This evening, I want to look for a short time at this passage in John 19, and look at this subject, the last words of Jesus Christ. Now, the last words of any person have significance. When a relative is dying, often the children, the grandchildren, and the loved ones gather around the bedside, hoping to hear the last words of their loved one before they leave this earth. And they hope to hear something significant, something encouraging, something instructive for their lives. And often what they say as they leave this world resonates with us for many years, sometimes for decades, sometimes for the rest of our lives. The last words of Jesus Christ are the most important words that have ever been uttered at the death of any person. Because the last words of Jesus Christ, the truth of those words, you and I, our eternal future is built on those words. We go to heaven if what he says is true in those last words. Now, what were the last words of Jesus Christ? In verse 30 of John 19, the last verse that we read, it says, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, just three words in our English translation, it is finished, or it is complete. Or, it is accomplished. You can translate it any of those ways. It is finished. Those were the last words of Jesus Christ. Now, in the English translation, we translate it with three words. In the original Greek, in the language that Christ spoke it, it was just one word. It was just a verb. And this was the verb. Te, telestai. It's a very interesting Greek word. It was used by the financial sector of the Greeks. When someone had a mortgage, they would take the mortgage document and write out the debt and the interest and the repayment and the term times on the document, the mortgage document. Whenever a person fully repaid their mortgage, they would write across it, the banker. telestai means completely paid. The word was also used for prisoners. In the days of the Romans and the Greeks, if you were convicted of a crime, your crimes were listed on a document or a piece of wood, and that was placed on your prison cell. And everybody going past would be able to read all the crimes that you had committed. And at the end of your sentence, not a day before, not a day after it, but at the very last day of your sentence, the jailer would write across that document, that piece of wood, tillestai, finished. The debt has been repaid by this criminal. to society. Servants also used the word when they were telling their master, I have completed the task that you have given. But here the Lord Jesus Christ adds what we call a little prefix, an intensification prefix, an intensifier. Te-telestai. in the original Greek and that has the meaning of this not just complete not just accomplished it has this literal translation it is completely finished it is absolutely finished it is absolutely accomplished that's the last words of Jesus Christ now what was accomplished what was achieved what was finished well if you look at verse 28 it says after this Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished what are those all things you have to go back to the Old Testament way back to a place called the Garden of Eden And there you find a man called Adam and a woman called Eve falling into sin. When God came down and spoke to them about their sin, the Lord told them, there's going to come a day when the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. And who was the seed of the woman? The Lord Jesus Christ, born of human flesh, came into this world and took on human flesh. And then of course all through the Old Testament there are prophecies after prophecies of things that the Savior, the Messiah would accomplish. We read some of them at the beginning of the service in Isaiah chapter 53. Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, listen to the words of Isaiah 53 verse 5, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. Those were the prophecies of the Old Testament that one day a man would come into this world And that man would be born of a virgin. That man would be born in Bethlehem of Judea. And that man would grow up and he would die. And he would die not for his own sins, but for our sins. Listen to the words again of Isaiah 53. For he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our transgressions. iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed, we are forgiven, we are cleansed from our sins. So when the Lord Jesus Christ said that day, and Luke's gospel tells us he cried with a loud voice, his last words, those were not the cry of a man who had failed. A man who had resigned himself to his death. A man who says, I have not accomplished. My life is empty. My life is over. No. He was saying, I have finished the debt of sin. I have paid the price for sinners like you and like me. Do you remember when the angel came to Joseph in Matthew's Gospel chapter 1, before the actual birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the angel told Joseph that Mary would bring forth a son. And the angel said to Joseph, thou shall call his name what? Jesus. You know what Jesus means? Jehovah saves, God saves, that's what the name Jesus means. And the angel said to Joseph, you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. The king of kings came to die. He didn't just come into this world to be a good example. Of course, he was a perfect example. He was the best example of humanity that's ever been on this earth. But he came with a purpose. He came into this world all the way to Calvary. And that day when he hung on that cross, it wasn't by coincidence, it wasn't bad luck, it wasn't a mistake, it was all predetermined in the eternal counsels of God. And he went to the cross and he laid down his life And his last words, having achieved everything that God had sent him to do, he looked up and he said, it is finished. It's over. I paid the price of sin. That day, the cry of Jesus Christ was the cry of the victor. It wasn't the cry of the loser. That's why it says he cried with a loud voice, because he knew it had now been accomplished. Sin's price had been paid for you and for me. These words, it is finished, were the greatest words that have ever been uttered on this earth. And they were uttered by the greatest man who ever walked on this earth. Horatio Spafford, the hymn writer, he wrote that great hymn, It Is Well With My Soul, summed it up so well. In the stanza of that hymn, he said this, My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole, is kneeled to his cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Oh, Spafford realized that when Jesus died that day, when he cried, it is finished, he was saying, I've taken your sins upon me. I've taken the punishment of your sins upon me. And he wrote that wonderful stanza, my sin, all the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the whole. is kneeled to his cross, and I bear it no more." Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul. That's what Jesus did that day. You know, if Jesus Christ had added one word to that statement that he hung on the cross, it would have changed everything. If he had added the word, it is not finished. you and I would be on our way to hell. If he had said, it is almost finished, you and I still would be on our way to hell, wouldn't we? But because he said this, it is finished. It is absolutely finished. Of course, what he was saying is this, I have paid the price, and there's nothing for you to pay. In the reading earlier, we read that there were three crosses on that hill in Golgotha. There was the cross at the center of the Lord Jesus Christ. But to his left and to his right, there were two other crosses. And on those two crosses hung two thieves. One of them was arrogant. One of them refused to repent of his sins. mocked the Lord Jesus Christ and died in his sin and went out to God's eternity to face God's judgment. The other thief looked at the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said just before he died, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Now, that thief His hands were nailed together. He couldn't do anything for the Lord Jesus Christ. His feet were nailed to the cross. He couldn't go anywhere for the Lord Jesus Christ. But praise God, you don't need to go anywhere or do anything in order to be saved. You just have to do what? Cry unto the Lord for salvation. And that's what he did. And do you know what Jesus Christ said to him? That man who'd never been baptized, never joined the church, never done any good works with his hands or his feet, never done anything for the poor, never even prayed a prayer. Do you know what the Lord Jesus Christ said to him? Today, you shall be with me in paradise. Why? Because you're not saved by what you do, you're saved by what he has done. It is finished. And that dying thief, as the old hymn writer, we sung it earlier, the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. Oh, the dying thief got a look at the Savior and cried out to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he found that crying unto the Lord Jesus Christ is all you needed to do. You don't need a PhD to get to heaven. You don't need to read a lot of books to get to heaven. You don't need to join the church to get to heaven. You just need the Lord Jesus Christ, that's all. Turn your eyes on Him. Cry unto Him. Anybody can cry. We learn how to cry for help, don't we, from we're in the womb almost. Or just as we come out of the womb, we're already crying for help. All of us can do that. Look at the Lord Jesus Christ and cry unto Him. But you know, I feel so sorry for those people who try to work their way to heaven. What a frustrating job, what a frustrating life they must live. I wouldn't trust the best 15 minutes of my life to get me to heaven, nevermind the worst 15 minutes of my life. No, salvation is not found in what you have done. It's found in what he did on that cross 2,000 years ago. The famous preacher D.L. Moody was going on a train one day, and he was asked by the chief engineer to come up to the front of the train and have some refreshments together. And they went up and they started talking. D.L. Moody asked him, sir, he says, how are you going to heaven? And the man started telling him, well, I hope to get to heaven, and I've done a lot of good things. I go to church, I say my prayers, I give to the poor, I try my best not to lie, not to steal, not to do things that I shouldn't do, and I'm hoping that all of those things will earn my way to heaven. D.L. Moody said to him, sir, Jesus Christ said in John 19 verse 30, it is finished. It is finished. Your religion that you believe in is the religion of doing, D-O. But the religion that I believe in, the faith that I believe in, is one that's based on not D-O, but D-O-N-E, done. So I have a simple question this evening. Are you believing in a religion of do or done? In fact, the whole world can be divided into those two faiths. You either believe in the religion of you doing, you earning, you working your way to find peace with God, or you believe in the faith of done. Jesus paid it all. Jesus did it all. and I'm trusting in Him and Him alone. It's not what you have done. I'm so happy to be able to say that this evening. I'm so happy that you can come here and hear good news like that. Wouldn't it be sad if I had to stand up here this evening and say, you know, you have to read 400 books, you have to attend church 1,000 times, you have to give half of your income to the poor, and do that for the next 20 years, and if you do all of that, maybe you might make it one step closer to heaven. What a terrible message that would be, wouldn't it? But no. I have a wonderful message to give this evening, a very simple one. Jesus has done it all. Jesus has paid it all. He finished the price for sin that day on the cross of Calvary. You know that cross was a cross of tremendous suffering. Don't think that it cost God the Father almost nothing for the cross. I was reading the last few weeks the history of the Roman Empire. And the Romans were a very ruthless and brutal nation of people. They gloried in their power. And any nation that opposed them, they crushed them. And their armies were incredibly disciplined, incredibly professional, incredibly well trained. Better trained than any other army the world has ever seen until that date. They could take on soldiers that had 20, 30 times the numbers that they had in the legion and crush them. But you see, the Romans kept their legionaries together with iron discipline. And if you breach the discipline of the legion's discipline, you faced what was called crucifixion. It was the worst punishment. And crucifixion was the most awful suffering that the Romans could devise. It was the punishment that everybody feared in the empire. Why was it so fearful? Because you were stripped naked and hung on a piece of wood, whether like this or like this. And for hours, sometimes days, your body hung there and slowly died. Your cells would tear one another apart in a civil war, competing for oxygen as your body drained away. And your hands and your feet ached with the nails that they hammered into the joints. People would do anything to avoid crucifixion. and you thirsted with an incredible thirst as your bodily fluids and the birds would come and peck at your eyes and your intestines and the wild animals would come and nibble at your feet. It was the most horrific way to die. It was the most terrible way to die. Sometimes we sanitize it. I know today we have these little crosses and people wear them around the neck and they almost cuddle them and kiss them. We have sanitized the cross, but the cross was a most awful scene, a most terrible death, a most tragic way to leave this world. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ came to die that way for you. Because of his love. Why did he do it? Was it because you were lovely? Was it because you were attractive? What was his motive? The Bible tells us in John's Gospel chapter 3 verse 16, for God so loved the world. His great love were with he loved us, Paul says in the book of Ephesians, because of his great love for you. Jesus Christ went that day and hung all those hours on that cross. And when he had paid that price for your sins, not his sins, he shouted with a loud voice, it is finished. If you're here this evening and you're not a Christian, the good news is you don't have to go to hell. You don't have to leave even this meeting and go out to God's eternity. You don't have to fear death because there is a way, only one way, that you can escape that awful punishment. And it's found in the one who cried, it is finished. Sometimes we as Christians were very careless, were very complacent. I was reading a story just this week of a man called Nicholas Winton. He lived during the Second World War. He died not very long ago. He was well over 100 years of age. And Nicholas Winton heard about a man called Adolf Hitler. how that Adolf Hitler hated the Jewish people and was intending to wipe out the Jewish people. He lived in England. He didn't have much money. He didn't have any great power. He had a very simple job. He was a school teacher. But he said to himself, I've got to do something to help, especially the children. He got on an airplane and he flew to what was then called Czechoslovakia, today it's called the Czech Republic, went to the city of Prague. And using all the contacts he had, all the resources he had, he managed to start bringing out little Jewish children. Couldn't bring their parents, but the parents said, take my son, take my daughter, at least take them to safety. And over the course of just a few years, Almost 700 Jewish children were taken by Nicholas Winton and brought to the United Kingdom and put into families there to take care of throughout the war. While they were in the UK, all of their parents and their other siblings were wiped out by the Nazis. Today, those 600-odd children, almost 700 children, their descendants have grown to over 7,000 people. Not long ago, they honored Nicholas Winton. All the children that he saved got together and made him a gold ring and inscribed on Hebrew in the gold ring, save one life, save the world. You know, Nicholas Winton received a knighthood from the Queen of England. for his heroic efforts. And rightly so, he's honored for what he has done. But hasn't Jesus Christ achieved so much more? He didn't just save 600 people, he saved countless millions of people. And you know, the Bible tells us in the book of Revelation that there are worshiping in heaven right now, As we are worshipping on earth, they're worshipping in heaven. And you know what they're singing? The Bible tells us they're there from every country, every century, every corner of the world, every language group, every colour, every social and racial background. They're all there in one big heavenly choir. Millions upon millions of them. And you know what they sing? Worthy is the Lamb. For thou hast redeemed us by your blood from our sins. You know if they're singing that in heaven that means one day you'll be singing it in heaven. Shouldn't we be singing it now? Shouldn't we be moved by that now? In just a few moments we're going to come around the Lord's table. It's not a table that we're redoing the death of Christ. We don't need to redo the death of Christ because he paid the price. He finished it. But we're here to remember his death. And he said to us, the bread and the wine are to be symbols, signs of my body that was broken for you. of my blood that was shed for you." And he said, these things do in remembrance of me. So this evening, we're not here to glorify the church, glorify you, or any other person. We're just simply here on this Good Friday to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're here and you're not a Christian, you say to me, how can I become a Christian? How can I leave this service with my sins forgiven? I'll just give you in a very simple way how to do it. Number one, A, acknowledge you are a sinner. Acknowledge you cannot save yourself. B, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust Him to forgive you your sins and see, A-B-C, confess Him with your mouth that He is your Lord from the heart, the Bible says. Not just with the lips, from the heart as well. And if you do that, You can sing with Horatio Spafford, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul. That can be your experience. Just make that choice to trust Jesus Christ. He paid it all. What's going to be your response to His great sacrifice? Let us pray. Our Father, we thank Thee for this reminder this evening that the last words of Jesus Christ were the greatest words He ever uttered on this earth. Because they were words that declared the victory sound, that the price for sin has now been paid. The door to heaven is wide open, and the door to hell is slammed shut to God's people. We glory in that fact. We give thanks for that fact. And tonight, as we meet around the Lord's table, may that be especially precious to us. Be with us. We ask these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen.