Jesus' Last Words - It Is Finished - Part 4

Now, I want to welcome you here. Welcome to all you guys who are down in overflow. I want you to take a Bible and open it to John chapter 19, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, fourth book in the New Testament.

John chapter 19, we'll be coming there in just a moment. But you know, it was 1968 and the place was Mexico City. The Olympic marathon, all 26.2 miles of it was being run. As a matter of fact, the marathon was over.

More than an hour over, the medals had already been awarded, the crowd's focus had already switched to other events. When suddenly, John Stephen Akwari from Tanzania staggered into the stadium. He had been a contestant in the marathon. His leg was bandaged from a fall that he had taken. He was barely able to hobble and yet he began to hobble around the track finishing the last lap of the marathon. Now, the crowd at first didn't even know what was going on.

They sat in silence. When they suddenly figured out what he was doing, the crowd rose to its feet, cheering him on until he finally crossed the finish line where the winner had crossed more than an hour before and then he collapsed in utter exhaustion. Later, they asked him, the reporters did. They asked him, why did you keep going? I mean, you knew you couldn't win and here's what he said and I quote.

He said, my country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish it, end of quote. Now you know folks, there's something majestic about finishing a grand and a difficult task and today we're going to watch as the Lord Jesus does exactly that and then we're going to talk about, so what difference does that make in our lives today in the 21st century? Remember, we're finishing up a four part series entitled Jesus' Last Words. We took four out of the seven things that Jesus said on the cross and folded them into this series. We've already covered three.

We've already covered, Father forgive them, they know not what they do. We've already covered second of all when Jesus said, I am thirsty. Third, when he said, today you will be with me in paradise and today we're going to cover the fourth and final thing Jesus said on the cross which is, it is finished.

So let's look. Here in John chapter 19, Jesus has been hanging on the cross roughly six hours from about 9 a.m. until about 3 p.m. and here's what we read, verse 30. Later, knowing that all was now completed, Jesus said, it is finished.

And then with that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Now folks, what was this thing that the Bible says was now completed? What was this thing that Jesus said, well it's now finished?

The answer to that is, it was the plan of salvation that God sent Jesus here to earth to secure for you and for me. And you say, well you know Lana, I've heard that phrase before, the plan of salvation. But honestly, Lana, I'm not sure I really understand it. I mean, explain to me if you would how it really works. I mean like, what's it based on?

What are the mechanics that make it function? Well I'd love to do that. Friends, the plan of salvation that God purchased for us in the Bible is all based on Jesus offering himself on the cross as our ransom. Matthew chapter 20, Jesus actually said this.

He said, I did not come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. Now a lot of us here have seen Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ. But I'm sure you're aware that this was not the only movie Mel Gibson's ever been involved in. Of course, there was Lethal Weapon, one of the ten greatest movies of all time, in my opinion. There was Brave Heart, where he won an Oscar.

There of course was The Patriot, more recently What Women Want. But there was one movie he was involved in that was simply entitled Ransom. And it was the story of a man whose son was kidnapped and the only way he could get his son back, the only way he could set his son free was to pay a ransom to the kidnappers. And folks, this helps us understand the definition of a ransom. A ransom is a price that one person pays to free another person, to buy back another person. And here in Matthew chapter 20, Jesus says, this is why he died on the cross, he died on the cross to be our ransom. And the rest of the Bible reiterates this. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 15, Christ died as a ransom to set us free, the Bible says. Galatians chapter 3 verse 13, Christ ransomed us from the curse of sin by becoming a curse for us on the cross. Galatians chapter 3 verse 22, the scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, but when the time was right, God sent his son, born of a woman, to ransom us. This theological truth, this idea that Jesus became our ransom, the most eloquent explanation of it that I believe that's ever been given, was given by a fellow named Anselm.

Anselm was the archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1098 A.D. he wrote a treatise on this subject entitled Why God Became Man. Here's how Anselm explained the plan of salvation, this idea of a ransom. He explained that we all owe God, to use his terminology, a ransom of satisfaction for our sin. God's justice, he went on to explain, requires that this ransom be paid before anybody can go to heaven, but there's a problem, and that is that all of us as human beings lack the means, we lack the resources to pay this ransom.

And so God in his mercy, Anselm explained, decided to fix the problem for us, and here's how he fixed it. God took on human nature in the person of Jesus Christ, he lived a sinless life himself here on earth so that he owed God no ransom for himself, and then he went to the cross as our substitute where he dedicated his death on the cross to serve as our ransom, our payment for sin in the sight of God. Anselm even coined a phrase for this plan of salvation that the Bible talks about. He referred to it as substitutionary atonement, meaning you and I, we get atonement, we get forgiveness of sins, we get eternal life because of what a substitute, that is the Lord Jesus, did for us on the cross. And friends, when Jesus said on the cross, it is finished and then died, this is what he was talking about.

He was talking about the plan of salvation, God's plan of substitutionary atonement that he was purchasing for us with his death on the cross. Now that's as far as we want to go in the passage for right now because it's time to ask our most important question. And you say, well Lon, this is Easter, we don't get Easter Sunday off, no you don't, no no. And now many of us know the question, but I know there may be many of you here visiting today, so Cheryl's going to show you the question before we ask it, just so we're all together. Cheryl, show them the question, there you go. And now we're ready, nice and loud, one, two, three, so what? Yeah.

You say, Lon, so what? You say, so like, what difference does it make to my life? What some archbishop of Canterbury said a thousand years ago about the plan of salvation? Dude, I am not even an episcopalian. So what difference does any of this make to my life?

Well, I think it makes a lot of difference to our lives and let me explain to you why. You know folks, I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but every one of us here, you, me, all of us, there's going to come a moment in every one of our lives where we're going to be staring eternity right in the face. And at that moment, there's only two ways for us to face eternity. We can either face eternity with utter terror or we can face eternity with absolute confidence and assurance. And the difference, whether you and I face eternity with terror or assurance, the difference depends on us knowing and understanding what Anselm was trying to explain to us about this plan of salvation. Knowing and understanding three important facts about substitutionary atonement, and I want to tell you what those facts are right now. Number one, we need to understand first of all that this plan of salvation of substitutionary atonement that Jesus purchased for us on the cross, that it is first of all complete. That is, there are no unanswered questions about it. There are no missing pieces, no loose ends. There is nothing at all you and I need to supply. Jesus did it all for us on the cross.

It is complete. Now watch as the Bible explains this to us, Hebrews chapter 10. Day after day the Bible says, every priest, we're talking here about the priest in the Jewish temple at Jerusalem, every priest stands and performs his religious duties.

Again and again he offers the same animal sacrifices which can never take away sins. You know the temple in Jerusalem had a lot of furniture in it. It had tables, it had stands, it had altars, but friends there was one piece of furniture that was conspicuously missing from the temple in Jerusalem and that is the temple in Jerusalem had no chairs. There were no chairs anywhere in it and the reason for that is that the priests were never allowed while they were on duty to sit down and the reason for that is that sitting down is symbolic of finishing your work. The Bible is clear that these priests' work was never finished. Those animal sacrifices never dealt with our sin once and for all. They were merely temporary coverings.

Watch now. But when this priest, Jesus Christ, had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, that is himself on the cross, watch, he sat down at the right hand of God and why did Jesus sit down? He sat down because by one sacrifice, that is his death on the cross, Jesus made perfect forever all who believe.

Now where there is forgiveness like this, the Bible says, sacrifices for sin are no longer needed. Friends, Jesus sat down because his work was finished forever because the plan of salvation that he purchased for us is complete. The plan of salvation he purchased for us has no missing pieces, it has no loose ends, there is nothing we need to add to it, nothing in any way that we need to supply to it and this is exactly what Jesus was trying to tell us in John chapter 19 when he said it is finished. Friends, he was trying to tell us we don't need to sing in the choir, we don't need to put money in the offering plate and we don't need to be baptized in order for this plan of salvation to work for us. In order for this plan of salvation to work for us, we don't need to say the rosary, go to confession, pray five times a day to Mecca, we don't need to fast for Yom Kippur, we don't need to help old ladies across the street and we don't need to recycle for this plan to work for us.

This plan is complete for all time, Jesus said it is finished and when he said that on the cross he meant exactly what he said. Now when you got a salvation that is complete like this, friends you can look at eternity in the face without fear. The second thing we need to know about God's plan of salvation is that it is unconditional, second of all. John chapter 10, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, no one can snatch them out of my hand. Now the key word in what Jesus said here is the word never. Jesus said I give my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish. Think about it for a moment, when it comes to our eternal life, when it comes to our place in heaven, if there were anything you could do or I could do to lose our eternal life, to forfeit our place in heaven, if human performance were involved in keeping our eternal life in any way, shape or form, think about it, Jesus could not say never. Jesus could have said I give them eternal life and I hope they won't perish. Jesus could have said I give them eternal life and the odds are they won't perish. Jesus could have said I give them eternal life and probably they won't perish but that isn't what he said. Jesus said I give them eternal life and they will never perish and by saying this Jesus is trying to tell us that as followers of Christ there is nothing we can do to mess up or lose our eternal life and folks that's good because just speaking for myself I need to say that if there were anything I could do to mess up my eternal life I'd do it. Now I wouldn't do it on purpose but I got to tell you self destruction is one of my spiritual gifts.

I'm good at this and you are too and if there were anything you had to do to keep your salvation you'd mess it up as well. Think about Adam in the garden. You say you don't really believe that guy existed do you?

Of course I do. I believe he existed, a lady named Eve existed, and I believe they lived in a garden just the way the Bible said. Think about that now for a second. Adam lived in a world where there was only one thing in the world you could do wrong. What kind of world would that be? Just think if there were only one way in the world you could get a traffic ticket. What a wonderful world that would be.

Just think if there were only one way in the world you could get in trouble at school or you could get your boss mad at you. What a wonderful world that would be. You know I got to tell you I didn't even know how much I was doing wrong until I got married.

And then I learned. But wouldn't it be wonderful to live in a world where there's only one thing you could do wrong and Adam lived in that kind of world and guess what he did? He did it. He self destructed. Well Adam heads a long list of people who lived in a world where things were going pretty good for them and they self destructed anyway. We could mention Pete Rose. We could mention John Belushi. How about Kurt Cobain?

And then there's Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and Jimi Hendrix and Sam Waxle of InClone and of course how could we leave off this list our good friend Martha Stewart. Yes how could we? All of these people they had life licked and they all self destructed but you know what every one of us with a belly button friend every one of us has this same capacity and that's what makes the plan of salvation that Jesus offers us so precious. It's a plan that's unconditional. It's a plan that it's impossible for you to mess up. It's impossible for me to mess up and I don't know about you but I need a plan of salvation just like that. If I have any chance at all of getting to heaven so do you and that's what God gave us. Now you say Lon does this mean that as followers of Jesus Christ we're immune from the earthly consequences of our wrong actions no it doesn't. But what it means is that there is no wrong action you and I can ever do on this earth that will cost us as followers of Christ our eternal life for our place in heaven. Now when you've got a plan of salvation that is unconditional like this folks you can look eternity right in the eyes with assurance.

Finally number three not only did God give us a plan of salvation that is complete and unconditional but third he gave us one that has been authenticated. Now what I have here I have a gold coin it's a fifty dollar gold piece. It's a 1915 fifty dollar gold piece from the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. It's octagonal and the going price market price out on out today in the marketplace for this coin is somewhere in the realm of a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. Now if you wanted to come up after the service and offer to purchase this coin from me if you were in your right mind or even close to being in your right mind you would say Lon before I buy this coin you know what I want to do I want to send this coin off to a professional grading service and I want to have them look at it and authenticate to me that this coin is genuine that this coin is authentic before I risk a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars purchasing it and you know what you'd be in your right mind if you did that if you sent this coin off in my hand to a professional grading service let me tell you what they would tell you they would write back and tell you that this coin is a total fraud.

They would write back and tell you that this coin is not worth a dollar and twenty five cents don't buy this coin because it is a fraud and you'd say you know what I'm glad I did that. Now folks any time we're risking a lot we want to have authentication a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars is a lot but it's not your eternal destiny when you're risking your eternal destiny following a savior or a religious system anybody in their right minds wants some authentication that this thing is the real McCoy that we're following the real and true way to God if we're risking our eternal destiny on it God understands that and that's why he authenticated the plan of salvation that he offers us in the Bible. Romans chapter one verse four says Jesus was authenticated there's our word with power to be the son of God by the resurrection from the dead. Folks no religious leader in history has ever even claimed to rise from the dead much less done it other than Jesus and the reason Jesus rose from the dead is to prove to you and me to authenticate to you and me that he's telling us the truth that he is offering us the real and true way to God and that when he says he can give us eternal life he's telling us the real McCoy. Now listen if Buddha had risen from the dead I'd be up here trying to talk you into believing in Buddha. If Mohammed had risen from the dead I'd be up here trying to talk you into believing in Mohammed. If Confucius or Rabbi Schneerson or Joseph Smith or Karl Marx had risen from the dead I'd be up here trying to talk you into believing into them but they didn't rise from the dead they went to the grave they're still in the grave and you know what we like to say here follow a dead savior and you'll end up just like him. Ah but the great news of the Bible the great message of Easter is we don't have a dead savior we have a living savior a risen savior and the converse of what I just said is just as true follow a living savior and we'll end up just like him. Jesus said it himself in the Bible John 14 he said because I live you shall live also as long as I'm alive you're going to be alive if you believe in me and how long is Jesus going to be alive friends well he's going to be alive for eternity which means if we believe in him and follow him that's how long we're going to be alive when we've got a plan of salvation that's been authenticated by something like the resurrection from the dead let me tell you you can face eternity and you can have confidence. You know I've been a pastor for 25 years almost and I've been to and done a lot of funerals in 25 years but I have to tell you the most tragic funeral I've ever attended was the funeral of my grandmother my grandmother and grandfather both Jewish of course I shared Jesus with them many many times pleading with them to believe to the best of my knowledge they never did and when my grandmother died my grandfather was still alive the funeral the service at the cemetery was outside it was January it was freezing we were in overcoats and gloves and scarfs and when the little service was over we all turned quickly to head for our cars and with my back turned to the casket suddenly I heard something like I'd never heard before I heard this screeching and this wailing it was the eeriest sound I'd ever heard and I turned around and what I saw totally surprised me my grandfather almost 80 years old had run back to the casket of my grandmother had bodily leaped on top of the casket of my grandmother and was straddling it with his arms and his legs and hugging it with his head down on her casket and wailing out her name and shrieking out her name and crying out her name I got to tell you folks I was completely paralyzed I had no idea what to do I just stood there finally a couple of relatives went over and pried this poor man off of this casket and led him away weeping a broken man and it really shook me up I got in my car and I remember driving away and saying out loud Lord what was that and God whispered in my ear you want to know what that was long what you just saw is what it's like to face eternity without any hope what you just saw is what it's like to look into eternity with no assurance no confidence whatsoever your grandfather he doesn't know what happened to your grandmother where she went if he'll ever see her again your grandfather doesn't know what's going to happen to him when he goes into eternity you just saw the terror that comes from facing eternity without any confidence well friends I'm here to tell you God's got something better than that for you he's got a plan of salvation that is finished he has a plan of salvation that is complete a plan of salvation that is unconditional a plan of salvation that's been authenticated by a resurrection from the dead he has a plan of salvation that if you are willing to accept a plan of salvation that will allow you to face eternity not like my grandfather faced it but like Dwight L Moody the greatest evangelist of the 19th century faced it here's what Moody said as he looked into eternity and I quote he said someday you will read in the papers that Dwight L Moody of East Northfield Massachusetts is dead don't you believe a word of it he said at that moment I shall be more alive than I am now I shall have gone up higher that is all out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal a body that death cannot touch that sin cannot taint I was born of the flesh in 1837 Moody said I was born of God's spirit in 1855 that which is born of the flesh may die but that which is born of God's spirit will never die end of quote my friend that's how God wants you to face eternity with that kind of assurance and that kind of confidence and only God's plan of salvation that Jesus purchased on the cross can give you and me that kind of confidence when we look into the eyes of eternity now if you're here today and you've never embraced Jesus as your real and personal Savior we want to give you the opportunity today to make a trade you say make a trade uh-huh we're going to give you the opportunity today to trade in all of your religious works and all of your human activity and all of your human effort trying to earn your way to heaven and we're going to allow you to trade that in today and instead place all of your trust on Jesus Christ and what he did for you on the cross we're going to let you trade in all of that is how you're planning to get to heaven and instead embrace Jesus dying as your ransom as your price that sets you free before God that's the trade we're going to give you the chance to make and when you make that trade what did Jesus say I will give you eternal life and you will never perish and I prove to you I'm telling you the truth because I rose from the dead now that's the opportunity you've got today and I hope you'll take it let's bow our heads let's close our eyes together and with our heads bowed and our eyes closed if you want to make that trade so that you can face eternity with assurance then what I want you to do is you pray silently I'm going to pray out loud one little phrase at a time you follow silently after each phrase and let's make that exchange right where you sit here today here we go you pray silently here we go Lord Jesus I come to you today because I want eternal life I want to know for certain that I'm going to heaven when I die I want to be able to face eternity with absolute confidence and assurance and so today I trade in all my religious activity all my human effort and I transfer all my trust off of those things and on to the death of Jesus Christ as my ransom as my substitute I invite you to come into my life today to forgive my sin to grant me eternal life that I can never lose I surrender my heart and life to you today in Jesus name and father I want to pray for the folks who prayed that prayer that even now you would confirm in their hearts that a great transaction has taken place that they've passed as the Bible says from death into eternal life and they can never ever go back and for those of us here who've already done this father I thank you today for reminding us the incredible thing Jesus did for us on the cross when he said it is finished I thank you for giving us a way to get to heaven that is complete we don't need to add anything a way that is unconditional we can't mess it up and a way that is authenticated by the resurrection of Jesus which we're celebrating this Easter morning Lord may we in gratitude for your being willing to give us that plan of salvation may we show our gratitude by living lives of loyalty a dedication and obedience each and every day to you accept our thanks father for your fixing the problem we couldn't fix for ourselves and may it bring joy to our hearts today to know that we have a plan of salvation that is finished we ask this in Jesus name Amen