1. Introduction
a. This morning as we continue our series The Gospel in the Seven Sayings of the Cross we focus on Christ’s fifth statement made from the cross.
b. In the statement we will evaluate today, Christ, with three simple words, proclaims the ultimate victory in a life-long struggle for man—not His struggle, but ours.
c. He proclaimed victory over the day-to-day struggle with everything that would keep us from the presence of God.
2. Victory is proclaimed.
a. A short time earlier, prior to His passion, Jesus had prayed what we now refer to as the High Priestly Prayer.
b. He knew His suffering was coming to an end and His glorification was getting closer and as part of His prayer, He prayed this. Read John 17:4–5—I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
(1) In this passage Jesus spoke as if He had already died, been buried, and risen again.
(2) He had glorified the Father by His sinless life, His miracles, His suffering and now He would glorify the Father by His death and resurrection.
(3) He had finished the work of salvation the Father had given Him to do.
(4) The English theologian J. C. Ryle puts it this way:
The crucifixion brought glory to the Father. It glorified His wisdom, faithfulness, holiness, and love. It showed Him wise, in providing a plan whereby He could be just, and yet the justifier of the ungodly.—It showed Him faithful in keeping His promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head.—It showed Him holy, in requiring His law's demands to be satisfied by our great Substitute.—It showed Him loving, in providing such a Mediator, such a Redeemer, and such a Friend for sinful man as His co-eternal Son.
The crucifixion brought glory to the Son. It glorified His compassion, His patience, and His power. It showed Him most compassionate, in dying for us, suffering in our stead, allowing Himself to be counted sin and a curse for us, and buying our redemption with the price of His own blood.—It showed Him most patient, in not dying the common death of most men, but in willingly submitting to such pains and unknown agonies as no mind can conceive, when with a word He could have summoned His Father's angels, and been set free.—It showed Him most powerful, in bearing the weight of all transgressions of the world, and vanquishing Satan, and despoiling him of his prey.
(5) Jesus’ prayer was reasonable because before He came into the world, He was in heaven with the Father.
(a) When the angels looked upon Jesus, they saw all the glory of Deity. To every one of their eyes, He was obviously God.
(b) But when He came to earth among men, the glory of His Deity was veiled, hidden. Though He was still God, it was not apparent unless He chose to reveal it.
(c) On earth He was seen merely as the carpenter's Son.
(d) So Jesus is praying that the visible signs of His glory in heaven might be restored. The words “glorify Me in your presence” mean “glorify Me in Your presence in heaven. Let the original glory that I shared with You before My Incarnation be resumed.”
c. Read John 19:30—When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
d. From the cross that was to be an end to this menace to both the Jewish and Roman empires, Christ announces to the world that all is finished.
e. He is not arrogant or pompous. Knowing He has defeated the greatest evil in the world He doesn’t shout, “I win. You lose.”
f. With one word He sums up the whole of man’s redemption—finished.
(1) Finished was the work His Father had given Him to do.
(2) Finished was the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, freely offered in satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.
(3) Finished was the bridge between man and God.
3. The goal for which He came into the world had been accomplished.
a. “It is finished.” In Greek the word is tetelestai, τετέλεσται, which comes from the noun, telos, τέλος, which means a purpose or a goal.
(1) Jesus’ goal was to save sinners.
(2) He revealed the Father to those the Father had given Him out of the world. Read John 17:6—I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.
(3) The angels announced it before He was even born.
(a) Read Matthew 1:21—She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
(b) This was no ordinary messenger, but one sent from the Most High himself.
(c) He brought no ordinary message, but rather one that would have a profound effect on the world from that point forward.
(4) Christ Himself declared His goal.
(a) Jesus didn’t just wake up one morning and decide, “When I grow up I want to be the savior of the world. I want to die a gruesome death on a cross. I want to take on the sins of the world.”
(b) But, He was aware from day one that that was His express purpose for being on earth. He even proclaimed this message Himself.
(c) Read Matthew 18:11—For the Son of Man came to save the lost.
(5) But the noun telos, while the root of tetelestai, is not the important word here. It is tetelestai that is pregnant with meaning. In its application and context in our text this morning, it is the most powerful word known to man.
(a) Three words in English, one word in Greek—the greatest word ever spoken about Jesus and his substitutionary death on the Cross.
i. It is the greatest word uttered in the greatest moment of time by the greatest Person who ever walked this earth.
ii. It is a word that expresses the greatest fact concerning the greatest number of people, bringing the greatest blessing to the greatest multitude in earth and in heaven—a multitude no man can number.
iii. That one word in Greek expresses the greatest single triumph in the history of the human race.
(b) Literally translated, tetelestai means “It is finished.” There are only two places in the New Testament where it is used—John 19:28 and our text for today, John 19:30.
(c) It is a verb in the perfect tense.
i. The perfect tense in Greek is equivalent to the perfect tense in English.
ii. It describes an action that is viewed as having been completed in the past, once and for all, not needing to be repeated.
(d) Tetelestai was also written on business documents or receipts in New Testament indicating that a bill had been paid in full.
(e) The Greek-English lexicon by Moulton and Milligan says this:
“Receipts are often introduced by the phrase [sic] tetelestai, usually written in an abbreviated manner...” (p. 630). The connection between receipts and what Christ accomplished would have been quite clear to John’s Greek-speaking readership; it would be unmistakable that Jesus Christ had died to pay for their sins.
(f) By this simple statement, Christ announces to us that the bill for our sins is paid in full.
i. No other payments need to be applied. Any new charges to the account are automatically covered.
ii. With a credit card, if you add additional charges after you have paid the balance in full, you have to pay it again.
iii. This is not the case with the charge account for our sins. It is permanently and perfectly paid in full. All new charges are automatically covered.
4. The end of what men could do to Him had come.
a. The thing that should make this so attractive for you, that should make it so compelling for you to accept it, is that it was done freely and willingly and with an encompassing love for you.
b. Jesus wasn’t taken to the cross against His will. He wasn’t out of control from the Garden of Gethsemane forward.
c. On the contrary, He was in perfect control. Not only was He in perfect control, He was doing it with the full support and blessings of His Father.
d. What men did to Jesus was made possible only by God’s permission.
(1) God allowed all these things to happen, and all for our benefit.
(2) Read John 10:17–18—For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.
e. Jesus was living out the words that He had said in Matthew 10:28, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
(1) His enemies were able to kill His body but no more than that.
(2) He was still in full control of His spirit (soul) which He personally delivered to God.
f. Finally, note that He does not give men the credit for finishing it.
(1) He said, “It is finished.” Not only is tetelestai in the perfect tense, it is also in the third person, which makes it impersonal.
(2) So, who finished it? It was not those who were crucifying Him but God using them.
(3) Though what they were doing was despicable and abominable, through the wrath of man God was being praised and His purpose accomplished.
5. Closing and Invitation
a. There is a little story that illustrates the truth of this. A small boy, it is said, made a toy sailboat. He fashioned it with loving care and finally it was ready to sail. With what pride he surveyed it —brave in its fresh red and white paint. The little boat, lifting its sails proudly to the wind, escaped from his eager fingers and swept down, down the river away from its grief-stricken owner. Though he looked long and diligently he could not find his little boat.
One day, several weeks after, he chanced to be walking down the street in town when his eye was suddenly caught by a flash of red and white in a pawnshop window. It was his own boat! The one he had made himself! He rushed into the shop and demanded that the man give him his boat. He met with a brusque refusal. The shopkeeper said that he had paid for the little boat and before the boy could have it he would have to pay the stated price. With a sad heart the little fellow walked out of the store. It would take many a day for him to secure all that money, and for his own boat! But he went to work with a will and in a shorter time than he had thought possible he had earned the needed sum. With a light step he went to the store, laid down the money on the counter, and again demanded his boat. This time he received it. As he went out of the store, down the street, with his little boat tucked under his arm, he was heard to say tenderly, "You are mine, little boat, twice mine; once because I made you, and twice because I bought you.
So do we belong to Christ; once, because He made us, and twice because He bought us.
b. So the question I ask you this morning is this. When you look inward and take inventory of yourself, do you see the receipt with the big red stamp that says tetelestai—paid in full?
c. More importantly, have you acknowledged that your account is paid in full and willing accepted it?
d. If you haven’t, would you do it this morning?
