Turn in your Bibles with me to the gospel of John chapter 19. Our focus will be on verse 30, where we left off last week, but I'm going to read verses 28 and 29 as well as verse 30. So John chapter 19, verse 28. 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 had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Father, we ask humbly that what we know not you would teach us. That what we have not, you would give us. And that what we are not, you would make us. Accordance with your scriptures and by the power of your Holy Spirit. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. When I was in college, I was a music major, as some of you probably know. I, as maybe you would have guessed, I specialized in guitar. What that meant for me was I had to take two semesters of voice lessons. and two semesters of piano lessons in order to fulfill all my requirements. The voice lessons went pretty okay. I'm certainly no great singer, but I had enough natural ability and an ability to read music. I could get my way through two semesters of voice lessons, no problem, past my proficiency, no big deal. Piano lessons, though, were a different story for me. I, my very first semester, I started piano lessons. I took a class piano course and for more reasons than I want to share, I didn't do well in that class and I failed. I failed. And then I had to wait until the following fall to take class piano one again. And I didn't do well that time either. I failed again. Then it was suggested to me by the overseeing music professor of the program. He suggested, why don't you do private lessons? I said, well, I suppose it's not any worse, right, than failing class piano twice. Let's try private lessons. So a graduate student started teaching me piano one-on-one. for a semester and I was doing better than I had done in class piano, but I still lacked that one important piece of learning anything, especially music. I wasn't practicing very much. So I wasn't getting better by leaps and bounds, but by very small steps. Now that graduate student actually ended up taking another position somewhere and he stopped teaching lessons at the school. after just one semester with me. Let's not read too much into that. It's not my fault or it wasn't because of me, but another graduate student then started giving me lessons. And again, same story, different day, but same story. And in fact, after a semester of lessons with that student, he actually took another position and went away. Now it's starting to become a pattern. I can't take myself off the hook. I may have been just a terrible piano student. But then a third, third time's the charm, a third graduate student who was new started teaching me, and he was actually an old friend. He had been in college when I was in high school, and he was a member of my church that I grew up in. He was a student at the University of Cincinnati, a very gifted piano player, and he was a member of our church. So I had known him. And now a few years later, I'm still working on my undergrad degree and he is there to work on his master's degree. And so he begins teaching me and things are starting to go a little better. He knows me and I know him, so it's going better. And it took me all five years of my college career to finally reach the point where I was ready for that piano proficiency. In fact, it was the very last thing I had to do in order to be able to graduate, was finally just pass this piano proficiency. And when I say I had to pass the piano proficiency, it wasn't like they were asking me to play Beethoven or Bach. I just had to play a few hymns from the hymnal and a worship song with chords. That's all I had to do. Things that Ms. Pack could do without even thinking about it. It's all I had to do. And it was one of the biggest struggles of my entire life. But I finally, thankfully they didn't make me do it in front of anybody except the professor and my teacher. But I finally did my proficiency and I think there was a little grace involved, but they passed me. They passed me. And I still remember that feeling of completion. I think I even, I know I remember walking out of that room, going outside on that, it was a beautiful spring day, much warmer than it is even today, even though it's supposed to be spring, on that beautiful campus of Southern Seminary. And I think I even said, it is finished. And I've done it. I've completed it. Not just my piano proficiency, that was enough of an obstacle to overcome for me, but I had finished my undergrad degree. I had finally done all the work that was required to gain that degree. And it took me five years instead of four, and it took me all of those years to toil away at learning the piano, but I finally did it. There's perhaps no sweeter feeling than that feeling of exhaustive victory. I did it. And I'm sure you look back over your life and you are thinking of opportunities that you had to have that feeling. Maybe on a smaller scale, some project of your day that took you all day that you thought you would never finish and you finally did it. And you can say, I did it, it's done. It's complete. That construction project that took way longer than you thought. Or maybe you have a time in your life where like me, you toiled for years at something and finally you completed it. And there's a sweetness to that expression of it's done, it's finished. I don't have to revisit this. I don't have to do this again. It was so sweet to me that I don't think I've ever seriously played the piano again. And there's something that invigorates you in that, that yes, you're exhausted and you finally get to exhale deeply. But in that exhale is this great joy of victory, triumph, I've done it. Clearly that has got to be what's on Jesus's mind and heart as he breathes these words at his final moment. It is finished. It is finished. This is perhaps the saying of Jesus from the cross that you're most aware of and familiar with. It is off-quoted. We actually sang it twice in the hymns that I chose. It is a great source of victory for us as believers. And I want us to think through why that is by asking a few simple questions of these three words, because that is one packed sentence, but it's vague, isn't it? It is finished. Well, what is it? That's the first question I want us to consider. What is it? Secondly, I want us to think about how do we know it's finished? How do we know it's really finished? And then lastly, What does it mean for us? What does it mean for us? And I'm going to forewarn you that most of our time will probably be spent on the first point. So if you start to get nervous that I'm going on and on, the two points following it will be a brief. So first of all, what is finished? This for obvious reasons is really the most important question we can ask because if we're not careful, we could put in things that aren't really what Jesus is describing here. So what is finished? And I think I want to see it from two angles. First of all, I think Jesus is expressing at least to some degree, my suffering is over. My suffering is over. It's finished. We have thought much in the last few weeks about Jesus's suffering. We have thought much about Jesus's pain. We have thought a lot about the anguish he must have gone through on the cross, not just for because of the physical toll that the whipping and the nails and the crown of thorns and the beatings would have had on him, but because of the separation that he experienced from his father, the way that he suffered. And Jesus here says it's finished. I've suffered all I am required to suffer. Now we highlighted this last week, but it's worth repeating here that as Jesus says these words, he knows that things are finished. He knows that they are about to be finished. And he cries out to fulfill the scripture. That's why he cries out, I thirst, because it was a fulfillment of the scriptures. And once he receives that sour wine, he's able to cry out, It is finished. I finished my course. I have done the work I have been sent to do. Now something I wanted to try to highlight last week that just didn't seem to fit, I think fits here. He took the sour wine from them. But if you remember in Mark chapter 15, When Jesus is on the road to the cross, when he is carrying the cross to the place where they crucified him, people were offering him wine then too. They actually offered him wine mixed with myrrh and Jesus refused it. Now, I don't think that was because he wasn't thirsty then, but the wine mixed with myrrh was meant to dull the pain of suffering. It was a sedative. It was a way to make sure that the agony of crucifixion was lessened as much as it could be. And Jesus, knowing that, says, no, I'm not going to drink that. I know that I must experience the full brunt of God's wrath. I must experience all the suffering that he has appointed for me. But here, when they offer him the sour wine, He takes it. And the purpose of the sour wine was to prolong the crucifixion. Right as they were drying up and ready to faint, they would often give them the sour wine that would just be enough to wet their lips and make them alive and again, and to continue to struggle to breathe on the cross. Jesus cries out, I thirst. They offer him the wine and he actually takes it. He takes it because he knows he's got one more thing to say. Now, in fact, he has two, but according to John, he has one more thing to say. It is finished. You see, the irony of that is, right, if that wine was meant to prolong the crucifixion, once Jesus takes it, he pronounces his victory over sin and death and the grave And then he bows his head and yields up his spirit. Jesus took the sour wine, but then immediately bowed his head in death. Jesus proclaimed to his disciples, I will decide when it's time for me to lay down my life. No one's gonna take it from me. And Jesus puts that on full display. By taking the sour wine and yet still pronouncing my suffering is over when I say it's over. the work is done. And that leads us to the bigger point. The bigger thing that Jesus is talking about here when he says it is finished, which is that his mission is complete. His mission is complete. I don't even know that Jesus had foremost on his mind, his own suffering. When he said these words, knowing Jesus, as I feel, I do. I don't think that's what he was thinking. He was thinking about the bigger picture. He was thinking about the bigger, grander plan that he had been sent to execute by his father. And I think we can say that with certainty because of how Jesus lived on this earth. Last week, we looked back at the time when Jesus encountered the woman at the well. We commented on how Jesus meets this woman's need in the midst of a need that she didn't know she had. that he gives her living water that wells up to eternal life inside of her. But I don't know if I've ever noticed this before. Maybe you haven't either. Jesus is there at the well because they're tired and thirsty and hungry. And he's there alone because the disciples have gone off to buy something to eat. And when they come back, Jesus has had this encounter with the Samaritan woman. And they noticed that Jesus isn't eating anything. And so they push him to eat. They're trying to care for Jesus. And Jesus says, I have food that you don't know about. And the disciples are confused. Well, who could have brought him food? Did you come back early? What is he hiding? He doesn't have pockets. And Jesus says, no, listen, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish the work of his kingdom. That's what gave Jesus life. That's what gave him fuel. He was refreshed just by seeing this woman change from darkness to light. I'm here to do the will of him who sent me. That's what drives me. That's what fuels me. That's what gives me life and hope. And Jesus, again, in John chapter 17, as he begins to pray over his disciples, his high priestly prayer, John 17 verse four, Jesus says, I glorified you on earth. Speaking to God, he says, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. He says in John 17 four, I have accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And I think that means two things. I think it means that up to this point, I have been completely faithful and obedient to your call on my life. And I think it also means that Jesus knows that as sure as he is praying that prayer over his disciples in John 17, he will pronounce in John 19 verse 30, it is finished. He knows that things are coming to an end and he knows that his course will not be broken or turned aside or thwarted or defeated but that he will go all the way and yield up his spirit in victory. The work will be complete. Now that begs another question. What is the work? What did Jesus come to do? I mean, we encounter Jesus often in the gospel of John saying things like, I speak what he tells me to say. I do as he tells me. I and the father are one. He came with a purpose and a mission from the father to do as he was told, as he was inspired. But what is the grand work that Jesus is there to do? I think to answer that question, we actually have to go all the way back to the beginning. When God created the world in Genesis chapter one and two, he created it perfect, unblemished. He created man and woman, Adam and Eve in his image with perfect fellowship with him that was unbroken and untainted. But he told Adam and Eve, don't eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden. Don't eat the fruit of that tree, because in the day you eat it, you will die. And then the serpent came along and deceived Eve and told her, oh, you won't die. Go ahead and eat it. You'll be like God. God's holding back on you, Eve. And Eve sees that the fruit is good for food, and so she eats it. And she gives it to Adam and he eats it. And they may not have physically died in that very moment, but they died a more horrible death than they could have known. Because now their eyes were open to the fact that they were naked and they were ashamed. And they sewed together fig leaves to try and hide themselves from each other and from God. So much so that when God comes looking for them, as if he didn't know where they were already. And he's crying out to them, where are you? Where are you? Adam and Eve try and shift the blame. They try and hide their sin. They try and cover it up. They try all means of things, but God has to punish them. And he kicks them out of the Garden of Eden. That fellowship that was so perfect and unbroken, That relationship that was untainted is severed. The image of God that they were made in is now shattered and marred and broken. But God gives them two rays of hope. Two rays of hope in that very passage of punishment and judgment. One of them you will go, of course, yeah, I know that verse. The other one you may overlook sometimes. but it's just as important. The first one of course is Genesis 3.15 where the Lord says, but the seed of the woman will come and he will crush the head of the serpent. And the serpent's head will bruise his heel. So the Lord from the start promises a savior is coming to make this right. But the other thing God does in the midst of this punishment is he kills two animals and gives them their skins to wear for clothes. Now that can almost seem like just a detail of the story that we just brush right through, but think of what that means. Adam and Eve have made their own clothes to cover themselves, yet it's not working. They've stitched together something to try and present themselves as righteous or acceptable, but it's not enough. And so God gives them clothes. And he does so by shedding blood. He does so by shedding blood. And it sets the pattern of what is going to be the Passover. We fast forward so many years, When the people of God are enslaved in Egypt, he sends Moses his servant to redeem them out of slavery. And the 10 plagues come upon Egypt in the last, the 10th plague is that the killing of the firstborn son. And the Lord makes a provision for his people. If you keep the Passover, if you have this meal together, and if you kill a lamb without blemish, and you take its blood with the hyssop branch and put it over the doorpost of your house, then I will pass over you and I will spare you the judgment. But if you don't, your firstborn will die. The firstborn of Egypt, all were slain, but the firstborn of the Hebrews, who put the blood of the spotless lamb on their doorposts were spared. And so blood is important. Blood must be shed in order for sin to be forgiven. Blood must be shed in order for it to be covered. The day of atonement is established in the tabernacle in the temple. the one day of the year that the high priest could confess the sin of the people on a goat and abandon it out into the wilderness so that their sin would be separated from them forever. And then a young spotless lamb without blemish would be slain and its blood would be splattered on the altar and its blood would be taken into the most holy place and sprinkled on the most holy place as an atonement for sin once a year. over and over and over again. This was the pattern. But then the prophet Isaiah says that there's someone coming who is going to shed his blood. A suffering servant by whose wounds we will be healed. One who will be numbered with the transgressors in his death even though he is innocent. One who will be at the Father's good pleasure crushed under His wrath, but will be pronounced victorious and given a share with the victors. And when Jesus first appears on the scene in the gospel of John, John the Baptist sees him and says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is the lamb. Jesus is the one whose blood must be shed. Jesus is the one who can make atonement for sin. Jesus is the true high priest who doesn't enter the physical copy of the heavenly places, but he goes into the real throne room and sprinkles his blood. And we, by faith, if we put the blood of Jesus on the doorpost of our heart, we'll be passed over from judgment that we deserve. When Jesus cries, it is finished. Atonement has been made. This whole plan, this whole thing all along, that God has been revealing piece by piece, and we could go back through and trace so many threads and so many lines of how Jesus fulfills the scriptures of the Old Testament, but that would take us all day. The best part is Jesus doesn't come once a year to die for sin. He doesn't have to do it again. He gets to say, it is finished. I've died once for all. It is finished. Now, how do we know it is finished? How do we know it's finished? And we could just say, well, Jesus said so, and that's enough for me. And it should be. But nothing wrong with seeing how the scriptures prove that Jesus' pronouncement is true. The scriptures prove it. And I was reading Arthur Pink on this text, and he highlighted these four things, and I thought they were so insightful, but yet obvious that they needed to be highlighted here. So four proofs, right, for the fact that Jesus' pronouncement of it is finished is true. Firstly, you may remember that as we've read different passages over these last few weeks, that when Jesus dies on the cross, supernaturally by God's power, the curtain of the temple, excuse me, is torn in two. That the curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place is torn top to bottom, right down the middle. We may think, well, what does that signify? Well, it signifies that the most holy place is where God dwelled. And by ripping that curtain in two, the Lord said, I have accepted Jesus' sacrifice for sin. That if you come to me through him, You don't have to have an earthly high priest who comes into this physical dwelling place that is a copy. Like I said, Jesus has gone into the real heavenly throne room and made true, full atonement for sin. And so the way to God is open. That relationship that was broken all the way back in the garden is now open again. It's now there to be mended by the blood of Jesus. Secondly, perhaps most obviously, the resurrection. The resurrection proves that Jesus really did finish what he started. The apostle Paul says in Romans 1.4 that by the resurrection, God declared him to be the son of God in power. right? The resurrection is the vindication of Jesus's claims. It's the vindication that Jesus's blood really did truly atone for sin, not theoretically, but actually that the wrath of God has been satisfied, that Jesus has counted the victor, that he has overcome sin. He has overcome the The death that all men must die. He has risen from it in victory. Thirdly, he is exalted. Christ is exalted. Not only did he rise again, but he is seated in the heavenly places with God. And notice the term seated. We say that often, right? It's all throughout Paul's letters. It's in the book of Hebrews. that the author of Hebrews says, after making purification for sin, what did Christ do? He sat down. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Now just think about this for a moment. You've had a long day. You've been on your feet all day. You've been going, going, going. It's been a lot of things happening. It's finally the end of the day. It's finally time. And you sit down and you can breathe. It's finished. What a feeling it is, right? You've been going and you finally done with the day. It's finally time to just sit and open a book and relax or flip on the TV and relax or whatever it is that you do to just cap off your night. It's finally time to just sit. There's a finality to that, isn't there? Jesus is sat down. He's not pacing the throne room wondering, I wonder if everything will work out. What if my atonement wasn't enough? know he's seated in exalted glory because he finished what he started and then fourthly the holy spirit has come the holy spirit has come jesus told his disciples i am going away and it's good for you that i go away because then i can send the helper to you. I can send the Holy Spirit who will guide you into all truth. And the fact that the Holy Spirit bears witness to us, is dwelling in us and prompting us to follow the Lord in obedience is proof that Jesus finished the atoning work. That that relationship is made more close and intimate than we could ever have imagined. That God does not now sit enthroned in one spot where we have to come to him, but that he dwells in us. and that he is our God and we are his people. And that is purchased for us in the atoning work of Jesus. And it is proof that Jesus's work is complete and that the father has accepted it. So we know what it is. We know how we know that it's finished. What does it mean for us? What does it mean for us? Well, we could spend so much time on this that we would just get lost in it. There's probably more books and articles and all kinds of things written about this kind of topic, this topic, the topic of the atonement and work of Christ and all of its implications that we couldn't exhaust them all if we tried. But I'm just gonna highlight a few of them. I wanna highlight a few of them that I think are most impactful. First of all, hear this word. your debt is paid in full. The Greek word that Jesus utters, it's just one word that we translated as finished. It's the word tetelestai, tetelestai. And it was used sometimes in the marketplace and in merchant dealings. It would be stamped on your receipt to indicate that you're bill was paid in full. And I think Jesus had that in mind as he said these words. We all owed a debt, a great debt to God because of our disobedience, because we were born in sin and because we have actively pursued our sin and unrighteousness and rebellion against God. We all owed God a debt that we could never pay. And Jesus stood in our place and said, I will pay it. I will pay it all. I will pay every penny. There is great power in those words. It is finished. To think that our debt is paid. Secondly, justice is satisfied. justice is satisfied. I mean, we may be tempted to think, well, why did God have to go to these great lengths? Why does he have to do all of this to deal with sin? Couldn't he just forgive it? Couldn't he just not pay attention to it? Couldn't he just look the other way? Not if we want a just God, he can't. If God is just and he is, he must punish sin. But God is also a God of mercy. He's a God of grace. And the great question is, how do these two things meet? How can God be just and gracious? How can it be just and merciful? And the answer is Christ crucified. That Jesus, who owed no debt, he had no debt accrued to God. He was perfect. He was righteous. And yet he said, I'll take the blame for them. I'll take the rap. You can pin their sins to me as I am pinned to the cross. I'll bear the wrath. I'll take the licks. John Newton wrote the great hymn, Amazing Grace, but he also wrote a hymn called Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder. And in one of the verses, he says, let us wonder grace and justice. they join and point to mercy's store. When through grace in Christ our trust is, justice smiles and asks, no more. Justice asks no more of us because Jesus has paid our debt in full. Because Jesus by his righteousness and his willingness to offer himself up as the sacrifice for sin, took all the blame that we should have borne, took all the guilt upon himself. And in doing it all the way to the point of death, even death on a cross, he was able to confidently, exhaustedly, no doubt, but victoriously say, it is finished. Another hymn writer put it this way, says, justice from her awful station bars the sinner's peace no more. Justice views with approbation or approval what the Savior did and bore. Grace and mercy now display their boundless store. But all those treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all the riches of God's grace are bound up in Christ and Him crucified. And in three simple words, it is finished. Now, lastly, hear this word. The fact that Jesus cries out, it is finished. And that that is true and accepted by God. Means we can rest. It means we can rest. It means that we don't have to keep sowing fig leaves together to present ourselves to God. We have been clothed in Christ's righteousness, even better than the skins of the animals that Adam and Eve got. We've got Christ's righteousness. We don't have to keep making ourselves up for God. We don't have to keep trying to add to Christ's atonement. We can't. We can't keep trying to pay a debt that's already paid. But see, here's a little bit of a problem with us as human beings. You and I will either be tempted to hear the word rest and think, oh no, I'm too anxious for that. I can't sit and rest. I have to be doing something. Oh gosh, there must be something I can do to keep pleasing God, to keep God's love and favor on me. That might be you. Or you may be sitting there thinking, oh good, rest. That means I can just be lazy and do nothing. That means I can indulge in the sinful desires of my flesh knowing, oh, my debt's paid. It's paid in full. I've been set free. I'm free to do as I please. Well, beware of both of those evils, beloved. God does not set us free to be busy about earning his love. You have his love by his free gift of grace. He is not interested in your good works as a means of righteousness. However, he is also not going to stand by and let you trample upon his good gift by tainting it all the more with your sin. He is not going to let you keep your pet pride or your pet lust or your pet anger or your pet greed or evil desire. He's not going to let you keep it. Rest in Jesus. is both resigning and working. It is both passive and active. We are passively resting and resigning ourselves upon Christ's goodness and righteousness, always. We can always be crying out upon a life I have not lived, upon a death I did not die, another's life, another's death, I stake my whole eternity. That is our great rest. but it is also our great duty, not to gain righteousness, but out of pure love and devotion and admiration for Jesus to be like him and to be people who are focused and singularly minded on doing the work that God has given us to do. Jesus had a mission and he came to fulfill it. And we even thought about this a little bit this morning in Sunday school, if you were with us. We all have been given a mission. God has formed and shaped you and fashioned you, given you the history that you have, the childhood and the upbringing and the personality and the quirks and all the struggles and the circumstances. He has formed and fashioned all of that to make you into the person he wants you to be. And he is continuing to fashion you into the likeness of Jesus. And he doesn't do that to lazy people. He does it to people who are willing to put their nose to the grindstone, who are willing to go out there and be workers for the kingdom of God. Not to gain approval, not to gain righteousness, not to achieve success or glory for ourselves, but to pour ourselves out for the kingdom of God. Do you feel free? Do you feel the victory in these words that aren't just Christ's but ours. It's finished. Jesus cried those words so that we could too. It is finished. I have nothing more to offer. I have nothing to gain. I can only come with empty hands and an open heart. And maybe you're here this morning and you've never truly surrendered yourself to the Lord Jesus. You've never truly surrendered your heart to him in true faith and repentance. What's holding you back? Don't let pride stop you. Don't let thinking I've got tomorrow stop you. But come and surrender yourself to him. And I promise you, promise you he will accept you freely. And are we resting in him? Are we trusting him for everything? And do we allow our rest to fuel us to love and good deeds, to be people who want to see the work of God's kingdom fulfilled on the earth, to his everlasting glory and praise. May we be people who resonate and sing out and revel in, rest in these words of Jesus. It is finished. Let's pray together. Father, we ask your blessing upon your word as it has been preached. Lord, not in my cleverness or not in my ability, but in your power. Or we ask you to continue to show us the reality of your word, the reality and weight of your son's sacrifice on our behalf, that our debt is paid in full. That that would truly set us free. Set us free from the thought that we have to earn God's favor and set us free from the lie that we can continue to dabble in our sin, but set us firmly on the path of righteousness that we may join in the chorus of victory with Jesus. It is finished. We thank you and we praise you. We ask your blessing upon us. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.