Good Friday

Genesis 7:17-23

Prayer:

Lord God, this week is the most Holy of weeks. You’re son willingly drank my cup of judgement. Jesus, you chose to to be ridiculed, shamed, beaten and slowly murdered to spare me of all that. You are the savior I need. Your love is the love I need. Awaken our church to your passion. To your love. May the deepest parts of my soul be touched by your love and may you draw all of us nearer to you. Shape us and transform us eternally by the 60 minutes we spend together this Friday.

the Love of God is evident in the Ark but it is Radiant on the Cross

Intro:

Good Friday?

seems like a misplaced name for such a terrible day

The music is somber, the lights are dimmed.

Jesus, Our king, our friend, our savior, our pastor, our teacher, God’s innocent and beloved Son was killed

And not just killed, but killed because of our sins.

By them and for them

Can seem confusing to call it “Good Friday” when such a terrible event took place.

Furthermore, what does the Ark and the Flood have anything to do with Good Friday?

They were both days of terrible judgement

To be feared and remembered

and days of great and glorious salvation

To be celebrated and honored.

They were days in which God utterly destroyed

They were also days in which God’s love (mercy, grace, compassion, generosity) is put on display

the Love of God is evident in the Ark but it is Radiant on the Cross

Consider Noah and the Ark

[READ v17-18, 23]

the Love of God is evident in the Ark

40 days of flood (Judgement)

1st 40

terrifying

waters prevail against all the Earth and the families of the Earth except 1.

Completely and powerfully destroyed

“blotted out”

Took dark sharpie and scribbled it out until it was no more.

Yet, in an ocean of terror is a glimmer of grace

The Ark floated on the face of the waters (Salvation)

Above judgement

God’s favor sets Noah and his family above the water

God’s love for Noah is evident in the Ark

Saving them from judgement and death

Brings Noah close to himself

Hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2)

This is where the Spirit of God dwells

God in his love saves noah

Looks on him in favor

Gives him his plan for salvation

Seals him in

He lifts him up

He brings him to himself

the Love of God is evident in the Ark

We are here to celebrate and remember a greater day of love and a greater day of judgement.

the Love of God is evident in the Ark but it is Radiant on the Cross

the Love of God is Radiant on the Cross

There is no clearer image of God’s love, than the cross

Jesus was blotted out to blot out our sin

came to drown in the waters of judgement so that you and I might have the eternal breath of God, his very spirit living in us.

What greater price, what more extreme act of passion could God do than to step into your shoes, be acquainted with your suffering, and then take your place on the cross?

I cannot dream of anything more mind-boggling, heart wrenching and worthy of praise.

Jesus himself says,

John 15

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

Church, Jesus laid down his life for you, because God loves you.

Rom 5:8

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

What wondrous love is this, that caused the Lord of heaven and Earth, to bear our dreadful curse? 

He is - especially on this day - the epitome, the very definition - of love.  Love incarnate.  Love lived.  Love Crucified.  and on Sunday, Love Resurrected.  Today Christ says to His church and all dear sinners:

I love you.

Who is God? Love.

How do we know? The cross of Christ.

the Love of God is evident in the Ark but it is Radiant on the Cross

Conclusion:

What are we celebrating on a day like today?

That our sin killed God’s son?

No, today we are celebrating that God’s love killed our sin.

God is love

he is so fully and completely love, that he took our place.

In life and in death

That he sees our needs and stops at nothing to meet them, not even the worst of deaths

If God has given us his own Son, If Jesus laid his own life down for us, what then will he not give you?

Good Friday is, quite simply, the clearest picture of who God is for you, Love Himself.

Good Friday is the day of Good News

God loves us so much that he would enter into the most terrible event, to spare the world from our own sins

the Love of God is Radiant on the Cross

Communion:

Corporately serve and take communion

Mat and Taylor serve from front

Lead

Fence

Contemplate the love that we talked about today

Ask, God to show you and convict you that this love is not just for others, but it is for you.

Mk 14:22–25. And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. 25 Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”