GOOD FRIDAY

Opening Statement – Good Friday (Reverence)

Opening Statement – Good Friday (Reverence)

You could say something like this:

As I’ve been praying and thinking about tonight, one word kept coming to me: reverence.

We often think Good Friday is a day when we are supposed to feel heavy and sad and burdened. But the message of the cross is not that we must carry the weight. The message of the cross is that Jesus carried the weight for us.

So tonight is not about us trying to feel bad enough. Tonight is about remembering what He has done.

The word reverence describes a feeling of deep respect, awe, and honour. To revere something is to treat it as precious. To venerate is to recognise something as sacred. To worship is to respond with our hearts and our lives. To adore is to love deeply.

And tonight, we come to the cross with reverence. Not casually. Not lightly. Not in despair. But with reverence, because of what was done for us on the cross.

We come gratefully, but we do not come without hope. Because even on Good Friday, the cross is not defeat — it is love.

Tonight is not a night for performance. Tonight is not a night for noise. Tonight is not even a night for many words.

Tonight we come with reverence. Because on this day we remember the cost of our forgiveness, the depth of God’s love, and the cross of Jesus Christ.

We come quietly. We come thankfully. We come reverently.

That would immediately set the atmosphere in the room.

Theme: 

“Approaching the cross with reverence.”

1. Reverence because of the cost

Use Isaiah 53 — He was pierced, crushed, wounded.

2. Reverence because of the love

“Father forgive them…” — even on the cross He loved and forgave.

3. Reverence because it is finished

The greatest work in history completed on the cross.

4. Reverence as we come to the table

This would move you into

Isaiah 53 ESV

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 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. 3 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. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 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. 6 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. 7 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. 8 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? 9 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. 10 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. 11 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. 12 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 cost:

We come with reverence because the cross was not cheap. Forgiveness was not cheap. Grace is free to us, but it was not free to Him.

He was pierced. He was crushed. He was wounded. He carried our sin, our shame, our grief, our punishment.

So we come to the cross tonight not casually, but reverently.

“Don’t carry it — bring it to the cross.”

Because that is actually the message of the cross of Jesus Christ:

Sin → bring it to the cross

Shame → bring it to the cross

Fear → bring it to the cross

Pain → bring it to the cross

Guilt → bring it to the cross

Grief → bring it to the cross

Trauma → bring it to the cross

Good Friday is not about us feeling bad enough. It’s about Jesus being enough.

2. He carried what we could not carry (Isaiah 53)

He carried our sin. He carried our shame. He carried our grief. He carried our punishment.

The cross is not just where Jesus suffered. The cross is where Jesus carried things that belonged to us.

Key line you could repeat:

“He carried what we bring to the cross.”

When you come to the cross tonight, come reverently. Not in fear, but in gratitude. Not in shame, but in humility. Not because you are rejected, but because you are loved.

Come reverently, because this is where Jesus carried what we could not carry.

We come with reverence because the cross was not cheap.

Forgiveness was not cheap.

Grace is free to us, but it was not free to Him.

He was pierced.

He was crushed.

He was wounded.

He carried our sin, our shame, our grief, our punishment.

So we come to the cross tonight not casually, but reverently.

Lord Jesus,

Tonight we have brought our burdens, our sins, our griefs, and our fears to the cross.

Remind us that you carried what we could not carry.

You paid what we could not pay.

You finished what we could not finish.

Help us to leave tonight not carrying these things,

but trusting in your grace and your mercy.

We thank you for the cross.

Amen.

Then move straight into Communion.