Tetelestai

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Ebendroff. It's Wednesday. It's the middle of the week.

I think in German and it's something like middle week, Midwoch or something like that.

It's the middle of the week. So shows are on Spotify and iTunes, the

Wednesday shows, or YouTube if you're watching, obviously. But we're back to Tuesday is a new show and Thursday is a new show, not on video, but just audio.

And then soon enough, Monday, Fridays will be the sermon and a rerun like old school.

Before I got sick, it was Monday through Friday. So you can order books if you want.

I've been getting quite a few of 10 or more orders. That is to say you can get 40 % off the

Amazon price if you order through me directly. And my number, my email is mikeatnocompromiseradio .com.

So all that to say, glad to have you back. Mario is here behind the scenes. He was here just not that long ago.

I remember my sister, Marcy said, I listened to Mario and aren't you afraid of your life, of this gang member right next to you?

I was afraid, but we lived. Did you ever put anybody in the hospital?

I have. Oh, well, okay. I thought the answer was gonna be no. All right, well, yep.

Hey, if Paul can say, I mean, if God can save Paul, then he can save anybody, right?

I just think, okay. So today on the show, don't ask questions if you don't want answers to.

I want to talk about one word in the Bible. It's a

Greek word. In English, it's three words. And when people memorize things in the Bible, they always think

Jesus wept. It's the shortest verse in the Bible. In John chapter 11, well, there's a shorter verse, rejoice always found in 1

Thessalonians 5. Rejoice always is one verse, one word in the original

Greek. This is not a verse, but it's one word that if you understand this word, it will help you understand what the

Lord Jesus has done for you, dear Christian. And in English, the three words from this one

Greek word, it is, any guesses? Of course, you know, finished.

It is finished. And the Greek word, one word together, sounds like two, tetelestai.

Tetelestai, it is finished. And I preached a sermon about tetelestai on Resurrection Sunday here, because I remember it was

S. Lewis Johnson who would talk about the resurrection of Jesus. The father raising

Jesus from the dead is his, the father's amen to the Lord Jesus's, it is finished.

That is to say the father, and of course the spirit, they affirmed, vindicated that said,

Jesus's death on behalf of sinners, we accept. It was a pure sacrifice. It was a sinless sacrifice.

It was a sacrifice of the beloved son, Jesus. So today we're going to talk about tetelestai, because I think if you understand the background of that word, tetelestai, and even the center word there, tela, where we think end, telescope, you scope out things at the end.

Telephone, you hear a voice at the end. What's the end? What's the finish? Jesus came to die on the cross for sinners.

He came for many reasons, but that's the ultimate reason. Substitute straight death on the cross and was raised from the dead, tetelestai.

So let me read the verses first, then let's talk about some meanings of tetelestai to color it in so that you say, wow,

I loved it as finished before, but I especially love it now. John chapter 19, verse 28.

It says, after this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture,

I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

Obviously very difficult to speak and breathe when you're on a cross. And so to get that mouth that's parched, wet so he can speak, they give that to him.

And it says here in John 19, verse 30, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, tetelestai, or it is finished.

And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Telos, an end or a goal or accomplishment.

Jesus says, it is finished. My goal is accomplished. I've set my face to Jerusalem to go die on the cross.

He said it many times, Mark chapter eight, I have to go die and be raised from the dead. Mark chapter nine, I have to die and go be raised from the dead.

Mark chapter 10, any guesses? I'm gonna die and be raised from the dead. And here he brings it to completion.

He finishes the task. And the language is in the original tense.

It is finished. It stands finished. It's always finished. And it's got results that carry on throughout eternity.

Now, when you study the word tetelestai, there are other ways to use this in the history of the world that help us understand what

Jesus would mean. That is to say, we see it in black and white, but when you get the background of the word tetelestai, it fleshes it out in color.

So we're gonna have one of those wizard of Oz moments, where you've got Dorothy in Kansas and it's all black and white, and then she enters into Oz land and then it is all color.

And so tetelestai, Arthur Pink said, eternity will be needed to manifest all that tetelestai contains.

You're just gonna be thinking about it forever. Right? Is there anything man -made in heaven? Mario, anything man -made in heaven?

How about the wounds in Christ's hands and feet and side? At least that's what it talks about in Revelation chapter five, does it not?

Well, forever we'll be worshiping the Lord Jesus. And here Matthew Henry says, tetelestai is a comprehensive word and a comfortable one.

So why is it so comprehensive? Why do we need all eternity to figure it out? And why is it so comforting?

Let me just give you some background of tetelestai and you'll just go, oh man, that was really great.

First of all, it was used for servants. Servants would be given a task by their masters.

And after that task was done, they'd come back and say, tetelestai. And so the master would say,

I want you to go clean. I want you to go mow. I want you to go feed the cattle. I want you to go clean up the barn.

And after the servant went and did that, he would come back to the master and say, tetelestai, tetelestai, tetelestai, tetelestai.

It's finished. You told me to go get the water and I went down and got water, collected it, brought it from the well, brought it back here, carried it.

It was heavy. By the way, it's done. That is, it is finished, tetelestai.

You want me to chop up the wood? You want me to go to the market? You want me to do this list? Here's my job description.

I did it, tetelestai. I think about the Lord Jesus as servant.

Was he a servant? Of course, and he did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.

Think about this, Jesus, the servant. Jesus testified, quote, I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

How about this from John? My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish, same root word with tetelestai, telos, his work.

Further in John, I glorified you, father on earth, having accomplished, same root word, the work which you have given me to do.

So the word tetelestai was used by servants after they finished the job. And you think about the ultimate servant, the suffering servant,

Isaiah chapter 40 through chapters 53, 40 to 53, the suffering servant.

Servants say, I've accomplished what you've sent me to do. It is finished. That's so good, but that's not all.

Tetelestai is also used by priests. How would a priest use tetelestai?

It is finished, accomplished. The goal is done. Well, here's what they would do. Remember, priest would slay a sacrifice because the wages of sin is death.

And if you sin, you have to have an animal slain for you. And we would think about slaying for a family at Passover, Exodus chapter 12.

We think about slaying for a nation in Leviticus chapter 16. And so sacrificial system, sin is so bad against a holy

God, there has to be death and God has orchestrated and instituted a sacrificial system so that an animal dies instead of the people, instead of the person, instead of the family, instead of the nation.

Ultimately, of course, Jesus is seen by John the Baptist, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Not because Jesus is fluffy or petite or anything like that, but this is language for substitution.

So a priest would have an animal. Mario would bring in the animal.

There goes Mario sinning again. He brings me, the priest, an animal, and I check it over, right?

You don't sacrifice something that's got a broken leg. You don't sacrifice a sheep that's got some eye disease.

You don't sacrifice a sheep that's got a bad ear. That's like the old story,

Mario, a guy had two cows and he said, one of these cows, I'm dedicating to the Lord after it grows up and is full of meat and everything else.

And the other one I'll keep. And so year later, one of the cows died and the farmer said, sorry that the

Lord's cow died. So I examine the sheep,

I examine the pigeon, I examine the sacrifice, because if there's anything in there that has a spot or a blemish or that's wrong, it wouldn't be a sacrifice.

And once I get done as a priest examining the sheep that Mario brought,

I say, it is finished, it's done. I examined it, everything's faultless, everything's perfect.

No problem. Here, you bring me a ram, I check it out, I look at its legs, I look at its stomach,

I look at its eyes and nose and check it out. And I go, you know what, tetellestai. You bring me a pigeon, if you're a poor family,

I look at the pigeon and it's got all its feet, it's got everything else, it's not got clipped wings.

And I say, tetellestai, examination, carefully inspected, thoroughly inspected.

And of course, when I think of Jesus, of course he is the high priest, but he's also the sacrifice.

And when you look at the life of Jesus, when you look at his person and you look at every area, his conscience, his will, his emotions, his thoughts, everything about it, what would you say when you think about Jesus and his spotlessness, his sinlessness,

Hebrews 4 .15 says, two words, Jesus was, quote, without sin, without sin.

Peter said, we are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless the blood of Christ.

Check out the bull, check out the goats, check out the sheep, check out the ram, check out the pigeons, everything is in perfect order, spotless, blameless, sinless, it is finished, it's examined, it's good to go.

Well, tetelestai can mean a lot of things. Servants would say tetelestai, priests would say tetelestai, do you know who else would say tetelestai?

Artists, that's kind of interesting. Can you imagine a painter or somebody putting a sculpture together and they're looking at it and it's almost done and they stand back and they do the proverbial thumb thing and they're looking, well, it needs a little bit more.

Clouds need a little more cloudiness, a little more white, billowy. I better change this a little bit,

I better sculpt that a different way. And finally, he would stand back. She would stand back away from the painting, away from the sculpture, away from whatever the craft would be.

Nothing else needs to be done, no more additions, no more improvement, no more little touch -ups.

I'm ready to sign my name on the bottom right and I would look at it and I'm done and any guesses on what

I would say if I was an artist? Same thing that the servants say, same thing that the priests say, same thing that Jesus said on the cross, it is finished.

Tetelestai, hey, I don't need to touch up the sun anymore, sun is perfect in my painting.

I don't need to carve a little more marble for this sculpture, tetelestai.

So now thinking about it in a Christ -centered way, in an artist way, how can

I relate that? Well, other people have done it, so I just steal what they say and then put it in my keeping the cross words.

Old Testament types of the Messiah. We sometimes called Old Testament pictures, a picture of Christ in the

Old Testament, a shadow of the thing to come. When you see Jesus on the cross, after his life is teaching, prophet, priest, and king, he's dying on the cross and he says, it is finished.

We don't need any more shadows. Well, we don't need any more shadows when Jesus arrived. We don't need any more pictures. We have the finished picture of who

Jesus is. All the types fulfilled, all the shadows complete. Jesus is there, no more touch up, no more things needed.

Tetelestai, the finished picture of redemption, the finished picture of reconciliation, the completed picture and end goal of the ransom in of all those who would believe, done, tetelestai.

Well, who else would use the word tetelestai? Servants use the word, priests use the word, artists use the word.

Here's one that you probably knew about, and that is merchants use the word. When people are buying and selling things, they would say tetelestai.

So if you owe money, Mario, you probably owe money for your house, don't you? Yeah, I owe money on my house.

I just finished off payment for Kim's car, which was nice. I hate car payments. And so what

I did is I finished off the car payment through the credit union, and I received in the mail the title deed.

And if they would have been thinking people, if they would have been Christians people, they did say, it's been paid off, and here's the deed.

It's under your name now. We're not keeping it, right? Because if I didn't pay, they would take the car, Repo Man. Have you ever done any

Repo Man work? You nearly kill people, but you've done no repo work. I used to kind of watch that show, the repo stuff.

Man, that's a tough job. So if they would have been thinking biblically, they would have sent me the deed for the car, the title for the car, pink slip, we call it.

And they would have had a little letter, and it would have said, tetelestai, paid in full.

Nothing else needed. Don't need to send five cents. Don't need to send another payment, right?

If your payment for cars is 325 bucks a month, I don't have to send it in again, paid in full.

It's done, no more balance, zero balance. You pay off your car, like, wow. Can you imagine when you pay off your house, what that's gonna be like?

You're like, I have no more house payments. I still have to pay Massachusetts $900 a month to live in this little town.

That's another story. Tetelestai, Jesus pays. He doesn't have to pay anything else.

You don't have to pay anything else. We talked last Wednesday with Austin. You just simply receive.

You rest in the finished work of Jesus. He did the work. The gospel is done, done, done, not do, do, do, because of tetelestai.

We were bankrupt spiritually, insolvent with our soul.

And Jesus pays it all. He pays the bill. That's why sometimes it talks about our sin as a debt.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Sin is a debt. And every time you sin, there's going to have something be paid.

And we're in debt to God for all of our sins. And so Jesus, can you imagine? Past sins, present sins, future sins, all paid.

Jesus says paid in full. That's why Christians need to be reminded that the Lord's supper paid in full, because we sin as Christians.

And then we think, lost my salvation. Don't have assurance of salvation. Is this all really true?

And I have one Greek word for you, tetelestai. It's paid in full, paid in full.

The creditors paid. Years ago, I got a phone call. It's probably 10 years ago now,

Mario. I got a phone call and it was a creditor. I pay my bills. I'm not behind.

Like, this is like some kind of fake thing. This is way before AI. Well, something happened and either

I did this or my wife, I'm not trying to throw her under the bus. I think she did it. No, I'm just kidding. Opened up a credit card or something in California.

We have a little mobile home there, small mobile home and an address. And I think we needed to have a credit card for that address so we could do local things.

They have a race, wharf to wharf, and locals have access first or whatever. And for insurance.

So then every time I got a Capital One envelope in Massachusetts, I threw it away because it's junk mail.

You know, I get progressive insurance letters. I throw it away because I have Geico or whatever.

And so I just kept throwing them away. And then this is like, oh, now $1 ,500 or whatever.

Creditor, oh, can you imagine? And that angst that you feel when the creditor calls and you realize it actually is a bill

I owe and I'm late. And what's it gonna dock on my credit score and everything else?

Just the feeling. I mean, I could have my armpits start sweating right now. The creditors are after you. Well, how much worse would it be if you think, you know what,

I'm in debt to God and my sin debt. And I'm gonna stand before him one day and I'm not gonna be able to blame anybody else or blame my mom or blame the situation, my neighborhood, my friends, the influence or anything.

I made me sin against you, my creator, a good provider and preserver.

And I basically spit in your face and tried to kill you, but my arms were long enough. And will not any judge that's righteous and just have to punish some kind of treason like that?

Of course. So Jesus paid not for his own sins. He'd been inspected as it were without sin, but he pays for our sins.

And that certificate of debt is done. Think about it. Old Testament sacrifices, they simply covered sin.

They could never take away. The blood of bulls and goats could never ultimately take away sin because the human sin and humans had to pay and a human had to be a sin bearer.

And so Spurgeon said, there's no mortgage on the saints. If you're a Christian, no mortgage, no creditor ever is gonna call.

There's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Yeah, but I sinned this week. No condemnation.

Yes, but I didn't want to, but I just kind of snapped at my wife and I was rude to her and I was selfish.

Paid in full. Of course you should ask for forgiveness, but those things have been paid for, paid in full.

Now, some also think that tetelestai is used in another area and that area is with prisoners, with prisoners.

And Adrian Rogers is one who thinks this is used of prisoners. And so let's just run with a little bit in Roman prisons.

A certificate of debt would be nailed to the cell door. And so if you walk past the jail cell, you would know what that person was in for, murder, stealing, theft, whatever it might be.

And then you would know, okay, what are they accused of? And what would the penalty be?

And so Rogers said when the prisoner had served his sentence and was released from bondage, the indictment was taken down from the door and the judge who had put him in prison would sign the indictment and write across it the word tetelestai.

So you can imagine I'm in jail and it says on the jail cell door, it says thief, it says, you know, grand larceny, it says murder, it says whatever.

It says, didn't love God with heart, soul, mind and strength, didn't love neighbor as self, didn't honor parents, committed adultery, whatever those things are.

Well, Jesus obviously paid for our sins. He said it is finished. So there's no double jeopardy.

Why would God, a good God, a just God, a righteous God say two people have to pay? No, if it's been paid and it's been paid in full, then now

I don't have to pay. And so what's written across my debt, your debt on the door, that cell door is tetelestai.

It says in Colossians chapter two, canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

So for prisoners, they had a certificate of debt and it was said paid in full, tetelestai.

First Peter chapter two, he himself talking about Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

Okay, tetelestai, no compromise radio. There's one more that I wanna talk about. And we've talked about merchants, we've talked about priests and artists and servants and prisoners, but the last one is with a son.

A father back in the Greek days, back in the Roman days would send a son out to do business. You do this in my stead, son.

Luke, I want you to go do such and such. You're my emissary, you're doing this on my behalf.

And the son would go out on a mission. He'd run the errand just like a servant would, except he's a son.

Make the transactions, pay the bill, get the grain, do whatever he needed to do.

And he would come back and say to his father, it is finished. So when it comes to a son, the son does his job.

He does everything that the father sent him to do. And he comes back and he says, tetelestai. So dear

Christian friend, it's been done. Tetelestai, one Greek word, meaning it is finished.

John chapter nine, we must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost. And did he do it? Yes, tetelestai. He came and he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high,

Hebrews chapter one. Why did Jesus sit down after the death? Why do we use that language?

He sat down. Well, in the temple, there's no seats because people keep sinning. So I gotta keep slitting throats.

Mario, one of the things I thought about, if I was a pastor, a clergyman back in those days,

I'd basically be a butcher, right? I would sit here and I would wait and you would bring in an animal and I would slit his throat.

And you know, there's all kinds of ideas. You could put your hands on the head of it and symbolizing your sins, going to the animal.

I'd slit its throat, cut the thing up. And then the next guy would come and the next lady would come.

Talk about premarital counseling. Talk about counseling. Talk about couples therapy. Just like one after another, after another.

I don't even really like to kill animals that much. I mean, if I go fishing, I'm not a catch and release guy because if I'm spending all that time on fishing,

I want to eat some fish unless it's kind of a bad little pond. I'm going fishing tomorrow, especially with my new paid in full fishing license because I'm a senior citizen.

So I get free saltwater license and a discounted freshwater license because I'm old.

In three weeks, I'll be 66, paid in full. Jesus says, it is finished.

I remember once my old Calvary Chapel pastor would say, Jesus did not say on the cross, I am finished.

Actually, he's so much in control that he puts his head down and then dies. For us, we die and our head goes down.

Jesus says, you know what? I'm in control of my destiny and I'm going to put my head down and it's time to die.

It is finished. I've done everything you've asked me to do. The goal of the incarnation is reached.

The goal of the covenant of redemption, this promise in eternity past,

Father, Son, Spirit there, divine holiness has been satisfied.

Propitiation has happened. I finished the work you gave me to do. Therefore, as Christians, we can say, you know what?

How do we know we're going to heaven? Jesus paid it all. How should I live a holy life? Out of gratitude.

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. That's the Christian life. As you know, guilt, grace, and gratitude.

Nothing needs to be done. That's why we give a free offer of the gospel. Simply believe, simply receive knowledge, assent and trust.

It's not what you have to do. The law is good news if you can keep it.

It comes from a good God, that's true, but it's not good news. It's the law and it shows us we need a savior.

By the way, Jesus fulfilled the law. And it's not just He paid for sins, but all

His substitutionary, representative obedience to the law, not for His sake, but for our sake, it's all been done.

There's nothing left to do. He just, in verses just prior to John 19, said,

John, the apostle John, take care of my mother. Fulfilling the obedience to the law, to even honor

His mother. And He bows His head and gives up His spirit. So today on No Compromise Radio, we've talked about one

Greek word, tetelestai. We try to flesh it out a little bit. What's the meaning of that word?

Because it all lends itself to, I appreciate Jesus' work for me all the more.

You'll be glad when you die, it was finished. It was paid in full, because there's nothing else to pay for.

Why do we not believe in purgatory? Lots of reasons. I'll tell you one, paid in full.

How does that work? I got to go get something purged out, it's paid in full. That doesn't make any sense.

I get something from the bank and the credit union. And it says, you paid everything else off, but you owe this by the way too.

Wait, it's been paid. The creditor can't call me back after I sent that check for $1 ,400 that I didn't know

I owed. I sent it to the creditor and said, it's paid in full. They can't come back and bug me and call me and send me letters and all that other stuff, paid in full.

So my name is Mike Cabendroth, Mario Escobar, behind the scenes, Juan Mario Escobar, the third, paid in full.

And so you can write me, mike at nocompromisedradio .com. Don't forget, Tuesday, Thursdays, we're back on again, recording shows.

Just recorded a couple with Austin the other day about Irresistible Grace. And you can order books online at Amazon.

Jesus and Cancer is a booklet that you could order. It's pretty cheap. And my friend

Nahum, he hands those out at the cancer clinic in Ohio because there's all kinds of literature there and you've got to sit there and get chemo.

And so that's just a suggestion. I think that's it, Mario. Te telestai, it's finished.