Good Friday Service; Preaching Christ Crucified ~ 20230407 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
Good Friday Service: Preaching Christ Crucified; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20230407_good-friday-service.mp3
All Hail King Jesus
Welcome [RZ]
Reading 1 [Ephesians 1:7; 2:12-18]
Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery
How Deep the Father’s Love For Us
Reading 2 [Philippians 2:4-8]
Sing to Jesus
The Cup Was Not Removed
Reading 3 [Colossians 1:19-20; 2:13-4]
Man of Sorrows
There is Power In the Blood
Message (1Cor.; preaching Christ Crucified)
Nothing But the Blood of Jesus
Reading 4 [1 Peter 1:18-19; 2:24; 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21]
You Cannot Be Stopped
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Welcome:
Good Friday is the most important holy-day on the calendar. Christmas is monumental, that God became human, was born of a virgin, placed in food trough for animals because no one wanted to make room for him. Easter, or resurrection Sunday, is joyous because we don’t follow a dead religious leader; Jesus is alive, and we can enjoy relationship with him today. But that’s all because of what happened on Good Friday. Good Friday is why he came.
Jesus said:
Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus came to give his life. He was born as a human, so that he could lay down his life for us. That he was raised on the third day was evidence that what he did on the cross was acceptable to his Father in heaven.
1 Corinthians 1:23 says ‘we preach Christ crucified’. Tonight your are going to sing songs and hear Scriptures that point us to the meaning of the crucifixion. And it’s personal, so I ask you to open your heart to receive. It’s personal. He came for you; he died for you!
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Reading 1
(Ephesians 1:7) In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
(Ephesians 2:12-18) remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
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Reading 2
(Philippians 2:4-8) Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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Reading 3
Colossians 1:19-20) For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
(Colossians 2:13-14) And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
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Message:
Paul said that the gospel, the good news, is summed up in the cross; the cross is so central to the good news that he can use ‘the cross’ as shorthand for the gospel.
1 Corinthians 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 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.
The good news, the gospel is the power of God for salvation (Rom.1:16) and it is the word of the cross. In verse 23 he says:
1 Corinthians 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified… 24 ...Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
In chapter 2, Paul says:
1 Corinthians 2:2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
The message is simple. The message is clear. The good news message we preach is the word of the cross; Christ crucified.
So as not to leave us in any doubt, he concisely lays out this ‘word of the cross’ in chapter 15. He wants to remind them of the gospel he preached. Here it is:
1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared...
This is the most important thing. This is of first importance. If you don’t get anything else, you have to get this. It’s what makes Good Friday good; it’s the good news, the word of the cross. Christ died. That’s the historical fact. Secular historians record that Jesus was a historical person who was crucified by the Romans. You can believe that Jesus died, and that’s just believing history. But the gospel is more than mere historical fact; it gives the reason. It answers the ‘why’. Why did Jesus die? Because he made some political enemies? Because he was a threat to the religious leaders? Because he said some controversial things and offended people? Because one of his own close followers turned against him and betrayed him? Here’s the why: Christ died for our sins. The execution of Jesus was because the wages of sin is death. But Jesus was perfect. Sinless. He never sinned. Not once. Not in thought, word, deed, never neglecting the good he ought to have done. He died because of sin, but it wasn’t his sin he died for. He died for our sins. My sins. Your sins. Why did Jesus hang naked, suspended between heaven and earth by nails driven through flesh into wood? Why did he endure the just wrath of holy God poured out? Because of my sins. Your sins. He died for our sins. He died as a substitute. He died in my place. And this was according to the Scriptures. All the Scriptures point us to this. If you’ve been in church the last 4 Sundays, we’ve walked together through some of this. The sacrificial system of tabernacle and temple pointed to this. An innocent lamb butchered in place of a guilty person. Blood splattered to appease justice. A victim died, but it wasn’t the one who sinned. The wages of sin is death, and the price was paid, but the life given was not the life of the sinner. One animal for one sin of one person, until the rivers around Jerusalem ran red with blood. But it was never enough. It was a picture, to point us to the vastness of our need.
An infinite sacrifice was needed. An infinitely worthy substitute. Christ, the long-awaited promised Messiah-King; Jesus, the one who was with God and who was God, who left his Father’s side to become human, so that as the perfect human he could offer himself willingly once for all for our sins. Christ died for our sins in accordance with all the Scriptures. He was buried – he was really and truly dead. But he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (Sunday’s coming!) and he appeared, offering evidence to hundreds of eye witnesses that he is really and truly alive.
That’s the good news for sinners who deserve the wrath of God. If you don’t believe that’s you, you don’t understand you. But this message, this word of the cross, demands a response. Paul laid out the necessary response in verses 1-2:
1 Corinthians 15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain.
He proclaimed the gospel, that Christ died for our sins. His hearers received the message. They took it. He delivered it; they received it. Have you ever had a pizza delivered to you? The delivery guy brings it to your house, stands outside knocking, ringing the doorbell. You’ve got to receive it. Open the door. Take it. But the gospel isn’t something you pay for or earn; its a gift. And the gospel isn’t something you receive once and then throw it in the trash and move on to other things. Paul says that you’re standing in it, holding fast to it, being saved by it. This is not a passing thing, a once a year thing. This is an all day every day embrace of the life preserver. You understand that you’re completely sunk apart from the gospel, so you hold on for dear life and never let go.
Paul warns that there’s something called believing in vain. That means it is worthless. Empty. It gets you nothing and does nothing for you. There’s a lot of people who say they believe in Jesus. A lot of people even do things for Jesus, in the name of Jesus. And he will say to many ‘ I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’ (Mt.7:23). Have you received the word of the cross; that you are a sinner who deserves hell, but Jesus died for your sins? Are you standing on that good news as your only foundation, clinging to it as your only hope? If you are, then you are being saved by it. Salvation is not something you do; it is something only Jesus can do; and it happens to you when you truly believe in Christ crucified.
This is personal, and it demands a response. Right now I’m evangelizing you; I’m proclaiming, I’m delivering the gospel to you. I didn’t make this up; I received it. And now it’s your turn. Right here, right now, will you receive it?
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Reading 4
(1 Peter 1:18-19) knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
(1 Peter 2:24) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
(1 Peter 3:18) For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
2 Corinthians 5:21) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org