The Word of Triumph
Do you ever feel like your life is littered with half-completed projects? Even though I value being able to complete what I start, my days are often filled with unfinished business. From my childhood tree fort that had only one wall, to receiving an “Incomplete” in my college Italian class that eventually led to an “F,” to my lame attempts at refinishing furniture, to pictures that are still waiting to be hung up in our bedroom, and to finding the time to mud and sand some drywall, my “to-do” list reads more like a “never-do” catalog of broken commitments.
My guess is that I’m not alone this morning. Did you know that the granite depiction of the four American presidents at Mt. Rushmore is an uncompleted project? That’s right, the world’s greatest mountain carving is not finished and probably never will be. The sculptor had originally planned for the figures to be depicted to their waist.
Even Michelangelo, who is considered one of the greatest artists of all time, would often begin a project only to abandon it in a fit of anger. Amazingly, when he died he left more unfinished works than ones that were completed.
When people die at a young age they usually leave a lot of projects in progress. Many have wondered what John F. Kennedy would have been able to do as president if he had not been assassinated. In ten short years, Alexander the Great conquered Greece, Persia, Asia Minor, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Babylon, Media, and India. What would he have accomplished if he had not died at the age of 33?
Jesus also died at 33 and ministered for only three years. While most of us have incomplete work, unfinished business and half-completed projects, Jesus finished everything He started. He completed every task He was given. He accomplished all that He had planned to do.
Let’s take a brief walk through the Gospel of John to see how Jesus focused on finishing what He started.
John 4:34: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work.”
John 5:36: “…For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me.”
And, the night before Jesus was betrayed, he broke out into intercessory prayer for his followers. The time of His death had come and He could say with confidence that He had left nothing undone in John 17:4: “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” This is an amazing statement. There were certainly more sick people He could have healed and more miracles He could have performed. But He came for other reasons.
In the context of this prayer, Jesus reveals that His mission was to concentrate on a few men who would change the world. People were His method and the cross was the means. Before He even preached His first sermon He had already selected people to follow Him. He didn’t develop programs that would reach the multitudes; He developed individuals that the multitudes would follow.
Now, turn to John 19:28-30 where we’ll hear the sixth shout from the Savior. This cry from the cross follows quickly after the fifth cry when Jesus said He was thirsty and immediately before His final exclamation, which we will address next week. These last three shouts were most likely uttered during the last minute of His life. We’ve been focusing on the tragedy of the cross; we turn now to its triumph. We move from the desolation of “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” to the lamentation of “I thirst” to the sixth cry of jubilation: “It is finished!” Arthur Pink describes it this way: “From the words of the victim we turn now to the words of the victor.”
Follow along as I read verses 28-29: “Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.” Pastor Jeff did a great job last Sunday helping us quench our thirst in the deep rivers of Scripture as he focused on the perfect humanity of Christ, His profound suffering and the fabulous fulfilled prophecy surrounding his birth, life, and death.
Look at verse 30: “When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’” Don’t miss the link between cry #5 and cry #6. Jesus was parched with thirst. The wine vinegar was put to His lips, which fulfilled Scripture, loosened his tongue so that it didn’t stick to the roof of his mouth, and cleared His throat so He could utter these words, “It is finished.”
Notice that this verse is translated, “It is finished.” Jesus is not saying, “I’m finished” in a defeatist sort of way almost like He tried and just couldn’t do it. His death is not an accident. It’s not as if a great injustice was done. In fact, by His death justice was fully satisfied so that we can be declared righteous. It’s not said dejectedly, or even with a sense of relief that death is at hand.
It Is Finished
Have you ever stopped to think about the words we use? If you could pick the most popular phrase in our language this past year, what would it be? I thought you’d never ask. According to www.yourdictionary.com, the top expression is, “Let’s roll,” followed by “Ground Zero.”
I’d like to submit to you that the greatest word ever spoken in all of history is “Tetelestai.” While it might not be very common in our culture today, it is profoundly powerful. In English this sixth shout contains three words: “It is finished.” In Greek only one word is used: “Tetelestai!” The Greeks loved to say a lot using as few words as possible. And this one word is filled with meaning. It’s truly the greatest word ever uttered by the greatest man who ever lived! It terrified Hell and sent a thrill running through Heaven.
Let’s unpack the meaning of this one word and allow it to impact our lives in a fresh way today. We know from the other gospel accounts that “Tetelestai” was said in a loud voice. It wasn’t a whimper but the cry of a conqueror. It was a shout of victory, a word of triumph.
It’s important to know that this verb is in the perfect tense. That’s significant because it refers to an action that has been completed in the past with results continuing into the present. The past tense says, “This happened.” The perfect tense adds the idea that “this happened and it is still in effect today.” It literally means, “It was finished and as a result it is forever done.” Or, “It was finished in the past, and it is still finished in the present, and it will continue to be finished in the future.” We could say it this way: “All has been done that needed to be done. Nothing more is needed.” People in the first century would understand the word because it was used in many ways:
A farmer would use it describe an animal so beautiful that it seemed to have no faults. He would look at his lamb and declare, Tetelestai!
A carpenter, after finishing a perfect piece of furniture would smile and say, Tetelestai!
· An artist, describing his finishing touch on a canvas would step back and pronounce, Tetelestai!
· A servant would return to his master after faithfully finishing his job and report, Tetelestai!
· And, perhaps most importantly, this was a banking term. When a person would fully pay off His debt, the banker would hand him a receipt with the word Tetelestai stamped on it.
It is finished. There are no defects or slivers. The picture is perfect. The job has been performed exactly to the specifications. The debt is fully forgiven. “Paid in full” means that once something is paid for, you never have to pay for it again. You’d be foolish to even try.
Beth and I have had a least three things “paid in full” for us. When we returned from Mexico as missionaries, one of our supporters gave us his car. Right before he gave it to us, he took it in for a full tune-up, bought new tires, and even cleaned it up for us (I wish I could say I’ve kept it that way). All I could do was say thanks. He wouldn’t think of taking any money for it. Tetelestai!
Last August, a couple from this church sent us to The Cove, Billy Graham’s Training Center in North Carolina. If I would have gone up to the registration table and tried to pay, they would have said, “Everything’s already taken care of. There’s no need to pay anything.” It was paid in advance. Tetelestai!
And, just this past weekend, when Beth and I went to Branson for a Pastor’s Conference, a couple who attend another church made all the arrangements in advance for us to stay in their condo. Tetelestai. Paid in full.
We couldn’t pay for any of these things because they were already paid for. And, if we had insisted on paying, it would have been an insult to our friends. The same is true in the spiritual sphere. Either you accept the fact that Jesus paid it all, or you try to pay it yourself.
What Was Accomplished
Go back to verse 28 for a minute: “knowing that all was completed…” This is the same word found in verse 30. It is finished because all has been completed. Spurgeon said that this one word “would need all the other words ever spoken…to explain it.” Let’s try to explain it by looking at 4 things that were accomplished when Jesus shouted, “Tetelestai!”
1. His suffering was completed. Written over 500 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah 53:3 predicted that Jesus would face intense suffering during His entire life: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Jesus was born to suffer. We learned a couple weeks ago that his physical sufferings were severe but they were nothing like what He experienced on the cross when He became the sin sacrifice. God the Father turned His back, and the sun stopped shining for three hours as the accumulated ugliness of the sins of the whole world were poured out on Him.
Jesus reminded his disciples on a regular basis that He was destined to suffer. Luke 9:22:
“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” The cross was no accident. Luke 9:51: “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” Jesus did not die as a martyr. He set His face toward the Cross where He was to suffer and die on purpose.
Now the cup has been drained. The awful storm of God’s wrath has been spent. The darkness has ended. The wages of sin have been paid and divine holiness has been satisfied. His suffering is complete. Tetelestai!
2. The sacrifice was fulfilled. For hundreds of years, rivers of blood had flowed from the altar of God and yet the cost of sin was never fully paid. The Book of Leviticus describes a rather complex system that involved offering different animals to be sacrificed. The priest would take the animal, kill it, drain the blood, and burn the carcass on the altar.
The Law was very specific. There could be no unblemished animals. They had to be without spot or blemish. Leviticus 22:20: “Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf.” The Old Testament depicts a very bloody system. A priest spent a good part of every day killing animals and splashing the blood on the altar. In some cases he would preserve part of the animal for food and then burn the rest. His job description involved slaughtering, draining blood, and burning. He did this day after day, week after week, month after month. No matter how hard he tried to clean himself up, he would go home with the smell of blood and burning flesh on his clothes.
Ray Pritchard summarizes this system with three words. Blood. Death. Sacrifice. And the work of the priests was never done because sin was repeatedly committed. They were not allowed to sit when they were on duty, symbolizing that their job was never completed. Each day brought new sins and a fresh cry for blood. A priest who served for 40 years would have killed thousands of animals. When he died, another took his place and did the same thing. Blood. Death. Sacrifice.
Leviticus 16 describes in stunning detail what took place on the annual Day of Atonement ceremony. The high priest would offer up two goats in sacrifice. One was killed and the blood was sprinkled beyond the veil on the atonement cover in the Holy of Holies. The priest placed his hand on the other goat and prayed over it, symbolically transferring the sins of the people onto the innocent animal. It was then released outside the camp.
When Jesus died, He died as the final and perfect sacrifice. As the priests were about to sacrifice the Passover lamb at about 3:00 p.m. in the Temple, the Lamb of God gave His life for the forgiveness of sins on a hill called Golgotha. His blood opened the way into the Holy of Holies, vividly pictured when the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom as He took His final breath (Matthew 27:51).
He is also the scapegoat who was crucified “outside” the camp when He was killed on the outskirts of Jerusalem, taking the penalty of sinners who transfer their sins to Him. Leviticus 16:22 pictures what Jesus did on our behalf: “The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place…” Jesus was in that “solitary place” when He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Hebrews 13:12: “And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood.”
From the very beginning of time God had planned something better than the Old Testament system. Hebrews 10:1-4: “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
The entire sacrificial system was meant to prepare God’s people for the day when John the Baptist saw Jesus and testified in John 1:29: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” All the lambs and goats sacrificed in history point directly to the Lamb of God who gave His life for us. The word translated “takes away” is used elsewhere for the rolling away of the stone that sealed the tomb of Jesus. When Jesus died on the Cross, the final sacrifice was fulfilled and He rolled away our sins once and for all.
God demanded a bloody sacrifice as payment for sin. There is no way we can meet this requirement so He sent His Son to die in our place, shedding His blood, paying the price, and offering Himself as the final sacrifice for our sin. He is both priest and sacrifice. Hebrews 10:11-12: “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” The work of Jesus is complete. He is seated, not standing because the price has been paid and the mission has been accomplished. As the chorus goes, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.” It is finished! Tetelestai!
3. Satan was defeated. While Satan still has some power, He is a vanquished foe. He may have thought the cross was his point of greatest victory, but it was anything but. John 12:31: “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.” Hebrews 2:14: “…so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil.” 1 John 3:8 makes it clear what Jesus did when He fully paid the price: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” Satan was expecting Jesus to say, “I am finished” but what he got was different. Because “It is finished” Satan is finished!
Satan is defeated and yet he still torments believers. I read recently about a father and a daughter who were traveling in a car. While they were driving the father noticed that there was a bee in the car with them. This was a serious situation because his little girl was extremely allergic to bee stings and could die if she was stung. As the bee flew toward his daughter, the father reached out his open hand. When the bee saw his hand it landed on his palm. The father closed his fist as the bee dug his stinger deeply into his skin. About a minute later the father opened up his hand and set the bee free.
The little girl was petrified when she saw the bee buzzing around her. The father looked down at his precious little princess and said, “Don’t worry honey, he can’t hurt you anymore. The stinger is in my hand. He may buzz around and try to frighten you but he can’t harm you now.”
That’s a perfect picture of what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Satan planted his stinger into the hands and feet of the Savior. And because Jesus took the full brunt of the devil’s fury, the evil one’s power has been diffused. Colossians 2:15: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” He can buzz around and cause problems, but he has lost the war. 1 Corinthians 15:55: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The price has been paid. Satan is defeated. Tetelestai!
4. Salvation was secured. Because everything has been done that needed to be done, we now have open access to God the Father. Theologians talk about the “finished work” of Jesus Christ to communicate a profound spiritual truth. There is nothing more that needs to be done. Nothing needs to be added to what has already been accomplished. Jesus came in order to bring life to us. John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” He was very clear about His mission in Luke 19:10: “For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.”
When we put our faith in Him as our substitute, trusting His finished work on the cross as full payment for the wages of our sin, then we will be:
· Regenerated. We’re given new life and become a totally new person. 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
· Justified. We’ve been declared righteous in spite of our sinfulness. Romans 5:1: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
· Adopted. We’ve been brought into God’s family. Romans 8:15-16: “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.’”
· Sanctified. We’ve been set apart and are in the process of being changed. We’re unfinished projects, but Christ will complete His work in us. Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Application
I want to conclude with three application points this morning.
1. Since Jesus paid it all, there is nothing more that needs to be done. Salvation is not a do-it-yourself project or even a 50-50 arrangement, where you do your part and Jesus does His. Jesus has done it all so that you don’t have to. Some of you are trying to clean yourself up to make yourself more presentable to God. I have some good news and some bad news for those of you who are on a self-improvement kick. The bad news is that you can’t make enough changes in order to meet God’s requirements. Isaiah 64:6: “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” The good news is you don’t have to because Jesus did it all for you.
Can I speak bluntly? Stop performing! Your acceptance is not based upon anything you do but on what has already been done for you. These are shocking words because many of us secretly believe that there is something we must “do” in order to be saved. No degree of personal reformation, church attendance, baptism, or good works will get you any closer to God. Sin is only forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus on the cross.
Some years ago a Christian farmer was deeply concerned over an unsaved carpenter. He shared the gospel with him many times and explained how the finished work of Christ paved the way for Him to have a relationship with God. The carpenter argued that he had to do things on his own to get to heaven.
The farmer then decided to ask the carpenter to make a wooden gate for him. When the gate was finished, the farmer hung it out in the field. He then asked the carpenter to meet him at the gate the following morning. When the carpenter arrived he was surprised to see the farmer standing by the gate with a sharp ax in his hand and asked, “What are you going to do with that ax?” The farmer replied, “I’m going to add a few cuts and strokes to your work.” The carpenter was aghast and said, “But there’s no need to do that. The gate is perfect just the way it is. I did all that was necessary to it.”
The farmer ignored him, lifted his ax and slashed and hacked at the gate until it was completely destroyed. The carpenter cried out, “Look what you’ve done! You’ve ruined my work!” The farmer replied, “Yes I did and that’s exactly what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to nullify the finished work of Christ by you own miserable additions to it!”
Are you doing the same thing this morning? Because Jesus cried, “It is finished,” your sin debt has been canceled. Since He paid it all, you don’t have to. If you try to pay for your salvation, it means you don’t think He paid it all. God is offering you salvation free of charge.
2. Everything has been done but salvation must be received in order for it to be activated in your life. The debt has been canceled but it will only be applied to the ledger sheet of your life if you ask for it to be done. John 1:12: “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become the children of God.” Believe that Jesus did it all and put your faith in Him. Are you willing to receive the greatest gift of all time? What are you waiting for? If you do want some “work” to do, then put into practice the words of Jesus in John 6:29: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.”
3. Jesus’ work is finished, but ours is just beginning. Once we receive Jesus Christ into our lives, we’re responsible to take the message of His completed work to all people. We’re to tell those in our community, in our county, in our country, and on the continents.
I’m looking forward to our annual missions conference in three weeks as we focus on God’s heart for the world and our place in His redemptive plan. Romans 10:14-15 is our passage for the weekend: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”
Are you committed to the Great Commission? Who can you talk to this week about Jesus? Who can you invite to one of our three Easter Sunday services? How does God want to use you in partnering with one of our missionaries?
I’m told that that if the presidents who are carved into the rock of Mount Rushmore were made to scale, they would stand 465 feet tall! Friends, that’s nothing compared to the one who was crucified on Mount Calvary. He stands taller than anyone or anything because His work is finished! The debt has been paid. Tetelestai!
