It is Finished (John 19:28-42)

John chapter 19, starting in verse 28.

John 19 · chapter mention

After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished that the scriptures might be fulfilled, he said, I am thirsty.

A jar full of sour wine was sitting there.

So they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to his mouth.

When Jesus received the sour wine, he said, It is finished.

Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

Since it was the preparation day, the Jews did not want the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a special day.

They requested that Pilate have the man's legs broken and that their bodies be taken away.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and the other one who had been crucified with him.

When they came to Jesus, they didn't break his legs, since they saw he was already dead.

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.

He who saw this is testified, so you also may believe.

His testimony is true, and he knows he is telling the truth.

For these things happened, so that the scripture would be fulfilled, not one of his bones will be broken.

Also another scripture says, They will look at the one they pierced.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might remove Jesus' body.

Pilate gave him permission, so he came and took his body away.

Nicodemus, who previously came to him at night, also came, bringing a mixture of about seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes.

They took Jesus' body, wrapped it in linen cloths with the fragrant spices according to the burial custom of the Jews.

There was a garden in the place where he was crucified.

A new tomb was in the garden, no one had yet been placed in it.

They placed Jesus there because of the Jewish day of preparation, and since the tomb was nearby.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for your word.

And I ask, Lord, that you would fill me with your spirit to rightly teach your word, that you would fill the hearers with your spirit to rightly discern and divide what is of you.

I ask as we study that we would draw closer to you, that we would fall more and more in love with you.

And be glorified in your name.

Amen.

Go ahead and have a seat.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but in the Bible, the crucifixion's a big deal.

Having that said, there's a lot going on, not only here, but in Matthew 27, and in Mark 15, and in Luke 23.

And if we went over every aspect of the sequence of events in detail, it would be longer than I normally go.

So, we're gonna stick mainly with John in this passage.

We're gonna touch on the other passages, but know that if we're not uh majoring on a specific point, it's it's for the sake of going through these passages in a timely manner.

So, but keep that in mind.

Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23 all interweave this together.

Okay, picture this.

You are a good Jewish person.

You have come to Jerusalem for the Passover, one of the three required feasts where every able-bodied male has to go to Jerusalem for the feast.

It has begun, and then there is a trial, and then there's a crucifixion happening, which may not be out of the ordinary in the Roman Empire, but what is out of the ordinary is in the middle of the day, from about 12 p.m.

to about 3 p.m., the sun decides it's not going to shine anymore.

For three hours.

That's a big deal.

We see that in the synoptic gospels.

So here you are, the lights go out, there's a crazy dramatic scene of somebody being crucified, three people in fact.

That's not normal behavior.

We look at these passages oftentimes as believers, as people who have heard the story, going like, well, yeah, that's what happened.

And then the crucifixion, and then, spoiler alert, the tomb's empty, and Jesus is risen.

But if you look at it through the lens of the people who were there, this is really weird and noteworthy that as this is happening on the Passover, which was the commemoration of the angel of death passing over the Israelites who had the Lamb's blood on their doorposts, and the sun goes out because the sun is on the cross, and that's where we're at.

So, starting here in verse 28.

After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, he said, I'm thirsty.

Just starting off.

Jesus knew that everything was now finished in fulfillment of the scriptures.

How does he know that?

We read that and we go, well, yeah, of course, that's what happens.

Jesus, you know, children's ministry answer.

How does he know that?

That's not normal behavior again.

He knew that everything was finished, that the scriptures were fulfilled, that the whole narrative of scripture, from the fall of humans in Genesis all the way through to the substitutionary atonement here, fulfilled, paid for, and done.

How many of you have had kids or have kids?

No shame, no weirdness with that?

Okay.

With that, if you give out a punishment or a repayment of something, does the child get to decide when it's enough?

If you've grounded them, do they go, does the child go like, you know what, I've been grounded for two days, the price has been paid.

We're done here.

I'm ungrounded.

No, it doesn't work that way.

More fittingly, if you are in a courtroom situation, does the defendant get to determine the sentence?

If a guilty uh statement is made, does the person on trial get to go, okay, I might be guilty, but I think I'm gonna do 30 and I'll pay 2,000 bucks and we're dumb?

No, that's crazy.

The judge gets to decide that.

The jury, the judge, not the defendant.

That's why am I making a big deal about this?

Because we're in a weird situation where the one who is paying the price is not the one who committed the crime.

So Jesus, sinless sacrifice, taking our sins upon him, he is not the one who is atoning for his own sin because he had no sin.

Rather, he is paying the price for our sins, and so he can determine that the consequences are sufficient.

Two reasons for that.

Number one, he's God.

So he's sovereign, he knows all things, he gets to do that.

But also, because he is as God was the one whose standards were violated.

So you have a very strange situation here where the person who was offended is paying the price.

And he therefore is knowledgeable of how much is necessary to pay.

Having all that said, this is important because even on the cross here, as we talked about last week, as we continue to talk about, Jesus is in control.

He's not helpless to the situation, he is not um uh having his life taken from him, he is laying it down, which we'll talk about in a second.

So, he knew that everything was finished.

Fulfillment of scripture, and he says, I'm thirsty.

A jar full of sour wine was sitting there.

So they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to his mouth.

Okay.

Couple different things with this.

Sour wine.

Sounds gross.

Oxas.

It's basically a diluted vinegar wine.

It is the common drinking, but I'm guessing that a Roman soldier left it there.

The only thing, the only way that I can equate it is that in uh in my childhood, the different sports camps I went to for baseball and soccer, there was always the weird white thing of Gatorade.

Big white uh container with the orange lid, and it always tasted like the container.

Never quite like Gatorade.

But there's a very specific plastic taste associated with that.

Same kind of stuff here.

This is not like a fancy meal here that he's having here.

It's not something to numb the pain.

And how do I know that?

Well, we see in Mark 15, they tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, which was thought to be a painkiller, and he refused it.

He actually refused to have the edge taken off of the suffering he is going through on our behalf.

So here they have a sponge full of sour wine, of diluted Gatorade, if you want, on a hyssop branch.

Now, John is doing two things here, I believe.

Number one, he's indicating he is an eyewitness, because that's an incredible amount of detail there.

But secondly, uh hyssop we see throughout scripture has ceremonial uh purpose, and one of the big things is that's what was used to spread the blood on the doorposts at Passover.

So that's kind of cool.

Exodus 12, 22.

It's a little Easter egg in there, little resurrection egg in there.

I can't really, I don't know.

Uh so and he says, I'm thirsty.

Why?

Why now?

What's going on?

What's what's happening with here?

Why is he sitting there and going, hey, can I get a drink?

I believe that he needed the fluids to clearly proclaim what he is about to proclaim.

And also he's proclaiming it not for his benefit.

I don't think that Jesus is on the cross going, like, okay, I'm done, I'm out, we're done here, for the benefit of everybody hearing it.

And so, with that in mind, he has the um the drink of the sour wine for, in my opinion, the purpose of being able to declare very important words.

In verse 30, when he received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

It's done.

The price is paid.

I think for me, in 2025, Tascadero, I hear that, I'm like, yep, price is paid.

That's how the gospel works, cool, and everything.

This is the most important event in human history that just happened.

Which is so cool.

Which is so cool.

God, in the flesh, the sinless sacrifice took our sins upon himself, died in our place, and then he said, It's done.

The price has been paid.

It is fulfilled, it is complete.

It's amazing.

And then he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit.

When he bows his head here, it's not in defeat, it's in completion, a completed act.

We're done here.

And then he gives up his spirit.

We see in John 10 17 through 18, this is why, Jesus speaking, this is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.

I have the right to lay it down, I have the right to take it up again.

I have received this command from my Father.

So, Jesus, being God in the flesh, is uniquely able to say when he is done.

Barrowing odd circumstances that we're not going to go into here because it's awkward and weird, we don't get to decide when our life is done.

We don't get to say, it's finished.

But when you were the one who breathed life into all living things, you have the right to say, I'm done here.

And that's so cool because it's not for his benefit.

It's not because I can't take this anymore, it's because everything was finished and completed and fulfilled that the scripture would be fulfilled.

So awesome.

Jesus on the cross here, proclaiming what looks like to hardened hearts of defeat, proclaiming victory over sin and death to be made evident a few days later by an empty tomb.

I really want to preach that one too, but I don't get to.

So continuing forward here, in verse 31.

Since it was preparation day, the Jews didn't want the body to remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a special day.

We're continuing to get the timeline of how this all plays out.

I know this has been discussed before, but there's been questions about the timing of things here.

Real quick, the best way to describe this is they are in the middle of Passover, which is a special feast, which is a seven to eight day feast, depending on how you cut the timing.

Passover unleavened bread through there.

This is coming up against the Sabbath during that event.

So, Friday afternoon here, preparation days, and the Jews didn't want the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath, because that Sabbath was a special day.

So prior to the Sabbath, they want the bodies removed.

There's a bit of irony in here because what's the festival happening here?

It's the Passover, where you have the lamb sacrificed, the blood shed, you have the feast of unleavened bread.

And here, the Passover lamb and the bread of life is there before them.

They want it removed.

They're sitting here for a festival for the whole purpose of to remember these things, but the one that that festival pointed to, they're like, okay, get that out of here.

Not knowing that they're fulfilling prophecy and doing so, which we'll go through in a second.

What does this look like?

They requested that Pilate have the man's legs broken and that their bodies be taken away.

So this is gnarly.

We don't need to go into too much graphic detail here, but crucifixion is not a death by pain.

It is not a death by blood loss, it's a death by asphyxiation.

Where ultimately, you you're basically ultimately not able to take in breath anymore after a certain amount of time.

Pushing up on a nail to try to be able to catch a breath to go down.

And so when they're like, hey, we need to finish here, what is not suggested?

Spears for all.

That would be quick, it would be done.

But rather, it's can we break these guys' legs so they can't breathe anymore and die faster?

That is horrific.

And is gnarly.

But that was the process.

First thing that Pilate seemed to be agreeable towards, kind of weird, but okay.

Man's legs broken and their bodies be taken away.

So the soldiers came.

They broke the legs of the first man and the other one who had been crucified with him.

Here's what I find interesting.

We don't exactly the order of things, but the way that I read it here, one thing is strange is that in John 19.18, it's very clear Jesus is in the middle.

So they crucified him in John 19.18, and two others with him, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

If you're the guy with the hammer, you go up to person number one, person number three, guy to the middle, oh hey, he's he's dead.

We're not gonna do that.

It's kind of a weird process in that they're just gonna, you know, one skip one, go to three, and everything with that.

Why does this matter?

Because it would have been easy for them just to break everyone's legs and move on.

Living dead, who cares?

The guy's job, I mean, I'm spitballing here, but I'm guessing that the leg breaking guy is not high on the totem pole of the Roman Empire.

And it's probably uh we hope he's not enjoying his job too much, but it's a it's a very strange thing.

I'm assuming he's just business as usual, go, go, go, but they stop at Jesus.

Why do they stop at Jesus?

Because we'll see in a moment, it fulfills scripture, not one of his bones will be broken.

I'm gonna pull up a passage in Numbers about the Passover lamb.

Numbers 9, 12, 8.

Speaking of the Passover lamb, they may not leave any of it until morning or break any of its bones.

So, when they when they slaughter the lamb for the Passover, they eat the lamb, they may not break any of its bones, which from like the time of the Exodus, really 1500 BC ish, uh, all the way forward, they have this rule: hey, when you make the Passover lamb, don't break its bones.

Why?

I don't know.

It's what we do.

Cool.

And then they move forward to the next year, year after year after year after year.

I don't know why we don't break the bones, but we don't break the bones, that's how it is.

Also, don't leave any till the morning.

Well, I mean, that seems kind of reasonable because refrigeration, but ultimately, why do we have these things that they're doing it and they're doing it, and they're doing it?

Because here you have the Passover lamb on the cross, and he doesn't get to be left till morning.

And when it would have been super easy for his bones to be broken, that was the default, not one of his bones is broken in that way.

Really cool how that works out.

How we're taking things that were long ago prophesied in this imagery of the Passover lamb and Jesus fulfilling it on the cross in ways that are not necessarily natural.

It's not one of those, like, well, yeah, that could have happened to anybody.

Dude just decided, no, I'm not gonna break his legs, even though that's my job.

And they're saying, hey, can we take the bodies down, please?

So it's cool to see that picture and that fulfillment.

And here we get three bits of evidence starting in verse 34.

Evidence of what?

Number one, that he's dead.

Number two, that this is true, and number three, this is done in fulfillment of scripture.

So, verse 34, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.

Lots of different opinions on the whole blood and water, how that plays out.

Ultimately, what does that mean?

He's dead.

He is definitely dead.

You pierce the side, blood and water come out, you don't have a medical second opinion.

Going, well, he might still be alive and have fainted.

Doesn't work that way.

I still want to be there for this situation to a certain extent, where uh leg breaking guy is like, yeah, I don't really want to break this guy's legs, he's already dead.

Like, dude, your job, just do your job.

I don't want to.

Okay, fine, I'll do it.

And he stabs him randomly, quote unquote, and the blood of water come out, indicating Jesus is in fact dead.

And then you have the testimony of John in verse 37.

35.

He who saw this has testified, has borne witness, has declared.

Why?

So that you may believe.

Whole point of John writing this is not to uh defend himself, is not to write a really cool story for the purpose of the reader to believe.

It's a bigger picture than I want to demonstrate a historical fact.

His goal here is ultimately for belief and confession leading to salvation.

So, John says his testimony is true, and he knows he is telling the truth.

And again, just in my head, I see Peter sitting there going, dude, why are you talking to third person?

Why are you writing in the third person?

Why you gotta be weird, John?

But here, John is indicating he is an eyewitness.

How do we know he's an eyewitness?

Well, because he was the one that Jesus just in verse 25 through 27 uh committed his mom to be taken care of by.

So John is a witness here, and John is saying, I saw this happen.

The best thing you can do at that point is to discredit the testifier.

You can't say, No, you know.

Didn't you didn't see it?

You're like, yeah, I saw it happen.

And then finally, verse 36.

These things happen so that the scripture would be fulfilled.

Not one of his bones will be broken.

And another scripture saying, Very well, look at the one they pierced.

So we have some fulfillment of scripture here for verse 30, uh Psalm 34, 20.

He protects all his bones, not one of them is broken.

Zechariah 12, 10, I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the house of David and on the residents of Jerusalem.

They look at me, whom they pierced, they'll mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly for him who weeps for a firstborn.

So, again, these statements, Psalms, approximately thousand BC, Zechariah, during the Reconstruction, uh like 538 to 520-ish BC.

These statements that as they're making these prophecies, they're probably not even fully understanding what's going on there, pointing specifically to Jesus, just sitting there waiting to be fulfilled by the Messiah.

And then here they're being fulfilled in such a weird way where the Roman soldiers are like, I'm not gonna break this guy's legs, and they're like, Okay, well, I'll stab him with a spear.

And then it's like, hey, not one of his bones will be broken, and they will look on the one that they pierced.

I think the interesting thing with this is that for those who are looking for the Messiah, these things are compelling.

And for those with hard hearts, these things fall on deaf ears.

But that's what I love when you put spoiler alert after Jesus' ascension, that he actually explains these things to his disciples.

He actually goes through it and lists through all of these things going, hey, this is what this meant.

And I have so many, I can imagine that whole passage, that whole time they're being like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, no, I still don't get that.

Oh, and so amazing fulfillment of Scripture, the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God, the bread of life, dying on our behalf.

And then in verse 38, we have some characters here.

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate he might remove Jesus' body.

This is a cool guy who gets like random crazy write-up in scripture, and then you never hear from him again.

But some info about Joseph of Arimathea.

In the Matthew passage, he's a rich man.

In Matthew, as well as here, he's a disciple of Jesus, and here in John we see he was secretly a disciple because of his fear of the Jews.

Why would he be afraid of the Jews?

Well, in Mark and Luke, we see he is a prominent member of the Sanhedrin.

Kind of a big deal.

And we see in those same passages he had not agreed with the Sanhedrin's plan of action.

And he was looking forward to the kingdom of God in Mark and Luke.

And we see in Luke he was a good and righteous man.

So here you have a religious leader, a leader and prominent member of the Sanhedrin, who's a like ninja follower of Jesus, for fear of the Jews, did not agree to all of the crazy things we just saw in the uh rigged court in the rigged jury and courts that we just saw happen.

He's looking forward to the kingdom of God, good and righteous man.

Here he takes his he makes his move.

This guy has to go to Pilate.

By the way, do you think Pilate anticipated how busy of a weekend he was going to have?

Suddenly he's just like, you could picture like somebody being like, hey, there's another Jew here for you, and he's like, okay, what?

What now?

First we have the trial, then we have trial part two, and now we have this, and now we have that.

What do you want?

So he boldly asks Pilate to remove Jesus' body.

And Pilate gave him permission and he took his body away.

Person number two here, Nicodemus.

He had previously come to him at night.

We saw that in John 3.

And he was a ruler of the Jews.

He previously came to Jesus at night, and here he brings 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes.

I am guessing he is not poor if he's bringing 75 pounds of myrrh and aloees for burial.

So this is what I love.

Number one, why does this matter?

Well, on your own time, I would encourage you to read Isaiah 53, the whole thing.

Because it is note by note, beat by beat, this whole scene.

But one of the things that is random in there, seemingly, is in 53.9, he was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.

Again, one of those random things Isaiah throws out there, compelled to write it down.

Roughly 700 BC, this is written down, and then here we have it being fulfilled with that.

But what is interesting to hear?

Who are the two people we see caring for Jesus' body at the end here?

Religious leaders and Pharisees.

Why do I bring that up?

Because we love to hate the Pharisees.

It's basically when you go through the gospels, that's where you know the bad guys are.

Basically, when the Pharisees come up, you're supposed to go boo! And oh man, those guys are idiots.

I would never act that way.

And so, here's the cool thing is here at the end, you have Joseph and you have Nicodemus who are exposing themselves.

They are no longer secretly, they're no longer at night.

They're asking a pagan ruler for the body of Jesus, and they're going to prepare it for burial.

So they're coming out here in indicating their devotion to Jesus.

So it goes directly against the narrative that Jesus loves the common people and hates the Pharisees.

And I would submit to you the best way to become a Pharisee is to hate Pharisees.

The most legalistic people I know are the people who are hyper-Grace, I hate legalism.

Just gonna throw that out there.

So, with that in mind, here you have these Pharisees who are, and religious leaders, remember the Sanhedrin, and they are acting in direct contrast to the religious leaders in John 18, 28, who wouldn't go into Pilate's headquarters for fear of defiling themselves.

They're like, wait, we're not even gonna go there because if we defile ourselves, we will not be able to partake of the feast.

I would assume that if you are handling a corpse, it might be interpreted as defiling yourself.

And here they are understanding the value of the true lamb in front of them, which is super cool.

They are indicating not worrying about defiling themselves for a feast because they have what the feast represented right in front of them.

The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

So cool! Okay.

Then we have some preparation here.

They took Jesus' body in verse 40, they wrapped it in linen cloths with the fragrant spices, according to the burial custom of the Jews.

There was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and a new tomb was in the garden.

No one had yet been placed in it.

And they placed Jesus there because the Jewish day of preparation, and since the tomb was nearby.

So, all of this, what's the purpose of this?

Why is it telling us?

Well, number one, because John is indicating he's an eyewitness, but also Jesus is definitively dead.

Not only from what he experienced, from what he went through on the cross, but the blood and the water from the side, and now they take the body and they prepare it for burial and put it in a tomb.

Now we can either assume that Joseph and Nicodemus are the stupidest people who have ever existed and are accidentally embalming a living person, or Jesus is definitely, decidedly, certainly dead.

So why is that important?

We have a little bit more of the preparation here.

A stone was rolled against the entrance we see in Matthew and Mark.

The Sabbath was about to begin in Luke 23, so they're hurrying to get this done.

The Marys, that's how I like to call them at this point in time, you know, they're the opening act for these other people.

The Marys observe where the tomb is in Mark, I mean Matthew 29, Mark 15, Luke 23.

Why does it matter that they observe where the tomb is?

There is no possibility that they went to the wrong tomb later.

They saw where Jesus was laid.

I'm assuming they don't have my sense of direction and can actually get back to where the tomb was, to the correct tomb.

Thank God for my wife and my son who can like find their way out of anything.

I get out of my car and I'm lost.

So the Marys know exactly where he is buried, and the chief priests and the Pharisees secure a guard for the tomb in Matthew 29.

Which is interesting.

They actually go to Pilate again and say, Hey, did you know that this guy said he was going to rise again on the third day?

We don't want any funny business, we don't want someone stealing the body, so can we have a guard to guard the tomb?

And Pilate's like, guard it as secure as you know how.

They are the only ones who heard what Jesus was actually saying.

Isn't that crazy?

And yet it didn't bring about repentance.

But they clearly knew that Jesus was saying he would rise again from the tomb, from the grave.

And so they're like, what we need to do is set a guard and a seal over the stone so that nothing's going to happen.

As if God is like parting, you know, creating life, causing breath in everybody, holding everything by the power of his word, causing the stars to continue to go through, having everything happen, and he gets to the tomb and he's like, oh man, they put a rock there.

Now what am I gonna do?

Well, there goes 7,000 years of prophecy down the drain.

No, it's but this is the mentality here is we need to prevent what is happening here.

We need to stop the narrative as quickly as possible here.

So what do we take from all of this?

Number one, the beauty of the sacrifice.

Jesus point by point, fulfilling prophecy, fulfilling types, fulfilling imagery from the um bones not being broken, the one being pierced, the not being left over overnight, the being a rich man in his tomb, the um manner of his death, even, all of these different things in fulfillment of scripture pointing that he is the one who was prophesied, the coming one.

But it is finished.

The price is paid.

Do you know what that means?

What was that?

I said no more work.

No more work, yes, yes, that was important.

I'm like, I'm not gonna let you slide quietly through that.

Yes! Amen.

Yes, it's done.

No more work can be done, no more work needs to be done.

So if he is paying the price for sins, what happens if we sinned today as followers of Jesus?

Are we in trouble?

If we're followers of Jesus?

I mean, are we basically one of those like, well, that wasn't paid for, so now we're out of luck.

No! It's finished, it's done.

Now, I would not presume that anybody would have a less than stellar attitude on Sunday morning before church.

Uh, and trying to get ready and to get here on time and all the different things with that, but with that in mind, there is encouragement in the reality that price has been paid for sins small and sins great.

Jesus does not look upon our sin and go, oh no, you did that?

That happened?

Oh no, I didn't pay for that.

Now I'm gonna have to figure out how to reallocate my blood.

It doesn't work that way.

It is finished, it is paid for.

You cannot outsin the cross.

That is beautiful.

It is amazing.

On the flip side, nothing that we have done is good enough to equate the cross.

None of the works that we have done, are doing, or will do, add to the atonement that Jesus fulfilled on the cross.

Doesn't mean they're not good, but they don't factor into our relationship with God in terms of salvation.

So, on one side, there is nothing that we have done or can do that is not paid for by Jesus if we are willing to confess and believe in Him.

On the other side, the things that we have done that are good things do not cut it and we need Him.

So, what does this look like?

This is the easiest and the hardest thing in the world.

Because salvation and being reconciled with God comes only through confession and belief.

Through putting your faith in Jesus as the He paid the price for our sins.

Confession that we have sinned, that we have violated God's righteous commandment.

Belief that he paid the price for it, that none of our payments are even factored in.

He alone did that, and then believing that that price was sufficient and that we have been made right with God as a result, and not in a way to where he says, okay, but I don't want to see you again because the price is paid, but rather he wants relationship with us.

He called us, calls us his sons, sons and daughters.

So cool with that.

We see here all of this leading up to what we see that is such a common verse that we know, but it's so important.

In John 3, 14 through 16, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

For God loved the world in this way, he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

Life with God only comes through Jesus, but is available to all who would put their faith in Jesus.

And that is the beautiful thing about the cross.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, in the midst of this ugly act of crucifixion, in which the Son of God was unjustly sentenced when the innocent paid the price for the guilty, when the suffering was fulfilled to pay the price for sins.

Lord, we say thank you for loving us so much that you would offer us salvation, that you would offer us a way to be restored in relationship with you through faith in your Son.

I thank you, Lord, that it is only by faith in Jesus that we can be made right with you.

And I thank you that that is freely offered.

And Lord, for those of us who have put our faith and our trust in you, let us never, never think that we can outsin your grace.

Let us never think that we can work to earn your grace.

Let us always bask in the glory of your salvation that didn't stop with the cross, but continues forward to an empty tomb, indicating the new creations you make us.

For anybody who hears this who has not put their faith in Jesus, it is the simplest and hardest thing in the world because it's as simple as confession in belief, but it's as hard as trusting God to pay the price when we can't do anything on our own.

And it's as simple as confessing our sin to God to putting our faith in him, to declaring belief in him and in his atonement and desiring to accept that gift.

Lord, I ask by your spirit you would be working on hearts to do so.

That you would be working by your spirit to stir that up in people who do not know you, that you would be working on those who do know you, that we would dive deeper and deeper and deeper into your grace, and that we would rejoice in it and walk in delight as a result of it.

I thank you that it is finished, the price is paid, it has been fulfilled.

Be glorified in your name.

Amen.