Good Friday

DP intro - explain the setting.

What would normally happen

What is happening today - the shared nature of this Service

Into Video

We are going to progress through the story of Good Friday in the scriptures. Starting with John 18

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John 18:28–40 CSB

28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They did not enter the headquarters themselves; otherwise they would be defiled and unable to eat the Passover. 29 So Pilate came out to them and said, “What charge do you bring against this man?” 30 They answered him, “If this man weren’t a criminal, we wouldn’t have handed him over to you.” 31 Pilate told them, “You take him and judge him according to your law.” “It’s not legal for us to put anyone to death,” the Jews declared. 32 They said this so that Jesus’s words might be fulfilled indicating what kind of death he was going to die. 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?” 35 “I’m not a Jew, am I?” Pilate replied. “Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” 36 “My kingdom is not of this world,” said Jesus. “If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” 37 “You are a king then?” Pilate asked. “You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 “What is truth?” said Pilate. After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no grounds for charging him. 39 You have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at the Passover. So, do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” 40 They shouted back, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.

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John 19:1–16 CSB

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!” 6 When the chief priests and the temple servants saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” Pilate responded, “Take him and crucify him yourselves, since I find no grounds for charging him.” 7 “We have a law,” the Jews replied to him, “and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was more afraid than ever. 9 He went back into the headquarters and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus did not give him an answer. 10 So Pilate said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you?” 11 “You would have no authority over me at all,” Jesus answered him, “if it hadn’t been given you from above. This is why the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” 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.

LIVE JENNY

<John 19:17-22>

John 19:17–22 CSB

17 Carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. 19 Pilate also had a sign made and put on the cross. It said: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The king of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the king of the Jews.’ ” 22 Pilate replied, “What I have written, I have written.”

Worship - in christ alone.

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Matthew 27:45–54 CSB

45 From noon until three in the afternoon, darkness came over the whole land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” 47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling for Elijah.” 48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and offered him a drink. 49 But the rest said, “Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” 50 But Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit. 51 Suddenly, the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs were also opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 53 And they came out of the tombs after his resurrection, entered the holy city, and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

Message

We call this Good Friday but to the outside observer what is Good about it ?

It is sometimes noted that Good Friday is only called Good Friday because we know the end of the story. That we know in two days time the painful, horrific events of today are turned around.

I understand that we find comfort in difficult time in knowing that everything is going to be alright in the end.

But the people around Jesus did not know that.

Peter believed that Jesus last memory of him would be his denial. not standing by his friend, his teacher at the time of need.

The other disciples believed that everything that have been taught, everything they had believed had just been discredited through the trial, had been demolished through the beating and now hung lifeless on a cross.

It is easy for us to say that , it OK we know the end, we know it will be ok in a few days and we do look forward to Easter Sunday and all that it entails. But calling today Good Friday because of what happens on Sunday robs us of the understanding that today is indeed Good. Only focusing on what is to come makes this inconsequential Friday and believe me if today is anything it is not inconsequential.

- Lets recap on the events of today

video.

The Sky has gone dark - in this man on that cross God has judged the whole of humanity.

In the cries of Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Jesus took all the sin and shame that belongs to me and to you, to the prisoner on the cross and to all that recognise Him as Lord and dealt with it there and then in that moment.

With aloud cry this man, gave up his spirit the curtain to the Holy of Holies , the veil was torn in two. Never again would it stand in between man kind and God. Never again would the presence of God be reserved for the priest - instead man and God are reconcile through the actions of Jesus, the Christ, Son of God.

The events of today are not just the prelude to Sunday. Today of all days in not in consequential. Today is Good Friday. it may be sad, it may be hard, it may be shocking but today is Good - today is the day that Sin has lost it grip on you and that Father God - welcomes you back into his presence, clean, sanctified and adopted. - how can this not be Good.

Worship - at the cross - love ran red

Good Friday is all about the cross. The events that lead up to it and crucially the events that happen upon it. Our lives should also be about the cross as we live in the knowledge and reality that we are reconciled with God. The all SIN and SHAME and illness and corruption were dealt with here.

Today is Good Friday and we should go into the world knowing why it is Good.

I’ll leave the last words to the video but lets pray...

Thank you

Recognise

communitcate

Blessing Video