"It is finished."
Review: John 19:30 | Heb 10:4 | Rom 5:8
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:04-01:06
Open up your Bibles with me please.
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The Gospel according to John will be in chapter 19, verse 30.
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John 19, verse 30.
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We are looking at seven words from the cross.
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There are seven statements that the Holy Spirit recorded for us in God's Word that Jesus stated from the cross.
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God of the flesh, suffering on our behalf, said seven things while He suffered during those six hours.
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Last week we looked at the fifth, which is, "I thirst." And that goes right into this next statement.
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John 19:30 says, "When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished." And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
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And I know looking at that verse, it might look like this is the last statement that Jesus made, but it's not.
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Notice that John 19:30 says that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit, and we're going to see on Friday that when he gave up his spirit, actually said one more thing. Today, it is finished. You know, that's one word in the Greek. The word is "tetelestai." And that's an interesting word because, you know, the archaeologists, they go and they do their digging and they found literally thousands of these scraps of paper in the Middle East that were written in Greek.
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And upon investigating what are these pieces of paper, what are all these scraps, they discovered that they were actually what we would call mundane commercial documents.
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In other words, what they found were a whole lot of receipts, business receipts.
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But the interesting thing about these business receipts was over and over and over and over and over, they kept finding one word stamped on these business receipts, and the word was "Tetelestai." "It is finished" and stamped on these receipts, literally, "Tetelestai" is translated "paid in full." Tetelestai, it is finished.
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It's a word of completeness.
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It's the word when that mechanic tightens that last screw on the project to tell us it is finished.
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It's a word when that writer puts that last period at the end of the manuscript.
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Says it is finished.
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It's a word for a marathon runner who breaks the tape and crosses that line and says, "It is finished.
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Paid in full.
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The work is done." Now interestingly, I was thinking about this week, Jesus could have said this statement in different ways, right?
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He could have said, "I am finished." He could have said, "I finished it." And I'll be honest with you, I would have had zero problem with that.
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He would have been completely in his right to say, "I am finished." But instead, in his awesome humility, he focused not on a personal achievement, though he would have had every right to.
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He focused not on his personal achievement, but you see the way he made this statement and instead focused on the work of his Father.
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It focused instead on the promise of Scripture and instead focused on the plan of God.
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It is finished.
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And understand when we talk about the plan of God, God had this plan all mapped out.
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But the plan of God did not start on the cross.
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The plan of God was fulfilled on the cross.
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The plan of God actually started in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, and God promised that Eve's offspring would someday crush Satan.
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And then the plan continued to a man named Abraham, who God used to start a new family of people, the Israelites, through whom the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come.
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The plan continued to a specific Israelite named Moses, who God used to institute the Passover.
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As we discussed last week, it's a graphic picture of being spared from death by being under the blood of a spotless lamb.
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The plan continued to the Old Testament law.
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The Old Testament law was given to define sin and to provide atonement for sin.
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So why didn't the plan end there?
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Okay, so if man has this sin problem and God institutes this law with this plan that will atone for sin, why didn't the plan stop there?
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In other words, why did we have to see our Lord suffer the horrible agony of the cross?
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Why didn't the plan just end with atonement?
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Killing an animal, sacrifice to atone for your sin.
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Why didn't God just stop there?
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Isn't that good enough?
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The answer is in Hebrews 10.4 that says, "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." Yes, the Old Testament law provided atonement for sin, but atonement is not taking away sin.
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only giving a temporary covering for sin.
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You see, the Old Testament times, when Israel offered a sacrifice, they had to keep going back and offering more sacrifices because it didn't finish the job.
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You look at the furnishings of the Old Testament temple, you know, one furnishing you didn't find, there was a chair.
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The priests never sat down because there was constantly sacrifices being made because people kept sinning, people kept becoming guilty, and you had to keep offering sacrifices over and over and over and over and over and over.
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Atonement did not take away sin, it temporarily covered sin.
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You're like, well, what's that like?
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Well, it's like a concept that every one of us are familiar with.
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I want us to talk about money for a second.
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Let's talk about money.
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Putting these concepts in terms of money, atonement is like a credit card.
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If you want to purchase something, but you don't have the money, you can't afford it, you can't make the payment, the credit card covers you.
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It covers the payments.
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But if you've ever used a credit card, and probably most of us in here have, if you've ever used a credit card, you know when that card statement comes in the mail that the payment wasn't really made for your purchase because you still have to pay, right?
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God provided the law.
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God provided the Old Testament sacrifices to cover sin.
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You see, it was almost like Israel when they were offering their animal sacrifice, it was in a sense like swiping the credit card.
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I need covered, I need covered.
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I sinned, I need covered.
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That's what the Old Testament sacrifice was like, but payment was never fully made.
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It was just always being temporarily covered.
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Ok, so Jesus Christ comes on the cross.
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The perfect, spotless Lamb of God lays His life down on the cross.
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And you see, using our money analogy, He is cash.
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He paid off the debt completely.
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He settled the payment that we had to make towards God when He said, "It is finished." owed God an infinite debt. Jesus paid the price with His blood, with His very life.
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So let me ask you, what does that tell us? What does that tell you about your efforts to try to earn your way to heaven.
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It's more than just foolish.
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If you're sitting here today, listen to me closely, if you're sitting here today and you're thinking, "I have to try to earn my way into heaven." It's foolish, but it's not just foolish.
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Because you are rejecting and insulting God And you think that you can earn your way to heaven.
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Because you've denied the price that was paid.
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You've denied the very clear statement of Jesus when He said, "It is finished." You see, when you think, "If I want to get right with God, if I want to go to heaven, If I'm going to earn my spot, I have to be good, and God will see me being good.
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I have to do good.
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I have to do good things.
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I have to keep the rules.
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I have to try to be a very religious person.
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Do you know what you're saying?
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When you think that way, you're saying it isn't finished.
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You're saying, "I have to earn my way." Because when Jesus said, "It is finished," you're saying, "I don't agree with." When you still think that you have to do something to earn your way to God, you're calling Jesus a liar, essentially.
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Because He said, "It is finished." Jesus isn't offering you an installment plan.
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Okay, Jesus isn't saying, "Okay, I did my part by dying.
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"Okay, now I want you to do your part." He didn't say that.
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Do you know what he did say?
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He said, "It is finished." And I have to tell you, for as clear as he said it, and for as understandable as the concept is, We have a really hard time believing that.
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You know, some churches teach that when you have the Lord's Supper, the communion is actually representing the sacrifice of Christ.
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It's like Christ is being sacrificed all over again.
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That's blasphemous.
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It was finished when Jesus said, "It is finished." There's no sacrifice to represent.
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Some churches teach a concept called purgatory.
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Some churches teach that when you die, you go to this place of fire that burns off the remainder of your sin.
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You still have some sins sort of attached to your soul, and when you die, you go to this place, and these fires burn off the remainder of your sin and you spend who knows how many years there getting your sin burned off.
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Meanwhile, people on earth can pay for church services and light candles and say prayers and stuff to shorten your time being burned.
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And I'm gonna tell you, church, that is blasphemous.
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That is completely blasphemous.
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The entire concept of purgatory.
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Because what you're saying is you didn't do enough, Jesus.
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My sin remains.
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Oh, you may have said on the cross, "It is finished." But you were wrong.
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Because apparently there's some things I have to do for my sin too.
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It is finished.
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There is nothing you can do to add to the work of Jesus Christ.
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He completed it.
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100%.
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It is finished.
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By the way, that's what makes Christianity different than every single other religion in the world.
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And I've studied them.
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Do you know what every other religion in the world teaches?
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Here's some things you have to do to get right with God, the gods, whoever the higher power thing, people, whatever, are, here's what you have to do to ge right with them.
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You gotta do this, and you gotta say these prayers, you gotta go to this place, and you gotta do these works, and you gotta do this, and you gotta do this.
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And every other religion in the world says, you gotta do, you gotta do, you gotta try to make God happy, gotta try to make God happy, gotta try to make God happy.
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Do you know what the Bible teaches?
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The Bible teaches that God did the work to bring you to this place.
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to Him.
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The Bible says that God loved you so much that your life isn't about trying to pursue Him.
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The Bible says that God loves you so much that He pursued you.
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The Bible says that God loves you so much that He is not saying, "Okay, work your way to Me." He's saying, "I sent my Son to die in your place on the cross." And he finished the work of salvation.
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And he put that stamp on it when he said, "It is finished." Tetelestai paid in full.
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Since Jesus paid it all, since Jesus paid it all, at least he said he did, you really only have two choices.
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You can accept it or you can reject it.
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Those are the only choices that we have with Jesus.
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By the way, paying and earning your way isn't one of the options.
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I think we covered that.
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The only choices you really have is looking at the words of Jesus saying it is finished, then you can believe that or you can reject that.
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First of all, you can accept it.
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What does it mean to accept it?
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It means you need to get before the Lord, Get on your face and say, "God, I am a sinner.
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"I've done bad things in my life.
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"I've done things in my life that I regret.
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"I've done things in my life that I'm ashamed of, "and I realize that I'm not the person that I need to be.
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"God, I'm a sinful person, "but God, I believe that on the cross, "Jesus Christ, He died for my sins.
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"And God, I believe that when you said, it is finished, all of my sin is paid for. And if you need to take that step today, there's going to be people during the last song, there's going to be people back at that sign. I'll be in guest reception. You stick around after service. Grab one of our prayer team, grab me, grab one of our elders. We would love to talk with you and pray with you about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. But step one of being a follower means you You have to accept His Word when He said, "It is finished." He did the work for you because He loves you.
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You can accept it or you can reject it.
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You can reject it.
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But if you don't receive Jesus Christ's gift that He purchased for you on the cross, it will never be finished for you.
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And really that's what hell is.
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Hell is eternally paying an unpayable debt.
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Because you rejected the only payment that was made for you.
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It is finished.
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The redemption of man.
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It is finished.
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All of the prophecies fulfilled.
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It is finished.
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The sacrifice for sin.
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It is finished.
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Bearing God's wrath, it is finished.
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Sin and death and Satan defeated.
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Say it with me, church.
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It is finished.
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So what do we say?
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What do we say to the one here today who is still striving to make God happy?
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You know, I wanna talk, there's somebody here today that you're a sincere believer in Christ, you've been born again, but there's, I'm sure there's somebody listening to this right now that struggles with feeling like you need to make God happy.
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Feeling like, you know what, I know I'm a Christian, but I am a big fat disappointment to God.
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Or I know I received Christ, but God must be pretty mad because I made some dumb choices.
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To that person I say this, "Christian, God is not mad at you.
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And God is not going to punish you." If you're a born-again believer in Christ, you have no judgment, no wrath, no punishment of God to fear.
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But as a pastor, I talk to Christians all the time, who say, "I just feel like God's going to punish me.
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I did some wrong things.
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I just feel like God's going to punish me." Do you realize what you're saying?
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What you're saying is Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God for your sin, and God poured out His wrath on Jesus, and then God looks at you and says, "You know what?
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I punished my son, but I'm going to punish you too." What does that say about what Jesus did?
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It says that Jesus obviously didn't finish the job because God's still mad.
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But that's not what Jesus said.
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Jesus said, "It is finished." So what do we say to the one who is relying on themselves for salvation?
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We say, "You can stop striving and you can start believing." Look, I don't know where your heart is, only God does, but there might be somebody here who isn't born again that thinks, "I'm just going to keep working, I'm going to do harder, I'm gonna try harder, I'm gonna do more, and you're not gonna get there.
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Because you can't complete something that's already been completed.
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Or to that believer that, "Yeah, I gave my life to Christ, and a pastor's out, I'm trying really hard to work to be a Christian." Well, you can't complete what God finished either.
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Stop striving.
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Start believing.
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It is finished.
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What do we say to the person here that doubts God's love?
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Maybe you've been going through some trials or struggles or circumstances that you're like, "You know sometimes I feel like… sometimes I feel like God doesn't love me.
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Sometimes I feel like God's out to get me.
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Sometimes I feel like God hates me." To that person I say Romans 5:8 is the ultimate demonstration of God's love.
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God's love didn't just take him part way.
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God's love took him the whole way.
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Jesus didn't say, "I'll take a beating for you." Jesus didn't even say, "I'll take a severe beating for you." Jesus said, "Not only am I willing to die for you, Jesus said, 'I will die for you.'" And He saw it through all the way to the end.
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Is there an issue in your mind as to whether or not God loves you?
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I've got a word for you today.
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And the word is to tell us to hide.
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It is finished.
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The final sacrifice was made.
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Sin was paid for.
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The mission was completed.
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All of it declared and settled forever when Jesus said, "It is finished." Pray with me.
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Father in heaven, I pray today that every one of us, whether...
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I know there's people that have been walking with Christ in this room and listening to this.
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They've been walking with Christ for decades.
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And there are people that have been walking with Christ for maybe weeks or a couple of months.
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Sometimes God, we struggle in feeling like there's still some gap that we need to fill, there's still some work that we need to do, there's still something that we need to accomplish to do right by you.
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I pray, Father, we would look again at these words of Jesus.
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When he cried out, "Tetelestai," when he cried out, "Paid in full," when he cried out, "It is finished." God, we know he wasn't declaring that his life was over.
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He was declaring that his mission was over.
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He accomplished what you sent him to accomplish.
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Father, I pray also for anybody here today who doesn't know you, who has not been born again, who hasn't received the gift.
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I pray today, Father, that they would take a long, hard look at the words, "It is finished," and examine whatever they are trusting to get them to heaven.
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Father, enlarge in us a heart of gratitude that we are made righteous, We are made wholly acceptable to you. We are pardoned. We are forgiven. We are free.
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We are adopted.
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Not by one act that we can perform, but by the ultimate sacrifice that you made on our behalf.
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God, today we thank you that it is finished.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 19:30
What was "finished", exactly? Be specific, and list as many things as you can!
Why didn't Jesus say "I am finished"? What's the difference between that and "It is finished"?
What are ways people try to "earn" their way to God? Why is it blasphemous to try to add to the completed work of Jesus on the cross?
What is the difference between Old Testament atonement vs Jesus "taking away" our sin? See Hebrews 10:4.
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!