2.16.20a 4.10.2020 Good Friday

Notes
Transcript
Welcome to our evening Good Friday Service sponsored by the Grayville Ministerial Association. We gather this evening to commemorate the central act of the great human drama which began in Eden. This evening we recall the Cross upon which Jesus died, and the salvation He won thereby. In placing the cross within its historic and theological context the Apostle Paul described it this way.
1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
We are living through troubling times. Our nation, our world has been rocked by an unseen, deadly enemy which has robbed us of our freedom of movement and filled many with fear. Many of you joining us tonight trust Jesus and live a life of persistent faith. Others know Jesus only from afar through the religious devotion of a friend or loved one. Still more do not know Jesus or understand the reason for His coming, the nature of His ministry, or the purpose of His death. You just know that during this Easter season you are scared, and tired, and anxious. Maybe Good Friday 2020 is the perfect time for you to more fully consider the claims of Christ and the power of His Cross.
I invite you to pray with me prior to considering a brief portion of scripture with me…….
The brutality of the Cross was magnified by Jesus isolation.

His disciples fled,

His family merely observed,

His countrymen now saw Him as a pariah.

The fracturing of human community brought on by Sin fell fully upon His shoulders. Famously He cried out…”Eloi, Eloi, Lema Sabachthani” This cry reflected the crushing, emotional burden of bearing humanities sin-it also represented an important lesson. One of the key’s to understanding the Gospel of the Kingdom a kernel at the very heart of Jesus’ message is “the great reversal.”

The last shall be first.

If you want to be great, become a servant.

If you want to gain everything lose yourself in cross-bearing discipleship.

And here, upon His own cross He cries out from Psalm 22.
Those around the cross that day thought His cry was one of faithless despair. That is neither the point of the Psalm nor His motivation for quoting it. His exposition is not in words. His own suffering provides the exegetical key to the prophetic words written by His ancestor David so many years before.
Psalm 22:1–18 ESV
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. 3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. 4 In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. 5 To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. 6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; 8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” 9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. 10 On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God. 11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. 12 Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; 13 they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; 15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— 17 I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

Clothes divided.

Abuse heaped.

Adversaries multiplied.

Death certain.

Jesus knows that appearances are deceiving and that Satan’s greatest attack, his big moment in the gathering darkness is actually the occasion when the evil one hoists himself upon his own petard. Because Jesus understood what David had written.
Psalm 22:24 ESV
24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.
Hear well what David wrote and what Jesus spoke...

He does not despise the afflicted

He does not Hide from Him,

He hears the cry of the afflicted and heard the cry of His beloved and three days later the universe would know for certain that this one who was crucified is both Lord and Christ

For God’s Servant was delivered,

God’s messenger was exonerated,

God’s Son is Resurrected!

But that is, of course, a different story for a different day.
Beginning on Good Friday and extending through Holy Saturday all creation

held its breath.

It was

the long pause

between the horror of crucifixion, and the Hallelujah! of new life. The whole world lie fallow awaiting celebration:
Psalm 22:27–28 ESV
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. 28 For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.
The bitter dregs of cup having been drunk, the fullness of time having be realized, salvation dawning-not in promise but in reality-we are able to joyfully join with Jesus in proclaiming the fulfillment of David’s prophetic word:
Psalm 22:30–31 ESV
30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; 31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

Friday is tragic.

Saturday is for quiet rest.

Sunday’s gonna be a hard day for hell.

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