Park Cities Presbyterian Church

Church maturity means the whole body growing corporately into the completeness and fullness of Christ; not individual achievement; so that believers become secure enough to discern true doctrine from false and are kept steadfast by grace to the end.

Paul roots the church's growth not in strategy or gifting itself but in the doctrine of Christ's ascension: the conquering King who ascended on high now gives word-gifts (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers) to equip the whole body together, so that believers grow not individually but corporately into the mature stature of Christ.

The seven 'ones' of Ephesians 4:4-6 are not a moral checklist but a covenant oath from the Trinity; God has 'sevened' himself to guarantee the church's unity, so believers are called not to manufacture that unity but to cherish, protect, and display it.

Paul's prayer that believers be filled with all the fullness of God is the greatest petition we can pray for another Christian, and understanding it as a claim on communicable attributes leads naturally from petition to doxology, praising the God who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask.

Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:16-19 shows that the essence of Christianity is not merely fire insurance but Christ himself taking up permanent residence in believers through the Spirit's power, rooting them in a love so vast it must be prayed into rather than merely believed.

Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 teaches that true prayer flows from knowing who God is, who we are in Christ, and who others are in Christ, expressed through reverent, fervent posture rather than formalism or casualness.

In his farewell sermon on Ephesians 3:7-13, Paul Goebel argues that Paul's example as a minister shows every Christian, not just pastors, has been given the grace to serve the gospel, to preach Christ, and even to suffer for the church, all so that the church itself displays the manifold wisdom of God.

Paul's closing picture of Ephesians 2 shows that God is building his church into a kingdom, a family, and a temple, founded on the apostles and prophets with Christ as the cornerstone, and that all who are in Christ have direct, undeserved access to the Father and are themselves the very things being built.

Paul calls the Ephesian church; and us; to the spiritual discipline of remembering: remembering who we were apart from Christ (strangers, without hope), who we are now in Christ Jesus (near to God, united to him), and where we are going (the future feast when Christ returns).

Because believers are already raised and seated with Christ in the heavenly places, their identity; not merely their behavior; is the foundation of the Christian life, and that fixed identity produces the good works for which God prepared and saved them.

Preaching from Ephesians 2:4-10, the sermon argues that the phrase 'but God' marks the hinge of every believer's story, turning a life that was truly dead in sin into a life made alive, raised, and seated with Christ, and that real spiritual power and growth come from grasping this identity and union with Christ rather than from focusing first on behavior.

Before Christ, all people; Gentile and Jew alike; were spiritually dead in trespasses and sin, enslaved by the world, the flesh, and the devil, inheriting a corrupted spiritual DNA from Adam; yet this bleak diagnosis should make believers marvel at grace rather than be shocked by others' brokenness, since Christ meets sinners with compassion, not condemnation.

Christ alone; not the state, the pope, or the pastor; is the head of the church, both as its ultimate authority and as the source of its life, and the church as his body is called to bear his fullness to one another and to a watching world.

Paul's prayer for the Ephesians reveals that God wants believers to truly know; not just believe abstractly; the hope, riches, and power that are already theirs in Christ, and the tragedy of the Christian life is having all this and living disconnected from it.

Because the risen Christ possesses all authority in heaven and on earth, his followers can go and make disciples of every nation with confidence, resting in his abiding presence rather than in over-exaggerated claims about themselves.

Joseph of Arimathea moves in this passage from being merely a disciple of Jesus to becoming a bold confessor, showing how God can graciously bring someone who has long been near the kingdom into it, giving them the courage to identify publicly with the crucified Christ.

Jesus was crucified not merely through human conspiracy or even divine plan alone, but ultimately out of love; Jesus' healing of Malchus's severed ear reveals that he loves and dies for his enemies, and we are Malchus.

Caiaphas had every opportunity; through prophecy, miracles, and Jesus' own words; to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but pride, political fear, and envy hardened his heart so that he chose blindness, and only God's living word can keep our own hearts from that same hardness.

Zechariah's 500-year-old prophecy of a humble, donkey-riding king was literally fulfilled in Jesus' triumphal entry, revealing that Christ came not to wage war for earthly liberation but to bring salvation, true peace with God, and freedom from sin, turning his people into 'prisoners of hope' rather than prisoners of cynicism.

Paul's first petition for the Ephesians; that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; reveals that the church's most urgent need is not evangelism, holiness, or resources but truly knowing God personally, not merely knowing facts about him; and Acts 18-20 shows this prayer is normally answered through the ordinary means of the Word of God being preached, taught, and reasoned by his people.

Paul's inability to stop thanking God for the Ephesians rests on two marks of a true, thriving church; genuine faith in the Lord Jesus and sacrificial agape love toward all the saints, not just those like us; and both are gifts of God's sovereign grace that we should praise him for seeing in one another.

In Ephesians 1:11-14, Paul teaches that our deepest longing to belong is answered in Christ two ways: we belong to God as his treasured inheritance, and God belongs to us, with the Holy Spirit given as the guarantee of the greater inheritance still to come.

God has revealed the once-hidden mystery of his will: he will unite all things in heaven and on earth under Christ, and this future certainty gives believers hope, peace, and purpose to live for God's glory in every part of life today.

Because believers are adopted by God through Christ, adoption; not birth family, DNA, or achievement; becomes their primary and permanent identity, an identity secured only because Christ's blood paid the ransom that redeemed them from slavery to sin.

Predestination is not merely an intellectual puzzle to be solved but has a clear purpose stated in Ephesians 1:4; that those God chose before the foundation of the world would be made holy and blameless in Christ, which motivates real pursuit of holiness rather than license to sin.

Election is a clear, mind-blowing biblical doctrine that must be approached by starting with, staying with, and surrendering to God's Word, and it is meant not to confuse believers but to bless them with humility, security, and gratitude.

God's will for the Christian life is to imitate God by walking in love, light, and wisdom, and the surprising evidence of that imitation is a life marked by constant gratitude rather than grumbling or lust.

Genuine fellowship among believers must be grounded first in each person's individual union with Christ; being 'clothed' in him; so that our shared identity in Jesus, not shared background or culture, becomes the foundation for belonging to one another.

Because believers have already been united to Christ and clothed with him, Christian fellowship means practically taking off five vices; falsehood, selfish anger, theft, corrosive speech, and bitterness; and putting on their Christ-like counterparts of truth, righteous anger, generosity, edifying speech, and kindness, since what each person 'wears' inevitably affects the whole body.

Ephesians 1:3 is the keynote to the whole letter: because God has already blessed believers in Christ with every spiritual blessing, worship is not merely something we attend on Sunday but a possession we live out of every day, even in trial.

Paul's opening greeting 'grace and peace' is not a throwaway salutation but the gospel itself compressed into two words: grace is God's sovereign, relational, undeserved love poured out on sinners before they could earn or deserve it, and peace (shalom) is not the absence of trouble but the presence of God restoring relationship with him and with one another through the cross of Christ.

Opening the series on Ephesians, the preacher argues that the Christian's greatest hindrance is not lack of effort but lack of acquaintance with the privileges secured for us by God's will, Christ's work, and the Spirit's application; privileges Paul unpacks starting with his own identity as an apostle 'by the will of God' and the church's identity as 'saints' rather than merely sinners.

The incarnation's purpose was not merely for God to keep company with humanity but to rescue sinners from separation from God; Paul's own testimony as the 'foremost of sinners' demonstrates that Christ came to save the worst, displaying his perfect patience as an example for all who believe.

Mary's response to the shepherds' news; treasuring and pondering the incarnate Christ in her heart; models how believers should meditate on Jesus so that their affection for him, and their Christmases, grow richer with each passing year rather than becoming rote.

The Christmas story is verified eyewitness history in which heaven (the angels) and earth (the shepherds) both bear witness that Christ the Savior King has been born, and every hearer today is called to join that witness.

The hypostatic union in the incarnation; Jesus as fully God and fully man united in one person; is the very foundation of our salvation and our union with Christ, making him our Savior, champion, and brother.

Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, two complete natures united in one person, and this dual nature was necessary because only a true man could represent and obey for us while only true God could bear the infinite weight of divine wrath and accomplish salvation.

Christ, the baby born in the manger, is not merely a resemblance of God but the exact image and full deity of God; fully God and fully man; and this preeminence is meant to overwhelm and reorient believers during the Advent season.

In the incarnation of Jesus; the Word made flesh who tabernacles among us; God fulfills what the tabernacle and the law of Moses could only foreshadow, giving sinners the fullness of his glory, grace, and truth that Moses himself was not permitted to see.

Jonah's declaration 'salvation belongs to the Lord' summarizes the whole of Scripture: God alone saves through his sovereign plan, proclaimed word, displayed power, compassionate pity, and persevering grace, and our only fitting response is gratitude and obedience.

God alone is both the righteous judge and the merciful one, and his mercy toward Nineveh (and toward us) flows sovereignly from his compassion rather than from anything we've done to deserve it, ultimately fulfilled in Christ bearing our judgment on the cross.

Jonah's anger reveals that human anger is typically self-righteous rather than righteous, but God's anger, unlike ours, is both just and redemptive; ultimately displayed at the cross where Jesus drank the cup of wrath so we could drink the cup of salvation.

In Haggai 2:10-23, the prophet's temple-inspection questions reveal that human uncleanness is contagious and disqualifies God's people from building anything holy, yet God graciously chooses to bless and use these incapable people anyway; ultimately through Christ, the true temple whose holiness reverses the contagion, and through whom the church is sent to win the nations.

Haggai confronts God's people not for open rebellion but for spiritual apathy; busy, successful, orthodox people who kept saying 'not yet' to building God's house; and shows that God's zeal to dwell with and rebuild his people, fulfilled ultimately in Christ, always exceeds our own zeal for him.

Though the church's work of building God's kingdom often looks small, powerless, and insignificant, God has poured his Holy Spirit into his people to empower them for a purpose that will one day culminate in a glorious temple filled with all nations.

Because God's word is powerful and his will to save is sovereign, believers who have received his word are called; like Jonah; to go and give that same word to the specific people around them, motivated not by shame but by compassion.

True rock bottom is not addiction or moral failure but never feeling your desperate need for Christ, and it is precisely there; at the 'roots of the mountains'; that God's sovereign grace and new mercies reach us, just as they reached Jonah and reach us fresh every day through the cross.

Jonah's prayer from the belly of the fish shows that true repentance first confronts the depths of our depravity, then turns us from self-comparison and idols to the mercy of God, and is itself a saving grace granted by God rather than something we can achieve ourselves; because salvation belongs to the Lord alone.

The story of Jonah swallowed by the great fish is not merely a historical curiosity to be doubted or defended, but a sign Jesus himself pointed to as prefiguring his own death, burial, and resurrection; proving that something greater than Jonah, God's sovereign redemptive plan through Christ, is here.

Jonah's claim to 'fear the Lord' proves hollow the moment obedience gets costly, and Mark Davis presses that if a prophet of God can turn his back on God's word, so can we; yet the same sovereign God who sent the storm is relentlessly pursuing Jonah with a love deeper than his rebellion.

Jonah's flight from God's word reveals the downward spiral of both sins of commission and omission, but no depth of human sin can outrun the greater depth of God's pursuing mercy and love, ultimately displayed in Christ's descent to the cross.

The book of Jonah reveals that the main character is not Jonah but God, whose covenant love (hesed) pursues rebels both far off; like the Ninevites; and near, like Jonah himself, a disobedient prophet who understood God's mercy all too well and resented it.

When Jesus appeared to the fearful disciples and later to doubting Thomas, he sovereignly initiated peace, commissioning, and empowering by the Spirit, showing that saving faith is a gift he gives to those who believe the apostolic testimony without having seen him.

The risen Christ meets doubters, failures, and grievers exactly where they are; inviting them to examine the historical evidence for the resurrection and to find in it forgiveness, adoption into God's family, and joy in grief.

Jesus' teaching that 'you did not choose me, but I chose you' grounds the doctrine of effectual calling/election, and this same sovereign choosing is the anchor believers must cling to when the world's hatred and persecution inevitably comes because they belong to Christ.

John 18 shows two ways to fail Jesus; Judas lived close to Jesus without ever knowing him, and Peter knew and loved Jesus without loving his mission; yet Jesus' faithful, sacrificial love presses through both betrayal and denial so that no failure can outlast his unfailing love.

Preaching through Psalm 16, Mark Davis argues that God will carry his people, body and soul, through life and death into everlasting pleasure if he is their safest refuge, supreme treasure, sovereign Lord, and most trusted counselor.

The raising of Lazarus reveals that everyone who encounters Jesus either receives him and experiences a spiritual resurrection from being dead in sin, or rejects him out of fear of losing a lesser, secondary identity; place, nation, position; when Christ alone is meant to be our permanent and primary identity.

Jesus intentionally delayed coming to Lazarus's grieving sisters not because he lacked love but so that his identity as 'the resurrection and the life' could be revealed for God's glory, and this same Christ is enough to sustain believers through bitter providences even when the miracle doesn't come.

Matthew 28 records six different responses to the news that Jesus has risen just as he said, and every hearer today must likewise respond in worship, doubt, or deception to who Jesus claims to be.

The record of debt that condemned us before God was not erased by pretending sin doesn't matter, but was actually paid in full by Christ, who took our guilt and gave us his righteousness when he was nailed to the cross.

Jesus' new commandment to love one another as he has loved us is fulfilled through his own sacrificial, friendship-making, obedient love displayed most fully at the cross, and it becomes the defining mark of his disciples.

True spiritual healing cannot be manufactured from within through self-actualization, achievement, or self-image; it comes only from without, through Christ's substitutionary suffering on the cross, and is fully realized in ongoing life with him.

Jesus endured the cross by fixing his eyes on the joy set before him, and believers likewise are called to run the race of faith with endurance by fixing their eyes on him and remembering the goal set before them.

The cross, which appears as utter folly and weakness to the world, is in fact the very wisdom and power of God, a pattern he foreshadowed throughout redemptive history and by which he calls his people to abandon worldly measures of success and boast only in Christ crucified.

Jesus' invitation on the last day of the Feast of Booths; 'if anyone thirsts, come to me and drink'; means that spiritual dehydration is satisfied not by a one-time drink but by daily returning to Jesus, who gives the Holy Spirit as living water welling up within believers.

John 7 shows three sources of unbelief in Jesus; the pride of his brothers, the false assumptions of the crowds, and the control-driven hostility of the authorities; yet even through their unbelief Jesus remained sovereign, going to the cross on his own timing and later saving unbelievers like his brother James.

Jesus feeds the 5,000 at Passover to reenact and fulfill the Exodus story, proving he is the true bread from heaven whose provision is inexhaustible and who alone satisfies our hunger, calling his disciples then and now to trust him rather than give in to fear and self-reliance.

In his high priestly prayer, Jesus reveals both how he thinks about us; as those precious to him because the Father gave us to him; and what he wants for us: unity as family now, and to be with him in glory forever; knowing this is what it means to know ourselves in Christ.

Paul's testimony in Philippians 3 shows that being 'found in Christ' means abandoning all confidence in inherited pedigree and moral performance, resting instead on Christ's own righteousness credited to us, which grounds full and immediate assurance of salvation for every believer alike.

Jesus, on trial before the Jewish leaders for claiming to be the Son of God, points to four witnesses beyond his own testimony; John the Baptist, his miracles, the Father's voice at his baptism, and the Scriptures; so that we might move from unbelief or mere nominal belief to genuine faith in him.

Jesus's claim to divine sonship in John 5:19-29 means he is the only truly faithful Son who fulfills the Sabbath by earning God's eternal rest through obedience, and now grants that rest freely to those who trust his work rather than their own performance.

Preaching from John 5:19-20, the sermon argues that Jesus's perfect, dependent union with the Father is meant to provoke marveling wonder in us, and calls hearers to honestly examine whether they can say 'I do,' 'I don't,' or 'I did' marvel at the person and work of Christ.

The story of the wise men and Herod confronts us with the choice between the wisdom of self and the wisdom of the ultimate light, Jesus Christ, calling us to move from realization to response to worshipful renown rather than hostility or apathy.

Simeon's decades of waiting and trusting God's promise, fulfilled when he embraces baby Jesus in the temple, reveals that ultimately it is not merely Simeon holding Jesus but God's gracious embrace holding Simeon (and us) secure in salvation.

On Christmas Eve, Pastor Davis calls hearers to 'trace' why they believe what they believe, showing through the shepherds' story how God reveals himself in the ordinary, is both transcendent and intimate, and invites a response of proclamation or ponderment like the shepherds and Mary.

Malachi's promise that the 'sun of righteousness' would rise with healing was fulfilled in Christ's first advent, announced through Zechariah's prophecy over John the Baptist, and believers now live in the dawn light of that fulfillment as they wait for Christ's return, the noonday sun.

Isaiah's prophecy of light overcoming darkness reveals that humanity's abandonment of God's word plunges us into the darkness of sin and judgment, but God has kept his promise by sending Jesus, the promised Emmanuel, so that those who once walked in darkness are now called to walk in the light and become light to the world.

God faithfully leads his people through the wilderness; not by the shortest or easiest path, but according to his own wise plan, with his own presence, in order to accomplish his purposes, and for those in Christ that presence now dwells within them through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ, the light of the world, can be traced from Genesis through Revelation as present, powerful, possessing, and promising; so that even while believers still walk and wait in real darkness and pain in this life, that darkness cannot overcome the light already shining in and through them.

In healing the paralyzed man at Bethesda on the Sabbath, Jesus reveals himself as the sovereign God who seeks out specific sinners to save and alone can satisfy their deepest need, provoking the religious leaders whose legalism blinds them to both the miracle and the man.

John records the healing of the official's son to show that genuine belief is not agreeing to propositions or demanding signs, but trusting Jesus himself at his word, since Jesus is not merely a miracle-worker but is himself the miracle.

The Samaritan woman's transformed encounter with Jesus overflowed unbidden into bold witness, proving that what goes deepest to the heart goes widest to the world; if the gospel isn't going wide from us, it hasn't actually gone deep.

God's sovereignty and his active seeking of sinners are inseparable: Jesus's journey through Samaria and his encounter with the woman at the well were ordained from eternity so that she; an immoral outsider; would become a worshiper of the Father in spirit and truth.

John the Baptist's final testimony in John 3 teaches that true faith requires the confession 'I am not the Christ' and the daily posture of 'he must increase, but I must decrease'; the more we see our own sin and low estate, the more glorious Christ becomes to us.

God's love, revealed supremely in the giving of his Son, is radically unlike human love because it is infinite in scope, gracious rather than earned, and comes first; before we ever believed, and genuine faith is shown by coming to the light rather than loving the darkness.

True entrance into God's kingdom requires spiritual rebirth by the Holy Spirit, not religious pedigree, moral effort, or family heritage; even a devout, sincere man like Nicodemus must be born again.

Jesus' violent cleansing of the temple was driven by righteous zeal for his Father's glory against man-centered corruption of worship, and it reveals his divine authority as the true temple; believers should share that zeal but express it not with a whip but with the sword of the Spirit, God's word.

John's account of Jesus calling his first disciples reveals three identities; Lamb of God, Messiah, and Son of Man; that answer the question 'what are you seeking,' and everyone who truly sees Jesus this way cannot help but invite others to come and see him too.

John the Baptist's extreme humility was not a virtue to imitate for its own sake but a pointer away from himself to Christ, the true Lamb of God and bridegroom, and only fixing our eyes on Christ's glory produces genuine humility in us.

John the Baptist's clarity, security, courage, and humility flowed from an identity formed by the voices of others who spoke into his life before he ever spoke himself; believers likewise have an identity in Christ that should shape what their own voice proclaims.

John the Baptist's whole existence was to bear witness to Jesus, the true Light, and John the Apostle shows that becoming a child of God through faith is not a human achievement of will, blood, or effort but a sovereign act of God causing spiritual rebirth; so believers, having been reborn, are now called to bear witness to that same Light.

John's prologue gives a cosmic 'orbital view' of Christ, the eternal, self-existing Word who was with God and was God before creation, and this eternal preexistence and sovereign providence over all things means believers can trust him as their faithful Father in every adversity.

The psalmist loves God's word in Psalm 119:97-104 because it makes us truly wise (not merely knowledgeable), shows us the one true way to abundant life amid many destructive paths, and becomes sweeter than honey when we stop making ourselves the main character and see it as pointing to Jesus, the Word made flesh.

In Psalm 119's 'kaph' stanza the psalmist's honest cry for rescue from persecutors teaches believers to identify their true spiritual enemies; Satan, the flesh, and the world; rather than lesser foes, and to find that rescue not by escaping suffering but through Christ, who became the true 'wineskin in the smoke,' marked and broken on the cross to defeat every enemy on our behalf.

Affliction is not meaningless but is one of God's chief tools to keep us from straying, to teach us to pray and trust, and to reveal that his word and presence are more valuable than anything else; so believers can say 'it is good for me that I was afflicted.'

The heart's deepest idolatry problem isn't out in the world but within us, revealed by what we set our eyes on; Psalm 119's fifth stanza teaches that turning from worthless things (idols) to God's word; truth, wisdom, joy, generosity, reverence, goodness, and righteousness; is the only way our eyes lead to worship of the Savior rather than worship of vanity.

The Word of God is the only sure foundation that gives life to the suffering, strength to the sorrowful, and ultimately enlarges the heart's capacity for joy on the far side of suffering.

The way to keep one's way pure is not partial obedience but seeking God with a whole, undivided heart and hiding his word deep within through memorization, meditation, praise, petition, delight, and declaration; purity encompasses far more than sexual sin, touching money, gossip, anger, and self-righteousness.

True, lasting happiness (the 'blessed' life of Psalm 119) is not incompatible with holiness but is God's own design, coming as we receive his revealed word, are transformed by it, and are stirred toward resolutions we can only keep by grace, repeating this cycle throughout life.

The final promise of Revelation; 'I am coming soon'; calls believers to trust Jesus' certain return, which brings fulfillment of every biblical promise, just and sovereign judgment on sin, and grace-filled invitation to all who are thirsty.

John's vision of the river of life and tree of life at the center of the new Jerusalem shows that believers in Christ gain more than Adam lost in Eden; an escalated paradise free from curse, sin, and division; and this future reality should shape how believers, especially fathers, live authentically now, finding their identity not in earthly labels but as beloved children of God.

When people stop being awed by God, something else always takes his place as the center of worship; Psalm 145 calls believers back to daily meditation on who God is and what he does, and that awe is ultimately restored by seeing how Jesus, out of love, treated the shame of the cross as of little worth compared to gaining us.

In the vision of the new city John describes what is absent; no physical temple, no need of sun or moon, and no sin; because the risen Christ himself is the temple whose glory is the city's light, and only those written in the Lamb's Book of Life, forever cleansed, dwell there.

John's vision of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 reveals a city of surpassing beauty, built on the strong foundation of Christ and the apostles/patriarchs, that comes down to us from God as pure gift rather than being built up by human striving like Babel; and this future city should reorder what we treasure as beautiful now.

Whatever view one holds of the millennium, Revelation 20 calls every believer to the shared hope that Christ is victorious, Satan is defeated, and the only thing that ultimately matters is whether your name is written in the book of life.

Preaching through Revelation 21:1-8, Ferguson argues that John's vision of the new heaven and new earth shows three realities converging at the end of the Bible's story: every scripture promise is finally fulfilled, every human insecurity is banished, and every sorrow is ended as God himself wipes away every tear; yet the same vision warns that a day is coming when the opportunity to trust Christ closes forever.

Christ revealed in Revelation 19 as the rider on the white horse; Faithful and True, the Word of God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords; is not merely an idea or worldview but the living, mighty God who lives inside believers, and knowing this full identity should make Christians fearless rather than fearful.

John's vision of the marriage of the Lamb in Revelation 19 reveals that the whole Bible is the story of a covenant marriage between God and his people, now fulfilled in Christ the faithful bridegroom, and calls believers to worship him now by putting on his robes of righteousness rather than their own.

John's vision of Babylon the great prostitute in Revelation 17-18 exposes the seductive, self-destructive power of the city of man's idols, and calls the church; living as exiles in this world; to flee those idols and long for the greater city of God still to come.

The bowls of God's wrath in Revelation 16 and Christ's cry from the cross both culminate in a declaration of completion; God's holy wrath against sin is fully just, but Christ has already drunk that cup of judgment so that those in him will never have to.

The sea of glass in John's vision represents the believer's future triumph, tranquility, and transparent sight of God, and the merged song of Moses and the Lamb calls Christians now to fix their eyes on God's unchanging glory and fear only Him rather than the turbulent waters of this life.

Jesus meets his fearful, ashamed, and uncertain disciples behind their locked door not after they clean themselves up but in the midst of their failure, and his greeting 'peace be with you' offers both peace with God through his wounded hands and side and the ongoing peace of his presence and Spirit as he sends them out.

Jesus's final word from the cross, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," is not a cry of defeat but a victorious, willful declaration that his atoning work is finished, and it calls believers to likewise surrender the compartmentalized, hidden parts of their souls to the Father.

Jesus' cry 'It is finished' from the cross declares that his mission was fully accomplished, all Scripture fulfilled, sin's penalty paid once for all, and a new covenant of forgiven, new-creation life inaugurated for believers.