GOOD FRIDAY 2024

PRESERVICE

Dim out the lights; Garden of Gethsemane ambient track (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVZ_qSe3g1Y)

***Cross begins centered in the foyer, shrouded.

INTRODUCTION: SET UP (5 min)

We’re here to remember Jesus and to remember what happened on that Friday afternoon 2,000 years ago, when Jesus Christ experienced a prolonged and painful death, and to recognize that it was for you and for me that Jesus took the cross that day. *Briefly recount the events of the passion narrative* Jesus was headed toward the cross from the very beginning. He knew. It was the place that we deserved; but He chose to take our place. And it was on the cross that Jesus fulfilled the word spoken by John the Baptist, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” For years God’s people sacrificed animals as a reminder of their sin. (Heb. 10:1-25) The passover lamb was the first reminder (or was it the animal killed to clothe Adam and Eve?), but at every sacrifice there it was again: Something else dies in my place. So when we come to Good Friday, and when we come to the cross, we come to remember Christ in my place. (Put the phrase “Christ in my place” on the screen?)

SET ONE (10 min)

SECTION ONE: IT WAS MY SIN (7 min)

Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins. And the Scriptures teach us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. *read from Romans 3*. And yet most of us fail to realize it. Like those who stood before the cross, those who participated in Jesus’ brutal execution, Jesus could say the same of us: “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.” We think of sin as a trite thing, and we fail to realize the weight of it. During His passion, Jesus’ body was crushed. But more than that, His spirit was crushed under the weight of the sin of the world. Because on the cross Jesus took onto Himself all of our sin and shame. God created us to live with Him and others, but we have fallen so far. And Jesus took on Himself every *insert examples*. He felt the twisted darkness of the depths of sin the way we never have. We are shielded by God’s grace from the extent of our sin, because fully realizing it would destroy us. And on the cross, it did destroy Jesus. It beat against His immortal soul with an unimaginable force: Loneliness, shame, regret, pain, emptiness, loss, grief, fear: Jesus was experiencing Hell on earth. 1 Cor 5:21

Main Idea: Jesus was completely innocent, and we were worse off than we could imagine; Our sin necessitated the cross, and yet Jesus chose to represent us. Our place was a place of sin; but because of love, He who knew no sin became sin for us. “It was Christ in my place; Jesus bore my sin on the cross”

Song: Jesus Messiah, Christ Tomlin

SET TWO (6 min)

SECTION TWO: IT WAS MY DEBT (7 min)

Rom 6:23; Mt 18; Heb 2:14-18

Main Idea: Our sin amounts to a debt against a holy God that we could never hope to pay. It was much too high a price. But it had to be paid. So Jesus Christ became human so that He could represent us and pay the debt that we owed. God credited our debt to His account so that we could be counted free. It was the worst exchange in all of time and space: Life itself for the likes of me. Light itself for the ones who loved darkness. After all, what could we hope to give in exchange for the life of the Holy One of God? And still, we find ourselves living in Christ ungrateful; forgetful; and exacting a payment from those around us, when in reality the highest price in the world was paid to give us new life. “It was Christ in my place; Jesus paid my debt on the cross”

Song: I Can’t Believe, Elevation

SET THREE (6 min)

SECTION THREE: IT WAS MY CUP (7 min)

Mt 26:39; Lk 22:20

Main Idea: Because of sin, we deserved to drink the cup of the wrath of God. Jesus chose to drink the cup of God’s wrath to offer us the cup of redemption. It was always the blessing on one hand, and the curse on the other. When we ran, we earned the curse. But Jesus came to become a curse for us, to redeem us from the curse of sin and death. We ran away from God, and deserved to be abandoned. Jesus was the blessed one, who always enjoyed God’s presence. Yet, when He took on the sin of the world, He took on our curse to set us free. And it crushed Him. “It was Christ in my place; Jesus drank my cup on the cross”

Song: The Cup Was Not Removed, Worship Initiative

SET FOUR (6 min)

SECTION FOUR: IT WAS MY DEATH (7 min)

Heb 9:22; Rom 5:8

Main Idea: Jesus came in order to die, and willingly laid His life down. He took our insults, our beatings, our trial, our nails, our scars, in order to pay the debt for our sin. “It was Christ in my place; Jesus died my death on the cross”

Song: Lamb of God, Vertical

COMMUNION SET UP: IT WAS HIS CHOICE

1 John 3:16 It was my sin. It was my debt. It was my cup. It was my death. And it was His choice. He didn’t have to save us, but He chose to represent us so that we could be washed by His blood. And He invites us to gather, and to remember. When I went to Israel, I remember being on the Mount of Olives, in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus could have escaped! He could have called down a legion of angels. He did not have to go through with the cross. But He could not save us and Himself. So He came back down the mountain and gave His life. And now He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary, and heavily laden, and you will find rest for your souls.” And He offers Himself as a sacrifice once and for all, that when we receive Him, His death is counted in our place. And so tonight as we remember Christ in our place, like His disciples have done from the beginning, we’re going to remember with the bread and the cup. And as we receive communion, we’re going to bring in the cross: an instrument of death that Christ took in our place. And as you’re coming to receive the elements, remember how for centuries God’s people would have placed their hands on the sacrificial animals. This was to identify that the animal who was going to die was dying in my place. And since Christ died in our place, tonight, we’re going to place our hands on the cross. So as you walk down, place your hand fully on the cross, pause for a moment, and whisper a prayer to Christ: “Thank you for Christ in my place on the cross.”

***A few men silently bring the cross to the front center, set it up, and remove the shroud.

SECTION FIVE: WORSHIP AND COMMUNION (15 min)

RESPONSIVE READING (3 min) | OR interspersed reading with the song Hallelujah What a Savior

Isaiah 53:4-9a Recapitulation of call and response Benediction from 2 Cor 4? “Go from this place, carrying around in your body the death of Christ, and waiting on the Lord, who brings life out of death. O Father, we wait on you and rely on you for everything. Though our sin is great; You are faithful. Lead us to trust in your faithfulness, and to remember the death of your Son we pray.”

Isaiah 53 – Read Responsively

P:         He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, C:        nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. P:         He was despised and rejected by men, C:        a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. P:         Like one from whom men hide their faces C:        he was despised, and we esteemed him not. P:         Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, C:        yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. P:         Whom did he suffer for? C:        he was pierced for our transgressions, P:         Whom did he die for? C:        he was crushed for our iniquities; P:         the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, C:        And by his wounds we are healed. P:         We all, like sheep, have gone astray, C:        each of us has turned to his own way; P:         and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. P:         He was oppressed and afflicted, C:        yet he did not open his mouth; P:         he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, C:        and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. P:         For he bore the sin of many, C:        and made intercession for the transgressors.