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IT IS FINISHED.
I. THE SEVEN SAYINGS OF JESUS ON THE CROSS.
A. "Father forgive them. They know not what they do."
Luke 23:34.
B. "Woman behold thy son, behold thy mother."
John 19:26,
27.
C. "Today you will be with Me in paradise."
Luke 23:43.
D. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Matthew and Mark.
G. "Father, into Thy hands, I commend My Spirit."
Luke 23:46.
II. WHAT DID HE MEAN, "IT IS FINISHED?"
A. In verse 28 we read, "After this Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished"
1. What things were now accomplished?
a. Luke tells us that on the mount of transfiguration when Moses and Elijah appeared and were talking to Jesus, they were talking about His death that He should accomplish at Jerusalem.
b. Again in Luke, He said to His disciples, I have a baptism to be baptized with and how I am distressed until it is accomplished.
c. In
Luke 18, He said to His disciples, "We are going up to Jerusalem and all the things written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man, shall be accomplished."
d.
Luke 22: "This I say unto you the things that are written must yet be accomplished in Me, "He was numbered with the transgressors" for the things written of Me must be fulfilled."
2.
John 18:4 tells us that Jesus knew all the things that were to happen to Him.
a. He knew them because they were determined in the counsels of God before He ever came to earth.
b. Peter speaking to the Jews concerning their crucifying Jesus said, "You according to the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God with your wicked hands have crucified and slain."
c. God had spoken by the prophets the things that He must suffer in bearing the sins of the world.
1. He was forsaken by the Father, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
2. His hands and feet were to be pierced.
3. They were to divide his clothes among themselves but they would cast lots for His robe.
4. They would give Him vinegar for His thirst.
Ps 69:21.
5. He would give His back to the smiters, and they would pull out His beard.
6. That His face would be so brutally beaten that He would not even be recognized as a human being.
7. That He would be numbered with the wicked in His death.
8. That He would bear our sins, for God would lay on Him the iniquities of us all.
B. The "It is finished." could very well be all of the prophecies concerning His death.
1. Paul spoke in the synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia on the Sabbath day concerning Jesus, and he said, "And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in the sepulchre."
C. I believe that it is that and more.
D. I believe that He was also speaking of the work of redemption.
1. Earlier in the gospel of John He had said, "I did not come to do My own will, but the will of Him that has sent Me and to finish His work."
2. God's work in the redemption of man.
3. The Bible tells us that in 6 days God created the heavens and the earth, and all the life forms in them, and the 7th day He rested from His works.
4. Man created in the image of God as a self-determinate being was in the beautiful garden paradise called Eden, living in fellowship with God, communing and worshipping his Creator.
5. After Satan enters the scene, and tempts man to disobey the will of God, and follow his own lusts, man fell from the image of God and lost his fellowship and close communion with God.
6. God's work began anew, this time it was the work of redemption of man, which would ultimately be accomplished by sending His Son into the world to take the sins of the world upon Himself and offer Himself as a sacrifice for sins.
7. One day when Jesus was accused of violating the Sabbath day, by the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, and telling him to take his cot and go home, He answered the Pharisees by declaring, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."
8. What was the work of the Father? The restoring of this man from the curse of sin, by making him whole.
9. When Jesus cried, "It is finished." He was declaring that God's work of redeeming man from the power of sin was finished. The work of redemption was a finished work.
E. What does this mean as far as you are concerned?
1. There is no good work that you can do to redeem yourself from the guilt of your sin, the work of redemption is a finished work.
2. All you must do or can do to be redeemed from the power of sin is to believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
3. When Jesus was asked one day, what they must do to do the work of God, He responded, "This is the work of God that you believe on Him who He has sent."
4. He told Nicodemus, that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
5. When the rich young ruler came to Jesus seeking eternal life, Jesus said, "If you would be complete sell what you have and distribute the money to the poor and come and follow Me."
a. In the command to sell what he had, Jesus was telling him to forsake his other gods, know the true God, follow Me.
b. The first commandment of the law is "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." He wants to be first in your life. With this young ruler his money was first in his life, and was keeping him from following Jesus.
c. What is it in your life, that keeps your from following Him fully?
F. The work of redemption is finished, it is done, all a person must do to be redeemed from the power of sin is to believe in Jesus Christ and to make Him the Lord of your life.
1. It is so simple that a child can do it.
2. It is so complex that the wisest of men cannot fully comprehend what is the length and the depth and the height of God's love that prompted this glorious plan of redemption.
G. When Jesus cried, "It is finished." It was not a cry of defeat, but of glorious victory.
1. Satan's power to control and destroy man, and to keep Him from fellowship with God is finished. He has been defeated. The price for the redemption of the world is now paid, and man who desires to know God and be restored into His image now has the way opened to Him and the power available.
a. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, and no man cometh to the Father but by Me."
b. Jesus said, "And you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem and Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the world."
c. Paul wrote, "And we with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord are changed from glory to glory into the same image, by the power of the Spirit."
2. We are no longer under the curse of sin, the power it once had over our lives has been broken, Paul said, "Sin shall no longer have dominion over you." The day of bondage to sin is finished, it is over, Jesus has triumphed, and it is finished."
a. The barriers that once kept you from fellowship with God have been removed, the door is opened from all to come.
REV 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
b. It is up to you to make the choice to come, the door is open.
c. Man exercised his right to choose when he left his fellowship with God and God has ordained that he must also exercise the same right of choice to return.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
