Good Friday 2025

John 19:28-30 ESV

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

As we gather together this evening, I want to begin our message here tonight with all of us taking a couple of seconds to individually think of someone who, in your mind, utterly defines evil and perversity. Think of who that would be to you.

It doesn’t have to be someone who is alive today. Maybe Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Pol Pot, Fidel Castro, Nero, Judas Iscariot, maybe even someone who is near to you or who has been near to you, maybe someone who has personally hurt you very badly in the past.

Now, as you think about that person, whomever he or she may be, and as you think about all of the evil that that person encompasses in your mind, I want you to think about what you feel that person has coming to them because of their great evil.

What does that person deserve? Furthermore, if you had it within your power to give that person what he or she deserves, what would you do? What punishment would you give to that person?

Now, continue to imagine, but this time, imagine that you don’t give that particular person who you are so opposed to and who is so opposed to you what he or she deserves, though it is in your power to do so. In fact, let’s say that you do something incredibly radical when, instead of giving that person who you are so opposed to what he or she deserves, you actually give your life so that that person who you are opposed to does not get what he or she deserves.

In fact, let’s say that you take what that person deserves upon yourself, and you do so, as I said, knowing what that person deserves, and knowing how bad that person has hurt you and others. And you do this, you take that person’s punishment, so that the one who is opposed to you may experience blessings untold.

That sounds ludicrous for any of us to do. It sounds crazy, it seems like the least logical thing for anyone to do. But as Paul tells the Corinthians, God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. In other words, God took what seems shocking, scandalous, and illogical, and He used it to accomplish His grand plan of redemption.

Today is what we recognize as “Good Friday”, and it is on this day when we set aside special time to appreciate and take in as much as possible how God the Father ordained and put into effect the event which seems more shocking and scandalous than what words can adequately describe.

It is on this day when we set aside special time to recognize and tremble in awe and great wonder that God the Father ordained and positively brought to pass the beating, mocking, ridicule, crucifixion, and eventually the death of His only begotten Son.

But what makes it all the more shocking and seemingly illogical is that the Father had ordained this, and Jesus, God the Son had willingly submitted to this, and it was accomplished on behalf of people who don’t deserve the blessed status that comes from the blood that was shed for their sake.

Brethren, I am one of them. I am one of those who don’t deserve the blessed status that comes from the precious blood shed for my sake. I am one who came into this world hating God. I am one, who even now, finds himself seeking to usurp God and take upon myself the place of God. I am one, who even now, finds himself indulging in and preferring the very sins that Jesus died for.

Yet, He suffered, He bled, He faced the utmost agony and pain for someone like me. I deserved that agony, that pain, that condemnation, that judgment… but it pleased God to instead, put my punishment upon His only begotten Son and to give someone like me the everlasting life that His Son purchased and merited; someone who was born hating Him.

It is this great suffering, this precious atoning sacrifice that Jesus, God the Son endured, think about that, it is God the Son Who endured this for the sake of people who are born hating Him, it is His sacrifice that we recognize on Good Friday.

And as we recognize this fundamental aspect of our faith we look to the Scriptures, looking at the final moments of Jesus’ sojourn on earth found in the Gospel of John.

As we approach our reading for this evening, the Lord Jesus had, by this point, been arrested, unjustly charged and convicted, beaten, mocked, spat upon, humiliated, and placed upon the cross which He was to die on.

As the Lord Jesus, the Savior of His elect people hung there upon that terrible, tortuous cross, He had been abandoned, forsaken by all, even by His Father Who has loved Him from everlasting, forsaken by His Father as it was necessary that He do so in order for Jesus, the Lamb of God to sufficiently take the wrath of God upon Himself in the place of His people.

And with this gloomy context in mind, the Lord Jesus, alone, writhing in lonesome pain, at the closing moments of His life, we look to the first two verses of our reading, verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine, which read:

John 19:28-29 ESV

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

We read that the following took place to fulfill the Scripture. “The Scripture”, of course, is in reference to the Word of God, that which God has lovingly relayed to us, for the benefit of His people and for the praise of His own glory. And the particular portion of Scripture which this refers to is the latter half of Psalm 69:21, which reads:

Psalm 69:21b ESV

21b for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

How remarkable it is that David penned these words! These words which David penned; he penned about one thousand years before Christ came into the world. And that which is recorded prophesied exactly what Jesus was enduring right here in our reading!

David had certainly never experienced what he is describing here, but it is being experienced here by the fulfillment of David, by the eternal Davidic King! This could not have been penned by anyone who was not under divine inspiration. Indeed, it was clearly God writing through David!

Jesus, it is written, at this time, as He hung upon the cross, “knew that all was now finished”. This means that Jesus, being God Himself, knew that the sufferings which He had endured, the turning away, the hiding of God’s face from Him due to the sins that He took upon Himself, our sins, He knew that everything had been sufficiently expended. He knew that now, at this point it had been finished, He had fully endured everything that He was ordained to endure as the Lamb of God.

There was yet one thing that He had to do to bring it to completion, the giving of His own life. And we see the beautiful accomplishment of this in verse thirty, where we read:

John 19:30 ESV

30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

As we read in the twenty-eighth verse, Jesus knew that all was now finished, and so, having received that sour wine, He verbally professed that “it is finished”. Declaring to those present who could hear it that He was the One Who was in control here. Declaring that He, in spite of His enemies’ attempts to thwart Him, had successfully and completely fulfilled His ministry on earth.

What a turn of events! These had sought to put a permanent end to Jesus and any kind of ministry that He was partaking in, but the very actions of these enemies of Christ had in fact been the instruments that God was using to bring His eternal purpose to pass!

And we read that at that point, after Jesus Himself had declared that it is finished, He bowed His head in full submission to the will of God, Whose will it was for Him to be crushed. As Paul told the Philippians, Christ humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. This was the Father’s will, and the Son was intent on being fully obedient to the will of His Father, obedient to the very end.

And as He obediently bowed His head to fully obey the will of His Father, He then voluntarily laid down His own life. We see this as our reading says that at this point Jesus “gave up His spirit”.

This is important for us to understand. Jesus was not forced to give His life. He was not powerless over those who had executed Him. His life was not taken from Him. His life was laid down, given by Himself.

And as Isaiah says, out of the anguish of His soul, Christ saw, and He was satisfied. In other words, Jesus saw you and He saw me, He saw His Church, His body of elect believers, He saw that His suffering was accomplishing that, He saw that it was accomplishing the assembling of a sanctified people, a purified, undefiled bride for Himself, and He was satisfied with it. He was satisfied with what His atonement would produce.

But most of all, Christ saw the glory that His atoning death brings God and He knew that what He was suffering was worth enduring so that God would be supremely glorified.

He died that agonizing death first of all, for His Father, that He may do the will of His Father and bring Him the utmost glory. And He died that agonizing death for you and for me, that we may be made to be His spotless, perfectly undefiled Bride.

That He suffered so for us, for those who were born hating Him, reveals an everlasting love that is far beyond our comprehension. But though we cannot comprehend it, we most certainly apprehend it. We most certainly experience it. For now, we are in awe and wonder at this love, knowing not how or why this love came to be, but one day we will experience it to the full in the heavenly New Jerusalem, that place where we shall ever dwell with our Bridegroom in everlasting blessed communion.

Beloved, the very least that we can say is that this should provoke the utmost reverent worship on our part, the ones who have been the blessed recipients of this everlasting love.

As He willingly gave His life for we, His people, may we willingly offer Him our worship and our praise both now and forever.

(Leave in solemnity)