Good Friday

Bruce Please play this after the countdown to the service (5:32 minutes) starting at 10:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsSWhMEQLhc

(George to Read this slowly and with emphasis)

Call to Worship

Psalm 22:1–18 (NASB95)

1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?

Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.

2 O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;

And by night, but I have no rest.

3 Yet You are holy,

O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

4 In You our fathers trusted;

They trusted and You delivered them.

5 To You they cried out and were delivered;

In You they trusted and were not disappointed.

6 But I am a worm and not a man,

A reproach of men and despised by the people.

7 All who see me sneer at me;

They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,

8 “Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him;

Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”

9 Yet You are He who brought me forth from the womb;

You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts.

10 Upon You I was cast from birth;

You have been my God from my mother’s womb.

11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near;

For there is none to help.

12 Many bulls have surrounded me;

Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.

13 They open wide their mouth at me,

As a ravening and a roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water,

And all my bones are out of joint;

My heart is like wax;

It is melted within me.

15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

And my tongue cleaves to my jaws;

And You lay me in the dust of death.

16 For dogs have surrounded me;

A band of evildoers has encompassed me;

They pierced my hands and my feet.

17 I can count all my bones.

They look, they stare at me;

18 They divide my garments among them,

And for my clothing they cast lots.

Hymn Lead me to Calvary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddkqa8PSmHo

Confession of Sin

Declaration of Pardon

Ten Commandments

Children’s Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL8R158Ujp4

Childrens Song - https://youtu.be/rctVRkGz0_k

Hymn Man of Sorrows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ_eGr8ZAmw

Sermon - Barabbas or Christ

We see the most vivid illustration in the New Testament of just two great moral lessons: Pilate’s behaviour shows the wicked wrong of indecision, and the chief priests’ choice of Barabbas’ release shows the utter foolishness of a wrong decision. These will become apparent, each in its turn, as we look at the story.

I. First of all, we will group together the incidents of the history, so that their order may be seen.

1. Notice the rapid action of the priests Mar 15:1.

Mark 15:1 NASB95

1 Early in the morning the chief priests with the elders and scribes and the whole Council, immediately held a consultation; and binding Jesus, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pilate.

It must have been very late on Thursday night when the great council finished the condemnation of Jesus. But the moment that was over, the priests hurried Him at dawn into the presence of the Roman governor. Their feet ran to evil, and they made haste to shed innocent blood Isa 59:7.

Isaiah 59:7 (NASB95)

7 Their feet run to evil, And they hasten to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, Devastation and destruction are in their highways.

2. Now comes the providential moment for Pilate.

The wisdom of God so orders it that this man shall be able to meet his tremendous responsibility unembarrassed by a mob for his audience. These zealots, like all creatures who have the form of godliness but deny the power thereof, are so emphatically pious that even in the midst of murder they are concerned about an issue of law; they will not enter the judgment hall because they might be so defiled that they could not eat the passover (Joh 18:28). This left Pilate the chance calmly to converse with Jesus alone.

3. Then follows the pitiable period of subterfuge which always follows a shirked duty.

Convinced of our Lord’s innocence, Pilate proposed that his official authority should just be counted out in this matter. He told the chief priests to take their prisoner themselves, and deal with Him as they pleased.

To this he received a reply which showed their savage animosity, and at the same time showed the use they meant to make of his power. They cried out that the only reason why they had consulted him at all was found in the unlawfulness of killing a man without due form of procedure (Joh 18:30-31).

4. Next to this is recorded the attempt of the governor to shift his responsibility. Pilate learned from the mere chance use of a word that Jesus was from Galilee; and as this province was in the jurisdiction of Herod, the titular monarch of the Jews, he sent his prisoner under a guard over to the other palace (Luk_23:7). The king was quite glad to see this Nazarene prophet, and tried to get Him to work a miracle, but did not succeed in evoking so much as a word from His lips (Isa_53:7). But before the return, he put a slight on Jesus’ kingly claims, so that Pilate might know how much in derision he held them. The soldiers mocked Him, arraying Him in a gorgeous robe, and then led Him back into the presence of the governor again.

5. At his wits’ end, Pilate at last proposes a compromise. He remembered that there was a custom, lately brought over from Italy into Palestine, of freeing someone of the State’s prisoners every year at Passover as a matter of proconsular clemency (Mar_15:6). He offered to let Jesus go under this rule. Such a procedure would be equivalent to pronouncing him technically a criminal, but thus His life would be spared. But the subtle priests put the people up to refuse this favour flatly.

6. The governor’s wife now meets him with a warning from a dream. He had returned to the judgment seat, and was just about to pronounce the decision. His wife interrupted: “Have thou nothing to do with that just man” (Mat_27:19). This threw Pilate into a frantic irresolution once more. A second time he left the room, and went forth to reason and expostulate with the infuriated crowd at the door. With renewed urgency he pressed upon their consideration the half-threat that he would let loose on them this wretch Barabbas, if they persisted in demanding Jesus’ death (Luk_23:18). This only exasperated them the more.

7. Finally, this bewildered judge gave his reluctant consent to their demands. But in the act of condemnation he did the most foolish thing of all he did that awful day. He took water and washed his hands before the mob, declaring thus that he was innocent of the blood of the just person he was delivering up to their spite (Mat_27:24).

II. So we reach the crisis of events in the spiritual career of that ruler and of that nation.

1. Notice the singular picture. It is all in one verse of the Scripture (Mar 15:15). Two men, now in the same moment, appear in public on the steps of the Praetorium: Jesus and Barabbas. One of them was the Son of God, the Saviour of men. “Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate *said to them, “Behold, the Man!”” (Joh 19:5).

Art has tried to reproduce this scene.

Dore has painted the whole of it;

Guido Reni has painted the head with thorns around the forehead.

Others have made similar attempts according to their fancy or their ability.

It is a spectacle which attracts and discourages. Beyond them all, however, lies the fact which each Christian will be likely to fashion before his own imagination.

Jesus comes forth with His reed and His robe: Barabbas alongside! This creature has never been a favourite with artists. He was a paltry wretch any way, thrust up into a fictitious importance by the supreme occasion. We suppose him to have been quite a commonplace impostor. Bar means son; Abba, which some interpret as father. Very likely he chose his own name as a false Messiah, “Son of the Father;” indeed, some of the ancient manuscripts call him “Jesus Barabbas.” He does not poise picturesquely

2. The moral of this scene turns upon the wilful choice made between these two leaders, the real and the pretended Christ. Now let it be said here that the whole history is often repeated even in these modern times. It is unwise to lose the lesson taught us by rushing off into pious execration of those bigoted Jews. Men had better look into their own hearts. In his introduction to the study of metaphysics, Malebranche remarks very quietly, “It is not into a strange country that such guides as these volumes of mine will conduct you; but it is into your own, in which, not unlikely, you are a stranger.” It will be well to bear in mind that the decision is offered and made between Jesus and Barabbas whenever the Lord of glory is represented in a principle, in an institution, in a truth, in a person.

3. So let us pause right here to inquire what this decision involves for those who make it. The illustration is helpful, and we can still employ it. Dwell a moment upon the deliberateness of the choice which the multitude made that day. The exhibition was perfectly intelligible: it always is. There is Barabbas! there is Christ! When a sharp moral crisis is reached, men generally know the side they ought to choose. Right and wrong, truth and error, sin and holiness, the world or God-this is just the old Jerusalem scene back again. Such a choice fixes character. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” When one wills strongly, he moulds himself in the likeness of the thing he chooses. The old Castilian proverb says, “Every man is the son of his own work.” Then observe the responsibility of the choice between Barabbas and Christ. The chief priests declared they would take it (Mat_27:25). Pilate could ruin no soul but his own. In the end Jesus’ blood rested upon the nation that slew Him. Oh, what a history! a land without a nation-a nation without a land! All the vast future swung on the hinge of that choice. Note, therefore, the reach of this decision. It exhausted all the chances. Once-on that Friday morning early-those two men stood side by side, and Pilate asked the question, “Whether of the twain?” (Mat_27:21). It was never possible after that to traverse the same spiritual ground of alternative again. Whoever chooses the wrong must go and fare for good or ill with the thing he has chosen. The thief becomes master, the murderer lord.

III. We are ready now to receive the full teaching of the story: our two lessons appear plainly.

1. We see the wicked wrong of indecision. We are agreed that Pilate wished to let Jesus go. But when he gave Him up to the spite of His murderers, he himself “consented” and so shared the crime (Psa_50:18). Thus he destroyed his character. Trimming, injustice, cruelty: step by step he went down, till he added a scourging which nobody demanded. “The facility with which we commit certain sins,” says Augustine, “is a punishment for sins already committed.” Thus he also destroyed his reputation. One man there has been whose name was put in an epistle just for a black background on which to write a name that was white (1Ti_6:13). The same was put in the Apostles’ Creed that all Christendom might hold it in “everlasting fame” of infamy: “crucified under Pontius Pilate.”

2. We see also the utter ruin of a wrong decision. Do not waste any more thought on Pilate or the Jews. Think of yourself. See life and death, blessing and cursing; choose life (Deu_30:15; Deu_30:19). Do not forfeit what may be your soul’s last chance. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

The Power of the Cross Just sit and listen, meditate on the power of the cross and the Saviour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAk0nvV5jJo

Offering Will be taken at the door after the service

Hymn The old rugged cross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seVi9TKoylc

Benediction

The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.