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!
Sad to say, when many people are about to depart this life, they have many regrets knowing they have to leave, knowing there were many things God called them to do that will never get done. Why?
• Because they got sidetracked.
• Because they got discouraged.
• Because they let Satan defeat them.
But, it was not this way with the Lord Jesus. He completed everything God, the Father, sent Him to do and He could proclaim from that cross, “IT IS FINISHED!” HIS WORK WAS COMPLETED; also...
II. HIS SUFFERINGS WERE FINISHED.
The Bible tells us He was, “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief...”
Also, the Bible tells us He “...was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
Jesus could have come to earth and lived the most luxurious life of anyone who has ever lived. Instead, He chose to suffer. His life, from the cradle to the grave, was filled with suffering.
One of the reasons He suffered so, was so He would know how we suffer!
Last of all, Jesus suffered as He was placed on that old rugged cross and had spikes driven through His hands and feet. Oh, how He suffered physical agony as He hung on that cross and died for you and me.
Illus: We are told that this type of execution causes horrible suffering. The weight of the body caused the body to sag. The more the body sagged, the more the skin tore, causing increased pain and agony. Then we are told the victim would become nauseated and soon began to break into a cold chill due to the pain. As a man hung on the cross, one could actually see the body quiver because of the chills.
The song writer said it right, when he penned the words, “Oh, how He suffered for you and me.”
But, Jesus knew that in just a short while, He would draw that last breath and His suffering would be over. He cried, “IT IS FINISHED.” All the suffering He had to suffer was then over.
III. HIS PROPHECIES CONCERNING HIMSELF ON EARTH WERE FINISHED.
Luke 24:44 states and we read, “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.”
Notice, every prophecy of the law, prophets, and Psalms had to be fulfilled to every jot and tittle. If Jesus had not fulfilled all of them He could not have claimed to be Who He was!
He was being accused of wanting to destroy the Law, but He told the crowd that despised Him, Matt. 5:17-18, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”
In Christ every one of the laws were fulfilled and completed.
We read in Acts 13:29, “And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre.”
Even after He died, He fulfilled prophecy concerning Himself. He hung on that cross and the last words He said, before He died, were, “IT IS FINISHED.”
IV. THE LAW OF MOSES WAS “FULFILLED.”
We read in Colossians 2:14-17, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”
You ask, “Preacher, what do these verses mean?”
They mean there is nothing wrong with the law God gave through Moses - NOT A THING! The problem some have, is because there is something wrong with us. The Law of Moses condemned all of us. Every time we break a commandment of God, it only proves that we are sinful.
THE LAW WAS PERFECT, BUT WE ARE NOT PERFECT. It condemns us to a devil’s hell.
But, the perfect Son of God came here as a man, and took the list of the laws of Moses and obeyed every law. He took the long list of commandments we have broken and nailed them to a cross.
Now Satan is not able to accuse Christians of sins, because they have all been fulfilled in THE PERFECT SAVIOR WHO CAME TO FULFILL THE PERFECT LAW.
Now, when God sees those who are saved, who are cloaked in the righteousness of Christ, God does not see our sins; He sees the righteousness of Christ, Who came to die, to fulfill every one of them.
He cried from the cross, “IT IS FINISHED.” That is, every law of Moses had been fulfilled in Him!
Conclusion:
Time Magazine, March 1997, asked the American people this question: “Do people get into heaven based mostly on the good things they do, or on their faith in God, or both?”
The answers were:
• 6% Good things they do.
• 34% Faith in God.
• 57% Both.
Isn’t that something! Over 63% of the American people believe you are saved by WORKS!
Christ paid the price for our sins. There is not one thing we can do to acquire salvation.
Jesus said, “IT IS FINISHED!” He bought and paid for our salvation.
Our part is to accept this free salvation, and then go on to find out what He would have us do to help His kingdom grow.
I. HIS ASSIGNMENT WAS FINISHED
II. HIS SUFFERINGS WERE FINISHED
III. THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING HIMSELF
ON EARTH WERE FINISHED
IV. THE LAW OF MOSES WAS “FULFILLED”
Note: You can hear Dr. Odell Belger preach many of his sermons on the internet. Go to Youtube and type Lykesland
