It Is Finished

We could take each saying and preach a sermon on it. For example, we could preach on:

• His prayer, when He prayed, “Father, forgive them...” The promise of paradise He made to the repentant thief, Luke 23:43, “...Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

• His love for His mother as He entrusted her into the hands of John, the beloved, saying, “...Woman, behold thy son!...”(Then to the disciple), “Behold thy mother...”

• The spiritual suffering as He bore our sin, He cried to God from the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

• The physical suffering of His mortal body because of our sins as He cried, “I thirst.”

Yes, all of these would provide many spiritual truths to preach about, but I would like us to look at just the one saying in this message.

The Bible says He said, “It is finished.” Then, Jesus bowed His head and died as He commended His Spirit into the hands of His Father.

I am glad for all the things Jesus said on that cross, but I must confess that it is for a selfish reason that I am especially glad He cried out, “IT IS FINISHED!”

Why? Because to every living person those words were perhaps some of the most important words Jesus could have spoken!

Illus: A person’s last words are often very important. Often, even when a criminal is being executed, he will be asked, “Do you have any last words you wish to say?” Then, usually that person will say what he considers to be important.

• Sometimes criminals will confess things no one ever knew they did.

• Sometimes they will utter words of remorse to the family members and friends of their victims as they have gathered to witness the execution.

Those words are often considered significant and newspaper reporters will publish those last words so people can read about it in their local newspapers the day following that criminal’s execution.

These three words, “IT IS FINISHED,” I believe were chosen by God as three of the most important words that could be spoken to mankind.

What did Jesus mean by those three words? They summarized the COMPLETE LIFE OF CHRIST.

For example, when He said, “IT IS FINISHED,” He meant...

I. HIS ASSIGNMENT WAS FINISHED.

The Lord had a mission and He fulfilled that mission for which He came to earth! He did NOT WASTE one day that God, the Father, had planned for Him. NOT ONE!

Illus: Someone said of Jesus, “He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.”

“He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness.”

“He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him. He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave.”

“Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race and leader of mankind’s progress.”

“All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the kings that ever reigned have not affected the life of man as much as that One Solitary Life.”

The Lord could not have done all the great things He did had He lived a “laid back” life, the way so many do today.

He made every minute of His thirty-three years of life on earth count!

Illus: Even when Jesus was young, His parents discovered Him missing and when they searched and found Him, we all know the story - He was in the temple astounding the religious intellects of that day with His QUESTIONS and ANSWERS.

It seems that His parents must have reprimanded Him for not being where they expected Him to be, for He answered them, Luke 2:49, “And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?”

Jesus was not like any typical teen of today, who has not the slightest idea why he has been placed on earth.

Jesus knew His mission. When He cried from the cross, “IT IS FINISHED,” He simply meant, “Father, everything You sent Me to do, I HAVE DONE!”

THE WORK GIVEN HIM OF THE FATHER, TO DO WHILE ON EARTH, WAS COMPLETED!

Illus: Jesus did not die on that cross with any regrets of any wasted days or months of His life. He made every day count!