“It Is Finished” | John 19:16–30

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning in. We are just the Bible guys. No, no, that's not it were the Bible guys. Yes, the Bible guys, like the Ohio State University. Just the what why would you just defile this show? Why would I elevate the show mentioning the Ohio State. University the kickoff week of college football and you got to come out here? Hey defile? I was talking about the word the No, you said the Bible guys, which reminded me of. Why would pick some other team because that's like, that's the most famous because they say the because it's nobody pronounced, because they stop. Oh man, you know that's the thing, right, yes, I just nobody cares. That's not true. Nobody cares, right. You know. My brother graduated from Ahio State University. Really yeah, so my nephew went there. It's fantastic. So we can use crayons. That's great. They must be so proud. Actually, he's a commercial artist, thinker toy. He's a commercial artist, so he can't he can't do crayons. Yes, in ways that you and I cannot. Fantastic. Well, hey, guys, that good. We are in a series the Famous Sayings graduated from. The Ohio State University and they take his training wheels off. Okay, very good. Are you? Are you done? Yeah, I'm done? Okay, we are. We are in the middle of a series jesus is Famous sayings. He talked about him on a podcast today. We're talking about, actually this whole week about Jesus's last saying, his final words. And before we get to that, we have a segment and now you're being me and I'm being you. That's so funny. Uh. It is a segment called Who's most Likely, which are great because it's usually you have to pick between two bad options usually yes, no, I'm sorry, that's what would you rather. To decide? Who's most likely? Yeah? Me or you? Yeah, it's literally in the name Chris. Remember back in the day we had paddles where we flashed. Meat or yeah, my face in your face, my face your fishing. Okay, so you want to take number one? Who's most likely to show up in costume? Just because. I think I think you're very capable of that. I'm capable of it. You're more likely. I'm more likely. I definitely. Family has so many photos of you guys in costume. Oh for sure. I have like maybe three or four of our family in costume. Every every week for drunken treat or whatever it's called. Every week every year. You you dress up. Yeah, so you're there with stuff? Yeah sure, yeah, yeah, you're right. We we we do more more stuff like that. Okay, so you're a pajamas guy. You walk in your house pajama I'm gonna surprise you. You have costume pajamas? Do you do you have like Superman Batman? No, not not that I have more. I have Lions pajamas. But that's not the same thing. It's not like a person. Yeah, okay, well it sounds like I. Have Marvel pajamas, but they're not like a specific person. But it has a bunch of superheroes on huh. Actually I have multiple Marvel. I have multiple Marvel. Okay, good for you. Yeah, thanks, all right. So, uh, number two, who's most likely to clap when the plane lands? Again, that's probably me. I don't clap. People do clap. We landed in Africa a couple days ago and everybody claps. Yeah, you know what. I don't usually clap, but I do. I do every once in a while. Join them in clapping. Yeah, yeah, I'll do it. So and that probably a little bit more than you. You probably would never clap. Clap. Yeah. One time, one time we were coming in and we were the last place to last plane to land coming into Houston, and we landed literally sideways. I don't know how the pilot put the plane down. So we're coming and I'm looking out my windows straight down the runway as the landing strip. We're coming like this and we were just bouncing, and I can remember at one point, I don't know how our wing didn't hit the ground like I was sitting just next so I could see the wing and it looked like we missed the ground by feet is what looked like. And then boom, he set it down straight and everybody clapped. I clapped on that way. Everybody was clapping on that one. Yeah, for sure, thought while we're dying today, right, we landed. So one time I did, but most of the time I don't. Okay, here's another one, Chris and I already know the answer is who's most likely to start a flash mob. Oh jeez, I've done flash mob. I've been a part of flash Okay, so you're three for three. I think I am. You are three for three on this one. Yeah, okay, few is okay? Number four? Who's most likely to get rid of their smartphone and go back to using a flip phone with me? That is definitely not me. It's me. That is definitely you. Yeah, now tell me why you give me a sentence on that. I think that the social media stuff and emails and texts have become an addiction for one, yep, but bigger. It's a leash, and people yank our leash and they distract me from the things I want to be doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Hey look at this right. Sometimes it's really important. Hey, we need to help on this far And they start a fire. They could have put the fire out, but instead they want me to come put the fire out. So sometimes that's it. Sometimes I'm the only one to put out a fire. So sometimes it's a good thing they have me on a leash. They yank the leash, I come running. Other times people yank the leash and they pull me out of the focus I have with the person I'm with to watch a cat video playing a piano, but most of the time not Ah, I'd say half, it seems a third, but third of the things are not emergencies, but they yank the leash. But a simple question, isn't a cat video? Yeah, but it pulls me out of it. It's the equivalent. I cannot see anybody sending you truly. I get I get memes, but yeah, it's it's equivalent. I'm totally dialed in on this, me and you or on this project suddenly ding and people's habit is grab the phone, look at it now. You just took all of your focus off that put it on this and it was not the most important thing, right right. So I love the idea going back and flip. And by the way, my son, but I won't my son Stephen would join you on this. Thank you, Steven. You know why because Stephen's genius is he he is brilliant? Why? Yeah? He is a big fan of h antiphone anti technology. Good for him? Yeah, yeah, So okay, and then as he. Saw it ruin his father's life, Oh. My word, wow, out of nowhere, shots across the bow, peo pew all right and Then finally number five, who's most likely to secretly run a fan account for someone famous? Oh, this is your chance to come clean, Chris, There's no way I would do this. Really, you're never gonna admit your zach Efron president a fan club president. Like to run an account. I'm so bad at that. Yeah, I can't run anybody's. Any the leadership part of it, that's what you're saying. I'm saying it's the grunt part of it, like even to I wouldn't even know what running an account means. But who's most likely, I think is the question? Have you ever been a part of a fan a fan club? I joined the Bows of the Clown fan club when I was a kid? Oh really? Yeah? Do you ever do it like when you're older, like a part of a fan club? No? Yeah, did you? Yes he did. I'm not going to say. I'm not going to say what I did. Then, Taylor Swift fan club. It's close, it's close. Oh, now we got to know when I was eighteen. When I was eighteen and nineteen eighty nine, yes, that's I just went to college. Was the first year that Mariah Carey had come out with her debut album, entitled Mariah Carey. And so I received something in the mail on the back of a comic book that actually said joined the Mariah for Maura Carey fan club. And I was in college and you know back then, no phones, there's no cell phones, right, and so by mail, I was like, you know, why not? And I became a member of the Mariah Carey fan club. And here's here's what super bad. It's super bad. Well, first of all, it's super bad that I'm admitting this, right, but it's really really bad. This is the rest of the episode, just so you know. No, listen, listen. All of her fan mail was in white envelopes with covered in pink hearts, because apparently that's her. Okay, So I would receive mail at Baptist bable College with uh with Mariah Carrey on it with with with pink hearts all over the face, and the people in the mail room were like, what is your deal? And I'm like, I don't know. I'm like, I just mailed this in on a whim. Riah loves me and she just keeps sending this to me. Yeah, And so I couldn't get out of that fan club fast enough. Uh So, but I was in it for like six months before I finally like did something about it. Wow, so sorry about that. Okay, that's that is an embarrassment. This is one of the best episodes, one of the best moments of our relationship, that you, finally, after all these years, came clean. Yeah. Well, I'd be honest with you. I doubt that my wife even remembers that statement. Wow, like, like it was so long ago, and I don't ever talk about it. Okay, I wouldn't. I wouldn't talk about either. You just told a few thousands of your closest friends here I know, I know, and it's under that fraternity just so you know. But it's pretty deal. I love this. Well, then I'm going to vote for you. I'm going to say that you are most likely yes, right, so you can't imagine doing it, but you're more likely than me to run a fan account for someone famous. Well, you know, speaking of things that we don't like. Jesus didn't like being on the cross. Oh no, no, that's terrible. Okay, now that's sorry. If that's our transition, what okay, No, No, that's great. Is it wrong? No? No, he is anything that I said wrong? No, you are correct, speaking of things that you don't like. Yeah, that's true. Jesus didn't like being on the cross. I'm sure that's correct. Yeah, you're right. It does sound a little sacrilegious. Yeah, it's a rough. There's a rough. I want to distance myself from that one. Should we ed. We'll leave it, sure, Yeah, we should leave it. Okay, everybody's heard it already. Well know of that, but I well, I mean not if we edit it. I know, but we didn't. Okay. Well, here's the thing. I wasn't trying to be sacrilt. I know, I know, I know. That's why. Okay, that's why. Okay, it's about the hearts intent. Yeah, that's right. So we are in John chapter nineteen. Yes we are. And I want to pick up like in the middle of verse sixteen, because I hate the first part of sixteen. Stop I'm joking. The pilot turned Jesus over them to be crucified. Yeah, that part, Oh, I hate it. So then it says, so they took Jesus away, and carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called the Place of the Skull in Hebrew Golgotha, and there they nailed him to the cross, and two others were crucified with him, one on either side, with Jesus between them, and Pilot posted a sign on the cross that read Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it. Then the leading priests objected, said the pilot change it from the King of the Jews to he said, I am the King of the Jews. But Pilot replied, no, what I've written, I've written. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided his clothes among the four of them. They also took his robe, but it was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said, rather than tearing it apart, let's throw dice for it. This fulfilled the scripture that said they divided my garments among themselves through dice for my clothing. So that is what they did. Standing near the cross where jesus mother and his mother's sister married the wife of Cleopus and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple, he loved. He said to her, dear woman, where's your son. Here's your son. Oh, here's your son. What did I say, where's your son? You're correct, just checking if you're paintation. You are correct, dear woman, here is your son. And he said to it, to this disciple, here is your mother. And from then on this disciple took her into his home. Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill the scripture, he said, I'm thirsty. A bar of a jar of sour wine was sitting there, and so they soaked a sponge in it and put it on a hiss up branch and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said, it is finished. And then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. There you go. I had seen somebody, you know, as somebody ever sent you videos and they say, watch this, it's incredible, and it's like a Bible video, and it's like all these different studies and different things. Somebody had just sent me. A good friend of mine, Eddie, sent me a video and said watch this. It is incredible. And it was God's command during the original Passover in Exodus chapter or whatever it is, twenty nineteen, it was a hiss it branch. Yeah, and the fact that it was actually requested to be a hissit branch to dip in the blood and put it on the wooden posts above the door. How Jesus is shedding his blood on the wooden posts of the cross and then they hand him up sour wine to fulfill his thirst with a hissop branch. So you've heard that before. No, Okay, I was just picking up on the hissop branch and realized where you're going with the other. Yeah. Yeah, I was actively listening, but I interrupted you. No, no, no, I got excited about. Where you nailed it. So that's really what it is. It's it's the fact that both were hissit branches. And remember we just said this just yesterday and yesterday's podcast. We're gonna need to have it and go no way, right. There are probably little things like that where you know, we'll probably have a lot of time, well we will have a lot of time to talk to Jesus about it, and he'll he'll say, oh, yeah, the reason why I did that is this. The symbolism is this. There are going to be so many connected dots from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from the fulfillment, the promises and the fulfillments that I think we're going to be blown away. Yeah, I think so. And so it's interesting. You know, they're supposed to put it on the door posts and on the on the mantle above, and then you know, same thing with the cross. The cross was you know, the sides at the top, the vertical, horizontal. And Jesus said, I am the door, which is interesting. That's an interesting phrase that he uses there. But he's he's saying, I'm the one that's going to open the door to the kingdom. That's why God chose the door solution. I think there's a lot of reasons like that. But anyways, on this one here he is, he's on the cross. Yeah. They they gamble over his clothes. Yeah, which incidentally, those must have been nice clothes. It didn't even have a seam in it. Yeah. Well, and so they gambled over his clothes. They say, let's not pull it apart. Yeah. So it has to be it has to be. Yeah. So people always say, well Jesus was poor because he didn't have a house. Because he always said he didn't have a place to lay his head, right, But it never really said that. It just said that he just didn't have place to lay his head. Right. There were a lot of people who actually supported Jesus ministry who had means. Yes, And so Jesus was I assume well dressed. He was a hard working man. I'm sure he had rough hands. Carpenter is a hard working man, right, Yeah, so you know he's gonna be definitely like he has that blue collar part of him. But at the same time, you know he was provided for as well. Right. There's a when when we were in uh Tiberius, which is right along the Sea of Galilee, getting ready to leave and head down to Jerusalem. And I had that the night before, was looking through a book and realized just down the street, just down the road is Magdala, where Mary Magdalene was from, and there's a it's a newer excavation, not brand new, but newer, and there's a first century synagogue that the floor is still there and some of the mosaic and things, and there's a podium and a few things there. And so I wanted to stop there. I want to go see it. And the guide said, oh, yeah, we have time. So we went and we had some people on that trip, some of our listeners that are, you know, successful business people that have done some pretty meaningful things with their their careers and have some extra resources, and I thought this would be a meaningful space to visit. So we go and we walk around. It's very moving because this is one of the few places you know for sure Jesus walked on those stones. Looking at that little tiny synagogue, we know Jesus would have been there to teach in the synagogue He taught in this So there we sit down, there's some seats in the area. We sit down and I read this passage. It says in Luke chapter eight. After this, Jesus traveled about from town to town, village to another, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases, Mary called Magdalene, Joanna, the wife of Shuza, manager of Herod's household Susannah, and many others. And these women were helping to support them out of their own means, not him them. These four women funded Jesus in the twelve disciples all of their ministry for three years, right, And I just highlighted the fact that, hey, this town Magdala, Mary Magdalene had a lot of things that maybe she felt like she wasn't qualified for significant ministry or big impact. But what she did is she funded the ministry of the disciples and of Jesus himself, right, and along with these other women that were a part of that. And I think that there's something special when we begin to realize we all can have a part in God's ministry and in what God is trying to do in the world around us. And that's what she did there. So you have Jesus had donors essentially, people that were making it happen. And think about you know, you and I are preachers, we're pastors. There are some pastors they you know, buy their private jets and drive their Bentleys and you know, and all that kind of stuff. But that's not who we are, right. But the ministry that you and I have, we could not do. It doesn't matter how I tell people all the time, I think you're one of my favorite preachers. I love being on this team with you. Thank you man. But your ministry is nothing. If people don't give financially. Financially, yeah right, my ministry is nothing. So I just got back from Africa. It wouldn't be possible for me to do the work in spreading the gospel and training pastors if there weren't generous men and women business people who say, you know what, my ministry isn't to go to Africa. My ministry is to make sure somebody goes to Africa. You know. You know what I heard, and I love this, and this is how Jesus ministry work. I worked for a pastor in Georgia. It was my second church I worked for. And he once described I'll never forget this. He once described King David in the Old Testament, when David was praying for warriors. David had a mission and the mission, of course we talked about this on the Bible, guys. But David's mission was to conquer his enemies. It was it was to wipe out the blasphemers. It was to wipe out those who, you know, defied the living God. And so David was a warrior, you know, who was a leader who was looking for warriors. So David prayed for warriors and he and there's a part in the Bible where he says, God send me those who will help me accomplish my mission, and he prayed for warriors. And then I remember this pastor that I worked for, And Georgia said, those who have means to give financially are the modern day warriors that David prayed for. Because when God calls us as a church, as a nation, as a group of people, as a group of His called out people to a mission, a specific mission, those who say, hey, I can help get us there, those are the modern day warriors that say, you know, hey, you know it takes all of us, right, and so yeah, just like you said, I might be able to be the one that actually preaches or actually trains other pastors or things like that, but I'm going to do my part. And so you're the warrior that David prays for. You're the modern day warrior. Well, the victory can't be one without the supply lines. Front lines can only go as far as the supply lines can go. That's right, they can only go as fast. They can only penetrate as deep into the enemy territory as the supply lines can supply. And so together there are no front lines without supply lines, and there's no purpose behind a supply supply line without a front line, right, So we need each other and that's what works. So this is the thing. There's always this idea that because Jesus didn't own a home, he must have been poor. On the day of his death, they're gambling over his clothes because it's such a fine piece. Go beyond that, though, and really the biggest issue, and I think the big topic for the day, is when Jesus said it's finished. Yes, right, that's the big one here, and he tastes it and he said it is finished. Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. And it was early. Usually it would take days for people to die in a cross, and he dies in a few hours, right, because the job was done. So much so that they were surprised. Yeah, it actually says they were surprised that he would have died so early because he's such a strong man. Right, But they did, you know, whip him thirty nine times? Sure, right, yeah, say they brought him to the point of death almost just with the beating. But yeah, so physically he couldn't carry his cross. He had to choose he had to choose what. Simon of Simon of Syreene, Yeah. Yah, Simon of Sirene to help him carry his cross. Yeah, because he just was physically taking to the limit. So let me read the note. You know, we love the life application study Bible, and so in the note for this verse is fabulous. I don't know that I have anything to add to it said until this time when Jesus said it is finished. Until this time, a complicated system of sacrifices had atoned for sin. Sin separates people from God, and only through the sacrifice and shed blood of an animal a substitute. An animal a substitute could people be forgiven and become clean before God. But people sin continually, so frequent sacrifice is required. Jesus, however, became the final and ultimate sacrifice for sin. The word translated finished also means paid in full. Jesus came to finish God's work as salvation, to pay the full penalty for our sins. With his death, the complex sacrificial system ended because Jesus took all sin upon himself. Now we can freely approach God because of what Jesus did for us. Those who believe in Jesus death and resurrection can live eternally with God and escape the penalty that comes from sin. So when he said it is finished, he wasn't just saying I'm done being on the cross, right. That wasn't him saying, you know, I had a guy he was learning how to pray, and he couldn't remember how to. He couldn't remember that we end an amen. He's the only Christian for a few weeks, and so he's like, well, I'm done, right right, That's not what Jesus. So Jesus wasn't saying, Okay, I'm done. What he's saying is everything I can now exactly. Jesus is saying everything I came to pay for this separation between God and man, this perpetual sacrificial process to atone for sins. It's all completely paid in full. There's no more debt ode I paid it. I paid all of humanity's sin debt right here. Yeah, And think about the hundreds of prophecies that he that was that were fulfilled, even this last one of rolling the dice, ye right, because it actually says to fulfill the scriptures. So all of the different things, especially during past over week, that Jesus did, and he fulfilled prophecy after prophecy. So everything that was set in motion from the Garden of Eden, from the very moment that God killed the animals, and actually it was a foreshadowing of you know, the shedding of blood forgiving sins and covering sins. And so from that moment to this moment, think about think about the thousands of years and probably even the tens of thousands of connect the dots that had to you know, all come together. And then finally Jesus says, every single thing is done. It's all been completed, it's all been paid for, so every bit of it's been fulfilled. And then of course it's probably appropriate to say, then what the veil rips into? Right, there's a great earthquake symbolizing that the old system is gone, the new system has come. Jesus had just established a new covenant at Communion, so everything is just shifted over to you know, the sacrifice has been made and all we have to do is put our faith and trust in the ultimate sacrifice. The old system is finished. Yep, it's paid in full, that's true. So now there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus paid the price. That's what Roman tells us. Fantastic and I love it awesome. So that is our time, so thank you for tuning in and hopefully we'll see tomorrow on the Bible guys. Mhm h