Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:05 My name is
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Michael fueling and the lead pastor here at the village church. And I want to invite you to open up with me in your Bibles, to the book of John chapter 19. And we're going to start in verse 28. So you cannot understand the cross until you understand this. It, it happened on purpose according to the will and the plan of God before time, the father and the spirit and the son created a detailed plan. Timeframes were predetermined. Key events were planned, a nation, a law, a land, and a people. They were all architected in the mind of God before God even created the world and bread crumbs were includes, were laid all throughout history. And these bread crumbs and clues were documented in the old Testament. These breadcrumbs includes and concluded hundreds of general prophecies, specific prophecies, foreshadows, and more in the old Testament and the gospels, Matthew Mark, Luke and John together.
Speaker 1 00:01:20 They are the unfolding of this divine plan chapter by chapter, every story, every law, every promise, all of them pointing the exact same direction culminating in this weekend 2000 years ago. And we have the privilege to come together and remember, and celebrate the fact that our God implemented with success. His plan through Jesus Christ on the cross. This weekend is the climax of all of human history. It happened 2000 years ago, and it is impacting our every day up until this point and will for all of eternity. So which brings us to John chapter 19 verse 28. If you're looking there, Jesus is hanging out a tree he's been hanging around a cross. He's been hanging there for roughly three hours. He is now successfully fulfilled every single old Testament, prophecy and foreshadow that referenced him and his sacrificial death except for one. And he is going to leave no prophecy, no shadow or foreshadowing unfulfilled.
Speaker 1 00:02:21 And here we get to chapter 19 verse 28. Here's what he says, or it says after this Jesus, knowing that all was finished and as Jesus is now at the finish line, he has this prophecy in his mind, it's all been fulfilled. It's all been completed. There's this one last prophecy shadow waiting to be fulfilled. John 19 goes on and says, Jesus said to fulfill the scripture. I thirst and I love this. I love 29 because it says a jar full of wine stood there like, Oh, it just happened to be there. And this jar full of why it actually becomes really important. It is the fulfillment of a, an old Testament prophecy about the Messiah.
Speaker 2 00:03:05 And
Speaker 1 00:03:05 It says, so they put a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and they held it
Speaker 2 00:03:11 To his mouth. He looks down and he sees lo and behold, the very thing needed to fulfill the
Speaker 1 00:03:20 Very last prophecy and shadow
Speaker 2 00:03:23 Of the old Testament. It comes from
Speaker 1 00:03:25 Actually Psalm 69. I want to just read to you a portion of this Psalm. It's a Psalm of King David, and here's what it says. Save me. Oh God for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep Meyer where there is no foothold. I've come into deep waters. And the floods sweep over me. I am weary with my crying out. My throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God more in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause nighty or those who destroy me. Those who attack me with lies. I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food. And for my thirst, they gave me sour
Speaker 2 00:04:14 Wine to drink. He's fulfilled them all. They put it to his lips. He drinks
Speaker 1 00:04:21 He's ready to die. In verse 30 says this. When Jesus had received the sour wine,
Speaker 2 00:04:26 He said it is finished. I want to draw your attention to these three words. It is
Speaker 1 00:04:35 Finished on the surface. It's one word in the Greek and it's a legal term. And it's simply means this paid in full debt fulfilled contract completed. Let's go a little bit deeper into this word finished. It means that a task or a job has been brought to completion all the requirements for this task responsibility. This job, this contract, all of them have been 100% satisfied. It is finished. And if you were to answer the question, what was finished, we get one word, two letters. It, it, could you be more clear? What is it? Let's double click on it. It refers to at least there's many more, but I'm just gonna share with you four, four tasks for responsibilities that on the cross, Jesus fulfilled, completed every single one of them perfectly. We're going to go through these. Are you ready? You can answer. The answer is yes, pastor Michael, are you ready?
Speaker 1 00:05:36 Yes, we're in. It is finished. Jesus is saying, number one, our sin debt has been finished. So Christian, whatever personally, you owe to God because of your sin and your failures and your infractions, whatever you owe to God, because Christian, you have personally trusted in Jesus Christ. You no. Oh God. Anything in terms of your payment for sin? Because 100% of it has been satisfied, finished, completed, fulfilled on the cross. So debt is kind of a confusing terminology. We say the word he paid our sin debt. Now I hope it was really clear that none of you owe God money per se. And in God's economy, he does not work with the financial currency that we work with. He works with a different currency. He works with a spiritual currency and the currency in the economy of God righteousness. So what happens is you and me, we're born in sin is coursing through our blood and through our bones.
Speaker 1 00:06:37 And from the time we can make conscious decisions, what are we choosing? Definitely not unrighteous or not righteousness. It's unrighteousness. Most of you have raved raised kids in this room, or you've been kid at one time and, you know, unrighteousness this billows out of us. And the problem is that our unrighteous, unrighteous, deeds create a problem with us and God, and God is just, and he must deal appropriately and justly with unrighteousness. And somehow we think that we can just be good enough and that good worst can somehow fulfill our unrighteousness debt. Here's here's the problem before Christ. We have no righteousness. We have no righteousness to try to pay off this debt. So here's what happens. Jesus fully got righteous, perfect pays for our sins in our place. And he takes on his body and his soul and his emotions, all the righteous, just punishment that you and I deserve for our unrighteous.
Speaker 1 00:07:33 And so here's the great thing. If somebody pays off your trillion dollar debt, what are you left with? Zero broke bankrupt, right? But Jesus doesn't do that. He doesn't just pay off your trillion dollar sin debt. He actually goes into your County, puts a trillion dollars back in there. And we are given now the righteousness of Christ and it can never be taken away from us no matter how bad or ridiculous we are. We permanently when you trust in Jesus, you have for the rest of your life and all of eternity, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, your sins have been paid for not by your good works, because he didn't have any righteousness before him. But by the, by the blood of Jesus Christ, the righteous blood of Jesus. And so this is the beautiful story. Not only could you not overcome this sin debt, he did it for you.
Speaker 1 00:08:17 And then he gave you his righteousness. And now you are in terms of spiritual currency, filthy stinking, rich. So here's what we're going to do after the end of each one of these points, I'm going to say it is finished. And then I want you just to respond with a hearty heartfelt, amen, fills church. It, your sin debt is finished. And then number two, Jesus is saying that God's righteous wrath towards the believers. Unrighteousness is finished. It is 100% satisfied that Jesus on his body and his soul and his emotions. And then the physical realm, the spiritual realm, God has poured out the fullness of his wrath on him. And he has absorbed all of it for any person who would trust in Jesus. And this is why this is incredible news because you will never have to bear on your body, your soul, or your emotions, the wrath of God, because Jesus did it for you. Your sins have been paid for. And the wrath of God has been satisfied. It is finished. And man, number three, Jesus is saying
Speaker 2 00:09:29 Life in the flash it's finished.
Speaker 1 00:09:34 There was a time from the conception of Jesus to the death of Jesus, where he laid aside, some of the privileges of DD. So free sample in Jesus was in Mary's womb. He wasn't pondering the meaning of the universe. He actually had to grow in wisdom and stature and between the conception of Jesus and his death, he endured and overcame the temptations and limitations of this flesh, which is so important because the only way the sacrifice would be accepted is if somebody's righteous died in the place of somebody unrighteous, this is why we obsess as Christians over the fact that Jesus was flawless. He was sinless. He was without air because if there was an ounce of sin in him, his death would have been meaningless in terms of being in our place for our sins.
Speaker 2 00:10:20 Jesus gets to the end of his life. And this is it. This
Speaker 1 00:10:24 Flesh, no more three days later, he is raised from the dead with incorruptible flesh, no longer being tempted by the things that you and I are tempted by. And we get to look to his resurrected body and say, there is going to come a day because of the death of Jesus price, where we do not have to deal with this irritating and frustrating and decaying and perishable bag of flesh.
Speaker 2 00:10:46 Amen. Amen. Phillips church. It is finished. Number four,
Speaker 1 00:10:53 Lastly, not least to not at all. All the reasons Jesus is saying
Speaker 2 00:10:58 The need for animal
Speaker 1 00:11:00 Sacrifices is finished. You may not know the old Testament very well, but God had created an instituted a sacrificial system, not one that actually forgave sins, but was a shadow of foreshadow at type. It looks forward to the ultimate sacrifice. And in one singular event, Jesus made obsolete the entire Jewish sacrificial system. Now let me just say this to you. Are you not glad that when we come to church to worship that we have to sacrifice animals before we can approach the presence of God, can I get a, is finished amen from everyone in this room. Amen. I am so grateful to live on this side of the cross. Now a year from now, we're going to come to another good Friday service and you all will be here and more. And people have come to Christ over the, over the next 12 months. And you may not remember the details of each of the four responsibilities that Jesus finished on the cross. You may not remember Psalm 69, that this is the last prophecy and shadow that the Messiah Jesus was going to fulfill before he gave up his spirit. I do want you to remember this, if there's ever a moment and there probably will be when things look so
Speaker 2 00:12:09 Bad that you are tempted to say
Speaker 1 00:12:14 That God has
Speaker 2 00:12:16 Lost his mind, the battle control, or you might,
Speaker 1 00:12:27 I'd be tempted to say, God is dead,
Speaker 2 00:12:32 Irrelevant,
Speaker 1 00:12:34 Unable to stop evil. An antiquated idea. I want to ask you to come back to this moment because on the surface, when you look at this moment, if you could go back in time and observe what's happening,
Speaker 2 00:12:50 Everyone is morning.
Speaker 1 00:12:52 Jesus utters. These words, which probably to most people was nonsense.
Speaker 2 00:12:59 It is
Speaker 1 00:13:01 Finished and the guards they look, they don't know what this means.
Speaker 2 00:13:06 And I want you to remember this when you're talking
Speaker 1 00:13:08 And to, to believe probably like all of the disciples were tempted to believe probably like Mary was tempted to believe. Probably like all the people who followed Jesus for attempted to believe. I want you to come back to this. And here is always the case. When things look their worst, this is when God starts to
Speaker 2 00:13:30 The best is actually truly yet to come sin, death, Satan pain,
Speaker 1 00:13:39 Heartache loss, they never get the final word. And you'll notice a theme in our service. We're not hesitant or afraid to acknowledge. And our good Friday service the resurrection
Speaker 2 00:13:51 Because this isn't the first good Friday and what we need to do
Speaker 1 00:13:55 No. And be reminded is on our good Friday. Jesus paid for our sin, but we don't have to stay there depressed and sad because
Speaker 2 00:14:04 He overcame. He was raised from the dead. He is victorious and he has a conquer and everything.
Speaker 1 00:14:11 Single. One of the people staring at him, all they saw was hopelessness. God is dead. God is irrelevant. God has lost. Satan has one discouragement and every single one of them are going to have their minds blown. And just a few short days,
Speaker 2 00:14:26 It's a good Friday.
Speaker 1 00:14:27 Those church, it's a communion service. And they possible, Paul says about communion. He says, this is often as you eat this bread and you drink the cup. You proclaim the Lord's death until it comes. And so the apostle Paul says about communion, that it is a proclamation
Speaker 2 00:14:43 And just a few
Speaker 1 00:14:44 Minutes, we're going to celebrate community together. And when we partake, we are pre-K
Speaker 2 00:14:47 Naming the death of Jesus
Speaker 1 00:14:52 And we are proclaiming ready for it. It is
Speaker 2 00:14:55 Finished. And then Jesus,
Speaker 1 00:14:58 It says about communion. The communion is about remembering that the people of God, when they gather for worship, they're going to come together and they're going to remember through wine and bread. We do juice, whatever. And so you remember though, you look back to the blood that was shed in the body that was murdered for our sin in our place, righteousness for the sake of unrighteousness. And we're going to take time, but we gather as people and we are going to remember what he has done for us. And so every time we come together, we have a sort of a mini good Friday service, if you will. And we look back and our hearts are filled with gratitude, with awe, with the reality and the weight of how much our God loves us and what he's done for us in our place.
Speaker 2 00:15:42 If
Speaker 1 00:15:43 You are here as a Christian, our job on good Fridays to remember and to proclaim, and maybe you're here and you have personally never trusted in Jesus. When I referred to Christians earlier, you kind of have this self-awareness that that's really not me. Maybe somebody dragged you here. Maybe you're just curious. Communion is a time where you are being invited to trust in Jesus, maybe for the very first time in your entire life, where you're invited to receive the forgiveness of your sins. Not because you were good enough or better than somebody else, nobody ever got to heaven because they were good. The only way they ever got to heaven was by trusting in Jesus and having his shed blood, his righteousness paid for their sin. And communion is an invitation to you personally, will you accept what Jesus has done on the cross for you in your place?
Speaker 1 00:16:34 And if you believe that Jesus is God that he died on the cross for your sins and that he was raised from the dead. If you believe that you can never be good enough to earn your salvation, but you are asking him to forgive you and apply what he did to your account. If that's where you're at, I want to invite you in a moment. We're going to partake of these elements. And I want to ask you, would you take and partake with us as your first personal proclamation that you believe Jesus died for your sins? Maybe today will be the day that you trust in Christ. Maybe you're not ready. Maybe you have a whole bunch of more questions. And I know that we would love to have you take a next step and answer any questions that you have now under your seat, you can feel free to grab it.
Speaker 1 00:17:14 There are some elements at the top. There is a wafer and underneath is his juice. And there's some simple requests that we have for anybody at village church. If you've trusted in Christ, maybe you go to a different church, maybe you're visiting with us. We invite you to partake of communion with us. We are one body in Jesus, not through village church, but through faith in the shed, blood of Jesus Christ. There are kids in the room. And so here's our policy on kids, mom and dad. It's totally up to you if you are okay. And you know that your kids personally trusted in Jesus Christ. We want to invite you to invite them, to partake of communion with us. And again, maybe you're here and you've never trusted in Christ. And if you're not ready to place your faith in him, we just ask that you not partake because to partake is, is to make a personal proclamation.
Speaker 1 00:18:07 That Jesus is your God. He is your savior. And that you believe in him in his resurrection. And if you're not ready to do that yet, we just ask that you not partake. Nobody will judge you or look down on you truly. We're just really glad you're here. And so here's what we're going to do next. We're going to have just a time of silence. It's a time to remember. It's a time to reflect and it's a time to confess. And then when we're done, I'm going to read some scripture and we're going to partake of these elements together as a symbol of our unity in Jesus, let's have a time of silence
Speaker 3 00:18:37 Together.
