Anthony Pritchard
Well-Known Member
Finished Then Filled: Denominational Tradition or Scriptural Pattern
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
John 19:30
Christ uttered these words on the cross to mark the completion of His incarnate mission. He had accomplished everything the Father gave Him to do in the flesh, under the Law, as the obedient Son and suffering Servant. He still had to rise from the dead, ascend to the Father, and prepare His disciples for His departure, but the earthly work entrusted to Him was complete.
Accomplishing our salvation is the capstone of His work, but He also completed many other things before He bowed His head.
Accomplishments Completed Before He Bowed His Head:
Perfect obedience under the Law. Philippians 2:8.
Fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. Luke 24:44.
Revelation of the Father. John 14:9 and John 17:6.
Inauguration of the New Covenant. Matthew 26:28.
The once for all sacrifice for sin. Hebrews 10:14 and John 1:29.
Destruction of the devil’s claim. Hebrews 2:14.
Propitiation, God’s wrath satisfied. 1 John 2:2.
Reconciliation, peace made through the cross. Colossians 1:20.
Laying the foundation of the Church. Matthew 16:18 and Ephesians 2:20.
From the beginning of His earthly ministry, Christ was not merely gathering crowds. He was preparing a people. John the Baptist came as the forerunner, the voice crying in the wilderness, preparing material just as David prepared the stones and gold for Solomon’s Temple. Scripture says, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Matthew 3:3). John gathered repentant men and women, baptizing them and shaping a people ready for the Messiah. As David prepared the material and Solomon built the Temple, so John prepared the people and Christ Himself built His Church.
This pattern of material gathered, work finished, and then the filling of God’s glory appears throughout Scripture. When Moses built the Tabernacle, Scripture says, “So Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:33 to 34). The material was gathered, the work was completed, and then the glory filled it. The same pattern appears in the Temple. After Solomon finished the house of the Lord, Scripture records, “It came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the house was filled with a cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God” (Second Chronicles 5:13 to 14). Again, the material was gathered, the work was finished, and then the glory filled it.
So it was with the first Church. Christ declared its coming when He said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). He did not say Peter would build it, nor the apostles, nor any man. Christ alone would build it, and He did so during His earthly ministry.
In Luke’s Gospel, we see the moment Christ formed the first assembly. “He called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles” (Luke 6:12 to 13). Here Christ called out an ekklēsia from among His disciples that John had prepared, a gathered and organized body under His authority. This was not a crowd, nor a future abstraction, but the first Church, formed by His own hand.
Christ shepherded this assembly. He taught them, commissioned them, corrected them, and instituted the ordinances. He breathed life into them, just as God breathed life into Adam. After His resurrection, “He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). This was not symbolic. It was Christ, the first Comforter, imparting spiritual life and capacity to the assembly He had formed.
Before His ascension, Christ promised that His departure would not leave them orphaned. “I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you” (John 14:18). And again, “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things” (John 14:26). Christ had been their Comforter in person. Upon His ascension, He would send another Comforter, another of the same kind, to indwell, empower, and guide the Church He had already built.
Between His resurrection and Pentecost, Christ did not leave His assembly powerless. He breathed on them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). This was a real impartation, a sustaining work of the Spirit during the interval between His ascension and the full empowering at Pentecost. Just as the Tabernacle and Temple were filled after they were finished, so the Church Christ built was filled with the Spirit after the work was complete.
When Christ cried, “It is finished” (John 19:30), He completed not only the atonement but the entire foundation of the New Covenant, including the foundation of His earthly ecclesia, His called out and assembled Church. Nothing remained unfinished. The pattern, the authority, the ordinances, and the commission were complete. Pentecost did not create the Church. Pentecost empowered it. Scripture says, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47). You cannot add to something that does not already exist. The assembly Christ formed before His ascension was now filled with the Spirit He had promised, just as the Tabernacle and Temple were filled after they were finished.
Thus the earthly Church is not being built in the sense of foundation. It is built, and it propagates. Local assemblies rise and fall, but the Church Christ founded continues through the ages, each congregation a continuation of that first ecclesia He called out on the mountainside.
Beyond this earthly propagation lies the Great Ekklēsia, the heavenly assembly yet to be gathered. It is future in gathering, but finished in foundation. Christ’s work lacks nothing. The Spirit seals every believer into that coming congregation, and one day the redeemed of all ages will assemble as one. Until that day, the earthly ekklēsia, the Church Christ built, continues its witness, empowered by the Comforter He sent, standing on the finished work He accomplished.
~Tony
© A.K. Pritchard 1979 - 2026 -
Free to use with proper attribution.
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
John 19:30
Christ uttered these words on the cross to mark the completion of His incarnate mission. He had accomplished everything the Father gave Him to do in the flesh, under the Law, as the obedient Son and suffering Servant. He still had to rise from the dead, ascend to the Father, and prepare His disciples for His departure, but the earthly work entrusted to Him was complete.
Accomplishing our salvation is the capstone of His work, but He also completed many other things before He bowed His head.
Accomplishments Completed Before He Bowed His Head:
Perfect obedience under the Law. Philippians 2:8.
Fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. Luke 24:44.
Revelation of the Father. John 14:9 and John 17:6.
Inauguration of the New Covenant. Matthew 26:28.
The once for all sacrifice for sin. Hebrews 10:14 and John 1:29.
Destruction of the devil’s claim. Hebrews 2:14.
Propitiation, God’s wrath satisfied. 1 John 2:2.
Reconciliation, peace made through the cross. Colossians 1:20.
Laying the foundation of the Church. Matthew 16:18 and Ephesians 2:20.
From the beginning of His earthly ministry, Christ was not merely gathering crowds. He was preparing a people. John the Baptist came as the forerunner, the voice crying in the wilderness, preparing material just as David prepared the stones and gold for Solomon’s Temple. Scripture says, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Matthew 3:3). John gathered repentant men and women, baptizing them and shaping a people ready for the Messiah. As David prepared the material and Solomon built the Temple, so John prepared the people and Christ Himself built His Church.
This pattern of material gathered, work finished, and then the filling of God’s glory appears throughout Scripture. When Moses built the Tabernacle, Scripture says, “So Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:33 to 34). The material was gathered, the work was completed, and then the glory filled it. The same pattern appears in the Temple. After Solomon finished the house of the Lord, Scripture records, “It came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the house was filled with a cloud, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God” (Second Chronicles 5:13 to 14). Again, the material was gathered, the work was finished, and then the glory filled it.
So it was with the first Church. Christ declared its coming when He said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). He did not say Peter would build it, nor the apostles, nor any man. Christ alone would build it, and He did so during His earthly ministry.
In Luke’s Gospel, we see the moment Christ formed the first assembly. “He called unto him his disciples, and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles” (Luke 6:12 to 13). Here Christ called out an ekklēsia from among His disciples that John had prepared, a gathered and organized body under His authority. This was not a crowd, nor a future abstraction, but the first Church, formed by His own hand.
Christ shepherded this assembly. He taught them, commissioned them, corrected them, and instituted the ordinances. He breathed life into them, just as God breathed life into Adam. After His resurrection, “He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). This was not symbolic. It was Christ, the first Comforter, imparting spiritual life and capacity to the assembly He had formed.
Before His ascension, Christ promised that His departure would not leave them orphaned. “I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you” (John 14:18). And again, “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things” (John 14:26). Christ had been their Comforter in person. Upon His ascension, He would send another Comforter, another of the same kind, to indwell, empower, and guide the Church He had already built.
Between His resurrection and Pentecost, Christ did not leave His assembly powerless. He breathed on them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). This was a real impartation, a sustaining work of the Spirit during the interval between His ascension and the full empowering at Pentecost. Just as the Tabernacle and Temple were filled after they were finished, so the Church Christ built was filled with the Spirit after the work was complete.
When Christ cried, “It is finished” (John 19:30), He completed not only the atonement but the entire foundation of the New Covenant, including the foundation of His earthly ecclesia, His called out and assembled Church. Nothing remained unfinished. The pattern, the authority, the ordinances, and the commission were complete. Pentecost did not create the Church. Pentecost empowered it. Scripture says, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47). You cannot add to something that does not already exist. The assembly Christ formed before His ascension was now filled with the Spirit He had promised, just as the Tabernacle and Temple were filled after they were finished.
Thus the earthly Church is not being built in the sense of foundation. It is built, and it propagates. Local assemblies rise and fall, but the Church Christ founded continues through the ages, each congregation a continuation of that first ecclesia He called out on the mountainside.
Beyond this earthly propagation lies the Great Ekklēsia, the heavenly assembly yet to be gathered. It is future in gathering, but finished in foundation. Christ’s work lacks nothing. The Spirit seals every believer into that coming congregation, and one day the redeemed of all ages will assemble as one. Until that day, the earthly ekklēsia, the Church Christ built, continues its witness, empowered by the Comforter He sent, standing on the finished work He accomplished.
~Tony
© A.K. Pritchard 1979 - 2026 -
Free to use with proper attribution.