It Is Finished
John 12

Intro:
Good morning.
This morning I’d like to spend a little time thinking about the Lord’s Table and what it means. It is only a short part of our worship and since it is the same each Lords Day we need to insure that we don’t rush to the Lord’s Table and that we don’t rush away from it. We have come to the cross in the Lords Supper and I think we should linger there a little while and spend time thinking about our Savior and the things He said from the cross.

I. Our Lord spoke seven times in the six hours that He hung on the cross. These are the things recorded that He said. Luke 23:34 - “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:43 - “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” John 19:26 - “Woman, behold your son.” Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34 - “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” John 19:28 - “I thirst.” John 19:30 -“It is finished.” Luke 23:46 - “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”
a. These were not the incoherent babblings of someone whose mind had been deranged by the intense agony of crucifixion. But we need to make no mistake about the agony either; crucifixion is the most painful suffering that one could receive in those days--the worst death that the Romans could think of.
b. It wasn’t a new punishment by any means. Scholars tell us it goes back to Assyrian and Babylonian times. In those days, the victim was tied to the cross. The Romans wanted to add their own special refinement to crucifixion. They would make a man bear his own weight and they would nail him to the cross with nails through his hands and through his feet. There is archeological proof of this method.
c. Jesus was in agony. But as I said, these are not the incoherent babblings of someone who doesn’t know what he’s saying. There is logic. There is procession. There is reason in everything that Jesus said.
II. His first and the last statements are addressed to the Father. At the beginning, He deals with the people who are responsible for His being there. “Forgive them for they know not what they do.”
a. Then He spoke to the thief who said; “remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom”. Then looking down from the cross He saw His mother Mary with John at the foot of the cross. Recognizing the pain and agony, the lonesomeness that she would experience at his death, and what this meant to her He said, “Woman, behold your son.” By the way the word we translate as “Woman”, “gunai”, carries with it the idea of respect. How one might address a queen.
b. Then central to the seven you have that statement in Aramaic - Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This is a much misunderstood passage I believe and we will look at it in just a few minutes.
c. Next He said, “I thirst.” They offered Him some of the sour wine, mingled with myrrh—something that the generous thoughtful women used to give to prisoners to stupefy them, to dull the pain they were experiencing. Jesus would not drink it, because He would not allow anything to take away from Him the suffering due for the sins of mankind. (Mat. 27:34)
d. Then He said, “It is finished.” Three words in this translation, in some translations I think it is at least four words. We’ll talk about this in a moment. Finally, “Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit.”
III. I want us to think about these words—it is finished. They are very important words. I think that they lead us into the thinking of Jesus at that particular time. I want us to think about what He said and how He said it. I once read a commentary in which the writer said that Jesus murmured “it is finished” and gave up the ghost.
a. Now “gave up the ghost” is a very inelegant expression anyway with reference to the death of Jesus. He dismissed His spirit. But “it is finished”, (three words in this translation, in the Greek text, is just one word.) it is the word tetelestai , it comes from the root word teleo b. Jesus didn’t expire like a little candle burning down and the flames flickering and dying out. He didn’t expire with whimper or a groan of agony ebbing from His body. Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell us that He cried with a loud voice. John doesn’t tell us how he cried, the tone of voice that is, but John does tell us what He said. He said the word tetelestai. There are some words in our language that are meant to be whispered, some words that you must whisper. I am perfectly sure as Jesus looked down from the cross and saw Mary standing there He didn’t shout “gunai”. He would have said (softly) “gunai”, lady, mother, woman—a word of gentleness, tenderness.
c. There are other words in our language that you cannot just whisper. You cannot whisper the word “halleluiah”. Imagine the Calvary, the officer at the front leading the charge and he raises the sword in the air and he whispers (whisper) “charge”. You can’t say (loudly) “charge” like that. What Jesus said on the cross, the word tetelestai, is a cry of triumph, it’s a cry of victory. Jesus is not a victim, He’s a victor.
IV. I want us to think about why Jesus said that—why He’s a victor on this occasion. We are told in verse 28 of John 19, “Jesus knowing that all things had been accomplished said, “I thirst.” Then in verse 30—it has been accomplished. It’s very important to think about that. What did He mean by it?
a. I’ll tell you what He meant. In the first place, I believe that Jesus meant that the victory had been gained, that He was victorious. You can’t talk about a victory if there hasn’t been a conflict and there was a conflict. It dated a way back to Genesis 3:15 when God had punished, or spoken punishment, upon all those involved, God said that the seed of the woman (there is the virgin birth for you in Genesis 3:15) not the seed of the man,- the seed of the woman shall bruise or crush the serpent’s head, but the serpent shall bruise His heel.
b. The Messiah, the Savior, would crush Satan but in so doing He would be wounded. That was the onset of that struggle. Another place we see the struggle is in Matthew 12 where Jesus said; “how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man?” The strong man in that passage is Satan. The strong man’s goods are those souls whom Satan has taken prisoner and Jesus is talking about Himself breaking into Satan’s dominion, Satan’s domain, binding Satan and releasing those whom Satan held prisoner.
V. John chapter 12 verse 31 says “now shall the prince of this world be cast out”. When we come to the passage we’re looking at, Jesus said “it has been accomplished”. He’s dying on the cross for our sins. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that Jesus, by death, defeated the one who had the power of death. That is the devil. When Jesus died on the cross, He knew that sin had been defeated. Satan was defeated. It’s mentioned again in the scriptures. We know that in the book of Revelation Satan is angry because he knows that he has but a little time. His end is in view. The power of Satan has already been broken. That’s what Jesus is talking about here. The means of redemption has been made possible.
a. Then again I would suggest that when Jesus said, “It is finished.” He was telling us that prophetic scripture had been fulfilled. John 19:28 - “Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.”.
b. All through His life Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. It has been calculated that there may well be some 500 prophecies of Old Testament scripture fulfilled in the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus. That may be true. I think it’s a difficult figure to assess, but never the less, the scriptures are full of prophecies of Him. Jesus said in John 5:39-40 – “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”
VI. Let me take you now to that central statement of the seven on the cross when Jesus said, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” I believe that that’s frequently misunderstood. Have you ever heard it said that God turned away from Jesus on the cross? God could not look on Jesus because Jesus was bearing the sin of the world? I have doubts about that. I cannot believe that. I do not believe that God turned away from His Son on the cross - because Jesus was the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the word. He was there because that’s where God wanted Him to be. Jesus said I do always the things that are well pleasing to the Father.
a. God turning away from His Son because He was carrying sin? Has God turned away from this sinful world of ours? Every one of us is a sinner here today. We live in a sinful world, but God has not left the world to carry on on its own. God has not deserted the world. He still keeps us going. In Him we live and move and have our being. I do not believe that when Jesus said, My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken me that He was saying His Father had turned His back upon Him. Yes, Jesus has taken on the sin of mankind, and sin is that which God hates, that is utterly real, yet I believe that even then, the unity of the Blessed Trinity remained unbroken.
b. Instead I’ll tell you what I do believe. I believe that Jesus was showing the fulfillment of scripture, taking Psalm 22 and applying it to Himself. What Jesus was doing on the cross was quoting Psalm 22, verse 1. My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? . . .so far from helping me . . . from the voice of my complaint? Jesus was applying that Psalm to what was happening. He recognized He was fulfilling the Psalm. For example, Psalm 22:7-8 – “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.”
c. Jesus saw the people walking by and He heard them saying the very same thing. Psalm 22:18 – “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” He looked down and saw the soldiers doing the very thing at the foot of the cross. Verse 15 says “… my tongue cleaveth to my jaws”. Jesus said “I thirst.” Verse 16 – “…they pierced my hands and my feet” The agony of the crucifixion.
d. Jesus was experiencing Psalm 22. He is letting us know that in Psalm 22 He was that suffering servant of God of whom the prophet Isaiah speaks in the 52nd chapter and that 53rd chapter. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray…” and so it continues. This suffering servant of God draws our minds back to scripture and its fulfillment.
e. We are told in Luke 4:16 that when Jesus came to Nazareth where He was brought up “here was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, . The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Jesus was given the book of the prophet Isaiah and he began to read at chapter 61. When He was done He said “today has this scripture been fulfilled in your hearing”.
VII. When Jesus died on the cross, He said; “it has been accomplished”. All the wonders, all the marvels of prophetic scripture have been fulfilled, and He said it is accomplished because the law was fulfilled. You remember He said at the beginning of His ministry, I didn’t come to put away the law, but to fulfill it. He said, not one jot, not one tittle of the law shall pass away ‘til all is fulfilled.
a. Now remember when He died what happened? We read in the Luke 23:45 that the sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was rent in two from top to bottom. When I was young I didn’t understand that. Now I know that it means that the beautiful curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. That beautiful curtain was a curtain made of blue and purple and scarlet fine twined linen with cherubim of cunning work. A curtain hanging on four golden pillars with golden hooks and it separated the Holy Place where the ordinary priests ministered from the Holy of Holies where the High Priest ministered.
b. Only the High Priest might enter the Holy of Holies on one day of the year, the Day of Atonement, twice on the same day to offer first for his own sins and then secondly for the sins of the people. As I said, the ordinary priests ministered in the Holy Place.
c. When Jesus died that beautiful curtain was rent in two from top to bottom. If you were trying to tear a curtain that was hanging, you wouldn’t begin at the top. You’d begin at the bottom. You would tear it upward. It was evidence of divine intervention that the beautiful curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. That was God at work showing that the way into the Holy of Holies was now open, that a way had been created for mankind to get into the very presence of God.
d. Can you imagine the consternation that took place in the Holy Place in the temple where the priests were ministering when quite suddenly that veil was miraculously torn aside and they found themselves looking into the Holy of Holies? I wonder if they expected to see the Ark of the Covenant with the golden slab that was the Mercy Seat and the arched wings of the golden cherubim over the Mercy Seat?
e. The High Priest was the only one who went in and he did so with trepidation even though he had a right to go. He was afraid he might be killed. But was the Ark still there? I think that there’s a great doubt about that by the way. In about 63 BC when the Roman general known as Pompey entered Jerusalem he stormed into the temple (the second temple, the first one had been destroyed about 586 BC) and into the Holy of Holies. The Roman historian Tacitus, reported Pompey found nothing there. I really don’t believe the Ark of the Covenant had been there since Babylonian times. It might be the High Priest would have to keep up the pretense for the people’s sake. However, there must have been a shock when that curtain was torn and the way into the Holy of Holies, representative of entry to the very presence of God, was made available.
VIII. Now we may enter with boldness. The Greek word is the word pareezia(?). We may enter with freedom of speech, liberty, into that Holy Place, through the new and living way which Jesus has opened up for us through the curtain, that is to say His flesh. The tearing of that curtain meant the old law was nailed to the cross as something abrogated; something which no longer had any authority, any power. We’re now living under the new covenant ratified and sealed by the precious blood of Jesus.
a. Then again - when Jesus said, it has been accomplished; He meant He had completed His obedience to the will of God. All through His life that was His aim. As a boy when He went into the temple Mary and Joseph went to look for Him. They found Him, there with the wise old men. He said, why did you search for me? Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house and about my Father’s business? He said, I do always the things that are well pleasing unto the Father. [para]
b. If Jesus ever did anything, it was because it pleased God. If He refrained from doing anything, it was because God did not desire it.
IX. All the way through, right to the end, we don’t have time to talk about all of these, but let me take you to Gethsemane. Let’s follow Him into Gethsemane and listen to Jesus there. We should not think this was easy for Him. He was well aware of the pain, the agony that the crucifixion would bring. Look at Jesus there in the shadows. He’s down there on His knees among the trees and He’s praying. He’s praying intensely, so intensely that perspiration falls as great drops of blood falling to the ground. It’s very rare for a human being to sweat blood. We use that as an expression, don’t we? It’s very rare for humans to sweat blood, but it has occurred.
a. It has always been the consequence of intense internal agony. Jesus prayed so intensely. “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” He knew what was coming. Remember He once said to James and John, “Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” He saw the baptism of sorrow and He saw the cup of pain.
b. He prayed, “if it is possible let it pass from me”. - - - Then came the victory, “nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” That is where the victory was gained. That’s where Jesus triumphed when he came to complete submission to the will of God and allowed God’s will, God’s purpose, to dominate in His life. He knew it was the Father’s will that He go to the cross as the Lamb of God taking away the sin… by the way notice that—not sins—it is the sin of the world. We’re not talking about individual transgressions. We’re talking about the whole complex, the whole attitude, the whole disposition.
c. He took away the sin of the world and it was God’s will. When He accepted that and He took upon Himself the burden of our sins—your sins and mine—that’s when the victory was won. I know we think about Calvary as being the focal point. When Jesus got to Calvary, the victory had already been won by His submission to the will of God.
X. Finally, - when Jesus said it is finished, His sufferings were ended. It must have been a life of suffering, right from the very beginning. I think in perspective that our Lord was a lot more sensitive to pain than we are. Our natures, our temperaments have been, well how shall I put it, coarsened by our constant contact with evil in the world, like vulgar language, television and movies. The first time you heard bad language or saw violence on the screen you were repulsed by it. You were shocked by it, but now we don’t bother about it so much. We’ve become accustomed to it. We’ve become accustomed to sin and evil in the world.
a. Not so the Lord Jesus. He looked upon the world and He saw the sin in mankind. He saw the suffering that mankind was enduring because of sin, and it touched His heart. It moved Him, He was sensitive to suffering. In fact, it’s hard to talk about this. He lived in a hostile world. In a world that was hostile because righteousness is imposed upon and hated by wickedness.
b. He saw the pain in the eyes of the people who came to Him. He saw what sin was doing to mankind. He knew that there were people who hated Him so much that they sought His death and they would only be satisfied when He died. The One who left the glories, the perfection of heaven, the One who knew no sin, the One who could say, “Who among you convicts me of sin?”, the One who was spotless, yet He lived in a world like ours.
c. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but now the victory had been won. Satan had been defeated. The price of redemption had been paid. The will of God had been fulfilled. The prophecies of the word were accomplished. He knew that His ministry was over and He could return to the perfection and the tranquility and peace of heaven where sin does not exist.
XI. He said, IT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED. And He just expired? NO! He dismissed His spirit. He sent His spirit away. That’s what the word says. Do you know why? Jesus tells us in John chapter 10 “… I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me,… I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” Jesus died a voluntary death, understand it, and please understand it. You and I die because we’re sinners, as a consequence of sin. Jesus died because He gave up His life. Sin had no claim on our Savior. He dismissed His spirit. “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
a. It is accomplished. It is finished. - - - What does that mean today? So far as God is concerned, the Lord Jesus could say I have been obedient even unto death, the death of the cross. So far as the prophecies are concerned, they have been accomplished. As far as the law is concerned, the law has been fulfilled, every jot every tittle has been dealt with.
b. So far as you and I are concerned, Satan has been defeated. Our sins have been put away and the possibility of victory in our own lives has been created by the victory of Jesus. As for Himself, His sufferings were ended and He returned to the Father from whom He came. He’s still working.
c. This is something to talk about at another time perhaps. Wherever the gospel is preached, and people obey, the Lord is adding to the church daily such as are being saved. He’s still working through the gospel.
d. Hebrews 9 says that Jesus appears in the presence of God on our behalf. He’s our mediator. He is our intercessor with God. I don’t know precisely what He’s doing, but I know He’s doing it for me and I’m happy with that.

CONCLUSION:
What about you? Because one day there’s another job He’s got to do. His work is not completely finished because one day He’s going to come back as judge. Acts 17 says that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the One whom He has appointed, whereof He has given assurance to all men that He’s raised Him from the dead.

Jesus will one day come back. If He’s not your savior now, believe me, He will be your judge then. You have to decide in what capacity you want to meet Him. Would you like to meet Him as your savior or would you like to meet Him as your judge?

Because God has committed all judgment to the Son. The greatest day in store for this world is the return of our Savior when He’ll gather His own people home. He’ll sit in judgment and He’ll say to His own, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, into the joys prepared for you before the foundation of the world.” If you’re not a Christian then, He’ll say to you, “Depart from me. I don’t know you.” You never knew me. You didn’t know me on earth. I don’t know you now.

It is finished. The opportunity of salvation is ours today. If you’re not a Christian, you have an opportunity of putting yourself right with God by accepting the salvation which Jesus has made possible. If you’re a member of the Lord’s body and perhaps you haven’t been as faithful as you ought to be, perhaps this ought to be the time of rededication for you. As we stand to sing this song, would you come forward if you have a need.

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# 593 Free Waters

Reference Sermon
Frank Worgan