Greg Laurie - It Is Finished! (01/08/2018)
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Pastor Greg Laurie preaches from Matthew 27 on Jesus' final words from the cross: "It is finished." This wasn't defeat but victory—God's perfect plan completed for our atonement. Jesus absorbed God's wrath, broke sin's power, and opened direct access to the Father. The torn veil, earthquake, and risen saints show the resurrection power that assures forgiveness, justification, and eternal life for all who believe.
God Finishes What He Starts
We are almost at the end of our series in the Gospel of Matthew that we are calling Follow Me, Following Jesus in the Modern World. We are in Matthew 27. So turn there with me if you would. There is only one more chapter by the way in the Gospel of Matthew. So we have a few more messages in this series and then we will wrap it up right at the time when we come into Christmas. And I have an exciting new series that I am really looking forward to doing in the beginning of the year. But I will tell you about that later.
But the title of my message today is, "It Is Finished." Okay. How many people do we have out there that start projects but don't always finish them? Raise up your hand. Oh my. There is a lot of us. Notice I said us. See that is me. I get real excited about starting something and sometimes I lose interest. For instance when I cook something I should qualify that. I only cook one thing basically. Scrambled eggs. When I cook scrambled eggs I want to eat them afterwards. I don't want to clean up. I am excited about getting them ready. Eating them. And then no. I don't really like to clean up.
And you know I will lose interest in something. Like oh it is time to clean out the garage. I will get like three quarters done. Then I will say I will finish the rest up later on today. And guess what. I never do. Or how about playing with Play-Doh. Oh by the way I do this with my granddaughters. Don't look at me that way. But I have to admit I like, I still like to play with Play-Doh. There is something about the texture of it. I like opening up a fresh can of Play-Doh. You know. You open it up. That is what I am talking about. And I always say to the girls, OK now I have laid out three hundred newspapers everywhere. Let's not mix the colors up. Because I like to put the same color back into the same little can again with a little color coated lid. And by the time they are done everything is a sick brown color. Right. So I just have all kinds of brown Play-Doh because everything got messed together. And cleaning up Play-Doh that is no fun because it sticks to everything. And there are little pieces of stuff left. Yeah. I have a problem with starting things I don't always finish.
Aren't you glad God isn't that way? Can you imagine if God said, you know, I love you. I have chosen you. I want to transform you into my image. I want to do this. I am kind of bored with you. I am moving on now. Wait. You are not going to finish? No. I moved on. I found someone more interesting than you. No. God finishes what He starts. The Scripture tells us He is the author and the what? The finisher of our faith. Philippians 1:6 says "being confident of this very thing that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ."
God's Timing and Our Impatience
But here is the thing we need to remember. God does His work in His way in His own timing. He does His work in His way in His own timing. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says "He makes everything beautiful in its time." Sometimes we grow impatient with God. Lord finish this. He will finish it. You can be confident of that. But sometimes we don't see any progress that is tangible. We think God has lost interest in us. Or perhaps has even abandoned us. And we need to remember that is never the case. He will complete that which He started.
Well I bring that up because we are going to look at the seven statements of Jesus on the cross. We have already examined some of them. But one of those statements we are going to key in on. And it is the words of our Lord when He said, "It is finished." And I am going to explain to you what that means. But let's go over the seven statements of Christ on the cross again. Remember Jesus was arrested on trumped up charges in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was taken before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate who examined Him, had Him beaten, and scourged and ultimately crucified.
Jesus is taken to the cross. He is nailed there. Remember death by crucifixion is effectively death by suffocation. It is very difficult to breathe, much less speak, when you are hanging on a cross. But Jesus manages to give seven significant statements. What were they? Well statement number one, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Crucified next to Him was a thief who said to Him, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus gives statement number two, "Today I say to you, Today you will be with me in paradise."
Looking at the foot of the cross our Lord sees His mother and the apostle John standing next to her. And He says to his mother, "Woman behold your son." Looking to John, "Son behold your mother." That brings us to statement number four, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani," which is translated to say, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Statement number five, "I thirst." Statement number six, "it is finished." And finally statement number seven, a prayer to the Father, "Into your hands I commit my spirit."
The Seven Statements from the Cross
So the first words of Jesus were a prayer to the Father. "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." The second words of Christ were a pardon to a sinner. "Today you will be with me in paradise." His third words were the passing of responsibility to a friend. "Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother." And the fourth words were a plea to the Father. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And it is believed by most that this is the moment when all of the sin of the world was placed upon Christ.
On the cross God treated Jesus as if He had lived your life so He could treat you as if you had lived His life. God treated Jesus as if He had lived your life. Your sinful life. My sinful life. So He could treat you as if you had lived His life. His perfect and righteous life. There on the cross bearing the sin of the world. Isaac Watts wrote of this moment, quote, "Well might the sun in darkness hide, and shut His glories in, when Christ the mighty Maker died, for man the creature's sin." Everything goes dark. It is twelve noon. The sun would normally be shining. Everything is pitch dark, pierced only by the words of our Lord, bearing the sin of the world.
And then and only then does Jesus offer the first statement from Calvary of a personal nature. And it is, "I thirst." How do we know that? Well it is found over in John 19. So I will just read it to you from there. John 19:28 "After this, Jesus knowing that all things are now accomplished, as the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst." Now He is still hanging on a cross. He is still in great pain. But the worst of the experience is over. And the worst of the experience was the wrath of God coming upon Him in full force. So He has absorbed all of that. And now He is just describing His state.
You know Jesus was always thinking of others. "I thirst." I mean imagine this. This is the Creator of the universe saying, "I thirst." Do you think Jesus could have solved His own problem? Do you think Jesus could have spoken water into existence? Yeah. Jesus could have had Niagara Falls appear before Him if He had so desired. But instead He says, "I thirst." It is worth noting that Jesus never did a miracle for His own benefit. If you were God would you ever be tempted to do a miracle for yourself? I mean I would have done it. I am just telling you right now. In other words instead of walking for two hours I would have just said, I am now going to be there. There I would be. You know. I would send the guys ahead and I would say, I will see you there. Where I go you know in the way you don't know. I would have said something mysterious to confuse them and I would have just appeared. Because I just got airlifted. Like that.
Also I would not have eaten the food of that day. Now listen. God has foreknowledge, right? God knows the future. Then God knew that In-N-Out Burger would exist. God knew that pizza would exist. God knew that all the cool food we eat today would someday come into being. So I would have said to them, Go fishing. And while they were fishing I would have had my In-N-Out meal friends. Lord what is that you are eating? Never mind. Go now. Jesus never did anything like that. Even when He was starving to death during His temptation in the wilderness He would not turn a rock into bread after the devil suggested He should. "Why don't you turn this rock into a piece of bread?" Jesus says, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
The Humanity and Focus of Jesus
But what does this say about Jesus when He says, "I thirst"? It reminds us He was human. Listen. Jesus Christ was fully God but He also was fully man. When I say He was fully God I mean never for a moment did He give up His deity. Though He did not always exercise His miraculous abilities at will. Never for His own benefit. He shrouded His glory. He still always was God. He was God at birth. God as a child. God as a man. God hanging on a cross. That is why His death in His death alone was sufficient to meet the demands of the Father.
However He was fully man. And when I say fully man I mean fully man. I mean when they ripped the beard from His face He felt it. When they hit Him He felt it. He felt hunger. He felt pain. He felt thirst and all of the things we feel. Well why is this significant? Well it is a great thing to remember that we have a God who knows what we are going through. No matter what you are facing right now He has been there effectively. 1 Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your care upon Him for He cares for you."
Is your body wracked with pain today? So is His. Have you ever been misunderstood, misjudged, or misrepresented? So is He. Have you ever had your closest friends turn away from you? They did that to Him too. But here is what I want you to notice. On the cross Jesus did not focus on His pain but on the pain of others. I mean first He forgives the people that did this to Him. Then He offers eternal life to the man crucified next to Him. Then He is thinking of His mother. Then He bears the sin of the whole world. And then does He finally get around to saying, Oh yeah you know what I thirst.
It is an important thing to think about the pain of others. Because pain is going to come into your life. And maybe you would like to have a pain free life. Well I hate to break this to you but that is not going to happen. I don't know about you but I try to avoid pain. Do you like pain? Maybe there is someone that does. But I don't. You know if I get a headache first thing I do, where is the Tylenol? You know. I want to get rid of the headache. When I am in the dentist chair and if that drill goes into the wrong place I let him know immediately. Because I want the pain to stop. And when pain comes into our life we pretty much want to do the same thing. Wait, wait, wait. I don't want this pain. Well listen. I am sorry. You can't control that. You are going to have pain come into your life. You are going to have suffering in your life. And you probably will even have tragedy.
I mean maybe you are relatively young and you have lived a relatively pain free life thus far. But look it is only a matter of time. And I hope this isn't like the biggest downer of all time to tell you this. But your grandparents are going to die. Then your parents are going to die. And then someone close to you unexpectedly may die. Someone you care about is going to get very sick. You might get very sick. Or something might happen that doesn't make sense. Pain is going to come. And you are not going to know why it is coming.
So here is what you need to do. You can't stop it from coming. But you can decide what you will do with the pain that comes in your direction. You can't get rid of it. But you can leverage it. Here is the operative principle. Don't waste your pain. Don't waste your pain. And I heard that statement I think the first time from a couple who had a child die. And we talked at length. And then they said to me, Greg, we don't want to waste our pain. And that really stayed with me. I thought, wow, what a great way to look at it. I mean, that is perfect. Because we are going to suffer.
You know the apostle Paul knew a lot about suffering. He wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:8, "we were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure it. And we thought we would never live through it. In fact we expected to die. But as a result we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely instead only on God who raises the dead." I mean what a candid admission from the apostle. We didn't think we would live through this. We thought we were going to die. So here is what we did. We stopped relying on ourselves and started relying on God instead.
So now Paul says we want to take that comfort that we have received from the Lord and share it with others. For he writes in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, "He comforts us in all of our troubles so we may comfort others. And when they are troubled we will give them the same comfort that God has given to us. The more we suffer for Christ the more God will shower us with this comfort through Christ."
The Cry of "It Is Finished"
You know I think we would have a different perspective on our pain if we could see what real pain is. Now there might be some here in my message right now that are really suffering. But I think a lot of times our suffering isn't as bad as we think it is. And we need perspective. I mean maybe you are upset today because you have a cold. And I hate colds. What a worthless sickness. You know it is not even legit. I mean a real sickness puts you on your back and you can't do anything. But the cold it is like you can still function but not very well. And you are sniffing and you are sneezing and all that. It is just you know so maybe you have a cold. Or maybe you have a flat tire on your way to church. Or maybe you had a disagreement with your wife. Or a fight with your parents. Or something is bugging you right now. You are a little bit irritated. You had to fight with a little bit of traffic getting into church today. Whatever it is. Man if you could get real perspective. Because whatever it is you are going through I guarantee someone is going through something a lot worse.
I mean you could go to a hospital and visit someone with stage four cancer. And I will tell you what. Whatever your problem was would effectively disappear after you talked to that person because you would realize what am I even saying. That is real suffering. And I can't tell you how many times I have gone into a hospital room to visit someone literally dying who has done a better job of ministering to me than I did ministering to them. Because I did not know what to say. What do you say if someone is dying? And I have walked in there. Well you know I just wanted to come and visit you. And they will start sharing what the Lord is showing them through the Word. And God is making His comfort known to them. He is strengthening them. And I walk out with a new perspective. Because that person helped me. See that is the idea. Oh I am going through hardship right now. Have you ever been to a third world country? Have you ever seen a person living under a tarp? Or just some little makeshift house? Do you know what real suffering is like? See we see those things and we get a different perspective.
Think about others. That is what Jesus did. That is what Jesus was doing. But now He was thinking for a moment about Himself because He was thirsty. And not just a casual thirst. He was experiencing a thirst that was burning and severe. There has been a tremendous loss of blood at this point. Scientists tell us that thirst is the most agonizing of all pain. Every cell in the body cries out for relief. And it only gets worse with time. So He is saying, "I thirst." And some guy has the courage to offer him something to drink. And that man could literally say, He brought a cup of water, so to speak, to the Lord. He might say, Man I wish I could do that. If I would have been there I would have helped Jesus. Guess what? You can still do it. Well how? Jesus said, "When I was thirsty you gave me something to drink. When I was hungry you gave me something to eat." His disciples said, "Lord when were you thirsty and we brought you drink? When were you hungry and we brought you food?" He says, "If you did it for the least of these you did it for me." So when we offer that cup of water, we offer that bit of food, we offer those clothes, we offer that gift to someone in great need we are effectively doing it for the Lord.
That brings us to statement number six. Jesus says, "It is finished." And this sixth statement from the cross was not the whimper of a defeated man. It was a triumphant shout of victory from the Son of God. At the age of 33 most people are saying, It is beginning. But at the age of 33 Jesus said, It is finished. He did not say, I am finished. He said, It is finished. This was not the shout of a victim overwhelmed by his circumstances. It was a shout of a Victor overcoming all of his enemies. And in the Greek it is a significant word. It is tetelestai. One word. Tetelestai. That we translate out to the word, It is finished.
The Meaning of "Tetelestai"
What does it mean? Well it was a common word used by people in everyday life. For instance if a construction worker had a job to do when he was done he would say, Tetelestai. Which would mean it is finished. He would go to the foreman or the boss, Tetelestai. We framed the house. We built the chair. We completed the task. It is done. So Jesus is saying, Tetelestai, I finished the job I came to do. And number two, it was used by artists when completing a task.
Now being a quasi artist myself, and knowing other artists and working with them, I know they are a challenging group to work with. Artists are different than other people. And when I say artists I mean designers. I mean musicians. First of all they stay up late and they sleep in. That is one thing. No I am kidding. That is not totally true. But they have creative minds. And they see things differently. And they process information differently. And they can do things that other people cannot do. And one of the frustrations you might have with an artist is they don't do it as quickly as you would like. They don't complete the task as fast as you want them to.
I remember seeing this film years ago called The Agony and the Ecstasy. And it is a story of Michelangelo, played by Charlton Heston, painting the frescos on the Sistine Chapel. And the Pope, Pope Julius, played by Rex Harrison, comes in every day because he is frustrated that Michelangelo is taking so long. And every day the Pope would come in and he would say to Michelangelo, when will you make an end of it? Totally frustrated. And Michelangelo would always give him the same response. When I am finished. Every day. When will you make an end of it? When I am finished. When will you make an end of it? When I am finished. And now Jesus is finished. Tetelestai. It is completed. I have done the job that I have come to do. It is accomplished. It is paid. It is performed.
What was finished? Finished were the horrendous sufferings of Christ. Never again would he experience pain or be in the hands of Satan. Never again would he bear the sins of the world. Never again would he even for a moment be forsaken by God. Number two, finished with Satan's stronghold on humanity. Hebrews 2:14 says, "Through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Because of what Jesus did on the cross you no longer have to be under the power of any sin or vice or addiction. Are you struggling with something right now? Do you have an addiction to something that you have tried to overcome? An addiction to alcohol. An addiction to drugs. An addiction to pornography. Or you are trapped in an immoral lifestyle. You are doing things you know you should not be doing. You say, I can never break free from it. That is wrong. You can. And you must. And I will tell you how. Because Jesus said, It is finished. He broke the power of Satan in your life. And you really can be free of those things.
The Victory of the Cross
Number three, finished was our salvation. This is the most important thing of all. Finished was our salvation. All of our sins were transferred to Jesus when He hung on the cross. And all of His righteousness was transferred to our account. Isaiah 53 says, "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." There is nothing you or I can add on to the work that He did for us. This is important because I think sometimes we think there are certain things that we must do to obtain salvation. Certain works we must do. But Jesus says, It is finished. God Almighty is satisfied with the work of Christ. Why aren't you? It is done. You don't have to do anything now. To earn salvation. It is given to you as a gift of God. It was accomplished. The work the Father had given Him to do.
And now His final statement from Calvary. Statement number seven. He says to the Father, "Into your hands I commit my spirit." This clearly shows that Jesus was in control. You know, normally a crucified man could live for days on the cross. That is why the way they would break their legs. Because they couldn't breathe anymore, you see. Remember I told you that the way they got air in their lungs was to push themselves up in that little base there at the foot of the cross. And when they would break their legs they could no longer get air and they would die of suffocation. You remember when they came to Christ they did not break His legs, right? Scripture said that His bones would not be broken. But why didn't they break His legs? Because He was dead. Why was He dead? Because He had completed the work He had come to do. Just showing He was in control at all times. He said, "No one takes my life. I lay it down on my own accord." He is effectively saying, I am done. It is completed. I am out of here. I have stuff to do. You know. I have a few things I have to accomplish still before my ascension into heaven.
It is interesting that in His seven statements, three times on the cross, Jesus addressed the Father. Statement number one, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." Statement number four, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me" and statement number seven. "Into your hands I commit my spirit." Jesus addressed the Father at the beginning, middle, and end. We should do the same in life. One day we are going to breathe our last breath and leave this world. May we be calling on our Father as we do. "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Often in our youth we will think of God. But as we get older we will sort of forget about God. How smart we are if we remember God in the beginning, middle, and end of our life. Trust me. You will never regret that.
Miraculous Signs at the Cross
So Jesus has completed His task. He commits Himself to the Father. Now some amazing phenomena begins to happen. Read verse 51 of Matthew 27. "Then behold the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And the earth quaked and the rocks were split and the graves were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and were coming out of their graves after His resurrection. They went into the holy city and appeared to many." So when the centurion and those who were with them who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened they feared greatly saying, "Truly this was the Son of God."
Some crazy stuff is happening here. First of all the veil in the temple was torn. Verse 51. See in the old covenant only specially chosen men like Abraham and Moses had regular access into God's presence. Then with the beginning of the law and the establishment of the tabernacle or the tent and later the temple, God was to be approached only by the high priest and only at particular times of the year by means of a specific animal sacrifice. But in the temple was an inner sanctum known as the Holy of Holies. That is where the Ark of the Covenant was kept before Indiana Jones got hold of it. And the Nazis. But only the high priest could go in there at a certain time of the year. And separating the inner sanctum or the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was something known as the veil.
Now when we think of the veil don't think of sheer material. You could see through. Think of woven material so thick it was almost like a wall of material that no one could pull apart even if they wanted to. So imagine yourself. You are there in the outer area of the temple and all of a sudden you hear this ripping sound. And you look and the veil in the temple is being torn apart. Not from bottom to top as though men were doing away with it. But from top to bottom because God was saying, this is over with. This wall is removed. You have open access into my presence any time you want. That is because of the death of Jesus. That is right. That is worth clapping for.
Hebrews 10:19 says, "we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way open to us through the curtain or the veil." So God was now saying, alright you can come into my presence any time through Jesus. That is why Hebrews 4:16 says, "let us come therefore boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Listen to this. Satan does not want you to hear what I am about to say. Because of the death of Jesus I can approach God at any time. I am going to say it again because the devil does not want you to know it. Because of the death of Jesus I can approach God at any time.
And the reason this is significant is sometimes we feel like we are not worthy. Here is how it works. One day we get up in the morning. And we start the day with prayer. And we read the Bible. We use our little Harvest app that takes us through the Bible in a year. Maybe. Or we just read through the Scripture. And then we are driving to work and we are listening to a podcast of a Bible teaching or great worship music. And maybe a Christian radio broadcast. And we are reading a Christian book. And we go to a Bible study at lunch time. And you know. So all day long we have been filling our mind and our heart with the Word of God. And we are feeling pretty good. So when someone says let us pray we go, yeah let us pray. Amen.
Well then the next day things do not go the same. I wake up late because I slept in. And yeah I did not get to the Bible reading. And I did not listen to the podcast. And in fact I had a pretty bad thought. I should not have had. And then I said that unkind thing. I should not have said. And someone says let us pray. And you are like, I do not really. Well wait. Why did you think you could approach God's presence? Because you did all that stuff for God? No. You approached God's presence because of what Jesus did for you. And when you have messed up that is the time you should be running into His presence. And asking for His forgiveness. And being reestablished in communion with Him.
Access to God Through the Cross
I could use an illustration here. I remember when I first met Billy Graham. I think it was 1985. Maybe before. But he was doing a crusade here in town at the Angel Stadium. And I was very excited to meet him. And it was very brief. I shook his hand and got my picture with him. But if someone would have said to me, do you know Billy Graham? I could not say I know him. I could say I met him. And then I got to know his son Franklin. And through time I got to know the father better through the son. One time Franklin said, hey you want to go fly over my daddy's house? And Franklin is a pilot. And he had this little prop plane. And yeah let's do it. And I had never been in a plane with Franklin before. And I didn't know he was a daredevil. Okay.
So we got in this plane. We are cruising along. And then we come up over this Ridge there in North Carolina. Down to where his dad's house. He says, I called ahead. They are going to be you know on the ground waving to us. And he goes like it is like a dive bomber. We like just drop out of the sky. Looks like we are going to hit the ground. And he pulls up and then kind of pulls it over to the right. And I look out the window and there is Billy and Ruth standing on their front lawn waving at us. And I am looking down at them and I am thinking I would give anything to be there with them instead of with their psychopath son over here. But you see Franklin took me over to his parents house and I got to spend time with Billy and Ruth. And I got to know them. I came to know the Father through the Son. And that same is true of us. I don't approach God because of my worthiness. I know the Father through the Son. So here is the question you have to ask. Is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, worthy enough to go into the presence of the Father? Well of course, yes. I come through the Son. Not in my own merit. That is what happened at Calvary. What a glorious thing it is.
So now all kinds of things are going on. The veil was torn. The earth is shaking and the dead are raised. Verse 51. "The earth quaked and the rocks were split." Reminds us of when Moses stood before God at Mount Sinai. The whole mountain shook violently. So here in this day when Christ was crucified, to quote the great theologian Jerry Lee Lewis, there was a whole lot of shaking going on. See rock and roll was in the Bible first. First the earth rocked. And soon the stone that sealed the tomb would be rolled away. And the Son of God would rise again.
Now here is one of the most bizarre stories in all of the Bible. Verse 52. I love it. "The graves were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of their graves after His resurrection. And they went into the holy city and appeared to many." Talk about the night of the living dead. Do you get what this verse is saying? Here is what is fascinating. This verse is not in any other gospel. Only in Matthew. There is no commentary given on it. No explanation given. It just simply states what happened. In addition to the veil being ripped from top to bottom. In addition to the earth quaking. In addition to the sun going out effectively. The dead came out of their graves and walked around in town. This was an anomaly. This was sort of like a preview of things to come. Because the Bible says when Christ comes back the dead in Christ shall rise first. We which are alive and remaining shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. And so shall we meet the Lord in the air. But I mean it would be basically a situation where you are walking around town and you are saying, Uncle Harry we buried you two days ago. What is going on? It is sort of like this is what is coming. The dead are going to rise again. People are going to come alive again.
Reactions at the Cross
Now we come to two classic reactions to this series of miraculous events. Look at verse 54 of Matthew 27. "When the centurion and those who were with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened they feared greatly saying, Truly this was the Son of God." This sounds like another conversion at the cross to me. We have already seen the thief who was really an insurrectionist. A violent criminal. A murderer. A terrorist if you will. Dedicated to the violent overthrow of Rome who came to faith. Crucified next to Jesus. Now we have this hardened Roman soldier. This man was guarding Jesus. This was a very important responsibility. He was probably assigned to this by Pilate himself. This is a man who is hardened by war. He has heard it all. He has seen it all. And frankly he has probably done it all. He had presided over hundreds maybe thousands of crucifixions. But he had never seen anyone like Jesus.
How brave he was as he took those beatings and assaults from his fellow soldiers. How bold he was as he did not cower in Pilate's powerful presence. How gracious he was as he asked for pardon for the ones who had done this. And this centurion was deeply moved and he believed right there on the spot. Faith took place in his heart. You know it is an interesting thing because what he saw on this day changed his life. It was not easy to become a centurion. A centurion would generally be over three to six hundred men. This was a man who was normally in control. But he was amazed by what he witnessed.
You say, but Greg, why do you believe he was converted? All we read here in Matthew is he said, surely this was the Son of God. Well because Luke 23:47 says, "when the captain of the Roman soldiers handling the execution saw what had happened he praised God. And said, surely this man is innocent." So he believed. Just like the thief on the cross. He put his faith in Jesus Christ. Seeing Jesus on the cross caused him to believe. And Jesus said, "if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all men to myself." This he said signifying what kind of death he would die.
So two men who were normally mortal enemies came to faith on the same day. A man dedicated to the violent overthrow of Rome, the thief on the cross. And a man dedicated to preserving the power of Rome, the Roman centurion. But both became believers. Ephesians 2:14 says, "He Himself is our peace and He has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation." See, what Jesus did on the cross not only removes the wall that separates us from God, but it also removes the barriers that separate us from one another. And enemies can become friends at the foot of the cross.
I remember seeing an illustration of this when we had our prophecy conference a while back. And you may recall that we had Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin join us. And General Boykin was the founder of the Delta Force. An elite fighting force of our military. This is a man that... He is a seasoned combat veteran. And to the point he has hunted down terrorists. And so we also had as our guest at this particular conference, Mossab Hassan Yosef. Also known as the Green Prince. And Mossab was the son of the founder of Hamas, a terrorist organization. And he was being groomed to take the organization over. But Mossab had come to faith in Jesus Christ. And in fact became a spy for the Israelis on his own organization. And they dubbed him the Green Prince. That was his code name.
So here in the back room for the first time Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin, founder of the Delta Force, hunter of terrorists, shake hands with Mossab Hassan Yosef being groomed to be a terrorist. And you know what General Boykin said to Mossab? He said, In another time I would have been hunting you. And I thought, Whoa. But in Christ that middle wall of separation was gone. And two men who normally would have been enemies were now friends. Yeah. That Roman centurion saw Jesus hanging on the cross and he believed.
Contrast this to the reaction of others present at the cross on the same day. Luke 23:48 says, "And when the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw all that happened, they went home in deep sorrow." Now these people also saw the sun go dark. They felt the earthquake. They had seen the supernatural phenomena of the day. But while the centurion believed in Jesus, these people didn't seem to do much. Which just brings us down to the big choice when we have Jesus on the cross. We can look and live or we can look and leave. The centurion looked and lived. These people looked and left.
Isaiah 45:22, God says, "Look to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other." The centurion looked and lived, placing his faith in Christ. They looked and left. Oh yeah, they were sad. Isn't this a tragic thing? This is really just too bad this had to happen. Just ruined our day, didn't it? But there was no change in their heart.
Why Jesus Had to Die
So why did Jesus have to suffer and die on the cross of Calvary? Number one, Jesus suffered and died to show His love for us. He suffered and died to show His love for us. Jesus said it best in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, and whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Ephesians 5:25 says, "Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her." Paul personalized it when he said, "He loved me and gave Himself for me." So if you are ever tempted to doubt God's love for you, take a long look at the cross.
Number two, Jesus suffered and died on the cross to absorb the wrath of God. If God were not just, there would be no demand for His Son to suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness for His Son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving. And at the cross, God lovingly met His own demands for justice. See the law says the soul that sins shall surely die. The law says without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. So Jesus suffered and died to absorb the wrath of God.
Thirdly, Jesus suffered and died in order to cancel the legal demands against us. To cancel the legal demands against us. Conventional wisdom is God grades on the curve. And if our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds, we are okay. But that is not biblical or true. This is not about evening the score. Here is what it is really about. You have broken so many laws. And there is nothing you can do to fix this. But at the cross, Christ fixed it. Listen. There is no salvation by balancing records. There is only salvation by cancelling records. And at the cross, according to Colossians 2:13, "He forgave us of our sin, and cancelled the written code with its regulations that was against us, and was opposed to us, and nailed it to the cross."
Fourth and lastly, Jesus suffered and died to provide our forgiveness and justification. Jesus suffered and died to provide our forgiveness and justification. Romans 5:9 says, "We have been justified by His blood." We already heard the song about it. Justified. Just as if I had never done anything wrong. But as you know, justification is not just the removal of your sin and the penalties that would come with it, but it is the imputing of the righteousness of Christ into your account. This is what happened at the cross. It is done. It is completed. It is completed. It is finished.
So here now is a closing question to you. Will you look and live? Or will you look and leave? Effectively, we have the same choice before us now that these people in the Roman centurion had. They all saw it. They all heard it. And they reacted differently. And it is really the same for you. You can say, Well you know what? I think this is all very interesting. But I don't really know that I want to do anything about that. Okay. Then you look and leave. Or you look and live like the Roman centurion. I believe in Jesus. Again, Isaiah 45:22. God says, "Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is no other." Look to Me. I will save you. I will forgive you of your sin right now.
Maybe you are here listening to this message and you don't have the hope that you will go to heaven when you die. Maybe you are here loaded down with guilt. Maybe you have come here under the power of some addiction or some lifestyle. You want to change but you can't. You have tried. And you have failed. Here is the good news. Jesus can change you. You can't change yourself. You need to call out to Him. Just like a drowning man or woman has to cry out to the lifeguard for help. You have to cry out to God for help. And He will help you and He will save you and forgive you if you will put your faith in Him.
Invitation to Receive Christ
So right now we are going to pray. And I am going to give you an opportunity to make a commitment to Jesus Christ. So if you don't know right now that you are a Christian. If you don't have the certainty that you would go to heaven when you die. If you don't feel you are ready for the Lord's return. You are here under the weight of guilt and sin. And you want to be free from it. Respond to this invitation I will give you now as we pray together. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word to us. And Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to this earth and dying for our sin. And rising again from the dead. And now standing at the door of every heart and knocking. And saying if we will hear your voice and open the door, you will come in. I pray, Lord, for any here that do not yet know you, help them to come to you and believe we pray.
Now when our heads are bowed. And our eyes are closed. And we are praying. If you want Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sin. If you want to know that you will go to heaven when you die. If you want your guilt taken away. I want you to stand to your feet right now wherever you are. And I am going to lead you in a prayer. Just stand up. God bless all of you. Stand up. Wherever you hear me or see me. Here at Harvest Riverside. Harvest Orange County. Stand to your feet right now. And I am going to lead you in a prayer. Wherever you are. Here in the sanctuary. Outside in the overflow area. Just stand to your feet. And I am going to lead you in a prayer. God bless you. You are not the only one standing. By the way. Stand to your feet right now. And we are going to pray together. Anybody else? Stand up now. And I am going to have you pray this prayer right where you are. Anybody else? Stand now. You have the choice before you today. You can look and live or look and leave. You can believe in Jesus and turn from your sin and be forgiven. Or you can reject Jesus and live in your sin and not be forgiven. It is your choice.
Anybody else? Stand now. If you want His forgiveness today. God bless you. Anybody else? Stand now. Wherever you are. Here in the sanctuary. Outside in the amphitheater. Up in the court building at Harvest Orange County. Just stand to your feet. And we are going to pray. One final moment. Stand now. Anybody else? Stand now. All right. Now you that are standing, I am going to have you pray this prayer out loud after me. Again, as I pray, I want you to pray this prayer out loud after me right now. Okay? Pray this now after me right where you stand. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. But you died on the cross for my sin. And paid the price for my sin. Now I turn from that sin. And I ask you to come into my life. And be my Savior and Lord. I choose to follow you, Jesus, from this moment forward. Thank you for loving me. And calling me. And forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.