Good Friday Service 2012

so so I'm the the Good evening. Good to see you out tonight on this windy Friday night. Looking forward to what the Lord has for us tonight. Let's start our service tonight and look to the Lord. Father, we just thank you so much for this time of the season where we can focus upon the greatest event in all of history, and yet the world is focusing on bunnies and eggs. It's just unbelievable. And Father, we just ask that You would clear our hearts and our minds, that we can look upon You and let Your Holy Spirit teach us through the elders tonight. And we just thank You in Jesus' name.

Amen. Shall we stand and we're going to sing together? Here's one. There is love as vast as the ocean, Loving kindness as a flood, When the prince of life or ransom Shed for us his precious blood. To His love will I remember, who can cease to sing His praise. He can never be forgotten, the Lord reigns eternal praise. On the Mount of Crucifixion, fountains open deep and wide, through bondage of God's mercy, You may be seated.

I think you all got the handout that shows a timeline. And what was interesting to me was Jesus is crucified at nine o'clock in the morning and he hangs on the cross for six hours. And if you look at that, you can tell that sometimes in the word you'll see It's roughly the third hour, the fourth hour, the fifth hour, the sixth hour, which is Jewish time. Roman time is nine o'clock, ten o'clock, like what we're used to. In the gospel, it says, he said he was crucified on the third hour. He hung on the cross till three o'clock in the afternoon. Jesus had to say, six hours.

Am I on? One off? Right. In 3, 3, 3, he says that when he. The skull. One on the right and one on the left. Pretty simple. Golgotha is the place that he was crucified. The place of skulls. I want you to notice something else. That the crucifixion didn't take place inside the city of Jerusalem. It took place outside.

And there was a precedence for that in the Old Testament. If the Jews were going to execute somebody by stoning them, they always took them outside the city. And so they did that for, the Romans continued that, crucifying people outside of the city. Now that doesn't seem like that big of a deal until you happen to run into a verse, some verses in Hebrews 13 that says, therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate.

So let us go to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come." What's he saying? He's saying that salvation and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ did not happen in the center of Judaism. It isn't where it is. It's outside of there. It's at Golgotha, it's outside the camp. Salvation is not in Judaism. So, I think those of us who are going through the book of Hebrews now are realizing what a difference there is between living under a law system and under a grace system.

Now, the first recorded words of the Lord Jesus when he was crucified was But Jesus was saying, Father forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. And they cast lots dividing up as garments among themselves. If you look at forgiveness, it's pretty simple when it's a human forgiveness like between you and me. I did something that offended you and I just asked you to forgive me. But when God offers forgiveness, it just isn't that simple. It's more complicated than that.

As seen in the Bible, there's an analogy between forgiveness and debt. In the case of forgiveness which God exercised, there must be a debt paid. So here's the Lord Jesus just on the cross, hasn't been up there very long, or as they are crucifying him, he's already saying, Father, forgive them. And he can say it because the debt's being paid while he's saying it.

And it's being paid by himself, not by somebody else. So, we learn that while human forgiveness only remits a penalty or a charge, forgiveness by God requires complete satisfaction of the demands that God's holiness requires, and His holiness has been outraged by sin. So, the next thing that happens is, he says, they don't know what they're doing. It would seem like that he's offering forgiveness to them because they're ignorant, but it doesn't fit the pattern. A price has to be paid whether they're aware of it or not.

However, Peter does say in Acts 3.17, now brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also when you crucified the prince of life. Well, their ignorance was not necessarily that, oh, they slipped up and made a mistake and crucified the wrong guy. They were purposely doing what they were doing. What the ignorance is, is that they didn't really understand what was happening there.

They didn't understand that the one that they were crucifying was in fact the Son of God, and that he was there doing a specific work that he and his father had determined long before to do, which was to pay the penalty for the sins of the whole world.

What I find interesting is that it is in Jesus' character, and you see it all through his life, to seek out and to give forgiveness for people, whether they're ignorant or not. Payment for every sin, every sin that has ever been committed, will ever be committed, he's paying the price for it right there.

He's satisfying, at the same time, the holy righteousness of God himself. And as we have studied, there are a minimum of 31 other things that are happening on the cross that he is doing in this six hour period. So he hangs there for over two or three hours.

And in Matthew, Mark and Luke, are recorded all of these insults and mocking directed at him by various people, people who are just passing by. The chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the soldiers, and both criminals, both of them. We hear this term, the good thief. What's a good thief? He's still a thief.

So both of these guys are railing on him and yelling insults to him. Everybody who's coming by is doing that. And they're saying things to him like, come down from the cross if you are the son of God. He made others whole, but he can't save himself. If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. Stuff like that, you know, which isn't an inquiry. It's a mocking. You know, if you're such a big deal, let me see your stuff. That's really what they're saying to him.

So, in Matthew 15, 29, it says that those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads, and saying, ha, you who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross. In the same way, the chief priests, also along with the scribes, were mocking him among themselves and saying, he saved others, he can't even save himself. Let this Christ, the King of Israel, come down from the cross so that we may see and believe. How many times in three and a half years did the Jews say to him, if you'll just do this, we'll believe you?

Cool thing. It's a great thing that he didn't respond. That he didn't respond. It's almost like he wasn't hearing them. Didn't respond to their challenges to come down from the cross, because if he had, the job would not have been completed that he was there to do. He was sent by the Father to pay the price for the sins of the world. If he had come down in response to their tauntings, we would be in a permanent lost position. There would be no way of avoiding the consequences of our own sin.

So I find it interesting that when men just look at a set of circumstances and they view it, and they see it, and they react to it, usually they get it wrong, especially when it comes to spiritual things. Here they are, railing on Him. The crucifixion of the Son of God is right in front of them, and they don't understand at all what they're seeing. And their language is, well, you're such a big deal, come down off the cross. Not only are these people abusive and insulting the Son of God, But if you listened to them and responded, all the rationale and results of the work of the cross would be lost. It's almost like he just doesn't hear them.

But then the next event, a couple of hours later, now he's been up there two hours, is in Luke 23, 39. This is a very interesting incident that happens. It sort of, how do I say this, comes out of nowhere. One of the criminals who was hanged there was hurling abuses at him saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and save us. Of course he'd include himself in that. But the other answer, and this is the thing that just, how did this man know? How did this happen?

Rebuking the other criminal, he said, do you not even fear or do you have no awe for God? since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong, nothing.

And he was saying, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And the Lord said to him, truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise. You know what's interesting? Here's all the eyes on Christ on the cross. He's suffering and he gives a lesson in the grace of salvation for everybody to see just right then. Suddenly there's a voice of one of the criminals who's being crucified with him.

He reprimands his fellow thief. He recognizes his own guilt. And he recognizes that the punishment that he's suffering, he's due that punishment. And he also recognizes that Jesus is innocent, that he's up there dying for no legitimate reason. And then, proclaiming his own guilt and confessing it, he turns in the boldest possible way to the Lord Jesus and he says, Jesus, which means Savior, Remember me when you come into your kingdom.

How did he know all that so fast? How did he get that so quickly because of just a few minutes before that, he's right in line with his fellow conspirator there, railing and abusing Christ. To me, it's a marvel of a changed attitude in the circumstances facing this man. But you know what, that's exactly how salvation by grace operates. That's exactly how it's done.

There wasn't any works provided except the works that he was being crucified for. There was no one there to persuade him or give him the facts of salvation or the process and how to do it. There was no sacramental issues. There was no ritual of any kind. There was no conditions. This condemned man is given the perfect assurance of his salvation right there in the span of seconds. How did he know?

It's the work of the Holy Spirit of God. He can convict a man and save him and enlighten him that fast. And so the Spirit of God does it with this thief up on a cross right next to the Lord Jesus Christ in front of everybody who's paying attention. The answer of grace is really interesting here.

This man says, just remember me when you come into your kingdom. And the Lord Jesus could have said, OK. But what he says to him is, today you will be with me in paradise. Today, it's interesting that grace always exceeds all the possible expectations you might have. It's always more. And the cool thing about this is that the Lord Jesus said, yeah, you're going to be, you're coming to paradise. But the really neat thing was, you're going to be with me. You're going to be with me.

That's the cool thing of salvation. Not necessarily the location, the fact that you get to be with him. So, who could have asked or thought that God would give his son to die for sinners? Nobody understood that when it was going on in front of them. He's done this. One verse just to quote that demonstrates, I think, the kind of grace we're talking about.

In Romans 8.32, he who did not spare his own son, but he delivered him up for us all, how shall How will he not also with him freely give us all things? All the insults, all the mockery didn't elicit a response from the suffering Jesus. The need that gets his attention is the faith of this one who recognized under such circumstances the Lord of glory. He recognized him. He gets Jesus's attention. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul by grace and it produces the desire for fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ in glory right away.

My last verse is John 19, 26 and 27. The Lord Jesus has been on the cross now, oh, coming up on about three hours. And he looks down and he says to his mother, Mary, When Jesus then saw his mother and the disciple John, whom he loved, standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. From that hour, the disciple took her into his own household.

Now, I wondered, why John? Because Jesus had some brothers, didn't he? The problem is that nobody in Jesus' family other than Mary believed him at this point. They were all non-believers. The last earthly responsibility he has is to take care of his mother, and he gives his mother's safety to John, the apostle. And why him? He's the only one that's there. The other apostles are hiding under rocks someplace because they're scared to death. But John's there. So he says, I want you to take care of my mother, and mother, I want you to be with John. And John took her the rest of her life.

So at this point now, everything's in place. There's nothing out of place. There's no chaos. There's no OG. There's none of that. And he finishes up the last human thing he has to do by taking care of his mother. So as we move on tonight, it's interesting to me to see how careful the Lord Jesus Christ is when it comes to doing the work he was called to do. Not anything was left for chance. And in the middle of all of that, here is the grace of God being demonstrated for any and all to hear and see right in front of them.

Let's stand once again and we'll sing together, If It Weren't for the Cross. If it weren't for the cross, and the Lord's disgrace, But I know thy greatness I will still, If it were not for the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I know of His risen King, Every word is more than praise, And I pray for the most, And how would I know if there is some shame? of the power of sin. How I could forgive this so sin? How would I ever be? Though I cling to the Lord, for Him grows again, and I'll let the cross speak to Him.

You may be seated. As Mike covered the hours of the morning, things ended there about noon. And we'll pick up from there, noon till three on this Good Friday clock here. And so what we have over on the right-hand side of your handout and what's on the screen are four passages where Jesus speaks. And unlike some of the passages where Mike was covering, where he was dealing with these people, forgive them, this one, take care of my mother, this one, you will be with me in paradise, now he deals directly with the issues between himself and the Father.

We read in Matthew 27, 45 through 46 these words. Now from the sixth hour, and as Mike had explained, this is noon according to the Jewish counting of the time of day, darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour, that is three o'clock, according to the Jewish way of expressing time. And verse 46, about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, la sabachthani. This is from Psalm 22, verse 1. It's the Aramaic that Jesus spoke. And of course, Matthew gives us the English translation there afterwards from the Greek, of course.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? quoting Psalm 22.1 in English. Here is Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, by agreement with His Father in eternity past.

You see, He wasn't some victim kicking and screaming, No, don't do this. This is unjust. This is wrong. He didn't do that, did He? He voluntarily took upon himself the sins of the whole world for all time. God the Father and God the Son had enjoyed in eternity past a harmonious fellowship with one another. But for these moments in time that we're observing here, as Christ took the sins of the whole world upon himself, and the Father turned his face away from him, the Father forsook the Son.

It was an agony of heart beyond that of the crown of thorns, beyond the pain of the whip, beyond the pain of the nails. This explains why Christ would say, not, ow, these nails hurt, but the pain that was even greater. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

His next words are recorded for us in John 19, verses 28 through 30. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the scripture, And this was Christ's understanding as deity, fully God. He said, and speaking now from His humanity, I am thirsty. At that, verse 29, a jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it to Him up to His mouth. Verse 30, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. In the original language, just one word, to tell us, die. When Jesus said it is finished, he used actually an accounting term. It might seem that rather strange, why use an accounting term here at this moment?

But it was actually a very appropriate one. It meant the debt is paid. That's what he said from the cross. The debt is paid. More than just simply, it's finished. The debt was entirely paid. The debt that was yours and mine. The debt that, frankly, we could never hope to repay. He paid it. And when he used that term, he did so in a Greek tense that meant that the debt, yours and mine, was completely and permanently paid. As the book of Hebrews says several times, he died once for all. That meant totality and that meant finality. There wasn't any sin that was accepted. There was nothing yet to be done.

John 19.30 ends with these words, and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. The passage Luke 23, 44 and on gives us how he gave up his spirit.

So Luke 23, 44 and 45 say this, and it was now about the sixth hour, that is by Jewish reckoning, And darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, three o'clock. So for those three hours from noon until three, darkness fell over the land. Because the sun was obscured, and this agrees precisely with Matthew 27, 45. And the veil of the temple was torn in two. The Gospels are consistent in saying that there was a darkness from noon to three o'clock.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all say that the veil of the temple was torn in two, breaking that thick barrier of access to God under the law. But Matthew 23-46 records for us Jesus' last words from the cross. Verse 46 says, And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, and said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. Now, if some have taken the notion that Christ descended into hell at this time, likely from a mistranslation of what's been called the Apostles' Creed, between Jesus telling the thief on the cross, today you'll be with me in paradise, and here saying, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."

That's a quote from Psalm 31.5.

We know that Jesus did not go to hell at this point, but rather his spirit went into the heavenlies with his father, resuming that eternal fellowship with him. While his body was soon to be laid in the tomb, only temporarily you'll understand. But for six hours that day, Christ went from being voluntarily crucified for you and for me, to taking our sins, yours and mine, such that the Father turned His face away from His divine and human Son. And having totally and finally paid the price that should have been ours to pay, It should have, you know. He voluntarily gave up his spirit and died. It was the final end of the price paid for sin, but only the beginning of unfathomable mercy and grace and blessing for us, for you and for me.

Please stand before we take the Lord's table and we'll sing together, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. If you want to follow along, it's 121 in your hymn books. I survey the wondrous cross By which the Prince of Mary doth Thy wretches feed. I come home, home, and board my train A love I've found Forbidden road That I should go Safe in the hand Of Christ my God Though the vain things That turn me bold Life's sacrifice can tear him apart See from his head his anxious feelings are all I know Oh, bingo girl, it airs us all Where the whole realm of nature thunders, That for a present card to show, Looks so amazing, so profound, Demands my soul, His life is all. Well, as we celebrate the Lord's Table tonight, it's kind of neat. We're going to kind of wind the clock back because we're going to talk about the institution of the Lord's Table.

If you look at the first verse on the overhead, it says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread. So we're going to stop right there and just look at this one verse. And it talks about You know, the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 and other places, he talks about how he received direct revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ.

He was unique. He had a special tutoring class for three years. And he learned things that weren't apparent to the disciples and were recorded in the Gospels. And so he's going to tell us about, here's the way the Lord Jesus saw the night on which he was betrayed. And if you look carefully, there are some really cool things here.

So first of all, if you think about, one might say, Christ could have said, He says the night in which He was betrayed, He could have said, it was the night of the Passover I share with my disciples. Because He said, I desire to share this Passover with my disciples before He went to the cross. He didn't say that. He could have said, This is the night before I will go to the cross." He didn't say that either.

He focused on the fact that he was being betrayed. And the tense of that verb is in the present tense, which means it was in process. The movie was going, the acting was going on. Judas had his plan in place. He'd been to the chief priest. He was waiting for his 30 pieces of silver. Maybe he even had the 30 pieces of silver. I don't know where it was stored, but anyway, he was going down that path.

And the Lord knew that. And the Lord, in a sense, had compassion on him, even though he knew he was being betrayed by him. And he's saying, you know, in the midst of all this, I'm going to institute a remembrance of me on the cross for my disciples. In the midst of a man's worst, he's going to institute this Lord's table, remembering his body and his blood. If you look in the Gospels, you see that he knew what was going on. In Luke it says, Behold, the hand of the one betraying me is with mine on the table. For indeed the Son of Man is going, as it has been determined, but woe to the man by whom he is being betrayed."

And then later on he actually kind of says, let's get going here Judas. He says, what you're doing, do quickly. Let's get on with it. He knew what had to be done and he said, let's just do it. And it's just incredible. Who of us would have the presence of mind when you know your betrayers right before you and you say, let's get on with it. Let's do it. And he loved him so much. So I found this, and actually Mike helped me with this. Chester McCauley had three observations about this verse. I think they're really cool.

It talks about the kind of men, the kind of salvation, and the kind of love. So what kind of men were there? And I've already kind of alluded to that. The kind of men that were there, they were helpless. They needed a Savior, obviously. Especially Judas. And he had a Savior right before him. But they were his enemies. Judas was his enemy at that point in time. And Romans tells us about that.

It says that in Romans 5.10, For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. The kind of men there were men that were his enemies. The kind of salvation, we've kind of touched on this, the kind of salvation, there was no merit involved. No one came and said, hey, Look what I've done, Lord. The thief on the cross never said that. He said grace, basically.

I throw myself on your grace. And grace was present. And then thirdly, the kind of love. This is the kind of love that only God can have. He demonstrated it in the face of his betrayers. And it's been said that lust led to betrayal while love instituted the Lord's table. So Mike and Vern are going to help me here with the Lord's Table. So in 1 Corinthians 11, 23-24 it says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. We give thanks for them. As you gave your very life so that we, in fact, may have life, your very life, we just give you thanks, Lord. And we do this in remembrance And we do this also in anticipation of until he comes. So continuing in 1 Corinthians 11, in verse 25 it says, In the same way he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is a 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 the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

As we close this evening, shall we stand and we'll sing together, How Deep the Father's Love. How deep the Father's love for us, How vast beyond all measure, That he should give his only son To gain the rest his treasure. How great the pain of searing loss A father turns his face to grieve As wounds which are the chosen fled Bring many sons to glory. Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon his shoulders. Ashamed I hear my broken voice, the loud among the scoffers. It was my sin that held him there, until it was accomplished.

His dying breath has drunk me dry I know that it is finished I will not boast in any death No gifts, no power, no wisdom But I will boast in Jesus Christ His death and resurrection Why should I gain from this reward? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart. His words have made my grandson. He loved the man of the Lord. And I do neither with him. So I have died unto the world, and to the loving God of Son. As there my Saviour bled and died, His death is now my last grief. So I no longer live this life. He now lives from whom I believe.

Let's close in prayer. Father, we just ask that we would focus upon this, what we have learned tonight, and of your death upon that cross. And Father, that we would think about that this weekend, and then Sunday, the rest of the story. And we just thank you. We ask for your journey mercies as we go home tonight. In Jesus' name, Amen. I've got to go, I've got to go I've got to go, I've got to go I've got to go, I've got to go uh