“First Words / Last Words” – John 19 and Matthew 28

Famous last words have always fascinated me.  You may have heard the famous last words of a redneck: “Hey guys!  Watch this!”  We all hope that the last words we say before we die are powerful, insightful and worthy of remembering; not “Hey guys!  Watch this!”

Some people are recognized by their last words.  If I said the name, “Todd Beamer” you may not remember him but you will remember his last words as, “Let’s roll!”  He was the passenger on Flight 93 that was hijacked on 9/11 who led the other passengers to try to reclaim the airplane and saved so many lives.  Those words give me chill bumps still today.

Some people say the obvious when they die.  Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame said, “I’d rather be skiing.”  John Lennon said, “I’m shot.”  Spike Milligan said, “I told you I was ill.”  And one of my favorites is General John Sedgewick who bravely faced the enemy troops on the far side of the field and said, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist…”

But what about first words?  When a baby says their first word it is a joyful occasion.  I understand that the majority of time a baby’s first word is “dada”.  It’s supposedly easier to say than “mama” for a little one.  But whatever it is, it’s big news to the mom and dad and grandparents.  Phone calls are made.  Pictures are taken.  Mama writes in the scrapbook.

But have you ever been motivated by a baby’s first words?  Has a baby ever spoken for the first time and your life was changed forever?  Has it ever sent you on a lifelong quest to repeat what he said?  I hope not.  You need to get out more if that’s the case. 

We’re not told the first words of baby Jesus but I have to assume they were pretty much what any baby might have said.  Born of woman, Jesus, who was there at creation and who was and is and is to come, was born all human and all God.  I can’t explain that, of course, but we believe it.  Faith in Jesus as our Savior demands belief in his virgin birth as all God and all man.  And I don’t have a problem with that.

But this morning I want to look at the last words of Jesus as He hung on the cross and then His first words to His disciples after he arose that wonderful Easter morning.  His last words were profound and full of meaning and His first words after defeating death were profound and full of meaning and should send us on a lifelong quest to do what He said to do.

Please turn to the Gospel of John in the New Testament.  Matthew and Mark relate that Jesus cried out with a loud voice just before He died but only John tells us His exact words.  And while some people, in their last moments of life, may say something ridiculous and out of their head meaningless, Jesus cries out 3 words that changed everything!  He proclaims a simple phrase that literally means the world has completely changed.

It was a phrase that resulted in the great curtain in the temple being torn in two.  It started an earthquake and caused rocks to split and caused the nearby tombs to break open and the dead to walk out alive.  I challenge you to find anyone’s last words to be anything close to as powerful as the words Jesus chose to speak as His last.  Let’s read them in John 19:28-30.

“Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said,“I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. ³⁰ When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

“It is finished!”  No more appropriate words have ever been said in death or dying than those.  If you didn’t know better, you might think Jesus was talking about His life; that He was saying His life was finished.  And while it is true that His mortal life on earth was done, that is not really what He was saying. 

According to my concordance, the Greek word that Jesus proclaimed that we translate as “It is finished” would be “Tetelestai”.  Tetelestai!  It is finished.  It stands finished.  It will always be finished.  And yes, His sufferings were finished but this word means so much more.  Many of the Old Testament types and prophecies were now fulfilled, and the once-for-all sacrifice for sin had now been completed.  (Wiersbe NT Commentary)

It was a word that would be used by a servant in that day to tell his master that the work that had been assigned to him was completed in full.  When a priest would examine an animal sacrifice to verify its worthiness and then make that sacrifice: tetelestai!  When Michelangelo finished the Sistine Chapel ceiling: tetelestai!  When Leonardo da Vinci completed the Mona Lisa: tetelestai!  The job I set out to do or was commissioned to do is finished; completed in full.

But the most meaningful use of the word for us today and as Jesus would have intended it would be used by a merchant who had a debt owed to him.  When the debtor came to him and would pay the debt in full, that merchant would give him a receipt with the word “tetelestai” written across it in bold letters, meaning this debt has been paid in full; nothing else is needed.

Every now and then you may clip a coupon for something free at the store.  Not very often and rarely is it anything very expensive but sometimes you may get a free ice cream cone or small coffee or something if you bring in the coupon and redeem it.  You need a coupon to get your rooty-tooty-fresh and fruity breakfast at Ihop on your birthday.  But if you have the coupon, nothing else is needed.  You don’t have to pay.  You don’t have to wash dishes.  You don’t have to do anything else.  Just redeem the coupon.

Well, I want you to know, my dear family, that when Jesus said, “Tetelestai!” He went to God the Father and said “Here.  Here’s the cross as my coupon and I present it through my sacrificial death to redeem all of mankind.  I paid the price for sin and it is finished!  Nothing else is needed.  Good works are not needed.  Baptism is not needed.  The Lord’s Supper is not needed nor anything else.  It is finished!  Tetelestai!”

He did that because God said that the wages of sin is death.  God’s standard for being able to live eternally in Heaven is perfection so when you say you are a good person and so you deserve to go to Heaven, you have misunderstood.  Oh, sure, I have lied before.  I took God’s name in vain.  I looked with lust but, you know, I’m above average on that stuff.  I’m better than most.

Condemned!  That’s the word God is going to use when you come at Him at the great white throne and say you are above average.  And how else could a just judge rule?  If you have broken the law, you can’t expect a judge to say, “Well, you have broken fewer than most so don’t worry about it.”  But Jesus has redeemed you like a coupon, buddy.  You have been bought with a price; a great and painful price but it has been paid in full.  And all you have to do is believe.

John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them.”  “Whoever believes…”  Jesus said to the Father, “When Billy Graham believes: tetelestai.  When Martin Luther believes: tetelestai.  When that punk kid with a bad attitude and stiff neck and a hard heart named Todd believes: tetelestai!  All he has to do is believe.”

But…the cross was for nothing; Jesus’ life was wasted and His sacrifice achieved nothing!  If not for Easter!  If the story ended there; if Jesus had died and stayed in the tomb and His corpse had rotted like every other god of every other religion then we are wasting our time here this morning and every word I have said might as well be in Greek and we should just all go to the bar and get drunk.  What else ya gonna do?

But everything changed 3 days later.  Jesus didn’t faint.  He didn’t swoon.  He didn’t sleep.  He was dead for 3 days.  But on that third day His eyes opened, His muscles contracted and He walked out.   He commanded the angels when He was on the outside to roll away the stone so people could see in.  And then He told one angel, “You sit there.  The Marys will be here in a few minutes.  Tell them I have risen.”

“He has risen!  He’s not here!”  When I get to Heaven I want to ask that ol’ angel how it felt to make that announcement; to say some of the most important words ever uttered; to say words the meaning of which would change the world forever.  He has risen!  Those words cannot be over-estimated.

But as important as those words are, those are not the words that Jesus wanted to be remembered for.  He didn’t go to the disciples and tell them to just go around saying, “He is risen.”  When Jesus first saw the disciples, the first thing He said; the most important thing He wanted to be remembered; the most urgent command He gave is found in Matthew 28.  Let’s read Matthew 28:16-20.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

There is just a little bit of this passage I want to concentrate on real briefly.  First, Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”  The word authority means the right to use power.  The entire Gospel of Matthew stresses the authority of Jesus Christ.  He had authority in His teaching, in His healing, in his forgiving of sins.  He had authority over Satan.  He even delegated authority to the disciples.  And here at the end of the Gospel, Matthew wants to make clear that Jesus has ALL authority.

When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. "Excuse me," Governor Herter said, "do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?"  "Sorry," the woman told him. "I'm supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person."
"But I'm starved," the governor said.
"Sorry," the woman said again. "Only one to a customer."
Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around.
"Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state."
"Do you know who I am?" the woman said. "I'm the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister."Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, pp. 5-6.

When someone has authority, there is no arguing with that.  And if Jesus has authority over all things then it shouldn’t matter what He tells us to do, where He tells us to go, or what He tells us to say, we can be obedient without any fear of the consequences.  It’s what the first church depended on.  It’s what gave Paul the power to stand up and preach.  It’s what gave Stephen the strength to forgive his attackers.  It’s how Peter slept in prison the night before he was supposed to be tried and probably killed.  If Jesus is in control, what do we have to worry about?

And the authority of Jesus is what this church depends on just like the first church.  I love the fact that it was this church’s idea to take the church to the Lake Road RV Park down the road when we found out that most of them couldn’t come to us for any number of reasons.  We have done it a couple of times before and we never know who is going to show up or what is going to happen or how we are going to be treated but I saw faith in this church; faith in the authority of Jesus Christ that allowed you to do what you were supposed to do, go where you were supposed to go and say what you were supposed to say!

And whether you thought about it or not, you were doing your part at that time to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus in this Gospel.  When Jesus says to “Go and make disciples…” it literally means, “as you go, make disciples”.  As you go, go intentionally.  As you go to the grocery store, as you go to the gas station, as you go to Dos Chiles after church today, be intentional about telling others what you know. 

Tell others about what Jesus has done in your life.  You don’t have to be an evangelist or a missionary to tell that.  Telling that makes you an evangelist and a missionary.  When Jesus said “tetelestai” on the cross, it was the end of His bodily, earthly ministry.  But it was the beginning of ours.  We don’t do it to work our way to Heaven.  We do it because the One who died and was raised again tells us to. 

But look at how Jesus ends this command.  The One who lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death and then became the victor over death tells us that wherever we go, whatever we do, whatever we say, He is with us.  The One who is in authority; the One who defeated Satan and conquered death; the One who deserved to cry out, “Tetelestai! It is finished” is with us.

Do you know Him today?  Do you have a relationship with Him?  I’m not asking if you are a church member or who your family is what you have done, good or bad.  I’m asking if you have believed that Jesus is God and that He can take away all the guilt and shame of your sin just by asking Him into your life to be Lord of your life.

You remember the verse I read earlier from John 3:36 that says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them.”   Rejecting the Son, Jesus, in this life means God’s wrath and the Bible teaches that His wrath results in a real place called Hell for all eternity.

We are not guaranteed another breath so come right now and accept the free gift of God’s grace because then you won’t have to worry if those are your last words because the first words you will hear in Heaven will be, “Well done, my good and faithful servant!”