The Word of Triumph

Sam.

Good morning, church. Good to see all of you this morning. This morning we’ll be continuing our series entitled Last Words. We’ve been looking at the seven last sayings of Christ from the cross. And over the past few weeks we’ve covered the first five.

And this morning we’ll be covering the word of Triumph, the sixth saying from the cross where Christ says, it is finished. Now, last night I thought we were finished for a while. I thought UNC was finished there at the end, didn’t you? I know some of you wanted them to be finished, others of you are rooting for them. It’s dangerous to talk about basketball in the Tar Heel State.

But just an observation, they won. They were triumphant last night. They still have one more game to go, right? But I don’t think it was one of those triumphs that you celebrate in the locker room. I think you go in and lay down on the floor and go, thank you, Lord, that we survived that one.

I mean, that was ugly.

But when Christ said it is finished, it was not him saying, I’m glad that’s over. Wow, that was a close one. I’m glad that’s done. That’s not what this means at all. It means quite the opposite, because as you look at the cross, many would see defeat.

But Christ was not defeated. He was triumphant. And when he said it is finished, it was a word of triumph.

He says that word of triumph so that we might no longer be defeated. How many of you feel defeated today? You feel defeated by something. Maybe you feel defeated in your marriage, maybe you feel defeated in business. You’ve tried something, it’s not working.

Maybe you feel defeated as a parent. Don’t we all feel defeated as a parent from time to time? Depends on the day of the week. Maybe you’re a stay at home mom and you feel pretty overwhelmed and defeated sometimes. Maybe you’re a husband, a father, and you feel defeated, you feel inadequate.

We all experience seasons of defeat. But Jesus says it is finished so that we might have victory. Do you believe that? This morning, those that look at the cross and they see tragedy. Christ says, no triumph.

What looked like complete failure, he turned into a total triumph. In the Gospel of John, Jesus let out a triumphant cry. He said is finished. He had finished the work of salvation. You see, salvation is a finished work.

Christ has finished it. But how can we receive it? There’s nothing to add to it, but what’s our part? How can we receive this finished work of Jesus? And as we look at the text today, I think it Gives us three ways that we might respond to the finished work of salvation and in Christ.

So let’s look at the text today. Just three verses today. And we’ll read a couple of verses that we read last week. And then we’ll focus on verse 30 of John chapter 19. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the Scripture, I thirst.

A jar full of sour wine stood there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. This is God’s word.

Amen. Looking for three ways that we might respond that we can respond to Christ’s finished work of salvation. The first is this. Understand the mission he accomplished. Understand the mission he accomplished.

Let’s focus on those three little words. It is finished. It is finished. Similar to last week when we said we were talking about the phrase I thirst, it’s two words. I thirst is two words in English, but in the Greek it was one word.

And here again, it’s three words in the English, but in the Greek it was one word. Tetelestai is the Greek word tetelestai. It is finished. It’s in the Greek perfect tense, which means it’s already complete. It’s perfect.

It’s complete. But it has ongoing results. The results just keep rolling out. Has this idea. The root word inside of tetelestai is the root word in the Greek tel.

It’s where we get the word telescope. Telescope having to do with the end. Like just kind of imagine a pirate’s telescope. Aren’t those the best? They go clink, clink, clink, like that.

A pirate’s telescope. And it’s like this. It’s like clink, clink, clink, clink. The Old Testament rolls out, rolls out more. Just a progressive revelation of what’s coming.

And then Jesus comes and he’s the object. He’s the end. He’s the one who says, it is finished. Tetelestai. It is finished.

That which was always prophesied would happen has now happened.

Tedlestai here means mission accomplished, finished, fulfilled, complete. As it says in the Latin, vulgate consummatum est consummated. It is consummated. It is whole, Mission accomplished. And it says in verse 28, leading up to this, that he knew what he was getting into and he knew when it was finished.

Look at verse 28 again. Jesus knowing that all was now finished. Every Detail, every nuance, all. He had completed it perfectly. It was all now finished.

And then he said, I thirst in order to fulfill the scripture. In other words, the Scripture is finished. If you were looking at this in the Greek, you would see the word tetelestai three times. Jesus, knowing that all was now tetelestai, said to tetelestai the scripture. He said, tetelestai.

Now, if God says something once in the scripture, you should take note. If he said something twice, you should underline it and pay particular attention to it. But if he says something three times, you better know something great is being said here. Something’s being communicated. He’s saying, knowing that all is now finished and I’ve done everything to fulfill the scripture.

Give me something to drink so I can clear my throat. I thirst so I can clear my throat, so I can take hold of these spikes and so I can brace on that spike through my feet. And like a champion, say, mission accomplished. Like that. It is finished.

This is not the saying of one who is defeated. No, this is a triumphant word, Mission accomplished. Look at it in the New Living translation. Verse John 19:28 says, Jesus knew that his mission was now finished. Mission accomplished.

Mission accomplished. He knew from the beginning what this mission would entail. He always knew what he was getting into. When you used to watch that show, maybe you used to watch a show or you’ve seen the movie version, Mission Impossible. The mission, if you choose to accept it, and it’s always some impossible mission, well, he chose to accept it.

And only one person could complete it, and it was him. And he did. He says, mission accomplished. He knew from the beginning. He knew the details of the mission.

No one had ever entered into a mission like this, where they knew every nuance of what it would cost them, yet said yes to it anyway. First Peter describes it like this. He says in First Peter, for you know that God paid a ransom to save you. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Jesus.

The precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began. Do you see that? Long before the world began. But now, in these last days, he’s been revealed for your sake.

Before he ever created the world, God had already decided he was going to send Jesus to pay for our sin. He’d already said, you’ve got a mission. He knew it. He knew it before, even late, the first star in the heavens. He knew that he would send Jesus the Book of Revelation describes it like this.

Listen to this language. It’s very particular, very peculiar, really, for those of us that are trapped inside of time. But God’s outside of time. And it says this. The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

What? Before you ever created the world, the Lamb was slain. He might as well have been, because God had already predetermined that he would do it. Jesus had already said, yes to the mission. It’s going to get done.

And now it says in verse 28, now, seeing that he has done it, he says, I’ve done it. The mission’s accomplished. He’d done all that was necessary. What we’re saying is that on day four of creation, when God set the stars in heaven, he set a particular star in motion, the star of Bethlehem, so that it would appear on a particular day to announce the birth of his Son so that the wise men could locate Him. He said on day three, he planted trees on planet Earth.

And he knew when he planted a particular tree that it would be the wood from this particular tree that evil men would fashion a cross and crucify his Son. On day six, he made a lamb, a little lamb. And he knew when he made the little lamb that someday soon Adam and Eve would sin against him and he would have to slay, slay that little lamb and clothe their nakedness. And he also knew that this little lamb would be a type, a foreshadowing of his Son, who would be the Lamb of God.

Whenever they sinned. And he had to curse their sin. He had to say, now here’s what’s going to happen. Because you’ve sinned, death’s going to come. And he cursed the ground, and he cursed the ground, and he said, now here’s what’s going to happen.

Thorns and thistles are going to come up on planet Earth. And he knew when he said that that evil men would take those thorns and they would fashion a crown of thorns and they would place them on the brow of his sweet Son. He knew this. Jesus knew this. It was all foretold.

But in the midst of this curse, in the midst of this moment, when God says, because of your sin, death is coming because of your sin, a woman will suffer when she gives in labor, when she gives birth to a child, a man will suffer. And by the sweat of his brow, he’ll work. And instead of coming up what he wants to come up, thorns will come up. But then in the midst of that, when he’s talking to the evil one, when he’s talking to the serpent, he actually foretells something wonderful. Genesis 3:15 is often called the proto evangelium, the first gospel.

He says this to the serpent. This is God speaking. He says, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. If you look closely, you’ll notice a few details.

One is that the evil one and the woman, the serpent and the woman will be enemies. He says, between your seed, the seed of the evil one, and her seed. And by the way, if you know your biology, women don’t have a seed, men have a seed, women don’t have a seed. This is particularly language, peculiar language, pointing, I think, to the virgin birth. And he will have his heel bruised by you.

In other words, you’ll. It’ll look like you got him. And I think that points to the cross, but he’s going to crush your head, which points to the triumph that he’s going to win the victory over Satan. Right? There it is.

You only have to read three chapters of Genesis to see. He’s already talking about the mission that Christ is coming to accomplish. He has fulfilled the scripture. Not just this one, this is the first one. But those who have counted count over 300 prophecies predicting that Jesus would come.

It’s a mathematical improbability that any one person could complete this mission, could fulfill every Scripture. Yet Christ says, seeing, knowing that I have fulfilled it and I have fulfilled every scripture, I’m going to say to you now, fulfilling the scripture, it is finished. Mission accomplished. CH. Spurgeon says this.

All types, promises and prophecies were now fully accomplished in him. There is not a single jewel of promise. From that first emerald which fell on the threshold of Eden to that last sapphire of Malachi, which was not set in the breastplate of the true High Priest. No, there is not a type. From the red heifer down to the turtledove, from the hyssop upwards to Solomon’s temple itself, which was not fulfilled in him.

Not a prophecy, whether spoken on Chabar’s bank or on the shores of Jordan, not a dream of wise men, whether they received it in Babylon, Samaria or Judea, which was not now fully worked out in Christ Jesus. He has fulfilled all mission accomplished. I filled every one of the scriptures that spoke of me. I have completed my mission. Now, when you study a phrase like it is finished.

We’ve been working on the word finished. It has the idea of mission accomplished, but the word, it points to the Mission, it is finished. Well, what is it? What is the mission exactly? Well, what did he mean?

Let me mention a few things. One or two we’ve already implied, but let’s get more specific. What did Jesus mean by it is finished? First of all, it meant all scripture fulfilled. All scripture fulfilled.

That’s what we’ve been talking about. All scripture. The Book of Luke. As Jesus is walking up to Jerusalem, he’s talking to the 12 disciples. And he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the Son of Man.

Now, Son of Man is a messianic title, first seen in the Book of Daniel. Daniel calls him Son of Man. And Luke picks up this title that Jesus often used to describe himself. To say Son of Man is to say Messiah or Christ. He says, everything that is written about the Christ, about the Messiah, about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

There’s that word, tetelestai be accomplished. For he will be delivered over the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him. And on the third day, he will rise. This is Jesus telling them what he’s going up to Jerusalem to do and what will happen.

But it says they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them and they did not grasp what was said. But Jesus, Jesus knew. He knew why he was going up there. He always knew.

All scripture fulfilled. And then secondly, all sacrifices abolished. All sacrifices abolished. The Jewish sacrificial system, which for centuries and centuries, the little lambs and the heifers and the goats and all the turtle doves, all the sacrificial system was now fulfilled in Christ. All of it pointed to Jesus.

All those checks. And by the way, those paper checks that we write are just worthless unless people that receive them have faith that the bank actually has the money you say it has on that check. See, a check is just worthless piece of paper. But it says if you turn this into the bank, they’ll give you that amount of money. Well, all those sacrifices were worthless unless someone made a deposit that made them worth what they said they were worth.

Well, Jesus says mission accomplished. There’s now no need for any further sacrifices. The sacrificial system is abolished now because I’ve fulfilled it. So in 70 A.D. jesus was crucified around 33 to 35 A.D. 70 A.D. in that same generation, just as Jesus prophesied In Matthew chapter 24, not one stone will be left on another. The temple was torn down by the Romans.

And there has not been a sacrifice since 70 AD the Jews have had synagogues ever since, but they could no longer have sacrifices because the Levitical law required that there has to be a temple. And there is no temple. Jesus has fulfilled it. Sacrifices abolished. Hebrews says it like this.

First Christ said, you did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. Nor were you pleased with them, though they are required by the law of Moses. Then he said, look, I’ve come to do your will. He cancels the first covenant, which is the Old Testament, in order to put the second into effect. The second is the New Testament.

For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time. He’s saying, mission accomplished, no further need for sacrifices. And then thirdly. So all Scripture fulfilled, all sacrifices abolished. Thirdly, all sin atoned for.

All sin atoned for. What is it? What is that mission he has accomplished? He’s fulfilled all the scripture. He’s taken care of all the sacrifices so that there’s no further need for them.

And he’s atoned for all sin. Last week I taught you a word. It’s a salvation word. It’s the word propitiation. I had a middle school girl give me a connection card last week.

She wrote on her connection card, pastor Gary, thank you for teaching us a new vocabulary word, propitiation. I hope I spelled that right. And then she drew a little face with its tongue stuck out. I hope I spelled that right like that. And she did.

She spelled it right. Now, if a middle schooler can learn what the word propitiation means, maybe we have hope. Propitiation is one of the parts of the complete work of salvation. It describes one portion of the whole of salvation. Propitiation, as we learned last week, means to satisfy.

It means satisfaction of God’s holiness and wrath, which is pointed at sin. So Christ becomes the propitiation so that God’s judgment fell on him rather than us. The judgment. See God’s holy, but God’s also love. And so in love he sent His Son.

But in holiness he judged us on His Son. So he becomes the propitiation, the satisfaction. Or another word that’s similar to propitiation that we see in the Bible is the word atonement. He was the atonement. He atoned for our sin.

Propitiation and atonement are often used synonymously. He became the atonement for our sins. One way I remember what that word Atonement means is to say it like this. At one, he makes us at one with the Father by dealing with that which was between us. 1 John 2, 2 in the NIV says he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

If we read the same verse in the esv, it leaves that theological word intact and it says he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Which sins did Jesus die for? The sins of the whole world. Yeah, but Gary, what about this? What about this?

Surely you don’t mean this, what about this? Because we’re all, we all have that list of sins that we didn’t do yet that somebody needs to get judged for. Or some of us are here today and we have a sin that keeps getting us and we keep repeating and we feel so beat up about it that now we’re worried that we’re not worthy of salvation. But see, that lacks faith because he says it is finished. Which means I paid for every sin.

I paid for every sin. The sins of the entire world fell upon him and he became an atonement and a propitiation for our sins. Do you understand the mission that Christ has accomplished? It’s mission accomplished. That’s what he’s saying from the cross.

He’s saying mission accomplished. So there’s nothing left for me to do except to respond to it. I must believe this, I understand it. What is it he has done for me? And then I have to make a decision, will I believe it?

And then having believed it, leads us to the second way we can respond. We receive it. Receive the perfect gift he purchased. Receive the perfect gift he purchased. So tetelestai, as we have said, means the idea of mission accomplished.

But it also has a very common kind of meaning. It was a well known word used in the marketplace that when you got your receipt after buying something, they would stamp it tetelestai, paid in full. Do you have anything that’s paid in full? More and more Americans rarely see this. Have you ever had a car where they actually let you have the title?

And if you ever pay a car off, some of us are like, can you do that? Yes, you can. It’s possible. You pay a car off, the bank sends you the title to your home and it’s, it doesn’t have tedlestai on there because they don’t speak Greek. It says paid in full, which is the same thing.

Now that car is actually yours. And so some of us think that means we now need to go Buy another one. Some of us never see that title because we trade it in before we ever get it paid off. So we never get to see paid in full. But Jesus says, from the cross it is finished, which means paid in full.

It’s a perfect gift. There’s nothing left to pay for. It’s a perfect gift. Here’s another theological term for you. I’ve taught you propitiation, which has to do with the mission accomplished part, that it means he has satisfied the parameters of the mission and it’s the word redemption.

Here’s your second word for the the day. Second theological word. We’re talking about the finished work of salvation. It includes propitiation. It includes redemption.

It means paid for, paid in full. You’ve been purchased out of slavery to sin and set free to be a son and a daughter of God of the Father. You’ve been bought out and set free. You’ve been purchased, redeemed, redemption. Paid in full.

There’s nothing left now. What must we do in order to receive this? Well, what do you do to get a gift? How do you receive a gift? Oh, well, you shouldn’t have.

You shouldn’t have.

I never say that. I go, I’m so glad you did. Can I open it now?

Or if you’re my wife, she sneaks under the tree and tries to find out what’s inside. And she’s a perfect rewrapper.

So I have to use nested boxes and other approaches to try to defeat her curiosity.

How do you receive a gift?

We take it. That’s how you receive a gift. Here comes the gift. Right? This is salvation.

It’s coming towards me. And how do I receive it? I take it. I take it. I receive it.

It’s got your name on it. It’s waiting for you. You have to open it to receive it. It’s a gift. It’s already bought and paid for.

Jesus has paid the full price. There’s nothing left on account for you to do except to receive it. Romans says this, Romans, chapter three. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, through the payment that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. We got a twofer in that verse.

We got redemption and propitiation in that one passage. It’s a gift. It’s free. Free to you. It cost him much.

It’s simple. I was talking to someone earlier this Week. And they said, you know, I came here week after week, month after month, listening to you talking about how to become a believer, how to come to Christ. And I just kept leaving, going. It cannot be that simple.

He’s not telling me everything. He’s holding something back. Really, it can’t be that simple. And then finally one day he says, I realized it was. It was just that simple.

Well, why is it so simple? Because it was complicated for him. Why is it so free? Because it cost him all. Why is it so easy?

Because it was hard for him. That’s why he paid the full price. It’s free to us, but it costs him all. Ephesians 2 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so no one may boast.

So grace, which is unmerited favor, he sends his son Jesus to save us. And then he says, through faith. What is faith? Well, in this story, faith is the hand that receives.

And he says, okay, it’s free. I’ve paid for it. Here it comes, salvation. How do you get it? It’s like a gift.

You have to receive it. You have to receive it. And don’t go around bragging on your faith, because God made that too. Just like he made this hand. He paid for the gift.

He wrapped it up in Jesus. He sent it to you. You’re hearing about it right now. You’re hearing about it right now. How do you get it?

By faith. Through faith. And that not of yourselves. That too is a gift from God. So that nobody’s got anything to brag about except for Jesus.

That’s the only thing we all have to brag about. Amen. It is finished. Paid in full. Paid in full in John 17, when Jesus is praying.

And by the way, John 17 contains his actual prayer. The other prayer in Matthew that we read is often called the Our Father. That’s actually Jesus training prayer. He’s teaching the disciples how to pray. But in 17 John 17, he’s actually praying.

He says, this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do, having tedlestied the work, having finished the work. This is what he’s saying.

I’ve paid it. I’ve done it. I’ve paid in full.

Will you receive this gift? That’s the only thing we can do. We can’t add to it.

There’s Nothing to add. There’s only a gift to receive so we understand the mission accomplished. We receive the free gift, the perfect gift that he’s paid for. And then number three, proclaim the wonderful victory he won. Proclaim the wonderful victory he won.

As we think about this, this seems to be the thing that he’s doing here. Clearly when he says tetelestai it is finished. He’s saying mission accomplished. He’s saying paid in full. But he’s also saying victory won.

Like a champion, like someone who has run the race and finished it in first place. Victory won.

Victory won. It is finished. I’ve crossed the finish line. Last week when we talked about the phrase I thirst, one of the things I talked about was he asked for this drink, having rejected the earlier offering for drinks. The early offering had been, according to Matthew and Mark, wine mixed with myrrh or wine mixed with gall.

And he tasted it and refused it. Why? Well, because that had a medical, medicinal kind of effect on the one who would drink it and so that it would reduce the effects of the pain and cloud. The reason Jesus said, no, I need to be clear headed no, I need to feel the full effect of what I’m about to do. Don’t you understand?

I came here accomplish this mission. I came here to pay this in full. I came here to win this victory. I am not going to medicate the pain. I’m going to drink it down to the bitter dregs.

He refused those offers of that first cup.

But then he asks for a drink. He says, I thirst. And we talked about that last week and they offered him sour wine, which was the wine of the commoner, the wine of the laborer and of the Roman soldiers. And he took a drink of that. It says verse 30.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, in other words, he drank it, he sucked on it from that sponge. Remember they offered it to him on a hyssop branch and the moisture loosened his tongue so that his cracked lips could part. So that instead of just barely groaning, I thirst, he was able to take a deep breath and say, it is finished.

Victory won.

I believe he shouted it. John said he said it. Which leaves room for the volume we don’t know. John doesn’t describe the volume by which he spoke, but the other gospels do. Matthew says Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

Mark says Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. Luke says Jesus calling out with a loud voice. I believe the other three gospel writers, as we’ve referred to this in previous weeks. They were eyewitnesses, but they were standing a little farther away at the edge of the crowd. Whereas John’s right there close to the cross with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and a couple of the other Marys, as we’ve talked about.

And he heard what he said. And those from a distance just heard him make out a loud cry. It is finished.

Victory won. God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away. By nailing it to the cross in this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Here’s what he did. He took the charges that were against you, and he nailed the charges on the cross. He took the sins that were against you, and he nailed them on the cross. He took them. They were nailed to the cross.

They were canceled. Like if they’re going to. If you are late on your rent and they’re going to kick you out, the sheriff will come by and put something on your door, might change your locks. He says, look, I’m taking that. I’m paying that in full.

I’ve won the victory. I’m going to nail that to the cross. Everything is nailed to the cross. And not only that, he put to shame the spiritual rulers and authorities. In other words, all the followers of Satan who thought they had him.

Oh, we got him. But then they hear this last word, it is finished. And they go, wait a minute. What was that? What did he just say?

What was that last? Uh. Oh, you see, they bruised his heel, but he crushed their head. He won the victory. He has won the victory over Satan.

And all of those who work for Satan, he put them to shame by crying out victory from the cross. Romans says this, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Much more now that we are reconciled. Shall we be saved by his life? More than that, we also rejoice.

We proclaim, in other words, in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Remember, it’s a finished work, the salvation work. It’s finished. He’s been the propitiation. He’s been the redemption.

He’s the reconciliation. In other words, he makes us right with the Father. It’s a finished work. There’s nothing left undone. It’s all there.

It’s a finished work. It is finished, he says. First Corinthians says the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He’s a victor.

He’s won the race. And those of us that believe in him are victors, too. We have victory in him.

I don’t know how you’re feeling this morning. I don’t know if you feel defeated, if something just got you down. Would you hear Christ’s call from the cross? This sixth cry, he says it is finished. Mission accomplished.

Paid in full. Victory won. This past week, when I was studying, I studied with a study team. On Wednesdays, we preached the same sermon at our Wilson campus and our Rocky Mount campus. And then we preach twice in this campus on Sunday morning.

And we prepare the same sermon. We prepare it together. That doesn’t mean we preach the same sermon, but we prepare the same sermon. If you attend both services, you’ll go, well, you didn’t quite preach the same sermon. Well, it’s because I had a different group of people looking back at me.

And the Holy Spirit moves me as I look. It’s kind of like. I feel like it’s a dialogue. Well, I didn’t say much, but there’s something going on here that. Not just about me and you.

It’s the Holy Spirit using His Word to speak to us. And so first and second service are often different. I tell different stories. I don’t mean to. I just try to be obedient.

And then my son Jonathan preaches most Sundays at the Rocky Mount campus. I say most Sundays because he’s a chaplain in the National Guard. So one weekend a month, he’s often preaching to the soldiers. And then we send another member of our teaching team. But I tell you all this as we study on Wednesdays, what will happen to the old man, that’s me, is I’ll start humming a song while we’re studying.

And Jonathan, or Finney, as we call him, because when he was a little feller, Stephen couldn’t say his name. He called him Jonathan and it became Finny. So that’s what we call him, Finney. Finney will go, what’s that you’re humming, dad? And then I’ll sing it.

And then sometimes I’ll start walking and jumping around through the house, hooping and hollering. Now, I said hooping and hollering last week. And somebody that was from the hills of Virginia said, I know where you learned to say that, because that’s what you do when you proclaim and get excited about Jesus up in the hills. You hoop and holler. I Don’t know what you do in the flatlands, but you are all commanded to sing and proclaim and shout victory.

Wonder. I started humming. Would you like to know what I was humming? Some people are like, are you going to sing again?

Yes.

I heard an old, old story How a savior came from glory how he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me. I heard about his groaning of his precious blood’s atoning. Then I repented of my sins and won the victory O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. He sought me and he bought me with his redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew him and all my love is due him he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.

Victory in Jesus no longer defeated Always planned for this Jesus Mission accomplished, paid in full, Victory won. It is finished. The author of Hebrews says this looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He wrote it. He finished it.

Who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. It is this Jesus that we worship today that we proclaim. And I pray that we receive and that we understand. The finished work. It is finished.

Let’s pray.

Lord, I pray for that one today that’s coming in far from you that they would leave near the one who comes in today thinking that they have sinned. A sin that can’t be forgiven. And now they realize all is paid for. One’s thinking it’s too simple. Can it really be this simple?

But now they realize it’s a gift, A perfect gift to be received.

But there’s certainly something I must do. And now they realize, no, he’s done it. All my parts to believe, receive, proclaim. My friend, is that you right where you are? Would you pray with me?

Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. Thank you for dying on the cross for me. Thank you for finishing all that was required.

I believe you died for me, that you were raised from the grave and live today. Come and live in me. Forgive me of my sin. Make me the kind of person you want me to be. I want to be a Christ follower.

I want to be one who proclaims what you’ve done so that others can come into that finished work that you have said is finished. We say it all now in Jesus name, Amen.