It is Finished!

THE DUEL

Two parties gather in the darkness of early morning. Both are there to support their champion and have the utmost animosity toward each other. They have gathered in the predawn hours to take vengeance, one on the other. There are principles at stake here. Before the sun rises, one will be the champion, the other the defeated. It is a duel. A duel to the death.

Weapons are chosen by each duelist with care. Their life will depend on the weapon they choose. There will no longer be an antagonist and protagonist- only a champion. The future of the realm depends on which of these duelists will walk away.

The time has come. Each walks to his station, weapon at the ready. The command is given and each turns to fire. The hand of one is unsteady. Even though he has boasted of his power, he knows deep inside that his cause is lost, but he must keep up appearances. The hand of the other is steadfast, his aim is sure, his confidence strong as a rock.

Both fire at the same time, their bullets crossing midway as they spiral and speed toward their destination, but only one will find its mark.

When the smoke clears, one lays on the ground, the other walks away. He smiles because He knew the outcome before the triggers were ever pulled. Now to celebrate.

It is Finished

Most sermons today in churches around the world will revolve around the declaration of the angel at the tomb, “He is risen.”

In Poland where we once lived, the greeting of the day will be, “He is risen,” and the response will be, “He is risen indeed.”

This weekend, millions of emails and texts will be sent between Christians declaring victory and celebration.

And it should be for Indeed He is Risen.

But I would like to break tradition today and concentrate on three other words, “It is finished.”

Read John 19:17-30

¹⁷They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. ¹⁸There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between. ¹⁹Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” ²⁰Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin and in Greek. ²¹So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; but that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’” ²²Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

²³Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. ²⁴So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be”; this was to fulfill the Scripture:, “They divided My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.” ²⁵Therefore the soldiers did these things.

But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” ²⁷Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

²⁸After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. ³⁰Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

Luke 24:1-6

¹But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. ²And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; ⁵and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? ⁶“He is not here, but He has risen.

What was finished?

1. His suffering?

He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

He was despised and we did not esteem him.

Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried.

We ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities

The chastening for our wellbeing fell upon him, and by his scouraging we are healed.

The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

Isaiah 53

2. The sacrifice?

¹For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. ²Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? ³But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. ⁴For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

⁸After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), ⁹then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. ¹⁰By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹¹And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; ¹²but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. ¹⁴For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Hebrews 10:1-4; 8-14

3. His time on earth?

It is important to know and believe that Christ’s life did not end at the crucifixion, nor did it end at the end of his 40day sojourn on earth. He forever lives to make intercession for us while we are on earth. He has never been and will never be defeated in death or in any other thing.

4. Prophetic fulfillment?

We can understand the power of Messianic Prophecy when we consider statistical odds that one person fulfilled all of them. If we study just seven of the specific prophecies, that were later fulfilled in the Person of Jesus Christ, we are amazed by the impossibility! 

To illustrate, here are some conservative "odds" next to seven established prophecies.

Messianic Prophecy Odds Without God

1.	Jesus would be a descendant of David.	104 (1 in 10,000)
2.	Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.	105 (1 in 100,000)
3.	Jesus would be a miracle worker.	105 (1 in 100,000)
4.	Jesus would present Himself as King riding on a donkey.	106 (1 in 1,000,000)
5.	Jesus would be betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver.	106 (1 in 1,000,000)
6.	Jesus would be crucified.	106 (1 in 1,000,000)
7.	Jesus would first present Himself as King 173,880 days from the decree of Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem.	106 (1 in 1,000,000)
	Total Probability (without God)	1038 (1 in a 100 billion, billion, billion, billion)

5. His purpose (What was his purpose?)

¹⁴And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. ¹⁵And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

¹⁶And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,

And recovery of sight to the blind,

To set free those who are oppressed,

¹⁹ To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

²⁰And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. ²¹And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Luke 4:18

The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

1 Jn 3:8

³⁷Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctlythat I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Jn 18:37

¹⁰“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Luke 19:10

6. Man’s separation from God

Sin had separated mankind from God ever since Adam’s fall. Jesus’ dying on the cross and providing the perfect sacrifice now made a way for man’s reconciliation to God.

7. Satan’s dominion over mankind and creation

¹³For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

(Col 1:13)

I believe this was what Jesus meant when he declared, “It is finished.”

Satan’s dominion over man. The power to enslave man and hold him under bondage. The power of sickness and illness and disease.

The power to kill, steal and destroy.

Jesus came to give us life, more abundant life.

⁴For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; ¹⁵and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

2 Cor 5:14-15

I need you to recognize something very important here. These words, “it is finished,” were declared by Jesus not only before the resurrection but even before his death.

Jesus knew even before his death that He had won, that he had defeated Satan.

³⁹One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” ⁴⁰But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹“And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴²And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” ⁴³And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

⁴⁴It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, ⁴⁵because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two.

Luke 23:39-45

1. Today you shall be with Me in Paradise. To be with the thief in Paradise, Jesus would have to have been victorious.

2. The darkness obscured the sun. Why? It has been suggested that there were so many demons present at the crucifixion to mock and celebrate their victory and the defeat of God that the spiritual darkness actually obscured the sun.

3. But notice that the darkness ended before Jesus committed His spirit to the Father (died). It reads, “until the ninth hour.” Light came back (in other words darkness fled in defeat) before Jesus died. He had already won before death.

Or it could have been that the Light was released on the darkness when the veil was torn because the darkness could not overcome it.

Did Satan defeat Jesus? Did he kill Jesus? Did the Romans or the Jews kill Jesus?

Matt 27:50

⁵⁰And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

Mark 15:37

³⁷And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last.

Luke 23:46

⁴⁶And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last.

John 19:30

And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

In each instance, Satan took nothing. Jesus was in control of His destiny.

When Jesus cried out:

“Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” It was like He was saying to His Father,

“Here Father, hold this for me, I’ll be back.”

He then went to collect what was rightfully His—the keys to death and hell.

Did Jesus die? Yes. Why?

“Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, ¹⁸and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Rev 1:17-18

I believe we find the answer in Romans 6:1-11

¹What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? ²May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? ³Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? ⁴Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; ⁷for he who has died is freed from sin.

⁸Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. ¹⁰For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Through His death, we die. We, who were once held captive by Satan.

But through His resurrection, we, who were once held captive by Satan, are resurrected into new life, no longer slave to sin.

¹³When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, ¹⁴having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. ¹⁵When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

Col 2:13-15

The resurrection occurred so that we might live!

Every time that a person gives his life to Jesus, he first dies but then he lives, never to die again.

As Jesus was victorious over death, so also shall we be victorious, in Him.