Story of the Cross

Readings:

Narrator 1 – Ben Kimmell

Narrator 2 – Jeret Foshee

Reader 1 – Justin Poore

Reader 2 – Sarah Sapp

Reader 3 – Mitch Stephens

Reader 4 – Abbey Tharpe

Narrator 1:

As we gather together on this Good Friday evening, we do so to mark the climactic moment when God’s plan to save this desperate and sin-ridden world arrived at its consummation. It is the moment when God Himself took on the pain, the sorrow, the sins of the world onto Himself and broke its power by the power of His own sacrificial love.

Tonight, we gather to contemplate the story of the cross. It is a story that began in a Garden in the distant past.

Reader 1 Genesis 1 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Narrator 2: And so, human beings were to be both princes and priests. Adam and Eve were to embody God’s glory before the world by mediating His reign of justice. Acting as priests, they reflected the glory of creation back to the Creator through worship and adoration. But they abandoned that divine purpose when the serpent seduced them into believing that they could declare their independence from God. And in that moment, all of creation was plunged into darkness as its caretakers became the cause of its curse.

But even in that moment of cosmic darkness, God planted the seeds of future hope.

Reader 2 Genesis 3:14-15 14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 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."

Narrator 1: And so it was that creation was cursed. Sin entered the world through Adam’s disobedience. It escalated with the murder of Abel and the rise of godless civilization. God’s plan for marriage, family, society, and culture were corrupted and twisted. Instead of justice there is injustice, instead of humanity there came inhumanity. Evil spreads throughout the earth.

But suddenly the story takes an unexpected turn. From rebellion against God, we now see the beginning of God’s plan to rescue His world.

Reader 3 Genesis 12 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Narrator 2: Abraham’s faith would be the answer to Adam’s failure. God would bless Abraham with a redeemed family that would cross every line that divides. Abraham’s family would be composed of people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. As Paul would later say, “Abraham’s family would inherit the earth.”

Through family dysfunction and natural disasters, God sovereignly blessed and secured Abraham’s descendants. The story of beginnings closes with the family securely in Egypt during a devastating famine.

The next act in the drama of redemption opens with the family of God flourishing in Egypt. But there arose a Pharaoh in Egypt who knew not Joseph and all that he’d done to save the people. Israel was oppressed. Genocidal kings tried to wipe out the elect family. Their labors were increased, and the people cried out to God. He heard their cries and raised up Moses to deliver His people from slavery in Egypt.

Reader 4 Exodus 3:13-14 13 Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Narrator 1: I AM is the living God of both creation and covenant. He is the one who brought repeated and devastating judgments, humiliating the false and lifeless idols of Egypt. And the final judgment was ironic justice against Egypt. As Pharaoh ordered the death of Israelite sons in the Nile, so now the angel of death would strike down the firstborn of Egypt.

And yet Israel was spared. Anticipating the ultimate deliverance of Christ, they took the Paschal Lamb and covered their doors with its blood.

Narrator 2: But as Israel departed Egypt, Pharaoh hardened his heart and pursued Israel into the dessert. With their backs against the sea and the chariots of Pharaoh bearing down, the people panicked and turned to Moses…

Reader 1 - Exodus 14:13-14 13 And Moses said to the people, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."

Narrator 1: Moses stretched out his hands and God summoned a great wind that piled up the waters. Israel fled through the midst of the sea. As Pharaoh’s army followed, Moses stretched out his hand once more and the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh’s entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained. Thus God completed the greatest and most spectacular miracle of Old Covenant deliverance.

Weeks later these refugees arrive at the foot of Mt. Sinai, and there God received them into covenant fellowship.

Reader 2 - Exodus 19:5-6 The LORD called to [Moses] out of the mountain, saying, "…5Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Narrator 2: Through fire and fury, God took this ragged band of former slaves and fashioned them into a covenant people who would now embody His purposes for all humanity. The covenant was confirmed, Israel was now the elect nation of all nations. They were the kingdom of priests and princes. Israel was the new Adam, and they were headed to Canaan to live in the new Eden.

God promised to dwell with His people as He’d dwelt with Adam and Eve in the Garden. The tabernacle was constructed despite idolatry with a golden calf, and God’s own glory came down.

Reader 3 - Exodus 40:34 34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

Reader 4 - Leviticus 19 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.

Reader 1 - Leviticus 20 You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

Narrator 1: Obeying God’s Laws would not only sanctify and separate Israel, but they would also be a witness to the nations. As for God’s Laws, He charged Israel…

Reader 2 - Deuteronomy 4 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

Narrator 2: The Covenant, however, came with clear and urgent conditions. Obedience would bring God’s blessing on the people. But disobedience, as sin always does, would bring the curse.

Reader 3 - Leviticus 26 Blessings 3 "If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely… 9 I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you…11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Reader 4 - Dt. 4.25-28 Curses 25 "[But] When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD your God so as to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 "The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD drives you. 28"There you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

Narrator 1: And in the sovereign counsels of God, He anticipated the failure of Israel to maintain the terms of the covenant. And so He also promised that when the curses came, God Himself would rescue His disobedient people from all the nations to which they’d been banished. He would rescue Israel and renew the covenant. But that renewal would come with deeper dimensions of changed and devoted hearts.

Reader 1 - Deuteronomy 30: And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

Narrator 2: From covenant renewal and conquest of the Promised Land, the fortunes of Israel soon turned. God was their king, but Israel was unfaithful. So God began to bring the covenant curses upon Israel. There were repeated cycles of sin and repentance. In the days of the Judges, every man did what was right in His own eyes.

And so they demanded a king like all the other nations. But even David, the best and noblest of all Israel’s kings, fell far short of God’s ideal. Israel would need another King, a Good Shepherd who would embody holiness and administer true justice.

Narrator 1: Sin separated the northern kingdom of Israel from the southern kingdom of Judah. Both kingdoms became soaked with idolatry, disobedience, and sin. Through hundreds of years God sent the prophets to call the people to repentance, but in the end, the curses inevitably came.

The northern kingdom was destroyed. The southern kingdom was taken into captivity. Ezekiel described in vivid detail the glory of God departing the Temple. The Davidic dynasty was in shambles and the promises of the covenant seemed shattered. The people were devastated. Jerusalem was in ruins. The Temple had been destroyed. Israel was now in exile.

Reader 2 - Psalm 137 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" 4 How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?

Narrator 2: But even in the darkest days of Israel’s captivity, God spoke a message of hope through His prophet:

Reader 3 - Isaiah 40 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. 3A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God…9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem…fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"

Narrator 1: The return of Yahweh would mean nothing less that covenant renewal. But that renewal would be accomplished through God’s Servant. His Servant would be Highly Exalted. But before the exaltation of the Servant must come the humiliation and death of the Servant.

Reader 4 - Isaiah 53 3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…4Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. 6All 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.

Narrator 2: And suddenly, after centuries of shame, the silence was finally shattered by a thundering prophetic voice…

Reader 1 - Matthew 3 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 3For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord..."

Narrator 1: It was the anointing of God, the descent of the Spirit that marked Jesus out as the embodied return of YHWH to Israel. Jesus would renew the covenant, end the exile, not of earthly Israel, but all of humanity.

The new Exodus would deliver humanity from the enslaving power of sin. In Jesus, God would keep His promises, He would complete the covenant, end the exile, and return to dwell with His people forever. This is the story of the cross. Jesus is the climax of the Covenant. This is where God’s purposes had been heading all along.

Reader 2 Matthew 5:17-18 17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Reader 3 Romans 10 4 For Christ is the end (the aim, the goal) of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Reader 4 - Galatians 3 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us- for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"- 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Narrator 2: And Jesus commemorated this curse-bearing covenant renewal, the completion and climax of the covenant with a final and special Passover Meal. For the cross would be the ultimate Exodus, providing for the forgiveness of sins. And end humanity’s exile from God’s presence forever.

Reader 1 - Luke 22:14-20 14 And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. 15 And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer…19And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 20And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Narrator 1: Only hours after eating his final meal, Jesus was betrayed by one of His closest friends. He was arrested on false charges by corrupt religious officials. He would be handed over to the Roman governor, scourged and paraded through the streets of Jerusalem to the place of the Skull. There Jesus would seal His purpose and the destiny of God’s people at the cross where He would become the meeting place, the mercy place, the ultimate sin sacrifice and purification offering.

Reader 2 - John 1916 [Pilate] delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.

Narrator 2 – The Apostle Paul explains that cosmic significance of this moment in the Christ-hymn of Philippians 2.

Reader 3 - Philippians 2:6-11 Though [Jesus] was in the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Narrator 1: All the original covenant sacrifices were but types and shadows that pointed forward to the final sin offering. For the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins. But at the cross, Jesus bore and broke the covenant curses forever. And we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. This is the Climax of the Covenant. Behold, the cross of Jesus Christ.

Lord’s Supper - Ben

And when Jesus explained to His disciples the meaning of His imminent death, He did not offer them a lecture. He didn’t give them a theology textbook. Instead, He offered them a meal. The broken bread symbolizing the suffering of His own broken body. The cup symbolizing the blood Jesus shed as He gave His life for the ransom of many.

And so we join God’s global family across the world and down through the ages as we commemorate the death of Christ by receiving of this same symbolic meal.

The Lord’s Supper is one of two ordinances that Jesus left for His church to observe. Baptism marks out a person as belonging to Christ through faith as we are united with Him both in His death but also in His resurrected new life.

But the Lord’s Supper declares and displays our ongoing participation in the life of Christ and the life of His body, the church. It is a memorial we observe in the present, to remember what Jesus did in the past, so that we may celebrate and anticipate His return in the future.

This is an ordinance for those who have already been re-born of the Spirit through personal faith in Christ.

But we also recognize that there may be those among us who have yet to experience the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus. We are delighted you are with us for this sacred observance. We invite you to watch and learn. If this observance stirs questions in your own mind, we would love to talk to you after our service.

And as always, we ask parents of younger children to take this time to teach them children the meaning of the Lord’s Supper so that they, too, can share in this memorial when they come to personal saving faith in Christ.

Receive Communion Elements

Now, at this time, I would like to invite the heads of the households represented here to come forward and receive the communion packets for you and the members of your family who will join the celebration. If there are others sitting next to you in need of assistance, please help them as needed also.

The apostle Paul does caution the church, however, that the Lord’s Supper is not to be received in an unworthy manner.

1 Corinthians 11:27-31 27Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.

For this reason Pastor Ricky Bolden will lead us in a prayer of confession and preparation.

Prayer over Bread – Luke Murphy

Prayer over Cup – Justin Amman