Good Friday 2024 final

Intro

9/11 Memorable because of the context

Tonight I want you to look to the cross with such vibrancy you can see it with your eyes, which can only be done as you appreciate the context surrounding the cross

Galatians 3:1 “1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.”

Paul is writing to correct their wayward doctrine

Galatians 3:1 “1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.”

And notice how he points to the cross as a remedy for their issue

He does the same thing with the Corinthians and their wayward living

1 Corinthians 15:1–3 ESV

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

No matter what problem you face in life, part of the answer is always going to be how does this line up with the cross?

Galatians 3:1 “1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.”

This can make it seem like they really saw the crucifixion

But they were hundreds of miles away from where it happened and the even happened around 20 years prior to this letter

Paul does not mean they saw literally with their eyes

1 Corinthians 1:23 “23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,”

The power of the cross preached is that it brings it to a reality before your face that is almost like you are seeing it again with your eyes

Now you might say:

They were hundreds of miles away and I am thousands

They were 20 years away and I am nearly 2000

But whether you missed something by an inch or a mile you still missed (wrong time of child’s recital)

Thus in the grand scheme of things, the Galatians were just as removed of the actually event as we are now, yet we both can see it with our eyes as we hear the gospel preached

So the question tonight:

Do you see our Lord rejected by his friends left alone to people who desire to murder him?

Do you see our Lord undergoing a kangaroo trial where justice is not done and he is condemned yet innocent?

Do you see our Lord’s blood running down his face as the crown of thorns is piercing his skull?

Do you see our Lord’s blood gushing down his back as the Roman whip tears his skin away?

Do you see our Lord’s pierced hands and feet as he is on the tree, suspended between heaven and earth, as he is forsaken by both man and God?

Maybe you are thinking, no I don’t see it.

Or maybe you are saying Oh for grace to see it more!

Let us be reminded of the context surrounding this innocent man’s death

Galatians 3:13 ESV

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

1.We were cursed

2. Jesus was not

(Jesus was perfectly blessed)

We were cursed

God created to bless to the fullest

For us to be in complete harmony with both creation and our God and be abundantly happy

We are cursed as a result of breaking his law in which God pulls away his blessing

And such curses culminates in physical and spiritual death, where we would receive only wrath from God and no blessing at all

2. Jesus was not

(Jesus was perfectly blessed)

Jesus walked this earth with every desire, thought, and deed in conformity to his Father

Not only did he do it but it was his good pleasure to do so.

He was the only one who walked this earth deserving both physical and spiritual life

Yet...

3. On the tree, Jesus received our curse

He took on death not because he deserved it, but because we did.

The church has unity after the cross

But the truth is we first had unity before the cross

It was our sin that held him there, collectively.

We can see what happened to Jesus because we are the ones who did it

We were the friends that left him alone.

We were the authorities conducting a kangaroo trial against Jesus

We gladly rammed his crown of thorns on his head

We whipped our saviors back until there was no skin left

We pierced his hands and feet

We can see the cross with our own eyes because it was our curse he took upon himself

It was my sin that held him there, until it was accomplished.

His dying breathe has brought me life

I know that it is finished

4. In receiving our curse, we have nothing left but blessing

Romans 8:1–11 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Each day you experience some aspect of the curse

Sin in you, sin around you

But you no longer go through it as cursed yourself, but as completely blessed in Christ who reveals his victory to you in those curses you face.

The curse is no longer a reminder of your demise, but of Christ’s victory in you because of the cross

This evening, remember the context of the cross

It was your curse that he received so that he could give you eternal blessing

May this truth so overwhelm you even in the hardships that you still face that you say with Paul

Galatians 3:1 It is before my eyes that Jesus Christ is publicly portrayed as crucified.”