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Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise, Part 1

February 24, 2026·30 min·2 clips

Robert and Dan launch a study on Jesus's seven sayings from the cross, starting with 'Today you will be with me in paradise.'

The study begins with fellowship. Robert Hatfield and Dan Winkler start warmly, grateful to study Jesus together whether they are at one table or connected through technology. Then the cross comes into view. Season 12 centers on Jesus' seven sayings from the cross, and this episode opens with the statement to the criminal beside him. The tone gets heavy fast. Religious leaders and passersby mock Jesus and push the cruel argument that a true king, or the Son of God, should come down. Jesus stays silent. For the hosts, that silence is not empty. It helps explain what the criminal sees while he watches Jesus suffer. The contrast is hard to miss. The criminal has lived for himself. Jesus has lived for others and is dying for others. Darkness settles over the scene, but the hosts spend more time on the stranger thing: the Lord's heart under pressure. His restraint sounds like his teaching made visible. A change begins to show. The criminal asks to be remembered in Jesus' kingdom, and the hosts read that as more than a final reach. He seems to know something about Jesus. Maybe he had heard Jesus teach, preach, or speak about the kingdom. The sign over Jesus also says something. At minimum, the criminal recognizes the claim that Jesus is king and looks past death toward a coming reign. The application stays careful. The hosts affirm his active faith in his own place in redemptive history, while warning against using the passage to flatten the New Testament's teaching about salvation through the same gracious Jesus.

As heard by us

A careful, text-first look at grace and Jesus' words to the criminal on the cross.

The episode takes a careful, text-first look at Jesus' words to the criminal on the cross, returning again and again to the setting so the meaning stays grounded.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a slow, careful look at one of Jesus' most quoted words, start here.

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