Good
Friday Service 2011
April
22, 2011
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
We like Fridays. At least most of us
do.
I found out from an eighth grade girl from Anaheim Hills named Rebecca
Black what “Fridays” are all about.
Play “Friday” video clip
What’s frightening is that this video came out a month ago, and now have
over 100 MILLION hits.
I think I like Darth Vader’s version better:
We’re here this afternoon to think about one Friday in particular…
Friday
We call it “Good Friday”
Was it really a
Friday that Jesus died on?
I would be dishonest if I didn’t let you know that there is plenty of
disagreement among scholars as to what day of the week Jesus actually died on.
The more
traditional view is that Jesus died on Friday afternoon, around 3:00pm.
There are some
who say that Jesus died on Thursday afternoon, not Friday.
The discussion comes from what
Jesus said:
(Mt 12:40 NKJV) For
as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so
will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The Thursday folks
say you can’t get a literal three days and three nights with Jesus dying on
Friday and rising on Sunday.
The Friday folks
say that in Jewish culture, that any partial day counts as a full day, and that
since the change of days takes place around 6pm, that Jesus technically was
dead on Friday, Saturday, and early Sunday, making it three days.
What do I think?
I’m not going to argue with you one way or another. Both views have support and frankly I don’t
think it’s worth arguing over.
There is one day of the week are sure of.
Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday.
And since our western culture sets aside Friday as “Good Friday”, forgive
me if I use the word “Friday” to talk about the day that Jesus died.
To be totally
honest, there are also different ways of choosing which day we celebrate the
resurrection as well.
Do we pick a
date that’s related to the Passover?
Do we pick a
date that falls on a Sunday (the first day of the week)?
These kinds of issues have resulted in debates over which day is best to
celebrate the resurrection.
I personally like the fact that we live in a society that holds every
Sunday as a special day, and it’s because of the resurrection.
To be honest, there are different
ways of calculating what day to celebrate Easter on as well.
Jesus’ death is tied to the
Passover, which is the 14th of Nisan in the Jewish calendar. The Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, and
that makes for crazy matchups with our western calendar.
Today, Friday is
the 18th of Nisan, four days after the Jewish Passover which is on
the 14th of Nisan.
Jesus resurrection is tied to being
on the first day of the week, Sunday, and three days after the Passover does
not always fall on a Sunday.
So, do you
celebrate in connection with the 14th of Nisan, or do you try to
connect the resurrection with Sunday.
In Western
society, Sunday is typically a “day off”, part of the weekend, specifically as
a result of Jesus’ resurrection.
These kinds of issues, as well as
whether or not to tie the Resurrection to a Jewish calendar, has resulted in
all sorts of ways to pick a date to celebrate Easter.
Often the Eastern
Orthodox churches celebrate on a different day than the Western churches
do. This year, both sets of churches
celebrate on April 24.
My point?
Don’t get too caught up in the arguments about dates.
Focus on what
Jesus did on the cross. Focus on the
fact that He rose from the dead.
It would be okay to celebrate every day, not just once a year.
Keep in mind it wasn’t just a “Good Friday”, but the “Best” Friday. Ever.
The Old Testament lays out pictures, patterns, and principles that would
take place on that Friday.
The picture of Abraham
and Isaac
(Ge 22:1–14
NKJV)
—1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to
him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 Then He said, “Take now your son,
your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him
there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3
So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of
his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt
offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on
the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham
said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder
and worship, and we will come back to you.” 6 So Abraham took the wood of the
burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand,
and a knife, and the two of them went together. 7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham
his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he
said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt
offering?” 8 And Abraham
said, “My son, God will provide for
Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together. 9
Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an
altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid
him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took
the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”
So he said, “Here I am.” 12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or
do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not
withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” 13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and
looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So
Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead
of his son. 14 And Abraham
called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to
this day, “In the Mount of the Lord
it shall be provided.”
This is such a strange, bizarre story.
It is not about human sacrifice, but about painting a picture. Things like…
It happens in the land of “Moriah”. Jerusalem is on
Mount Moriah.
A father and his “only
son”, a sacrifice.
The son carrying the “wood”.
The son willingly
laying down to be sacrificed.
Abraham was confident that God would provide a lamb (vs. 8)
Some see this phrase as God Himself being the Lamb.
The LORD will provide. We could never pay for our sins. God would.
In a sense, this was a picture being painted of “Good Friday”.
The pattern of the
Passover Lamb
In order for the Israelites to finally be set free from their bondage in
Egypt, another bizarre story emerges.
Each family is
to take an innocent unblemished lamb and slaughter it. The blood is to be sprinkled on the doorposts
of the house. When the Angel of Death
came near, he would “pass over” the houses that had the lamb’s blood. For those houses without lamb’s blood, the
firstborn would die.
Why lamb’s blood? Why not just paint
a sign? Send an email?
It was meant to be a pattern that was copied year after year:
(Ex 12:12–14 NKJV) —12
‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the
gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 13
Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And
when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you
to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and
you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord
throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting
ordinance.
God wanted the Israelites to remember this odd, bizarre incident. He wanted them repeating it year after year.
One day Jesus
showed up while John the Baptist was dunking people in the Jordan River.
(Jn 1:29 NKJV) The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold!
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Three years
later Jesus would be hanging on a cross, dying during the annual celebration of
the Passover.
His blood, sprinkled on our hearts through faith, brings us deliverance
from our sins.
The principles of
sacrifice
The Law of
Moses lays out the concept that an animal could lay down its life for you.
(Le 4:27–29 NKJV) —27 ‘If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing
something against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done, and is guilty, 28 or if his sin which he
has committed comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring as his offering a kid
of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. 29 And he shall lay his
hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill the sin offering at the place of
the burnt offering.
The picture is that the sinner is putting his own sins on the animal as he
lays his hands on it.
The animal dies in substitution for the sinner.
But take note here – the “sin offering” was only for those who committed
sins “unintentionally”. It was only when you forgot to do something,
or when you accidentally did something.
I’ve always struggled with this.
Only the unintentional sins could be covered with sacrifice?
If you intentionally, willfully disobeyed God, there was no sacrifice.
(Nu 15:30–31 NLT) —30
“But those who brazenly violate the Lord’s
will, whether native-born Israelites or foreigners, have blasphemed the Lord, and they must be cut off from the
community.31 Since they
have treated the Lord’s word with
contempt and deliberately disobeyed his command, they must be completely cut
off and suffer the punishment for their guilt.”
I don’t know about you, but a fair amount of the sin that I commit is fairly
“brazen” and intentional. I know what
I’m doing is wrong, and I go and do it anyway.
Is there a remedy for me?
On one of his missionary journeys, Paul was at the synagogue in Antioch of
Pisidia. On the Sabbath day Paul gave a
short message to the Jews in the synagogue.
Paul talked about the prophetic Scriptures that spoke of a Messiah
coming from the seed of David. He talked
about how Jesus came to fulfill these prophecies by both dying and being raised
from the dead. At the end of his
message, Paul said,
(Ac 13:38–39 NKJV) —38 Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this
Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; 39 and by Him everyone who believes is justified
from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
The Law of Moses hinted at forgiveness through sacrifice, but it could only
go so far. There seems to be no forgiveness for intentional sins.
Jesus’ death on
the cross went beyond what the Law of Moses could provide.
His death pays for all our sins.
Friday – Forgiveness
“Good Friday” is in fact the “Best Friday Ever” because Jesus has paid the price for our
forgiveness.
He took us farther than the Law of Moses could ever take us.
With one sacrifice, He has paid for all our sins.
Isaiah spoke of this future sacrifice:
(Is 53:5–6 NKJV) —5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for
our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes
we are healed. 6 All we
like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the
iniquity of us all.
We saw last Sunday how Jesus accomplished this on the cross. Just before He died, He said the words “It is finished”.
The Greek word used in the text can be used for a debt that’s been paid in full.
Paul wrote,
(2 Co 5:21 NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might
become the righteousness of God in Him.
We find forgiveness when we confess our sins to God. John wrote,
(1 Jn
1:9 NKJV)
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Forgiveness in the Key of F
By Chaplain Jim Sands
Feeling
footloose and frisky, a feather-brained fellow forced his father to fork over
his farthings. Fast he flew to foreign fields and frittered his family’s
fortune, feasting fabulously with floozies and faithless friends. Flooded with
flattery he financed a full-fledged fling of “funny foam” and fast food.
Fleeced by his fellows in folly, facing famine, and feeling faintly fuzzy,
he found himself a feed-flinger in a foreign filthy farmyard. Frail, fragile,
and fairly famished, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from
the fodder fragments.
“Fooey,” he figured, “my father’s flunkies fare far fancier,” the frazzled
fugitive fumed feverishly, facing the facts. Finally, frustrated from failure
and filled with foreboding (but following his feelings) he fled from the
foreign filthy farmyard.
Faraway, the
father saw a fretful familiar form in the field and flew to find him with
flying forearms, fell on his neck and fervently kissed him. Falling at his
father’s feet, the fugitive floundered forlornly, “Father, I have flunked and
fruitlessly forfeited family favor.”
So, the faithful
Father, forbidding and forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged the
flunkies to fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.
The fugitive’s fault-finding brother was in a fertile field fixing fences
while father and fugitive were feeling festive. The foreman felt fantastic as
he flashed the fortunate news of a familiar family face that had forsaken fatal
foolishness.
Forty-four feet from the farmhouse the fault-finder found a farmhand fixing
a fatling. Feeling
fallow and frowning, he found father and ‘fessed, “Floozies and foam from
frittered family funds and you fix a feast following the fugitive’s folderol”?
The fault-finder’s fury flashed but fussing was futile.
The frugal fault-finder felt it was fitting to feel “favored” for his
faithfulness and fidelity to family, father, and farm. In foolhardy fashion, he
faulted the father for failing to furnish a fatling and feast for his friends.
His folly was not in feeling fit for feast and fatling for friends; rather his
flaw was in his feeling about the fairness of the festival for the found
fugitive.
His fundamental fallacy was a fixation on favoritism, not forgiveness. Any
focus on feeling “favored” will fester and friction will force the frayed
facade to fall. Frankly, the father felt the frigid fault-finder’s frugality of
forgiveness was formidable and frightful. But the father’s former faithful
fortitude and fearless forbearance to forgive both fugitive and fault-finder
flourishes.
The farsighted father figured, “Such fidelity is fine, but what forbids
fervent festivity for the fugitive that is found? Unfurl the flags with
flaring, let fun and frolic freely flow. Former failure is forgotten, folly is
forsaken. Forgiveness forms the foundation for future fortune.”
Friday – Forgiveness
– Father
Forgiveness is important not just to relieve us from a sense of guilt, but
because it is what restores
our relationship with God the Father.
Matthew records what happened in the Temple after Jesus breathed His last
breath:
(Mt 27:50–51a NKJV) —50
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 51
Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom…
The veil of the
temple was a curtain that divided the “holy place” from the “holy of
holies”. Every day priests went into the
“holy place” to offer prayers, burn incense, and light the lamps. But the “holy of holies” was reserved as a
place symbolizing the very throne room of God.
Only the high priest could go in, and only once a year. The tearing of the veil was a visual picture
that the way had been made into God’s presence.
Play “Passion”
clip. (you won’t have to understand Aramaic to understand)
Our sin is a
very real problem. It is the thing that
keeps us from being able to know God and fellowship with God.
When Jesus died
and paid for our sins, the problem was removed.
The curtain was pulled back.
Jesus said,
(Jn 14:1–3 NKJV) —1
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it
were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that
where I am, there you may be also.
Everything He did was so that you and I could be restored to the Father.
Everything was so you and I could spend eternity in heaven with God.
That makes this
is a Good Friday. In fact, it’s the Best
Friday Ever.
Invitation
Communion
The Greek word for “communion” and “fellowship” are the same word,
koinonia. It means to share something in
common.
Our human “fellowship” is based on the fact that we all have the same thing
in common – we all know and follow Jesus Christ.