Word #6

• With one of His last breaths, and His Earthly ministry behind Him, Jesus then says the following:

John 19
³⁰When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

• This represents a turning point of humanity.  This finished satan’s stronghold on humanity.
• This could just as easily been translated as “Paid in Full�?or “Victory�?/SPAN>
• This represents Good over Evil, Life over Death, the Ultimate Victory was secured.
• This statement also points to who was in control the whole time.
• Jesus gave His life for us, and it was ultimately His decision to say when that work was finished.
• We can all find comfort in these words because in them we are assured as to who is really in control, because if Jesus was in control of His own death, isn’t it great to think that He is also in control of our lives as well?

• Finally Jesus makes His last statement:

Luke 23
⁴⁴It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, ⁴⁵for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.

• This represents a restoration of the relationship between Jesus and God the Father
• This also contains the message that Jesus is truly in control.  He had completed nearly all that He needed to do, His suffering was at an end, and He knew that greater things were to come.
• As He said in Revelation 21, verse 5, �?I>Behold, I make all things new�?/SPAN>
• Notice also that the curtain of the temple is torn here.   This represents that all barriers between us and God are removed by the atoning work of Jesus.
• This ushers in a new relationship we can now have with the Father.
• Jesus says this with a loud voice, intimating that He had strength left, and yet He gives His life up at this point possibly to preserve the prophecy in Psalm 22, verse 17:

¹⁷ I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me.

• If He had survived much longer they would have broken His leg bones, and that would nullify the statement that He can count all His bones...
• Jesus became our Passover Lamb, and this last statement was a plea for us to Trust in God, and to give Him our lives just as Jesus gave His.

• Sometime after Jesus gave up His spirit, the Romans soldiers broke the legs of the 2 thieves.  When they got to Jesus they realized that He was already dead.
• A soldier then stuck a spear between Jesus ribs and punctured His heart and blood and water flowed out from the wound.
• With the trauma that Jesus face through the flogging and the actual crucifixion, fluid would have begun to build up in the sac that encased His heart.
• This fluid would have put additional strain on the heart, and would result in cardiac arrest eventually, and it is possible that this was the thing that ultimately killed Jesus.
• As the soldier stabbed the heart, the pericardial sac would have ruptured and water would flow out, with the puncture to the heart, blood would have also come out�?/SPAN>
• I do not think that it was irony that Jesus would eventually die of cardiac arrest.
• I think it is fitting that a broken heart is truly what killed him.  A heart that broke for us and for our salvation�?/SPAN>