06.5) Good Friday - The Darkest Day
Notes
Transcript
Greeting
Greeting
Prayer
Prayer
Song
Song
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. 7 Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. 9 For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Song
Song
Sermon
Sermon
The Death of the King
The Death of the King
The darkest day has come. The one who is love, is killed by those he loves. The one who is innocent has been executed by the guilty. The all powerful king is rejected by his own frail people. The creator has had his life ended by his creation. The God of the Jews is betrayed by his own religious leaders. The one who is all joy experiences all sorrow.
The light of the world has been shrouded in darkness.
The week started with so much hope and expectation.
12 The next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 they took palm branches and went out to meet him. They kept shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord —the King of Israel!”
Great anticipation was on their lips as they proclaimed save us, deliver us. King of Isreal. The one who can raise Lazarus from the dead will save us. As the days would pass from the entrance of the king, the crowd would change their minds towards their king.
Then there is the news of this morning. That late last night Jesus of Nazareth has been arrested by the leaders. They held him all night and he has been handed over to Pilate for judgement.
Pilate would have heard the reports and would have been watching. He would have been informed of the shouts of the crowd earlier and so he asked if it was true.
33 Then Pilate went back into the headquarters, summoned Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Are you asking this on your own, or have others told you about me?”
Pilate cannot find any reason to punish him and desired to have him released but the people would have nothing to do with it. And so the punishment begins.
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and clothed him in a purple robe. 3 And they kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” and were slapping his face. 4 Pilate went outside again and said to them, “Look, I’m bringing him out to you to let you know I find no grounds for charging him.” 5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
Pilate tries again to convince the religious leaders and the people to let him go but they use their own proclamation against Jesus.
12 From that moment Pilate kept trying to release him. But the Jews shouted, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Anyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar!” 13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside. He sat down on the judge’s seat in a place called the Stone Pavement (but in Aramaic, Gabbatha). 14 It was the preparation day for the Passover, and it was about noon. Then he told the Jews, “Here is your king!” 15 They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Should I crucify your king?” “We have no king but Caesar!” the chief priests answered. 16 Then he handed him over to be crucified. Then they took Jesus away.
Jesus had entered humbly on a colt of a donkey to a great crowd that wanted to see what the one who raised a man from the dead would do. Surrounded by people and exalted in the public square.
Now he leaves the city surrounded but alone, with a cross on his back, branded as a criminal. No crowd cheering him on to conquer just mocking and shouts of hate.
He carries the cross as far as he can until his body gives out, then another carries it the rest of the way. They pound the nails into his hands and feet. Bang, bang, bang.
The son of God feels the pain of each steel spike as it secures him to the cross. He is raised up into the air to die.
The sky is filled with darkness and there he hangs until all scripture is fulfilled. While he is suffering in arguably on of the most painful and cruel ways to die. He reveals what is on his heart.
He pray for intersession for his persecutors
34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided his clothes and cast lots.
He confirms salvation for the man on the cross next to him.
43 And he said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
He cares for his mother.
26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
He call out to God the Father as the sin of man is born by him.
34 And at three Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni?” which is translated, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
He speaks as a man of suffering
28 After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said, “I’m thirsty.”
He declares that all has come to pass.
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.
The cup is full, the time of completion has come. The work is done. The payment has been made. The earth shakes, the veil of the temple is torn and the one born in the manger, declared the savior of the world and the king of kings has died.
The man of sorrows is taken down, and is buried.
40 They took Jesus’s body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the fragrant spices, according to the burial custom of the Jews. 41 There was a garden in the place where he was crucified. A new tomb was in the garden; no one had yet been placed in it. 42 They placed Jesus there because of the Jewish day of preparation and since the tomb was nearby.
The stone is rolled in place. The seal is set. The guards take their station and the disciples slowly depart. What must they feel. Grief, their friend is dead. Despair, their hope has been shattered. Fear, their faith is shaken. Sadness, their plans are no more.
Confusion, how could this be? How does it end this way? How did we get it so wrong? What did we miss? What does it all mean?
Why did he have to die?
Because it was the will of God. The could not see what God was doing. They had not discerned God’s will.
God’s Will
God’s Will
This was the plan from before the beginning. In Peter’s Sermon he tells the Israelites that this has been the plan.
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to these words: This Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know. 23 Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him. 24 God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death.
They were blinded to the meaning of the prophesies as Jesus wasn’t what they were looking for even though he was what they needed. The events of this day 2000 years ago was foretold by the prophet Isaiah as the confirmation that Jesus’ death was the work of God by the hands of men.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. 4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 He was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and who considered his fate? For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully. 10 Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished. 11 After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.
All events transpired as God has set forth in time past. The beatings, the rejection, the suffering, the humiliation. He was despised, pierced, wounded, cut off from the living, and struck down by God.
It pleased God to do so for he was sent as a guilt offering.
10 Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.
There in none that can stand in the path of the almighty God. His ways are not our ways and who can comprehend all that God does, but we know in his great power he does what he pleases.
3 Our God is in heaven and does whatever he pleases.
God was pleased to send Jesus, his one and only son to be the one and only offering that would sanctify God’s people.
12 Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood.
How does God sanctify people? By a worthy sacrifice.
That Jesus would be the Offering
A guilt offering and sacrifice was the plan from the beginning.
18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you.
At the right time God sent his son to be the unblemished spotless Lamb to be slain.
7 ...For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.
For he was sent to be the offering that man needed as he gave Jesus up for us.
32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?
The Son’s Obedience
Jesus was obedient to the will of God to be the sacrifice that they deserved.
8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.
As he gave himself for the sins of man.
3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.
He has willingly given his life. But why was this God’s plan.
God’s Motive
God’s Motive
Why did the Son willingly accomplish all that the Father has commanded. For Sin had to be dealt with and man could not do anything about their sin on their own.
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
For God’s Justice must be upheld. Sin must be punished and so God sends Jesus to be the one who will make the payment and bear the wrath of God that sinful men and women have earned by their own sin.
25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.
All men sin. All have fallen short of God’s glory. All are affected and shown to be sinners. Their thoughts, words and actions testify about the sin that is in each and every person. To appease the wrath of God that has been earned by ungodliness and unrighteousness.
So God sent Jesus be the one to make atonement on our behalf. To remove the wrath and anger that is earned. All because he is love.
10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Those that have been separated from God by their sin and have earned death are bought back through the cross as the redeemer and ransom.
45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.
For he has cancelled the debt of sin.
13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
He has restored the relationship between man and God through reconciliation.
10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
He has purchased a people for himself
9 And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.
Closing
Closing
This day is the day that the greatest act of love has ever been shown. This is the day that the greatest sacrifice is given. This is the day where a great act of God has taken place. It is the day where our sin was dealt with by God himself. It is the day that Jesus became the Mercy Seat, the place of propitiation, the place of atonement. The place where God’s does the unimaginable. The Lord of Lord and the King of Kings, willingly endures the cross for you and me.
2 … For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.
Jesus endured the cross so that sinners can be set free. It is by his wounds we are healed. It is by his work we are made whole and holy. It is by his sacrifice that we do not receive the full payment for our sin.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
The tree is the place of our sin being paid for as Jesus stood in our place and recieved the condemnation that was on our account. A day that focuses on the death of Jesus in his humanity and the effect of him shedding his own blood can cause one to ask how is this a Good Friday. It is good because of what is accomplished. Good Friday is only good because, it made those that are not good, good by the one who is all goodness.
Before the Throne of God Hymn
“Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea,
A great High Priest whose name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart;
I know that while in heaven He stands,
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair,
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free;
For God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.”
Song
Song
Benediction
Benediction
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.
