Good Friday Service 2020

hi welcome to our Good Friday service here at Broadway Christian Church I'm so glad that you're joining us today for this I want to just let you know that as we begin that we'll be receiving the Lord's Supper together at the close of my Good Friday talk so if you'd like to get ready a little bit later we'll give you a chance to do that okay I'm going to read beginning from first Corinthians 1:18 where the Apostle Paul says the message of the Cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction but we who are being saved no it is the very power of God it says again we who are being saved know that the cross is the very power of God when you think about symbols and logos what do you suppose as the most famous or the most iconic logos around the world which ones are most instantly recognizable you might say well it's the golden arches of McDonald's I mean where haven't people seen McDonald's golden arches right or maybe another iconic symbol or logo would be a can of Coca Cola you know with in writing your minds right now in your mind's eye you can you can just picture envision the can of coke red can of coke or or maybe the Apple logo you know iPods iPhones iPads the Mac computers with the apple with a bite taken out of it but I don't think that that's the most universally recognized symbol in fact I think I would tell you today that the most recognized symbol in the world is the cross you know when when Christianity started out as a fledgling religion back in the 1st century just when it was launching in Jerusalem and in beginning to spread through the Mediterranean world the mighty Roman Empire did its best to stamp out Christianity Rome tried with all of their might and all of the might of the Roman Empire was determined to wipe out Christianity to wipe it off the face the earth but it didn't work in fact Christianity survived no that's not the best word I would say the Christianity thrived and in the irony of all ironies you know the city in the world the one city in the world that has more crosses than any other city can you guess which one it would be its Rome the the seed of the former Roman Empire is the place in the world where there are more crosses per capita than any other place on the face of the earth what an irony so today on this Good Friday I of course want to talk to you about the cross and about what happened on Good Friday on God's Friday on that day some 2,000 years ago just outside Jerusalem a huge crowd gathered at a place called Golgotha we sometimes call it skull hill this is because it was shaped in the in in the form of a skull well why was it crowd there in this particular day well they had gathered to witness the execution of a very famous person of a particular man named Jesus of Nazareth now this Jesus who was being crucified that day had actually captured the imagination of the populace just days before when he rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and the people lauded him and praised him they way palm branches at him and cried out Hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord but by Friday the crowd had turned against him and they were screaming for his death so the Romans were going to execute him and and the Romans delighted actually they they favored crucifixion as their form of death as their form of execution and crucifixion was a particularly horrendous form of torture that was that was given to a person where a victim was nailed to a cross the roman soldier would find the indentation of the victims wrist and drive a nail through the wrist into a rough September on each side and then and then also a huge square nail would be driven through the feet and and the victim was nailed to the cross in this way and over the course of a few hours or in some cases maybe over a few days the victim either bled or suffocated to death of course Jesus was crucified as you well know but a couple of things about his crucifixion that maybe we don't think about much almost every depiction of the cross and Jesus on the cross is with him quite a bit above the crowd the Romans didn't usually crucify their victims that way typically a crucifixion victim was almost I level with passers-by and and the Romans would would crucify their victims with placed their victims along a busy thoroughfare as a warning to the rest of the population if you're caught committing a crime this is what you can expect so Jesus almost eye level with the crowd of course could easily hear their taunts and their sneers as he as he was placed there as he was being executed there but this wasn't the beginning of his suffering if you know your Scripture you know that the night before on Thursday Jesus was arrested as he was betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane by Judas then he was interrogated numerous times went through mockeries of trials and finally he was beaten by the Roman soldiers and whipped and in some cases that that whipping was so cruel and so brutalizing that the victim did not survive the whipping I then of course Jesus having survived that barely was forced to carry his own cross up the Via Dolorosa all the way to skull Hill and at some point he collapsed because he was simply too weak perhaps from exhaustion or loss of blood and finally he was crucified well this particular crucifixion occurred and began at about nine o'clock in the morning and for three hours everything was normal that is as normal as a crucifix can be but then at noon the sky went black and when I say the sky went black I don't mean that it was overcast I mean it was an ominous kind of darkness it was though the day had become night it was almost a supernatural darkness it was as if the darkness that descended over the cross over Jesus and all those on the hill that day as though it was a living and breathing entity a personification of evil like a movie set except this was very real terrifyingly real and then three hours later roughly 3 p.m. the darkness lifted and everything was visible in just one glance at the man in the middle the man being crucified between two thieves Jesus just one glance made it obvious that he wasn't going to last very long because he had already endured those hours of agony and unending torture and and we even get a word for them for the agony that Jesus experienced that word is excruciating ex means from or out of crucial of course means the cross so excruciating means particularly horrible or an acute pain that you might suffer if you've ever had pain that is almost unbearable unendurable you can begin to appreciate what Jesus experienced this excruciating pain that he went through on the cross and the hours of agony that he suffered there I'm not going to go into the into the details of his some of his suffering but suffice it to say that the Romans were particularly adept at this and no one survived crucifixion no one in fact many people have said that crucifixion was perhaps the most barbaric form of torture and execution known to man but it was on the cross that I want to focus on today because one of the statements that Jesus uttered there he said with complete truthfulness and here's what he said I have finished everything I set out to do I've completed it and in the Greek the original language in the New Testament the word that's used there is to tell us die to tell us die it is finished and then Jesus breathed out another sentence into into your hands I commit my spirit he said that to the Father and then he died and I just want to add here that that his life was not taken from him he gave his life he offered himself that word though to tell us die it is finished it it means it means to bring to an end to it to accomplish to bring something to completion it's a really a crucial word that Jesus uses there because it really means and it signifies the the end to a course of action to tell us I might be a word that you would use if you finally ascended to the summit of Mount Everest you've been training and preparing for years to climb to the highest point on earth and you finally arrived you're standing at the peak of Mount Everest tetelestai is what you might say or maybe you purchase a car whether it's you or news used or new and and you buy the car and you arrange payments with the bank anyone you finally paid off that car loan and you feel such a sense of accomplishment you might say tetelestai or or maybe if you've completed successfully your very first 5k run tetelestai way to go you know it means more than just I survived it means that I accomplished exactly what I set out to do but it's even more than that because the way that Jesus says it in the verb tense that he uses there on the cross means that not just today but but always it's it's not like saying this happened what it is saying is this happened in it's still in effect today Vitelli stai is our saviors final cry of victory you didn't say I'm finished he didn't say I'm I've been punished enough I'm sick and tired of being rejected and misunderstood I'm done I'm out of here he didn't say that he said it is finished Church that's a power-packed word that's a word that we can meditate on and be happy about today because it's a word of victory in fact in Jesus day this would probably be a word that was used in one of three ways it would be a word that might be used when a man calls his servant in in Jesus's day and says hey I've got this project that I want you to complete that I want you to work on you know the you know the the wall on the eastern edge of the property that needs to be rebuilt I'm putting you in charge of that project and maybe it takes the servant and his crew days or weeks or months whatever and when it's finally completed and done properly the servant could come back in and say to his master to tell us die I've done it or maybe it might be what a merchant would would do when when you buy some commodity from a merchant and you owe money and you've been making payments on that commodity and and finally the the final bill and and the merchant would take his rubber stamp I don't think they had rubber stamps in Jesus day but just saying take a rubber stamp and you'd stamp on the bill paid in full - tell us die or it would be a word that maybe a high priest would use when a worshiper brings a lamb in for sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem and and the priest would examine as scripture requires him to do examine the lamb and if there's no blemish no flaw in that lamb that makes him worthy of sacrifice the the priest might say tetelestai this animal can now be sacrificed it's worthy of sacrifice so here's Jesus on the cross knowing all of this and knowing all that he had accomplished where he says this word tetelestai you know for you and me that's not a word that we can use very easily because no matter how much you feel like you've accomplished isn't there always at the end of the day just this sense but there's more that I could do more that needs to be done maybe it's that email that we never sent we started it but we never got around to finishing it or maybe it's the diet that we abandoned or the phone calls that you know you need to make but you haven't made the phone call yet or maybe that room that you've always meant it meant to paint in your house but you've even bought the paint and the supplies but you've is just sitting there or maybe it's that half-completed project that's just languishing over in the corner or or maybe it's the promise that we made to someone but we've never followed through with that promise there's one person and only one person in history that that never had any unfinished business and that's Jesus of all the people who ever walked this planet truthfully and with all integrity Jesus alone could say it is finished Jesus was saying for us and to us the debts been paid in full no more sacrifice is necessary nothing more needs to be offered do you realize what that means you understand the implications of that for you and me it means that the debt of my sin in your sin has been fully paid by the shed blood of Jesus Christ to tell us die paid in full that means that once it's paid for you never have to pay for it again like last month Sonia and I paid off the mortgage on our house yay I'm not bragging I'm just telling you that it's been a long time coming you know I've always called it our house but the truth is it wasn't our house it was the bank's house as long as they held the paper as long as they held the mortgage wasn't our house they gave me permission to say it because I I made my regular payments but now I can honestly say this is our house it's not that big a deal really because it took me 31 years to pay off a 30-year mortgage okay but but what if I continue to make mortgage payments on the house that I already own what if I did that at some point the bank would call me up and say hey mister and Abner why are you still making mortgage payments on your house it's your house now and I would say yeah I know but I just can't quite believe that it's true I just feel like I have to keep paying it it's just too good to be true and in the bank would say well let's send you a piece of paper in fact that's exactly what the bank did I asked the bank to send me a piece of paper the a copy of the reconveyance of the deed so that I could have it in my own records you know it's even bigger what's even a bigger deal than paying off a mortgage on a house the debt of your sin has been paid for the penalty for your sin has been covered it means that there's nothing more to be done than what's been done it means that Jesus Christ has done it all for us it means that he who suffered that horrible form of torture on the cross who endured the agony and the shame of Calvary that our sin is what it means will no longer be held against us the prophet Isaiah said it like this but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities the punishment that brought us peace was on him and by his wounds we are healed my friend you know that that is the best news that you will ever hear by his wounds you have been healed it doesn't matter how guilty you think you are doesn't matter how many skeletons are laying in your closet right now rattling around in your craw in your closet the cross is God's answer to your deepest needs when Jesus cried out on the cross it is finished it means God has done everything that needs to be done to save you it means that all that we believe as Christians as Christ's followers is wrapped up in the cross of Christ it is the central truth of the Christian faith and coupled with the empty tomb on the third day it is the preeminent event of human history the cross is our message it's our hope is it's our confidence there is no power greater on this earth than the power of the Cross in the words of the great hymn writer Isaac Watts when I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died my richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride we're the whole realm of nature mine that were a present far too small love so amazing so divine demands my life my soul my own would you bow your heads with me Father we thank you for the cross words are inadequate Oh Lord to express our deep utter gratitude for what Christ has accomplished for us on that Good Friday lord I pray that we would revel in the cross that we would that we would cherish the old rugged cross this day and Lord when we surveyed the cross and what Jesus said and accomplished there how we praise you and give you thanks this day that the penalty of our sin has been paid for tetelestai once and for all and for all this we give you praise and thanksgiving in jesus name amen I'm going to give you a moment right now to prepare for the Lord's Supper so please go and whatever you need for the bread and for the cup and a just a moment we'll partake together as we continue our remembrance on this Good Friday [Music] [Music] holding the bread I want to read to you pause instructions to the church at Corinth and also to us he says in first Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 23 for I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way after supper he took the cup saying this cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes you're going to invite you as we close our Good Friday service to pray the Lord's Prayer with me let's pray together our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen and amen may the Lord bless you and keep you

Channel: Broadway Christian Church Mesa

Views: 683

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Length: 21min 25sec (1285 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 10 2020