Introduction:
When Jesus Says "It is Finished" (John 19:28-30):
- He means Everything is finished. (John 19:28-29)
Psalm 69:21 - ...for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.
Exodus 12:22 - Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin.
- He means it is Totally finished. (John 19:30)
Hebrews 10:4 - For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:05-01:08
Open up your Bibles with me please to John chapter 19.
01:09-01:10
John chapter 19.
01:12-01:20
And as we're walking through John's gospel, if you were with us last week, we saw that John described what was happening around the cross.
01:22-01:28
And now his focus is on what's happening on the cross.
01:30-01:33
Look at verses 28 -30.
01:35-01:55
It says, "After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, to fulfill the Scripture, 'I thirst.' A jar full of sour wine stood there.
01:57-02:02
So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.
02:04-02:16
When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished." And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
02:18-02:22
Do we have any do -it-yourselfers here? Show of hands.
02:24-02:32
Now my hand is up, but I would Far from consider myself a do-it-yourself What happens to me is I might?
02:33-02:53
Catch Aaron might be watching one of those home renovation shows and I might catch part of it and think I can do that well, I Hate to start those projects Because I get obsessed about finishing Is there anybody else like that?
02:53-03:21
I know some people say like my husband started six projects and none of them are finished that's not my problem my problem is when I start something I I Obsess about finishing anybody else like that to the point of several trips to Lowe's at least two or three in The middle of every project running to Lowe's and a lot of projects happen on Sunday And do you know how many times I've had to race to the store like looking up online? What time do they close?
03:21-03:25
I got 10 minutes. I can make it anybody else done that anybody.
03:26-03:34
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. It's not just me It's not just me and so many times Aaron would be like it's late. Can't you just work on it tomorrow?
03:35-04:01
I'm like work on it tomorrow Crazy woman. No, it needs done because I'm just gonna lay in bed. I'm gonna think about What else needs done and how I should have done this and that's that's why I don't like to start those projects But if you're like me at all, and when you start a project like that, you have it in your mind, "I've got to get it done, I've got to get it done, I've got to get it done." I've got good news for you.
04:02-04:05
I think that drive to finish what you start comes from the Lord.
04:06-04:18
Because, well, I want to make excuses for myself, but it's so interesting, you know, in the gospel of John, Everything has been driving to this one point.
04:19-04:23
And we're at the point of Jesus suffering on the cross.
04:23-04:30
And you realize now that we're focused on Jesus on the cross, John only spends three verses talking about that.
04:31-04:34
And all three verses talk about the same thing.
04:34-04:35
It's all about finishing.
04:36-04:37
It's all about finishing.
04:38-04:41
So in your outline, jot this down, just two points today.
04:41-04:43
You're going to see it very clearly from the text.
04:43-04:53
But the heading is, "When Jesus says it is finished." When Jesus says it is finished, number one, He means everything is finished.
04:54-05:05
You see, the first statement Jesus makes here in verse 28, we're going to look at the whole verse in a second again, but the first statement He makes is, "I thirst." First statement in this passage.
05:06-05:15
He says, "I thirst." And if we're just skimming through this and not thinking too deeply about it, it might just seem expected, right?
05:16-05:19
Jesus had suffered a horrific beating.
05:20-05:23
Jesus has been suffering horrible blood loss.
05:23-05:31
So you could read something like that and say, "Well, yeah, I mean, obviously, He's probably thirsty." And just move on and not think too much about it.
05:33-05:37
Say, "Okay, Jesus says I thirst. Okay, that makes sense." Moving on.
05:38-05:41
But you have to see that this goes so much deeper than that.
05:42-05:45
Look at verse 28 again, very closely. We're going to slow down here.
05:45-05:52
It says, "After this," meaning after Jesus made sure that his mom was taken care of by John.
05:53-06:06
It says, "After this, Jesus," look at this, "knowing that all was now finished, said, 'I thirst.'" But parenthetically, it tells us why he said that.
06:07-06:09
To fulfill the Scripture.
06:10-06:18
He knew everything was finished, so because he knew that, now I have to say this in order to fulfill the Scripture.
06:19-06:19
Like, what does that mean?
06:20-06:20
That means this.
06:21-06:32
If Jesus Christ is the Messiah, if he was going to prove to be the Messiah, that meant he had to fulfill all of the prophecies from the Old Testament about the Messiah, right?
06:34-06:40
This isn't something you can bat 300 and be acceptable, or even 500, or even 900.
06:40-06:49
If He's going to be the Messiah, He has to fulfill everything that the Old Testament says about the suffering of the Messiah.
06:49-06:56
And the Old Testament says so much about the suffering of the Messiah that He was going to be despised and rejected.
06:56-07:00
The Bible says that His hands and feet are going to be pierced.
07:00-07:01
He's going to be mocked.
07:01-07:03
People are going to be gambling for His clothes.
07:03-07:12
All through the Old Testament, Exodus 12, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, there are so many prophecies about the suffering of the Messiah.
07:13-07:20
And Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, Jesus knew at this moment He had one left.
07:20-07:22
There was one prophecy left.
07:24-07:29
He said, "If everything's done, and it is, There's one more thing that I need to do.
07:29-07:31
And that's from Psalm 69, 21.
07:32-07:40
It says, "For my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink." In other words, Jesus said He was thirsty in order to fulfill that verse.
07:41-07:44
The Scripture says this has to happen, so obviously it has to happen.
07:44-07:59
Jesus said, "This is the last one, and right now I'm going to fulfill that verse." But believe it or not, as profound as that is, This statement and what happens goes way deeper than even that.
07:59-08:19
Because with Jesus saying, "I thirst," and the action that took place as a result, what God was doing, and this is one of the most mind-blowing things in all of this to me, what God was doing right here was recreating the Passover event.
08:20-08:56
Like how so I want you to look at verse 29 again It says a jar full of sour wine stood there so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch And held it to his mouth So you see a hyssop branch is very specifically identified John didn't just say they put the sponge on a stick He was very specific about what kind of a reed it was what kind of a branch he said was a hyssop branch And you're like, "So? Why should I be excited about Hyssop?" I'm going to tell you.
08:57-09:09
Let's flash back to Israel, and Exodus, slaves, and Egypt, delivered by God, through God sending the ten plagues.
09:09-09:10
And do you remember the tenth plague?
09:11-09:14
The Passover is connected to that.
09:15-09:21
And the Passover became one of the most important, if not the most important holiday for Israel.
09:22-09:26
And in Passover they were celebrating how God liberated them from Egypt.
09:27-09:37
And interestingly, while Jesus was hanging on the cross, the very minute He was hanging on the cross, Israel was celebrating the Passover.
09:38-09:44
They were remembering the events from Exodus while Jesus was on the cross.
09:44-09:47
This is the holiday season they were in.
09:47-09:53
The tenth plague connected to the Passover was the death of the firstborn.
09:54-10:18
God said, "I'm going to come through the camp, and I'm going to kill the firstborn in every home." But Israel was told, remember Israel, slaves living in Egypt, Israel was told this, "You need to take the blood of a spotless lamb and put that blood on the doorposts and the crosspiece of the house.
10:20-10:33
And God says, "When I come through the camp and I see the blood on the doorframe, I'm not going to kill the firstborn, I'm instead going to pass over." Right? And that's why it's called the Passover.
10:34-10:46
God says, "I'm going to see the blood of the spotless lamb, and I'm going to pass over and spare the firstborn from death." You're like, "What's the point?" Here's the point.
10:47-10:52
Exodus says specifically the branch that they were to use to apply the blood on the doorpost.
10:53-10:54
Can you guess which kind of branch it was?
10:54-10:55
Can you guess?
10:56-10:57
It was a hyssop.
10:59-11:12
You see Exodus 12.22 tells us, it says, "Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that It is in the basin.
11:13-11:36
So let me ask you, if you were a devout Jew who knew your Scriptures and knew the Passover and understood this whole scene, and you were there and saw a soldier taking a hyssop branch and dipping it in the sour wine and holding it up to give Jesus a drink, what would that have looked like to you?
11:38-11:42
What would that have reminded you of You see this hyssop holding up.
11:44-11:46
I'm sure it would have looked like something, wouldn't it?
11:47-11:57
That's what it looked like when our forefathers put the blood on the door.
11:58-11:59
You see what God was doing.
12:00-12:03
God was graphically demonstrating.
12:05-12:08
Here's the true Passover lamb.
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Here is the true spotless lamb that saves from death.
12:14-12:25
So you see, in this scene, Jesus says, "I thirst," and it brought into a recreation of the Passover drama.
12:25-12:36
God was providentially using what looked like a simple act of giving Jesus a drink, and He was actually playing out the events of the original Passover.
12:37-12:44
These events in Exodus were actually a foreshadowing of the events on the cross, you see.
12:44-12:46
It's God's way of connecting the dots.
12:47-12:51
Jesus in control the whole time.
12:51-13:04
Even while nailed to the cross and His human body dying, even then, God in the flesh was in absolute control of everything.
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What does this tell us about Jesus?
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It tells us a lot of things, but the main thing it tells us is He keeps every detail of His Word.
13:15-13:15
Every detail.
13:17-13:29
Every promise of God comes true, no matter how minor the detail, like being thirsty, and no matter how major the obstacle, like being nailed to a cross.
13:30-13:33
Jesus always delivers what He says.
13:34-13:41
God said this in the Old Testament, Jeremiah 1.12, He says, "I am watching over My Word to perform it." I love that verse.
13:42-13:51
It's this picture of God has a copy of His Word in front of Him, and He's looking at it, and He's saying, "Yeah, I'm doing this, I'm doing this.
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I'm going to make sure I do this." He is watching over His Word to make sure that He does everything that He says He's going to do.
14:00-14:04
And you're like, "Well, that's so interesting about Jesus, What does that have to do with us now?
14:05-14:24
Well, you know, when I read in His Word about the second coming, you know, read Matthew, read Revelation, read 1 and 2 Thessalonians, read Daniel, there's a lot of details about what the second coming of Jesus Christ looks like, what the end of this age looks like.
14:25-14:29
And I believe it's going to go down exactly as He said.
14:29-14:31
It's going to go down, every detail.
14:32-14:48
I had a good friend tell me, he goes to a different church, but he told me the pastor got up preaching through Revelation, and he says, "Revelation's not, it's not like literally true, "it's just a big allegory saying good and evil "are kind of like butting heads and good eventually wins.
14:48-14:53
"It's just an allegory "that good ultimately triumphs over evil." I was like, (blows raspberry)
14:55-14:55
(congregation laughs)
14:56-15:18
I said, "You need to find a different church, "because that's not what he said." Jesus even punctuates Revelation by saying, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." Jesus clearly demonstrated in this event right here, His attention to detail.
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He'll fulfill everything that He said He will fulfill.
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Jesus will finish everything that He said He would.
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So when Jesus says it is finished, He means everything is finished.
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And number two, when Jesus says it is finished, He means it is totally finished.
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This is it.
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This is the moment that Jesus has been driving towards His whole ministry.
15:50-16:00
Verse 30, it says, "When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished.' He bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
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It is finished.
16:03-16:05
As Alex told us in the video, it's one word in the Greek.
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Tetelestai.
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One word.
16:11-16:13
Like, what kind of a word is tetelestai?
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Well to use it in sort of our vernacular, it's the word that a mechanic would use when he tightens that last screw.
16:20-16:21
Tetelestai.
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It's done.
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It's a word that a writer would use when finishing a manuscript and typing "the end" to "telestai." It's a word that a marathon runner would use when she crosses the finish line.
16:39-16:44
She says, "It's finished." That's the kind of word it was.
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And in the Greek and in that culture, it was a very common word.
16:49-16:54
They used this word all the time for things like I just mentioned.
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Similar contexts.
16:56-17:09
But one of the biggest ways that the word was used, again as we saw in the video, one of the biggest ways this word was used was after a sale was completed.
17:10-17:33
On the receipt, the merchant, after payment was received, the merchant would take the receipt and put a word on the receipt, and the word was "Tetelestai," meaning "paid in full." "Keep your receipt. You don't owe me anything, because it's been paid in full." The transaction is finished.
17:34-17:44
And that's the exact same word that Jesus used here, "Tetelestai." And your Bible translates it, "It is finished," which is right.
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It could also be translated, "Paid in full!" You're like, "Yeah, it's finished." What is finished?
17:56-18:02
What's finished is God's plan to purchase salvation for fallen man.
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That's what was finished.
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God's plan to purchase salvation for fallen man.
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Understand, the plan of salvation didn't start on the cross.
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God's plan of salvation was fulfilled on the cross.
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Here's what I mean.
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When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden back in Genesis, you remember the Bible says that God covered them with skins.
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That's the first substitutionary sacrifice in the Bible.
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That though we deserve death for our own sin, And in that moment in the garden, God was showing us, "I am willing to provide a substitute in dealing with your sin problems." So for Adam and Eve, He made coverings for them by way of a sacrifice.
18:57-18:59
You can trace this throughout the Old Testament.
19:00-19:09
Very next generation, Abel offered sacrifice to God from his flock, which was accepted.
19:10-19:11
You can trace it through Abraham.
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You can trace it to Moses in the Passover that we just talked about.
19:15-19:18
But ultimately in the Old Testament you trace it to the law.
19:18-19:22
God gave the law, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, repeating the law.
19:22-19:29
And the law was about defining sin and prescribing the way to offer sacrifice to make atonement for sin.
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That's what the law is about.
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And you can say, "Well, hang on a second, Jeff.
19:35-19:44
If God instituted this law where we could offer an animal sacrifice to atone for our sin, why did Jesus have to go through all this?
19:45-20:02
Why would God subject His Son to such horrible treatment and torture and such a horrible death, if we can just have our sins atoned through the Old Testament law?
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Hebrews 10:4 says this, "For it is impossible for the blood bulls and goats to take away sins.
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Now understand this, the Old Testament law provided atonement for sin, yes, but atonement is not taking away sin.
20:26-20:30
Atonement is temporarily covering sin.
20:31-20:32
And there's a difference.
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Like I'm not sure I understand the difference.
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Well, I'll try to illustrate it with something that we all understand.
20:39-20:42
Atonement under the Old Testament, do you know what it was like?
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It was like a credit card.
20:46-20:50
We are not endorsing the use of credit cards by giving this illustration, right Alex?
20:51-20:51
Stacy?
20:52-20:52
(audience laughing)
20:53-20:54
No, this is an illustration.
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This is what Old Testament atonement was like.
20:58-21:05
When a person uses a credit card to buy something, they're not really paying for the item.
21:05-21:14
The credit card company is basically saying, "Hey, we will cover you." And you're like, "Hey, that's super nice of you." Until you get the statement in the mail, right?
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And what's that statement a reminder of?
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"You still owe." Right?
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"You still owe." That thing that you have, that you use the credit card, it's not really yours.
21:25-21:26
You still owe for that.
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And that statement will keep coming and reminding you, "You still owe." That's not really yours.
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You still owe.
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and we got you covered.
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We'll cover you.
21:38-21:42
And that's sort of what the Old Testament sacrifices were like.
21:42-21:47
They atoned, they covered, but they didn't take away the sin.
21:48-21:50
Because they kept having to do it. Right?
21:51-21:56
They kept having to offer sacrifices over and over and over and over.
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Day of Atonement - got to do it.
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Every year, Leviticus 16, over and over.
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We've got to offer our sacrifices, guilt sacrifices, sacrifices for sin.
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All these sacrifices, we've got to keep doing it because...
22:09-22:11
just swiping the credit card.
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We're covered, but the sin's not being taken away.
22:17-22:23
So yeah, God's law, the sacrifice has covered sin, but payment was never fully made.
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But do you know what Jesus' payment on the cross was like?
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It was the cash.
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Because when you use this, the transaction is over, right?
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It is finished. It is paid in full.
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And you're not going to get the reminders in the mail, "Hey, we covered you." When you use this, it's paid in full.
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And this is what Jesus was demonstrating on the cross.
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The debt is paid off completely, the payment is settled, it is finished.
22:59-23:01
And you see, church, we owe God an infinite debt.
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You know, we just used an illustration with money, but there's not a dollar amount you could put on what you owe God.
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Our rebellion, our wickedness, our horrible thoughts and actions and words.
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And we have sinned against a holy God.
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And Jesus paid the price for our sin with His blood, with His life.
23:28-23:41
And after paying the penalty, he cried out, "It is finished!" So what does this scene tell us about our efforts to try to earn our way to heaven?
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What do Jesus' words tell us about our efforts to try to get right with God?
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It's more than just foolish.
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You're rejecting and insulting God.
23:54-24:18
When you deny that the price for your sin has been fully paid, you're denying the very words of Jesus right here, when He said, "It is finished." You see, church, when you think, "If I'm going to be right with God, if God's going to be happy with me, I have to be good, and I have to do good, and I have to keep the rules, and I've got to be a religious person." Do you know what you're saying when you have that mentality?
24:19-24:27
You're saying, "It's not finished. I have to earn my way." And I get it. There is something in us that wants to earn our way to heaven.
24:27-24:46
They say, "God's surely going to look at me and my conduct, and I'm trying to be a good person, and God's going to see that, and someday when I die, I'm going to get to heaven, because God's going to see how good I tried to be." And you're telling Jesus that He didn't do enough on the cross, when you have that mindset.
24:47-24:51
Jesus isn't offering an installment plan on salvation.
24:51-24:59
Jesus didn't cry out from the cross, "Okay, I did my part, now you do yours." He didn't say that. Do you know what He said?
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He said, "It is finished. It's over. Paid in full." And since Jesus paid it all, we really only have two choices.
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You can accept it or you can reject it.
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You can accept it by saying, "You know what, I am a sinner.
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I realize that I'm lost.
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I realize I'm the reason that Jesus came and died because I'm just a wicked person deep down.
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I have horrible thoughts and I say terrible things.
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I am not a good person deep down." And I recognize that.
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And I believe, Jesus, that when You were on the cross, for people like me.
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And Jesus, I believe You.
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When You said it is finished, I believe You.
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Because You are God and You never lie.
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And You don't do anything halfway.
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I believe that all of my sins are paid for on that cross.
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That's one option you have.
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The other option you have is rejecting it.
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And I have to warn you, that if you refuse to accept the payment that Jesus made cross for your sins, it will never be finished for you. That's why hell is eternal. Because hell is forever paying off a debt that can never be paid. When God put His judgment on His Son and said it is finished, but you're like, no, no, no, no, I don't believe that.
26:36-27:01
You're taking God's judgment on yourself. It will never be finished for you. But on the cross you see the final sacrifice was made. Sin was paid in full. The mission was completed. All of it was declared and settled forever. When Jesus said, "It is finished." Our God sees things through all the way to the end.
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Every detail, totally and when you're finished, that's the testimony of the cross of Jesus Christ.
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Will you pray with me, please?
27:13-27:32
Our Father in Heaven, I pray Your Word would be planted and would grow in our hearts and in our minds because I understand in one sermon I can't even begin to scratch the surface of how profound these statements are.
27:33-28:09
I don't think I could do it sermon that lasts a hundred hours, that even scratched the surface on how profound it is, that you would recreate Passover, that you would show us that every single detail of your word matters, and you would show us, Father, that our sin has been paid in full through the offering of the spotless Lamb of God. And Father, I want to pray specifically for the people here, the people that are watching this stream and listening to this later, or whatever, I want to pray for them who does not believe that it is finished.
28:10-28:20
I want to pray for the people that are still thinking that they earned their way through religion or good works or whatever, thinking that you're happy when we're good.
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Father, I pray that we would truly understand what it means that it is finished.
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And our lives are a reflection of gratitude.
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our lives are, Father, a reflection of holy living, because we know the God who took away our sin.
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Father, we thank You that with this one act, Your Son being executed like He was just a criminal, But in this one horrible and brutal act, You've told us everything about Yourself.
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What kind of a God You are.
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And what You've done to reconcile Your people to Yourself.
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Thank You, Father, for the testimony that it is finished.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 19:28-30
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Explain the significance of Jesus saying “I thirst” (John 19:28). What does this reveal about Jesus that is important for us to understand?
When Jesus said “It is finished” - what exactly was “finished”? How does this truth affect the way we live today as Christ-followers?
Breakout
Pray for one another.