The Cross of Jesus is at the very center of our faith. In this message we will consider the last three things Jesus said before he died and why they are so important to us.
JOHN 19:28-29, JOHN 19:30, LUKE 23:44-46:
THE LAST THREE OF THE SEVEN SAYINGS OF CHRIST FROM THE CROSS
INTRODUCTION
Next Friday is “Good Friday.” Good Friday commemorates the most important event that has ever happened in the history of the world: the death of our Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins.
Back in 1950 two gunmen charged up the steps of Blair House, where President Truman was living at the time, in an attempt to assassinate him. One of them killed a White House guard before both were subdued. A fund was set up to help the murdered guard’s children.
In promoting the fund, President Truman made this remark: “You can’t understand just how a man feels when someone else dies for him.”
My intention in speaking to you today about Christ’s words from the Cross is to help you feel what it means that Jesus died for you. Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." That is what the cross means to you and me. Jesus laid down his life so that we might have eternal life in him.
Last time we talked about the first four of the seven sayings of Christ from the cross:
The first saying was to his Father. He prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
The second saying was to the thief crucified on a cross beside him turned to him and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. Jesus said to him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
The third saying was really two. He turned toward his mother and said, nodding toward the disciple he loved he said, “Woman, behold your son!”
Then to the disciple he said, ”Behold your mother!”
The fourth saying shows the deepest anguish of Jesus’ heart as he hung there. It is recorded in both Matthew and Mark. He cries out to God: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
I. The fifth saying of Jesus from the cross is found in John 19.28-29: “Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), ‘I thirst,’”
A. Water is a powerful image in John’s gospel.
He promised the Samaritan woman at the well: “Whoever drinks the water I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
He stood up at the great feast and proclaimed: “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me…out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.”
B. Do you remember that when Jesus cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he was quoting the first words of Psalm 22?
In his intense thirst Jesus is recalling some other words from Psalm 22:
“I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax,
it is melted within my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd.
and my tongue cleaves to my jaws;
thou dost lay me in the dust of death” (vv14-15).
So the soldiers gave him vinegar wine—
This was actually an act of kindness. The “vinegar” was a cheap wine that the soldiers drank—but it was a far cry from the fine wine that Jesus made for his friends at the wedding at Cana.
C. This saying reminds us that Jesus’ death was not simply a tragic accident. It was part of God’s plan. It had been foretold. It was necessary for our salvation.
II. John records the sixth saying of Christ on the cross: “It is finished.” (John 19:30).
A. Jesus realizes that his mission is now completed.
No longer is the cry of despair but of triumph.
His faith has held, he has overcome the power of sin, and his work is finished, he has redeemed his people.
The word for “it is finished” is the word the ancient Greeks wrote on receipts when the bill had been paid in full.
He had prayed to the Father, when he entered into his sufferings, “Your will be done.” Now he says in effect, “It has been done.”
B. I will tell you a story about how that saying “It is finished” helped my grandfather find assurance of salvation.
My grandfather came to America from Russia.
Long, long ago, when I was a boy, my grandfather told me the story of how he found assurance of salvation. I didn’t write it down, but I remember it well. I think it is a true story.
Grandpa was a young man when he arrived in the United States. He came to Kansas and worked on a farm for a while, but finally he ended up working in a tailor shop in Kansas City.
One Monday, before beginning his work, Grandpa fished out of his pocket a Sunday school paper he had received at church the day before.
He spread it on his cutting board in front of him and began to read.
This is the story Grandpa read that changed his life:
Once, a long time ago, there lived, in a country in Europe, a young nobleman. He was a fine, important young man, admired by many, but he lived a careless and selfish life. As time went by, he felt worse and worse about his shabby ways and began to feel very sad. Finally, he determined to do something to make amends. He had learned that there was a monastery in a country 700 miles away which was famous for the rigorous life that it imposed on the monks who lived there.
The young man determined to join that monastery and try, by suffering and acts of devotion, to find forgiveness for his wicked life. He journeyed for many days on horseback and finally reached the monastery.
He knocked at the door of the monastery, and an old monk came and opened the door. The young man told the old monk of his willingness to endure any penance to clear his conscience and find forgiveness.
The old monk looked at him and said, “You’re too late!” The nobleman was shocked, but the monk went on, “You’re too late because God has already done it all. No amount of penance you can endure will earn you salvation.”
The old monk told the young man. “When Jesus died he said, ‘It is finished.’ That means that there’s nothing more for you to do. Jesus has paid the price for your salvation.”
The young man in the story then received Jesus into his life and with Jesus the gift of eternal life.
That story showed Grandpa that full and complete forgiveness comes by simply trusting in Jesus, knowing that in his death he had paid the price of salvation for us all.
Grandpa told me how thrilled he was at the discovery that Jesus Christ offers full and complete forgiveness to anyone who comes to him with faith. He chuckled as he told me that the young man in the story had gone 700 miles to find Christ, but he had come 7000.
Whenever I read those words “It is finished” I think about how they were in that story that was so important to my grandfather.
Many who have despaired of working their way into heaven have found in this saying the assurance that Christ has accomplished what they could not.
“Jesus paid it all;
All to him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain;
He washed it white as snow.”
III. The last of the 7 sayings of Christ from the cross is found in Luke 23.44-46: “Father, into thy hand I commit my spirit.”
A. These are the words of Psalm 31:5.
It is said that Jewish mothers gave this prayer to their children to repeat each night as they went to sleep. The entire verse as recorded in Psalm 31 is: “Into thy hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”
The sense of forsakenness seems to have left Jesus, and now he yields himself into the loving arms of his Father. He had said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!”
Now he is able again to address God as “Father” and rest confidently in his hands.
By committing himself to the Father he offers himself up as an offering to God on our behalf.
Again, we go to Isaiah 53 and find these words: “He makes himself an offering for sin” (v10).
B. These words—“Father, into thy hand I commit my spirit”—have been the last words of any number of Christian believers. I hope they will be mine.
C. We learn from this saying that in the time of our departure comes, we can, with confidence, offer our spirits to our Father in heaven.
CONCLUSION
Frederick W. Robertson very great preacher who lived over 150 years ago. I love to read his sermons. In one of them he says this:
“Life is a sleep, a dream, and death is the real awaking.”
When you go to sleep tonight say this prayer to God: “Father, into your hand I commit my spirit.” Pray this prayer every night and when God calls you, you can go to him in peace.
[Note: The entire verse, Psalm 31:5, is as follows: “Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, Lord, my faithful God” (TNIV). or “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God” (NRSV). or “Into thy hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed my, O Lord God of truth” (KJV).]
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