It Is Finished

Sermon March 24  Palm/ Passion Sunday   IT IS FINISHED

IT IS FINISHED! What is finished? The ultimate price was paid.  The perfect lamb was slaughtered.

Alcoholism is finished .  Drug addiction is finished.  Lust and prostitution and all forms of sexual abuse is finished. These are the big ones that we talk about all of the time. How about Guilt is finished. Sadness is finished. Hopelessness is finished. Unfaithfulness is finished. Rejection is finished. Backsliding is finished. Unforgiveness is finished.   When Christ hung his head and offered his spirit back to God he said It is Finished. The work he came to do was finished. Salvation was paid for on that day at Calvary.

Jesus didn’t come just to get us into heaven.  He came to break every curse that’s blocking the blessings that have been paid for by the blood of the Lamb. He came to give you  LIFE and that Life more abundantly. Before you can have that life, you must learn how to break the curse.

Many people don’t get it. They have sat in church for years and years and years and still don’t get it. Many will remain “old wineskins.” But, IF you DO get it, you have decided to be a new wineskin, then  God has hand picked you. God uses the most unlikely because they are sure to give Him all the praise and glory.

Moses was  murderer.  Jacob was a deceiver. David was a murderer and adulterer. Most of the disciples were unlikely characters. Paul was even a murderer and was selected to write over 2/3’rds of the New Testament. Folks there is hope for everyone sitting on the pews in this building. Regardless of what you have done in the past or what you are doing now if you want what God is offering all you have to do is Ask, Believe, and Receive.

Isaiah 50:4-9a

This text in Isaiah is one of the Suffering Servant Songs, which Christians often read as prefiguring Jesus Christ- particularly Jesus’ own suffering on the cross and his obedience to the will of his Father. (Remember Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.”). It is no surprise, then that this text should show up in the lectionary during the Liturgy of the  Passion, the time when Christians meditate on Christ’s suffering for us and his willingness to be crucified for our sin.  In much traditional Christian interpretation, Jesus Christ is the Suffering Servant sent by God to bear the burden –indeed to die- for human sinfulness and disobedience to God.

The promise revealed to us in this passage of Isaiah: the world can be a dangerous and evil place, and suffering will come, BUT we can be assured it is not at the hand of God. Instead,  God is at work in our lives for good, for peace, for justice, and for love. Even though we cannot always see the fruit of God’s labor, our hope in the Lord will not be disappointed in the end.

Psalm 31

 BE Gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress……   A grieving Soul.  Like the musical traditions of the Blues and Country music, the Psalms are the songs of life.  They express the highest joys and the deepest sorrows of life, often within the same, single psalm.  The Psalms express the painful truths of the human condition, while simultaneously declaring the most profound hopes of the human spirit.  They declare the human spirit’s longing for the blessing of the divine presence to shield us against grief and terror.

The psalm cries out from the depths of a grieving soul.  Although few people are unaware of the stages or cyclical understandings of grief, too many are unaware of the devastating experience of grief.  Grief theories tend to focus on symptoms and overlook the distorting effects of grief upon the soul.  There tends to be a lack of understanding regarding the way grief has the power to redefine life as a bottomless pit.

Philippians 2:5-11

Jesus’ final days, death, and resurrection are acts of humble service that reveal his true vocation.  Likewise they are our true vocation.  As Paul confronts issues in the church in Philippi, he calls Christians to their vocation, that is, to have the Mind of Christ.  This is the mind of Christ – a commitment to serving others, with an unwillingness to seek personal gain.  These verses are not a morality lesson leading us to think that if we humble ourselves, then we become exalted.  Such was the expectation of Jesus….Jesus was simply living out his vocation.  Therefore, for a community of faith that had become preoccupied with its own discord, and for individuals who were more concerned with their own self-righteousness, the hymn sang of Christ’s true vocation as a reminder of who we are and how we are to live together. Remember who you are!

What part of your own mind-set would you have to let go of in order to have Christ’s mind? What would change if you let go of your own mind-set, instead of wishing for others to let go of theirs?

How do we as Christians learn to put our minds into a state of trust in God’s faithfulness?

Luke 23: 1-49

“Certainly this man was innocent”….(the Roman Centurion at the foot of the Cross).

The cross is still a stumbling block, both in its horror and in the fact that a crucified innocent man was made the center of our faith.  This form of execution was reserved for the worst offenders: revolutionaries against the state, violent criminals, and low class thieves.  Roman citizens could be crucified ONLY for high treason.  No more hideous fate could be imagined.

No wonder Paul called the cross “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (I Cor. 1:23). Justin Martyr, defender of the faith in the century after Paul, said, “ They say that our madness consists in the fact that we put a crucified man in the second place after the unchangeable and eternal God.”

The Roman statesman Pliny wrote about the “perverse and extravagant superstition” of Christians--- that a man honored as God would be nailed to a cross as a common enemy of the state.

Preaching the cross ponders how God is redeeming the world in the darkest and most shameful of places.

When Jesus asked who do YOU say that I AM?  Peter said, YOU are the Christ.  Jesus responded to Peter: “Blessed are you  (Blessed means now you are anointed from heaven.)  Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but MY Father, who is in heaven.”

In Hebrew there is no one smart enough to teach the revelations of God; no one smart enough to understand the revelations of God.  If you “get it,”  God has hand picked you to be an example of his Favor and blessings.

Jesus said ON THIS ROCK I will build my church. Not on the Rock of Peter (as some proclaim)…..but on the Rock of the revelation that Jesus is the Christ.  If your beliefs are built on sand, the storms will wash away the foundation.  But Jesus said, “On this Rock (of revelation) I will build MY Church. And the gates of Hell, even satan himself, will not be able to come against it.

Why do people backslide?  Most people backslide when the storms hit.  Religion won’t support you.  Just saying you believe in Jesus won’t do it.  But if you build your faith on the Rock of Revelation of Jesus the Christ, it will stand forever.

Building your faith on the rock that Christ is the burden removing ,   yoke destroying Messiah. Knowing that He will not only forgive every sin….Did you hear that?  He will forgive every sin and knowing that He died on the cross to remove the curses, for cursed is He who hangs on a tree.  He will forgive every sin, and break every curse that is on YOU, your family, your children, your grandchildren, your finances, your health or whatever mess you get your self into. 

The gates of hell will not be able to stand against you.  He does this everyday, but on Yom Kippur, it is the most anointed day of the year, and He will break every curse and release every blessing.  If you understand this, you can break the curses from every area of your life. If you don’t understand what I am talking about you need to go back and read the TORAH. (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).

The TORAH is the beginning of the Bible. IF you want a new beginning I would suggest going back and reading this part again and again and again and Ask God for the Revelation.

The church does not understand everything that Jesus taught. BUT, Everything that Jesus taught came from what the Church calls The Old Testament.  Everything he teaches comes from the revelation of the shadow of things to come.

God says in this world is life and death. He says in this life there are blessings and curses.  God doesn’t leave us; WE LEAVE GOD and go into a world full of curses.

Jesus said, “ Peter, I give you the keys to the kingdom.” Jesus doesn’t have the keys.  YOU have the Keys. On the Cross he shouted :  “IT IS FINISHED.”

At the close of the Gospel of Mark JESUS said:   YOU go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned (cursed). 

And these signs shall follow them that believe;  In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing; it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Church did you hear that? It is for YOU)

As Jesus declared and shouted.   IT IS FINISHED!!!!

This is the Day that the Lord has Made!!!!!