Good Friday

 

I submit to you, this was the darkest day in history. On this day the Son of God was on trial--not for His sins, but for your sins and for mine. Hebrews 9:28, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many..."

 

6 AM

• Jesus Stands Trial Before Pilate

• He is beaten and whipped 40 times.

• The Roman soldiers mock him and place a crown of thorns on his head and drape purple cloth around him, signifying royalty.

• Jesus is sent to Herod 

 

There Jesus hung, suspended between heaven and earth, appearing before the judgment of God. The Judge was God the Father. The crime was sin. And The verdict was "guilty”.

 

7 AM

• Jesus is Returned to Pilate 

• The same people that were shouting “hosanna on the highest” six days ago are now yelling “crucify him” and Jesus is sentenced to death on the cross.

 

Have you ever let your mind dwell on that for a moment--the Son of God, taking your sin on Himself...allowing Himself to be judged in your place? When we think about it for a moment, it is staggering--it is beyond comprehension. 

 

8 AM

Jesus begins the 1-mile track from the temple carrying his cross, weighing 100lbs in total, all while being beaten.

 

Here is the only message I will proclaim on this Good Friday. Because what happened on this day some 2000 years ago was a murder, a cruel, painful, and utterly shameful execution. Paul the apostle says it best when he holds up the horror of the actual cross, “We preach Christ crucified.”

 

9 AM - "The Third Hour"

• Jesus Is Crucified

  • Soldiers drove Five-inch nails between Jesus' wrists bones and seven-inch nails through his heels, fixing him to the cross. 

  • The nails, they were incorporated into his munheca. There's a tendon in the munheca, It stretches to the Back and shoulder. The Roman soldier knew that when the nails were being carved in Munheca the tendon would tear, forcing Jesus to use his ribs to sustain himself so he could breathe. His two feet were carved on top of each other. This is how he was forced to stand. It was the only nail that tied his feet to the cross. Jesus couldn't lean on his legs for the pain. So he was forced to arch his back.

  • An inscription was placed over his head that read, "The King of the Jews." 

•  As they were mocking him He cried, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”

• The Soldiers Cast Lots for Jesus' Clothing 

 

I recently watched The Passion and there's always controversy regarding who killed the Son of God. Some say the Jews. Some say the Romans. Both of those are true. And when Christ is finally lowered into his mother's arms, she looks directly into the camera. Why?  Because you killed her son! You killed Christ. You are the Jews. You are the Romans. You and I killed Jesus. And when you read the bible, all four crucifixions, you draw to the same conclusion. You killed him.

 

10 AM

Jesus Is Insulted and Mocked

 

And if Jesus came again today, we the Romans and the Jews, the people living in Highland who do the same thing again. We would place him on the cross of today and reject him, because his words do not go along with what the world teaches.

 

11 AM

• Jesus and the Criminal 

  • the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." 

• Jesus Speaks to Mary and John “woman this is your son and this is your mother.”

 

Christ, the Son of God, comes to us and dies a real death, “Wrapped in our Sins,” says Paul. You see, actually wrapped in our sin, or bearing our sin is not some abstract affair. It is a real and public fact record in history. We beat him, spit on him, mock him as a king, crown him with thorns, torture him, forsake him, and in the end, kill him! Jesus bears our sins in his body.

 

Noon - "The Sixth Hour"

Darkness Covers the Land

 

The real event of Jesus dying for your sin still occurs. Day in, day out, and the cross must be understood in actual terms as what Jesus does to us, to You!

 

Jesus came and died for you because God is merciful, not to make God merciful. We killed Jesus because he forgave sins, not to make forgiveness possible. In the cruel cross God reveals his own innermost heart, a heart of mercy for His children.

 

The cross is what it costs God to remain a God of mercy. And this cross cannot and must not be simply woven into a seamless idea of our mind. Because it is a tear in the fabric of life itself. Matthew, Mark, and Luke talk about darkness at noon, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two,” the earth shook, and the rocks were split.”

 

1 PM

• Jesus Cries Out to the Father 

  • Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” 

• Jesus Is Thirsty and the soldiers give him water soiled with vinegar.

 

The cross is a wound that does not simply heal and leave no scar. And the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Demands an answer.

 

And so comes about his sacrifice. Jesus dies at our hands. But even in death he cries, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” And just so it is for you!

 

Jesus Christ was crucified because he had the audacity to forgive your sin. A forgiveness said by God in particular for You. Jesus died precisely because he said, “I forgive you in God’s name.” He died because we would not have it. Did he die in vain?

 

2 PM “the final hour”

• And he cried “It Is Finished. Father Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit”