 I'm Anna Schmidt and I'm here with Tom Hollis and Tom, we've got a wonderful discussion that's focused on our beloved Savior today. Well absolutely, and we're gonna have a great week. Everyone will have a wonderful celebration of Resurrection Sunday, this coming Sunday. But before we get to the Resurrection, maybe we should take a look at the cross. And we'll be doing that today with author Charles Martin. And we're gonna be talking to him about what exactly did the dying Jesus mean when he said it is finished? Very important words that he said on the cross. And how does Jesus' resurrection change us today? We all talk, Anna, about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and how important that is. It's interesting to spend some time at the cross. You know, kind of think of Mary and John there at the foot of the cross and maybe we can join them there and just say what does the time that Jesus spent on the cross and what does the cross itself mean for us today? Yeah, you said the word change. How does the cross change us? And I am thankful for what Jesus did on the cross and how he does not leave us the same. He changes us into his likeness and I can't wait to unpack all that our guest has for us today. So throughout this program, we're going to learn what the cross means to us today. We're also gonna hear about the Palm Sunday celebration in Jerusalem and we'll have our prayer and ministry time for you at the end. So you'll want to stay with us for the whole 30 minutes. That's right. And of course, we always have prayer partners standing by. You can always call in. There's people there that 24 seven willing to pray with you, wanting to pray with you. That's their ministry. That's why they sign up to be prayer partners is because they want to pray for people. So just always keep that in mind that number is always available. Yeah, and just very much looking forward to getting into the traditions of this week and hopefully that you take that time to just set aside and get into the presence of the Savior and remember all that he has done for you and me. Absolutely. So when Jesus died on the cross, what exactly did he mean when he said it is finished? And what did Jesus's death and resurrection truly mean for us as Christians? Well, bestselling author Charles Martin examines some of these questions and more in his new devotional. It is finished a 40 day pilgrimage back to the cross. Charles, welcome to hope today. Hey, good morning. Thank you both for having me. Well, Charles, let's talk about the cross. Maybe we'll, I'll tell you what, let's start with the title. It is finished. Why did Jesus say that? What is finished? Well, his work is finished on the cross. It's completed. The good news is that while his work is finished on the cross, his work in us is not, which is great news for us, which means our sanctification is ongoing. But part of the reason I, part of the reason that phrase struck me was, I have a, I mean, I write stories for a living. So it's, you know, maybe folks are more familiar with my novels, but words matter. And I just began when I was reading back through John 19 one day. And I read this, I've read it a bunch. I've known the Lord a long time, but you know, I read it as finished. And I just began wrestling with, that might be the most important set of words ever spoken out across the stratosphere. And then I just, I began like unpacking it. Well, I really think it is. I think it's the most important thing ever spoken. So then I began asking, well, what exactly was finished? And that, that caused me to really back into why the cross, why the cross, why, what does the shed blood of this man 2000 years ago have to do with us today? Yeah, absolutely. You know, I have to say this. You really brought like a novelist way of expressing oneself to this work. And I appreciated that. In fact, I would recommend the book to anyone. It is finished. And just the introduction, you know, most introductions are just a couple of pages, but you really dug in there. And I really appreciated that. I liked it. There's a, this is my third, this is my third nonfiction. And I'm primarily a novel writer. And so I come at nonfiction and telling any story having to do with Jesus with a lot of fear and trembling. Because I know the admonition and revelation that says, it's really bad for anybody who comes along and adds to or takes away anything from these words. So I try to come at it from the standpoint of, Lord, will you help me take scripture and to interpret scripture? So anytime, I think, I think, anytime where I'm sort of outside of scripture and I'm saying, hey, I don't know exactly what happened, but as best I can unpack, I think this is what happened. And maybe one of the examples you're talking about early in the, in the intro would be that the idea of the terstorium, which is a sponge on a stick. And we see in John 19, where the soldiers hold it up and give Jesus the sour wine. And I try to unpack that using some Roman record and some history. And it doesn't really state in the Bible what I believe it is. And I believe when Roman soldiers were primarily conscripted, they were given a spear, a sword, a shield, sandals with really thick soles. And then they were given a sponge and a stick and a jar of vinegar because it was an antiseptic and they were instructed as to how to clean their backsides because Roman army was the largest army in the world and a large army has to be fed and has to go to the bathroom and all that stuff. And so the way that they maintained a sanitary environment was vinegar. And so when you see it sitting next to the cross, some folks have thought or said that was a merciful act on behalf of the soldiers. Based upon their treatment of him, I don't think so. I think they're shoving feces laced vinegar into his mouth and they're mocking him. Wow, yeah, that's, when I read that, I had never heard that historical footnote before about that. But let me ask you about something about the cross. You say this, in fact, I wanna quote something right out of the introduction where you talk about Paul says, I have decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And you go on to say something I thought was really pertinent. It says, Christ crucified, why not Christ feeding the 5,000 or Christ healing the paralytic or Christ turning the tables over in the temple or Christ raising Lazarus. And isn't that how sometimes we present Christianity is all these good things, all these powerful things that are absolutely true and wonderful. But why does Paul say that his message is Christ crucified? Well, he also goes on to later say, God forbid that I should boast saving the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And again, I began kinda unpacking that and trying to understand like why? I mean, Paul literally would walk by people and like his handkerchief would touch them and they would be healed. So he had seen the power of God at work mightily and yet in his ministry, he maintained his focus and never took his eyes off the cross. And we see this, we see his frustration with folks like us, with the church, specifically in the church in Galatia, because in all of his letters, he thanks God for everyone that he's writing to accept the church in Galatia. The church in Galatia was probably a spirit filled, we might even call them charismatic, operating in the gifts. These people were eyewitnesses to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. They had personally seen him crucified, but they had taken their eyes off the cross. And by the time Paul gets to chapter three in Galatians, he says, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was personally portrayed as crucified and something had happened to take their focus off. And Paul never did. So when I sort of zeroed in on that, I just began looking and I was like, all right Lord, let's you and me walk back to your cross and if I do, would you please reveal to me why this matters? And the Lord did two things with me that were really, I wasn't expecting him. I'm 54, I've known the Lord a long time. That doesn't mean I've always been obedient. I don't have the monopoly on that, but we know from John that grace and truth are poured out on the lips of Jesus. So if we're getting the truth that's wrapped in grace and it's not cheap grace, it's priceless, but we know we're getting truth. So he pulled back the veil a little bit and showed me the truth of me. And it's not pretty. And if you knew my thoughts, you would agree with me. And so he allowed me to see the sin that I bring to the cross. Cause that's the only thing I bring. I don't bring anything other than my own sin, which is my need for the cross. And then when I was, and then when he allowed that to kind of settle on me and I saw the truth of me and all its, at least as much as I'm able to understand it, it's ugliness. He then met me with his grace. And we know that we receive from him grace upon grace. And so it was just this beautiful thing where the Lord met me every day as I wrote this pilgrimage, where he would meet me with the truth of me and the truth of my inescapable need for him. And the fact that I can't do anything to get back to him. And yet he comes on a prisoner swap, him for me or him for us, which is, it's unbelievable. It's inconceivable. It makes no sense. Cause I know me and I'm not worth the exchange. And yet, and yet he does. And he, and he, and he, and then he offers us this pass back to the Father. And so Charles, when you, when you focus this devotional on it is finished. What all does that encapsulate for us? It means that our sin, it is forgiven, that we have salvation through your journey though, what else did God reveal to you about the power of those words? It is finished. Problem that we have as mankind is that our sin separates us from God. God's wrath is stored up against our sin. And for reasons which he will probably, I think, explain one day when we get with him, that wrath has to be satisfied or atoned for. Our sin has to be atoned for. So when Jesus declares it is finished, his work is fully finished. He has drained the Father's cup of wrath. He has made payment for not only my sin and yours, but all sin of all mankind for all time. And the offer there is freedom. It is transference out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of the son of his love. That, that's the offer from the cross. It's, it's the, it's, Jesus says I'm the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So when he says it is finished, the wrath of God has been atoned for. And the pathway has now been made by the son for a path back to the Father. And so that's the offer. Theologians like to talk about the exchange, the things that Jesus took from us, all of the evil that was due to us, our death, our shame, our rejection, our curse, our sin, all of those things. And in exchange, he gives us all of the blessing due to him from the Father. Blessing, life, righteousness, the, all of that. So it's a, that phrase in is, it is finished. I said this earlier. It's, it's probably the most important thing ever spoken. It certainly is to me and for me. And it's Jesus driving a stake in the ground, literally, saying the wrath of God is atoned for. And I've made a way back. One other thing you do in the book a lot is you go to other portions of scripture but tie them back to the cross. One of those is Isaiah 53. Could you explain and just reveal to us that word where it says he was in the King James, it says bruised for our iniquities or in some modern translations, crushed. I thought that was really important to explain why crushed and why for our iniquities. Could you explain that a little bit to us? Isaiah 53 is known as the chapter on the suffering servant and Isaiah prophesized this some 700, maybe 750 years before Jesus. And he, he speaks in there about what will happen to the Messiah for us. And one of the things he says that he will be crushed for our iniquities. Let's look at the word iniquity real quick because that word iniquity is a bone. And it means not only, not only will he be crushed for our sin, but he will be crushed for all of the consequences due to our sin. So in the New Testament, when it says he became, he who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. He took on himself all of the sin due to all of mankind. He not only took the sin, but he took all of the consequences or the punishment. All right, now let's back up even further. Why does he say crushed? Well, it's a beautiful connection between Genesis three, what theologians call the proto-vangelion, which is the first gospel. And it's where in the garden, God the Father speaks to the serpent of old and says, he meaning the Messiah to come, there will be an interaction between the two of you and you will bruise his heel and he will crush your head. So we know from Genesis three that there will be one who comes and crushes Satan under his feet, which Paul later says in the New Testament. But the prophet Isaiah and Isaiah 53 is foretelling the one that spoken of in Genesis three, the Messiah will be crushed because of our sin. We also see the beginning of this in the garden when Jesus is praying. And I believe in the garden of Gethsemane is an olive garden where they press the olives. We see the first pressing of the first crushing of Jesus where he's praying in agony and his sweat, his blood vessels actually burst and he begins bleeding in the garden. Wow, you know, we're digging in here to some important things during this holy week, this looking at the cross. You know, you mentioned something and maybe this is where you could challenge all of us, those watching and even all of us here about the three responses to the death of Jesus. Because we see them, we see mocking and cursing and all that goes on with those that reject him. We see falling at his feet for those that, you know, in the scriptures that come to serve him, but you mentioned another very important and very wrong reaction to this. Could you just unpack that for us? Yeah, the third that I speak about is indifference, which is really just a variation on the first and it's sort of, it's not sort of, it is, I got this. I don't need, it's talk to the hand sort of thing. My favorite response to the cross is the thief next to Jesus. And I try to unpack this a little bit. I don't know that I do it as completely as I wanted to, but the thief on the cross probably was a member of Barabbas insurrection the day before he was probably leading a rebellion and he was caught, he's probably a murderer. And he and his buddy are hanging next to Jesus. Barabbas has been released. The one buddy is railing at Jesus saying, if you are who you say that you are, get us off this cross. And what he, he says, save us. And what he doesn't realize is that Jesus is actively doing that in that moment. And then the thief on the other side, something happens in his heart. He's three feet from the redemption of mankind or he's a couple of feet. I don't know how many feet it is, but he's literally staring at Jesus, pouring out his blood on Calvary, paying for the wrath of God, making propitiation for our sins. He's staring at it. And something happens in his heart to take him from sinner, unbeliever to Jesus, when you come into your kingdom today, please remember me. And I just love the posture. We hear it in the words that he uses. We hear the posture of his heart and it's repentance. Repentance is just a heart posture. It's just a humbling. It's a, it's a submission to the Lordship of Jesus. And we hear it in his words. And then I love the grace of Jesus, which is truly you will be with me today in paradise. So we know something about that thief that really can't be said of anyone else in scripture, of all the saints. This thief, this robber, this possible murderer who does nothing, doesn't join a church, doesn't go to a disciple group, doesn't get baptized, doesn't tithe, doesn't feed the hungry, nothing. And I'm not knocking those things. But all he does is believe. He places his belief in Jesus that Jesus is the son of God who comes to take away the son of the world. And we know that Jesus takes him up. So it's a beautiful salvation. It's a beautiful picture. It's probably one of my favorite in all of scripture because it takes the pressure off of us. Like, I can't make my way back to you. All I can do is bow at your feet. Yeah, I mean, and so often, especially those of us that maybe have been raised in the church or raised around Christianity, we can easily just sort of put that in a, in a little, you know, a religious section, can't we? And kind of be indifferent about it. Charles, thank you so much for being with us. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It is finished by Charles Martin. Again, the introduction is worth the price of admission, but the rest of the book is good too. Thank you so much for being with us, Charles. Thanks so much for having me. Wow. I love how I said all we can do is bow at his feet, bow at the feet of Jesus and all that he did for us on the cross. We have to take a quick break, but when we come back, we're going to unpack this conversation a little bit, but we'll also take a look at Jerusalem and how people there celebrated Palm Sunday. Stay with us. Discover what God's word has to say about healing and deliverance. Bestselling author, John Eckhart, makes topical Bible study easy with his new book, Scriptures for Faith, Deliverance and Healing. This handy reference is for those who want to have a greater understanding of healing and deliverance to incorporate God's word into their prayers. Eckhart also includes targeted commentary to highlight key scriptures and life application. His spirit-filled perspective will enhance your time in God's word and encourages the spiritual disciplines of memorization and meditation. Request scriptures for faith, deliverance and healing as our thank you gift when you support Cornerstone Television this month. Request your copy today. If you want to strengthen the ministry of CTVN, share your best gift by visiting us online at ctvn.org slash donate or call us at 888-665-4483. Thank you for your partnership. Hope happens here. Thousands of Christian faithful attended Palm Sunday celebrations at Jerusalem's sacred Mount of Olives marking the first day of Holy Week as complex surges across the region. Well, pilgrims waved branches and fronds in the air, items that were placed before Jesus' feet as he was greeted by cheering crowds during his entrance to Jerusalem. Earlier Sunday, Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher revered the site of Jesus' crucifixion, also held a service. The annual celebration came as the Israel Hamas War rages on in Gaza. However, the conflict appeared to have had little effect on the procession which swelled to a similar size as last year. The celebration marks the beginning of the most somber week in the Christian calendar before the celebration of Christ's resurrection this Sunday. One person said, I'm here because I love Jesus. Well, thanks to the Associated Press for that article. So, Tom, they're there because they love Jesus. Yeah, you know, it's interesting. Going to a fairly non-traditional church, we don't always do things traditionally like we didn't really do a poem, Sunday service, but I like those kind of things in the right context and with understanding what it is because sometimes we need those, Anna, these things that remind us of what. And here was everyone calling Hosanna and praising Jesus as he rode in on a donkey, you know, rode in on a donkey, not in a mighty procession. He rode in on a donkey, but they recognized this is the coming one. This is the Messiah. This is the anointed one. This is the Christ. He's coming in and they laid things down. You know, that's always a sign of honor that the donkey didn't even have to like step on the ground. You know, he was too holy for that. But little did they know that in just a week he was going to go to the cross. He wasn't going to come as a military victor. He was going to give us a different kind of victory, a victory over sin. And that is the story. This is what we've been talking about this whole program that it's Christ crucified, not Christ the healer, not Christ the provider, Christ crucified. He is all those other things, but his crucifixion is how we're made right with God. Yeah, and it is good for us to pause and remember what Christ did for us on the cross. And this act of love, I mean, the Bible says, this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to die for us. I mean, this is, when you think of John 3.16, it is the basic gospel message that God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, Jesus. That those who believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And it is that simple that we would place our faith in the Son of God, Jesus, and what he did for us on the cross. That once and for all sacrifice for our sin to get rid of the sin, to get rid of shame, guilt, fear, everything that Satan uses to hold us down. Jesus took it to the cross and he said, it is finished. And he took it to the grave and guess what? Three days later, none of that bad, dark stuff, the death stuff, none of that rose back up from the grave, just our very alive, Jesus rose back up victorious so that you can be victorious in this life today too. And so if you have never accepted Jesus as savior, today is your day, that he wants to make all things new. The past is finished in Jesus' mighty name. And you don't have to say any certain words, any fancy words, you just come to him just as you are and ask him to forgive you and to ask him to come into your life as savior and Lord. And I would encourage you to do that. Let's not go through a holy week, not knowing the savior. You know, Charles Martin talked about those three responses. I thought that was very, very pertinent to us. Maybe you are a Christian and you've been saved for a long time, but think about these three responses to the crucifixion. One, there were mockers, right? There were people there mocking and spitting and cursing and gambling and doing everything except worshiping him. They were either hate filled or just doing their job as the soldiers were and they were mocking him and the most horrific ways with a crown of thorn upon his head and crucified on the cross. And then there were those that were worshiping him or they were horrified at what was going on, but they knew that this was part of God's plan and Mary's there and John the Baptist is, I mean, John, St. John is there. And they are, you know, again, painful what they're seeing Jesus go through, but it's part of God's plan. And you're probably that person. If you've been with us for this whole show, you're probably that person that you've come and worshiped God and you've loved God, but you maybe have find yourself in that third category, maybe an indifference. You know, you've kind of neglected your salvation and I would encourage you don't do that today. Let there be a day where you say, God, let this has become kind of commonplace to me. God wants to make it new. Like Anna said, all things become new when you come to Christ. He wants to make it new today for you. Yeah, and you know what is the cool thing is that Jesus wants to be a personal God to you. It is not about religion. It is about relationship. And when we seek God, we find God. Like he's just, he's patiently waiting for you to come so that he can reveal himself to you and following Jesus, oh, that is not boring. It is not sleepy. It is an adventure as he builds you up and he makes you new as he sets you free to be the man or woman that he made you to be chosen, called, filled with purpose. Ah, let God use you today. And also if you have prayer requests, you can email them to us. You can call us. We would love to pray. We would love to praise with you. So thank you so much for joining us on this Monday of Holy Week. Have a great day.