Good Friday

Intro — Final Steps

May you and I be aware of a great danger this evening. That danger is to dispassionately view the passion of Christ. To view his agony with apathy. To view with cool disinterest the fire of his suffering. All this week we have been speaking, and hopefully praying and reading about the week of Christ’s passion. It is the week of Christ’s earthly ministry that is the centerpiece of Christian faith.

Yet many of us are so aware of the details of these events— we have read them again and again, we have heard them preached over and over— that we have become desensitized to the meaning of these events and almost immune and to their power.

Setting the stage

Christ and his disciples have just celebrated passover

Judas has slipped away to preform his act of betrayal

Jesus and the remaining 11 have left the house, and in the darkness of the night made their way to the Mt. of Olives

—>Not just to the Mt. but to a garden, a garden called Gethsemane.

The disciples are given a simple instruction: sit & pray

Jesus is sorrowful to the very core of his being—he knows what is about to come.

The Prayer & The Cup

John records Christ’s high priestly prayer in its long form in ch. 17 of his gospel

Here Mark conveys the climax

Mark 14:36 ESV

And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Jesus is sorrowful to the point of death, Luke records that he is sweating great drops of blood at this point, so oppressive is his agony over what lies before him, and all this at the prospect of drinking from “this cup.”

So…what is in the cup?

Some have argued that the cup represents the physical suffering that Christ is about to undergo—this seems a woefully inadequate description

Others have physically suffered—others have gone to horrific deaths for the testimony of Christ seemingly at peace. So unless we are prepared to argue that Christ is a physical coward, we cannot reconcile the passion of Jesus in the garden with the notion that the cup represents his approaching physical suffering only.

—> So again, what is in this cup? What is in the cup that the greatest man who ever lived dreads to drink?

>>The wrath of almighty God is in the cup.

>the wrath of a just God whose holy character is righteously incensed against sin and sinners is in the cup

>the God who speaks a word and the universe springs into existence, who when He is said to walk the mountains are said to tremble, the God who, when he speaks from Sinai the people are convinced they will die, it is this God whose holy character is unalterably opposed to sin and the sinful.

-it is he whose anger is kindled, whose vengeance threatens to break out against the ungodly, whose wrath menaces the unrighteous and promises to consume them.

—Who among mortal men is strong enough to lift this cup to his lips, and what man is mighty enough to drink the wrath to its dregs?

-It is like that great and beautiful sword of Arthur stuck deep and fast into the rock

-all of the mighty men and all of the strong men endeavor to pry it loose to no avail.

-they make themselves look fools and weaklings in their exaggerated but fruitless efforts

-it will move free only for a a warrior, a champion, a king.

>Among all the men and women who have ever lived, only one is capable of satisfying completely God’s wrath against sin, and it is this man, alone in agony sweating great drops of blood, our Savior, our champion Jesus Christ.

Two questions remain:

Why can he alone satisfy the divine wrath against sin?

Will he do it?

Why can Christ alone satisfy the divine wrath against sin?

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.

Hebrews

In the garden, though surrounded by every evidence of God’s goodness, love and care, Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of the serpent and sin against God—inaugurating the curse and death.

From then forward, the heart of man is inclined perpetually to evil ()

In we read of the giving of the law

Moses cannot get down the mountain fast enough to give the people the law before they have broken it.

>And the testimony of the Scripture is absolutely clear, the penalty for sin is death, and therefore we cannot save ourselves, let alone others, because we are a sinful and sin filled people. We deserve to die for our own sins.

—>but he was tempted and did not sin!

Consider—>

A day at the beach, the day is warm, the wind is still, the water is calm.

The flags warning of dangerous currents are up

But thousands flood the beaches and stream into the water.

after all, the day is warm, the wind is still, the water is calm.

But though the people venture only ankle deep, the strength of the fierce-some current sweeps them all away, so that the ocean is filled with drowning men and women

It takes the weak and the strong, the able swimmer and the muscle-bound man alike.

But consider—that one man, though he stands chest deep in water and the whole force of the current is directed upon him, yet he stands fast that he may save his drowning fellow men.

Temptation, sin swept us all away so that we are left drowning in the flood

But Jesus alone stands fast though sin and temptation have rushed against him—our rock, our refuge our savior

>The awful, and damnable truth, is that since the Fall, there has not been a man, woman, or child who has loved the Lord their God with all their heart, all their soul, all their mind and all their strength for even a single second of their lives

—>The beautiful reality, is that Christ loved the Lord his God with all his heart, soul mind and strength for every second of his life.

stand amazed at the worth and beauty of Jesus Christ—wonder upon him, marvel at this true son, at this true and better Adam

There has not been a moment of perfect obedience in any of our lives, there was never a moment without it in his.

And because he is perfect, he can be the holy lamb of God, come to take away the sin of the world and satisfy the wrath of God!

>So he, the perfect sacrifice may finally take the place of the blood of countless thousands bulls and goats who were not sufficient for the removal of sin.

>He the obedient son, may take the punishment of the children of wrath and sons of disobedience.

>He, the innocent suffer, may stand in the dock for for all of us murders.

And so it seems appropriate,

That the murdering Barabbas should go free

That Christ may bleed for him upon the tree.

And so we know why Christ alone may drink the cup of God’s wrath in our place, but the questions that remains: will he?

Will Christ Drink from the Cup of Wrath—Will he be Obedient?

We return to ...

Christ in the depth of sorrow and anguish

clearly desires this cup be removed from him—he pleads with the Father if some other way may be found

Christ does not need to suffer the wrath of God

he is righteous, perfect, in every way pleasing to the Father

there is no necessity of his own guild that binds him to the cross

So here in the garden there is an implicit choice— will he willingly endure the cross in obedience to the Father’s will?

DO NOT MISS—that this choice is happening in a garden, for there is a reason that Christ is called in the Scriptures the second Adam

Adam 1, in the garden, disobeys the will of God, forfeiting his life and incurring the judgement of sin upon mankind.

—>But there is a promise offered—from the seed of the woman woman will come a second Adam who will crush the head of the serpent of old.

The 2nd Adam, here in the garden obeys the will of God, forfeiting his life, but he imparts his righteousness and eternal life to all those who believe in him.

And so, here in the garden, as he humbly submits and exclaims to his Father “Not what I will, but what You will.” The promised seed of the woman place his heel on the head of the serpent.

And as he hangs on the tree of crucifixion in his final hours of agony, our king, our champion, he crushes down.

The Cross

Christ’s final steps lead him from the garden to the cross.

There, taking into himself our sinfulness he bears the full wrath of a holy God on our behalf.

Isaiah 53:5-

Isaiah 53:5 ESV

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.

Isaiah 53:5–6 ESV

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.

> as we sang earlier “Come behold the wondrous mystery, Christ the Lord upon the tree. In the stead of ruined sinners, hangs the lamb in victory. See the price our redemption, see the Father’s plan unfold. Bringing many sons to glory, grace unmeasured, love untold.”

—> and as he dies on the tree of crucifixion, it is as though he tilts back the cup of God’s holy wrath and drinks it to its last drop.

and then he cries “it is finished!”

all of the unnumerable animal sacrifices

the blood stained garments of countless priest for thousands of years

the stench of death and of blood from sacrifice on thousands of days of atonement

it all anticipated, foreshadowed this moment when the perfect sacrifice, the prince of heaven satisfies our debt of sin.

So look upon the cross and seen in the crushed visage of Christ the awesome and terrible wrath of God that would otherwise have leveled against you.

Look upon the slain Son of God and behold what remarkable love the Father has for us—that he spared not his own son.

Look upon this man Jesus, despised and rejected by men, and see in him our champion and our king.

—> Perhaps you are hearing this tonight and you have not trusted in Christ, but you stand as one having to give an account of your sin to a holy God. This scene of the cross must be terrible for you, for in it you see the awesome power of God’s wrath displayed. Do not harden your heart!

—> For the Christian—marvel at the matchless worth of Jesus, and wait in hope. The cross is not the end. the dawn of Easter morning is coming.