It is Finished

consequential day in human

history you know

u I don't know how many of you were

alive in 1969 when Neil Armstrong landed

on the moon and he jumped out of

the the moonlander and he one small step

for man one huge leap for mankind

everybody considers that as as the

greatest day in history of mankind but

it's

not it's not the greatest day in history

for

mankind is the day that Jesus walked out

of that

tomb it's

not it's not a small

thing yes he was crucified yes he died

we celebrate that it is written is huge

when Jesus hung on the cross and he said

"It is

finished." What he was saying is "I paid

the price for everything everything i

paid the price for it

all." But none of that would have

mattered if on the third day he hadn't

risen from the

dead because

that enacted

everything a lot of times we like to

think

about all the things that Jesus did all

of his miracles everything that happened

and those were all great things they're

they're all necessary they're all part

of why we

believe jesus went to the cross and died

in our

place to fulfill God's word that started

all the way

back at the Garden of Eden

all the way back to the garden

be because of

man's

failure god had to die in this

place jesus

came to be

crucified that's why he came

he even told Pilate "My whole life has

been up to this

moment everything I've done has been

about this

moment." And

Pilate didn't want to kill him pilate

tried to release

him but the priest said "No give us

Barabus instead."

Go to the next slide

Chris it is

finished that is what he says the last

thing he said is he hung on the cross in

Greek the word is

taleo and it's important because one

word that Jesus

spoke means more than any other thing he

ever said

because that word it means to

end that it's

complete to execute or

conclude to discharge a

debt to accomplish to make an end to

expire to fill up to finish to go over

to pay in full or to

perform we have

redemption through the blood of Jesus

Christ because he paid a

debt that we owed and couldn't

pay yet he willingly went to the cross

and

paid that God's grace could be shed for

all

mankind that one drop of one drop of

blood was all it took yet he gave it all

as he hung on the cross

and they and they showed you pictures in

the video and they talked about it this

morning but to understand

fully the price that Jesus

paid for our

salvation he was scourged he received 40

stripes when they got through scourging

him you could see his lungs and his

intestines he was soaked in blood

they beat him they jammed a crown of

thorns and if you've never seen

Jerusalem thorns they're 3 in long but

they braided this crown of thorns and

they shoved it down on his head so that

the blood would run down his

face so much so he couldn't even

see and then they handed him his cross

and said "Carry it." And it wasn't a 2x4

or a 2x two this was a beam this thing

weighed at least 200

lb and from where he was at at Pilot's

judgment

seat to

Goltha which means hill of the

skull was over a

mile and he carried that

beat that's the burden of our

sin and then when he got

there they didn't do their

normal way of crucifying which was to

tie him to the

cross they nailed him to the cross

because the Jews said "Well he claimed

he could bring come back to life we

don't want him getting off that cross."

And they nailed him to the cross with

iron cross iron spikes that were about 9

in

long through his wrists so he couldn't

get loose and through his feet so he

couldn't get off that

cross and he hung

there for you and

I when he said it is finished go to the

next slide Chris when he

said it is

finished there were some things that

happened first of all is it ended the

Old

Testament the sky went dark there was an

earthquake there was a great wind that

blew and the greatest thing that

happened happened in the

temple god tore the temple veil and if

you don't understand the temple veil and

the reason this is so important is that

veil was at least 6 in thick it was as

thick as my

hand and God rent it from top to

bottom and there was no

longer a

separation between God and

man god gave us access to him

personally through what Jesus did on the

cross and we hadn't had access to God

since all the way back at the Garden of

Eden that's what Jesus

did he established the new covenant that

means a new agreement between God and

man in his own blood

the only

thing that could

fool from the world was Jesus's

blood and he told us the blood of

animals was not good enough but do this

in preparation for my coming so you'll

understand that when I

come this is why I'm coming

the high priests the Pharisees the

Sadducees the scribes they all did

everything humanly possible to make sure

that after they killed

him he wasn't going to that nobody was

going to steal his body and then say he

rose from the dead the stone they put in

front of the tomb it probably weighed a

ton then they sealed it and they put

armed guards around the front of the

tomb to make sure nobody stole his

body but in the middle of the

night when the angels came to roll back

the stone the Bible tells us that those

guards that were in front of that tomb

fell as if they were

dead and they rolled back the

stone and on that very first Easter

Sunday when Mary and the other Mary Mary

Magdalene and the other Mary and Solom

came to the tomb it wasn't even daylight

yet it was still

dark and when they came they looked

inside and said "He's not there."

And Mary speaks to she she sees him he's

risen the angels tell him "Who are you

looking

for he's not

here." Peter and John went inside they

saw the grave clothes folded up and the

napkin on the other side of the

tomb and they still didn't believe Jesus

was

risen mary goes through she runs into

the gardener and she asks him "Sir where

have you taken him?" And when he says

her

name she

realizes that Jesus rose from the

dead yet they still didn't

believe then Jesus appeared to him and

they believed but Thomas didn't

and when Thomas came he appeared to him

again and then Thomas believed after he

stuck his his fingers in the wounds on

his arms and in his

side because they had lost all

hope lost all

hope when he's hanging on the cross and

he says "It is finished."

because they

believed that everything that he had

taught them at that point didn't come to

pass and then he came out of the grave

and when he

did they couldn't believe that

either because God had just demonstrated

to them just how much power Jesus had

over death the raisin of Lazarus that we

talked about last week didn't convince

them and he'd been in the grave for four

days and st and

stunk and now Jesus appears to him and

says here I

am I did exactly what I

said and it's that

fact is the reason that we're all

sitting here

today every one of

us has had doubts in our life every one

of

us we've struggled with self we've

struggled with the things that we've

gone through yet at all of that

everything that's ever happened in your

life all comes back to the same

thing which is

this when Jesus was hanging on the

cross you were on his mind every person

who has ever

been who will ever be who has ever

lived he died for all of them not some

of them not for a select

few for

everybody he says "He that believes in

me will never

die." He gave us the one thing we

couldn't we couldn't get on our own

which is eternal

life i want you to think about the

crucifixion he's on the cross the whole

world goes

dark total eclipse

because the light had gone out of the

world there was an

earthquake that shook the

world because we had killed

God there was a great storm that

happened great wind it says the

tempest and then that temple veil was

torn allowing us access to

God and it's true this is Easter Sunday

it's not about bunny rabbits and

technicolor

eggs this is about the death burial and

resurrection of Jesus Christ that gave

us the and the whole world

hope because Jesus walked out of that

grave

and his body except for the nail

holes and this and being his side being

pierced was completely healed

up and because of

that all the promises that are in the

Bible that God has made us we have

access to when he said it is

finished he said the Old Testament's

fulfilled the New Test Testaments in

place and now people can have access to

God on his final day before his

crucifixion night before he went to

guard the garden of

Gethsemane they took

communion and he washed the disciples

feet and if you you were here last

Sunday or you watch this online I owe

you I I have to I have to confess

something i was really caught up in the

message and I was talking about Jesus

washing feet and sharing communion i

kept saying Lazarus instead of Judas it

was Judas not

Lazarus okay i want you guys to know

that and I'm not ashamed when I make a

mistake to say I made a mistake okay

everybody does it was Judas not

Lazarus so we are going to take

communion today

we are going to share communion

today because Jesus said "As often as

you do

this do it in remembrance of me." And

what is the greatest day that we could

possibly possibly take communion on is

the day that we celebrate that he rose

from the dead which is today

now it's

important for all of

us to have firmly fixed in our mind what

it is that Jesus

did there's nothing you could do to earn

it there was nothing you could do to

that would make you

worthy in fact he chose to do it before

we chose him

he was rejected by his own people the

very people he came to

save and every one of us is sitting

here because we have an

opportunity that God

provided there's nothing I can do that

makes me good enough there's nothing

that you can do that makes you good

enough our righteousness is as filthy

rags before God but his

righteousness makes all the difference

is there another slide

Chris john

19:30 it is it is finished the final

thing that Jesus said from the

cross before committing his spirit unto

God and giving up his life for us this

act that act fulfilled all

scripture and set us up for the

beginning of the

church and as you're

in today and we're celebrating Easter

and and we're sharing a meal after

church and they have an egg hunt for the

kids i don't want you to think about

that meal and I don't want you to think

about that those eggs i want you to

think about the meal that we're about to

share which is the most important meal

we can share go ahead mike can you come

up we're going to take communion

and

communion is about

recognizing what Jesus

did that

day and so before we pass out the

communion we're going to pray over it

and I'm going to ask you to pray as

well uh a lot of people are afraid to

take communion because the Bible talks

about taking it unworthy if you have

asked God to clear the record that's all

it requires

but what it

provides is something completely

different god can heal you he can

restore you he can do all those things

when you take the opportunity to

recognize him for what he did so go

ahead and pass them out Mike i have

one i had

one and I want you to think about this

this is one of the last things Jesus

did before he was taken

away he shared communion he shared the

bread and the fruit of the vine with his

disciples to establish with them a new

covenant in Jesus

and and I I want you guys to

realize just how

amazing it is to be

able to come to

church in a country where we're allowed

to freely worship God we don't have a

government here that says you can't go

to church we don't have a government

that says here that you can't sing

praises unto God or that you can't do

these things we have a government that

is celebrating

Easter as we

are and it is those

actions that Christ did when he said it

is finished that made all that possible

and so as we're preparing to take this

you know when Jesus talked

about when Jesus talked about taking

communion and he said "As often as you

do this do this in remembrance of me."

He didn't give us he didn't give us a

set number of times we have to do this

every year okay

there there are churches that do it

every

week there are churches that do it once

a month there are churches that do it

once every three months there are

churches that only do it on

Easter we're doing this because it is

Easter and we are celebrating together

what Jesus did on that day so if you can

open the top you'll find the little

wafer under there

this little

wafer it's just unleavened

bread but it represents Christ's body

that we've been talking about that was

broken and bruised for us on the

cross and so when we partake of

this we're supposed to keep in mind he

said "This is my body which is broken

for

you." So let's take the bread

and then after they had partaken of the

bread he took a cup of wine and he said

"This is my blood this is the new

covenant." And if you don't know

anything about

u middle eastern covenants all covenants

had to be sealed in blood or they

weren't active

and Jesus said "This is my blood and

which is the new

covenant." And he shared it with them

this is his blood is what brought all

the things and made that covenant active

so let's partake of the

juice now I want to ask you a question

probably the most serious question I'm

ever going to ask you

how long's it been since you talked to

God in a serious

way everybody says I

pray most of the time we never we

never go to God unless things are

bad and it's a whole lot easier to go to

God when you have a relationship with

him than to be a stranger in his house

shouldn't be

about when when is the last time you

prayed it should be about I pray every

time so I'm going to ask you a question

if you're here today and you haven't

been in church in a

while and you've been walking a far

off I want you to know that Jesus died

for you that same day

he doesn't care how bad you've been he

doesn't care about how unfaithful you've

been what he cares

about is are you willing to submit

yourself to him to have the debt

erased and to make a new commitment to

Christ

if you're here today and you've never

accepted Jesus as your Lord and

Savior I want to I want to lead you in a

prayer so you

can if you are here and you do know who

Jesus is but you haven't exactly walked

where you should be I want to pray for

you

also because Jesus Christ is the same

yesterday today and

forever that forgiveness that he gave at

Calvary when he said "Forgive them

Father they know not what they

do was for

everybody no exceptions from beginning

to the

end." And

so if either one of those conditions

apply to you I'm going to lead you in a

prayer if you're here today and you need

a spiritual healing or you need a

physical healing or you need an

emotional healing that comes with the

covenant

too he said "I will never leave you or

forsake you." He said "I will give you

peace that surpasses all understanding

there is no

reason no

reason for you to leave here like you

came because Jesus paid that price so I

want you to pray with me heavenly Father

we just thank you and praise you Lord

god you sent Jesus here to die in our

place

you established the new

covenant between you and us that gave us

free

access to

you lord if there's anyone here who's

never known you as Lord and Savior right

now God I ask they cry out to you and

accept you as Lord and Savior

if there's anyone here who's known you

as Lord and Savior and has veered off

from the truth we ask Lord that you

bring them back to that place of truth

and understanding give them a heart

turned towards you

if there's anybody if there's any sick

among us God that we took communion

together we understand that your body

was broken for us and that your blood

was spilled for us and that people would

receive healing in Jesus

name and we thank you God that we're

able to recognize and worship you and

that we can share with others the gospel

of Jesus Christ and we just ask you God

to bless

us with your presence and your

spirit and to touch everyone that's here

in Jesus name amen we're going to take

the offering if you've never been here

before don't feel obligated to put

anything in the offering