It Is Finished

In one paragraph

Easter Sunday this year, the pastor walked through the final week of Jesus' life using paintings by the medieval Italian artist Giotto di Bondone, tracing the story from the triumphal entry through the resurrection. The sermon stayed close to the biblical text, weaving together prophecy from the Old Testament with the gospel accounts to show how the resurrection is the hinge on which everything...

Read together

1. 1 Peter 3:15 quoted to call the church to always be prepared to give a reason for the hope they have, with gentleness and respect
2. Zechariah 9:9 quoted as the prophecy of the king coming humble and mounted on a donkey, fulfilled by the triumphal entry
3. Isaiah 56:7 quoted as Jesus declaring the temple to be a house of prayer for all peoples when he cleansed it
4. Matthew 21:12-13 quoted describing Jesus driving out the money changers and overturning their tables
5. Isaiah 35:5-6 quoted as the prophecy fulfilled when Jesus healed the blind and lame in the temple
6. Matthew 21:15-16 quoted showing the chief priests and scribes becoming indignant at children shouting Hosanna
7. Psalm 8:2 quoted as the scripture Jesus cited back to the chief priests about praise from the mouths of infants
8. Luke 22:24-27 quoted describing the disciples disputing who was greatest and Jesus saying the leader must be like a servant
9. John 13:1-5 quoted introducing the Passover meal, Jesus knowing his hour had come, and him washing the disciples feet
10. John 13:21-30 quoted describing Jesus identifying his betrayer by dipping the morsel and giving it to Judas, who then went out into the night
11. John 18:1-3 quoted describing Jesus and his disciples crossing the Kidron ravine to the garden where Judas came with the Roman cohort
12. John 18:12-14 quoted describing the arrest of Jesus and his being led to Annas, father-in-law of Caiaphas
13. John 3:16-17 quoted as what Jesus said to Nicodemus, that God gave his only Son so the world might be saved through him
14. John 19:28-30 quoted as Jesus saying I thirst to fulfill scripture, receiving sour wine, then saying it is finished and giving up his spirit
15. Isaiah 53 read in its entirety as a prophecy written seven hundred years before the cross describing the suffering, death and atoning work of Christ
16. Psalm 22:1-18 quoted extensively as a prophecy from David a thousand years before the cross describing the crucifixion including pierced hands and feet and casting lots for garments
17. Genesis 3:15 referenced as the earliest scripture pointing to Satan being crushed at the cross
18. 1 Corinthians 1:18 quoted stating the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but the power of God to those being saved
19. 1 Timothy 1:15 quoted as Paul saying it is a trustworthy saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
20. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 quoted as Paul delivering as of first importance that Christ died for sins, was buried, was raised on the third day, and appeared to Peter, the twelve, five hundred brethren, James, all the apostles, and then Paul himself
21. Matthew 28:18-20 quoted as the last words of Jesus before his ascension, commissioning his disciples to make disciples of all nations
22. Hebrews 13:20-21 quoted as the benediction about the God of peace who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead making believers complete in every good work

Talk about it

1. The pastor mentioned that when Jesus raised Lazarus, he told the people standing there to unbind him and let him go, even though only Jesus could raise someone from the dead. What does it mean to you that Jesus asked his followers to help with that part, and where do you see that same call in the life of the church today?
2. Walking through Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, the pastor showed how the death of Jesus was forecast in detail hundreds and thousands of years before it happened. How does that kind of evidence affect the way you hold on to your faith, especially in moments of doubt?
3. The pastor sat with the phrase 'it is finished' for a while, looking at it both as 'everything has been accomplished' and as Jesus saying 'I myself have now finished it.' What difference does it make to you personally whether sin and death were ended by something that just happened to Jesus or by something Jesus actively completed?
4. The pastor said that every one of us has been hurt by church at some point, and he used the story of Peter cutting off Malchus's ear to illustrate that Jesus can repair what his followers damage. Has there been a moment in your own life where something broken by a person in the church was eventually healed? What did that look like?
5. The sermon closed with the Great Commission, connecting Jesus's declaration that his house would be a house of prayer for all peoples to his final command to go and make disciples of all nations. What is one specific thing that calling asks of you right now, in the place where you actually live and work?