Word of Salvation – Vol. 21 No. 22 – March 1975

 

A Last – And Lasting – Word

 

Sermon by Rev. Max MacFarlane, Th.Grad. on John 19:30b

(Good Friday)

Scripture reading: John 19:23-30

Psalter Hymnal: 352 or 390

 

Beloved congregation,

As you know, Jesus spoke seven words from the Cross before He died.

His first “word” was addressed to His Father: “FORGIVE THEM, FOR THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING”.

His second “word” was spoken to the penitent thief.  In answer to his statement, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power,” he was told, “TRULY I SAY TO YOU, TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE.”

His third “word” was addressed to Mary and John.  To His mother He said, “WOMAN, BEHOLD YOUR SON!” and to John He said, “BEHOLD, YOUR MOTHER!”

All these words were spoken during the bright morning hours before noon But Jesus’ fourth awe-inspiring “word” was probably spoken by Him as the mysterious, supernatural three-hours darkness was lifting:

            “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”
            That is, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”

Jesus’ fifth “word” followed close upon the fourth.  It is the only word that reveals Jesus’ physical suffering: “I THIRST”, He cried.

Then, after He had been given something to drink, He spoke His final “word” to the world: “IT IS FINISHED!”

And all that remained for Him to do was to offer up His final prayer to His Father: “INTO THY HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT”.

And having said this, our Lord breathed His last.  He was dead.

+ + + +

I.  WHAT IS IT THAT IS FINISHED?

That is what we have to consider – again – on this Good Friday morning.

Yes, some 19 centuries after the event we still have to consider the question: What is it that is finished?

Is it the finish of Jesus?  Is it the finish as far as His life is concerned?
No, because three days later He would be RAISED FROM THE DEAD, and 40 days later He would RETURN TO HIS FATHER IN HEAVEN.

When Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” He meant that His saving work here on earth was finished, completed.  He had done everything He was sent by His Father to do.

NOT FOR EVERYONE.  NOT FOR ALL AND SUNDRY, BUT ONLY FOR GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE.  For the REDEMPTION, the SALVATION of God’s people.  Through His death on the Cross.  According to the Promise.

What promise?  God’s promise.  God’s abiding promise of a Saviour.  And this promise of God’s goes back a long, long way in the course of world history.

God’s servants the prophets were constantly directing the hearts and minds of the people towards the fulfilment of that great promise in the person of the Messiah, the Christ.

Remember how ISAIAH told the people of that great light he saw, some 700 years ahead in time.  How he told of the child that was to be born, the son that was to be given. How He would be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

MICAH told of the place where the child was to be born…. ZECHARIAH told of the Messiah’s entry into Jerusalem, riding on an ass.  And the same prophet also told of the crucified Saviour’s pierced side.

Yet… the Promise goes back further than the prophets.  It takes us back to the time of MOSES, where God tells Moses of the Promise, and the Promised One:

“I will raise up for the people a prophet like you,” He says.  “I will put my words in His mouth, and He shall say to the people all that I command Him.”

And yet… the Promise takes us back further than Moses.

It takes us back to the days of ABRAHAM.

You remember how God made a COVENANT OF GRACE with Abraham.  He said to Abraham who was then aged 99 years, and childless: “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed, to be God to you and to your seed after you.”

And yet… the Promise takes us back further still.  A long way further back.

It takes us back to the time of the FALL INTO SIN, when God says to the serpent – when He says to Satan:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.  And he (the Messiah, the second Adam) shall crush your head, while you shall only bruise his heel.”

+ + + +

THERE IS THE PROMISE.  THE PROMISE OF GOD HIMSELF.  Christ, the Son of God, would come, and Christ the Son of God would conquer.

He would OVERCOME SATAN AND HIS WHOLE DOMINION, and He would SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS by dying for them Himself… by substituting Himself for them.

That is what Jesus meant when He said, “It is finished.”  That is to say, HIS SAVING WORK HERE ON EARTH WAS FINISHED, COMPLETED.

And for different people it meant different things.

Take the ROMAN SOLDIERS for example.  For them – if they ever did hear Jesus’ last word to the world, it meant nothing at all.  They were there merely to carry out their duty: to remain there until Jesus was really dead.  To them, this was just another misguided individual who claimed he was the promised Messiah.

Or take the RELIGIOUS LEADERS the high priests, the scribes, the Pharisees.  The self-appointed upholders of the law.  What did this word of Jesus mean for them?  For them, it meant literally THE FINISH OF JESUS AND ALL THE STRIFE HE HAD STIRRED UP AMONGST THE PEOPLE.  The finish of this upstart carpenter from Nazareth who set himself up against them as a great rabbi who claimed to be the Son of God.

Now, at last, they had got rid of Him.

Jesus – and the whole Jesus problem – was finished.

For them it was a resounding victory.  Now they could get back to their business of keeping God’s law and making sure that the people kept it, too.

So much for the Roman soldiers and the Jewish hierarchy.  But what about JESUS’ OWN DISCIPLES?

The chosen few who had given up everything and followed Him up and down the land for three years… who had become devoted to Him, and who had declared that, if He had to die, then they would go with Him to Jerusalem and die with Him, too.

WHAT DID JESUS’ FINAL WORD TO THE WORLD MEAN FOR THEM?

Well, as we examine the scriptures, we are amazed to find that, for His own disciples too, this word of Jesus, “It is finished”, meant much the same as it did for the Jewish leaders… for them, too, it meant the finish of Jesus.

ONLY FOR THEM, IT WAS WORSE.  A WHOLE LOT WORSE.

For them, there was NO victory in it.  Not even a false victory.
For them there was only COMPLETE AND UTTER DEFEAT.
Yes, Jesus’ death was the tragedy of tragedies for His disciples.

But THE REAL TRAGEDY LAY IN THEMSELVES: with the death of Jesus their faith – and with it their courage – evaporated into thin air.  Already, at His arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, they had forsaken Him and fled.

Peter had slunk along to His trial, but merely as an onlooker.  When he was identified as one of Jesus’ followers, he even renounced and denounced his Master.  “I NEVER KNEW THE MAN” HE SAID.

The Man!  Whom he, Peter, had confessed to be the Christ, the Son of the living God!  Oh Lord Jesus, forgive!  We know not what we do.

+ + + +

So: for the soldiers, Jesus’ death was a matter of ROUTINE.

For the Jewish leaders, it was a great VICTORY.

And for Jesus’ disciples, it was a tragic DEFEAT.

But… were these the only ones involved in the death of Jesus?  No.

There were also two thieves hanging from their crosses on either side of Jesus.  And strangely enough, one of those thieves – who has come to be referred to as the penitent thief – HE SEEMED TO KNOW MORE THAN ALL THE OTHERS WHO JESUS WAS, AND WHAT HE COULD DO.

For when the other robber mocked and slandered Jesus, just as the Roman soldiers and the Jewish leaders had done, this penitent thief rebuked him.

“We have been sentenced justly,” he said, “Because of what we have done, but THIS MAN (JESUS) HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG.”

Then he turned to Jesus and said, “Remember me, Jesus, when you come in your kingly power.”

And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

You see, he knew – by the merciful operation of the Holy Spirit of God in his heart – he knew that the death of Jesus did NOT mean the END of Jesus but THE WAY JESUS HAD TO GO, before He could take up His true kingship in heavenly glory.

And this is what WE have to know, too.  This is where we have to stand.  Knowing that the way of the Cross is the way, the only way foreordained by Go for Jesus to take up his kingship in glory.  And the only way for us, for every single one of us, to go, so that we too might be with Him in His glory.

+ + + +

II.  WHAT IS IT THAT IS FINISHED?  THIS IS WHAT IS FINISHED!

Not only Christ’s personal sufferings – sufferings that reach their terrifying climax at the Cross.  More, much more is involved.

WHAT IS FINISHED, COMPLETED, IS GOD’S ACT OF REDEMPTION FOR HIS PEOPLE, THROUGH THE DEATH – AND RESURRECTION – OF CHRIST.

A plan that had been in the process of working itself out, ever since man first rebelled against God in the garden of Eden, and fell into sin.

So that ANYONE WHO COMES TO CHRIST IN TRUE REPENTANCE AND FAITH may already taste something of the joys of the kingdom of heaven.  And that’s great, isn’t it?

But at the same time we have to remember something.  We have to remember the price Jesus was called upon to pay for all this.  We don’t have to pay anything.  HE HIMSELF HAS PAID THE TOTAL AMOUNT IN ADVANCE.

And how?

By taking the sins of the whole world upon Himself… being made sin for our sake… embracing sin in all its loathsomeness, and paying the debt that we as sinful people could never pay.  Never in a million years.

Listen, says Jesus.

I have borne the FULL OUTPOURING OF THE WRATH OF THE FATHER UPON SIN, which He cannot and will not tolerate, but which had to be dealt with, once and for all.

I have been FORSAKEN BY MY FATHER AND HAVE SUFFERED THE DEEPEST ANGUISH OF HELL, so that you, my brothers and sisters, might never again be forsaken by the Father, but rather that you might be reconciled to Him, by my blood.

Yes, washed in my blood, so that your sins are removed, taken away, as though they had never been.

Jesus concludes: “Father, I have glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.  And now, Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was made.

+ + + +

Yes, the Cross of suffering and shame, the Cross of DEATH.

Yet, at the same time, it is a Cross of LIFE.  In this way, that it is a through-way, a royal highway.  Not a dead-end street that ends in nothing but a grave.  It goes clean through that grave, where sin lies buried, through death, to life!

AND THAT WAS THE TRAGEDY OF THE CROSS FOR CHRIST’S OWN DISCIPLES.

In their state of fear, in their state of shock, they forgot all about Jesus’ own words to them…how He would be delivered up to men, and be crucified, and how on the third day He would be raised.

So the DISCIPLES WERE LEFT ON THAT FIRST GOOD FRIDAY WITH NOTHING BUT A DEAD JESUS; nothing but a dead man who could no longer help them, let alone save them

But the penitent thief could see beyond the Cross…and so can we.  By faith.  We know very well that THE DEATH OF JESUS WAS NOT THE END OF JESUS.

Because of who He is.  Not just a man.  Not just the most wonderful man who ever lived.  But all that, and God too!  Or, as we say, THE GOD-MAN IN ALL HIS PERFECTION.

And even as He cried out on the Cross “It is finished!” …and even as He committed His spirit to the Father… Even at that moment, His bitter and shameful death becomes transformed… swallowed up in the most glorious victory that only He could achieve.

Not a victory that He wants to keep for Himself, but VICTORY FOR HIS PEOPLE.  VICTORY OVER THE POWER OF SIN, DEATH AND HELL ITSELF.

Which brings us to…

III.  THIS IS WHAT HAS BEGUN:

For Jesus: His GLORIFICATION.  And for His people, NEWNESS OF LIFE… through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

So we might begin to live godly lives that are useful and pleasing to Him.  As members of the household of God that is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles… with the promised one, the Christ, being the chief corner-stone.  In whom the whole structure, the whole building is joined together, and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

AND WE ARE ALL PART OF THIS BUILDING; WE ARE ALL BUILT INTO IT – A DWELLING-PLACE OF GOD IN THE SPIRIT.

All this, of course, presupposes our death in the first place.  The death of the “old”, unregenerate man, the unbelieving man, the man lost in sin, before there can be newness of life in Christ.

ONLY HE WHO LOSES HIS LIFE FOR CHRIST’S SAKE WILL FIND IT.  And this means being ASHAMED OF OUR SINS… our sins that drove Jesus to the Cross.

This means POURING CONTEMPT ON ALL OUR PRIDE, OUR SELF- CENTREDNESS, OUR SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.

This means CASTING OURSELVES UPON JESUS… CLINGING TO HIM AS A DROWNING MAN CLINGS WITH MIGHT AND MAIN TO A ROCK.  Jesus made it all right.  But….have we made it?

If so, then we may be sure that our crucified and risen Lord will LIFT US UP AND PRESS US TO HIS HEART, AND CARRY US WITH HIM, THROU THE VERY JAWS OF DEATH, THROUGH THE GATES OF HELL, ALONG THAT ROYAL HIGHWAY THAT LEADS US TO HEAVEN.

Only those can travel that highway who are WITH CHRIST.

Only those can travel that highway who are IN CHRIST.

For … Christ Himself IS that highway.

Beloved in the Lord: are we all travelling the King’s Highway, via the Cross?

“Alas! and did my Saviour bleed,
 and did my Sovereign die?
 Would He devote that sacred head
 for such a worm as I?

 Thus might I hide my blushing face
 while His dear Cross appears;
 Dissolve my heart, in thankfulness,
 and melt mine eyes, to tears.”

Amen.