Gail Stathis

He won’t fail. Never. And tonight, as a celebration of that, often we remember on Easter Friday or Saturday, we remember Jesus as the Sacrificial Lamb. But He wasn’t just a Sacrificial Lamb, He became the biggest Victor this world has ever know, our Victorious King, Amen. He won every victory we will ever need. If we ever lived in a time when we need to believe that there is someone that will not fail us, it is now. He will not just not disappoint us; He won’t fail us. And He wants to speak to those of us who are here tonight.
I think when we look at Friday, what happened on the events on Friday, that Jesus went to the cross. It was a statement that we matter to God; it was proof – the heart of God cares about us. He is our Solid Rock. He made a very powerful statement on Friday. He stated, “It is finished.” The Rock said, that it is finished. It seems like 3 small words, but it is His global assignment. His assignment in Matthew 20: 28 was, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” When He went to the cross, and He uttered that statement, “It is finished,” one word in Greek, three words in English, it was so important for what happened beyond that moment.
He had lived for 33 years; He fulfilled over 300 prophecies about Himself; He paid the ultimate price, for someone else. He gave His life for you and I. It was the cruelest form of death. Crucifixion was a method that the Romans mastered, to have expert torture, by flogging a person, and tearing the flesh from the body, to bring them to the point of death but not dying and that He was nailed to the cross, where He called to His Father, and made the statement, “It is finished.” 2 Corinthians 5: 21 tells us, “He was made sin for you and I, He never knew any sin”.
But He is the righteousness of God, and when we invite Jesus into our lives, it’s like wearing a cloak of righteousness. We cover ourselves, all of our failures and fears, all the things that we have done, we give them to the Lord, and when God, the Father, looks at us He sees us clothed in the robe of righteousness, of Jesus. We know the story; we hear it every year, He took our sins; He took our punishment. He suffered that pain for you and I. But I think it’s important again to remember, He wasn’t just a Sacrificial Lamb. I wanted Victor to sing this song so much, because it speaks not just only of the Lamb of God, but the victorious Son of God, Amen.
He will not fail; He won’t ever, ever fail us. If we choose Him, we will not suffer death forever; instead, we will live forever. Amen. That’s our redeemer, that’s His great love. The word, ‘Tetélestai’ or it is finished, but in the New Testament, it’s also an accounting term. I love this. Think about all the bills you have, all the things you owe, and what would happen if your bill wasn’t paid. The person you owed would come to your door; would knock on the door, and he would hammer the bill to the door. Your neighbors would know how much you owe. Think about that. Your VISA bill, your Master Card, your American Express, all hanging on the door and everybody would know just how much you owe.
But this is what is so beautiful about Jesus, we all had a debt we could not pay. We were born in sin. We could never clear that bill away. But Jesus went to the cross, and then you know what happened? When you would pay your bill, they would write on the bottom of the bill, ‘Tetélestai’. I love that. Paid in full and they would take another bill and that would nail it up on the door, ‘No more debt.’ The debt is gone, Hallelujah.
They drove nails into both hands of Jesus. They drove nails into His feet. And when they did that to Him, it was a sign, our debt was paid in full. Oh Hallelujah. The death of Jesus on the cross was full payment for every sin. Think about that. What if it was on the door of your house, you owe for every lie you’ve ever told, every time you stole a piece of candy or an olive at the grocery store, every time you ran a red light, it would be written there. You owe this. But Jesus, when He went to the cross, Jesus paid it all. Hallelujah. He paid it in full, Hallelujah. I don’t owe that debt anymore.
In Romans 6: 23a it says, “For the wages of sin is death, …” There is a total separation from God. But guess what? When you believe on Jesus, you get eternal life, the debt is paid, by Jesus Christ our Lord. When Jesus uttered those three words in English, the one word in Greek from the cross, when He said, “It is finished”, when He said, “Tetélestai”, I wonder if we can’t think tonight, that the first word, the first word that came to Him, was the word, “to hell”. I’m hammering and letting hell know, “You won’t win!” Jesus Christ, went into hell, He descended into hell, and He preached to people who were captive. They were set free. I kind of believe that all of hell shuddered in disbelief. They were fearful, they thought they had won, hell thought it had won. But Jesus came; Jesus went into the darkest place, the place of the lost, saying, “I’m here to deliver you. I am here to rescue people from the clutch, the hold of satan in hell.”
I think that same day when Jesus declared “It is finished”, earth was probably overwhelmed, that someone would pay the debt of someone or everyone that ever lived. Earth was overwhelmed. The earth didn’t understand this love. But the third nail that I like the best, when the third nail was hammered, I think heaven begin to rejoice. Because heaven was getting ready, for all those that would believe in the Son of God, for those who would believe the risen Savior, Hallelujah. Heaven was getting ready, praise God, to receive you and me and whosoever would believe that Jesus was alive. Heaven was beginning to rejoice Hallelujah. There is a place for them, Jesus made the way. When that last nailed was pounded, God folded up every debt that we would have, every debt of sin, and Jesus says, “I paid your debt, I paid your debt.” He didn’t just die paying your debt, but He rose again, Hallelujah, He finished the deal, Amen. I like that too.
The debt that was nailed to your door; He said I paid your debt. But I think, He walked up to the door, and He took the bill away, so that you couldn’t even remember it, you couldn’t even look at it, Amen. He doesn’t want us to remember those sins, yes, they happened. But what does He say, when you ask Him to forgive you? What does He do? He throws away our sins as far away as the east is from the west. He doesn’t remember them anymore. Are you sure God? You don’t remember when I stole that olive from that grocery store, and not just one, I ate 10 olives out of the olive barrel. “No, I don’t remember a single olive; not even the pip.” He tore it down and He threw it away.
Hell was afraid. Hell thought that it has won. And earth, can someone love us so much? And heaven begin to rejoice. Make room, make more room for the children of God, are getting ready to live in heaven forever and ever. Hell lost and heaven won. Revelation 1: 18 says, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Every step that Jesus took on Good Friday, every step, “I love you.” I don’t know about you, but sometimes it’s so wonderful just to know that even if I’m not sure about anybody else, I know He loves me.
If you’re not sure, look to heaven. His cross and the nails, are proof that He will do anything to forgive you that you can be with Him. As I was preparing this, I was thinking, you know we often take gold as the most precious metal in the world, but you know the Romans would re-use and re-use the nails, the spikes, and those spikes would become rusty, and I was thinking as I was writing this, Jesus lives, but He lives. He has the last word.
I was thinking about this, you know, it works well in English, not so much in Greek, lots of times we write an ending to words, to a verb. It puts a word in the past tense. I want to use this, even though I know it doesn’t work as well in Greek. ‘Mohammed lived, Buddha said, Joseph Smith walked, Confucius laughed.’ In English it’s easier I know, than in Greek, but it gives you an example, that these are all things that happened in the past. But when we speak of Jesus, it’s always now. ‘Jesus speaks, Jesus lives, Jesus heals, Jesus baptized, Jesus walks, Jesus talks, Jesus is with you, He is always is, He is, He is, He is.’
I’m going to choose to follow someone that always is alive, than someone that is dead. What Job says in Job 19: 25, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth.” He lives because He said, “Tetélestai”, because He said. “It is finished.” He won over death. He won over the grave. He won over hell. Romans 8:11, “And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.”
I believe the Lord is ready to visit earth with the greatest healing ministries we have ever seen, miracles. Because the Scripture says that He suffered and He was tortured that we could be healed. Miraculous healing depends on us believing in the miracle of the resurrection today. The resurrection of Jesus, changes everything. When you ask Him into your life, it changes you; and not just one time, but every day as you live for Him. You are changed, you become more like Him. People are looking all over for an answer and for help, but they’re not looking in the right direction. The resurrection solves our problems.
We’re getting ready here to close in just a minute, ahead of the fireworks, but I want to think for just a moment about three women. They were discussing a problem, when the answer for just in front of them. They were set on doing what they thought was their assignment, that they almost missed the greatest miracle. Mark 16, 2b-4, this is about Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Salome, “They were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb? But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.”
It was very early Sunday morning, just after sunrise, these 3 women were on their way to the tomb. They were coming to the burial place of Jesus. And look at what the Scripture says, they were saying one to another, “who will roll the stone away?” They were talking to one to another, they were carrying the spices they were going to put on His body. They were going to put those spices on Him, because as a body decays, it begins to smell and this is going to help keep the smell away. These ladies thought that we want to make this body smell good as long as we can.
So, they’re carrying the spices, they’re looking at one another, who will roll the stone away? Who is going to move the rock, that’s hiding our Savior? They were looking in the wrong direction. Verse 4 says, “But when they looked up” the answer had already come. God had already taken care of it. “Tetélestai!’ it was already taken care of. We live in a world full of questions, and we’re looking everywhere. People are looking everywhere for the answer.
So, often times people are repeating to one another the same problem over and over and over. The Lord is saying to us tonight, ‘In Me, your needs are met. Tetélestai. It is finished, I’m the answer.’ Instead of talking about what to do, look up and see what God has already done, Hallelujah. He conquered death, He conquered the grave, Hallelujah, and tonight He can give you the answers you need. Lord help us.
I believe that we have a lot to shout about tonight. We’ve already heard some fireworks. Jesus is saying to us, ‘Tetélestai, it is finished.’ Today, if you believe in Jesus, even if you are loaded with problems, the Lord is saying, ‘Quit looking at the problems, quit looking at the grave, I’m the Rock, and the Rock has been rolled away from the tomb. I want to roll your thoughts away from death. I want to bring your thoughts to who I am. That I am the one, that won’t fail you. I will never fail you.’
Christ is our firm foundation. The rock upon which I stand. Hallelujah, He’s not in the tomb. He’s in this room. Jesus is here in this room. He doesn’t want us to anoint our problems with spices to make them smell good. That’s what we do a lot of times. Well, we’ll just talk about it a little bit and it will go away. And we pour spices on it. But the Lord says, ‘Check the Rock. Check what He did, Hallelujah.’ He didn’t stay in the room for them to drop spices all over Him. The stone was rolled away and Jesus came forth out of the grave. He doesn’t need those spices, because He’s alive Hallelujah.
Those ladies were looking at one another, ‘Oh, how are we going to move the rock.’ And they needed to look up and check the rock, that it had been rolled away. That’s what Easter is about. Check the Rock. The Rock can move and help any problem that we have. Why is Christianity better than any other religion? Because Jesus the Rock, Hallelujah, He is alive. He doesn’t keep us in death. He sets us free to eternal life.
Did He really conquer death? Check the Rock. I talk to Him every day. He’s alive. He’s alive, Hallelujah. Every single day, Hallelujah. Is He coming again? Check the Rock. The Rock says, ‘I’m getting ready to split the skies and come after you and you to be with Me forever and ever.’ Will He keep His promises? What did the Rock tell the disciples? He said, ‘I will die, but in 3 days I will rise again.’ Hallelujah, Jesus is alive. He will not fail. The stone has been rolled away. He rules and reigns forever triumphant.
The resurrection is an exclamation on the cross. The resurrection is saying, the world thought they could keep Him there, but oh no He’s not there. He is the Stone; He is the Rock that rolls away any darkness in your life. He rolls away death. Maybe you’ve looked everywhere, except the empty tomb. Tonight look and see it is empty. It is empty. And He is here to change lives all over the world. I don’t want a tomb, I want Jesus who is alive, Amen. The tomb is empty, but Christ is in my heart, Amen. Tetélestai. Check the Rock. It is finished. Every victory, every victory, I promise you, because I know Him. Not my words, I promise you what He said, ‘I won’t leave you; I won’t forget you. I won’t leave you without a comforter. I will be with you.’ He won’t fail. He won’t fail you. Amen. As we sing this all together, guess what? He’s alive, the Rock. The Rock is not in a tomb. The Rock on which we stand, is here with us right now. Praise the name of the Lord.