You don't need to carry the weight of guilt or shame anymore because Jesus paid the price in full. Instead of hiding from God or others, you can run into His arms and extend that same grace to the people around you. Let His finished work be the foundation for your freedom and your relationships today.
Welcome to the Real Church podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
You would think because it's Christmas season that I would be doing a Christmas message kind of like a buildup and I kinda am. But since we're gonna start with the beginning of *Jesus* next week, so you know, Him as a baby in a manger and all of that, I figured why not start with the end today? Why not why not look at at what happened at the very end of His life and see how that has an impact on us. So let's go together to the end. Let's go to John-19.
John-19, and we're gonna start in verse 28. I love preaching this message. Jesus, just a little context, Jesus is hanging on the cross right now as this what I'm about to read is happening. Later, verse 28, later knowing that everything had now been finished And so that scripture would be fulfilled. Jesus said, I am thirsty.
Verse 29, a jar of wine vinegar was there. So they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stock of the hyssop plant and lifted it to Jesus' lips. Verse 30, when he had finished or when he had received the drink, Jesus said, **it is finished**. With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. How many you guys know that words are very powerful?
You know, we we always hear that that things sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. That is that couldn't be further from the truth. Truth, words matter. When people say things and you receive what they say and you hear it over and over and over, you become what they say about you. It's very important when you're speaking to your kids, don't, you know, a lot of times parents joke and say, oh, you're so stupid or you're so dumb or they get aggravated and mad and they just let that come out.
Your kids will grow up to be what you say that they are. *Words are powerful and words are effective. So make sure it's very important what we speak, they have meaning. When you're talking to your spouse, talk to her in a way that "builds her up" and and and helps her to see who God* created her to be because your words matter. Whether or not she says it or whether or not he says it, they're receiving what you say and and and having to battle your words because words are very, very powerful.
*Jesus* I mean, I and I I imagine too, because this is the end of Jesus' life. I imagine if it was the end of my life, and I was on my deathbed, I was about to die, and I knew that I was about to die, and I had family, maybe family around me and friends around me, people that knew me around me, maybe some enemies around me. And I knew I had a a coherent mind at the time, and these were gonna be my last words. I knew that I would say something that mattered because I also know that my friends, my family, my kids, everybody would remember me by those last words that I would said. They would leave that I would say.
They would leave a legacy for me. That's what they would remember me by. Do you agree? So these last words are probably some of the most powerful ones that *Jesus* ever spoke in his life. And he said, it is finished.
We know that Jesus in *John-1:1* is the word of God. Right? In the beginning was the word, and I've quoted this almost every Sunday. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. Verse 2, he was with God in the beginning.
So Jesus Christ is the very word of God. In John-1:14, the word wrapped himself in flesh and and became 1 of us. Right? So when God speaks, Jesus comes forth. Hearing God, when we did that series a couple of weeks ago, and if you haven't checked it out, go listen to it on on the podcast, Hearing God.
If you wanna learn how to more clearly and practically hear God's voice in your daily life. When God speaks and we receive what he says, it produces because it's his word and his word is Jesus, it produces Jesus in and through our lives. Right? It causes us to to experience his love, his joy, his peace so that when others see us and hear us, they see and hear Jesus in every aspect of our life. Word is a big deal.
So what was the true meaning of Jesus' last word on the cross before his death? Those 3 words in English, it is finished. In Greek is 1 word, Could you guys say that with me? Say Good. We might say that a couple more times.
Okay? Throughout the message. So if I say, want you to say, exactly. Now we're gonna have a quick Greek lesson, and it's not gonna be Greek to you. I promise you'll understand it.
We're just gonna break it down for a second. So tetelestai, the the actual meaning of the word, it comes from the Greek word telao or telos. Okay? And that's the original. It means it has 3 meanings.
Number 1, tetelestai means to finish, to complete. It also means to fulfill, to perfect. And number 3, means to pay what is due or to pay in full. Okay. Jesus chose to speak that word his last his last breath.
Now to tell us that I was also in a certain sense, you know, like in English, if I were to say the the verb is to finish. If I were to say I finished, that's past tense. Right? It happened in the past, and, you know, it may happen again in the future or something like that. If I I were to say, I am finishing, that's present tense.
Right? It's happening right now. It's kind of continuous. It may end in the future. It it may not have happened in the past, but I am finishing.
That's that's present. If I say I will finish. Right? I will finish. That's future tense.
It will happen, but it hasn't quite happened yet. Those are usually the types of verbs that that the Greeks would use. They would use those verbs and and that's kinda normal talk and But but Jesus used which is perfect, and just follow me here for a second. Okay? Follow me.
We're gonna perfect passive indicative. Okay? Now they usually wouldn't use that in their normal conversation back in the day, 2000 years ago. They'd usually use what we normally use, this past, you know, this present, or this this future, or or something like that. They wouldn't use perfect.
So when somebody used the perfect passive indicative, people would listen because what they were saying, they knew it had weight, it carried meaning, it was a big deal. Because perfect passive indicative that what that meant was it indicated that whatever was going on, the progress of that action had been completed in the past and it had meaning today and would continue to have meaning into eternity. So when Jesus said to tell us that he was saying it has been finished in the past. It is finished today, right now, and it will always be finished and remain finished in the future. You follow me?
*Jesus* specifically spoke and chose that word as his last word, his last breath. Some examples of how tetelestai would be used in that days when a when a servant would receive an order from his master or a father would receive a command I mean, a son would receive a command from his father, the servant or the son would go out and complete the task that their master or the father had given them. And when they'd go back to the master, when they'd go back to the father, they'd say when it was complete and finished, they'd say to Telestai. Or an artist, when an artist would was painting a picture or a portrait of someone or a sculptor was sculpting this beautiful piece of architecture. Think about the Colosseum or something like that.
When they were finished and they had done all of this beauty and the sculpture, the last little piece of molding had put on, the artist would step back knowing that nothing else needed to be added to it whatsoever. And he would step back and look at it and whisper to himself, Tetelestai. It would also also used in in that day for for when maybe you'd go to purchase a building or go to purchase a house, and you'd have a promissory note, a note that you're promising to pay. So, you know, you're in debt until you pay that note off. Right?
And then once that note was "paid in full", we have archaeological evidence that this actually happened. They have these notes. Once the note was paid in full, it would be written the date and time would be written on the top of the note, and then the the CPA or the banker would take a stamp that was made back then and had the word tetelestai on it, and they would stamp on the promissory note that the debt was paid in full. It would say tetelestai. It was paid and it will continue to be paid into the future.
My favorite in Greek, you know, war, you have this warrior. And and when they did combat back then, right, it was hand to hand combat for the most part. I'm sure they had some arrows too. But hand to hand combat, can you imagine carrying a sword against another man or carrying a sword and and fighting and war. I mean, you had to be strong and you had to have endurance.
And I mean, that's that's pretty crazy and pretty amazing. But when when the Greek warrior would would kill the other person, have that strike that 1 final blow or stick the the the sword into their heart and know that the the final blow, it was over. It was done. The enemy would never get back. They would never recover from that blow.
The Greek warrior would scream out, it's done. It's over. It's finished. And *Jesus* said the same thing on the cross, his last breath he said to Telestai. Why?
What was finished? What was finished? What is finished? And what will always be finished for us? Number 1, the religious system was finished.
Let's go to Romans-10:4. The NIV says, Christ is the culmination of the law that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. The ESV says Christ is the end of law the end of the law to righteousness for those who believes. In the original, it has end at the very beginning, meaning it's it's trying to emphasize the fact that Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness, right standing with him for those that believe. What does that what does that mean?
Most religions, and I've said this before, I'm a say it again. Most religions are based on some performance scale in order to be "good enough", in order to make it to the deity. Right? So if you Most religions say you have to follow this code of rules. You have to follow these list of laws.
You have to do these *sacrifices* just right. And if you do these sacrifices just right, in the right time, at the right place, enough, then maybe you'll be good enough to make it to God. Or in the religion of self, if I feel good enough about myself, then I, you know, I'll make it to the sweet buy and buy or I'll be, you know, it's what most people believe. But we can never be good enough. Our goodness is nothing Because the the the standard is perfection.
So the religious system in that day, Jesus died. Jesus was crucified during Passover. Passover, if you don't know, the Israelites, the Jewish guys, they they celebrated this this this feast called the feast of Passover. So back in the day, you know, a a few thousand years before, if you've ever seen the movies about Moses and how the Israelites were coming out of of Egypt, you know, before they kinda came out of Egypt, there was these 10 plagues. And the last plague was was where this angel of death sounds crazy, but it happened.
This angel of death comes over, and every home that didn't have the blood of the lamb over the doorpost, it wasn't good for them. Like, the firstborn died. But for those that had sacrificed the sacrificed the lamb and took the blood of the lamb and put it over the doorpost, the angel of of death saw the blood of the lamb and passed over them because the blood of the lamb represented covering their sin. So that was Passover. Right?
And so every year after that, they would celebrate Passover, celebrating the fact that the God passed over their sin. And then once a year, the priest in this religious system that God set up to show mankind that he could never make it to himself in and of Himself, and to show mankind that who Jesus was and what Jesus was gonna do. Once a year, this high priest before Jesus would take a lamb, a spotless lamb, the most perfect lamb that he could possibly find, and he would slit the throat of the lamb and pour out the blood onto the altar, showing that the sin was covered by the blood. Right? The sin of Israel was covered by the blood.
Now he had to do it every year. And whenever he would slit the throat of the lamb, I know it's kinda bloody guys, and and the the blood would pour out, he would say this Hebrew word. He would say, Now kala means it is finished. Who is Jesus? Jesus was the final *sacrifice* once and for all.
So what was Jesus saying when he said, not. He said it was finished. It is finished, and it will always be finished. What was he saying? Jesus also called the lamb of *God* that will take away the sin of the world.
In Hebrews-10:9. Then he said, here I am. I have come to do your will. He set aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made *holy* through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
*Jesus died for us to make us holy*. Verse 11. Day after day, every every priest stands and performs his religious duties, that religious system of the old that I was talking about. Again and again, he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. It was just it was just following rules.
It wasn't a relationship with God. Religion never gives you relationship. It's just showing you what you need to do to perform. And that there's no peace there. Verse 12, but when the priest had offered for all when this priest, sorry.
When this priest, verse 12, that's Jesus, had offered for all time 1 sacrifice for sins, he sat down. Verse 14, for by 1 sacrifice he has made perfect forever. Those who are being made holy. Jesus's sacrifice for us has made us in his sight because it's him perfect. Because he's perfect.
His goodness has been counted and credited to us. How amazing is that? Verse 17. Sorry. Not verse 17.
*Jesus was the final sacrifice*. Everything, the old law, the old covenant was fulfilled in Christ. So the old way of doing things, of having to be good enough, of having to perform enough, of having the old way of we don't have to do that any anymore. We can rest in who he is and what he said. It's not about our performance.
It's about our understanding that he already performed for us to tell us that Jesus said, it's finished. It has been finished. It has always been finished. It will it it has been finished. It is finished and will always be finished.
It's finished in him. That's why if you if you saw our video and I said, I hate religion. Why? Because religion is all about how good I do and I can never do good enough. I love relationship with Jesus, relationship with God through Jesus, because he did it all for me.
And I rest in him, and when I see him, it enables me and empowers me to live like him out of love, not out of obligation. It's beautiful, but it's finished in him to tell us that. What else is finished? That was number 1. Number 2, it's good news.
*Romans-6:23*. Many of you know it. Let's read it. *Romans-6:23* says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. You know, as I heard that over and over and over as a kid, I never really I mean, I even memorized it because I was a church brat.
I was brought up in church, but I never really understood until maybe even in my twenties. So don't laugh at me and call me stupid. I told you you can't do that. But the wages is the payment. So the payment for sin is death.
It's not being good enough as we said over and over. The payment for sin is separation from God who is life. Sin doesn't just make us a bad person. Sin makes us a dead person. Dead spiritually with a need to know the 1 who is alive, to be "born again", to have eternal life, life in him.
So the question is not how good or bad we are. The question is, are we dead or alive? The question is, do we know God? Do we know his life? Do we know Jesus or not?
That's the only 2 types of people. *John-10:10*. Let's go there. I want you to see it. John-10:10.
It says, the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy and this is Jesus talking but I have come that I that you may have life and have it to the full have it to the fullest. If it's stealing, killing, killing, and destroying, then it's not from Jesus. If it's don't blame God for stealing, killing, and destroying. That's the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus said, I have come that you may have life and have it to the fullest.
*Jesus did away with the payment for sin* because he took that sin on himself. The payment for sin is finished. In the past, it's finished now and will always be finished. What we do is we receive what he said. We receive his payment.
We receive his love and it's credited to us. That's amazing. Christ did not just come to make us better people. Christ came to make us alive. So what else is finished to tell us that?
*Romans-5. Romans-5:6*. You see, at just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Look at verse 6 again. At just the right time when we're still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. You can't know Him, enter into relationship with Him until you realize that you're without Him. The Bible says, *blessed are the poor in spirit* for theirs is this kingdom of heaven. That's why it's harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
I think I said that yes last week. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Those that realize and I'm not talking about rich financially, it could be that, but it could be someone who thinks they're rich, they have everything that they need spiritually. It could be someone who thinks that they're rich, they have everything that they need in any other way. No, it's blessed are those who recognize their need for a savior.
*Blessed are the poor in spirit*. You have to realize that you're not godly before you can come to know him and receive his godliness. You have to realize that you need him before you can receive him. Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 9, since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from god's wrath through him?
For if while we were god's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son. How much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life? Verse 17, *Romans-5:17. For if by the sin* of 1 man, death reigned through that 1 man, who is that? If by the sin of 1 man, death reigned through that 1 man, that was we were all and I've said this before, we were all born in sin.
We're all born sinners because of Adam. It was passed down. So because of Adam sin, because, know, I almost don't wanna say it again because I've said it 5, you know, 500 times, but you don't teach a 2 year old to lie. They naturally lie. I'm experiencing this with my 4 year old right now.
You don't teach a you don't teach a 2 year old to steal, but they naturally say, this is mine. Why? Because there's a nature inside that's away from God because it was passed down generation to generation all the way back from from the beginning. So we're destined and doomed to sin, to be separated from him from birth. We need a savior.
And until we realize that we're walking with the results of sin, separation from him. But once we realize that, once we realize that we need him, we receive what he did for us. It's amazing. We experience everything that he said on that last part of the cross. It is finished.
How much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and the gift of *righteousness* reign in life through the 1 man, Jesus Christ. You know, Jesus has an abundant provision of grace for you. And what does it take? Reception. Receiving it.
That's it. What is that grace? Getting what you don't deserve. You don't deserve to have to know God. You deserve just like me.
I I we deserve in and of ourselves. We deserve to be separated from him, but because of Jesus, because of him, we can know him. It's an abundant it's an abundant provision of *grace* and gift of righteousness, gift of right standing with him. We don't need to run-in shame and guilt anymore from him. But we can be in right standing with Him because of what He has spoken, but because of what He did.
How much more will those reign in life through the 1 how how amazing would it be for you to reign in life? To have victory in every aspect of your life? Am I saying that accepting Jesus means it's, you know, you'll never have troubles and trials and and all? No. I'm not saying that at all.
Man, life is tough and life gets hard because we're living in this world. But through all of that, through no matter what is going on, because Jesus has already won the war, I know I can keep my eyes on him and he's given me his grace, he's given me his love, he's given me his joy, he's given me his peace, He's given me all of that. So no matter what's going on around me, I know that the war is over, that we've won, and I can have His peace in the middle of it so that when others see me in the middle of the trial, in the middle of this stuff, and they see this joy that passes all understanding, this peace that passes all understanding, they're seeing Jesus, and it's causing them to reach out to him because they realize that what Jesus did really was final. It was something that that was finished. It was something that is finished, and they're seeing the results of it continuing to be finished in my life, and they realize that it can be finished for them.
They can have that same joy, that same peace, that same love, that same everything. It still matters today. It still matters for you. It still matters for your children. It still matters for your friends.
It's ongoing. They need to see it in us. They need to see him. They need to know him. People need Jesus.
*Death*. In him, we have eternal life. You know what? Eternal life. I mean, think about that.
It's it's hard to fathom. So, I mean, you think, you know, you enter into eternal life when you die. In John-17, it says, eternal life is knowing God. So we've entered into if you've if you've received Jesus now, you've entered into eternal life now because you entered into relationship with the 1 who is life. Therefore, death is finished.
*Death* was finished on the cross. He overcame it once and for all. So death to tell that was finished in the past. It's finished now and will always be finished because we can and walk in a relationship with god, which is eternal life. What else is finished to tell that?
Shame, guilt, and condemnation. We're finished. When he was screaming out to Telestai, he was thinking, I imagine. Because he know he he became your sin. You know, you've heard preacher say he he he he had you in mind, which I believe that he did.
Also, he realized that you didn't have to struggle with shame, guilt, or condemnation anymore because he said they were finished 100%. See, when when he when he crucified when he was crucified at the cross, and when when he he died that death, he was dying as our shame, as our guilt, and as our condemnation. When sin entered the world, Adam hid in shame because he felt guilty and because he felt condemned. The reason that we continue as believers in sin continue to mess up is not because we realize that we're forgiven. No.
The reason that we continue to sin is because we forget that we've been forgiven. *2 Peter-1*. The reason that we continue to screw up is because we forget that we've been forgiven. What if we're reminded over and over that there's no shame, fear, or guilt? When we screw up then instead of running from God in shame and not very practically, what does it look like in your relationships?
Think about you have a friend, spouse, co worker, something like that, and you mess up. You really mess up. You don't wanna go and talk to them most of the time. You kinda wanna just seclude or avoid them from time to time when you really screw up. Right?
Why? What is that? What is that feeling? That's shame. Right?
You feel guilty for what you did, and you almost kinda don't wanna face them, and you feel a little bit shame, so you hide from them. That separates and breaks relationships, and your relationship with your friend or with your spouse, until you bridge that, it will it will probably just fester and get worse. Right? It's the same thing with God. You screw up.
You feel like, oh man, I really messed up this time. I can't go to church. I can't read my Bible. I can't pray. That shame, fear, and guilt and *condemnation* holding you back from running into the arms of your loving father who already paid the price for what you just did.
He already said it was finished. Why? So that you didn't have to run from him in shame anymore. I've said this over and over too, so that you could fall forward into his arms and keep walking forward in Christ. It's that radical grace, that abundant provision of grace that changes a man from the inside out and helps him to walk with Jesus every single day.
When we forget that, we run and we hide in shame, not realizing that that condemnation, that shame, and that guilt was finished in the past because Jesus did it. It is finished today, and it will be finished tomorrow if I make a mistake tomorrow. Why? Romans-8:1, it says this. Tell me, does it say this?
Therefore, there is some condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Is that what it says? No. It says, therefore, there is now no condemnation. None, 0, zilch, empty, nothing.
Why? Because it was finished 100% past, present, and future. So in our relationships then, if that's how God sees us, when somebody makes a mistake in our relationships, don't condemn them. God doesn't condemn you. Love them and give them the freedom and the opportunity to mend that relationship and forgive them just as Christ forgave you.
Don't shame them. Build them up. Say, oh, no, that's not who you are. You're loved by God and and and and man, let let let's just keep walking forward in this. Don't, you know, let let let's move forward.
And that's how God loves us. That's how God treats us. That way, he even when he doesn't deserve that, and you know he knows you know what what what he did or she knows you know what I mean, they know. They know what they did. They don't need more guilt, shame, and condemnation.
They need love that would change their heart from the inside out. Why? Because Jesus did that for us. That's amazing. That's what we do at Real Church.
We love you 100%. Why? Because Jesus loves us. Because to tell us that. Jesus completed the mission he was given to do here on earth.
*Jesus* fulfilled the prophecies in the old covenant. Jesus paid the price for our sin in full. His last *word* is our first word to tell die. His last breath is our first breath to tell us die. He died and we were made alive in him.
It's complete. It's fulfilled. It's paid in full. You know, a lot of times I I if you've seen the the movies or the depiction of of of the Christ, you see this picture of this bruised and beaten, and he was. He was beaten and bruised and and torn to shreds where you couldn't even tell that he was a man, is what it says.
Right? He's hanging on the cross and you see this this this depiction of him speaking and he says, father, into your hands, and he's kinda broken and bleeding, into your hands I commit my spirit. And then he says, it is finished. And he dies. And we don't really know how he said that.
Right? That's just how the movies have have have said that he said that. I don't know about you, but I know he knew what he was doing. I know he knew the final blow that he was dealing to the enemy, that he was setting us free from sin. He was setting us free from our shame.
He was setting us free from our guilt. He was setting us free so that we could live our life in him, with him every aspect of every day. Right? He knew that. He knew that He was setting us free from the chains that we still choose to stand in instead of walking out of chains that are already broken because if we've given our life to Him.
He knew that. So I mean, I'd like to think that he's more like the Greek warrior who was dealing the final blow, knowing that his foe would never get up again. He's already defeated foe, guys. So I'd like to think on the cross, He mustered His last bit of strength and a cry, it wasn't a cry of defeat, it wasn't to tell a story. No, he knew what he was doing.
I believe he mustered his strength. He raised up and he said, Tatellest, it's done, it's finished. I've paid the price. Come know me, run to me so that you can experience the life that I have lived and you can live it every single day. This joy, this peace, this patience, this kindness, this goodness, this gentleness, this meekness, this self control, receive what I have given, receive this love and it will change your world and it will change the world around you.
And God loves you so much. So much. Let's close our eyes and bow our heads.
Thanks for listening to the Real Church podcast. If you have questions, comments, or would like to get to know us, be sure to check us out on social media by searching Real Church Clearwater or visit us online at www."realchurch.us". If you'd like to play a part in what we are doing, you can do so right where you are. Your prayers are powerful and effective. You can also be a part through giving.
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Transcribed with Deepgram