Good Friday Sermon

Scripture Reading

John 18:1–10 ESV

1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. 2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5 They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7 So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” 9 This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.” 10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)

Scripture Reading

John 19:1–16 ESV

1 Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” 7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. 9 He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.” 12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” 13 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” 16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus,

Introduction

The Wood Worker

The woodworker in our story today had a problem of confused priorities. You know he did not set out to do anything malicious. He didn't set out to hurt anyone. He just saw an opportunity to make money and stepped into it. His wife warned him time and time again that it it really wasn't worth it. But living as a provider in this time of inflation I can imagine the constraints and the poll he felt to provide well for his family. And yet in the end he saw that his simple choice to provide and make a little bit of money and ignore the warnings of his wife resulted in him participating in something that would haunt him the rest of his life.

Now let's be clear there's no account of the woodworker who made the cross of Jesus in the Bible. This is fiction. But the struggle that this man faced with his life priorities is something we all face as well isn't it? We struggle to wrestle with what is most important and far too often we justify far too much.

Far too often we prioritize the wrong thing.

Jesus came to earth and went to the cross because he chose to prioritize the right thing. His priority was making a way for people to come back to God. His priority was finding a solution for the plague of sin. His choice was to live a life on a mission with a priority to do what had to be done for the sake of others.

I like this definition of priority:

Priority is superiority and rank, position, or privilege.

Perhaps you've had someone say to you “ you need to get your priorities straight period.” What they really mean as you need to change your priorities. You need to rre-rankwhat's really important to you. And act on that change.

The Jewish woodworker in this video had misplaced priorities. Throughout their history as a nation the Jewish people had prioritized suffering together through whatever they went through. But for whatever reason this man was willing to surrender commitment to community for the sake of serving the Romans. He was willing to create a cross that would allow a fellow Jew to suffer and die.

Before Jesus suffered and died on the cross he spent his ministry years teaching throughout the galilean countryside. Perhaps the most famous sermon he preached is known as the sermon on the mount and you find it in Matthew chapters 5-6 and seven. And some have called this sermon on the mount a sermon about priorities.

really the whole sermon was about whether or not we are willing to take a risk on faith. Are we willing to trust God with this thing called faith?

In the sermon on the mount Jesus taught that simply an outward appearance of obeying the law and following God isn't quite enough.

Remember what Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 6:

Matthew 6:16–18 ESV

16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Jesus wanted us to understand that it wasn't enough to just look like we were following out on the outside God wanted a heart change.

Jesus was teaching his disciples and oz that we need to prioritize not only what is on the outside of the person but what God sees on the inside.

Now fasting wasn't something that Jesus opposed. In fact Jesus himself fasted as we saw in the gospels and he expected his followers to do the same at times period fasting is choosing to go without something for a period of time. Fasting is a way to make sure God is the number one priority over food.

The Pharisees in Jesus day wanted to make a big deal out of their practice of fasting. They wanted everyone to know just how godly they were.

Honestly it's like posting pictures of your vacation period while you're on vacation period if you didn't post pictures did you really go. We want to post our best life now online and show it to everyone. But sometimes that demonstrates that our priority is impressing people instead I've simply investing in our family. For the Pharisees their priority was showing other people how religious they were. What Jesus wanted them to know was really they had no right fasting if they didn't have a right heart. A right heart leads to a right attitude. And a right heart comes from making following Jesus our priority in our life.

It's been said and I love this quote:

Spiritual problems always are heart problems.

Pay attention to what Jesus talks about the heart in these upcoming verses. Remember Jesus is concerned about where our heart priority is. What we value in our hearts.

Matthew 6:19–24 ESV

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

In these verses Jesus is talking about heart problems. And we need to remember that spiritual problems are heart problems. And let's be clear Jesus was not demonizing saving money. He was not saying it's bad for us to take care of our family. But we need to remember that anything we lay up on earth can be destroyed. That's why we need to prioritize and serve our heavenly master.

Rust is something that eats away at metal doesn't it? I've got rust spots on the sides of our minivan. Places where there used to be structure and now It will fall off if I touch it. Jesus was saying that the things that we have on earth so much of it can be taken and eaten away.

Here's a few questions to think about:

What's eating away at you this season of life?

What's eating away at your peace?

What's eating away at your joy?

What's eating away at your hopes?

Could it be possible that what is eating away at you as a misplaced priority? Could it be that you are prioritizing something wrong in your life?

Perhaps the woodworker in our video today didn't have money problems... perhaps he had a heart problem period perhaps he's so much wanted to provide things that he placed his priority on the wrong things and did the wrong work.

Jesus loves us. Jesus wants us to be free from the tyranny of things. But Jesus also recognized that we need the necessities of life. We need our needs to be fulfilled. Jesus is not advocating and teaching a life of austerity in poverty but a life of freedom from worshipping things.

Biblical scholar DA Carson writes:

“The things most highly treasured (prioritized) occupy the ‘heart,’ the center of the personality, embracing mind, emotions and will;

and thus the most cherished treasure (priority) subtly but infallibly controls the whole person's direction and values."

Considering this quote here we have to ask the question,

Do you like the direction of your life?

If the direction we are going will determine where we go does that mean we are on a track that's going to bring us closer to God? Is it going to Browns closer to the person he wants us to be? If there are areas in our lives that need to be re prioritized we need to consider those today. If we don't reconsider misplaced priorities these misplaced priorities will continue to eat away at our life. Spiritual problems are heart problems.

Jesus sacrificed because he prioritized the will of the father and through that sacrifice he brought salvation to the world. Are you willing to prioritize the right thing in your heart and life today?

Matthew 6:21 ESV

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:24 ESV

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

You must prioritize who owns you. You cannot serve both God and money.

What is your priority?

Who is your priority?

Where are your eyes focused?

It's telling to note that in the latter verses that we just looked at Jesus talks about our eyes. If her eyes are healthy then the rest of our body is healthy. What we look at and the perspective we bring to life determines our spiritual health as it were.

Jesus challenges us to live a loving and a generous life. He challenges us to plus share and trust. Living where we love our neighbor as ourselves allows us to avoid the destruction of making money something we worship.

Think about it in your life. The people you know who have found their lives destroyed or hurt by money have been people who have prioritized money and personal gain above other things. The people in our lives who have used money as a tool for blessing and have been themselves blessed by their money have been people who have prioritized loving and serving others.

We need to each understand one other thing as well. We are a priority to God he cares about us and for us and loves us.

Easter is all about what God was willing to do to show his love to us. What God was willing to do to display how much he cares for us. That's what he star is about. And what we are called to do is to live out a response to that love.

Remember once Jesus was asked what must I do to inherit eternal life Jesus said love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus was talking about the priority of the heart that leads to blessing others with our outward actions. If our heart is rightly prioritized everything else falls into place.

final question:

What is 1 area in our hearts and lives that we need to reprioritize today?

Scripture Reading

John 19:17–30 ESV

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. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” 23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.