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[0:00] And in verse 23, Jesus replied, the hour has come for, this is very close to the fact that he knows death is coming.

[0:22] ! The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.! Very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.

[0:34] But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Now, that is clearly a reference to his death. But if you're in any doubt, as we just go down a little further, well, verse 27, the hints of Gethsemane here, Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say, Father? Save me from this hour.

[0:55] No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven.

[1:06] I have glorified it and will glorify it again. And the crowd that was there and heard it said, some of the crowd thought it had thundered.

[1:18] Others said an angel had spoken to him. But Jesus said, this voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world.

[1:29] Now the prince of this world will be driven out. And this is the bit I was leading to. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

[1:42] And then it says afterwards, if it sounds a bit cryptic, he said this to show the kind of death that he was going to die. So some of that I should have been moving my slides along.

[2:00] So there's this phrase, I am lifted up. And Phil has reminded us, I think, when we've been going through Revelation, that John is, sometimes he says things that have a bit of a double meaning.

[2:12] Or it sounds like one thing and then something else comes of it. And even this idea of being lifted up, I think, is one of these. But let's think about the themes here of the different things first.

[2:26] I mentioned these different places and the themes that were coming out of them. Father, forgive them. That's an obvious one, isn't it? Truly, I tell you, you'll be with me today.

[2:36] He says to the thief by his side, that's about salvation. And all these other things. And he wanted to get his mother linked up with someone. And that was about relationship. What is it that is the key theme of it is finished?

[2:53] Any quick thoughts from you before I? I don't know. That's to do with my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[3:09] No. It's all to do with atonement, the cross, the victory. Who said that? Corinne? Oh, completed. I thought I heard victory.

[3:21] But triumph. Triumph is the phrase I'm looking for. And I think I'll persuade you of it as we go on. Now I come back to the double meanings.

[3:35] Lifted up from the earth. So yes, in one obvious way he would be lifted up on a cross. Onto an instrument of execution. Lifted up.

[3:48] But in another sense, lifted up is speaking of exaltation and glorification. And that's why I read these parts in John 12. But although it sounds rather counterintuitive.

[4:00] Maybe we're thinking, oh, the resurrection is where the glory really starts. You know, the miracles. But actually it is at this cross of Christ where the whole purpose of Jesus coming has come together.

[4:13] And he is lifted up here for this final battle. And it is in a sense a lifting up that speaks of exaltation and glorification.

[4:26] The father is actually honoring the son. Even though there's all kinds of pain and suffering going on. The son is being honored. The father is being honored in the obedience of the son also.

[4:40] So when Jesus was on the cross, Matthew tells, this of course brings much more drama to what might otherwise just be the death of someone the Romans had sentenced to death.

[4:57] It tells of a highly unusual three hours of darkness. And I think we don't often think of this. But if you imagine right in the middle of today, between 12 and 3, it had been totally dark.

[5:10] And you knew this is not a thunderstorm. Or it's a mighty long eclipse. This is a very dramatic event. And in the middle, at the end of that, Jesus is crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[5:24] So this is a very significant time for those looking on. And actually, Matthew 27 and Mark 15, towards the end, says there was a loud cry just before he died.

[5:40] I think we might come against it in a minute. The one in Luke says that when he says, into your hands, I commit my spirit, in Luke, that is a loud cry. But these are very close together.

[5:52] It is finished. Into your hands, I commit my spirit. And there is a loudness. There is a victory theme in Jesus' voice.

[6:05] It is finished. So let's go on. The curtain of the temple was torn in two.

[6:17] That's something we hear in Matthew 27. That is specifically the one between the Holy of Holies and the rest of the temple, showing that whereas there used to be this big barrier and only a few people could go in there under special circumstances, this is a big change.

[6:34] But let's come back. And I want to unpack a little bit more around this phrase, it is finished. What does this speak of? And first of all, I want to talk about fulfillment.

[6:49] Back in John 19, and actually the part we read, so do turn back to John 19. It says, Now of old, the Spirit of God moved David to say that the coming Messiah was going to, they gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar.

[7:22] That's in Psalm 69. That would be one of many prophecies, small details, that all of which Jesus with the Father was wanting all these to be fulfilled before we would get anywhere near saying it is finished.

[7:39] So it is astonishing that there are so many details. I have heard, I mean I've got a slide with 16 that A.W. Pink picks out. I'll just put that on in a minute.

[7:50] But others might correct me, but there's a J. John video where he talks about some of these Jewish rabbis he knows. And he says he's in conversation with one. He says, Do you know how many Old Testament scriptures there are that talk about details around Jesus' death?

[8:04] Oh, he says about 300. And J. John says, 311 to be precise. He says, Shall we sit down? He says, Shall we read them one by one? You know, you read one, I'll read one. Now I've never tried that, but I have a Jewish friend who I'd love to witness to better.

[8:18] But honestly, if you can get them on the common ground and say, Here are the things that are spoken about the Messiah. Wow. It could be quite an eye-opener.

[8:31] So here are 16 coming in a few batches. I won't look them all up. I'm just giving you the idea. Betrayal of a familiar friend. That's in Psalm 4. The forsaking of the disciples through being offended at him.

[8:44] The false accusation. I'm sure all remember that when he was accused in front of Pilate. Being silent before his accusers. That was predicted in Isaiah 53.

[8:58] And being proven guiltless. Isn't that what Pilate said at the end? I find no reason to condemn this man. Being numbered with the transgressors.

[9:09] Isaiah 53. Being crucified. It was predicted. Yeah, not what the Jews wanted to hear, is it? They wanted a Messiah who would overthrow the Romans. But predicted that he would be crucified.

[9:21] Mocked. The taunt of non-deliverance. The gambling for his garments. And five more there. Praying for his enemies. Bones not broken.

[9:34] The burial in a rich man's tomb. Now, I'm just giving you a few. And the main thing is that if you examine when some of these, looked up some of these verses, and you'd find they were written hundreds of years before this Messiah came.

[9:47] So, Jesus said, you know, I could ask, what more evidence would you want of the divine inspiration of the scriptures than this?

[10:00] And anyone, any Jewish people who really knew their scriptures would have, the Messiah, yes, you know, they would have tried to put on one side, yes, I might have been expecting a dramatic overthrow of the Roman Empire, but I know my Bible and this fits.

[10:16] How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word.

[10:27] So, that is a sense of, and between, obviously, we were not party to all of the details of what the Father had asked the Son to do. But all these prophecies had been given, and they were all fulfilled.

[10:42] And we were just told, as we read in John 19, where was I? Let's get back to that verse.

[10:53] So that the scripture would be fulfilled, knowing that everything had been finished, and so that the scripture would be fulfilled. That's verse 28 and 19. So, the second point, that was being fulfilled, it speaks of.

[11:06] What about completion? And I turn you back to John 4. And I read verse 34.

[11:27] My food, said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work. And back in John 19, that phrase I've just read, I've read it a couple of times, I don't need to read it again, but knowing now that everything had been finished, is there as well.

[11:50] John 17 and verse 4, that's worth turning to. Amen. Amen. Jesus says, I have, and he's talking to his father, I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.

[12:16] And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. But there's a clear idea that Jesus knew what he had been told to do by the Father.

[12:33] He knew some of it was very difficult, some of it he would rather not if there was another way. But he knew that was his path, and he completed it.

[12:45] He didn't go two-thirds, three-quarters, and duck out at the last minute. And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, this is in John 3, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

[13:06] So that's the purpose of all this, that when this cross has achieved its great victory, people who would look to that will find and believe will have eternal life.

[13:17] because of this completed work. And of course, this is very empowering to us. When you see the finality of this triumph, victory, it is finished.

[13:28] And because of all this, eternal life is freely available. We can talk to others. We can say, look, if you understand this, Jesus has done it all. It's not, unfortunately, in the way that the devil tends to blind people, most people really want to contribute something to their salvation.

[13:45] This is a big, it's a big stumbling block. But if they will just humbly look and see what he did, it is completed work and you can't add to it.

[14:00] But it means eternal life is freely available. So this should draw praise from our hearts. There will be opportunity to pray as we go on.

[14:12] But then, so we've talked about fulfillment. We've talked about completion. And there is a sense also in which this is very critical, that there is an ending.

[14:23] There is a time, the Old Testament way of doing things with the temple and the Old Testament sacrifices and the curtain between the Holy of Holies and the rest of it, torn into, there's a lot of change, big change going on.

[14:38] The Old Covenant is now obsolete. The New Covenant had come. And if anything, under the new commandment that Jesus has given, I give you love one another as I have loved you, so you must.

[14:53] By this will everyone know you are my disciples. So there was a big transition. You know, you remember when Jesus was talking to the people and he said, if you destroy this temple in three days, it will rise again.

[15:04] And they were quite confused, weren't they, on what he was talking about. But he knew he was talking about his body. And they were, of course, still thinking about the temple, which surely isn't going to be destroyed.

[15:15] And, so we saw some of this, idea of, of the ending of one phase and coming into the new with, when we were talking with Cornelius about, when we were studying Cornelius, looking at the transition to the Gentiles.

[15:36] And, and that little phrase that we touched on when we looked to that a while ago, do not call anything impure that God has called clean. This was, this was the gospel moving away from the Jews.

[15:46] They were, many of them weren't comfortable with it. But of course there is this, this lovely phrase. I'm sure we know this passage in Hebrews 10 very well, but this also talks about the finality of Jesus's death.

[16:00] And what it achieved day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties. Again and again, he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time, one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

[16:20] The sat down being quite interesting when, of course, if you know anything about the temple furniture, there weren't chairs for the priests. Why? Because their work was never done. But this one, Jesus at the right hand of God, he sits down.

[16:34] And since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. So we've touched on fulfillment, completion and ending.

[16:46] And then lastly, this idea of sufficiency. A new age has dawned. And the point is, yes, so various things he's been told to do, he's done.

[16:59] But the point is, nothing else is needed. Nothing else was needed. After an incredibly painful ordeal, I just want to say that, in a sense, Jesus was now satisfied, even though it had been very difficult agonizing.

[17:21] But he was satisfied that the work was complete. Nothing else to do. And I want to draw attention to a very beautiful phrase, which I think is worthy of just a little more attention.

[17:35] This is towards the end of what we read in verse 33. Because it says at the end here, with that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

[17:48] And this phrase, bowed, bowing your head, is, I just speak around it, it's something you might do at the end of a long day.

[17:59] When? When you're just ready to go to sleep. You bow your head to sleep. But the same word, just to give you another place where it's used, in Luke 9, foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.

[18:19] Same original word. So that idea of, at the end of a lot of things, you're resting. this idea of, and Jesus called out, and this is where I said I'd come back to Luke 23, he actually calls out in a loud voice, Father into your hands I commit my spirit.

[18:41] But what else does it say there? Which is quoting Psalm 31 verse 5. Getting ahead of myself. Psalm 31, which actually goes on to say, deliver me Lord.

[18:53] That's that phrase. And those words, would have been words, that pious godly Jews would recite, each night before going to sleep. This idea, they've been working, trying to do all these things, that they knew what God wanted.

[19:09] Into your hands I commit my spirit. So this, I, yeah, despite the trauma, this was the end of a satisfying day.

[19:19] And this bowing of the head, is a sense of, it's, all that work is done, and I'm ready to rest.

[19:29] And the very last thing, I just want to draw attention to, I, I can't claim all these sorts of, you know, I'm reading around other things, that, that have helped me, as I've looked at this.

[19:46] But, this one might provoke some discussion, some might not agree, but see what you make of this one. You might want to compare, the creation account in Genesis, with, John's gospel.

[19:56] Um, both of them begin, with a phrase, in the beginning. And in Genesis, the climax of creation, is the making of man.

[20:11] Yeah? Goes through the series of things. And that's probably the climax of it. But early in John, the climax is, is the incarnation.

[20:23] That Jesus, the word has become flesh. So these are, just interesting things, in the early part of John, and Genesis. Um, but then, you go back to Genesis, and you see this sequence, and, and it says that after six days, on the, what did, what, what did God do on the seventh day?

[20:43] He rested. Now, um, in John, there are, seven sign miracles.

[20:56] Now, I'm not going to be so clever, as to list them out exactly. And I think some people, when they're counting, they make eight or nine, and it depends. You've got to be very careful, what you look at.

[21:06] Um, but it starts, with the wedding at Cana, the first of the signs through which, and, and it's, just to, just to reinforce this point, we started with the idea that, Jesus was going to be glorified, as he was now at the point of death.

[21:23] What do we see in that first miracle? The first of the signs through which, he revealed his glory. So this theme of glory is, is there in John. And, you can trace through, other miracles, and number six, I would say, could be, uh, the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

[21:44] Some people will think they got to seven, or eight, but, with, with more. But it, it just raises a question, this might provoke some discussion afterwards, if some don't think it's entirely right. What is the seventh sign miracle, that speaks of Jesus' glory?

[21:58] It can be strongly argued, that it is the cross. Because it is a sign, revealing his glory, the resurrection would soon confirm it.

[22:17] And after the cross, going back to the comparison, with Genesis account and creation, and after it, God rested. And after this, Jesus is exalted, he is, he is resting.

[22:32] So, God's key work was finished. Some of that last bit, you might have different ideas about, but it, it is a, you know, it needs more analysis. But there is a, there is a sense, there is no doubt in John, I think we've looked at the right scriptures, that say, that, that he's very interested in seeing glory, glory, Jesus glorified.

[22:51] And Jesus knew, as he was approaching death, he, he talks to his father, glorify your son. And we, we found that so incredible, in the midst of this very painful, torture, that, that actually, God is, is being glorified, Jesus is being glorified.

[23:11] So, all I'm saying, and I am nearly done, we are so privileged, to live this side, of the cross, and this victory phrase, it is, finished.

[23:25] No sense of anything else, to do. And, I think it was a while back, not that long ago, we were looking in John's gospel, and this, this phrase often came up, didn't it?

[23:37] Jesus recorded many other signs, but these are written, these signs, that you may believe, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing, you may have life, in his name.

[23:52] So, there you are, that's all I want to bring, to you, and, we could have, well, if there are, any comments, don't ask me anything, too difficult, but if you have any comments, we could have a moment, or two for that, but otherwise, we could just have, some prayers, but then we will sing, once more, before we come to, communion.

[24:19] Does anyone want to, chip in? Here comes an awkward, question from Michael. Oh, you, all right? Yeah, okay, good.

[24:33] I agree, yes, I agree. I think, there's so many, do you want the Roman mic? Not necessary, I don't, I don't mind, don't mind at all.

[24:49] I forgot, I forgot, what I was going to say now. So many, wonderful themes there, aren't there? This idea, of the Father giving Jesus, that work to do, and he says, this is, at the, with the woman at the well, they say, don't you want to eat something?

[25:08] And he says, I have food that you know not of, to, something, something, and finish the Father's work. Yeah. The satisfaction that it gave, the Lord Jesus, to keep going, and to finish it, and that sense of triumph, at the cross, I've done what I've been tasked with doing.

[25:25] Yeah. Which is, is, is wonderful. Yeah. And that other thing, that you touched on, that, he's glorified in the cross. Yeah. And, and when we see the cross, we see, God at his most glorious, it seems to be most, most shameful, and most of a failure, and, and, and most pointless, but actually, it's most glorious, and most triumphant, and, and, and, most successful, which is just a wonderful thing, so thank you for touching on those things.

[25:57] Good. Thank you. Yeah, just, um, yeah, you said about the veil of the temple, um, you know, the end of the old covenant, and the beginning of the new, um, but of course the temple wasn't actually destroyed, till 80's 70.

[26:16] Yeah. I presume they still carried on, sacrifices to him, and that became really final. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Unless there's anyone else, we could have a little time, a few prayers, uh, and then, we have got another song, and I've, I would just have to look at that, whilst you're singing, I will be just finding a couple of slides, but, uh, a few perhaps could just take part in prayer, and, um, just rejoice in how, finished, Jesus' work is.

[26:53] So, um, yeah, I'll close in a minute, but if you want to lead off in prayer, please do. God, we thank you for being on sacrifice, and we thank you for your determined, we thank you that in it, for a Messiah, and yet they cannot see the details that point to Jesus, and how we pray for a lifting of these blind eyes, and for others who I'm sure in a very general way, we can just think of people who want to bring something for their salvation, and yet they have to come empty-handed, and we pray that you would, for people we know, that you would lift this blindness, and give us more encouragement of people who are coming to terms with the truth of your word, and of your sacrifice.

[27:49] Continue to help us as we now move on to share this meal that reminds us of your death. Be with us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So we have another song, 414.