back to indexGood Friday Communion Service 4.2.2021
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the greatest display of God's love towards sinners. 00:10:08.600 |
And yet I have great worth because of Christ. 00:10:14.600 |
not because we are worthy, but because we are unworthy, 00:10:18.100 |
and there was no other way to make us worthy. 00:10:29.600 |
But that's grace, that's kindness, that's mercy. 00:10:32.600 |
So let us praise the Lord together for His mercy is more. 00:11:56.600 |
♪ One patience we're with as we constantly live ♪ 00:12:07.600 |
♪ He welcomes the witness, the violence, the cold ♪ 00:13:47.600 |
♪ We're still need the debt we could never afford ♪ 00:15:07.600 |
I wanna again welcome everybody to this evening service. 00:15:22.600 |
we're going to be participating in the communion together. 00:15:28.600 |
we're gonna have our 6 a.m. early rise service, 00:15:31.600 |
but I wanna make mention that that's going to be 00:15:37.600 |
Please make sure that you come kind of ready, 00:15:39.600 |
whether with blankets and being dressed warm. 00:15:41.600 |
But again, with everything that's been taking place, 00:15:45.600 |
so that we can get situated and start service promptly. 00:16:03.600 |
and give to you this thanks for your incredible sacrifice. 00:16:08.600 |
Father, as I think about the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, 00:16:12.600 |
Lord, we recognize we want to just take a long look 00:16:18.600 |
For we know, Father God, that in the death of Christ, 00:16:23.600 |
That means, Father God, for us forgiveness and so much more. 00:16:28.600 |
And to think, Lord, just as Peter mentioned, God, 00:16:35.600 |
that the death of Christ would mean for us life. 00:16:41.600 |
that that would turn into worship and praise, 00:16:46.600 |
for us just to simply lift up our songs, lift up our words, 00:16:53.600 |
But, Father, we recognize what you've given us 00:16:58.600 |
It's so incredibly weighty that we can do none other 00:17:01.600 |
than to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 00:17:03.600 |
And so we pray, Father, that as we worship you, 00:17:06.600 |
may it reflect our heart's desire to offer up everything to you, 00:17:11.600 |
We thank you and love you for all that you are 00:17:18.600 |
Would you please stand with us as we continue our worship? 00:19:27.600 |
Leads me from end to end, and from that end to be free 00:20:55.600 |
Leads me from end to end, and from that end to be free 00:21:39.600 |
Leads me from end to end, and from that end to be free 00:23:40.600 |
His rule, His rule, His eye, His kingdom come 00:27:15.600 |
Okay, well, welcome to our Good Friday service once again. 00:27:21.600 |
My name is Nathan, and this is actually more and more as I've been walking with Christ. 00:27:30.600 |
Growing up, Easter and Passion Week wasn't that big of a deal. 00:27:35.600 |
It wasn't something that we especially celebrated. 00:27:38.600 |
And what's been interesting is, man, I've grown to appreciate Easter so much 00:27:44.600 |
where I think it's slowly becoming one of my favorite holidays. 00:27:49.600 |
Which is very strange, you know, because how do you displace Christmas? 00:27:53.600 |
But what I realized is, especially walking through the Passion Week over the last few years here at Berean 00:27:58.600 |
and together with all of you, is that we are able to walk the steps of Christ 00:28:05.600 |
all the way to the cross and eventually celebrate the resurrection of Christ on Sunday. 00:28:11.600 |
I think it's a holiday that is possibly one of the, like, maybe the freer of distractions from all the other holidays. 00:28:20.600 |
I think we have an opportunity every year at this time to celebrate something that is so strange for the world 00:28:26.600 |
if we tell them what we're celebrating, the death of the one that we proclaim to be our king. 00:28:33.600 |
And tonight, Good Friday, and we've said this many, many times in the past before, 00:28:43.600 |
Why would we call something like this something to be celebrated? 00:28:48.600 |
What are we doing here, gathering together, taking time to think about his death? 00:28:55.600 |
Shouldn't we be people who think about the resurrection? 00:28:59.600 |
Shouldn't we be people who consider that to be the pinnacle of everything? 00:29:04.600 |
Like, what is it about the death that is so important that we would gather here on some random Friday night 00:29:11.600 |
to take a whole week to lead up to this time when Jesus finally is killed? 00:29:19.600 |
All week we've been doing this. We've been going down this path that Jesus walked 00:29:28.600 |
We've been saying day after day that every step was intentional, 00:29:42.600 |
No one had a gun to his head to force him down this path. 00:29:57.600 |
He was the only one in history to have never sinned. 00:30:02.600 |
Consider that. Take a moment to really think about that. 00:30:05.600 |
He was the only person in history to have never sinned. 00:30:20.600 |
He loved everyone he came across. Again, take a moment to think about that. 00:30:33.600 |
This wasn't just a restraint of sin in his life. 00:30:41.600 |
If out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, 00:30:45.600 |
then the taming of the tongue isn't going to be the thing that changes whether we're sinning or not. 00:30:53.600 |
It's the heart. And Jesus' heart was sinless. 00:31:02.600 |
and I think it's healthy to think about that every once in a while, 00:31:16.600 |
All of us, one day, if we were to die tonight, 00:31:20.600 |
and we came face to face with the God who created me, 00:31:36.600 |
what would be the only way for you to be allowed entrance into the kingdom of God? 00:31:57.600 |
It's not just a restraint of sinful activity. 00:32:07.600 |
Meaning this, Jesus alone would be able to fulfill the standard to enter into the kingdom of God. 00:32:17.600 |
There was only one person in all of history ever to be sinless, 00:32:27.600 |
And he is then the only one who should be able to enter into the kingdom of God, 00:32:49.600 |
The answer is, besides Christ, no one else should be in heaven. 00:32:55.600 |
If that is the standard, and Jesus is the only one, 00:32:58.600 |
then no one should be allowed entrance into the kingdom of God ever. 00:33:10.600 |
The only way that God could remain a good God, 00:33:27.600 |
And hell should house every single one of us. 00:33:54.600 |
Morally doing more good than evil is not enough. 00:33:59.600 |
Because it's not only what you do, but it's who you are. 00:34:19.600 |
Which leads us to the next obvious conclusion, 00:34:24.600 |
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." 00:34:38.600 |
In fact, it's not only that we are denied entrance into heaven, 00:34:41.600 |
but in Romans 6 verse 23, it goes further to say, 00:34:46.600 |
So it's not only that we are not allowed entrance into the kingdom of God, 00:34:50.600 |
but what that means is that this is certain death for us. 00:35:09.600 |
You see, there should have been a sure, swift, and immediate death for all of us. 00:35:18.600 |
There should be no hope of heaven for any of us. 00:35:26.600 |
The problem is there shouldn't be eventual death. 00:35:33.600 |
As soon as we exist, we should be eternally dead. 00:35:51.600 |
There are 7.5 billion people breathing in this world. 00:35:55.600 |
7.5 billion hearts that are beating right now. 00:36:02.600 |
This is a problem because if God is good and just, how can we exist? 00:36:12.600 |
There should be no space or opportunity for life 00:36:15.600 |
because every breath I take as a sinner should be an outrage for God. 00:36:27.600 |
This is the only fair thing, but people continue to walk. 00:36:31.600 |
Our very existence ought to cause us to question God's goodness and justice. 00:36:37.600 |
The fact that any sinner walks around should not make any sense to us. 00:36:44.600 |
Just as if you were to see a raping, murderous, hateful, walking person free for even a single day, 00:36:53.600 |
that should be like, "No, that should not be allowed to happen." 00:36:58.600 |
That any of us are existing, are breathing, are living, should be an outrage. 00:37:13.600 |
And the fingerprints of God's grace is found all over history from day one. 00:37:19.600 |
Some people see the God of the Old Testament as someone who is judging and wrathful and awful. 00:37:27.600 |
And to you, and sometimes, honestly, sometimes my heart questions. 00:37:34.600 |
So to my own heart, I ask this question like, "Really?" 00:37:41.600 |
Because the more I read Scripture, the more I come to know who God is. 00:37:44.600 |
Did you know the Old Testament God, I find Him to be absurdly gracious, 00:38:00.600 |
Because again, every breath taken by a single human is God's sustaining, intentional gift of grace and mercy and love and kindness to us. 00:38:16.600 |
In the Old Testament, I'm going to take us through a few Bible passages here just to paint a picture. 00:38:21.600 |
In the Old Testament, we see that death, though it should have come immediately, doesn't come. 00:38:28.600 |
"The Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, 00:38:34.600 |
but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die.'" 00:38:40.600 |
Again, this should leave us with the problem, because it says, "In the day that you eat from that fruit," what will happen? 00:38:59.600 |
That's a big problem to God's goodness and justice and to His Word. 00:39:10.600 |
"When the women saw that the tree was good for food," and here it is. 00:39:13.600 |
She's walking up to this tree and to this fruit and says, "And it was a delight to the eyes, 00:39:17.600 |
and that the tree was desirable to make one wise. 00:39:19.600 |
She took from its fruit, ate it, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate it." 00:39:31.600 |
But it says, "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked, 00:39:35.600 |
and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings." 00:39:49.600 |
"Cain told Abel his brother," I'm sure we all know this story, 00:39:51.600 |
"and it came about when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him." 00:40:11.600 |
And you would think as soon as God sees Cain kill Abel, it's like, "Oh, that's it." 00:40:21.600 |
But it says in verse 15, "And the Lord appointed a sign for Cain so that no one finding him would slay him." 00:40:30.600 |
I have no other explanation other than this is grace. 00:40:37.600 |
In Genesis 6, verse 5, it says, "And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth." 00:40:44.600 |
This word "great," you have to use your exaggerated mind. 00:40:47.600 |
There's just rampant wickedness in the world. 00:40:54.600 |
"And that every intent of the thoughts of his heart"--can you go any deeper? 00:40:59.600 |
"Every intent of the thoughts of his heart"--there's so much. 00:41:04.600 |
It's going deeper and deeper, and it says that that was only evil continually. 00:41:10.600 |
That means without end, innumerable, and abundant. 00:41:16.600 |
"And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. 00:41:20.600 |
Then the Lord said, 'I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals, to creeping things, and to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them.'" 00:41:28.600 |
Now look at the intentional God at work here to preserve and be gracious to people. 00:41:39.600 |
Man, I would love for us not to have Noah here as the main thing. 00:41:45.600 |
I would like to say, like, let's focus on those first three words. 00:41:51.600 |
God remembered Noah and all the beasts and the cattle. 00:41:54.600 |
Noah is counted with the beasts and the cattle. 00:42:04.600 |
And God, he caught, it's not a wind came to pass. 00:42:09.600 |
God caused the wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. 00:42:14.600 |
Also, the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed. 00:42:18.600 |
There's an active person in this, and that's God. 00:42:20.600 |
He closed it, and the rain from the sky was restrained. 00:42:25.600 |
And the water receded steadily from the earth. 00:42:28.600 |
And at the end of 150 days, the water decreased. 00:42:31.600 |
In the seventh month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. 00:42:35.600 |
The water decreased steadily until the 10th month. 00:42:38.600 |
In the 10th month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible. 00:42:42.600 |
I have no other explanation than this is called grace. 00:42:50.600 |
God could have smote, I forgot the past tense, smited, you know, whatever. 00:42:57.600 |
God could have done that to everyone, right? And he should have. 00:43:07.600 |
It's grace. He keeps saving. He keeps preserving mankind. 00:43:10.600 |
In the patriarchs, when you read the stories of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, 00:43:15.600 |
when you look at the story of Israel in the wilderness, with Moses and Joshua, 00:43:20.600 |
when you see the story of Israel during the time of judges, 00:43:23.600 |
these are all the different stories that Pastor Peter has been taking us through, 00:43:26.600 |
through the book of Hebrews and the hall of faith. 00:43:28.600 |
When we see all these people, you can't help, when you read the Old Testament, 00:43:32.600 |
to see the sinfulness and the wickedness, even in what we would consider the best of us. 00:43:41.600 |
In the best king, in the best judge, in the best patriarch. 00:43:50.600 |
And what you see is God's grace over and over and over and over again. 00:43:55.600 |
It does not stop. It's not stopping. It's continual. 00:44:05.600 |
You get through a certain part of the Old Testament, you want to tear your hair out. 00:44:30.600 |
When you look at the kings that are supposed to be the type of Christ, 00:44:35.600 |
even one we would consider perhaps the best, Hezekiah. 00:44:40.600 |
You see at the end of his life, in the final 15 years of his life, 00:44:45.600 |
which by the way, Hezekiah, when he gets diseased, 00:44:49.600 |
and then he cries out to God and he's in turmoil because he doesn't want to die. 00:44:57.600 |
And in that last 15 years that he was extended, he goes on to sin. 00:45:03.600 |
And he is the one who opens up Judah to Babylon. 00:45:09.600 |
And during those last 15 years of God's extended grace in his life, 00:45:13.600 |
he fathers Manasseh, who is perhaps one of the worst kings. 00:45:21.600 |
God is the one just saving and preserving and saving and preserving. 00:45:26.600 |
Every page of the Old Testament is grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. 00:45:31.600 |
The prophets come about and there's just warnings all over, right? 00:45:37.600 |
What God is going to do to you if you do not turn? 00:45:40.600 |
You look at it and you can see like, man, God is grumpy. 00:45:55.600 |
Why do you warn your kids that if you continue down the path you're going, 00:46:05.600 |
Because you want them to stop and you want them to be good, right? 00:46:14.600 |
And so that warning, how many of you parents have said like, 00:46:22.600 |
I feel that almost every time when I spank my kids. 00:46:49.600 |
See, the wrath stuff should make complete sense. 00:46:56.600 |
In the Old Testament, the wrath stuff should be like, "Yeah!" 00:47:08.600 |
It should honestly make you question his goodness. 00:47:12.600 |
It should honestly make you question his justice. 00:47:21.600 |
Did you know that every breath you and I take is a demonstration of God's grace? 00:47:27.600 |
We ought to be wiped out, but God stays true in his loving kindness and his steadfast love. 00:47:32.600 |
Because we were born into the world as sinners and rebellious, 00:47:35.600 |
there is no way the Holy Creator God should be able to coexist with sinners. 00:47:41.600 |
And so the question is still, "How does this work? 00:47:56.600 |
At heart, we are adulterers and we are murderers. 00:48:11.600 |
We are all susceptible to the evils that we see around us. 00:48:16.600 |
And it should invoke an immediate eternal death sentence in our lives. 00:48:27.600 |
if you pause to go outside and look around at this world, 00:48:32.600 |
if you're looking at reality, all you see, all over the place, 00:48:44.600 |
Seven and a half billion examples of God's grace. 00:48:54.600 |
In Exodus 34, 6, we'll go through just a number of passages here 00:49:00.600 |
Then the Lord, this is when He goes in front of Moses and He goes past. 00:49:08.600 |
It's like this voice comes out as the presence of God, 00:49:15.600 |
And the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed. 00:49:21.600 |
He could have chosen so many different ways to describe who He was. 00:49:28.600 |
But in this specific time, as He's passing by Moses, 00:49:31.600 |
He chooses to describe a very particular portion 00:49:39.600 |
Because He could have easily have said the thrice holy thing. 00:49:43.600 |
He could have easily have said, "I am a wrathful and good unjust God." 00:49:47.600 |
He could have said a lot of things, but instead He chooses to say, 00:49:50.600 |
as He passes by this creature, "compassionate and gracious, 00:49:55.600 |
slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth." 00:49:59.600 |
Because Moses should have died in His presence. 00:50:09.600 |
Psalm 86 5, "For you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive 00:50:13.600 |
and abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon you." 00:50:22.600 |
He prayed to the Lord and said, "Please, Lord, 00:50:24.600 |
was not this what I said while I was still in my own country?" 00:50:30.600 |
It says, "Therefore, in order to forestall this, I fled to Tarshish, 00:50:33.600 |
for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, 00:50:37.600 |
slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, 00:50:42.600 |
Nehemiah 9 31, "Nevertheless, in your great compassion, 00:50:46.600 |
you did not make an end of them or forsake them, 00:50:48.600 |
for you are a gracious and compassionate God." 00:50:51.600 |
To conclude, Numbers 14 18 says, "The Lord is slow to anger 00:50:55.600 |
and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression." 00:51:15.600 |
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers and the children to the third and the fourth generations. 00:51:25.600 |
Have we become so entitled that we live our lives, 00:51:33.600 |
and we complain, and we question God's goodness and grace? 00:51:41.600 |
Don't we understand that our comprehension of His love for us, 00:52:03.600 |
and it should actually cause us to want to say, 00:52:05.600 |
"This isn't fair, that you would let me live." 00:52:21.600 |
With all this talk of God's grace and compassion, 00:52:40.600 |
"But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, 00:52:43.600 |
you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath 00:52:45.600 |
in revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 00:52:52.600 |
That means it includes every single person that has ever been born. 00:52:57.600 |
Every person in this room I'm talking to, to you and to me, 00:53:01.600 |
he will render to each person according to his deeds. 00:53:05.600 |
To those who by perseverance and doing good seek for glory and honor 00:53:09.600 |
but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, 00:53:12.600 |
but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation, 00:53:14.600 |
there will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man 00:53:17.600 |
who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek." 00:53:21.600 |
What that means is there's nothing that a single person will ever get away with. 00:53:26.600 |
Talk about all the evil that we see in the world right now. 00:53:29.600 |
Right now we have some man-made righteousness going everywhere, right? 00:53:33.600 |
But talk about all the evil going on in the world. 00:53:35.600 |
We see there is no single person that will get away with a single thing. 00:53:44.600 |
That's why one day we die, come before our Maker, our Creator, 00:53:55.600 |
See, our standard of human justice pales in comparison 00:53:58.600 |
to what is being stored for unbelieving people. 00:54:02.600 |
But this is not just for them because we are no better. 00:54:05.600 |
Every human is going to have to account for this. 00:54:09.600 |
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ 00:54:12.600 |
so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds." 00:54:17.600 |
"In the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." 00:54:29.600 |
What does it look like if I get just recompense? 00:54:34.600 |
I think the closest that we can get to a picture of it 00:54:42.600 |
A picture of God's wrath made clear if you look at Revelation. 00:54:46.600 |
There are seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, 00:54:49.600 |
and I'm just going to describe these things to you. 00:54:52.600 |
In the seals, you see war and bloodshed, famine, plagues, 00:54:56.600 |
which wipe out a quarter of the world's population, 00:55:00.600 |
martyrdom, huge earthquakes, blackened sun, red moons, 00:55:05.600 |
Many cry out in the middle of this wrath that they want to die. 00:55:16.600 |
just hail and fire and death, darkening of the sun. 00:55:32.600 |
I mean, all of this stuff together kills a third of plant life, 00:55:42.600 |
The bowls come, painful sores, blisters on all humanity, 00:55:46.600 |
every person blisters, death of every living thing in the sea, 00:55:53.600 |
Rivers turn to blood, the sun's heat intensifying, 00:56:00.600 |
and another massive earthquake that precedes a hail storm, 00:56:08.600 |
That's not a bedtime story I'm giving to my kids. 00:56:13.600 |
I think that this is the closest I can imagine God's wrath. 00:56:23.600 |
But what we see in Revelation is not even a speck on the tip of an iceberg 00:56:41.600 |
it doesn't even scratch the surface of how deep this goes, 00:57:07.600 |
what you see in Revelation is like people will dream of that. 00:57:15.600 |
Like how great that would be compared to the fury of hell. 00:57:24.600 |
See, the fact that we're walking around the way we are, 00:57:28.600 |
and the fact that not every single one of us are in hell right now, 00:57:51.600 |
but what that means is today I can't help but see my life and your life, 00:57:58.600 |
and the fact that we exist here in this world as it is now, 00:58:29.600 |
or having this opportunity to come to the Lord. 00:58:40.600 |
It is a guarantee that every sin will be repaid in full, 00:58:57.600 |
and it says that in Amos chapter 9, verse 1-4, 00:58:59.600 |
"I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said, 00:59:02.600 |
'Smite the capitals so that the thresholds will shake, 00:59:07.600 |
Then I will slay the rest of them with a sword. 00:59:13.600 |
Though they dig into Sheol, from there will My hand take them. 00:59:16.600 |
Though they ascend to heaven, from there will I bring them down. 00:59:21.600 |
I will search them out and take them from there. 00:59:23.600 |
And though they conceal themselves from My sight on the floor of the sea, 00:59:27.600 |
and from there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them. 00:59:30.600 |
And though they go into captivity before the enemies, 00:59:33.600 |
from there I will command the sword that it slay them. 00:59:35.600 |
And I will set My eyes against them for evil and not for good. 00:59:39.600 |
And this is going to be a reality for all humanity 00:59:46.600 |
That they will want to hide, but there will be no hiding, 00:59:59.600 |
And just like in the Old Testament where we're wondering 01:00:05.600 |
if I encounter an unbeliever here in this world, 01:00:10.600 |
And then in the Old Testament, if it was because of God's grace, 01:00:13.600 |
then I can't help but look at his life and realize 01:00:21.600 |
It's because he desires none to perish and for all to come to repentance. 01:00:26.600 |
then I need to understand and know that God desires for this person 01:00:37.600 |
a week where Jesus intentionally marches to the cross, 01:00:41.600 |
where we see this great intersection of God's grace and His wrath, 01:00:55.600 |
that we understand that God is not just partly gracious, partly just. 01:01:00.600 |
It's not like He has 50% this, He has 50% that. 01:01:08.600 |
And what we see at the cross is where we see it, 01:01:12.600 |
where we marvel, where we stand dumbstruck and awestruck 01:01:20.600 |
What we see at the cross brings us to a place 01:01:50.600 |
all humanity will one day meet as God pours out judgment on the earth. 01:01:59.600 |
because the possibility of people continuing in God's grace 01:02:15.600 |
for anyone who would place their faith in Him 01:02:20.600 |
would in full, not a single drop unaccounted for, 01:02:34.600 |
every day of His life, walking towards intentionally. 01:02:53.600 |
so don't take that cue to say we're almost done. 01:02:59.600 |
And this is where you need to do some work for me 01:03:13.600 |
"My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. 01:03:17.600 |
"My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, 01:03:23.600 |
"My Father, if this cannot pass away until I drink it, 01:03:35.600 |
And so what we see this night is Judas completing 01:03:43.600 |
kissing Jesus on the cheek as a sign to the mob 01:03:53.600 |
And Peter tries to stop them, and he pulls out his sword, 01:03:59.600 |
Now, how brave of Peter to go after the slave, you know? 01:04:17.600 |
And if you do the math, at least 72,000 angels 01:04:20.600 |
would be at his beckoning to descend and to rescue, 01:04:37.600 |
one angel wipes out 185,000 of Sennacherib's army 01:04:43.600 |
You have 72,000 angels on a snap of his fingers 01:04:52.600 |
And then Jesus walks before this human, Caiaphas, 01:05:04.600 |
This human keeps his distance and denies Jesus three times. 01:05:08.600 |
And these humans, chief priests, and the whole council, 01:05:11.600 |
they attempt to find false testimony on Jesus Christ. 01:05:16.600 |
But there's none available because he lived his life perfectly. 01:05:20.600 |
Even though many false witnesses come forward, 01:05:25.600 |
they are not believed because he lived unbelievably above reproach. 01:05:30.600 |
But they find a way to get at Jesus and cry, "Blasphemy!" 01:05:43.600 |
What he's doing to take the sins of the world. 01:05:47.600 |
Where he's marching towards so that I might not experience that. 01:05:51.600 |
These humans come, and they spat in his face, 01:05:56.600 |
and others slapped him and said, "Prophesy to us, you Christ! 01:06:11.600 |
What we see here, you know, these days we see a popular thing 01:06:14.600 |
where people say, "Don't look away from the atrocities that you see in this world. 01:06:26.600 |
But I'd like to apply it here, asking us all this Good Friday to look at the reality. 01:06:38.600 |
We can't look away at the fact that what Jesus is doing here and walking towards this, 01:06:46.600 |
Don't ever look away at what Jesus was doing here. 01:06:53.600 |
Jesus is continuing to willingly, intentionally walk to the very point 01:06:59.600 |
And everything that's happening to Jesus up to this point 01:07:02.600 |
is still nothing compared to the wrath to come. 01:07:09.600 |
And they deliver him to Pilate, another human. 01:07:13.600 |
And he asked Jesus, "Are you the King of the Jews?" 01:07:15.600 |
Upon which Jesus responds, "It is as you say." 01:07:17.600 |
And they enter into the custom of allowing one prisoner to be freed by popular consent. 01:07:21.600 |
And so a notorious prisoner by the name of Barabbas 01:07:28.600 |
The noted killer, the insurrectionist, to free him. 01:07:32.600 |
And the innocent Christ, the Son of God, to be brutally tortured and murdered on the cross. 01:07:36.600 |
And so they take Jesus into the praetorium and gather the whole Roman cohort now. 01:08:13.600 |
And even there Jesus takes time to speak words of comfort to one of them. 01:08:17.600 |
Now let me read the rest of the account in Matthew. 01:08:24.600 |
As we see the final breath of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 01:08:28.600 |
Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. 01:08:32.600 |
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, 01:08:37.600 |
That is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 01:08:40.600 |
And some of those who were standing there when they heard it began saying, 01:08:46.600 |
Immediately one of them ran and taking a sponge he filled it with sour wine 01:08:53.600 |
But the rest of them said, "Let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." 01:08:57.600 |
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 01:09:27.600 |
This is not like a little hiatus in his existence. 01:09:47.600 |
"And behold the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom 01:09:51.600 |
and the earth shook and the rocks were split. 01:09:54.600 |
The tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. 01:09:58.600 |
And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many. 01:10:02.600 |
And now the centurion and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus 01:10:06.600 |
when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening became very frightened 01:10:13.600 |
What we are witnessing here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 01:10:22.600 |
"God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf 01:10:25.600 |
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him." 01:10:29.600 |
What we see on this way to the cross is Jesus in Isaiah 53 verse 4-7. 01:10:36.600 |
"Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried 01:10:40.600 |
yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, afflicted." 01:10:49.600 |
"He was pierced through for our transgression. He was crushed for our iniquity. 01:10:54.600 |
The chastening for our well-being fell upon him and by his scourging we are healed. 01:10:59.600 |
All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. 01:11:03.600 |
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. 01:11:07.600 |
He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he did not open his mouth. 01:11:11.600 |
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers 01:11:17.600 |
So, on Good Friday when we think of Jesus walking to the cross, 01:11:25.600 |
That the only innocent one to walk the earth was marching with his crucifix to hang on a tree 01:11:31.600 |
but she would not just die for her sins and just do whatever for like, "Oh, he forgives." 01:11:36.600 |
He was taking upon himself the very sin of every person who had placed their faith in him. 01:11:49.600 |
but we will, every single one of us, awaken to a spiritual reality before the judgment of God. 01:11:55.600 |
And regardless of the opinions of every individual, this truthful and certain reality 01:12:00.600 |
waits every single one of us that we will indeed kneel before the Creator 01:12:07.600 |
And if you have not placed your faith in the only one who is able to take upon the full brunt 01:12:15.600 |
of the wrath of God which is found on this Good Friday, 01:12:23.600 |
You have nothing to hide behind, no more place of grace, and it's coming. 01:12:30.600 |
You have to mark my words here, it's coming for you. 01:12:39.600 |
But, if you place your faith in Him, at that place when you come before judgment 01:12:49.600 |
and you're kneeling before the Creator and He is about to explode on you, 01:12:55.600 |
if you place your faith in Christ, you will find a Savior who stands before you and God. 01:13:02.600 |
You will be literally staring up at the back of your Savior. 01:13:13.600 |
The one who stood as a propitiation for your sin, to appease the fury and goodness and justice of God. 01:13:23.600 |
He will stand between you and God and He has taken every blow. 01:13:29.600 |
Jesus willingly takes that for you if you place your faith in Him. 01:13:39.600 |
To conclude, let me read from Hebrews 2, verse 9. 01:13:47.600 |
"But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, 01:13:52.600 |
because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, 01:13:56.600 |
so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone." 01:14:03.600 |
"For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, 01:14:08.600 |
in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. 01:14:15.600 |
For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father, 01:14:19.600 |
for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren." 01:14:23.600 |
Would you take a moment here to bow your heads with me? 01:14:34.600 |
If you're a believer, we need to again remember what He did on that cross. 01:14:42.600 |
And experienced again the fullness of what happened there. 01:14:52.600 |
If our hearts have been far, if our hearts have been cold, 01:14:56.600 |
if the gospel has become stale, let's take this time tonight again to consider our Savior. 01:15:04.600 |
This is also going to be a time where we partake in communion together. 01:15:12.600 |
And we can meditate and concentrate and think upon the blood that was shed for us, 01:15:24.600 |
That we can now partake in Jesus Christ Himself. 01:15:33.600 |
and to meditate on the body of Christ broken for you 01:15:39.600 |
And this communion is a time for baptized believers, if you are to participate. 01:15:45.600 |
So please refrain from participating in it if you are not a baptized believer. 01:15:51.600 |
But all of us now for the next few minutes, we will give you this opportunity 01:15:55.600 |
to pray and to meditate and come before the Lord. 01:16:01.600 |
After praying, I'll come back up and I'm going to read for us from 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 01:16:06.600 |
And we'll take up the communion together so you can wait for further instruction there. 01:20:17.180 |
"For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered 01:20:25.900 |
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 01:20:33.020 |
In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, 01:20:35.400 |
saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. 01:20:38.600 |
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. 01:20:42.060 |
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, 01:20:44.780 |
you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.'" 01:21:35.420 |
makes it so that we are now covered by your blood 01:21:41.880 |
And we thank you, Lord, that we are given ability 01:21:45.920 |
to come now before you to your throne of grace, 01:21:50.920 |
that we are allowed entrance into the kingdom of God, 01:22:02.180 |
would send your only son to come into the world 01:22:07.880 |
We are only but grateful to you tonight, Lord, 01:22:10.680 |
on a night where there was not just a murder, 01:22:17.920 |
that we can celebrate because he took my place 01:22:35.380 |
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, 01:22:40.840 |
that we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, 01:22:48.720 |
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, 01:23:00.760 |
And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 01:24:39.300 |
♪ And every bitter thought, every evil deed ♪ 01:28:36.900 |
That you have revealed that much to us in your word. 01:29:07.660 |
Father, we pray that as we think about and meditate 01:29:14.160 |
just deeply Lord, about what it cost the Son of God, 01:29:20.660 |
who Lord was rich, but for our sake became poor. 01:29:28.660 |
The one who knew no sin was not only accursed, 01:30:15.660 |
and then nine o'clock and 11 o'clock services as always.