Youth & Outreach Director, Hunter Newton, preached this message on April 18, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Audio Transcript
Nearly every religion in the world that is not Christianity is works based, right? The general thinking is that if I. If the good, always the bad at the end of my life, then I’ll get to go to heaven. Muhammad Ali, famous boxer, used to be Cassius Clay, then he converted to Islam and he changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali. Somebody asked him that because they knew about his faith and towards the end of his life they said, well, what do you think?
What’s going to happen to you, Muhammad? And he said, well, right. Basically he reiterated that same thing. He said, well, for everybody, if the good outweighs the bad, then that gets to go to heaven. If not, you go to hell.
That’s terrifying.
That’s anxiety driving, that’s fear, that’s fearful living. I cannot imagine a single worse way to think about what happens after you die. I just can’t. To constantly be walking on this razor’s edge, not knowing which way the scales are tipping or who’s keeping score or how to know what counts for me and what doesn’t count for me, that sounds awful.
And I think it’s to have a very small view of God, to think that he can be paid off in that sort of way. Friends, that’s what Good Friday is all about. Nobody could do enough good, not even one. The book of Romans says, to be made right with God, there’s no such thing as a small sin. There’s no such thing as a little white lie.
There’s no such thing as. Well, maybe I shouldn’t have cheated a little bit that way, because there’s no small God to sin against.
What Good Friday is all about is why Jesus had to come to be made right, to make us right with God, he had to do it for us. At the same time, it’s not for cheap grace either though, so we don’t keep sinning so that grace may abound. Romans 6 would say, by no means right. We wouldn’t keep purposefully hurting our best friend.
Tonight’s message will be shorter, but like the rest of the service, focused on the cross.
What we’re going to do, what we’re going to try to prove to our hearts, to drive deep into our bones, into our guts, so we get it, because we need to know and be reminded of Christ’s work is finished. It’s finished. We can’t add to it. We can simply enjoy it and live out of that enjoyment. Christ’s work on the cross is finished.
There’s no adding to it.
Two points from our passage that will help us prove that to our hearts, to our minds, is that Jesus accomplished everything he set out to do. That Jesus gave up his spirit, not needing any help from us. Our text is John, chapter 19, verses 28 through 30. If you want to follow along in your Bibles, you can turn there now. It’s on page 962 of the Pew Bibles.
It should be right in front of you. John 19, 28, 30.
God’s word there says after this. When Jesus knew that everything was now finished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, he said, I’m thirsty. A jar full of sour wine. It’s kind of, you can think of that as a vinegar sort of type was sitting there. So they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to his mouth.
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Like I said, we’re trying to prove from the text because we need to prove it to our hearts continually, repeatedly. Christ’s work is finished. One point from the text that will help us do that is in verse 28 through 29.
Jesus accomplished everything he set out to do in the Christian Standard Bible. So that’s what we have in our pews. It says maybe some years translations due to it says that he did this so that everything might be fulfilled or everything that might be finished or complete. And I think that gets really that does a pretty good job. But I prefer the new American Standard Bibles translation.
It says it is accomplished, it is finished. Everything’s done, everything’s complete but accomplished. Gives us this better sense of he came with a mission, he did everything he set out to do. Jesus left no stone unturned, no t uncrossed. There was not one single person he was hoping to have an appointment with, but didn’t simply get around to it.
He carried out his perfect life. By the time that he gets to the cross, everything, he already carried everything out. All that was left to do was to die and rise again. He was crossing off everything that he needed to do for you and for I. And in verse 24 it says that they divided his clothing so the Scriptures would be fulfilled.
It also says a few different things about in verse 28 and verse 26 we see this refrain of so the Scriptures would be fulfilled. It’s clear in John 19 and throughout all of the Gospels. Jesus left no stone unturned, no t uncrossed. There was nothing during his earthly ministry that he wishes he would have gotten around to, but didn’t.
He accomplished everything that he set out to do.
He did this knowing that we fall short. 2nd Corinthians 5:21. If you don’t have that memorized or circled or highlighted in your Bible. It’s one of my favorite parts of all of scripture. It says that he made him who.
Who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. If anyone ever could say I didn’t deserve it, I didn’t do it, it’s Jesus. There’s no one who is less deserving of a criminal’s death, let alone a death as punishing as the cross. He didn’t earn it for himself, but he did it for you and I, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Brothers and sisters, friends, let that not be lost on us.
Jesus went to the cross for you and I. Did God the Father send Jesus to live and die on the cross? Yes. Did Jesus go unwillingly? No.
Every breath he took, word he spoke, day he lived, he was accomplishing for you and I will. We could not.
And he had to be like us. Hebrews 2:14 through 16 says, now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death, that is the devil. Maybe you read elsewhere and in the New Testament says death, where is your sting? In First Corinthians 15, we continue in Hebrews 2:15 and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. That sounds an awfully lot like every other religion in the world.
Would you not be terrified to die if you don’t know what’s going to happen to you?
He destroyed the fear of death for those who come to know Him. We Continue just verse 16 of Hebrews 2. For it is clear that he does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring. Friends, if you know Jesus, you are Abraham’s offspring. He was like us.
But he also got a job done that we could not, finishing a work that we could never accomplish, taking care of sin, death and shame in a way that we had no hope to.
Jesus accomplished everything he set out to do. He also gave up his spirit. Not needing any help from us, we turn our attention to verse 30. It says after he was given the sour wine, he. I’d imagine maybe it’s a deep breath or maybe just collecting.
And man last words are important, aren’t they? The last conversation you have with somebody, the Last words is recorded by this, that, or the other person. His words matter. I don’t know if there’s any more important words that have been spoken in somebody’s dying breasts than it is finished. It’s accomplished.
Even on the cross, though, no one took Christ’s life from him. He gave it up. This lines up well with what else we see in the book of John. Already in chapter 10, Jesus is kind of hinting at it here. He says, this is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.
What I think the text is trying to prove to our hearts, to our minds, is, of course Christ’s work is finished, but Jesus all those years ago is not hanging on the crossing. I got you really close. I got you almost all the way there, but you’re gonna have to take us the rest of the way home. We’re on the two yard line. I got you 95% done or he wasn’t saying, I took care of every single sin except for that one particular sin by that one particular person in Lodi, Wisconsin, the year 2025.
He’s not saying any of that. He’s saying it is finished. It’s done, it’s accomplished. You can’t add to it. It’s for you, it’s for us.
He gave up his spirit for us.
Romans 5, 8 says, But God proves his own love for us. And then, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. When he died on that cross at the place they call the skull or Golgotha, all of our sin was future sin. Friends, you cannot out sin the cross of Jesus Christ. There’s nothing you can.
Romans 8 would say that there’s nothing that can separate us from the love of God if you were truly in him.
He gave up his life and declared that it was finished. He declared it was accomplished. Bible scholar Dr. D.A. carson puts it this way. He said, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them all.
Ice telos. Not only to the end, but to the full extent mandated by his mission. And so on the brink of death, Jesus cries out, it is accomplished. There’s no adding to Jesus work. We need to remember that.
We need to have that. That’s good news, right? That’s good news constantly, right? Should we do good works? Should we do Good things.
Should we be a part of a church body? Should we love and serve and care for the poor? Should we do all these wonderful things? Absolutely. But that does not earn us salvation.
That does not earn us. That does not make us right with God. We could never have done that for ourselves. This is something that we should simply enjoy and live out of that enjoyment. We can’t earn the grace accomplished for us by Jesus because that’s, that’s not what grace is.
Grace is a free gift of God that He gives us. There’s no earning to it. Grace is not opposed to effort, but it is opposed to earning.
We cannot earn the grace accomplished for us by Jesus. Friends, whenever somebody says, I hope I just to be good enough, like that makes an absolute joke of the cross of Jesus. If there was any other way God would have done it.
We can rest knowing that this work is indeed finished by the only one who could ever accomplish it. So a lot of us, if we know Jesus, sometimes we still are trying to add to our heavenly resume. We may be overtly or not overtly. That word’s escaping me right now. But they’re consciously or subconsciously thinking, okay, well, God will have to let me in because, look, all the time I spend serving at church, God will have to let me in.
While I’m seventh generation that’s been a part of this denomination, God will have to let me in because I serve at the homeless shelter on Tuesdays. And you can fill in the blank, keep going down the list. All these things are great things. We should be doing these things because we know Jesus. But passages like Matthew 7 in our Bibles where it says that they cast out demons for Jesus, but they didn’t know Him.
He says, get away from me. I never knew you. Faith without works is dead. But at the same time, we’re not saved by those works. We’re saved by grace.
We’re saved by faith alone and Christ alone.
Saving faith can only come from genuine repentance. Turning away from sin and turning to entrusting Christ and saying, I know that’s what Good Friday is about. I know that you paid for my sin. Saving faith can only come from repentance and trusting in Jesus. And we’ve argued, we’ve tried to remind ourselves of this, that Christ’s work is indeed finished.
He accomplished everything he set out to do and he willingly gave up his spirit. And since we can’t add anything to this finished work, let us then enjoy it and live out of that enjoyment. Christians should be the happiest Most joyful people, knowing that his work is finished, it’s accomplished on our behalf. Romans 5:2 would say we’ve also obtained access through him by faith. That’s why I’m with Jesus by faith into this grace in which we stand and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
For some yet I’m guessing, though maybe it’s you’ve not had a hard time believing like that this is finished for you. Maybe you like. I’m guessing still, though, the pain of legalism, this idea that you can earn God’s favor or earn God’s grace. I’m guessing for some of us that pain still cuts and hurts and feels really deep.
Maybe you felt burdened for years by either not feeling good enough or not trying hard enough.
Let these words of Pastor Dane Orland be an encouragement to you. He’s talking about Christ’s very heart. He says his yoke is kind and his burden is light. That is, his yoke is a non yoke and his burden is a non burden. What helium does to a balloon, Jesus yoke does to his followers.
We are buoyed along in life by his endless gentleness and supremely accessible lowliness. That’s a word that just means approachableness. He doesn’t simply meet us at our place of need. He. He lives in our place of need.
He never tires of sweeping us into his tender embrace. It is his very heart. It is what gets him out of bed in the morning.
Brothers and sisters, as we sit in and reflect on Christ’s atoning death on Good Friday, let us be reminded of and be encouraged to believe, like really believe in, in our hearts, in our bones and our guts. Let us be reminded to believe that when Christ said it is finished, we can believe that he meant it. Let’s pray. God, we love you and we thank you for this time and for the God that you are, who sees us, who knows us, who understands. You are patient, you are holy, and you are worthy of our worship.
And we thank you for the work that Jesus did on our behalf all those years to go. Let them never become casual to us. Let them never be something that we simply shrug our shoulders at. But let us enjoy it and live out of that enjoyment, having placed our trust and hope in Jesus. We pray for hearts in this room that are curious about this.
We pray that they would repent and trust in you and that you would lead them to talk to someone tonight. Let them find hope in you, God. We pray that you bless the rest of this gathering. Rest of this time together. It’s in Jesus name we pray.
Amen. So we’ve got a few elements.