The Finished Work

by Richard St.James

The Finished Work

John 19:25 “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
27 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.
28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.”

1. Setting Things In Order
2. Thirst Is Last
3. It is Finshed
4. The Sabbath Day

1. Setting Things In Order

Verse twenty-five: “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.”

The most basic of human institutions [instituted by God six thousand years ago] is the family. This institution of the family came as a result of the first marriage. The first marriage [instituted by God six thousand years ago] occurred when God removed one of Adam’s ribs [the first man] to form Eve [the first woman], so that she would be a helpmeet to her husband. From Adam and Eve came the first children [Cain and Abel].

This was the first family.

Now, the very God Who created the institution of the family is the very same God Who was to be nailed on the Cross of Calvary that very day. The Son of God was now to set things in order in preparation for His departure from this world.

Now, what is the uppermost important thing on HIS mind? For the Bible reveals what is in His mind. Let’s look. We see Him [in verse twenty-six] making provision … for His mother’s care: “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!”

Now, with this done, [that is providing for HIS mother] Jesus Christ had run the full course … from the beginning to the end … for HE is the ONE, WHO created the family [the institution of the family] in the first place, and presently, is seen making provision for the family [by providing for the present and future care of His mother, Mary]. The family is of high priority to God.

2. Thirst Is Last

Verse twenty-eight: “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.”

Jesus earlier had already been offered “vinegar to drink mingled with gall” but HE had refused to drink. We can see this in the book of Matthew: “They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.” [Matthew 27:34]

Now, just before He gives up the ghost [for the purpose of fulfilling the Scripture], HE was ready to drink. He was thirsty! This is in fulfillment of the Scripture located in Psalms sixty-nine, verse twenty-one: “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” [Psalms 69:21]

Now, when a man is thirsty, death is not very far away. Did you know that? We need water to live. Unless our thirst is quenched with water then it will be only a matter of time … till we die. There is something funny thing about water; we need to keep drinking it! Jesus said in John chapter four verse thirteen: “Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:” [John 4:13]. Jesus Christ is saying that drinking this kind of water is only a short term solution to solving a man’s eternal thirst.

Only God can break this maxim! In Isaiah the LORD GOD is telling us that HE can “redeem” us, and that HE can “deliver” us from the continual “thirst” problem. “Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.” [Isaiah 50:2]

When the Son of God said while HE hung that old Cross of Mount Calavary: “I thirst”, Old Death was real near. What was happening here? I will tell you. Jesus Christ was about to cross the finish line so that man might be redeemed from the curse of sin … which is death, so that man might not hunger or thirst ever again. [Revelation 7:16] “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.” Now, I already have read to you from John four, verse thirteen, now, I will read to you from verse fourteen. Are you ready? “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” [John 4:14]

3. It is Finshed

Verse thirty: “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”

Isaiah fifty-three: “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” [Isaiah 53:12]

What more can we add to this? We cannot, but to thank God for His unspeakable gift. [2 Corinthians 9:15] “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”

4. The Sabbath Day

Verse thirty-one: “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”

The day they crucified Jesus Christ was on a Wednesday … a day of preparation. [The day of preparation was the day before the Sabbath day.] Now, Thursday was a Sabbath day. Please note: the Sabbath day [referred to in verse thirty-one] was not the weekly Sabbath day [or the seventh day]. The Sabbath on Thursday was a HIGH DAY. It is as it says in Leviticus: “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord's passover.” [Leviticus 23:5]

According the Scripture, [in Matthew 12:40] Jesus Christ would be three days and three nights in the center of the earth. “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” This visit to the “heart of the earth” would last from Wednesday till sometime after dusk on Saturday [which is Sunday morning]. This is when Jesus Christ “led captivity captive” and brought Paradise to Heaven. [Ephesians 4:8] “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”

Do you believe the Scripture? [Galatians 3:22] “But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” Amen!!

They Shall Look On Him!

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The Gospel According To John

John 19:1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.

John 19:2 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,

John 19:3 And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands.

John 19:4 Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.

John 19:5 Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!

John 19:6 When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.

John 19:7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.

John 19:8 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid;

John 19:9 And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.

John 19:10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?

John 19:11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee
hath the greater sin.

John 19:12 And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.

John 19:13 When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but
in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.

John 19:14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!

John 19:15 But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered,
We have no king but Caesar.

John 19:16 Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.

John 19:17 And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:

John 19:18 Where they crucified him, and two others with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.

John 19:19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.

John 19:20 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.

John 19:21 Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews.

John 19:22 Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.

John 19:23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.

John 19:24 They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.

John 19:25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.

John 19:26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!

John 19:27 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

John 19:28 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

John 19:29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.

John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

John 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath
day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

John 19:32 Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him.

John 19:33 But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:

John 19:34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

John 19:35 And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.

John 19:36 For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.

John 19:37 And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.

John 19:38 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the
body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.

John 19:39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.

John 19:40 Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

John 19:41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.

John 19:42 There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

The Finished Work