The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. If you would like to know how you can become a Harvest Partner, just go to Harvest.org.
That's Harvest.org. Pastor Laurie says Jesus was proclaiming the victory mankind needed. It's done. It's finished. It's accomplished. Imagine a town in the Old West, and there sits the Western Union office.
The clerk is wearing his visor, horn-rimmed glasses, hovering over his desk blotter. When you pay for your telegram, he stamps it paid in full in big, bold letters. Well, today on A New Beginning, in one of our most requested studies of the year, Pastor Greg Laurie points out when Jesus proclaimed tetelestai, he was declaring the debt for man's sin forever paid in full. Let's learn more. Let's grab our Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 27. We are in our God Came Near series.
A chronological look at the life of Christ from all four gospels. The title of my message today is, It is Finished. Okay. I admit it. I don't always finish what I start.
Let me explain. I will start a project, and I lose interest in it. Like, my office is always a mess because I have books piled on top of books, and I don't like to throw things away. And believe it or not, in my mind, in that mess, I know where things are.
But it overwhelms me, and I realize this has got to be taken care of. Now, I am a messy person. My wife is a very neat person. How many of you are messy people? Raise your hand if you are messy. Just admit it. Own it. Okay.
I wonder why there was so much trash laying around you over there. No. I am kidding. Okay. How many of you are very neat people? You are neat freaks. Wow. We have a lot of neat people here. Okay. How many of you are married, and one of you is messy, and one of you is neat?
Raise your hand if you are that big. That is a lot of you. Well, that is challenging in the marriage relationship.
That is a perfect description of our marriage. I will start to clean. I will start to straighten things up. And then I will get about 90 percent done, and I will think, I will get to this later. And I never get to it, and that becomes the seed for the next mess.
Right? But here is the good news. God always finishes what He begins. He always completes that which He starts. Scripture tells us that He is the author and what? Finisher of our faith.
Philippians 1 says, being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it under the day of Jesus Christ. Aren't you glad that God doesn't just choose someone and say, I love you, and I am going to change you, and I have a plan for your life, and I am bored with you. I am moving on. You are like, what?
No. He always finishes what He starts. He completes that work. And I bring this up because we are looking at the story now of the death of Jesus. And we are going to see how He went to the cross willingly and died for our sin and completed what He began.
In fact from the cross we will see in a few moments He gave those words, It is finished. And I will explain to you what those words meant then and what they mean to us now. But here is Jesus now hanging on the cross and He gives seven significant statements. Every one of them was important.
Even the order of them is important. And the order is statement number one He says, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Statement number two is a response to the thief that was crucified next to Him who said, Lord remember me when You come into Your kingdom. And Jesus said, truly, truly I say to you today you will be with Me in paradise. Statement number three to His mother, woman, behold your son.
And then looking to the apostle John standing next to her He said, son behold your mother. Statement number four He says, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Number five He says, I thirst. Statement number six.
It is finished. And His final statement, a prayer to the Father when He says, into Your hands I commit My Spirit. The first words of Jesus were a prayer to the Father. His second words were a pardon to a sinner.
His third words were a passing of responsibility to a friend. And His fourth words were a plea to the Father when He says, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? It is believed by many, myself included, that that was the moment Jesus was burying the sin of all of the world. All of your sin. All of my sin.
All of humanity's sins. Why? Listen to this. On the cross God treated Jesus as if He had lived your life. And He did this so He could treat you as if you had lived His life.
Let me repeat that again. On the cross God the Father treated Jesus as if He had lived your life. And He did this so He could treat you as if you had lived His life. That is the good news of the gospel. That God forgives me of my sin and places the righteousness of Christ into my account.
It is unbelievable. Here we see the Creator of the universe dying on the cross. And now we come to statement number five. The first statement of our personal nature when He says, I thirst. Now that is not here in Matthew. That is over in the gospel of John. And remember God came near.
This series we are in. It is a chronological look at the life of Christ from all four gospels. And John tells us that at that point He said, knowing these things were accomplished and the Scripture was fulfilled, I thirst. And a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there and they filled a sponge with sour wine.
Put it on His head and put it in His mouth. The worst of the battle is behind Him now. Up to this point He is only focused on the needs of others. First He thinks about the people that crucified Him. Then the criminal crucified next to Him.
Then His mother. Then He thinks about the sins of humanity. And now for the first time He says something about His own need, I thirst. This is just a reminder that though it is true that Jesus was fully God, 100 percent God, God in the womb of the virgin, God at birth, God in His childhood, God in His public ministry, God hanging on the cross, God rising again from the dead, it is also true He was fully man.
A real living breathing man. He felt pain like any other man. He was tired. He was hungry.
And of course He was thirsty. And we see the humanity of Christ on display here. And I bring this up because when you are going through hardship you need to know that you serve a God that knows what it is like to walk in your shoes. You see you can cast your care upon Him as 1 Peter 5 says, because He cares for you.
Is your body wracked with pain? So is His. Have you ever been misunderstood or misjudged or misrepresented?
So is He. Have you ever had your closest friends turn away from you? They did that to Him as well.
Have you ever had someone you were close to betray you? That also happened to Christ. But Jesus did not focus on His own pain. He focused on the pain of others. And that is a very important truth for us to take home. Because pain is going to come into every life. We try to control it. And we don't want pain in our life.
But it will come. And there are a lot of ways that pain can come. It can be physical pain because of an injury. It can be physical pain because of an illness or a sickness you have. It can be physical pain due to a disability. It can be the emotional pain of problems that you are having in your life with relationships. And there is all kinds of pain that can come into life. It can be the pain of losing a loved one. The pain of grief. So pain is going to come.
No one is going to live a trouble-free life. And there is no vacation from human suffering and tragedy. But here is what you can do. You can control what you do with the pain. When we are in pain, instead of trying to get rid of it, we should instead think of ways to leverage it. Instead of saying to God, get me out of here, we should say, what can I get out of this?
Let me say that again. Instead of saying to God, get me out of here, say, what can I get out of this? So instead of trying to understand why, you just say, what? What can I do with this?
Here is what you do with it. You take your pain and you use it as a tool to help others who are also in pain. It comes down to this. For those of us that are suffering, I think if we focus more on the needs of others it would help put our problems in perspective. By that I mean it doesn't mean your pain goes away. But I find that when I reach out to someone who is hurting, maybe they have lost a loved one, even a child, as I minister to them it kind of ministers to me. I find the more that I give out, the more it comes back to me. You can sit around and pity yourself and say, why, why, why?
Or you can say, how can I use this? And Paul says, God allows us to go through these sufferings so we can comfort others with the same comfort that we ourselves have been comforted with. So here is Jesus always thinking of others. But now He is experiencing a thirst that is burning and severe. Scientists tell us that thirst is the most agonizing of all pain.
Every cell in the body cries out that it only gets worse with time. I mean let's not forget what Jesus has gone through. Tremendous loss of blood.
The discouraging. He has been beaten. He has been hit. He has been nailed to a cross.
But even more He has borne all the sin of the world upon Himself and He has depleted. He is just crying out, I thirst. He was so thirsty. We can't even imagine the thirst He was experiencing. It shows His humanity. And then He asks for help. I thirst.
Like someone help me. And some brave soldier gives Him some water. Man I wish I could have been that guy to bring a little comfort to Jesus. But guess what? You can be that guy.
You can be that girl. You say, what are you talking about Greg? We are going to get into a time machine and go back 2,000 years? Yes.
And it is a DeLorean. Who wants to go? No. I am kidding. No.
Here is how you can do it. Jesus said, when I was hungry you fed me. When I was thirsty you gave me something to drink. And they responded, well when were you hungry? When were you thirsty? When did we give you drink? And He said, when you did it to the least of my brothers and sisters you did it for me.
So I see someone who is hurting. I say, I will give you that cup of water. I will give you that meal. I will help put a roof over your head.
I will put some clothes in your back. And best of all I will give you the message of the Gospel. I believe everyone benefits from your sermons and reading scripture every day. God bless you Pastor Greg. Well we appreciate those kind words and we are only able to bring the Gospel home because of partners who make these studies possible. Would you partner with us so they can continue?
Make a donation online at harvest.org or write us at A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside California 92514. Well today we are considering the sacrifice Jesus made at Calvary. And Pastor Greg is highlighting the seven statements the Lord made during those critical moments in one of this year's most requested messages. So now we come to one of the most significant statements of the cross. It is when Jesus says it is finished.
That is statement number six. It is finished. It comes from a single word in the Greek.
Tetelestai. It is finished. It is completed. It is accomplished.
You know at the age of 33 most people are saying it is beginning. But at the age of 33 Christ is saying it is finished. He didn't say I am finished. He said it is finished.
There is a difference. Because this is not the shout of a victim overcome by his circumstances. This is the shout of a victor overcoming all of his enemies. It is done. It is finished.
It is accomplished. Tetelestai. I think these words were heard by everyone around because one gospel says he shouted it.
Tetelestai. They knew that word. It was a common word used in that culture.
If you were framing a house or building a chair or planting a field. When you were done you would say Tetelestai. A common word just meant it is done.
If you were painting a canvas or you were doing a sculpture and it was completed you would say Tetelestai. So it was a word people understood. But Jesus is now applying it to what he has just accomplished. Yes it was heard by those that were present. And I think it echoed through the hallways of heaven. Mission accomplished. It has all been done. And there was a shout of victory. And I think it also echoed through the corridors of hell as they realized what a huge mistake they had made.
You see the devil thought by having Jesus put to death he could stop him not realizing that he was helping to fulfill prophecy because Jesus came with the express purpose of dying for the sin of the world. Tetelestai. It is finished. This is translated a lot of ways. One translation is it is paid. Another translation it is performed. Even another. It is accomplished.
All of those translations give a sense of what the word actually means. So what was paid? The price of our redemption. What was performed? The righteous requirements of the law.
What was finished? Well for starters finished were the horrendous sufferings of Christ. Never again would he experience pain at the hands of Satan. Never again would he bear the sins of the world. Never again would he even for a moment be separated from the Father in fellowship.
But listen to this. Finished also was Satan's stronghold on humanity. See this plan of the devil to stop Jesus blew up in his face. We are told in Hebrews 2.14, through death Christ destroyed him that had the power of death.
That is the devil. You see that means that no Christian has to be under the power of sin any longer. Now I didn't say you are not going to sin any longer. Because if I said to you I don't sin anymore I would be sinning when I said that.
Because it would be a lie. Everyone sins. In fact the Bible says if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We all sin.
But there is a difference between sinning as a human being, being sorry for it and repenting of it and living in a pattern of sin or a lifestyle of sin or under the power of sin. Maybe today as you hear this message you are under the power of sin. Maybe you are an alcoholic or you are a drug addict. You are addicted to pornography or you know these other issues and you say to yourself Greg it is in the genes man.
Not the ones I am wearing but in the family. You know my mom was this way. My grandfather was this way.
Hey I get that. My family that I came from the McDaniel family was made up of notorious Christians and notorious sinners. They tended to be one or the other. Some of my aunts were so strong in their faith and serving the Lord and others were wayward alcoholic people. And so you know you look at my own life. I mean my mom was married and divorced seven times.
She is an alcoholic. I had the odds stacked against me. If things went the way they normally would go I would have been divorced multiple times and I would be a drunk so you wouldn't even understand me. And I obviously wouldn't be a preacher. But God intervened in my life. God can change your family history.
He can break that pattern and that cycle of sin and give you a different story than He has. And I have been married 41 years. And you know what the secret is? Being messy.
No I am kidding. No the secret is you do it God's way and you follow the Word of God. But that is finished. That power of sin. So don't tell me I can't get free from this sin. You can in your own strength but Christ can set you free because He purchased that freedom at the cross of Calvary.
So start using it. Also finished was our salvation. Our salvation is paid for. It is completed. All of our sins were transferred to Jesus when He hung on the cross and all of His righteousness was transferred to our account. There is nothing I need to do to add to the work He has done for me.
There is no work you need to add on. It is done. Now in light of that live that out. It is finished. So now the storm has passed. The devil has done his worst. The Lord has put the sin of the world on him. And now the final statement of Jesus from Calvary.
And by the way this shows He was in control. Once He had completed the work He would now do. He said, into your hands I commit my spirit. You see Jesus left when He was done. He said, no one takes my life from me.
I give it to my own accord. And that is why they were surprised when they came to the body of Jesus to break His legs and He was dead. You say, why would they break the legs of someone hanging on a cross? Well as I told you before death by crucifixion is effectively death by suffocation. Because you are not able to breathe. There is a little place to put your feet on at the base of the cross.
And you push yourself up and you get air. And so when they wanted the prisoners to die they would come with a huge kind of mallet and smash their knees and their legs would break and they would immediately suffocate. They came to smash the knees of Jesus and He was gone.
Why? Because He had given up His spirit. And they didn't even touch Him and fulfilled a prophecy that said not one of His bones will be broken. But He had accomplished the work God had given Him to do. I want you to notice that in His seven statements three times on the cross Jesus addressed the Father. His first words. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. His fourth statement. My God.
My God. Why have you forsaken Me? And finally Father into Your hands I commit My spirit.
I think that is a good thing to look at. Because Jesus addressed the Father in the beginning and the middle and the end. And we should do the same in life. One day we are going to breathe our last breath when we leave this world.
I hope that you are calling on the Father. Do it in your youth. Do it in your middle age. And do it in your final years. In fact we are told in Ecclesiastes, remember the Creator and the days of your youth. Lest when you grow old you say, I no longer find living pleasant.
See do it now and establish good habit patterns now younger people. And you who are middle age you need to continue to pray and honor the Lord right to the very end. That is what Jesus did. He prayed to the Father in the beginning and the middle and the end. And He lays this life down. Pastor Greg Laurie with important insight on how Jesus finished His mission at the cross. A pivotal moment for humanity. And Pastor Greg has more to come as this study continues here on A New Beginning. One of the most requested messages of this past year. We are counting down the top ten over the next few weeks here on A New Beginning. But listen if you missed any part of the presentation you can hear what you missed by logging on for an instant replay at harvest.org. Just look for the message called It is Finished.
Again go to harvest.org. And then we're so excited about Pastor Greg's new book chronicling the spiritual journey of singer-songwriter Johnny Cash. It's a book called Johnny Cash The Redemption of an American Icon. And Pastor Greg you pointed out that Johnny grew up in a very imperfect home. His mom was very devoted to the Lord but he had a troubled relationship with his father.
But I don't know anyone who grew up in a perfect home. You know there's always going to be drama and pride and stress. A lot of people may see themselves in the story of his early life. In fact you stated in the book that you saw a bit of yourself in his story. Well yeah I saw a bit of myself in Johnny's story because of his life growing up with his father and also from him being from Arkansas. You know people know my story my mother was married and divorced seven times. So as she was out running around you know living her crazy party life I lived a good part of my life with my grandparents.
A good part of my childhood I should say. So I was effectively being raised by two people from another generation. And my grandfather was a good man but he was pretty cold and a very harsh disciplinarian. So I understood a little bit of what Johnny may have been facing because his father also from Arkansas Ray was a very harsh man. A very harsh disciplinarian and never really gave up compliments. Johnny you know though he has this sort of rugged persona and people think of him as a man's man and he was that.
He was an artist meaning he was a musician, he was sensitive, he was a songwriter. You know and he needed encouragement and Ray never gave that to him. Early in his life Johnny had his older brother Jack who he looked up to so much. And Jack in fact wanted to be a preacher.
He was a very responsible young man always carried his Bible with him everywhere. Quoted scriptures kind of tried to keep his younger brother Johnny on the straight and narrow. And one day Johnny was going out fishing he asked his brother to go with him. And his brother couldn't because he had taken a job to make a little bit of extra money working in a saw mill. And there was a tragic accident where he was pulled into the side and almost died.
But lived a little bit of time after that but ultimately died. And so poor Johnny's coming back from fishing and his father picks him up tells him to throw the fishing pole in the back of the truck. They drive to the hospital and after Johnny's older brother died Johnny's father said God took the wrong son. You know so Johnny lived with that through his life.
God took the wrong son. So he always felt like he was a disappointment. And even when he was starting to experience a lot of success his father was still very reluctant to give out the compliments. And so you know that was something that affected him well into his adult years for sure.
Yeah you can see why. And there's so much more to Johnny's story. He had a real relationship with the Lord but also had many struggles with addiction. Pastor Greg points out that Johnny became an ordained pastor. But the temptations of the road and the injuries he suffered now and then would be treated with prescription pain pills.
And then that would reignite his addiction. But his walk with the Lord began well and ended well. And Pastor Greg's biography on Johnny Cash is a story of hope.
Who do you know who needs to hear this message of hope? We'd like to send you Johnny Cash the redemption of an American icon. Call 1-800-821-3300.
That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to Harvest.org. Well next time Pastor Greg has more insights on the finished work of Christ upon the cross. Hope you'll join us for more from our Best of series here on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie. The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners. Helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at Harvest.org
