A Horribly Beautiful Friday
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
If someone was to ask you what the importance of Good Friday, would you be able to give an answer? Every year we turn our attention, somberly toward the blood cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What a great injustice the cross, a loss so painful, suffering so terrible. This is should not be a flippant story in our minds, one that we have grown callous too.
This evening we are remember the only perfect Man who has lived on earth. Living a perfect life in every way, which Lukes Gospel focuses on. Why did Jesus live a perfect life? So that He could give it as the sacrifice, to ransom mankind back to Himself.
But still why is this called “Good Friday,” if the perfect Person was to be sacrificed. That Jesus from birth to death was loyal to His Father God, having been called to a cruel public death… in one of the most horrendous death possible?
The Assyrians are credited to have created crucifixion; however, the Romans perfected it. The way a person would die is not through blood loss but through asphyxiation. Essentially suffocating to death. They would nail your hands and feet to the cross and left you out in the elements to suffering for days, until you were to weak to push up on nail driven feet to take another breath.
What about this is a Good Friday?
How could God allow His creation to capture and torture the Messiah (Christ/ Chosen One)? To be mocked and beaten a multitude of times. Being first arrested and sent to Annas then to Caiaphas (the high priest).
Annas was not the official High Priest but as father-in-law of Caiaphas, he was the one who put Caiaphas in office. Annas was the power behind the religious rulers in Jerusalem. He was the high priest from 6 AD to 15 AD. Four of his sons had also held the high priesthood and now it was Caiaphas.
There is a passage in the Talmud (the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law and theology) which state, “Woe to the house of Annas! Woe to their serpent’s hiss! They are high priest; their sons are keepers of the treasury; their sons-in-laws are guardians of the Temple; and their servants beat people with staves. Clearly Annas and his family were notorious.
So From the arrest, Jesus would then be sent to Annas for the first part of His religious trial, then to Caiaphas who would find Jesus guilty as well. From Caiaphas Jesus would be sent to Pilate, and from Pilate to Herod and from Herod to Pilate again to stand trial not a religious trial but a legal one.
Jesus was rejected by the people who claimed to be students of the Word of God, rejected by the leadership who’s job it was to stand up for the innocent and righteous.
How can any of this be good?
The Denial:
The Denial:
After the arrest of Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples of Christ fled from their Master. We would know that John, the disciple whom Jesus loved followed after Jesus. He wasn’t the only one either. Peter would follow after his Teacher too.
15 Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, 16 but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. 17 The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” 18 Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.
Peter… beautifully hopeless Peter. Bold and defiant Peter. Claiming in Mark’s Gospel, that if all of the other disciples would reject the Master he wouldn’t.
31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” 33 Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” 34 Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”
The second and the third rejection come a little bit further in John’s Gospel.
25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” 26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” 27 Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.
Look what happens in Luke’s Gospel:
60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.
The Cost of Reconciliation
The Cost of Reconciliation
You might be asking why bring up this story of Peter… What does this have to do with the originally asked question?
Quite literally everything. Like Peter we all have rejected God. In fact we are, at conception, enemies of God. From birth we are God haters, blasphemers, idolators, workers of iniquity. We all have rejected God regardless if we realize that we have.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans 6:23a (ESV)
23 For the wages of sin is death,
Family we are not the heroes of the story but it’s villains. We all have rejected God and because of that we are His enemies, placing us under the righteous judgement of God.
“Well how could a righteous God send people to hell?” Because it is the right thing to do, we all desire mercy until someone seriously wrongs us. God is a God who is truly righteous and truly just. God isn’t the one at fault we are.
What makes this a good Friday, is the fact that Jesus Christ the second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, paid the cost of reconciliation.
Imagine for a moment a chasm between us… The only way for you to truly live and have life and life everlasting, is to jump on your own with your own ability across.
You see what Jesus did for mankind is bridge the gap for those who believe and trust in His name.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Family what makes this a horribly beautiful Friday is the length God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit would go to, to demonstrate their perfect love for you! This is the pinnacle moment of love. The very definition of what it means to agape love.
Communion and Restoration
Communion and Restoration
Peter was not rejected by God because of his denial.
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
It would not be the end of Peter. A few weeks later Peter would be confronted by Jesus in Cana in the region of Galilee.
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
A humbled peter is now being publicly restored. And in the greek there are a few different words for love. Jesus starts out by stating, “do you agape me?” While Peter says, “I philo you.” Peter is no longer arrogant, he realizes that on his own he will never be able to agape God.
So Jesus meets him where He’s at, “Simon, son of John, do you philo me?”
Jesus meets us where we are at… no hoops to jump through. All we must do is believe and confess Jesus is our Lord, our God. And as Jesus tells Peter… “Follow me”
[worship team]
This leads us perfectly into communion this evening because we want to remember what Jesus has done for us. To examine our hearts and our lives. And if we are not walking in the way we should or living for Jesus in the right way that we would repent and turn back to what really matters.
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 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.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
[pray for bread]
[pray for cup]
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.