It Is Finished

Text: Revelation 5:11-14

Focus: Worship

Function: To celebrate the Atonement

Form: GOK

Intro: Easter Worship always has a profound affect on me. It feels like things for the next few weeks are anti-climatic except, I keep going back to our worship services and I hear two songs in my head, the resurrection song from the Easter Dance and Dan's song: “It is Finished.”

It is Finished!

I wonder how it felt for Jesus to say those words from the Cross.

And every time I think of that image, I get the picture of the brave person who willingly throws himself or herself in front of a bullet to save a stranger.

I get the picture of great sacrifice.

But, there is this sense of satisfaction in the eye of the one who is giving themselves up.

Like the soldier who knows that his sacrifice will save the rest and dies with a sense that his sacrifice was worthwhile.

And so, Jesus cries out those words and then lets His own life go.

Brother Paul brings out a detail in Romans 5 that is important. He says this about Jesus in Romans 5: ⁷Indeed, rarely will anyone die for an un-righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

When He dies, He knows that He has won.

That is what we understand. And it isn't just some sort of mental gymnastics, Jesus defeated the power of death and the power of fear that death has over us by raising from the dead.

So, when I still hear the words from that song ringing in my ears “It is Finished!” I place an exclamation point after it and shout hallelujah, Jesus won!

When we sing that song, it reminds us that Jesus Christ is the Victor.

Our gathering liturgy is taken from our companion text this morning, Psalms 30.

We used to sing a Chorus from it: “God has turned our mourning into dancing and put off our sackcloth.”

Christ brought to us the Victory.

I love the old Hymn, Victory in Jesus.

It reminds me of what we are celebrating this morning as we continue to celebrate the resurrection.

There are at least 7 different ways to look at the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I relate to every one of them.

In one, Christ won the battle by not giving in to violence, fighting back, letting them kill Him and through that showed us that we do not have to resort to violence to serve God.

In another, God has not going to allow anybody in to heaven unless a perfect sacrifice was slain on behalf of the people. That sacrifice was Jesus and through His death, the way is open for anyone to get to heaven.

And all of these ideas are good and right and true in their own merit and with scripture to back them up.

And I love ferreting out all the meaning behind the symbolism and all of it.

But when I look at the text chosen for today, I realize something else, the point is to draw us to Jesus.

In this passage we get a glimpse of heaven. Angels, according to this translation, thousands and millions of them and around the throne.

And (look at the little children in the audience) the Bible says that they can see both God and you at the same time.

And they too are looking for the answer to the evil that befalls the world and their focus is placed on Jesus, the one who overcame evil by His death.

And this scene, like Revelation 4, are pictures of what is going on, maybe even right now, in heaven.

Someone one called this passage a rapture drill because it suggests part of what is going on in heaven.

And in the context of the passage, in heaven, they are looking for someone worthy enough to open the seals. It is Jesus.

They are still focusing on the event, “it is finished.”

In this passage, they are worshiping the one who was killed, Jesus. And His willingness to die is the reason why they are worshiping Him.

They are not happy about death, they are happy that they death overcame the evil in the world.

The book of Revelation is difficult.

It is about suffering.

It was written between 81-86 AD.

In Matthew 24, Jesus predicts the events that will happen when the magnificent temple in Jerusalem is destroyed. Jesus says “This generation will not pass away before this happens.” And it happened in 70 AD.

More than anything, it is a prophecy and a comfort to the people of Israel during the brutal siege and slaughter of the Jewish People during the Roman pogrom that Jesus prophesied would happen. You remember the warning Jesus gave: “¹⁹Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! ²⁰Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath. ²¹For at that time there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. ²²And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

It is difficult for us to imagine how brutal the destruction of Jerusalem was in 70 AD.

Although they re-used crosses, it is reported that they had difficulty finding enough trees to make crosses to kill the population.

That is hard for me to actually get my mind around. And I don't want us to focus on the evil that is still in the world.

And the people of God have to be asking themselves” why, if they belong to God, is all this bad stuff happening?

I get that question a lot.

Pastor, if I believe, then why?

I don't know.

There is indeed evil in this world.

The biggest question that everyone has is this, if there is evil, does God care?

Why do good people die young? Why war? Why poverty? Why sickness? Why does God let evil continue?

I read a provocative story by Rudolf Vrba. It details his experience in Auschwitz during the war.

The book describes atrocity after atrocity committed against him and others to the point where he decides two things: “there is no God” and “I cannot forgive.”

In partially describing these two events, I have delved far enough into human depravity to help us feel it. I think every one should be aware of the history of evil so that we can do our part to prevent it happening again.

What happened 2,000 years ago happened again 70 years ago and that is just to one people.

Atrocity after atrocity have been committed since the beginning of time and people have always wondered this: “where is God in my suffering when someone else is responsible?” Even, at times when the only person we can find to blame is God.

In my morning devotions I am reading through the book of Job right now.

Jobs' friends had God all figured out.

If you do well and never do wrong, you will be rich and well. If you are poor and are suffering, then it must be because you are not good enough and go not have God's favor. There must be some sort of hidden sin.

Job's friends want the world to be easy and fairness to be easily accessible to everyone. It should be.

But it isn't and what happens when it isn't?

In heaven we see this picture. Jesus, the one who was treated the most unfairly, the perfect sacrifice for our sins as the one who gave His life.

No other mention of anything else.

I should point out that the resurrection is assumed at this part of the passage.

The evil that seems to have won has not won no matter how it looks.

I believe that this leads me to relief that there is still reason to keep going.

Trust God to be the fair judge and remember, Jesus overcame death.

(Look to heaven) “Thank You, Jesus!”