person, you you already know the future. You know the good, the bad already laying down in their path. And yet you rejoice with that person. So, Lord, please touch people's heart tonight. If there's only one here that says, Jesus, I need you in my heart.

Please do that miracle in someone's heart tonight. Or ask that we claim that we know you, Lord, that we we call ourselves children of God. Lord, please, may we be on fire for you. May we search more of you. Holy Spirit, change our lives, touch our hearts, and may we be coworkers with you in your kingdom.

In your precious name, thank you again, dear Jesus, for what you have done for us on the cross. I'm thankful. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you,

Carlos, thanks for tying in the Old Testament with those... Psalm twenty two and sixty nine and Isaiah. I mean, it

Brings it to life.

Brings it to life. Exactly. Yep.

So, yeah, fourteen hundred years before and probably a little... Even more before that. Abraham was before that closer to 2,000 or so, 1,400 or so for Moses, a thousand for David, 700 for Isaiah, and then there's that intertestamental silence from Malachi up through, we could say Matthew, but the gospels. So it's a four hundred year silence where they've been wanting and waiting and wishing and pouring over and studying and pouring over studying. Paul will say later that, you know, and even Solomon said it wearies the bones to just study, study, study, study, study, study.

That didn't get you there. Jesus is is is saying, all of this is good and you can study and you can figure it all out but you've gotta walk it out. You gotta live it out and when he was on the cross and said, knowing that everything had been completed, he said, hand me that. I thirst, right? And so they did that and then that was the last one of those prophecies prophecies to to fall.

Fall. Everything else had been completed and it's the same word there and then it's the word that he says after he drinks from that and he says, to tell us die and it's one word in Greek but it means it has been finished. It's the same thing like when you pay a bill and you get a stamp that says paid, that's what they would stamp on their bills that said, this has been completed, paid in full. So that's kinda cool to tell us that. It has been completed.

One more.

One thing that stood out to me tonight that had never stood out before is... Because perhaps my translation is different than your Carl's, but Joseph of Arimathea is a secret follower of Jesus Christ. That's not in my translation. And I kinda like that because it's kinda cool to be a secret follower of Jesus praying in your closet rather than out on the street corner. And you can see the works.

I mean, Jesus did the work, but his faith in action of the secret follower of going and taking care of Jesus' body, the Lord's body, and giving up his own grave. So that was something that was really cool for me, and I'll try not to talk too long, but this is... This part of the Bible is very... The very foundation of my faith. And I remember John was the first book that I ever read.

And crying multiple times up to getting to this point, but reading through him getting beaten and his terrible, terrible death and the terrible, terrible crucifix crucifix... Crucifix... Thank you. Where they made a word up to describe how terrible it is. What's that word again?

Hit me. Thank thank you. I'm a little bit tongue tied right now. But just bawling, crying, reading this part for the first time and how much it meant. And then and then weeks later, on a Monday night, I think, coming in here and just having the realization, the revelation that, like, there are so many good things in my life.

There's an equal and opposite action and reaction. So if I do something, there's a reaction that comes from that. So I look at my life and I see all of these amazing blessings that I have in my life, and I know that it's not from all of these amazing actions and amazing works that I've done. I realize that that's where it came from, it's from this perfect life that was given up so brutally, so terribly. I have all of these blessings in my life from it.

That's the very foundation of how I know that this is a real thing, that I can feel in my heart. I have all of these blessings from my daughters. But even before that, when I proposed to my wife, I said, Of all of these blessings that I don't deserve, you're my favorite one. I don't deserve it. Where does it all come from?

It's not because I'm some amazing person that does all of these amazing things, and the works aren't aren't mine. Right? And so you read this, and you see where the works came from. And, the cause and effect, the action and reaction, is sort of undeniable, I would think, in in my life, and if someone is willing to look at it in their own lives. Think if we all look at our lives, we have a lot of blessings that we probably didn't get from, yeah, unmerited favor.

Thanks,

Blake. I'd like to pray one more time. And We've oh, we've got another. Would... Please.

I don't

have an answer. I have questions. And

this is really for Ray or anybody.

Ray's our scholar.

Well, I'm thinking of the translation, the crucifixion and excruciating. And excruciating, I'm assuming,

is Out of the

cross. Out

of the cross.

That is out of.

Okay.

Coming out of and then crux.

Is the crux or cross or

cruxing? That's Latin. But... Yeah.

Okay. Out of the cross. Okay. Thank you. I have no answer.

Out

of the cross, excruciating is is from out of the cross. Did you raise your hand too? No. Or you're just flagging us down? Yeah.

Okay. Okay. Alright. Is that it?

Yeah. Wanna come on up? Sure. Sing a last song here too, but I'd like to just pray and give thanks one more time. God, we are thankful.

And, again, words can't express our our gratitude. And and I I thank God if we truly felt the whole weight of of your, of your sacrificial death, it would be woe to me. I I am undone. I I think that that it's something, God, that that you, you've gotta show us day by day by day as we die to ourself and live for you. That moment by moment, you would reveal truly that the sacrifice that you made for us that would cause us to believe in you.

God, would you increase our faith, our trust in you? These things are written so that we would believe. In Jesus' name, amen. So I'd like to... I wanna close with one last song here, but I...

I'm gonna leave out verse three, verses three and four. So we are going to talk about... We're gonna we're gonna study. We get to read about the resurrection next week, which is just wonderful, but I don't wanna sing about it yet. I would like to end with knowing this was our salvation, Jesus, for our sake you died.

We're gonna end with that verse right there. So let's let's sing together. Sing that chorus again. Oh, lord, to think that right above on that cross, here is the king of the Jews and Gentiles and the whole world, but truly, it it was it was indeed true. It is indeed true.

Thank you, God, for being the king of kings, the Lord of lords. God, it cause us this week to go forward in confidence belief, to be able also... That that would radiate from us too. Jesus told them this is the work of God, to believe in the one that he has sent. Amen.