Good Friday

Isaiah 52:13–53:12 ESV

Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

The “Suffering Servant Song” that we just read has long been a regular part of worship services especially on Good Friday.  It is also one of many favorite passages for the describing and understanding the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement (the concept that the Messiah accepted the punishment on behalf of/to the benefit of the sinner). 

It’s quite remarkable the details revealed in this O.T. text about the crucifixion of Jesus. It’s almost as if the writer were an eyewitness himself of the event described here, from the account of the brutal torture to the crown of thorns, to the criminals crucified next to Him, and to being laid in the tomb of a rich man.  It is the strongest passage in the Old Testament to testify to Jews that Jesus is indeed the fulfillment of this prophecy and is promised Messiah.  It's almost impossible to refute the evidence that it points to Christ.  In fact, these verses are so potent, that in the Jewish lectionary of readings for Sabbath worship today, readings that work progressively through the Old Testament, this passage in Isaiah often is omitted, perhaps lest people hear it and begin to question whether or not Jesus is indeed that Messiah.

Not only have there been countless sermons preached on this passage.  It has also been the inspiration for numerous hymns.  Among them is “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted,” written in ­­­­1804 by Thomas Kelley (1769-1855), one of the 765 hymns that he composed.  It is drawn especially from Isaiah 53:4. “We considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted.” 

This evening we want to start our services but singing and meditating of the words of Smitten, Stricken, and Afflicted… number 303 in your black Hymnals of Grace. If this song is new to you, feel free to listen along as we sing and join us when you feel comfortable. It is a very somber song… one that will have us think thru the agonies of the cross.

SONG: Sing Smitten, Stricken, and Afflicted- #303

In this song we sang,… the writer calls us to all to ponder… “was there ever grief like His....?” We live in a world full of grief and sorrow, yet how could any of our griefs be compared to His? I want us this evening to consider here briefly the extent of Christ’s Pain and Grief on the cross. We will look at 3 of those sorrows & pains this evening.

Emotional Sorrow of the Cross.

Our hymn writer captures this grief well in his lyrics...“Friends through fear His cause disowning.” “None would interpose to save.”

This harkens us back to that moment of betrayal in the garden. What became of those disciples upon the moment of his arrest… where did they go?

Matthew 26:56 records for us what happened… then all the disciples left him and fled. Fled even though they all vowed to stick with him to the death.

Just a few verses prior in Matthew 26:30-35, Jesus told them that they would all fall away because of me this night… then quotes for them this prophetic scripture of Himself… “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.”

Peter thinking himself to be the heroic, brave one, said...

Matthew 26:33 ESV

Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.”

Peter would also go on to say...

Matthew 26:35 ESV

Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.

All the disciples agreed. But where was their strong commitment. Where was their faith in their Messiah. What became of their belief in His power when Jesus was arrested.

The gospel writers tell us of at least 2 disciples that followed Jesus to His trial in the house of Caiaphas. The gospel of John records Peter and an unnamed disciple (probably John himself), who had access to the courtyard of the high priest.

But what did they do there?

Jesus was being berated, insulted, scorned, and abused. And what did Peter do. Well the first thing he did was nothing....

The hymn writer got it right… “None would interpose to save.”

While Jesus was being questioned, the gospel of Mark records for us that the council was looking for testimony against Jesus but could find none. Furthermore, the scripture records for us that some would stand up in the midst of the crowd and bare false witness against him.… but did Peter stand up. Did he make any claim? No, he was within eye contact of Jesus and said nothing… actually that is not quite true.… he did say something.…

“I do not know this man of whom you speak.” Scripture also records for us that with these words, Peter continued to invoked cursed upon himself with these words.

The valor of Peter all dried up… and what remained was only fear and betrayal. All the goodness of God and power of God on display for Peter.… having the priviledge of seeing Christ transfigured… and in this moment of pure human weakness.… Peter disregards His Messiah, His King, His friend.

O the ache that Jesus would have felt. Yes, Jesus predicted it would happen, but the pain wouldn’t have been any less felt. His closest friends, those he poured countless time and energy into, those whom he cared for greatly, in his hour of desperate need, these few showed their true colors…

But lest we look down on Peter and the others and think of ourselves on a higher plan consider this...

Isaiah 53:3 ESV

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

We esteemed him not. We see how bitterly despised and violently rejected Jesus was as they betrayed, beat, abandoned, and nailed him to a cross. Do we see, though, that we despised him, that we loved the darkness more than the light, that we too left Jesus to die alone? That’s what sin is, after all. Sin — any sin — is a despising and rejecting of the truth, beauty, and worth of Jesus. We esteemed him not. He endured loneliness and humiliation, crucifixion and propitiation to save his despisers.

That day was a day of extreme emotional agony.

As we move into the considering the next agony of the cross, the Physical Pain, lets first be reminded thru the song “O sacred head now wounded.”

SONG: O Sacred Head Now Wounded #271

Physical Pain of the Cross

Once again the hymn writer captures well this truth.

“Many hands were raised to wound Him.” “Foes insulting His distress.”

Crucifixion was perhaps the most cruel, most vindictive, most torturous death anyone at anytime in history could have ever experienced. And Jesus’ crucifixion was worse than the others. We can recall, that many such sufferings began even before he was hung on a tree.

The physical abuse began when Jesus first appeared before the council at Caiaphas’ home. The guards would strike him repeatedly and would mock him. In fact, Luke records how defenseless Jesus was. They blindfolded him and would taunt him by saying, “Prophecy and tell us who hit you.”

It’s very similiar to the bully who pushes you down then proceeds to laugh at your physical pain. It’s so demoralizing. But this was only the first of many wounds.

John 19 records for us the second of his great pains. After being questioned by Pilate and really finding no fault in Jesus, but to satisfy the angry mob, Pilate has Jesus flogged

Flogging was more than a severe beating.  It involved whips or lashes made of leather ropes which were attached to a handle.  These ropes contained metal fragments and pieces of bones that literally tore through the flesh off of Jesus.

On top of that, they attached a crown of thorns that were likely 1 to 2 inch thorns of briar that were hard as oak. These thorns were likely to not have just penetrated through the skin but thru parts of the skull bone. It is well documented that this would have caused large losses of blood and created severe hemorrhaging of the brain tissues.

Following this absolute terrible scene, it was recorded in John that, “When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man” (John 19:5)!  What Pilate was really trying to say was, “Look at this man!  Isn’t this enough?  He’s hardly recognizable as a human being.  Look at Him!”  Even with this bloody pulp of a Man, they still screamed, “Crucify Him” (John 19:6)!

Isaiah perfectly captures this Isaiah 52:14

Isaiah 52:14 ESV

As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—

He didn’t even look human anymore and was so marred that no Man has ever been reduced to the pulverized piece of flesh that Jesus was.

And yet that still wasn’t the end to His pain. The gospels record that Jesus was then forced to carry his cross to Golgatha. The path to that location was between 1/2 mile to 1 mile in length. Our modern pictures depict him carrying the full cross, but the reality is that he just carrying the horizontal beam. The vertical beam stayed in it’s place for future crucifixions. Still this was no light task. The beam was likely a rough cut, meaning that there was plenty of long sharp splinters in the beam. On top of that, it was a large and awkward object to carry. Scholars believe the object to be around 7-8 feet long and one foot wide. It could have weighed at least a 100 pounds or more. 

Jesus wasn’t actually able to carry it the whole distance. This wasn’t because he was a weak man. Being a carpenter in that day was among one of the most physically demanding jobs. Carpenters were often required to cut and carry their own timber for wood. So the fact that Jesus struggled to carry it and needed help was not due to being weak or even because of the weight but because of Jesus’ scourging by the Romans who had beaten Him to a bloody pulp.  He would have lost so much blood by the time that He was carrying it that He was unable to make it the entire distance.

And yet we still have not yet gotten to the crucifixion, the most cruel punishment and torturous death. All these things were merely “warm ups” to the actual event of being crucified.

When we read about the nails that pierced Jesus’ hands and feet, these were not nails as we think of them.  They were much like railroad spikes but much longer.  They resembled what are called garden spikes and they were about ¾ inch wide and around 6 to 8 inches long.  When they were driven through the hands and feet, they were hammered flat on the back side of the wooden beam so that they would keep their impaled victims in place.  These nails were not driven into the hands but actually into the wrists because the hands were insufficient to hold up the weight of a person. 

As for the feet, they drove one large nail (like a railroad spike) through the top side of the middle of the feet.  These were hammered through both feet and they bent the knees of the victim.  The victim would have had to push themselves up to breathe, which produced excruciating pain.

This is explained in the John’s gospels that the chief priests wanted to get the crucified off the crosses since it was the day of Preparation so they ordered that the soldiers break the legs to stop the breathing but for Jesus they did not do it since He has already given up His life and had passed.

But for approximately 6 hours, Jesus hung on that tree. And for hours in his absolute suffering, he was mocked and ridiculed and humiliated by likely over hundreds of people as thousands saw him hang on that tree.

Mark 15:29-32 records there insults

Mark 15:29–32 ESV

And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

“Many hands were raised to wound him” “foes insulting his distress”

And yet we have not even spoken of Christ’s most horrifying grief and pain of all. But before we do that join me in singing How Deep the Father’s Love for Us

SONG: How Deep the Father’s Love for Us #80

Spiritual Suffering of the Cross

Once again, our hymn writer perfectly captures the significance of this all....“But the deepest stroke that pierced Him was the stroke that Justice (with a capital J”) gave.”

God’s wrath, the full cup of God’s wrath… poured out on Jesus. More terrifying then the Roman’s wrath, more evil than the Jew’s wrath.… (both of whom God used) was the wrath of God Almighty. Much of what we have talked about already is included in the wrath of God upon Jesus. But one that we have not yet covered but is so significant, so painful, so awful, that in Jesus’ final hour, he cried out in anguish....

“My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me....” Truly the greatest pain Jesus ever suffered was the pain he felt when God’s presence was removed from Him. We don’t understand this like we should, but this is the most terrible consequence of all. The only other human beings to have known this pain to some extent is Adam and Eve. All we’ve ever known was darkness, all we’ve ever experienced was wickedness, all we’ve ever inherited was corruption, all we’ve ever witnessed was ruin and destruction. We are used to the impurity, to lack of holiness, to defilement, we are used to unfaithfulness and lack of love… but Adam and Eve felt the presence of perfection God. They knew his peace, his holiness, his immortality, his incorruptness, righteousness… And it was so indescribable. More than any amazement, more than any other person they’ve ever encountered… in God they experienced a fullness of joy that can only be achieved in the presence of pure greatness. Jesus had always known that… Jesus had always experienced that.… a oneness with the Father beyond compare.

But that moment when Jesus bore all our sins and faced the full wrath of God.… he experienced what all humans experience when they sin against a holy God.… separation from the Father of all Light… separation from the greatest treasure.… And this was the worst pain of all...

It’s right that we say that the true punishment of hell isn’t merely the never ending flames of torture… the true punishment of hell is the separation from our most benevolent and wonderful creator. We just struggle with that concept because we don’t fully understand God. We haven’t experienced Him and known Him like Adam and Eve did nor do we have a oneness with God like Jesus does.

But separation alone was what Jesus faced...

The greek word for “forsaken” indicates more than mere distance but complete abandonment.

We at times feel this abandonment… aloneness. Spend anytime aware from scripture or away from your church and you feel the weight of loneliness occur in your life. The spiritual suffering that occurs when we have the absence of our source of righteousness and holiness. We feel abandonment when we cry out to God and He seems so distant, like he’s turned His back on us...

We feel these these and yet they are not true… Scripture repeatedly tells us so. God is near to the brokenhearted. He is eager to listen to and respond to our prayers. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. We merely “feel” like He has and that’s a terrible feeling. Yet, Jesus actually felt God abandoning Him there on that tree.

What a heartache beyond compare...

But we don’t call it Good Friday to simply remember an excruciating death, we call it good Friday because of what it accomplished. That emotional sorrow, that physical pain, that spiritual suffering was an meant to be mine, but Jesus… the passover lamb of God, became the sacrifice so that we might be free from these things eternally.

Emotional sorrow will never plague us to the same extent of what Jesus faced because of what He accomplished on the cross. Before the cross, our outlook, our future, our eternal home was set on hopeless, distress, and despair. Eternally feeling the full weight of emotional sorrow. But Jesus took that on the cross.

We deserved the most gruesome death for the most heinous, treacherous, villainous crimes we committed willfully against a Holy God. We are the wretched men… deserving of the criminals death.… but Jesus was counted amongst the criminals so that we might eternally be freed from the potency of the physical pain that all will feel upon that judgement day. Even if our bodies are laid up as sacrifices for our God, and we experience a death similiarly as heinous… it will never compare to the freedom from pain we will receive because of what Christ did there on the cross.

And we can be certain of this, that though spiritual suffering can occur in this life.… because of what Christ accomplished, we are guaranteed in Christ as a children of God, to never experience the separation and abandonment from our good creator. Our relationship with Him in now until everlasting.

Jesus in fact welcomes us to look at the cross as our comfort. He laid down His life so that we might have life abundant and full of joy. When we face trials, difficulties, emotional breakdowns… Jesus tells us to look to the cross. No one understands suffering better than Jesus… and no one offers a better solution than Jesus.

Hebrews 4:15 ESV

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

What’s more marvelous.… in all this is that Jesus faced all this emotional, physical, spiritual suffering and never sinned… he never snapped. He never handled any of incorrectly. Why these verses mean so much to us is that when we face these struggles, we eventually snap… That elastic cord that represents our lives gets pulled thru trials but eventually we get to a certain point where we break. Jesus on the other hand, was pulled farther than any man ever, and he never broke. So where we only know difficult to a certain degree.… he went that much farther and handled it perfectly… that’s what makes Him such a great High priest able to sympathize.

We look to the cross in great appreciation, not just for the new eternal life that it provided, but also for the new prospective and outlook it gives us for this life. The cross accomplished. Let us now thank our Savior in songs of praise.

SONG: The Power of the Cross #272

SONG: Jesus Thank You

As we close our time together this evening, it has been a joy to remember and celebrate this with you all. However, what we have gained because of the cross, not one bit of it could attributed to what we have done. We get no glory, we get no praise. All this was Christ’s glory. The cross is His Victory.

We know of a good hymn that tells of the victory in Jesus. It’s a good song. But we can inadvertently think that the victory is in part because of us. “Then I repented of my sin and won the victory.” That phrase can make us in some way think that my salvation is in part my doing. That I made this salvation possible when scripture is abundantly clear that I did not! Ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8–9 KJV 1900

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

We don’t get any of the glory for our salvation. It’s all of God. When we reach heaven, not one single angel will approach us and say man you did a good job turning to the Lord, no their attention is drawn taken away from the glory His majesty on high. So we will be singing victory in Jesus but with the small change to the end of the verses and a few alternate other verses… Then I repented of my sin, Christ won the victory.

SONG: Victory in Jesus (Christ Won the Victory)