Revelation 15 Live Version

If you've never done that, I want to encourage you, spend a week in Psalm 27. You'll read through it and see something that God is saying. There is so, so much. It's a psalm of confidence in God. It really is.

It's a psalm where the psalmist is just announcing and proclaiming his confidence in the sovereignty of God. My light and salvation, whom shall I fear? What an amazing way to start the day, is to take that verse, to read it, to meditate on it, to confess it, and to profess it to the Lord.

Two things I want to bring out of that. One is the concept of light. If you go into Proverbs 4 .19, we understand the predicament that the world is in. You see, the world believes that they understand, the world believes that they perceive, the world believes that they can take care of it, but the world is in darkness.

Psalm 4 .19 says, the way of the wicked is darkness. They know not over what they stumble. But what a truth, what an unfortunate, what a despairing truth that is. But you see, here's the other side of the coin.

If you go to John 1 .4, it says, in him was life, and that life was the light of men, the light of men. You see, we believe that we're living, and we are, but to really, really experience life through the Lord.

And when we have him, we have the light that shows all truth, that shows everything that there is,.

And it says, the Lord is my light.

But the second thing I want to emphasize there is that it's my light. Take this personally. When you read that, take this personally and stop. You see, when you say that the Lord is my light, you're confessing that it's offered to me.

When you're saying that it's my light, you're saying that it's personal to me. It's not just some general thing for the church. It's not some general thing that's given to mankind, but it's given to me personally.

What an amazing gift. But then it's something that needs to be appropriated and claimed. You see, even as believers, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, but unfortunately, we still make choices during the day of which way are we gonna go.

Are we going to be satisfied with the darkness, or are we gonna claim my light that says that the Lord is my light and my salvation? So our challenge to you is twofold. One, first of all, recognize darkness for what it is and just get away from it.

Just say, no, Lord, no, no. I have the Holy Spirit, this light. I choose this light. And the second challenge is that as a believer, choose the light today. Choose the light all day long. Claim it and live in it.

Amen and amen. We have a couple of announcements, but the first one, I want anybody who is a father, please stand up. We are going to pray for you this morning on Father's Day. First of all, ladies, how about an applause for these guys?

Thank you.

Lord, these men that have stood up are given the gift of being fathers, are being the gift of being involved in their families, are being given the gift of being able to proclaim truth and to show light and salvation into their families.

And so, Lord, lift up these men, encourage them, give them strength, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And again, fathers, thank you so much. Okay, guys, now that I've done that, I've got two opportunities for you.

First of all, this past week, we had a kickoff for our men's discipleship program. We had 20 guys involved. Some were here, some checked in on Zoom, but the opportunities are still there. We're encouraging men two ways.

One, get involved with somebody on a mentorship discipleship program, but two, and as significant and as important, get involved with somebody who is equal to you.

In an iron sharpening iron.

Be vulnerable, be willing to learn, be willing to encourage each other. Men, get into a discipleship program. It's a great, great way to grow, Lord. The second one is gonna be a week from tomorrow, which will be the sixth, it's gonna resume.

Amen to that. It's been a long time, guys. We're not gonna be able to go to the restaurant, so what we're going to do is we're gonna meet right inside there at the sanctuary, six o 'clock Monday morning.

You can bring your own goodies. We will have some pastries and coffee and that kind of stuff, six o 'clock morning, on Monday morning, the sixth. Come on out, guys, and let's fellowship together. All right, can I see the T-shirt I'm wearing?

They're out there.

First of all, Pastor Jeff, thank you for doing it. Jill Deegan, thank you for helping coordinate what we're doing with it. Sizes are starting to go, so get what you need now. We're always gonna get more if we need it.

There's two colors.

One is for children, the other is for adults. So if you go out there and you grab a shirt, you can see Jill. We're asking for a $10 donation for the shirts. See Jill, put it in an envelope designated for T-shirts.

Put it in the offering box. But quite frankly, if you really want a shirt.

And you just can't swing it, take a shirt.

Please, take a shirt. It's all for the kingdom, right? Number four. I need an answer, John.

Please.

How do you say it? Tell us time.

And I was gonna go there in just a minute, but I'll go there right now. As Jesus hung on the quake, or maybe the second last thing,.

Maybe the last thing was,.

Father, in your hands I commit my spirit. But right before that, he proclaimed to tell us time. Full message, because what it says is the forgiveness of sins, the atonement for my sins, the shed blood has been accomplished, and we are confident that our salvation is secure.

To tell us time.

It is finished. You get to wear one of these shirts, and somebody walks up to you and goes, eh, it looks great to me. And it is. But you can say that's my profession. You see, we have a Lord, the Son of God, who came incarnate into earth, and his mission was to take my sins.

And I make of this person, he took my sins. And each one of us can make that same prayer. You put this shirt on, and you can say, to tell us time, the Savior took my sin. It is finished. Hold my confidence in him.

Jeff, how do I say this?

To tell us time.

Amen. All right, guys, all together, to tell us time.

To tell us time.

Amen to that. The ladies, Carrie and, yeah.

Jen.

Jen, are still putting the little bags out there. They're in the front door by the church for your children.

They're stepping stone bags.

There's activity, and there's Bible lessons that they can use, encourage you to go out there and take advantage of them. And finally, this is gonna be really cool. We're doing it for the next two Sundays.

We're gonna be gathering here at After Church for a picnic. Bring your meal, bring your drinks, whatever else. Pastor Jeff's gonna be putting out more information on that. The baptism that we were talking about next Sunday, we're gonna move out one Sunday, and here's the reason.

We have multiple people that want to do this, and we believe that we're safe, we're being socially respectful. But in two Sundays, so that will be the July 4th Sunday, it will be the, I guess it's the 5th, it's not here.

And what a great time, what a great time for the profession,.

For those who are doing it. If you are at all interested, see Pastor Jeff, see Pastor Ben, see myself, and let's do this thing. But in two weeks, we will have it. The last thing I wanna say is I know that Pastor Jeff puts out an email every Thursday.

The service that he's using, I think it's called monkey something or other.

Male chimp.

Male chimp, okay.

Monkey something or other.

Some emails have disappeared and don't show up, and the emails aren't getting through. If you're not getting Pastor Jeff's weekly Thursday, please let him know, and he will make sure that you are getting it, because we wanna make sure that you're encouraged.

So now let's go to prayer. Father, we are so encouraged to be together. We are so grateful for your blessings of good weather.

That we can be outside all together.

For this time now, as we gather and worship, Lord, open the eyes of our heart to hear the message, Lord, is my light. Lord, for the days and for the weeks ahead, as we are able to return to fellowship, as the doors of our country are reopening, let us keep our focus on your kingdom.

Let us keep the opportunity to share your good news with the world that needs to hear it. This morning now, Pastor Jeff takes us into Revelation 15 and opens up the power of that word to tell us God. Speak clearly through him with power, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Weather's not too good for you to talk about.

The Wrath of God in Revelation 15

And I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing. Seven angels with seven plagues, but with them the wrath of God. A number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God and the song of the Lamb, saying great and amazing are your deeds. Oh Lord God, the almighty, just and true are your ways. Oh King of the nations, who will not fear, oh Lord, and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy. All the nations for your righteous acts have been revealed. After this, I looked in the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened. And out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen with golden sashes around their chest.

And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels, seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. And the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power.

And no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.

To us that we would understand this, motivate us to worship, to go forth proclaiming, it is finished, in Jesus name, amen. Robert Van Kampen tells the story through the most amazing watermelons. There were some neighborhoods own risk is poison.

Boys came along and they saw the sign and they thought, we better not steal a watermelon. We don't know which one is poisoned. So they left the whole watermelon. His watermelons were safe until the next day he got up and saw the sign that the boy, now there are two.

Trust his own watermelon patch. He didn't know which one of his watermelons was poisoned. And so the entire thing needed to be thrown away. Couldn't risk it. There could be poison in one of these watermelons.

This is a wonderful analogy to the is poison. We'll have to do away with the whole book. They realized that to reject that, they have to throw out the entire Bible. That doctrine is the wrath of God. He judges sin to much of our culture.

And so they end up rejecting that, but it means that you must reject the whole. So today we go to Revelation 15 and the subject is the wrath of God. There are two ways in which the wrath of God.

Will be finished.

One is when God pours out his wrath on sinners. And it is a terrible picture. It is a horrifying image and we will see it today. It's scary. Against that is the most beautiful picture in the Bible. And that is the brightness of the cross.

Coming out from the darkness of God's wrath is this picture of love, this shining cross that is only fully understood against the backdrop of God's wrath. Because in the cross, there is a second way in which wrath is satisfied.

And that is in the person of Jesus Christ. As he is punished, the father, it is his will to crush the son. And Jesus absorbs the wrath of God on the cross and satisfies that wrath, appeases that wrath.

And so it's turned on the cross, Jesus says, to Telestai, to Telestai. It is finished, meaning the wrath of God against sinners who believe in him and are united with Christ. That wrath, let's read about it.

Revelation 15 in with verse one. Ben already read it for us, so we'll just go verse by verse. Then I saw another sign in heaven. Mark that word sign, it's sineon in the Greek. It means something that points to another thing.

What is being revealed here is the wrath of God. Earlier in Revelation, we saw other signs. We saw the sign of the woman, which represented Israel giving birth to the Messiah. We saw the sign of the dragon, and that dragon is Satan, who comes down to the earth in wrath.

And out of the earth then, out of the sea, comes the Antichrist and a false empire. The mark of the beast in Revelation 13, we learned about that. And then we saw angels proclaiming the gospel, proclaiming judgment, 144 ,000 witnesses.

And finally, we come to chapter 15, another sign. This one is great and amazing. Seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them, the wrath of God is finished. Now, I wanna tell you something amazing.

Michael and I were looking at making Tetelestai shirts long before we knew that this passage would line up with this Sunday. And it just so happens that the word for finished in the Greek is not Tetelestai, but Etelestai.

It is finished, but another sense in which the wrath of God is finished. I want you to notice it has the same root, that root of completion, finishing. It was the providence of God that we would make these T-shirts today.

In the providence of God, the passage that we're studying lines up perfectly with this central gospel truth, Tetelestai. Mark this well, there are only two places where the word Tetelestai is mentioned in the Bible.

John 19, verse 28, and verse 30. Tetelestai, it is finished. What is finished? Two things. In John 19, 28, the reference is to the finishing of prophecies about the death of Jesus. John 19, 28 says, in order to fulfill the scriptures, in order to fulfill, to complete, to finish, Jesus said, I thirst.

Now, you have to understand that when Jesus was dying on the cross, there were a number of prophecies being fulfilled in that moment. There were a number of prophecies. It's Psalm 69, verse 21. They have given me vinegar to drink.

That prophecy had not yet been fulfilled, but as Jesus hung on the cross, about to breathe his last words, he said, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which is quoting from Psalm 22, verse one. You guys know it.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But follow this, when he said that, his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth because it says in Psalm 22, my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. He was so dehydrated in that suffering on the cross, his tongue was sticking to the roof of his mouth, so they thought he was calling for Elijah.

When he said, Eloi, Eloi, my God, my God, they thought he was saying Elijah. They couldn't understand him. Said, I thirst. One, they gave him vinegar to drink, but just in that moment, when that vinegar touched his mouth, it loosened his tongue just enough to say the final thing he needed to say, tell us that, and they heard it loud and clear.

Second meaning to tell us that, the first comes from John 19, 28. It is fulfilled, meaning all of these prophecies are fulfilled. Psalm 22 is fulfilled. Psalm 69, 21 is fulfilled. Isaiah 53 is fulfilled.

All these things are fulfilled. The soldier's gambling at his feet. He sees them there. That's a fulfillment from Psalm 22 as well. They gamble for my clothing. But the second meaning comes from John 19, and it is the word itself.

He says, tell us that. What is finished? Answer, the wrath of God against sinners is finished on the cross. Wrath of God in full. He drank that cup to the dregs. People who are united with him. He raced and no longer, he nailed the list of transgressions against us to his pierced, according to Psalm 22.

To tell us that means it is finished. So it's an amazing teaching. And as we come to Revelation 15, one, there is yet fulfilled in the body of Christ because he dies for those who are united with him in faith of humanity.

That's not united to Christ in faith. They didn't repent through all of the judgments that have already come in the book of Revelation. So it says here, the wrath of God will be a telestai. Finished, same root word, but slightly different.

Finished in a different way. Wrath of God will be finished in, so it's both terrifying as the black backdrop to the story of the cross. But it's also reminding us that it is finished and how we should sing with joy for what Christ has done.

Verse two, and I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire. Isn't that a picture of splendor? Can you imagine that? Glass mingled with fire. What would that look like? Certainly majestic and glorious.

This is a great reward. And also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name. Question, how did they conquer the beast?

Did they kill him?

They conquered the beast by killing the antichrist? Quite the opposite. They conquered the beast by remaining faithful unto death. These are martyrs who are killed by the antichrist because they refuse to bow the knee to the beast.

They refuse to take his mark on their forehead or on their right hand. They conquer by faith, resisting even to the point of shedding blood. And so we're reminded of what John said, writing down the words of Jesus in Revelation 2 and 3.

You will notice in each of the letters to the seven churches, every one of them says, to the one who, and then they're given a promise, a promise of eternal life and blessing in the eternal kingdom. Promise is for those who conquer.

Just before the coming of the antichrist, there will be a great falling away. The apostasy, Jesus talked about it. In Thessalonians 2, he talked about it. The apostasy, the falling away. I think we're seeing it in our day.

People turning away from the message of the gospel for a different religion. Phil Johnson is the guy who works with John MacArthur. You guys know John MacArthur, right? John MacArthur, great teacher. He has a guy that's worked with him all these years named Phil Johnson.

He runs Grace to You. Phil Johnson talks about this new religion that's rising in America and around the world, not just in America, that is replacing Christianity for many people. He calls it woke-ism.

Woke-ism. I like to use the term social justice as being this new religion. But here's what Phil Johnson says. Woke-ism is a nasty religious cult. They routinely declare people guilty for the sins of others, elicit rote confessions, and refuse absolution.

They have no place for forgiveness, no doctrine of atonement, and therefore no redemption ever. Your kneeling won't satisfy them. There is rising in the world a false religion that Johnson calls woke-ism, which is the opposite of genuine Christianity.

Genuine Christianity does not call you to find your life, but to lose it. It doesn't call human beings to grievance,.

But to contentment.

Phil Johnson lives this truth in his life. He just wrote a couple days ago, I haven't mentioned this here yet on Facebook, but my birthday gift this year was a cancer diagnosis. Prostate cancer. It's at an early stage and should be treatable.

And frankly, I could still die of old age before the cancer gets me. Nevertheless, it's one of many reminders that all flesh is like grass and the flower thereof. And when you really understand the human lifespan, it's striking how little time we have.

To make the most of it.

Listen to this, I have no complaints. However, it's actually quite a helpful birthday gift to get at the age of 67. It's a potent reminder of what Moses wrote. The years of our life are 70, or even by reason of strength, 80, yet their span is but toil and trouble.

They are soon gone and we fly away. And I echo Moses's prayer in response to that. So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. You know what Phil Johnson did there? He got a cancer diagnosis, but because he understands 1 Timothy 6, 6, godliness with contentment is great gain.

He did not take it as a fearful thing. He took it as a birthday gift. And he says, I have no complaints.

Why?

It points into Psalm chapter 90, the Psalm of Moses. And that transitions us now into the third point. The song that these believers in heaven sing comes from Moses, we're told. I think that's a parallel to Psalm chapter 90, what Phil Johnson quoted for us.

So look now at Revelation 15, three and four. This is a song that I want all of us to learn. Maybe not memorize it, but know it by four movements. We should wake up every day ready to praise God for four things.

Number one, his greatness.

Number two, his goodness.

Number three, his holiness. And number four, his cross work. The four movements of the Psalm of Moses. And they sing the song of Moses. It's the song of Moses, I think, because Psalm 90, the song of Moses, verse 11 parallels with what we have here in verse four.

So John considers it like the song of Moses from Psalm 90, the servant of God. And it's the song of the Lamb because it's directed to the Lamb. Remember Revelation five, worthy is the Lamb. All praise is directed to God through the Lamb, Jesus Christ.

So there's four movements. Let's look at them one by one quickly. Number one, greatness. Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God, the Almighty. You should wake up every day and praise God for his greatness.

This is the God who hung the stars in the sky. This is the God who's giving us this cloud cover right now as we sit out on this beautiful field. He made the flowers of the grass. He talks about it in Psalm 90.

That rise up. I think Rick just mowed this a couple of days ago. Look how it's already coming back up. Down to Florida to be at the beach at sunset. Anybody ever seen that? The sun setting over the Gulf of Mexico?

And just the streaks in the sky. And it just makes you say great and amazing is our God. We praise God for how great he is. Psalm 104, his creation. That's the first movement of this praise. But not only do we have an all-powerful God who made the world and made the mountains and he made the days of the week.

Did you ever think about this? Since creation, we still operate on a seven-day cycle. And Sundays are when we say to Telestai, it is finished. We remember the work is complete. Now here's the second thing, goodness.

He's not only a great God, he's also a good God. Just and true are your ways, O King of the Nations. Are your ways. What are his ways? Reflects his character, what he's like. Our God is a good God. He's good toward his children.

O King of the Nations, there's no better way to understand the goodness of our God.

Than to look at the cross.

It's there you understand that he's not only a powerful God, he is a loving God. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. That whoever believes in him will not perish but have him.

You think about the goodness. I picture Jesus hanging on the cross. In that moment of his own suffering, where was his heart and where was his mind? He looked from the cross and he saw John, the beloved disciple.

And his mother Mary there. And one of the seven words, the seven last things he said was woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother. He was caring for his mom. He was caring for John, the youngest of the disciples.

The one who was there at the foot of the cross. Even in his dying, that should remind us forever that this is a good God that we serve.

He is good.

And so he says goodbye, what a sad goodbye. And on the cross, he's also conquering lies. The devil is tormenting him and tempting him to come down from the cross. He has to finish the work to tell us that.

If he comes down from the cross and does not die the death that we deserve, we go to hell. Isn't that true? And so he's being taunted while he's on the cross. You save others, why don't you save yourself?

Come down from the cross. You're the deliverer, why don't you deliver yourself and show that you're the Messiah? He refused to do that because of his goodness. To the end, says that we have not yet suffered to the point of shedding our own blood.

But guess what? The author and perfecter of our faith, he's so good that he did endure the lies. He conquered those lies on the cross. And if you need any greater image of what the king of the nations, it says in verse three, oh, king of the nations, what is our king like?

He's so good, he wears a crown of thorns pressed into his brow. In verse four, who will not fear, oh Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, the holiness of God. Holiness means set apart.

Other, different, greater, transcendent. He is bigger than us. We are small here on earth. We are sinners, but he dwells in perfect light. No sin in him at all, no darkness in him at all.

He is holy.

And we should praise him because he is holy and we should fear for that reason. We do not deserve to stand in his presence. And this is why it's the Psalm of Moses. If you go back and look at Psalm chapter 90, verse 11, the same thing is there.

Fear, he's so holy. The holiness of God means there's a distance, just this gulf that's insurmountable. You can't get to him. He's just so much bigger and greater than us. But the distance has been met.

Blood of Jesus, the blood poured out is him working to reach us, him coming to us to meet that distance. So it says in the final movement of this, all nations will come. How can they come worship? They're not worthy.

For your righteous acts have been revealed. That's the crosswork of Jesus. And they're revealed to us. We know that Jesus died for our sins because he said to Telestai, paid in full. The sin debt has been covered and erased.

It's revealed to us in the word to Telestai. I'm gonna keep saying that word to Telestai as many times as possible. So I want you guys to get that word in your head. I want someone to come up to you and say, what does that word to Telestai mean?

You know what I want you to do when you hear that? I want you to say, well, I've got a poem for you. This poem will tell you the meaning. I wrote this poem that comes out of Revelation 15, three and four, the goodness, the greatness, the holiness, the crosswork of Christ.

To Telestai of greatness speaks by sunset streaks and mountain peaks and days of rest to mark the weeks. To Telestai of goodness cries through sad goodbyes and conquered lies and piercing thorns above his eyes.

To Telestai means canceled debt, where bloody sweat meets soldier's bed and God declares the distance met. To Telestai counts us unblemished, not sins diminished or left unpunished, but paid in full for it is finished.

That's the meaning of to Telestai.

Finally, verses five to eight. After this, I looked and the sanctuary.

Of the tent of witness in heaven was open.

And out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues clothed in pure bright linen with golden sashes around their chests. And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of wrath of God who lives forever and ever.

And the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power. And no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. I think God had this day planned.

What do you think?

Because I didn't plan for it to end that way. The same root, it's telestosin. So it's not to Telestai, but it has that telest in it, which is that root for completion, finished. This passage here is foreboding.

The idea is it's ominous. Here you have the angels carrying bowls of wrath. And what is to come is going to be devastating on earth. The bowls of wrath. We've already seen the seals, the seven seals, which are the wrath of God according to Revelation 6, 17.

Then we saw the trumpets. And now finally we'll have the seven bowls of wrath to complete the outpouring of wrath on earth as God is judging. So how do we apply this passage?

Revelation 15.

First of all, let our songs be like the song of Moses. That's how we should sing. We should be passionate like Moses. When I picture Moses, I picture a very passionate man. Remember how he regarded the treasures of Egypt as not worth anything compared to know Christ, according to Hebrews 11?

He left all of that to go suffer with God's people and the passion when he strikes the rock, even in sin. Moses is a passionate man, but then he's forgiven for that. And he passionately follows God and he writes Psalm chapter 90.

He sings praise to the greatness of God, the goodness of God, the holiness of God, the crossword, which he only saw in shadows in the Passover land. Secondly, let's apply this by saying, tetellestai. I want you to wear that shirt like once a week.

That means you have to wash it in between. Wear that shirt once a week. In fact, how about we all try to wear it next Sunday? I would like that. I won't be quite as sweaty just wearing a T-shirt. So we wear this shirt, but be ready with what you're gonna say.

Maybe you just say that third line. Tetellestai means canceled debt, where bloody sweat meets soldier's debt and God declares the distance made. And explain to them that the soldiers gambling at the foot of the cross represents us mocking God and living in our own selfish world.

Meanwhile, God accomplishes the work on our behalf, sweating drops of blood and agony in the garden of Gethsemane and then sweating on the cross, accomplishing the work that we could not until he paid it in full, dying the death that we deserve and said, tetellestai, it is finished.

You learn how you're gonna say it, but know what you're gonna say because somebody is gonna ask you, what's up with that shirt?

What does that mean?

So be ready. Live life like Phil Johnson modeled for us. No complaints, gratitude, contentment, an example of one who has been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, who understands that the distance that was met for him is a reason to praise forever, a reason to have contentment.

Trust the whole watermelon patch. Even this horrible, scary doctrine of the wrath of God. But be compassionate on the loss because wrath abides until someone comes under the blood of Christ. This judgment that we're reading about, this is certain, this will happen.

The wrath of God will be finished, but we have the message of tetellestai. It is finished for those who are united with Christ. So let's invite the worship team to come back up. And guys, let's close in a word of prayer that we would have this heart of gratitude and praise.

And when we stand up to sing, I want us to sing like we understand tetellestai, amen? Sing with hearts of joy, but let's pray for opportunities to preach the gospel that this summer will be a summer of harvest.

Let's pray. Oh God, thank you. Our hearts are filled with gratitude. Thank you for how great you are, creator of the heavens and the earth. Thank you for how good you are, that you came to earth and lived a perfect, obedient life and loved in a way that the world had never seen.

Greater love has no one than this, the one who lays down his life for his friends. Lord, this morning, we confess that you are holy, you are distant and transcendent, and yet you met that distance on the cross.

On the cross, you said tetellestai, it is finished. And so we praise you forevermore. Thank you for revealing this to us. Flesh and blood has not revealed this. It's the spirit of the living God. So help us now to go out preaching Christ and him crucified.

Help us to say tetellestai in Jesus' name, amen.

Tetellestai, we said to fulfill the scripture.

A jar full of sour wine stood there so they could have had received.