It Is Finished – Raised For Holy Living (Part 2) | Easter Series | John 19:28-30

Welcome to Preaching from Bryanson Bible Church, located in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa.

It is our prayer that this teaching would bless you, deepen your love for God's word, and encourage you as you follow Jesus.

And if you're not a Christian, we pray that this message would encourage you as you explore the Christian faith.

Today is such a significant day in the Christian faith, and I want to just illustrate something of the significance of this day.

I want to try and capture it through a story.

Running a marathon is one of the most, arguably one of the most grueling tests of human strength and endurance.

It's based on the legend of an ancient Greek runner who ran about the distance of 42.2 kilometers from a town called Marathon all the way to Athens to deliver news of an important Greek victory over the Persian army in about 490 BC.

According to the legend, after finishing his journey, after delivering the message, the soldier collapsed and died.

It's to commemorate this legend that every four years at the Olympic Games, a marathon is run as the gold standard for runners worldwide.

I want to tell you briefly about the marathon that was run at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

The thing that makes this one of the most difficult places on earth to run is the altitude.

Mexico City is around 2,400 meters above sea level, making it one of the highest altitude major cities in the world.

Altitude means lack of oxygen, and lack of oxygen means muscle cramps.

That year in 1968, many runners pulled out of the race because of severe cramping.

But I want to pick up the story right at the finish line.

The sun had long since set over the Olympic Stadium.

The race was technically over.

Medals had been draped around necks, the national anthems had been played, and the vast majority of the 80,000 spectators who were in the stadium had already gone home.

A heavy, hollow silence fell over the stadium.

But then those few thousand spectators who were left behind suddenly heard something.

It was the distant, muffled wail of a police siren.

And then in the dark tunnel of the stadium entrance, some flashing lights appeared.

And in front of those lights, a figure emerged.

It was a man named John Stephen Aquari, representing Tanzania, his country in the marathon.

Except he wasn't running, he was a silhouetted, limping figure moving along with an agonizing gait.

As he came into the lights of the stadium, the crowd sort of gasped because they saw his mangled shoulder, how his leg was a mess of blood and grime, and the makeshift bandage that was strapped around his dislocated knee was flapping uselessly in the night breeze.

See, earlier in the race, at about the halfway mark, out in the streets of Mexico City, Aquari suffering from severe cramping himself, he was involved in a tussle with other runners for possession, and he fell, crashing to the ground, badly injuring his shoulder and dislocating his knee.

But Aquari didn't give up.

He had a medic bandage his leg on the spot and he continued with the race.

Now, as he came into the stadium, step by step, rounding the athletics track all the way to the finish line, he wasn't competing for a medal any longer.

He was simply trying to finish the race.

As he crossed the finish line more than an hour after the winner, as you can imagine, a small crowd erupted.

Later, when Akwari was asked by a reporter why he didn't just give up when his body broke, he said these words that have echoed through history.

And possibly they're one of the most famous things about the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

He said these words when asked why he didn't quit.

My country didn't send me 5,000 miles to start the race.

They sent me 5,000 miles to finish it.

Isn't there something just so heroic about a man who refuses to give up when he's carrying the weight of his nation on his shoulders?

You see, there's something in a quarry's endurance that gives us a glimpse of an even greater story.

Because 2,000 years ago there was another runner.

He didn't just travel 5,000 miles to prove his commitment to his country.

He stepped out of eternity to demonstrate his love for you and his love for me and to run the race that we could never win.

We've heard read out for us, we've sung of, we've watched accounts of the agony that Jesus Christ endured.

The whooping, the nails, the thorns, the mockery.

But where I want to jump into the story is right at the finish line.

And here we don't see a man who is finished because his body's broken and he has nothing left to give.

We see a king cry out, it is finished because the work is complete and the race has been won.

This Good Friday, I pray that we would see, because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, that we would see this, that the holy life is one for us at the cross, and then it is worked in us.

The life that God calls us to live is one for us at the cross, and then it is worked in us.

The life that God calls us to live is no longer a marathon where we run in order to get to God.

It's a life we live because the race has already been won.

Because of Jesus' victory, our standing with the Father is secure, our righteous standing, our salvation is secure, and we are set free to live holy lives.

Lives that are set apart for God, no longer fueled by the grit of our own determination, but rather lives that are grounded in the grace of his finished work.

And so we find ourselves at the cross.

Jesus had been crucified.

The apostle John tells us in chapter 19, verse 28, he says these words after this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst.

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.

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

And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Did you notice there as I was reading that Jesus Christ didn't say, I am finished.

He said, It is finished.

This is a triumphant cry of victory.

Elsewhere in the Gospels, it suggests that he shouted it out.

These words are not the concession of a crushed man, they're not the relief of a dying man, they are not the yielding of an overcome man.

These are some of the greatest words that Jesus Christ ever said.

And he used just one word in the original language, tetelestai, meaning it is finished.

The great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said that this word contains an ocean of meaning in a mere drop of language.

It would need all the other words that were ever spoken, ever were spoken, or can ever be spoken to explain this one word.

It is altogether immeasurable, it is high, I cannot attain to it, it is deep, I cannot fathom it.

Evangelical author A.

W.

Pink said these words Eternity will be needed to make manifest all that Tetelestai contains.

Can we fathom how long that is?

How long eternity is?

Could we ever plumb the depths of all that is contained in that one word?

Meaning it is finished.

And as Jesus Christ cried it out from the cross, he was announcing to the universe, to all of the hosts of heaven, that the marathon of our salvation was over.

You see, he wasn't just finished with the pain, Jesus was finished with the work.

A work that doesn't remove us from the arena of holiness, but a work that empowers us in the midst of it.

And because that cry was a victorious cry, because of Jesus' finished work, I want to point out just two things that it means for us today on Good Friday.

Firstly, it means our standing is secure.

Our standing is secure.

It's so important to see in these verses how the apostle John sets up Jesus' victory cry by telling us that Jesus simply said, I thirst.

We know Jesus is a man who was so steeped in scripture.

We see him here consciously quoting Psalm 69 as he's a willing participant in this divine rescue mission.

But he was thirsty because he was a man who had been crucified under a Middle Eastern sun.

See, hanging on the cross, Jesus would have been slowly suffocating after enduring beating, whipping, having a crown of thorns pressed into the skin of his forehead and his scalp, having nails driven through his hands and feet, tearing up the flesh.

And John wants us to see that even in this raw human suffering, and in the suffering that came from a completely parched throat, which happened in death by crucifixion, the Father's will was accomplished.

And it wasn't only the physical suffering that Jesus endured, but it was separation from the Father.

As Jesus was fully resolved to drink the full cup of suffering that the Father had assigned to him.

He felt the full weight of it with his mind clear and his heart set.

And only once that cup had been drained to the dregs, only then do we read these triumphant words.

It is finished.

And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

In this context, that word tetelista is more than just a statement of death.

It's more than just saying Jesus had died.

It proclaims that everything up to this decisive juncture of Jesus' death on the cross and the overall gospel story of salvation, up until this point, his suffering, his sacrifice had been perfectly completed.

The Father's will had been accomplished.

In our English Bibles, we just read it is finished.

But in the original Greek, there's a beautiful nuance that we sometimes miss in translation.

This word tetelestai is a verb, and it's in what's known as the perfect tense.

In Greek, when we see verbs imperfect tense, it means it describes a past action that has ongoing results in the present.

Something that happened in the past that carries effects in the present.

In other words, when Jesus cried out on the cross, he wasn't just saying it is finished, he was saying it stands finished forever.

The divine rescue mission up to this point, his perfect obedience, his satisfying of the wrath of God accomplished its goal once and for all.

And because of that finished work, our standing, our righteous standing before the Father is secure.

If that is true, it stands finished, and our standing before the Father is secure, then, friends, why do so many of us still run this race of faith as if someone hasn't already run on our behalf and won the race for us?

Why do some of us want to give up on the race of faith altogether rather than pressing on, like in Christ Jesus, we've been empowered to press on?

Because of his finished work, holiness is no longer a marathon of our own grit where our standing before the Father is entirely dependent on our own endurance.

Our standing is secure, our righteous standing before the Father is secure.

But that doesn't mean that we stop running, it means we run with a new power.

If our standing is secure, it means, secondly, that holiness will be worked in us.

Holiness will be worked in us.

The perfect tense of that word, Tetelesta, doesn't just mean that our standing in heaven is secure, it changes the way we see the rest of our race on this earth.

There is a direct connection between what Jesus accomplished on the cross and the holiness of Jesus' people.

When he cried out from the cross, it is finished.

He was saying that he had received that which he paid for.

He accomplished that which he set out to accomplish.

Not just our standing before the Father, our righteous standing before the Father, but also the guaranteed result of our ongoing formation into a holy people.

A people who are set apart for God.

Now, when Jesus was saying on the cross it is finished, he wasn't just closing the book saying it is done.

He was opening up a new way of living.

So often when we see those words, it is finished, we think there is nothing left for us to do.

But as those who turn to God, it means there is finally something we can do.

We can live holy lives because we are no longer running for our lives.

The same blood that cancels the guilt of our sin is the same blood that conquers the power of sin in our lives.

The same blood that cancels the guilt of our sin is the same blood that defeats the power of sin in our lives.

Because of the cross of Jesus Christ, we are not only forgiven for being limping runners, but we are empowered to live holy lives.

In the coming week, coming messages in our Easter series, we will hear more about these holy lives that we are empowered to live.

But friends, today truly is a good Friday.

It is good because it means that salvation belongs to our God.

It is finished, it stands finished, it will remain finished forever.

And so this morning I want to leave you with a few questions to reflect on.

What is it that may be keeping you from God?

What sin do you feel that is too dark for you to lay down?

What failure are you trying to fix through your own grits and efforts and determination?

Or have you just wanted to give up on the race of faith altogether?

You see, the answer for us this morning is in just one word.

It is finished, and it is stamped in blood over every dark corner of your life.

Today, with the weight of I must be holy, be replaced with the wonder of He is holy for me.

You no longer have to be ashamed of your past, you don't have to try and make up for that in your future.

All that is required of you is to lay your sin down at the foot of the cross and then live the life that Jesus Christ's sacrifice empowers you to live.

Because today is such a significant day in the Christian faith.

We want to respond to this message in a slightly different way this morning.

We want to respond to the finished work of Jesus Christ in a very physical, very symbolic, very memorable way.

You would have noticed in the center aisles there are these baskets with these paper flowers.

In just a moment, I'm going to invite you to stand and to come up from the middle.

I'm going to ask that you do it row by row from the front.

So let the front row stand up and come before the next row comes.

You can remain seated.

And as you lay the flower down at the foot of the cross, you're doing it symbolically.

For some of us, it may represent an area of our lives where we have tried to earn God's favor and approval through our own endurance and grit.

Or maybe where we've wanted to give up on the race of faith altogether.

For some of us, it may represent a failure that has left us so bloodied and bruised and deeply ashamed.

I encourage you this morning to come and lay it down and hear Jesus saying to you that your sins are washed away.

I encourage you to come and lay it down.

The race has already been won.

And as a result, we can live the lives that God calls us to live.

For some of us this morning, you may not yet have made a decision to follow Jesus Christ.

Would you placing this flower down be symbolic of the moment that you finally stop running away from God and finally surrender your life to the Savior who ran the race for you?

There'll be a lot of time as we're sitting in our seats to reflect and think.

And I encourage you before you come up and lay a flower down to reflect and think what is that symbolic of for you this morning?

Secondly, after we've done that, laid the flowers down, we're going to make our way to the sides and back to our seats that way.

As you do, please collect the communion elements, the bread and the juice.

Make your way back to your seats and remain seated, hold on to the elements, and at the end, when everyone is seated, we'll take communion together.

I remind you that these elements are reserved for those who have made a decision to follow after Jesus Christ, who have declared him as Lord and Savior.

And so I invite you now to come from the front, row by row, and lay these flowers down and collect the elements back to your seats.

Thanks for listening to this sermon from BBC.

If you have questions about what you've heard or would like to find out more about the Christian faith, we'd love to hear from you.

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God bless you.