OUT OF WEAKNESS…STRENGTH - Jesus: “It’s Finished”
Mark 15:33-47 (p. 712) September 24, 2017
Introduction:
Fanny Crosby wrote one of my favorite hymns…“Jesus keep me near the cross…there a precious fountain, free to all a healing stream flows from Calvary’s mountain.”
Then the chorus echoes…“In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever…till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river.”
I’ve sang that song hundreds of times in my life, but as I prepared to stand before you today I thought about the words in a different way…on that day Jesus was crucified over 2000 years ago how near to His cross would I really have been?
Would I have been like Peter…following the events incognito and when called out would I have lied, run and wept…and then watched from a distance.
Or like John, would I originally have been so scared I just ran…shedding my cloak in the arms of the people who tried to grab me…but like the other disciples…l run so I can be safe. Would I resurface on that day, the day He was crucified. Would I stand with his mom, close enough to hear him breathe, close enough to talk to Him as He dies?
There were others near the cross. Some came for the gore and entertainment. Public punishment appealed to some. Others were there because it was their job, the soldiers, the centurions. Others were at the cross because they wanted to make sure Jesus was gone. The Chief Priests, the rulers, they were there like foremen in a Silverado truck, holding the clipboard and demanding things be done just so.
Mary was there because she loved her son and she was going to love and comfort him to the very end, so was Mary Magdalene, Solome, and many other women who had loved and cared for Jesus during his ministry. They were there to comfort, support and minister to him as he died.
There were 2 other men there who had no choice in the matter. One on his left, the other on his right, dying in the same way, but near his cross none the less.
Different reasons and different people near the cross, filled with emotions ranging from anger and hate, to a mother’s heartbroken love. To some the cross was foolishness and a Stanberry clock but the Apostle Paul would later write, “We preach Christ crucified: A stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Cor. 1:22-24)
QUOTE 1 CORINTHIANS 1:27
You see God chose the cross to be the altar upon which the Lamb of God was sacrificed; and we choose whether to worship there or not. Let’s examine the truth of the cross this morning.
I. THE CROSS IS A FORSAKEN PLACE!
In the book of Deuteronomy Moses writes concerning various laws and curses. Here’s what he says concerning anyone who is guilty of a capital offense and is hung on a tree, “You must not leave his body on the tree overnight (one of the reasons Joseph of Arimithea and Nicodemus wanted to bury Jesus’ body in a hurry). Be sure to bury him the same day, because everyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.” (Deuteronomy 21:22-23)
The Apostle Paul saw that by taking a curse of the Law upon Himself, Jesus removed the curse of the Law from us. Galatians 3:13 says “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written “cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
We must understand there was nothing glorious or polished about the cross. As we view the electric chair, the gas chamber, that is how the cross was viewed in Jesus’ day, and anyone going to the gas chamber, the electric chair, the cross, is dying in infamy and shame.
When Jesus tried to explain what was going to happen to his closest friends, the disciples, that God’s plan involved Him dying on a cross, Peter could not wrap his mind around that idea. It was too horrible, too impossible for him to imagine. “Never Lord, never will this happen to you.” That’s when Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get behind me Satan, you are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23)
Oswald Chambers who wrote “My Utmost for His Highest” said, “Calvary means “place of the skull” and that is where our Lord is always crucified, in the culture and intellect of men.”
For a Savior to die on a tree, at a place where soldiers gamble and thieves curse, a garbage heap where cynics talk smut, a crossroads of humility where his title is written in 3 languages: Hebrew, Latin and Greek. This is where he died. No wonder he cried out “Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthai.” My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”
As the sins of all mankind forever and for all time were placed on the spotless Lamb of God, he became cursed, forsaken, not because of anything he had done, but because of everything I had done. Here is what Peter says:
1 PETER 2:22-24 (p. 851)
“He bore my sins in his body on the tree.” The cross was a forsaken place, not because Jesus sinned, but because he became my sin bearer.
There is another truth we need to see this morning:
II. THE CROSS IS A DIVIDING PLACE
Verse 38 of our text records that as Jesus breathed his last, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
This curtain separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple, only once a year on the Day of Atonement could only the High Priest come into the presence of God to sacrifice for the people’s sins and for his sins. He had to wash his body, blood was sprinkled on him.
God would no longer be unapproachable to his people. The curtain was ripped from top to bottom so we would know God was doing the ripping.
Now through the blood and body of Jesus Christ, sacrificed for our sins we could approach God by a New Covenant of Grace. The writer to the Hebrews captures what happens between us and God in
HEBREWS 10:12, 19-21 (p. 843)
Christ would be the sacrifice that would bridge the gap between us and God for all time. As His flesh was torn, the wall of sin that separated us from God came down - no earthly help would be needed because Jesus would now sit at the right hand of God and intervene for us, an eternal High Priest.
And yet the cross is a dividing place because it’s here we stumble, whoa, wait a minute Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)
He said “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:35)
Jesus isn’t just asking me to stand near the cross, he’s asking me to take up my cross, my own cross. I know without a doubt what happens to the guy carrying a cross, he dies, he’s crucified.
Here is where the cross becomes a dividing place, not just to the Jews who wouldn’t understand how a curse could save, or the greedy who thought it was idiotic to imagine a King dying on a tree. Jesus is now asking for my life, my surrender.
Paul understood it, he wrote in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.”
For all those who came to understand this mystery, are willing to die to self and be buried in Christ, so they can rise and live a new life as Christ lives in them.
III. THE CROSS IS A SAVING PLACE
“And when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus heard his cry and saw how he died he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God.”
He’d seen a lot of crucifixions, a lot of hate, pain and death. Soldiers sometimes get hardened to things like that, but he’d never heard a man go through a crucifixion and pray for those who drove the nails, nor had he ever seen it go pitch black, or feel the earth rip in two. “This man was God’s son.”
Christ, in his weakest hour performed his greatest work - dying on the cross to redeem mankind.
We’ve talked about Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross, and John was close enough to hear Jesus’ final words. He stood there as Jesus placed his mother into his care. “Dear woman, here is your son, here is your mother.”
And when everything was taken care of, knowing everything was completed, he said, “I’m thirsty.” He took a drink so he could speak these words - “IT IS FINISHED.”
Literally “Paid in full.” The same words stamped on a bill from the marketplace after the money has been handed over. These same words came from Jesus’ lips…as His spirit left His body…“It’s finished.” The bill has been paid.
What bill, you might ask? The entire invoice for every sin of every person. The wages of sin are death according to God’s Word. It was a payment none of us could make…we are still spiritually poor…so poor we are bankrupt when it comes to righteousness.
So, God purchases us at great price. Jesus brings us back. He redeems us…not with silver or gold…but with His own blood…“As the Lamb of God who takes away our sin…He had no spot or blemish.”
That is the bill that was paid in full on Calvary…It’s why I want to be as near to it as possible.
Let’s pray.
