Rick
04-03-2007, 02:50 AM
Never Give Up
John 19:28-30
“…Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, "I am thirsty." A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
Often a person’s conception of God is influenced by their father; if your father is kind and loving, you see God as kind and loving. If your father was harsh and stern, you often project solely those attributes onto God. One thing my father tried to teach me was to never give up. I remember a picture he had hanging in his office- it was a heron, or crane, in the process of eating a frog. The crane had the frog’s head in it’s mouth but the frog had his hands outside the bird’s mouth, choking the bird, preventing him from swallowing- the caption at the bottom read “Never Ever Give Up”.
As another illustration, my dad was a fighter pilot. At one time his job was to go into a target area ahead of the strike package and to protect the other pilots by attacking the enemy Surface to Air missile sites. One of his medal citations tells how he remained in the target area even after he had expended all of his ammunition. He was psyching out the enemy gunners by pretending to attack them, causing them to shut down their radars and thereby protecting his friends in the other planes. He was the same way on the golf course, the poker table and in the hospital. He never gave up, he never quit, and he was never finished. He died, but he never quit.
God never quits either. How easy would it have been for Jesus to sidestep the agony of the cross? Such terrible agony it must have been, we can hardly imagine the physical, emotional and spiritual suffering He went through. Spurgeon writes:
“What our Savior suffered in His body was nothing compared to what He endured in His soul. You cannot guess, and I cannot help you to guess, what He endured within. Suppose for one moment….suppose a man who had passed into hell, suppose his eternal torment could all be brought into one hour; and then suppose it could be multiplied by the number of the saved, which is a number past all human enumeration. Can you now think what a vast aggregate of misery there would have been in suffering for all of God’s people if they had been punished for all eternity? And recollect that Christ had to suffer for all the hells of all His redeemed. I can never express that thought better than by using those oft-repeated words: it seemed as if Hell were put into His cup; He seized it, and at one tremendous draught of love, He drank damnation dry, so that there was nothing left of all the pangs and miseries of Hell for His people to endure.”
When we are at our last point of endurance, God is there
When our marriage is over and we can’t go on, God is there
When our kids are so far astray, we can’t stand it, God is there
When we are unjustly accused and convicted, God is there
When our friends curse us and spit on us, God is there
When every breath is pure agony, God is there
When eventually we die, God is there
God has gone through every one of these agonies and he never gave up, He never quit, He was never finished. We may give up, quit and be finished, but God never will.
The world has one definition of finished but God has another. William Shakespeare writes in Act 5 of Macbeth:
“Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”
Man, what a bummer. You’re finished- that’s what the world has to offer; all the promises were lies; you amount to nothing; you’re hosed up. You’re finished.
Adam was given the deed to the world by God and he forfeited control over to satan in the Garden of Eden. The Bible tells us how satan is the ruler over the earth. When he was tempting Jesus in the wilderness; satan had the authority to give Jesus everything the world had to offer, to give Jesus the world.
The devil is a liar. John, chapter 8, verse 44 tells us:
"…. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
God tells us, Christians will be greeted as good and faithful servants and live with Him in heaven. We will be welcomed as long-lost sons and daughters and be feasted and clothed with the finest of robes, living eternally, worshipping God in His Holy Light. God never lies.
On the cross, Jesus said “Father, forgive them for they not what they are doing.”
The world will tell you: “What goes around, comes around”, and, “I don’t get mad, I get even.” Truthfully, most of us have said these things before; I know I have. The world will tell you don’t get pushed around, don’t be a doormat, get what you deserve, how dare they do that to me, to me! If you don’t retaliate, you’re finished.
God, in the very process of having His hands and feet nailed to a cross, is so overcome by love and concern for the people actually doing the nailing, that He intercedes for them with God, the Father, right then and there. Truthfully, it was my hand holding the hammer and nail on Golgotha - thank you Jesus for interceding on my behalf.
To the thief beside Him, Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
The world tells us God is dead. The world is frantic to deny the existence of God. If there is a God, they are responsible to him for their actions and the world hates that thought. God has been kicked out of the courts, suspended from school, banished form nursing homes and hospitals, and sometimes even banished from churches. Evolution is taught to our children as established science when in fact, it is full of error and requires more blind faith to believe in than creation. Truth is no longer absolute but is relative to how we “feel” about it; words have different meanings at different times. The sanctity of life is no longer respected at the beginning or the end. The world is hedonistic and totally self-centered. Religion is for suckers and weak people, Christianity is a crutch for people who can’t handle reality; the Bible is a fairy tale full of contradictions. God is finished.
But God tells us, you hang with me, you keep the faith and finish the race and you will be with Me in Paradise. All of our triumphs and tragedies will pale into insignificance when compared with the glory of being with God in Paradise for eternity. But we will be there, not on the basis of anything we have done, but solely on the basis of what He did at Calvary.
Jesus said, “Dear woman, here is your son, here is your mother”
The world is hard on widows without a son to care for them, especially in the first century, hardship and suffering is sure to follow. Without someone to care for them, they are finished.
Jesus knew His family would need help in the days to come, so He provided it in the form of His friend John.
Jesus said: “I thirst”
In the world you need water to survive. After a day and a half in the desert without water your lips crack and hallucinations start, it’s not pleasant. We need water to be constantly replenished; without it, we are finished.
But, like the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus offers us living water that satisfies our thirst once and for all time, a well of water springing up to eternal life. God’s water is purer, sweeter and fresher than anything the world has to offer.
Jesus said: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?”
The world is into self-centeredness. When we are alone, we are finished
Jesus was calling out in anguish because His Father couldn’t be in the presence of sin; Jesus was alone and afraid.
Jesus said: “Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit.”
The world tells us we have to be tough and self-sufficient to survive. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, never let ‘em see you sweat, never ask for directions. Never let anyone see you vulnerable or in a position of weakness, or you are finished.
Jesus went to the cross, hung on the cross and died on the cross because it was His Father’s will and He trusted that God was going to do the right thing. God always does the right thing.
John 19:28-30
“…Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, "I am thirsty." A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
Finished and accomplished, the Greek word in both cases is teTELestai. The world tells us finished is a bad thing, how the devil must have gloated when Jesus died on the cross; how the world today gloats when a Christian stumbles.
Caiphas and Annanias thought it was over, a seditious troublemaker from out of town dealt with, imagine the nerve of that man, turning over the money changing tables in the Temple. Well, He’s finished now.
Pilate thought it was over, a revolt narrowly avoided. That wouldn’t look so good on the old resume. Well, He’s finished now.
The Disciples thought it was over. Jesus crucified on a cross like a common criminal, Oh man, what does this mean? We are finished.
In Greek, the word teTELestai means paid-in-full. Jesus took the list of our sins and paid the price, in full, for us.
When the Romans would throw someone in jail, they would post on the outside of the door of each cell a list of the crimes committed by that person. When the criminal had served their time in prison and was released, the Romans would write the word teTELestai, paid-in-full, across the face of the paper listing the crimes and the former prisoner would carry that sheet of paper away showing that, yes, they had been a prisoner, but now their sentence was served and they were free. Jesus stamped Paid-in-Full across the list of our crimes.
Archeologists have found many scraps of legal documents and bills of sale that have the word teTELestai written across the face, it was an everyday way of saying paid in full.
In Matthew 5:18 Jesus says: “Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.”
Until what is accomplished?
Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Prophesy. Spurgeon writes: “When Jesus Christ said “It is finished”, all the types, promises and prophecies were now fully accomplished in Him. In fact, the whole book from the first to the last, in both the law and the prophets was finished in Him.”
John 19:28-30
“…Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, "I am thirsty." A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
Often a person’s conception of God is influenced by their father; if your father is kind and loving, you see God as kind and loving. If your father was harsh and stern, you often project solely those attributes onto God. One thing my father tried to teach me was to never give up. I remember a picture he had hanging in his office- it was a heron, or crane, in the process of eating a frog. The crane had the frog’s head in it’s mouth but the frog had his hands outside the bird’s mouth, choking the bird, preventing him from swallowing- the caption at the bottom read “Never Ever Give Up”.
As another illustration, my dad was a fighter pilot. At one time his job was to go into a target area ahead of the strike package and to protect the other pilots by attacking the enemy Surface to Air missile sites. One of his medal citations tells how he remained in the target area even after he had expended all of his ammunition. He was psyching out the enemy gunners by pretending to attack them, causing them to shut down their radars and thereby protecting his friends in the other planes. He was the same way on the golf course, the poker table and in the hospital. He never gave up, he never quit, and he was never finished. He died, but he never quit.
God never quits either. How easy would it have been for Jesus to sidestep the agony of the cross? Such terrible agony it must have been, we can hardly imagine the physical, emotional and spiritual suffering He went through. Spurgeon writes:
“What our Savior suffered in His body was nothing compared to what He endured in His soul. You cannot guess, and I cannot help you to guess, what He endured within. Suppose for one moment….suppose a man who had passed into hell, suppose his eternal torment could all be brought into one hour; and then suppose it could be multiplied by the number of the saved, which is a number past all human enumeration. Can you now think what a vast aggregate of misery there would have been in suffering for all of God’s people if they had been punished for all eternity? And recollect that Christ had to suffer for all the hells of all His redeemed. I can never express that thought better than by using those oft-repeated words: it seemed as if Hell were put into His cup; He seized it, and at one tremendous draught of love, He drank damnation dry, so that there was nothing left of all the pangs and miseries of Hell for His people to endure.”
When we are at our last point of endurance, God is there
When our marriage is over and we can’t go on, God is there
When our kids are so far astray, we can’t stand it, God is there
When we are unjustly accused and convicted, God is there
When our friends curse us and spit on us, God is there
When every breath is pure agony, God is there
When eventually we die, God is there
God has gone through every one of these agonies and he never gave up, He never quit, He was never finished. We may give up, quit and be finished, but God never will.
The world has one definition of finished but God has another. William Shakespeare writes in Act 5 of Macbeth:
“Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”
Man, what a bummer. You’re finished- that’s what the world has to offer; all the promises were lies; you amount to nothing; you’re hosed up. You’re finished.
Adam was given the deed to the world by God and he forfeited control over to satan in the Garden of Eden. The Bible tells us how satan is the ruler over the earth. When he was tempting Jesus in the wilderness; satan had the authority to give Jesus everything the world had to offer, to give Jesus the world.
The devil is a liar. John, chapter 8, verse 44 tells us:
"…. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
God tells us, Christians will be greeted as good and faithful servants and live with Him in heaven. We will be welcomed as long-lost sons and daughters and be feasted and clothed with the finest of robes, living eternally, worshipping God in His Holy Light. God never lies.
On the cross, Jesus said “Father, forgive them for they not what they are doing.”
The world will tell you: “What goes around, comes around”, and, “I don’t get mad, I get even.” Truthfully, most of us have said these things before; I know I have. The world will tell you don’t get pushed around, don’t be a doormat, get what you deserve, how dare they do that to me, to me! If you don’t retaliate, you’re finished.
God, in the very process of having His hands and feet nailed to a cross, is so overcome by love and concern for the people actually doing the nailing, that He intercedes for them with God, the Father, right then and there. Truthfully, it was my hand holding the hammer and nail on Golgotha - thank you Jesus for interceding on my behalf.
To the thief beside Him, Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
The world tells us God is dead. The world is frantic to deny the existence of God. If there is a God, they are responsible to him for their actions and the world hates that thought. God has been kicked out of the courts, suspended from school, banished form nursing homes and hospitals, and sometimes even banished from churches. Evolution is taught to our children as established science when in fact, it is full of error and requires more blind faith to believe in than creation. Truth is no longer absolute but is relative to how we “feel” about it; words have different meanings at different times. The sanctity of life is no longer respected at the beginning or the end. The world is hedonistic and totally self-centered. Religion is for suckers and weak people, Christianity is a crutch for people who can’t handle reality; the Bible is a fairy tale full of contradictions. God is finished.
But God tells us, you hang with me, you keep the faith and finish the race and you will be with Me in Paradise. All of our triumphs and tragedies will pale into insignificance when compared with the glory of being with God in Paradise for eternity. But we will be there, not on the basis of anything we have done, but solely on the basis of what He did at Calvary.
Jesus said, “Dear woman, here is your son, here is your mother”
The world is hard on widows without a son to care for them, especially in the first century, hardship and suffering is sure to follow. Without someone to care for them, they are finished.
Jesus knew His family would need help in the days to come, so He provided it in the form of His friend John.
Jesus said: “I thirst”
In the world you need water to survive. After a day and a half in the desert without water your lips crack and hallucinations start, it’s not pleasant. We need water to be constantly replenished; without it, we are finished.
But, like the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus offers us living water that satisfies our thirst once and for all time, a well of water springing up to eternal life. God’s water is purer, sweeter and fresher than anything the world has to offer.
Jesus said: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?”
The world is into self-centeredness. When we are alone, we are finished
Jesus was calling out in anguish because His Father couldn’t be in the presence of sin; Jesus was alone and afraid.
Jesus said: “Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit.”
The world tells us we have to be tough and self-sufficient to survive. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, never let ‘em see you sweat, never ask for directions. Never let anyone see you vulnerable or in a position of weakness, or you are finished.
Jesus went to the cross, hung on the cross and died on the cross because it was His Father’s will and He trusted that God was going to do the right thing. God always does the right thing.
John 19:28-30
“…Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, "I am thirsty." A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
Finished and accomplished, the Greek word in both cases is teTELestai. The world tells us finished is a bad thing, how the devil must have gloated when Jesus died on the cross; how the world today gloats when a Christian stumbles.
Caiphas and Annanias thought it was over, a seditious troublemaker from out of town dealt with, imagine the nerve of that man, turning over the money changing tables in the Temple. Well, He’s finished now.
Pilate thought it was over, a revolt narrowly avoided. That wouldn’t look so good on the old resume. Well, He’s finished now.
The Disciples thought it was over. Jesus crucified on a cross like a common criminal, Oh man, what does this mean? We are finished.
In Greek, the word teTELestai means paid-in-full. Jesus took the list of our sins and paid the price, in full, for us.
When the Romans would throw someone in jail, they would post on the outside of the door of each cell a list of the crimes committed by that person. When the criminal had served their time in prison and was released, the Romans would write the word teTELestai, paid-in-full, across the face of the paper listing the crimes and the former prisoner would carry that sheet of paper away showing that, yes, they had been a prisoner, but now their sentence was served and they were free. Jesus stamped Paid-in-Full across the list of our crimes.
Archeologists have found many scraps of legal documents and bills of sale that have the word teTELestai written across the face, it was an everyday way of saying paid in full.
In Matthew 5:18 Jesus says: “Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law until all is accomplished.”
Until what is accomplished?
Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Prophesy. Spurgeon writes: “When Jesus Christ said “It is finished”, all the types, promises and prophecies were now fully accomplished in Him. In fact, the whole book from the first to the last, in both the law and the prophets was finished in Him.”