Good Friday
Notes
Transcript
Intro
If you have your Bibles open with me to Matthew 27:32.
Tonight, we are gathered on what is known as Good Friday. We call today good, but why do we call today good. How could today be a good day if today is the day our very Savior, Jesus Christ was led up the hill of Golgotha to be crucified. How can that possibly be good? It seems as though today should be a day of mourning for the Christian. Typically, death is an instance of mourning as a loved one is departed either to heaven or hell. However, we as Christians look on today, Good Friday, with thanksgiving and rejoicing. The reason we rejoice is because the death of Jesus Christ was all for us. We rejoice in a Savior who lived a perfect life in full accordance with the law all for the sake of dying upon a cruel cross to pay for sin that He did not commit. We rejoice in a Savior that became flesh for us in order to die for us. We rejoice because this is love, grace, and mercy.
Let’s read of the crucified Savior that we worship tonight.
32 As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. 33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 36 Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” 38 Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. 39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
55 There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him,
Pray.
As we read here of Jesus’s death on the cross of Calvary, we are reminded of God the Father who loves so much that He gave up His Son to die on the cross for us. We are reminded of Jesus the Son who faithfully submitted to the Father to bring about salvation. We are reminded of the Holy Spirit that was sent and now dwells within our hearts as believers. As I shared with our students on Wednesday night, the Gospel is all of grace and mercy.
As we venture back to the Garden of Eden, we remember Adam and Eve in the garden were sinless and able to walk with God in the Garden. God had created them, and they had access to Him. Yet, Adam and Eve were deceived and fell to the temptation offered up by the serpent, satan. Adam and Eve were tempted with the draw of becoming like God, and they fell to sin. Humanity was last and incapable to honor God on their own. There was now a distance between God and man. However, there was a promised Son.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
This offspring of Adam and Eve would come and would bruise the head of the serpent. Hope was promised. As we continue through history, it seems as though this coming Son is certain to arrive soon. We see in Genesis 49 that the coming would will come and rule bringing hope for humanity. God raises up men like Moses, Joshua, and David, yet each of these men are sinful just as all of humanity. None of these men come to make it all right or to lead and restore humanity. But, hope is found as God promises David that One is coming who will rule forever.
12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men,
Here again, hope is found in One is who coming to reign forever. Again, a Son is promised to come with deliverance.
Psalm 110 gives us more insight into the coming one.
1 The Lord says to my Lord:
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”
2 The Lord sends forth from Zion
your mighty scepter.
Rule in the midst of your enemies!
3 Your people will offer themselves freely
on the day of your power,
in holy garments;
from the womb of the morning,
the dew of your youth will be yours.
4 The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind,
“You are a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is at your right hand;
he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations,
filling them with corpses;
he will shatter chiefs
over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the brook by the way;
therefore he will lift up his head.
A Priest King is coming to restore humanity back to right relationship to God. Notice that David says the Lord says to my Lord. This is speaking directly of the coming One. He will be sent from God and He will come as a priest and king. Yet, the Old Testament also tells us of the coming One in Isaiah 9.
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
The promised One is to come and He will be a Son given. What this means is that He is a Son given from God the Father and not only that He will be called mighty God. He is going to be fully man and fully God. Then, Isaiah in chapter 53 says
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.
This coming priest King will bear the iniquities of sinners and be pierced for our transgressions. He will be crushed.
Why? Who is this coming Son?
This coming One is Jesus Christ! He is the One who came and He is the One that makes this Friday Good. As we were all lost in sin and incapable of honoring God on our own, we were desperately sinful and depraved and worthy and deserving of God’s wrath and hell. That is what we were worthy of, but God in His grace and mercy provided His very own Son to die for us as we read earlier in Matthew 27.
Jesus, the very Son of God, was in heaven with God. God’s creation had turned on Him in disobedience and sin because of this, His creation was worthy of death and hell.
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
Likewise,
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
None of us live up to the law. All of us are born with a sin nature and disobey God at every turn. All of us were lost and entrenched in sin.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
We were children of wrath because of our sin. We had no hope. But then, God’s grace and mercy swooped in as Jesus Christ came. Now, we rejoice in verses 4-10 of Ephesians 2.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Jesus came to die on the cross in order to make us alive in Him. That is what makes this Friday Good. We were all once enslaved to sin and on our way to hell. But God, in His grace and mercy sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us in order that our sin would be atoned for, and we could be forgiven and saved. Jesus is the promised Son that was given by God. He is the One that was chastised for us. He is the One who had the very wrath of God poured out upon Him. He is the One that paid the price for your sin and for my sin. This is Good Friday, the SOn of God lifted up on the cross of Calvary all for us. Now, we get to celebrate this very day and we can sing Oh, Death where is your sting? Oh hell, where is your victory? Because in Jesus Christ our sins are paid for. Likewise, it is Good Friday because we know the message doesn’t stop at Friday. We look to Sunday when the Promised Son of God, Jesus, was raised from the grave with victory in hand.
The Promised One has come and we have salvation which makes this a Good Friday in which we have the privilege to repent of sin and proclaim the death of Christ until He comes through the Lord’s Supper. For now, we partake of this meal together as a church on earth, but when He comes again for His church, we will share this meal with Him in heaven. Oh, what a Savior we serve.
Let us pray.