A New Relationship…The Death of Christ
Making All Things New (Easter 2025) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We want to welcome you all here this morning as we remember the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are honoured that you have chosen to be with us and to make this service a part of your Easter celebrations.
Of course this morning is only half the story…so we also want to invite you to come back on Sunday…
We hope you’ll join us…Sunrise Service @ 7am … Breakfast @ 8am and then 10am Service.
SATURDAY...Prayer Guides will be sent out this afternoon by 5pm to those who requested them…
Also…If you have a PRAYER REQUEST you’d like the Church to pray for…please let me know today as soon as possible.
We are going to do the Lord’s Supper… a little differently this morning…
You probably noticed as you entered this morning that the CUP & BREAD is located on the table as you entered.
If you as a believer want to observe the Lord’s Supper…make sure that you pick one up…there is a gluten free option as well.
If you didn’t pick it up…feel free to do so while we are singing.
As we prepare for this meaningful time together this morning…let us pray…as we begin:
Father God, thank you for the death of Jesus Christ on our behalf…this morning we gather to REMEMBER…to GIVE THANKS and to PROCLAIM that truth and that reality…may we be encouraged by our time together…but most of all…may You be honoured & glorified…and Jesus be lifted up. We pray and ask these things in the beautiful name of Jesus. Amen.
Song: “How Great Is the Love!”
WHY is Good Friday Called “Good”?
You may wonder: WHY it is called “Good Friday”? Because really who celebrates death?
It seems like such a morbid, dark reason to call a certain day “Good”…But it is Good!
It is Good…because it was on this day we remember our sins were paid for…by Jesus’ death.
It is Good…because it was the ultimate demonstration of the LOVE of God for mankind…
It is good …because He poured out His love for us…in the life of His Son, Jesus Christ.
We want to focus on that LOVE…it is the foundation for everything else that God does for us.
And it’s the foundation for a NEW Relationship that He wants us to have with Him…through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
“…but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
That will be our theme verse this morning…we will come back to it again and again.
We want to focus on the LOVE OF GOD that Christ demonstrated for us in His death.
SCRIPTURE READING (Rick) John 19:16b-30
If there is ever a time to remember the cross it is today…Good Friday…
When Jesus purchased our redemption…
I hope you will look to the cross…as we remember the depth of His love.
This morning we are going to observe the LORD’S SUPPER together…but before we do that…
We’re going to consider some details about the Lord’s Supper that may or may not be familiar to you.
But would have been very familiar to the Jewish mind in the first century.
We see a Picture of GOD’S INCREDIBLE LOVE…
The Lord’s Supper is an incredible event/picture of the incredible great love He had for us …and His desire to spend forever with us.
2. We see a Picture of a JEWISH BETROTHAL…
The Lord’s Supper was a picture of the Jewish betrothal…
The first century Jews…especially in Galilee…would have certainly understood this.
How a man & woman come together in covenant relationship…to take each other as husband & wife
And we will see how meaningful this is for us….as it pictures Christ, the Bridegroom.
And we, the church, are His Bride…
Hopefully when we come to the Lord’s Supper together…it will be come all the more meaningful to you as you understand it more.
If Christ is your Lord and Saviour…whether or not you make Fellowship your church or not…you are welcome to participate in this act of communion together…a little later on.
PRAY: Lord, as we gather here we know we’re sinners…our sins they are many but Your mercy is more
SONG: “His Mercy is More”
SONG: “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us. (Stuart Townsend)
1. The LOVE of GOD For US…
How DEEP…How VAST…How IMMEASURABLE…is the LOVE of GOD FOR US!
How can we understand God’s deep love for us? My words fail.
God’s love becomes even more profound when we understand the depth of our own sin.
And the reason Good Friday is necessary…is precisely because of our sin.
Sin…is when we go against God and His ways.
Sin…separates us from God…like a dark curtain covering a sunny window.
…but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
Our sin incurs a price that must be paid…the wages of sin is death.
“For the wages of sin is death…”
And Jesus, though He had no sin…He willingly went to the cross to pay for mine.
“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
And so because of His deep deep love for us, He did this for us.
…but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God’s love for us is like a precious jewel…that becomes all the more beautiful…against a backdrop of black velvet.
The backdrop of God’s love for us really is the darkness of our own sin…
We are focussing on Romans 5:8 this morning…but let me back up and read the entire passage so you can see the beauty and the greatness of His love contrasted with our sin.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Another verse you probably know really well…
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
This has the core of the gospel…
the LOVE of God…and
the GIFT of His Son…and
the absolute necessity of trusting in Him… for deliverance from the consequences of our sin…and of course
the gift of eternal life.
It starts out…not with what we do…or with what God did…but with who God is.
Because God is love…He loves us so much that He did this for us.
He loves SINNERS…
He loves the LOST…
He loves the WEARY…
He loves the BROKEN…
He loves the HURTING….
Understand this simple truth…He loves YOU!
There’s nothing you can do to make God love you anymore than He already does.
So I come back to that verse Romans 5:8
“…but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Did you catch that?…He doesn’t love us because we are good…
No…His love for us began when we were still sinners…
He demonstrated that love…when He died for our sins…on the cross.
On this Good Friday…that’s WHY we gather to worship Him …
It is a reminder of… how much He loves us.
The story is told of a number of years ago a prominent European theologian who came to the States do a series of lectures…he travelled around from city to city speaking…after his lectures he would open it up for discussions questions and answers…at one of them someone stood up and asked him: “What is the greatest thought that has ever passed through your mind?” He bowed his head to contemplate it for a moment. Then he raised his head and with childlike simplicity said: Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.”
There’s no more profound truth in all Scripture that God loves us as much as He loves His own Son.
Greater love has no one than this…than a man lay down His life for His friends…John 15:13
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11
By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us… 1 John 3:16
He did all this because He loves us and He loved us to the very end.
On the night of the Last Supper…the Gospel of John tells us what motivated Jesus.
John 13:1
He loved them to the end. (You could say…He loved them to the uttermost.)
He gave up everything…He gave up His life…His body and He gave up His blood…because of His great love with which He loved us.
The Lord’s Supper…The Bread…
In Luke 22 Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples.
Then after that He took bread…and when He had given thanks…He said: “This is my Body which is broken for you…Do this in remembrance of Me.
Luke 22:19 “And He took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is MY body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”
The Bread obviously is an emblem/picture/represents His body.
We know in the hours that followed that night, after the upper room…those who would arrest Him did terrible things to His body.
Isaiah 52-53 no better description As we prepare our hearts before the table of the Lord just listen to these words
Isaiah 52:14 “His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind.
Isaiah 53:3-12
He did all this for us…when He died there on that old rugged cross…
We are going to sing…so if you haven’t picked up the cup and bread we invite you to do so now.
SONG: The Old Rugged Cross. (remain seated and sing)
Scripture tells that Jesus on the night in which He was betrayed took bread, and wwhen He had gven thanks He broke it and said: This is My body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”
1 Corinthians 11:23-24
Pray…
So let’s eat this now together in remembrance of Jesus…
Before we move on to the CUP…
Share some things about this observance…
The most intimate, and most powerful love relationship on earth is between a husband and wife.
So it really should not surprise us that it is the picture the Lord chooses to use when He is describing the relationship between Jesus and His church. You may be familiar with the passage…
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
We, the Church, is described in Scripture as the Bride of Christ…Jesus is our Bridegroom
Actually we are not married to Him..yet…we are betrothed.
This is something…we don’t fully understand…because our engagement customs are different than what they had in Israel in the early NT days.
Our actual marriage is yet to come…still future…when there will be the marriage supper of the Lamb
“Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has made herself ready…”
Just a little about Galilean Jewish marriage customs…because they are different than ours.
{Borrowed from: The Manners & Customs of Bible Times, Ralph Gower}
a. INITIAL ARRANGEMENTS…
The initial arrangements were often made way ahead of time…even years…
Usually this was done by parents (usually fathers) sometimes as early as birth.
For example, maybe I just had a baby boy and you just had a baby girl…we would talk and say something like: I like you and I like your family…you seem upright, reputable and respectable. Let’s make an match and agreement an arrangement…
This would be between fathers speaking to each other …that someday our children will be married. And so we would agree on that.
b. THE ACTUAL BETROTHAL…
Wouldn’t come for many years later…
The betrothal ceremony was a legal transaction…that was actually more binding than the ultimate marriage celebration that would come later.
This BETROTHAL CEREMONY would happen in the presence of a rabbi.
c. DETERMINE A BRIDE PRICE…
And when the bride and groom both became of age the young man and his parents would go to the home of the bride…with a rabbi…and after exchanging some pleasantries with the bride’s parents…the two families would then enter into negotiations…
Because for the groom…you must know you don’t get this woman for free…you have to BUY her…you have to pay for her...
You, the groom…would have to pay a BRIDE PRICE…to the father of the Bride.
d. PAYMENT…OF THE BRIDE PRICE…
And they would negotiate and they would determine what the BRIDE PRICE was going to be.
It could be…money? Or it could be a term of service (Jacob)…or even some animals…maybe a couple camels…oxen…or sheep…
But both families would decide and agree upon that.
But after the BRIDE PRICE was agreed upon…then you would have to SEAL THE COVENANT.
d. SEAL THE COVENANT…
This is where there is some real important meaning for us…
First, the Rabbi there at the betrothal…would take a cup and he would pour some wine into the cup and he would bless it and it was called…the Cup of the Covenant…
This might ring some bells in our mind…it was a very important part of the betrothal agreement
The cup would be passed around…everyone would take a sip to seal the deal…much like today when we sign on the dotted line
They would use a word to describe what had just happened…tetelestai…complete…it is finished…paid in full
Should you happen to refuse to drink you were turning down the offer of marriage…if you drink it …you were accepting the offer
After that…then whatever was agreed upon as the Bride Price…would be paid soon after…ASAP
e. A PLEDGE GIVEN…
Remember…the BRIDE PRICE was paid by the groom to the father of the bride…
Then… after that there would also be a PLEDGE given to the bride…
This PLEDGE…was not words…but usually something of value that was given to his bride…
It served as a type of…kind of like a down payment…with the promise of more to come…
We see a little bit of that in the customs of today…with the giving of an engagement ring
After all that was done…the betrothal became binding.
Now as we think about our relationship with Christ…and what He has done for us…
The implications of all this are staggering…
THE IMPLICATIONS…
HE CHOSE US IN HIM…BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD…
Ephesians 1:4 “Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…”
HE WANTS TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH US…
HE WANTS US TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM…
HE WANTS TO MARRY US!
So …HE PAID THE PRICE for us!!
That’s the picture He uses.
But there is a RESPONSE REQUIRED FROM US…
A RESPONSE REQUIRED FROM US…we have to choose to either accept or reject the offer…
He is hoping we say YES…and we drink of that cup of the covenant that He offers to us.
But understand this…it COST Him…there was a price that had to be paid.
It was a TERRIBLE PRICE to pay…Jesus suffered and died on that cross to pay the price.
And He went out the very next day…on that first Good Friday… and He paid that price…for us
He was paying the BRIDE PRICE… for the privilege of marrying us.
After that He gave us a PLEDGE…for those who trusted him…
Remember the BRIDE PRICE…paid by the GROOM to the FATHER of Bride…
The PLEDGE was the Groom giving something of VALUE to his Bride.
In the upper room Jesus made a promise to His disciples…when I go…I will send a Helper…the Holy SPirit.
The Holy Spirit of promise…who is the down payment, the pledge…the GUARANTEE of much more to come…
I am just really scratching at the surface here…but I hope you get the idea.
The first disciples were Jewish and most were Galilean…they knew marriage customs…no one needed to explain for them.
So when in that Upper Room Jesus offered them the NEW CUP of the covenant…and He invited them to drink of it…I can guarantee you they were thinking… “this sounds a lot like a betrothal ceremony”…
Because that’s exactly what it was.
Think of the significance of that…Jesus offers the cup to us…
He says drink of it…drink all of it…in remembrance of Me…
He wants to spend eternity with us…He wants to be betrothed He wants to marry us.
That’s a picture of the ordinance of the Lord’s supper that we often do not think about when we do the Lord’s supper.
Because we are not Jewish, Galilean …we don’t get that…but here in the first century those disciples would have got it completely.
Then we know that after that betrothal ceremony…which really took place on the night of the last supper…he went out the ext day and paid the BRIDE PRICE…thats what He did when he hung on that cross for our salvation…
1 Peter 1:19 you were purchased, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
Think on these things…as we take of the cup…
THE CUP…
As we hold this cup in our hands…remember the Lord’s great love for us and how He wants to spend forever with us.
He offered His blood as the BRIDE PRICE for you and for me.
He says: “Drink all of it in remembrance of Me.”
Pray…Jesus we The cup of the new covenant…
The cup that points us to the blood you shed on our behalf…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Lord, we know that we don’t get saved by drinking this cup.
That can only come by grace through faith…
But we thank you for what you have offered and Lord we accept…thank you for what You did,
The Lord’s supper was instituted by Christ on the Thursday night…
Which was His last night with the disciples of course.
Then He was arrested and on Friday He went to the cross…He hung there for 6 hours…paying the bride price for the purchase of our souls.
Tomorrow is Saturday…as we think about holy week we don’t give Saturday a whole lot of thought…
What would it have been like on that Saturday…after the crucifixion…??
For the disciples…it must have been a terrible day, defeated & distraught, full of grief their world had come to an end.
But Jesus had told them about His resurrection…they did not understand that joy was about to come.
They didn’t get it. They were deep in despair on Saturday…
We too can go through life like that…we can be defeated…struggles darkness trials, tired worn and weary on Saturday…but Sunday is coming.
ONE MORE FASCINATING DETAIL ABOUT THE JEWISH BETROTHAL…
Let me share one more fascinating detail about the Jewish Betrothal…
We are BETROTHED TO CHRIST…Our wedding day is coming…
Back in the 1st century…after a young man had become betrothed to a young woman…
The deal was done…and settled…tetelestai…paid in full
Do you know what the groom did after the deal was done? After the price had been paid?
The bride would stay with her family…
Do you know what the groom would do?
He would go and prepare a place for his bride…with the PROMISE that he would come back some day and claim her as his bride.
Did Jesus say anything like this?
John 14:1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places…I will come back and receive you to myself…so that where I am there you may be also.
That will be our wedding day…we are waiting for our wedding day…the marriage supper of the Lamb!
Now Jesus made this promise to His disciples…some may say: “But David… that was so long time ago…if He hasn’t come back yet…I doubt He’s coming.”
Be sure to understand: God is a PROMISE KEEPING GOD…Not one of His promises has ever failed…and He is not about to start now.
Jesus said He’s coming back for His Bride…you can be sure that He will return.
Our wedding day is coming…Sunday is coming.
On Resurrection Sunday…Christ was raised.
But when Christ comes back we will all be raised…if we are dead in the grave we will be raised to a new body. If we are still alive…and Christ comes back we’ll be raised in the twinkling of an eye to meet the Lord in the air. Then the marriage supper of the lamb will take place.
So much to look forward to…it’s a GREAT THING TO THINK OF.
Tomorrow…reflect on the lifeless Saturday…But Sunday is coming.
Pray
SONG: “Jesus Paid It All”
Dismiss.
