"It Is Finished"

[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, hello, church.

[SPEAKER_01]: My name is Barrett Moore.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am your J.H., and thank you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm your J.H., and young adult pastor here at First Free.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, off the top, if you're 18 to 30, I want to see you at 141 this Thursday.

[SPEAKER_01]: We make first Thursday of every month, see you in the chapel this Thursday.

[SPEAKER_01]: moving on.

[SPEAKER_01]: So this is this Sunday.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're calling it the Springer Treat Sunday.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is kind of the capstone, the ribbon, on the end of Springer Treat for all of our students this whole last week.

[SPEAKER_01]: This whole last weekend.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've been spending time having fun with each other, having fun with our small group leaders and learning about what it means to go beyond the maps.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk a little bit more about that today.

[SPEAKER_01]: But before we go one single step further,

[SPEAKER_01]: We have a lot of dedicated, very, very wise, very hardworking volunteers that I want to acknowledge.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, if you are in any way serving in J.H.

[SPEAKER_01]: or Summit, would you stand up for us?

[SPEAKER_01]: And can we give a round of applause to these people?

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So these people, I just need to give some perspective because many of the adults you just saw, they went to work on Friday.

[SPEAKER_01]: They worked there 40 hours.

[SPEAKER_01]: They go nine to five on Friday.

[SPEAKER_01]: They leave their work at five o'clock.

[SPEAKER_01]: They come straight here to first free at five, 30.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not even enough time to like, eat.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're just, they're going to maybe change their clothes.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're coming straight here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then they spent from 5.30 to 9.30 last night with all of your smelly teenagers.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we gave a good round of applause.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can we give a real round of applause for these volunteers?

[SPEAKER_01]: that are pouring in week after week after week after week into these students to show them what the love of Jesus looks like because we can do all the fun we can we can make retreats great without these volunteers not an ounce of what our staff does really matters um but now our turn I want to show you what your staff was up to this week this is where your time money's going um so if you were at the arch on monday at about two o'clock this is

[SPEAKER_01]: There was a police officer, by the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: In one of the clips, this becomes a video for our student measure of treat.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a police officer who was for sure checking us out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Definitely does like a loop around us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the shots, hey, Kyle, can you raise a hand for me?

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the goblin to the left.

[SPEAKER_01]: He signs my paychecks, by the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: That goblin, as he's screaming out about his power, there's a police officer who's just walking behind him, side eyeing him.

[SPEAKER_01]: The entire time.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, that's what we've been up to.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was spring retreat.

[SPEAKER_01]: And today we're going to kind of put a bow on it, talk about what we said to our students of being beyond the mountain.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what does that mean for us as a church?

[SPEAKER_01]: So,

[SPEAKER_01]: Spring retreat was awesome.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are so, so grateful for all of our volunteers that helped make it happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: But as we started our time together today, my volunteers, my junior high middle school volunteers, many of them, if they haven't already, we've had two weeks in this series last words.

[SPEAKER_01]: My J.H.

[SPEAKER_01]: volunteers may have already been kind of connecting some of the dots that this is a series.

[SPEAKER_01]: We first

[SPEAKER_01]: last year.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we did the last word series.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's going through the seven phrases or last words that Jesus gives from the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: The seven things throughout all the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, what these men wrote down for us to hear that Jesus had said on the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in J.H.

[SPEAKER_01]: we went through it this way if we could show our graphic,

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll talk.

[SPEAKER_01]: There we go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, in JH, we went through a chronologically, so this was the graphic we used, and by chronologically I mean, there's something really beautiful you can do with the gospels, where if you take Matthew and Mark and Luke and John, because they're all telling the same story with different details or different perspectives, different things they may have remembered when writing.

[SPEAKER_01]: You put them all together.

[SPEAKER_01]: Something called the harmonized gospel.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's where you can actually read the story of Jesus going to the cross until it's over.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it all works beautifully in order.

[SPEAKER_01]: All of their telling fit together like these perfect puzzle pieces.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we in JH, we went through it chronologically.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so first, that starts with Father forgive them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Father forgive them is the first phrase going chronologically through Jesus' time on the cross, and then still in Luke's Gospel, you hit with me and paradise.

[SPEAKER_01]: Today you will be with me and paradise.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then you go, here is your son and mother from John.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we're going to sit camp today.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you go back actually to Matthew and Mark.

[SPEAKER_01]: You jump over to their phrase that for our students, we had it taped over to we're going by one.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to spoil it for you guys either.

[SPEAKER_01]: The book has been out for 2,000 years.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, um,

[SPEAKER_01]: If you have it, you might want to get to it if you haven't.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then you go there, you jump all the way back to John.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then Matthew, Mark, then you skip back to John.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you skip back to Luke with that final phrase.

[SPEAKER_01]: So our pastor Adam will be coming up and giving us those two final phrases in the coming weeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: But as we did it with our middle schoolers, the real goal, the reason we went through a chronologically the way we laid it out this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: was because the one main thing we wanted our middle schoolers to understand at that level was just that this isn't a fairytale.

[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't a story that got made up.

[SPEAKER_01]: This wasn't some men trying to get power or glory for themselves.

[SPEAKER_01]: These were real people that wrote to real people.

[SPEAKER_01]: These are real people saying what they really saw.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were written with intention and purpose by their human authors.

[SPEAKER_01]: written with intention by their human authors, but at the exact same time, being what we would say is God briefed.

[SPEAKER_01]: That God threw the Holy Spirit works through them to actually write and record His word, and it's what we call dual authorship.

[SPEAKER_01]: the human and their intention and all that they could muster paired with God and his spirit working in them to record his word.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we don't believe that the gospel writers went into a trance and had no memory of what they wrote when they were finished writing.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't believe that golden tablets fell out of heaven and had scripture recorded exactly dictated exactly as it was meant to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: We believe.

[SPEAKER_01]: Rather, that God threw his spirit working through broken and flawed human beings.

[SPEAKER_01]: Rot.

[SPEAKER_01]: The God, using his spirit through and in flawed and broken human beings, that God wrote.

[SPEAKER_01]: and then with their own intellect and their own background and their own perspectives, that these men, Matthew, Mark, and Luke and John, that these real men wrote their real experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: They wrote what they had seen.

[SPEAKER_01]: And even our scripture, even the way we've gotten our scripture is this beautiful mirror to what Jesus does on the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: By that, I mean, we know a God and we follow a Savior who came down to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: We talk of sin, we talk of suffering.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not talking about it from up there.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about it from down here.

[SPEAKER_01]: He waited into our mess and he saw our sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: God that suffered alongside us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he used us, not for his gain, but for ours.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the same way our scripture is written, the story of the cross is that God gives Himself for us, not for His gain, but for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're gonna work through today, a little bit different than the way we went through with J.H., well, we're gonna do today.

[SPEAKER_01]: I really just want you to hear these words.

[SPEAKER_01]: How incredible it is that I even get to say these words.

[SPEAKER_01]: Today, we're gonna read John's Gospel.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to read John's Gospel.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to read what John remembered because John saw it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And John wrote it so that we could hear from it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So up to this point, let's recap how we got here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our first last word was recorded in Luke 2334, and that was Father for give them.

[SPEAKER_01]: We heard of that one from Pastor Tex two weeks ago, then last week, Pastor John spoke on the second last word if you're going chronologically.

[SPEAKER_01]: As Jesus responds to the criminal on the cross, next to him, that's reported in Luke 2343.

[SPEAKER_01]: Today, you will be with me in paradise.

[SPEAKER_01]: So today, for us, as we sit with the reality of what we are reading,

[SPEAKER_01]: as we sit with the real weight of why we're reading.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to wrestle with the weight of how it got to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why are you hearing from John?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why did John write it?

[SPEAKER_01]: How did it get to us today?

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to sit in that because John is writing what John remembered.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what the Holy Spirit inspires and breathes into him.

[SPEAKER_01]: as he writes about his friend, Jesus Christ, and his God, Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to know why John wrote, he actually says it explicitly.

[SPEAKER_01]: John 231 and IV, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is written, but we're about to read, what you're about to hear was written,

[SPEAKER_01]: So that you would believe Jesus is the Messiah.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why John wrote, that you would believe He's the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.

[SPEAKER_01]: So then follow up, who's the you?

[SPEAKER_01]: Who did John originally write this to?

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is cool too, because different to other epistles, other letters in the New Testament, other authors.

[SPEAKER_01]: John doesn't open up his letter, saying to,

[SPEAKER_01]: blank.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says to you, he's saying to whoever's reading this letter.

[SPEAKER_01]: So in a very real sense, John wrote so that you may believe that you may find life in Jesus thousands of years later, because he wrote this.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he wrote so you could hear it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's hear what he wrote.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they took Jesus away, carrying the cross by himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: He went to the place called Place of the Skull in Hebrew, Galgatha.

[SPEAKER_01]: This was the backdrop for our entire spring retreat.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you talked about going beyond the mountain, we think of Galgatha as this mountain, this place, where Jesus does the most incredible thing in all of human history.

[SPEAKER_01]: But even more beautiful thing is it doesn't stop there.

[SPEAKER_01]: It keeps going, we have a new life to live because of what Jesus has done for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: At Golgotha, there, they nailed him to the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: Two others were crucified with him, one on either side with Jesus between them.

[SPEAKER_01]: These are the criminals that passed or John spoke of last week and pilot.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is kind of the Roman leader of the area.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's the man in charge, very powerful guy, pilot posted a sign on the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: that read Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

[SPEAKER_01]: The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew and Latin and Greek, so that many people could read it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so potentially due to Passover pilot knows that there will be a lot of Jews in the area, because he knows why Jesus has been put on the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: He actually writes it in three languages, maybe, becoming scripture tells us it's because it's close to the city.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wants to make sure as many people when they see this, they understand what's going on here.

[SPEAKER_01]: He writes it in three languages, and this is the same pilot who publicly literally takes water in front of the crowd and washes his hands of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, not my circus, this is your thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll allow the crucifixion, I'm not taking part in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is yours, not mine.

[SPEAKER_01]: So in another way, he wants everyone to know who is responsible for this.

[SPEAKER_01]: The King of the Jews, everyone will know who is responsible for this, who put him here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then the leading priest,

[SPEAKER_01]: who put him there objected and said to pilot, no, no, no, no, no, change it from the king of the Jews.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not the king of the Jews.

[SPEAKER_01]: Change it to, he said he was the king of the Jews.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're trying to distance themselves from it.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, he's not our guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can say that he said he was, he's not our guy.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's so much baked into this response.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're only going to be able to unpack a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: The pilot replies, no.

[SPEAKER_01]: What I have written, I have written.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot we could unpack there.

[SPEAKER_01]: One conclusion we can take.

[SPEAKER_01]: The pilot is telling them, no.

[SPEAKER_01]: You will own what you've done.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're gonna own what you're doing here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then we continue when the soldiers had crucified Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he's nailed, he's on the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's been lifted up.

[SPEAKER_01]: They divided his clothes among the four of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: They also took his robe, but it was seamless woven in one piece from top to bottom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our Bible scholars in the room, you may recognize there's prophecy there as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: His robe itself mere something that's coming later in the story.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can't hit there today, but even this is prophetic.

[SPEAKER_01]: That his robe was seamless woven in one piece from top to bottom.

[SPEAKER_01]: So they said, rather than tearing it apart, let's throw dice for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: This fulfilled the Scripture, Scripture is Psalm 22, 18, that says, they divided my garments among themselves and through dyes from my clothing.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that is what they did.

[SPEAKER_01]: Standing near the cross where Jesus says, mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopus and Mary Magdalene.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, quick question, are there three Mary's here?

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe, are you telling me that Jesus's grandma named two of her daughters, Mary?

[SPEAKER_01]: Apparently, there's some interesting stuff happening in the Greek here if you want to nerd out about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you're wired that way, go look into it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some interesting research you can do here.

[SPEAKER_01]: For today, apparently, Jesus's grandma really liked the name Mary.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are three of them at the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, the more important part for us,

[SPEAKER_01]: Standing there beside the disciple that he loved.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said to her, this is our first last word for today.

[SPEAKER_01]: He sees his mother standing next to the disciple he loved and he says, Dear woman, here's your son.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he looks at the disciple and he says, here is your mother.

[SPEAKER_01]: From then on, the disciple took her into his home.

[SPEAKER_01]: As far as we know, that's the end of her life.

[SPEAKER_01]: He listens, he obeys.

[SPEAKER_01]: She has someone to take care of her.

[SPEAKER_01]: But can you guys help me out?

[SPEAKER_01]: I seem to have forgotten.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who's the disciple that Jesus loved?

[SPEAKER_01]: Does anybody know?

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you shout it out?

[SPEAKER_01]: You're right.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's John.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, man, I forgot again.

[SPEAKER_01]: What gospel are we reading?

[SPEAKER_01]: What book are we reading today?

[SPEAKER_01]: John.

[SPEAKER_01]: John is writing, because John saw, so why does this not show up in Matthew and Mark and Luke?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, because Matthew, who wasn't eyewitness, had scattered, he wasn't at the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't hear Jesus say it, because he wasn't there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then you've got Mark.

[SPEAKER_01]: He heard almost all of what he wrote from Peter, who wasn't there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you've got Luke.

[SPEAKER_01]: who's a researcher, he gets all the eyewitness testimonies that he puts them together.

[SPEAKER_01]: Their testimonies are reliable because they've heard from eyewitnesses, but John, John is the witness.

[SPEAKER_01]: John is writing it for you to hear because he saw it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He sat at the foot of the cross and he heard Jesus say, this is your mother now.

[SPEAKER_01]: He heard him say to his own mother,

[SPEAKER_01]: And so certainly there's something happening here.

[SPEAKER_01]: A large part of what's happening here is Jesus is showing to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's modeling to us what the church that he's established is going to look like, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's telling us, what are the people to your left and your right?

[SPEAKER_01]: If you call first free home, how we should look, how we should love.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, family like this should look like what Jesus on the cross has done for us should make all relationships look different.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's certainly a piece of what's happening here.

[SPEAKER_01]: A very large piece of what's happening here.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think another piece, another piece is we can't forget Jesus the God man, 100% God, 100% man, Jesus is on the cross and this isn't theater.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not putting on an act to make a point.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not pretending to do something so that we can see something or learn something.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus feels the thorns in his skull.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has nails in his hands.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's struggling to breathe.

[SPEAKER_01]: He can probably barely see his mother by the blood covering his eyes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is going through this for you and for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he looks down at his mom.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus, 100% man, he looks at his mom.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's thinking, someone's got to take care of her.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he looks, the disciple he loves, he looks to his best friend, he says, I need you to take care of her.

[SPEAKER_01]: Imagine the effort it took to stay those words.

[SPEAKER_01]: On a cross, you literally can't breathe.

[SPEAKER_01]: The weight of your own body is closing your lungs.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he has to stand up on the nail in his feet to gasp and take a breath.

[SPEAKER_01]: just to say, John, you got to take care of my mom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that's the woman who taught him to walk.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, the God, man, that he's looking at the woman who from her own body fed him.

[SPEAKER_01]: In a very real sense, the body being broken and poured out for us was made by this woman, then he's looking at her.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, who's got to take care of my mom?

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, 100% God, 100% man, and John is telling us because he saw it, because he was the one who got told.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that same Jesus, in that moment, the same Jesus who died for you and me, God in the flesh, Yahweh incarnate, is looking out for his mom.

[SPEAKER_01]: because he's really doing this.

[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't a story.

[SPEAKER_01]: John isn't making it up.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's telling you because it happened, because he saw it.

[SPEAKER_01]: The weight of all of our sin thrown on him, beaten for our transgressions, carrying it on.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's thinking, who's going to take care of my mom?

[SPEAKER_01]: So he says, mom, John's going to take care of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: John, she's your mom now.

[SPEAKER_01]: then we continue.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus knew that his mission was now finished to fulfill scripture he said, I am thirsty.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that earlier reference from the the disciple John was Psalm 22, 18.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is Psalm 22, 15.

[SPEAKER_01]: So John referencing that same song to fulfill scripture he says, I am thirsty.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's that song.

[SPEAKER_01]: My strength has dried up like sun-baked clay.

[SPEAKER_01]: My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

[SPEAKER_01]: You've laid me in the dust and left me for death.

[SPEAKER_01]: That says, back to John, a jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: They put it on a hiss-up branch, and they held it up to his lips.

[SPEAKER_01]: So just like before, I think there's a few things happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here, Jesus is fulfilling a prophecy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Psalm 22 is clearly on John's mind as he writes.

[SPEAKER_01]: That Hisop Branch is incredibly prophetic.

[SPEAKER_01]: That was actually the thing used in Passover, which is happening as Jesus is going to the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: At Passover, you would use the Hisop Branch to put the blood above your doorway.

[SPEAKER_01]: The blood of the land that protects you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you see the connection here?

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, the Lamb, His blood being poured out for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Very literally, during Passover, for filling prophecy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Another thing that's happening here, I think He is revealing His humanity again.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's telling us He's showing us.

[SPEAKER_01]: So this isn't for show.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not pretending to do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: His mouth is dry.

[SPEAKER_01]: His tongue is so dry, it's stuck to the roof of His mouth.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's lost fluids, he's lost a lot of blood, he's going through this, it hurts.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's saying, I'm thirsty because it's real, but then at the same time, I think one more thing is happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's not just thinking of what's taking place.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not just just saying I'm thirsty because he's thirsty right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not just living in the moment, he's in and saying I'm thirsty and I need a drink.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's also looking towards what's about to happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he takes this drink.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wets his mouth, and he's about to say something.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wets his mouth so that everyone can hear what he's about to say.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's no confusion about what he's about to say, about why he did, what he did, about what the cross is for.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wets his mouth, he wets his tongue because John needed to hear it, because John needed to write it, because you needed to hear it.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is it.

[SPEAKER_01]: When Jesus had tasted it, he said, it is finished.

[SPEAKER_01]: And everyone heard it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is finished then.

[SPEAKER_01]: He bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

[SPEAKER_01]: As far as John writes, as far as John wanted to tell us, that's the last thing he records Jesus say.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is finished.

[SPEAKER_01]: John continues on to write about how the leaders, same leaders who put him on the cross, they demanded that Pilek take the bodies down in observance of their laws and Jesus confirmed to be dead by a sphere in his side.

[SPEAKER_01]: Without breaking any of his bones, that's prophetic again.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's our spotless lamb, no broken bones.

[SPEAKER_01]: For filling a prophecy that he couldn't have in any way orchestrated himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in all of it, why does John say he recorded it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why does he tell us about the prophecy?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why does it matter if Jesus drank from the branch?

[SPEAKER_01]: You go to verse 35 and again, John tells us.

[SPEAKER_01]: This report, everything you just heard, this report is from an eyewitness, giving an accurate account.

[SPEAKER_01]: He, I, speak the truth so that you also may continue to believe.

[SPEAKER_01]: that you may continue to believe that if you know Jesus, because of what John chose to wrote, because God preserved it all the way to you today.

[SPEAKER_01]: John wrote so that you could believe this really happened.

[SPEAKER_01]: John really saw it, he's telling you what he saw.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not as a story, but as reality.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because John saw it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But why did Jesus want him to hear it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why did he need him to hear that it was finished?

[SPEAKER_01]: Hebrews 2, 14 tells us this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because God's children are human beings.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we are human beings.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we have limits.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have to eat and sleep.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we are human beings.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's made of flesh and blood.

[SPEAKER_01]: The sun also became flesh and blood.

[SPEAKER_01]: For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.

[SPEAKER_01]: Only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't have it anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: Through his death, we are healed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Through that death, through that old rugged cross, I made right with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he says it and he needs John to hear that it's finished because he wants John and you and me to know what just happened to know what he did on that cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: He needed John to hear it and he needed you to hear and he needed me to hear it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is finished.

[SPEAKER_01]: So then here's the question.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the it?

[SPEAKER_01]: what is finished?

[SPEAKER_01]: Death is dead, sin is not your master.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, not when Jesus returns, but because of what happened on that cross, sin and death are defeated.

[SPEAKER_01]: Once and for all, God yaw way on a cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: His blood poured out for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what's finished, sin and death are finished.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not because we deserved it, but because we didn't any loves us anyways.

[SPEAKER_01]: He died for your sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: He died for my sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: My sin put him there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Your sin put him there and he died for us anyways.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the cross is.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's dead.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sin is not my master.

[SPEAKER_01]: Death does not have power over me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because he came down from heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because he suffered with us.

[SPEAKER_01]: so that we could have the righteousness that he has.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we could have the life that he deserved, not because we deserved it, but because we didn't, that's the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: Romans 6, 13, through 14, do not offer it any part of yourself to sin, as an instrument of witness, but rather offer yourself to God, as those who have been brought from death to life,

[SPEAKER_01]: If you've been brought from death to life, offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness, or sin, shall no longer be your master.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not in charge anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sin is not in control because you are not under the law but under grace.

[SPEAKER_01]: because of his blood poured out for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what made us right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Death is gone, sin is defeated.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can live a new life now in the already but not yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: You and I live in a world where sin and death are defeated yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is coming back one day, victorious and triumphant.

[SPEAKER_01]: And until then, we live in a world where sin does not have power, but it has influence.

[SPEAKER_01]: I needed to hear, sin does not have power over you anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: God on a cross is enough, over all pride and greed and gluttony and slander.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is saying the cross is enough, over all sexual immorality and lust and gossip and envy.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you feel trapped by pornography or addiction or depression or anxiety, if you feel like you cannot get out from under whatever the sin is that it's trapping you, whatever it is that you feel like I can't get it off of me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus came and he suffered and he died to show you that you are not alone.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't have power over you anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: He took it on the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: He paid for it on the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: God on a cross is enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: What arrogance it is to believe that my sin could rob the cross of its power, how arrogant to believe that my sin could rob the cross of its power, that I could do enough, that God on a cross wasn't enough, that I could do enough, that Yahweh's blood poured out for me, doesn't cover it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember once I was speaking to a buddy in college, I went to a Bible school and we go to this coffee shop and we argue for like three hours about a theological debate that probably had literally zero value.

[SPEAKER_01]: We talked for three hours and I don't even remember what the debate was, but I remember how it ended.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I remember this friend of this coffee shop on my college campus, he looks at me and he says this sentence.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just can't believe that Jesus would die

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember the moment he said that I just can't believe that Jesus would die for the people that reject it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he was like, the second the words came out of his mouth, I didn't even have to respond.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember him looking at me with this look of just knowing.

[SPEAKER_01]: It kind of smirks and he's like, okay, I get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is finished.

[SPEAKER_01]: What kind of God would be so humiliated?

[SPEAKER_01]: What kind of God any eternity, sovereign and all powerful to allow this to happen to Him?

[SPEAKER_01]: What kind of God would allow Himself to be scored?

[SPEAKER_01]: The God on the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the God we follow.

[SPEAKER_01]: what God would allow himself to go through this, the God that died for you and for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: The man on that cross, that's the God, who I fall.

[SPEAKER_01]: How offensive is the story of the cross?

[SPEAKER_01]: That the God is serving of all honor and all glory and all praise?

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't need us, He gains nothing from us that He would look to save us by spilling His own blood, by sending His only Son to die for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I need you to hear this, maybe you've listened to this before.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you've heard it, I needed to get past your head, I needed to hit your heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need us to hear this, let it infiltrate every part of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, God Almighty in the flesh, died for you, God died for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And John needs you to hear about it because he saw it happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: I grew up in a small church.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we used to sing this song.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of us here might know it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you know this song, would you sing this with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not a worship leader, so I need some help.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus paid it all, all to Him, I own.

[SPEAKER_00]: St. had left the crimson stain, he washed it wide as snow.

[SPEAKER_00]: He washed it wide as snow.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what happened on that cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the love I want my friends to see.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the love I want my family to see.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the love I want your family to see.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that a church that lived as if God on a cross was enough, it would change this city.

[SPEAKER_01]: St. Louis would look different.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that a church that lived like Yahweh's blood poured out for us was enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: We would love more than we could ever dream.

[SPEAKER_01]: A church that believed in their hearts and their minds that that was enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe everything else could fall to the foot of the cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can surrender it all.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we would love like it would true.

[SPEAKER_01]: The God died for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that it is finished.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray.

[SPEAKER_01]: Dear Father, thank you so much.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can't begin to comprehend God, the love that you have for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I just pray that you would use this place

[SPEAKER_01]: that you would change our hearts, that you would change our minds and use them to change other's God.

[SPEAKER_01]: That we could live not just a different life God, but we could live a new life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we followed God and went to a cross for us when we didn't deserve.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we followed the God who poured out his own blood for us to make us right with Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: when we have nothing to offer and everything to gain God.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's who you are.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I pray for anybody in this room who doesn't know you, I pray that maybe even today, they would just listen to Jesus' words, to follow Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Without all the answers, without even knowing what it means, God, to see you on the cross, to hear from John that it really happened and to just follow.

[SPEAKER_01]: to just see who you are to see we have to offer God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I pray that you would do what only you can do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Use this place, use these people.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we love you, we love you, we love you?

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much, Jesus name, amen.