Good Friday | Holy Week | Friday

As Holy Week comes to a close, we arrive at Good Friday. 

There’s no new concept here. No fresh perspective to uncover. Just the reality at the center of our faith - 

A perfect Savior stepped into an imperfect world.
The only sinless One took on the sin of all.
Jesus willingly became the sacrifice.

In this episode, we don’t rush past the cross. We sit in it. We reflect on the weight, the cost, and the depth of love displayed through His suffering.

This is the day where everything changes.
Where grace is written in blood.
Where mercy is extended to all.

And as we transition into the quiet of Silent Saturday, our prayer is that we would allow the sorrow, the sacrifice, and the solitude to center our hearts and focus our minds.

Because while today is Friday…
Sunday is coming!

There may be pain in the night - 
but joy comes in the morning.

Thank you for walking through Holy Week with us! We pray a special blessing over you, your family, and your local church this weekend. 

Song Credit:
This episode includes a brief acoustic portion of “Jesus Messiah”  written by Chris Tomlin, Daniel Carson, Ed Cash, and Jesse Reeves. Used here for devotional and illustrative purposes.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to Holy Week with Sermons on the Side.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

This week, we're doing something a little bit different.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Each day, Monday through Friday, we're walking through Holy Week together, slowing down to follow the final days of Jesus' life, leading up to the cross and ultimately the resurrection.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

From the celebration of Palm Sunday to the quiet weight of the upper room to the sorrow of Good Friday.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

We want to sit in each moment and see what it reveals about who Jesus is and what it means for us right here, right now.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

So whether you're listening in the car, on a walk, or in a quiet moment alone, our hope is simple.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

That this week wouldn't just be something you remember, but something you experience.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

So let's step into today's part of the story. Our last episode of Holy Week as we prepare our hearts for the gathering into our own local bodies spread throughout the land. But this week, this journey with Sermons on the side ends today with Good Friday. Um, but it feels especially appropriate with what we're going to talk about. There's just some really, really great stuff here. But Richard, it's great to see you, sir. What an incredible week we've already had. I've loved this. It's been super special. And the feedback that we've gotten from people that are singing along with us in the car, and it's just been some cool stuff, Fanny.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Oh, it has been a great way to spend Easter week, I think. And it all uh comes to this point on Friday, which is so critical. The, you know, the one of the most important days in the history of the world, the sacrificing of Jesus on the cross. And so that's really what we're gonna be focusing on and and and drilling down on really what that means. And it's really interesting when you think about the cross itself. There are many of us uh that are listening right now that I mean we're super familiar with the cross. Sure. We see it on steeples, we have it tattooed on our own skin sometimes. We've got the the the jewelry, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

The cross necklace.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Exactly. Uh we might drive by uh a hospital and the cross is on on the side of it because it's uh it might be a Baptist hospital or a Catholic or whatever. Sure, you know. And I think that is wonderful for the record. Yeah, I say, in my opinion, get the cross out there as much as we can. I do recognize that the fact that it that is a symbol, you know, just the the image of the cross because we're all so familiar with it, it can sometimes, I don't know, little we get so familiar with it to the point where maybe it doesn't have the impact that it could and probably should. Yeah, that's it. Sure. And folks will say, nice cross or nice piece of jewelry. And when you think about it, it was yeah, they do it is a cool piece of jewelry, but it means a lot more than that. Yeah, but it just it is design. I mean, the cross itself, you know, ironically, the cross was literally a form of execution. And I've heard it said that it would, if you went back in time to Jesus' time in the first century, and and you said, you know, one day people are gonna be wearing the cross as a necklace, it would blow their mind. Yeah, right. It would be like in the French Revolution, somebody wearing a necklace with a guillotine or the electric chair or something like that. It's like, wait a second, that's an intro instrument of torture and death and capital punishment. So even something so um so crass, really, and and and so uh odd, an instrument of execution, that that symbol could be redeemed. Yeah, it means so much to so many over the centuries. So we thank the Lord for the power of the cross. And there's just a few things that I wanted to drill down on uh as we get ready to wrap up our our times of prayer and worship over Holy Week, and that is that Jesus offered himself and sacrificed himself on the cross. And I think it's really important to recognize that that was not just a martyrdom. Jesus wasn't just a martyr for a cause, he was literally a substitution, he was offering himself as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world and to offer a path to forgiveness and reconnection with God. He was our substitute because the wages of sin or the cost of sin is death. Physical death, separation from God, spiritual death and physical death. And Jesus is saying, No, I will pay the price for sin if you put your faith in me and your sins can be forgiven, and you can be made right with God. It is that's what so when I see a cross on a piece of jewelry on the side of a building and tattooed on a on someone's arm, that's what I think. I think Jesus went on that cross in my place. He he went as a substitution for me. He stood before God, so to speak. This is a phrase. In his action of giving himself on the cross, he stood before God as I should have. So now I can stand before God as he does. There is a uh there's this old hymn, right? It's called Before the Throne of God Above. Powerful stuff. And then there's one phrase in that hymn that says, Because my sinless Savior died, my sinful soul has been set free. Because God the Father was satisfied to look on him, to look on Jesus on the cross and pardon me. I've been pardoned because of what Jesus did on the cross. The verse for today's discussion comes from 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for sin, so that we could be made right with God through him. One of the versions I remember very first hearing that verse in says, He became sin who knew no sin, so that we could become righteous before God. That's the thing Jesus told our place. He was the substitute. That is that is why it's Good Friday. It's a song, it's a somber. It's a sacrifice, it's heavy. But it is so good because we took our place. Oh my goodness. So what we're asking all our listeners on this good Friday as we prepare for to celebrate on Sunday morning the beautiful message of resurrection and Easter. We're asking all our listeners to remember the cross and to remember that he told our place. The best message ever. So let's go to prayer together now. Thanking God for this indescribable gift. The sacrifice of Jesus in our place. And we're sorry how we for how easily we forget the power of the cross. So we're asking you today Lord, bring us back. Bring us back to the cross. So that we could remember, but also so that we could reconnect with you. And to truly understand the depth of Christ's love for us. To willingly stand in our place, hang on that cross in our place. So that we could stand before you. Righteous, made right with you. God is just so amazing. It's just so overwhelming. And so now on this good Friday, we offer this prayer and we offer our worship. Because you are so good to us.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Who sin? We might become his righteousness. He humbled himself, he carried the cross. Love so amazing. Love so amazing. Blessed we deep. Broken and border of trouble, and the bell was a baby. Blessed redeemer.