Good Friday Service 2007
Vern Peterman · Apr 6, 2007
Holidays
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926022491058

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

you. you So, I'm going to go ahead and do that. Thank you. Yeah. you you Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. you I love you. and and and and and and and so you Amen. Amen. Amen. I'm going to go to bed. You want to all please rise and join us in singing.

When I survey the wondrous grounds On which the Prince of Glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And more content on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast Saving the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See from his head, his hand, his feet, Sorrow and love flowing out. Testis love and sorrow meet, O'er thorns compose so rich a crown. This second one might be new to some of you. Just jump in when you can. If you're not comfortable with it, whenever you want. My Lord, what love is this that pays so dearly that I, a guilty one, may go free! Amazing love!

O what sacrifice the Son of God giv'n for me? My debt He pays, and my death He dies, and I, my fear, and I, my fear, And so they watched him die, despised, rejected But oh, the blood he shed flowed for me Amazing love Oh, what sacrifice the Son of God giv'n for me!

My dead He made, and my dead He died, that I might live, that I might live. And now this love of Christ shall flow like rivers. Come wash your guilt away. Live again. Amazing love, O what sacrifice the Son of God given for me, my deadly fate. And my death he dies, and I might live. And I might live.

Your only Son, no sin to hide But you have sent Him from your side To walk upon this guilty spot And to become the Lamb of God Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God, I love the Holy Lamb of God, Who washed me in His precious blood, My Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Your gift of love they crucified, They laughed and scorned Him as He died. The humble king they named afar, And sacrificed the Lamb of God. O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God, I love the Holy Lamb of God. You wash me in His precious blood. I'm Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

Well, we'd like to welcome you tonight as we celebrate the Lord's death on Calvary. And, you know, it's kind of interesting when you think about this time that we're remembering. You know, we do that monthly here at Holly Hills at the Lord's table, and we're going to do that tonight as well. But it's a wonderful time to remember our Savior's death. And, you know, you think about His death, and it was, you know, an incredible thing. Nothing like that has ever happened before or will happen again.

And Christ described it in Hebrews 12, 2. He said, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. For the joy set before him. And I think Vern mentioned this a couple of weeks ago. It's an incredible statement. How could joy be in this situation? But there was joy in God's mind in this situation. And that's almost a mystery, that phrase in itself. And there was shame. There was awful shame. And he despised it. But it's a wonderful thing.

And I think in contrast to that, when Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, 26 talks about the Lord's table, he says, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. I mentioned this before when I've had a chance to share at the Lord's table. That's a proclamation. That's a telling of the good news. It's a telling of the wonderful news of his death. And it's been said of the Lord's Table, it's a great preacher of the death of Christ on the cross until he comes. And that's what we're doing tonight. We're proclaiming that death. And the world doesn't understand that. It seems, why are you proclaiming a man's death? Well, this death had the most significant death that ever has or ever will be.

And I'd like to point out a couple of things in these verses here on the overhead. In 1 John 4, 9 and 10, we have a wonderful revelation of God's love. And love is mentioned quite a few times in this passage. And it says, by this, the love of God was manifested in us that God sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. You know, starting in verse 9, there's kind of three parts that occurred to me. There's sort of the what, and the how, and the why. The what part is, well, what's happened?

God's love has been manifested. And that word manifest is to reveal. Actually, it's literally to take the lid off, to expose the light of day. God's love in a marvelous way was demonstrated on the cross at Calvary. And what's interesting is, it says in there, if you look carefully, it says, by this the love of God was manifested in us.

I think a better translation is probably among us, or in our case, So as John described in 1 John 1 where he talked about this physical interaction with the Lord Jesus, remember he said, you know, we touched him and we saw him and it's still in our mind's eye. I still see the Lord in my mind's eye. This very realistic picture that John portrays, the love of God is portrayed in this verse, I think, in the same way. that it's the love of God among us. We see the love of God among us in Christ's death on the cross. And that's a wonderful thing. That's an unveiling of God's love in a way that man kind of struggles with. And it's not man doing something, but God doing something.

And the how part says, and God sent his only begotten son into the world. And the idea of sending here is this word for, actually the word for apostle, the sent one. He was sent on a mission into the world. mission to pay for the sins of the world. And it's also this idea that it's this wonderful tense where it has a it's a pat the perfect tense where it's a past reality with present abiding results and He was sent in the past, and it still has results up into the future and into now. So in a sense, the Lord Jesus is still being sent into the world, which is kind of a mind-boggling thing in itself. And once again, it's sent off as a mission. And this uniquely begotten Son of God, that describes his uniqueness. Only begotten is that really better translated uniquely begotten one, the God-man. No other man like him. Whatever will be the third part is so that we might live or have life through him You know, the only life that you really have is when you come to know Christ You may think you have life man thinks he has life. I'll have this wonderful life. I'm so free I can do whatever I want.

Well, no, you're a slave to sin. You may not realize that but you are so when you come to know Christ you have true life in the truest sense of the word and in John 6 57 it says As the living Father sent me, I live because of the Father. So he who eats me, or maybe better, feeds on me, or interfaces with me, or abides in me, he also will live because of me. Every believer now is in a living union with Jesus Christ. A wonderful thing.

Now as we go on to verse 10, It says that in this love, in this is love, not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. So it starts off with kind of telling us that, you know, we think we have, man thinks that he can love, you know, you hear all the time, you know, love is all over the place, love, love, love, love, you know, I love this, I love that. But God really says, you know, love doesn't come from man, love, true love must come from me. And he says, basically, that the kind of love that God had did not originate with man. Yeah, right. It originated with God. And basically, he talks about it a little bit later on in 1 John 5, 19. He says, we know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. The world system cannot, in and of itself, produce love. Only God can produce love.

And the second point here is that, but he loved us and sent his son and sent his son. So here again, we have the idea that he carried out this mission by sending his son and his plan, it's interesting, his plan, what do you think his plan? His plan started when man sinned. Well, no, God knew in advance that was going to happen.

And if you look in Hebrews, we see that it talks about the eternal covenant. He talks about that. Now the God of peace who brought up from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep, to the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord." It talks about this covenant between the father and the son, that the son agreed to lay down his life and the father would raise him up again. And then the third point is that that is for the propitiation or the satisfaction of our sins.

And in 1 John 2.2, it kind of expands on that. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. And here, propitiation, satisfaction signifies the covering of our sins. Christ has paid for the sins, every single sin of the whole world.

And what's interesting is, what is man's response to that? What is man's response to God's paying for the sins of the world? Well, in John 3, 18, it says, he who believes in me is not judged. He who does not believe in me has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

So we are to believe this message of God's propitiation, his satisfaction for our sins. And when we do that, we become born again. We become a child of God. So his death has tremendous significance and continues on presently to have tremendous significance. Thank you.

How deep the Father's love for us How vast beyond all measure That he should give his only son To make of age his treasure. How great the pain of searing loss That a father turns his face away As wounds which mar the chosen one. many sons to glory. Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon his shoulders, ashamed I hear my mocking voice. Call out among the scoffers, It was my sin that held him there, Until it was accomplished.

His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished. I will not boast in any name, No gifts, no power, no wisdom, But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His birth and resurrection. Why should I keep from His reward? I cannot give an answer, But this I know with all my heart, His wounds have paid my ransom. His wounds have paid my ransom. As we look at the accounts in the Gospels of how our Lord came to be crucified, dying for our sins, one of them we come to is this Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 27, 27.

And it says there, then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around him. This is a picture of the stones on which our Lord stood when he was gathered before Pontius Pilate. You can even see some markings on the stones where the Roman soldiers played games on the floor. This is a model of the Fortress Antonia, where Pilate had Christ there in front of him. And where in the early hours of the day, he began to deal with Jesus who had been brought before him by the Jewish leaders.

And so he stood before the crowd, says, here's this Jesus. Should I set him free? As he was doing this, it says, they gathered the whole Roman cohort around him. Now, the cohort officially was something like 600 soldiers. But in fact, it can be used more informally. Hundreds of soldiers were around. Why? For the entertainment value.

There on the stones, Jesus stood. And you wonder why this is Jesus Christ. He's the Son of God. This is Jesus Christ, the creator of the whole universe. The one who called all this into existence. Why is he standing there on those stones like that, putting up with this nonsense? This wasn't fair. Even Pilate said, I find no fault in it. Why would he do that? Why? for God's soul of the world that he gave his only begotten son. This wasn't some sort of an historical accident. Instead, this was exactly what God had in mind. Amazingly. So the Roman cohort, the hundreds of Roman soldiers were gathered around for the entertainment value alone, no other reason.

And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and a reed in his right hand. And they knelt down before him and mocked him saying, hail, king of the Jews. And they spat on him and they took the reed and began to beat him on the head. The thorns in that area, likely acacia thorns, woven together into a cross, shoved down on his head so that it would be a mocking crown, a painful crown. Why did he put up with all that, that mocking?

That was unnecessary, certainly as the Son of God. He could easily have just said, no, I'm not putting up with this. There's no reason for this. I didn't do anything to justify this. Could he not have said that? But instead, as Paul wrote in Galatians, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me, he did so. He stood there while they did that, not because he was simply a victim, not because he was powerless to do so, anything else because of so many hundreds of Roman soldiers standing around? No. That wasn't the issue. He loved me and gave himself up for me. Here tonight, we can say that. Paul wrote this personally. He loved me and gave himself up for me. He went through this. Why? Because he loved me. And each of us can say that. Me. And gave himself for me. After they had mocked him, they took the scarlet robe off him and put his own garments back on him, and they led him away to crucify him.

We see here a map of the area in Jerusalem. Here was the Praetorium, the Fortress Antonia on the north end of the Temple Square. From there, they would lead him out to an area in roughly the northern part of the outside of Jerusalem. He would carry his own cross away in order to do that. After he'd been beaten, they would further ridicule him by making him carry the very cross on which he was to die. And so he carried it outside of the city for a ways. Finally, physically succumbing to all the things that had taken the energy and strength out of him physically. And so they pressed Simon of Cyrene.

It says in Matthew 27.32, As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear his cross. Cyrene was a city in North Africa. And he apparently had been on there during the season and was pressed into service. You carry the cross for this man.

When they came to that place called Golgotha, which means place of the skull, they gave him wine to drink mixed with gall. After tasting it, he was unwilling to drink. They would take the cup of wine mixed with gall as some means of deadening the pain, should he want that. He said, no, I'm not here to deaden the pain. I'm not here to have it be less. I must take it full." So he turned it away.

This is a place just outside of what would have been the city. It has some of the appearance of a skull, and so it's thought that this may have been the spot right on the mountain, right above it. And still you think, here he is. He is in a place where he's outside the city. Now it's getting down to the wire. Why doesn't he just call this off? This is really not necessary that he do this.

He didn't deserve this. But yet, in Ephesians 5, Paul wrote, Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us. an offering and a sacrifice to God. He was not there because he was forced by the Roman soldiers. No. He was not there no matter how many Roman soldiers were pressing him. That's not the reason. He was there because he loved you and me. That's why. He gave himself for us.

And when they'd crucified him, they divided up his garments among themselves by casting lots and sitting down, they began to keep watch over him there. The soldiers, once a person had been crucified, just had to make sure that nobody came and changed what was to be the outcome, a slow and painful death, typically. And so their job was to stand about for however many hours and sometimes dragging on until longer than that, and make sure that this person actually did die on the cross. Above his head, they put up the charge against him which read, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

And so they wrote in three languages this message. Crucifixion was intended by the Romans to be a billboard of shame. to say to everyone, don't mess with Rome. And so our Lord was there, and here was the truth in three languages above his head. Very few knew it, how true it was. At that time, two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. We know from other gospel accounts that one of them actually did come to a place of putting his trust in the Lord. And the Lord told him that this day you will be with me in paradise.

And those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, you are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Save yourself. If you're the son of God, come down from the cross. The robbers there who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words. In the same way, the chief priests also along with the scribes and the elders were mocking Him and saying, He saved others. He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel. Ha! Let Him come now down from the cross and we will believe in Him. Yeah, he trusts in God. Let God rescue him now. If he delights in Him, for he said, I'm the Son of God.

They mocked him. And then it says, from the sixth hour, darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, He took our sins, yours and mine, upon Himself. And because of that, because of your sins and mine upon Him, that, remember, He loved us. He gave Himself for us. He knew what He was doing.

But because of that, because of our sins upon him, not because of the nails, not because of the crown of thorns, not because of the shame and the pain, but because of our sins, the father turned away. The fellowship, which had been there from eternity past, was broken at that moment. And the separation from the Father that he had never known was there for that time. In Ephesians 5, farther down in the chapter from where we read before, Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. How repeatedly this message is brought forward. The nails did not hold him there. That's the appearance on the outside, but those nails didn't hold him there. Love held him there. Love for you and love for me. Phenomenal love. Amazing love. We'll shift here to the Gospel of John.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the scripture said, I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop." We see it pictured there in the corner. "...and brought it up to his mouth. Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished! And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." The word that he had there. It is finished. It is actually an accounting term. It's all paid. It's all done. The sins that you and I committed, that's all paid. It's all done. Every bit. Every one. Every single one.

It's done. and he bowed his head and remember how we saw he loved me and gave himself up for me and it was deliberate? It was by intent? This giving up his spirit was also by intent. Isn't that interesting? He gave up his spirit. He says, it's finished. I'm done here. He bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

What happened then? His body was on the cross. Many people saw it. Those who believed and those who mocked, they all saw it. The body was there. What happened to his spirit? Remember he told the thief, today you'll be with me in paradise. Today. This day. With the Lord. With his Father. As we look at this passage, what an incredible thing the Lord did.

Not as a victim. Certainly there would be many who would look on it and just say, well, he just seemed awful passive about this thing. No, he deliberately gave himself out of an unfathomable love for each of us. How immense a love that took for him to take all of our sins upon himself. because he loved us so very much.

The holy heart was broken, sent from the Father's side. The Son of God, forsaken, the holy sacrifice. For me he was forsaken, for me he died alone, my sin forever taken, that I might be his own. The Holy Lamb was stricken, abandoned and alone. He bore the world's affliction, He bore it as His own. For me He was forsaken, For me he died alone, My sin forever taken, That I might be his own. And when my heart is broken, Torn by my sin and pride, The Son of God, now risen, will draw me to His side. For me He was forsaken, for me He died alone, my sin forever taken. that I might be His own.

In Ephesians chapter 1, 3 through 8, are some of the results of the cross, maybe you would say. We're blessed with every spiritual blessing, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, he predestinated us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the intention of his will, to the praise of his glory, the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us and the beloved. In him we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses or sins according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us.

I thought my thoughts were first about the word redemption. The word redemption means to well, it's a word that means it's constant. We have redemption 10 years ago today, 10 years from now, and it means to buy out to particularly buy out of the slave marketplace of sin.

And in the slave marketplace of sin, we have been put there and can't get out. We cannot pay the price. And we're stuck, maybe is a way to say it. And so the Lord Jesus has come by his love to buy us out. And there's one form of currency that can get us out of there. Any idea what it is? It's his blood.

That's the only form of currency that the father would accept in terms of buying us, buying you and I out of the slave market of sin. So this particular aspect of redemption has to do with guilt and condemnation. And so the guilt of our sins has been taken care of and our condemnation has been taken care of. And as you look at the verse 7, it's a qualifying phrase so that we can have the forgiveness of sins.

So, his paying the price with his blood to buy us out really means that we have become his property now. In these times, if you bought a slave, then that slave belonged to you. If you wanted to, you could take them back to the marketplace and sell them. But the Lord Jesus Christ bought us for himself, every one of us, and he paid the price.

Now, we have forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness is a word, aphosin, which means to release or to put sin away by letting it go. as though you had never committed it. It had never been done. And so, it's a remission not only of the sin, but also of the penalty. God's forgiveness here refers to His act. It's something He did. We didn't do it. He did it. And He judicially put sin away. Put it away from us. And also, when the sin goes away, so does the guilt.

And He did all of this according to the riches of his grace. That's why he did it. So the question came up in my mind, why should there even be a penalty for sin? Why would it just because that's the way it was? No, I think it goes back to the character of who God is.

God is righteous and he's just. And because he's righteous, he has to demand certain things of his creation. His righteousness demands that his creatures be holy. And his justice, or the justness of God, demands that if man sins, he must punish it. He cannot look away from it. He has to punish it.

So the cross of Christ is really something that God has put together to satisfy himself. The Lord Jesus Christ took our place on that cross because there had to be punishment. And he was the only one who could satisfy the demands of God. And the demands of God were not just arbitrary. Arbitrary decisions that God made, well, these these guys sin, so I probably ought to have a penalty.

It has everything to do with who he is and his character. So The cross in itself demonstrates the righteousness of God. And the way that it does that, it shows the impossibility of God passing over or ignoring our sin. He couldn't do it. He just couldn't let it go. Christ must die because God can't overlook sin.

So this is God's side of the cross. And Roger mentioned the word propitiation, which is really redemption is kind of our side of the cross. Propitiation is God's side of the cross. And the reason that God doesn't execute punishment on you and me because of our sins is because of this issue of propitiation. He does not have to execute punishment on me because he did it on his son.

Romans 3.25 and 26 says, whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. So the definition of propitiation maybe could be the accomplishments of Christ whereby the demands of God's righteousness were satisfied, becoming effective only to those who believe. So it has to do with satisfying God and His righteousness.

Two things that happen at the cross that are important to us. One is redemption. The other is propitiation. Redemption is the work of the cross dealing with the buying out of the marketplace of sin. Deals with our bondage to sin and acts towards sin to free us. Propitiation is the work of the cross dealing with our liability to God.

We have a liability because we were sinners. It deals with the fact that we can't meet the demands of God ourselves. The demands of God were death because of sin. And if we were to die, there wouldn't be any salvation for us. So Christ has fully paid the demands of God. Both occurred at the same place and at the same time. One last thing about propitiation and justification. It's not only what Christ did, but it's what he is.

In 1 Corinthians 1.30, Paul says, but of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So he just didn't do it, he is it. And because we're in him, we share the same things.

Because of the cross of Christ, we can reckon and rest with confidence in several things. Number one, that we have been redeemed from the guilt and condemnation of our sins. That our sins have been totally put away. We are now the property of Jesus Christ. God's righteous demands for punishment of my sins and the demand for me to be holy have been satisfied by Christ himself.

We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings and is all to the praise of his glory, which is unlimited and unmerited grace, which he has lavished on us. Father, we do thank you for your son and for what he accomplished on the cross and for the suffering Messiah that he was, that he did this under his own choice. It wasn't done reluctantly. Father, we thank you what the cross represents, that through that our sin nature was dealt with. eradicated and we thank you that now we have the identification truths that we can know that we were co-crucified with Christ and we have all the spiritual blessings that he had on earth. In Christ's name we pray.

Amen. you you you you you For I receive from the Lord that which I also deliver to you. that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said take eat this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me you you so so I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there, I'll be there, In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Would you rise and sing with us?

Give thanks with a grateful heart Give thanks to the Holy One Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son Give thanks with a grateful heart Give thanks to the Holy One, give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ His Son. And now let the weak say, I am strong, Let the poor say, I am rich, because of what the Lord has done for us. And now, let the rich say, I am whole. Let the bound say, I am free, because of what The Lord has done for us Give thanks, give thanks And I'm forever grateful to you I'm forever grateful for the cross I'm forever grateful to you That you came to seek and save the lost You did not wait for me to draw near to you But you clothed yourself with frail humanity You did not wait for me to cry out to you But you let me hear your voice calling me And I'm forever grateful to you I'm forever grateful for your God I'm forever grateful to you That you came to seek and save the lost That you came to seek and save Oh