This is So Important To Remember on Good Friday

David Burnette:

It only makes sense on Good Friday to shine the spotlight on Jesus. 

Christ’s death is, after all, the climax of the Gospel accounts (along with the resurrection, of course). That the the Son of God willingly took our punishment is the foundation of our hope and it should be the object of our deepest gratitude. But if God’s wrath is what Christ shielded us from, then how can we rejoice in the Father’s intentions on Good Friday? 

The cross certainly reminds of God’s holiness and of his hatred of sin. However, unless we take a step back to consider what was going on at Calvary, our view of God the Father can become distorted. He can become a cold and angry Deity who in his quest for justice is just itching to wipe us out. Until, thankfully, Jesus intervenes. 

Gratefully, this is not how Scripture presents God the Father. 

In The Cross of Christ John Stott cautions us against characterizing the Father as Judge and the Son as Savior. It is one and the same God who saves us in Christ (140). This error may at first sound subtle, but it’s always a big deal when we have a wrong view of God. Just as we honor the Son by thanking him for his sacrifice on the cross, so too we should honor the Father by responding rightly to his role in our salvation. To this end, here are three things to remember about God the Father on this Good Friday …

Read the rest.  

Revolt and Relief on Good Friday

Mike Cosper:

One of my favorite passages of the Bible is Genesis chapter 15. There, God and Abraham participate in an ancient-near-East covenantal rite; a ceremony that many commentaries note was relatively common at the time. God asks Abraham to bring him a cow, a ram, a goat, a turtledove and a pigeon. He cut them in half, laying the pieces across one another, and waited until nightfall.

The idea was fairly simple (and incredibly powerful). Two people would stand in the midst of the halved animals and make their vow. Implicitly, one was saying, “May this happen to us should we break our vow.”

But God breaks from the custom here, and if you notice in the story, Abraham makes no vow; only God does. Abraham stands and witnesses as God’s presence, represented by a smoking fire pot and a torch, pass between the pieces.

I find it startlingly easy to imagine myself there. You can see the flames flickering in Abraham’s eyes, their warm glow causing the pooling blood and exposed viscera to shine like jewels under the dark, starry sky. God revealed himself as light in the darkness, and He foreshadowed a violent solution to the world’s biggest problem.

There’s surely a mix of revolt and relief in Abraham’s mind. Though the sight of butchered animals was anything but foreign to him, I still imagine that the sheer, bloody violence of it all must have made his stomach turn. And yet, there was great relief. God alone appeared amongst the carcasses. God alone made a promise. God alone put a price on his Sacred Head, saying, “may this happen to Me should we break our vow.”

It’s a relief for Abraham, because he knows he doesn’t have it in him to keep the promise. God has promised him countless descendants, but he’s an old man. Only God can give him children. Only God can change his future, filling it with his children. Only God can remain faithful to the promises made, as Abraham’s own story demonstrates.

And though God asked Abraham to prepare for the ceremony, God takes it upon himself to make the vow, saying, “I’m going to do this. Singlehandedly, I’ll get it done.”

I imagine that standing in the glow of the fire pot and torch felt a lot like standing at the foot of the cross, watching the One who made the world bleed, agonize for breath, and finally die. It’s no wonder the sky turned black. There, God kept his word, and the price of a broken covenant was exacted. He took it upon himself, and as he died, he said, “It’s finished.”

As we gather on Good Friday with our churches, remembering that dark day, we share in Abraham’s revolt and relief. The cross is revolting, Good Friday is a day to look with horror upon the violent results of our sin in God’s world. But it’s a relief too. The promise was kept, and we know that what God began, he’ll finish.

Books by Mike Cosper:

• Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey 
• Rhythms of Grace: How the Church's Worship Tells the Story of the Gospel

The Curse Motif - R.C. Sproul

Good Friday Meditations

Some great writing for Good Friday and Easter from Trevin Wax.

Tetelestai!

Melinda Penner:

On the cross, Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses by satisfying the demands of it. By doing that He paid our certificates of debt we each earned.

The certificate of debt is a concept that lies behind Paul's comments about the certificate of debt in Colossians 2:13-14: And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

In Roman times, this certificate was a list of crimes committed against the state that required "payment," much like an indictment in our legal system today. The Romans gave Jesus a certificate of debt when He was sentenced to die; it was nailed to the cross: "Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews" (John 19:19). When the crimes were paid for, the certificate was canceled and was stamped with the word tetelestai, meaning "paid in full."

Paul says that Jesus "canceled out" (paid) our certificate of debt (v14).

Jesus' last words, His victory cry on the cross was, "It is finished!", literally in Greek was "tetelestai!" "He said, 'It is finished!' And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." (John 19:30). "Paid in full." What was finished? His work of redemption paying for our certificates of debt against God.

What Does It Mean for Jesus to Despise Shame?

John Piper:

In running the race of life we are to look to the exaltation of Jesus at the end of his race. But Hebrews 12:2 tells us to look not only to his exaltation, but to his motivation.

Jesus was carried in the agonies of the last lap of his race by the hope of joy. “For the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (verse 2). Jesus kept his eyes on the same place we should — his own future exaltation at the Father’s right hand, with the completion of our salvation crowning his head. This was his joy.

There were mammoth obstacles in Jesus’s way. Two are mentioned. The cross and the shame. The cross, no doubt, stands for all the pain and abandonment and spiritual darkness of those hours, as he lunged, dying, to the finish line.

But shame is the one agony of the cross which the author mentions. And he said that Jesus despised it. That is an amazing choice of words. Would you have chosen such a word to say he overcame shame? He despised it.

Shame was stripping away every earthly support that Jesus had: his friends gave way in shaming abandonment; his reputation gave way in shaming mockery; his decency gave way in shaming nakedness; his comfort gave way in shaming torture. His glorious dignity gave way to the utterly undignified, degrading reflexes of grunting and groaning and screeching.

And he despised it. What does this mean?

Read the rest.

Jesus' Insomnia and Ours

Powerful and important words here from Dr. Moore.

Russell Moore:

When the disciples screamed in the face of a storm, Jesus slept (Mk. 4:37-38). When Jesus screamed in the face of a cross, the disciples slept (Mk. 14:37,41).

Why could Jesus sleep so peacefully through a life-threatening sea-storm, and yet is awake all night in the olive garden before his arrest, crying out in anguish? Why are the disciples pulsing with adrenaline as the ship is tossed about on the Galilee Lake, but drifting off to slumber as the most awful conspiracy in human history gets underway?

Peter, James, and John rebuke Jesus for falling asleep on the boat: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mk. 4:38) Jesus rebukes them for falling asleep as he prays before the cross: “Could you not watch one hour?” (Mk. 14:37)

Jesus isn’t the anxious sort. He tells us, remember, to be anxious for nothing, to take no thought for tomorrow (Matt 6:25-34). So why is he awake all night, “greatly distressed and troubled” (Mk. 14:33). In the storm, Jesus dismisses the disciples’ terror with a wave of the hand. In the garden, he screams, with loud cries and tears (Heb. 5:7), until the blood vessels in his face explode.

It is because Jesus knows what to fear. Jesus knows to fear not him who can kill the body, but instead Him who can cast both body and soul into hell (Matt. 10:28). Jesus doesn’t fear the watery deeps, which can be silenced by his voice. But he knows that is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Danger doesn’t keep Jesus awake; the judgment of God does.

The disciples are just the opposite, and I fear I am too. They are worried about relatively meaningless things, things that need only to be given over to the attention to Jesus. But they are oblivious to the cross that overhangs the cursed world around them, and within them.

I lose sleep quite often over the things Jesus tells me I should not worry about: my life, my possessions, my future. Such is not of the Spirit. Why is it easier for me to worry about next week’s schedule, and to lose sleep over that, than over those around me who could be moments away from judgment? Why am I more concerned about the way my peers judge my actions than about the Judgment Seat of Christ?

The Spirit of Jesus joins us to him in his Gethsemane anguish. We groan with him for the revealing of the sons of God, for resurrection from the dead (Rom. 8:23-27). We like him, through the Spirit, come to terms with the crosses we must carry. And, through it all, we cry with him, “Abba, Father!” (Mk. 14:36; Rom. 8:15).

The next time you find yourself unable to sleep due to worry, ask whether you’re in the Galilee waters or the Gethsemane garden. Ask yourself whether your wakefulness is of the weakening flesh or the awakening Spirit.

Books by Russell Moore:

• Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ
• Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families & Churches
• The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective

Getting Ready for Good Friday

Ryan Huguley:

I don’t know about you, but if I’m not careful, I tend to think about sin in a general, rather than a specific sense. The danger in this, is that sin becomes an idea rather than a reality. This means Christ died for a vague idea we label “sin” and not for the specific ways our hearts and lives have declared war on the God who made us. On the cross, Jesus dealt a definitive blow to my sin and yours. However, unless you get specific regarding the sin in you that put Christ on that cross, it won’t grow the gratitude in your heart it should.

Sunday we will celebrate Christ’s victorious resurrection! At Redemption we’ll sing loud, proclaim the gospel, and baptize people. But… We can’t celebrate the empty tomb until we’ve been to the bloody cross.

Don’t go through the motions tomorrow. Don’t miss out on what God wants to do in you. Seize this gracious opportunity to remember the price Jesus paid for you, as we remember Good Friday together.

Read the rest.

The Significance of Maundy Thursday

Tony Reinke:

On Maundy Thursday the Creator of the universe bent down to his knees to wash the dirt from the callused feet of his followers. And as he scrubbed away the dirt, he scrubbed from his Bride all possible justifications for ethnic and economic hierarchies. He radically upset cultural norms. And now he calls us to go low in foot-washing-like service to one another.

But most importantly, Maundy Thursday reminds us the Son of Man willingly came to earth as a lowly slave, to serve us, to be crushed for us, to free us from the sin slavery that leads to eternal death. On his knees Jesus enacts for us a parable of the cross.

The disciples could not yet see the symbolic anticipation. The full explanation for why Jesus washed their feet would only become clear after the blood-bought atonement on Good Friday. Then the disciples would look back and understand the act of deep humility in the cross that brought us a once-for-all, head-to-toe, cleansing from all our sin.

Read the rest.

What Would You Do If You Knew You Were Going To Die on Friday

Michael Kelley:

- Speak honestly about what angers you (Matthew 23:1-36).

- Provide perspective to those around you (Matthew 24).

- Reflect on what really matters (Matthew 25).

- Have dinner with friends (Matthew 26:26-30).

- Let those around know how much you love them (John 13:1-20).

- Comfort your friends with hope (John 14).

- Pray (Matthew 26:36-46).

Barabbas and Me

This is a powerful meditation for you on Good Friday.

David Mathis:

Year after year, as Christians walk through the Passion week with Jesus, our hearts are knit to him. He is our greatest hero, at the climax of his greatest feat. As we relive the story with him, we pull for him, and against his enemies.

We feel varying levels of disdain for Judas who betrays him, Peter who denies him, the chief priests who despise him, Herod who mocks him, the people who call for his crucifixion, Pilate who appeases the mob and washes his hands, and Barabbas who is guilty but gets to go free.

But wait. Barabbas — the guilty who goes free? Barabbas — the sinner released to new life while the death he deserves is paid by an Innocent Substitute?

Take careful note of where Luke is leading us in his carefully crafted narrative.

Read the rest.

Michael Kelley has a helpful reflection as well here.

Dirt - Great Song and Video for Easter Season

What Would You Do If You Knew You Would Die on Friday?

Michael Kelley:

- Speak honestly about what angers you (Matthew 23:1-36).

- Provide perspective to those around you (Matthew 24).

- Reflect on what really matters (Matthew 25).

- Have dinner with friends (Matthew 26:26-30).

- Let those around know how much you love them (John 13:1-20).

- Comfort your friends with hope (John 14).

- Pray (Matthew 26:36-46).

We Carry in our Pockets His Very Nails

C.J. Mahaney from The Cross Centered Life:

You and I follow along as the Romans lead Jesus away to the hill called Golgotha – - “Place of a Skull.” They nail His quivering flesh onto a cross, then raise it and slam it on the ground.

From all around us in the throng of onlookers, the verbal abuse continues. Those passing by wag their heads and say, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” The chief priests and the scribes and the elders echo the mockery: “He saved others; he cannot save himself.

Make no mistake: Jesus can descend from the cross and save Himself at any moment. It isn’t the nails that keep Him there. What keeps Him there is what placed Him there – - His passion to do the will of His Father, and His love for sinners like you and me.

Without their knowing it, the mocking words these onlookers utter do in fact reveal the uniqueness of the Savior’s death and why it mattered. In their spiritual blindness they in effect express sublime spiritual truths. For Jesus cannot save both Himself and save you and me. It’s precisely because He refused to save Himself that He’s able to save others.

It would be necessary for Him to die even if it were for your sin alone or my sin alone. That’s why you and I are fully responsible for this tragic death. As John Stott wisely observed, “Until you see the cross as that which is done by you, you will never appreciate that it is done for you.”

Luther said that we all carry in our pockets His very nails. Are you aware of those nails in your possession?

(HT:  Chris Brauns)

Why God Created the Universe—For Good Friday

John Piper:

On the panel at The Gospel Coalition I was asked how my preaching may have become more Christocentric over the years. Here’s the summary of my answer. 

My devotion to the truth that God magnifies himself in all that he does has been increasingly refined in a Christ-centered direction. I have been driven in this direction by a cluster of insights. 

1. The apex of the God’s display of his own glory is the display of his grace.

“God predestined . . . according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5–6). Grace is the endpoint in the revelation of God’s glory. 

This is seen in the way wrath serves to make God more glorious for the vessels of mercy. “Desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, God has endured with much patience vessels of wrath . . . in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy” (Romans 9:22–23).

2.  God’s glorification of his grace was planned before creation.

“God chose us in him before the foundation of the world . . . to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:4–6).

3. God’s glorification of his grace was to happen through the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

“He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ . . . to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5–6). 

“God called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

4. From eternity the apex of God’s glorification of his grace was designed to be Christ’s crucifixion for sinners.

Before there was any human sin to die for, God planned that his Son be slain for sinners. We know this because of the name given to the book of life before creation. “Everyone [will worship the beast] whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (Revelation 13:8).

5. God’s glorification of his grace in the crucifixion of his Son for sinners was the ultimate purpose for creating the universe.

“All things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). For all eternity we will sing “the song of the Lamb” (Rev. 15:3). We will say, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain” (Revelation 5:9).

6. Therefore God planned from eternity that the revelation of his glory would be the ultimate reason for creating the universe.

This glory would be supremely displayed in God’s grace. This grace would be supremely glorified in Jesus. And the apex of that glorification in Jesus would be reached when he was slain to save a people who would spend eternity magnifying the greatness of that grace. 

In other words the universe was created for the glorification of God’s grace at Calvary, echoing through eternity in the Christ-exalting joys of the redeemed.

How To Prepare for Good Friday and Easter?

Chris Brauns with some good thoughts here:

Good Friday and Easter are only a few weeks away.  Perhaps, you have already been meditating and preparing.  If not, I would offer one approach:

1. Read the Gospel of Mark as many times as possible.  It’s the briefest of the 4 Gospel accounts and it moves so quickly that if you prayerfully consider the content you will be amazed at what you see of the Savior.
2. Order and read Tim Keller’s recent book, King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus.  Keller’s book is a reflection on the Gospel of Mark and will be a wonderful supplement for time in the Gospel of Mark.
3. Journal brief thoughts (a sentence or two is enough) each time you read and prayerfully study.

Why Good Friday is Good

Erik Raymond:

What follows are some meditations as to why Good Friday is good. The topic is truly infinite. Hopefully this serves to stir your heart as a believer and aid conversations with unbelievers today.

Good Friday is ‘good’ because…

…Jesus was my substitute there upon that blood-stained tree

…Jesus wore the crown of thorns that I might wear the crown of life

…Jesus was scourged that I might be healed

…Jesus was condemned that I might be pardoned

…Jesus was abandoned that I might be accepted

…Jesus was made to be sin that I might be declared and ultimately made righteous

…Jesus pleased the Father whom I had angered

…Jesus tasted death that I may never taste it

…Jesus drank wrath that I might drink the waters of life

…Jesus died that I may live

 Read the rest.

The Curse Motif

The Cup of Christ

Be Freed To Mourn

Bob Hyatt:

This Good Friday, allow the grief to seep deep down into your bones, into your bowels. Meditate on the wounds, the suffering, and the deep, deep love of Christ. Allow the tears to well up from the pit of your being, escape your eyes, and roll down your face. Let the sobs rock your body. Leave the Good Friday service in silence. Extend your mourning through the night and into Saturday. Leave the TV off. Wear black. Refuse to medicate, distract, or otherwise soothe yourself. Mourn. Grieve.

If you do this, as the sun rises on Sunday, you will finally know what Easter is all about. 

Read the rest.