John 19:17-30 "It Is Finished!"

If you have a Bible, please open it to John chapter 19.

John 19 · chapter mention

We're continuing our series in John.

We're going to be in verses 17 through 30.

If you don't have a Bible, we will have the text up on the screen.

So if you have a hard time seeing that, feel free to move forward.

Although it's not our vibe as a church.

We're bad kids.

We sit in the back.

So in uh I got to visit Paris for the first time this summer.

I know, envy me.

But what I didn't know, I honestly didn't know this, probably you guys, some of you guys don't know this either, is that in the middle of Paris, there's a little island in the middle of the river called the Isle of the City.

I have a picture of it.

Manifique.

So that is really where Paris started.

The city was founded on that island and grew from that.

It's like the heart and the origin.

As we're coming to the cross today, what we are coming to is the heart and the origin of the entire Christian faith, of the entire gospel.

So we are going to first read the text, and then we're going to get into what is being communicated to us.

So hear the word of God, John chapter 19, verses 17 through 30.

John 19:17–30

So they took Jesus, and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.

Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross.

It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin and in Greek.

So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not write the King of the Jews, but rather this man said, I am King of the Jews.

Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written.

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier, also his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

So they said to one another, Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.

This was to fulfill the scripture, which says, They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

So the soldiers did these things.

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopus, and Mary Magdalene.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple who he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son.

Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother.

From that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

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 hysset branch and held it to his mouth.

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

And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Please pray with me.

God, as we approach this sacred event, this sacred part of your sacred plan.

I pray that you would give us ears to hear, eyes to see what it is you have for us today.

That we could experience the full impact and meaning of the cross of Jesus.

Amen.

One's funnier than the other.

Should I go with yeah, okay.

So, some of you guys have heard this story, some of you guys have not.

But I look terrible at it.

So, one time, a few years ago, in Denver, we had something called the bomb cyclone.

Was anybody here for the bomb cyclone?

What the bomb cyclone is, is a cyclone, but it's it's the bomb.

And it's just a gigantic amount of wind and snow.

And so the weather advisor was like, stay home.

I was like, that's for tourists.

And so I went to the office.

Now I was getting work done because at the time I shared an office with some other people and they weren't there.

So I was having a grand old day.

Just getting cranking out work, no one was around.

I was the only one in this building in this co-working space.

And I was like, you know, my feet are a little warm and my snow boots, I could take them off.

There's no one here.

So took my shoes off, right?

And then I was like, how could this day get better?

I know.

There's a uh a sparkling water keg or spigot inside of this building down on the bottom floor.

And so I went out in my socks.

I was like, why put on shoes?

And and I I go out and I'm I'm just like I'm like Tom Cruise in risky business, sliding down the hallways in my socks, just having the best day.

And I get the sparkling water, and I I as I'm walking, I see out the window, the the power lines are waving in the wind, and one of the busts, and there was blue sparks.

I was like, oh, pretty, great day, I'm doing so good.

And I come back to the to the hallway that my office was down, and it's one of those like little cart key card things.

That's what my kids say, you boop it.

Uh, and I I I hold it there to go boop and nothing happens.

And I was like, why?

Why?

Isn't it opening?

And the door would not budge.

And uh it turns out that that power line was supplying power to this particular door, and now it wouldn't open.

And I said, Well, that's okay.

I'll just I'll just head home.

No biggies, except that my car keys were in the office.

And I said, Well, I only live a mile or so from here.

I am inured to the cold of Colorado.

Sure, it's a float of snow on the ground, but I can make it then.

I remembered my shoes are in the office.

And I said, Well, I've got a I've got a backup plan here.

I'll call Sharon, I'll call my wife, and she'll come get me that I remembered.

Oh, I love the feeling of nothing in my pockets.

And so my phone was in there too.

I had exhausted every option, and there was nothing I could do to get myself out of there.

I was completely helpless.

Do you know how embarrassed I felt?

Like, what grown man can't get home when he lives a mile away?

I was that grown man.

We have a hard time accepting the inability to help ourselves, the inability to do for ourselves.

And that presents us with a problem because our pride rises up against the Bible's claim that there is nothing you can do to save yourself, that all of us are in need of salvation, and your best efforts cannot save you.

And this is a lot of people's understanding of the Christian faith.

It's it's like, it's, well, God gives you guidance and then you go, you go execute, you go do it, and then you hand in your resume, and uh and he says, good job, you get a turtle life.

And that is the opposite of what the Bible says.

There's just a couple verses.

Romans 3.23.

It says, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

So all in Greek means all, every, all of us, and falling short means you didn't make it.

Okay?

Uh again, Galatians 2.16, it's a longer verse, but right at the end it says, by works of the law no one will be justified.

Okay, so you're the whole plan of what I could do for me, God helps those who can who help themselves.

You know, a lot of people think that it's in the Bible.

It's not.

That is made up.

We cannot earn salvation.

And some of you are in the middle of trying and I'm ruining your day.

Like, wait, are you telling me it's completely hopeless to try and prove I am good enough to deserve God's favor, to deserve eternal life?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying, because that is what the Bible says.

You are as stuck as me at the office.

There is no way out.

There is nothing you can do to save yourself.

What do you need?

You need rescue.

You need hope.

Where do we see hope?

I want to point your attention to verse 30 of this text we just read.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said three words in English, one in Greek, it is finished.

What does he mean?

Now, finished doesn't mean over, as in the crucifixion ordeal is over.

The word there, it means fulfilled, accomplished, completed.

We have to ask, what is fulfilled, accomplished, completed in the cross?

First off, God's plan to redeem is completed.

God's plan to redeem is completed.

We see this pattern throughout the book of John, and we see it also in this chapter.

Just look with me at verse 24.

It says, uh, you know, the the soldiers who were sitting down to roll dice, it says, to fulfill scripture, they did this, right?

They divided my the scripture, which says what this is saying is there is a plan from God foretold in scripture that is being fulfilled, that is being completed as Jesus is on the cross.

So God has a plan to redeem, fulfilled in scripture, and is fulfilled on the cross.

In verse 28, look at what it says.

After this, Jesus knowing that all was now finished, all was now fulfilled, he said to fulfill the scripture.

The entirety of scripture, the the the completion of God's plan to redeem is fulfilled on the cross.

Why is this important?

Why is it important for our salvation that God has a plan to redeem?

It's because any plan to bring about any sort of like good outcome for human beings requires redemption.

There's a um right now in the Amazon rainforest, there is the ruins of what is clearly an early 20th century small town American Midwest City.

It's a place called Ford Landia.

Brought a picture.

Now what happened?

How did that get there?

Well, the the Elon Musk of his day, Henry Ford, richest guy in the world, hated Jews a lot.

Um, he had an idea.

You see, part of what he needed for the Model T, which had taken the world by storm, was rubber.

And he had to buy rubber from sort of this Belgian cartel of rubber, which is also very nasty.

But he wanted his own source of rubber, and he said, you know, we'll start a rubber plant down in the Amazon.

So he bought millions of acres, a space twice the size of Delaware, and but he didn't want to stop there.

He said, you know, because these guys at the time, um, whether it's Penn Gillette who founded Gillette Razors, they thought that with modern industry and their smarts, which the world had never seen, and their level of ability, they could make a perfect society.

And so Henry Ford wanted to found Ford Landia, uh a town that was going to be like utopian, that solves all the social problems, where everybody has enough, where everything is in good order.

And so he sunk millions and millions, but billions and billions in today's money.

If you were to look at it, there was these perfectly orderly, like in the middle of the jungle, these orderly streets with American-style bungalows, they had ice cream shops, they had golf courses, and he said, you know, part of the problem of why why we have chaos in cities and that sort of thing is they're not ordered enough.

This is what he he thought.

And so everything was gonna run on a super strict schedule.

There would be no smoking allowed, there would be no alcohol allowed, everyone had to eat healthy food.

In fact, he he toyed with the idea of it being a vegetarian society.

But this was all, right?

It was all gonna be perfectly ordered.

There'd be no reason for crime or for misery or anything.

Do you guys think it worked?

So the workers that they got uh were from Brazil, and one of the first things they did is riot and smash all the clocks.

That's what they thought of the timekeeping idea.

And then the knife fights started, and the whole thing went up in flames.

You see, this is this is a basic, we see in this a basic misunderstanding of what's wrong with human beings.

A lot of the time we think, well, what's wrong is uh the economics of it, right?

Unequal economics and people don't have enough and other people have too much, and if you fix that, it's fixed.

Or social conditions, right?

There's a social hierarchy, you gotta flatten that out.

Or uh education, they don't know enough, they're not educated enough.

If you educate them, then every right, all these attempts to bring about utopia we have seen tried and fail.

The reason is is we're fallen.

We are in a fallen world and we are fallen people.

And anything that leaves out the fall, the the initial corruption that every human being has within it is doomed to fail.

As Romans 5.12, I have it in there, right?

As Romans 5.12 says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

You see, redemption, the undoing of that fall, is a God-sized task, not a human-sized task.

It's something that only God can do.

And the the good news is, and we could talk about this some other time, we can't go too far into it, is that as soon as human beings fell, in Genesis chapter 3, God begins the plan of redemption that culminates at this moment when Jesus declares it is finished in fulfillment of the Scripture.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

But there's another crucial aspect of what is finished, what has been accomplished on the cross.

And it is God's victory over his enemies.

God's victory over his enemies.

I want you guys to pay attention to a pattern here.

The pattern that we see throughout this chapter that we've seen throughout the book of John, first of all, we're gonna see that Jesus' shame is his glory.

Look at verses 17 and 18.

It says he went out bearing his own cross to the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

There they crucified him, with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.

So this to the ancient hearer, you say crucifixion to them, and they've got the picture, they know what you're talking about, they've seen it.

For those of you who don't know, crucifixion was the worst of the worst punishment that the Romans could deal.

Okay?

And that really is saying something, because the Romans knew how to do cruelty right.

Okay?

If you were a Roman citizen, it didn't matter what you did.

You couldn't be crucified.

It was reserved for slaves who tried to kill their masters, and it was reserved for people who tried to overthrow the government.

Okay, those they saved the worst punishment.

And the torture and the humiliation is part of it.

So you often see Jesus depicted with a loincloth or a robe as he's carrying the cross.

No.

He was completely naked.

His back had been ripped open by whips, he had been pummeled by multiple Roman soldiers, a crown of thorns forced on his head.

He was a bloody, naked, humiliated mess, struggling with this huge cross beam he would have had to carry block by block.

And part of it is the crowds would surround and jeer and all that.

It was public humiliation.

That's the point of it.

This is pretty far from the winner's circle, wouldn't you say?

But what is, guys who have been here for the for the the series in John, when John says his glory, what is he referring to?

He's referring to the cross.

He calls it his glory.

And what does Jesus say as he's hanging on the cross, naked, humiliated?

He says, it is finished, mission accomplished.

Right?

So his shame is his glory.

His opponents speak the truth.

Look at verse 19.

It says Pilate wrote an inscription, put it on the cross.

It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

He meant it mockingly, but as we've seen again and again in John, what do God's enemies do?

They speak the truth about Jesus.

He really is the king.

And also, appreciate this.

In verse 24, when those soldiers are casting lots for his clothes, what does it say?

What does John say they're doing?

He says they're fulfilling the scripture.

They're fulfilling the plan.

Are they on God's side?

No.

Are any of these folks who are crucifying him on God's side?

No.

But what are they doing?

They are accomplishing God's plan.

The cross is God's victory over his enemies.

That through this ultimate defeat is his ultimate victory.

You see that pattern of the ironic game plan that God has?

That the opponents only accomplish the plan.

Why is this so important?

That God, that the cross is the victory over God's enemies.

Well, in January of 1863, Abraham Lincoln famously signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Guys, trivia question.

How many slaves were freed when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation?

None.

Why?

It's because they were, the slaves were in the Confederacy.

They were held by another power, right?

In order for them to be freed, what had to happen?

The Union Army had to go in and defeat the Confederacy.

They had to defeat that power.

And when those victories were won, when the enemy was defeated, then the slaves would go free.

Making sense?

That's why there's Juneteenth.

It is years after the Emancipation Proclamation when the last holdouts were defeated.

What the Bible tells us is that there is a power behind the evil in the world.

There's even an evil behind the powers that are crucifying Jesus.

That we are unable to turn to God to even ask for salvation until that power is broken.

We cannot be saved until that power over us is broken.

Colossians 2.15 tells us he, meaning Jesus, disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him on the cross, guys.

Now, for some of us, you might say, wait a second, are you saying like demons and devil?

It sounds to some like sort of QAnon level superstition and conspiracy.

Alright, I get that, because we're we're all raised in the same sort of modernist and skeptical world.

But here's the thing.

I actually think it's pretty reasonable to believe that there are malignant evil forces that we don't see.

Here's why.

Alright.

Our philosopher will correct me later, but here's the basics of it.

You know who you are.

Every effect requires a sufficient cause.

Now that doesn't make sense right now.

So let's say there's the effect of the power plant north of town.

Okay?

That power plant is an effect.

It got there, right?

It requires a sufficient cause.

If we say, how did this power plant get here?

And there's a little bunny rabbit running by, and I say, Well, that bunny caused the power plant.

What would you guys say?

No, it didn't.

That is not a sufficient cause, correct?

A bunny cannot cause a power plant.

You'd need a construction team and all that sort of thing.

Making sense?

So an effect requires a sufficient cause.

We have to ask ourselves.

When we look at human history, can we explain the evil that we see with just sort of human, right?

Our main other explanation is just evolution.

That we do things to survive and reproduce.

It can explain some things.

It can explain war, that makes sense on that.

It could explain greed or even murder.

But you know what?

Can't explain.

It can't explain a school shooter.

It can't explain suicide.

It can't explain enslavement.

It can't explain extreme greed.

That is, you're like, you've got more resources than anybody on the planet and you're still trying to get more.

That's not survival at that point, is it?

It can't explain sadism.

It can't explain genocide.

These have nothing to do with survival and reproduction.

Right?

These effects require a sufficient cause.

You know what's a sufficient cause?

That there are forces opposed to God that want to spread destruction and misery.

Okay?

And we could discuss that if you're like, I don't agree with you.

That's fine.

I can take it.

We can talk about it.

But on the cross, Jesus accomplishes God's victory over his enemies.

He breaks the power that holds us.

But also, on the cross, there's there's this sort of, there's the resolution of a central dilemma.

There's a central dilemma for God.

And we see it all throughout the Bible.

It's that God is holy.

That's a word we've all heard.

What does it mean?

Holy means morally perfect and of unapproachable power.

Okay, God is holy in that he's morally perfect and he's of unapproachable power.

And that's a problem because we are not holy.

We are guilty.

We carry guilt.

And there's two parts to guilt.

There's the presence of guilt and the consequences of guilt.

The presence of guilt and the consequence of guilt.

So think of it like this: with the presence of guilt.

Guilt, like moral guilt, cannot enter the presence of a holy God.

You know, like a um like we all are familiar with an MRI machine.

Okay, so if you go into an MRI machine, you have to do what?

You have to take off all the metal anywhere on your body, right?

When I go into one, they have to knock me out like B.A.

Barackas on the A-Team, because I can't handle it.

But still, if you bring metal into an MRI machine, I'm not sure what happens, I'm sure Laura can tell us, but it ain't good, right?

Imagine that the comic book character, the Wolverine, went into an MRI machine.

Not going well, is it, for him?

Can't do it.

Can't enter into the MRI machine with metal.

It's the same for entering into the presence of God, carrying the guilt of sin, moral guilt.

And there are consequences that come with guilt.

The consequences that the Bible tell us is that we face the wrath of God.

Now, the wrath of God is not God losing his temper, it is God's just response to evil.

In the same way that a judge, you know, when the when someone is convicted of murder and the judge gives them a life sentence, that judge didn't lose his temper, it's like, I'm putting you away for life.

No, it's the it's the right consequence for that person's guilt.

And that's a problem.

If we are all guilty and God is holy, how can God dwell with man?

How can we ever be reconciled with God?

You see that dilemma?

He's holy, we are guilty.

Doesn't work.

What Jesus accomplishes on the cross is God's solution to our guilt.

He first of all solves the presence of our guilt.

All the way back in John chapter 1, John the Baptist, the last prophet, when he sees Jesus, do you remember what he said?

John 1 · chapter mention

He said, Behold the Lamb of God who does what?

Takes away the sin of the world.

He removes the presence of sin.

When does he do it?

Perhaps when he says, not perhaps, but when he says it is finished on the cross, right here, is when he removes the presence of sin.

He removes the thing that keeps us away from God, that makes it impossible for us to enter God's presence.

So he removes the presence of sin, but also he removes the consequences.

And you guys, I realize it's getting late in the sermon, but you're gonna have to pay close attention here for this to make sense.

In verse 29, I'm gonna call your ex uh your attention to something.

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.

Okay, I want you to remember, you don't have to know about the sour wine.

Remember the hyssop branch.

Alright?

Question.

What holiday is being celebrated on the day that Jesus was crucified?

It is the Passover.

The Passover happens in the book of Exodus when the Israelites were enslaved, and God was going to perform the final miracle, the final plague to set them free.

And if you saw the Charlton Heston movie, it's a great representation of it.

Just picture Chuck Heston right now.

Okay?

So what happened on the Passover is there was going to be the final plague of the angel of death flying over Egypt.

The wrath of God visited on Egypt, killing the firstborn in every household.

Except, do you remember the exception of what the Israelites had to do?

Except those who killed a lamb.

Then they took its blood and put it on the doorposts of their house and went inside.

Then the angel of death passes over.

That's why it's called Passover.

Do you know what kind of branch they had to use to mark the posts?

If you said a hyssop branch, you are correct.

Gold star, ring-a-ding-ding, and all that.

Okay?

Why is John telling us it's a hyssop branch?

Why not just a branch?

Why specify hyssop?

Right?

He's not writing Ulysses here.

It's not unnecessary detail.

Boy, that's a.

Yeah, sorry about that one.

It's not a helpful reference.

The point is, is that on the Passover, the lamb dies instead of the people, right?

What is what is what is John trying to clue us into?

It's that it's Passover.

He's the Lamb of God.

There's a hyssop branch.

Getting the clue?

He dies instead of you.

He is facing the consequences of sin instead of you and me.

On the cross, Jesus accomplishes God's solution to our guilt.

What is finished when Jesus cries out in victory?

Mission accomplished, it's done.

I did it.

He finishes, he completes God's plan to redeem, God's victory over his enemies, and God's solution to our guilt.

What is there for us to do?

For those of you who are trying to earn salvation by being very good, I'm not saying go be evil.

If you're in despair because you feel that it's impossible for you to do so, what are you to do?

When I was uh when I was stuck at the office, I had no idea what I would do.

But I did see, like, through several, it was all glass.

You know how these places are all glass?

I saw like through several glass doors.

There was a guy, or there was one other guy there, and he was on his computer, and I thought maybe he has a phone, and so I was like pounding on the glass.

Finally got his attention.

He comes to me and I said, I'm stuck.

I I can't get home.

My shoes, jacket, monkeys.

Please, can I call my wife?

And so he said, sure.

And so I borrowed.

He actually had a flip phone, which was weird, but I used his flip phone.

I guess he's a drug dealer, but anyway, using a burner.

I call my wife.

I this is the one phone number I know.

I don't know anybody else's phone number except my wife's.

Lucky.

But she didn't answer because some random burder phone is calling her.

And so I just leave the I leave a desperate message.

I'm calling out.

Honey, I'm stuck at the office.

My shoes are upstairs and they're locked in my office.

My phone or my computer.

Right, you get it.

And I didn't know if she got it.

And so all I could do was sit on the stairs in front of the front door and wait.

And the snow was just pounding down, right?

And there was a car that I saw coming down the street.

I could see the headlights.

And it was it was about to reach the driveway, and it just drove past.

I was like, dang it.

But then there was another car.

And that one drove past too.

But then there was a third car, and this one turned into the parking lot.

And it pulled up right outside.

And I could see as it as it as it hoved into view, it was our minivan, and my wife gets out holding a jacket and boots.

She got the message.

I was saved.

Right?

My rescuer had come.

What's my job in that situation?

Me who was helpless, me who couldn't do it for myself, it's what?

It's to receive it.

That's it.

When Jesus says it is finished, what it's what it's what he's saying is there is nothing left for you to do.

You are not going to contribute as much as you want to.

Jesus did all that is necessary on the cross for us to be saved.

Receive what Jesus has done for us.

Please pray with me.

Jesus praise you, that you have solved the central dilemma, that you have done all that is necessary for us to be reconciled with God, to have eternal life, to live our lives even now, experiencing your presence, offering you worship, receiving your sacrament in fellowship with you.

I pray that you would break down in our hearts these barriers that we have to receiving the gospel, how easy it is for us to revert to trying to earn it.

May we receive what Jesus has done for us without trying to contribute.

Give us the humility of heart, the surrender inside that we need to receive Him.

In Jesus' name, amen.