SPEAKER_02 0:07

Thank you, Lord. What a savior. Thank you, Lord. Passion Week is a great week just to focus and contemplate. Sacrifice. The humiliation. The horrific tragedy of the sinless Lamb of God being slain. Sinless God, sinless man. The suffering and humiliation and embarrassment that he went through for us so that we can gain access into the very presence of God. Amen. Yeah. This is Good Friday because of the good work of Jesus Christ that He's accomplished to bring healing and peace into our hearts and into our lives. And it is awesome. Paul said, I don't want to know anything other than Christ and Him crucified in your life. That was the main message of Paul. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God and the salvation to everyone who believes. Amen. He was preaching the cross. And we live in a society where there's a message going forth that is a Christless, crossless salvation. It's a social gospel, it's a social engineering where we do good works and we think we're going to get into heaven. But everybody that's going to get into heaven that walks through the pearly gates must bow before the cross of Christ. Amen. Have the blood of Christ applied to your heart. You receive forgiveness of sins. You're free from sin, shame, and condemnation. Free from the threat of death. Amen. Isn't it wonderful for the Christian today that the devil can't throw us at us the threat of death? Right? Death is great. We'll stay down here a little bit longer, but death is great. Amen. You don't have to be afraid. That is right. In the twinkling of an eye, amen. Absent from the body, present with the Lord, but it's because of the cross of Christ that we've gained access into the very presence of God. The person and work of Jesus on the cross is an amazing thing. The greatest thing that Christ could ever do is save me and save you. Amen. And that's because of the cross. So our focus tonight is just a greater revelation of what the cross means to us. Jesus took up his cross, didn't he? And then he tells us if you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross. What is our cross? It's not your job, okay? It's not where you live. Your cross is everything that you have to do to maintain Christ as Lord and Savior of your life. Whatever you do, do that. Amen? That's your cross. Living for the glory of the Lord. And what a great God we serve. That we can actually take up the cross of Christ and live for Him and give Him all the glory of our lives, man. It's exciting. Amen. And Maria, you are right. We are not afraid of death. Amen. The devil cannot threaten us with death because we have life and life eternal. So give praise to God. We're glad to have Rich. Rich is gonna come now. Share some scripture, just an exhortation to us tonight, and then we'll continue to worship the Lord. These guys are gonna stay, stay up here, and uh throughout the night, we'll have scripture, we'll have the word of God, we'll get into the praise and adoration of our Savior. Amen. Thank you, Rich.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Thank you, Pastor. When Pastor asked me to say a few things, I just this this thought came into my heart about that when Jesus was in the garden, he said, Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, my will, but yours be done. And he thought came into my heart that, how did we get here? How did Jesus get to this place? Born as a man. It didn't just come as a last-minute thing. It wasn't something God thought of at the last minute, but if you look back in the Bible all the way back, as you travel back in time all the way to the Garden of Eden, we find out that that was God's plan ever since then. And as you know, we look at Genesis 3, I was just gonna read this, I think we can get an idea about how God implemented this into the history book of the Bible and why a sacrifice is necessary. It's kind of foreign to our thinking, foreign to our mind, but it wasn't something that God thought of, but something that God revealed to us how we should approach him and what and how we should you know approach God with this with the sacrifice, the substitution for the sin that we've got handed down to us, and that is our own. And I read a few verses in Genesis, and then we'll go from there. Now the serpent was far more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. So she remembered that, not like she forgot about it, because that's the only thing God told her not to do. So she remembered that. Okay, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when you woman saw the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of it, its fruit, and ate it. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it, and the eyes of both were opened. They knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. So they felt a need to hide themselves before God. The Lord God called to the man and said to him, Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. So that's probably the first time in the Bible that man was ever afraid of anything, because he had disobeyed God, and this was the result. And he said, Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat? The man said, The woman whom you gave to me, be with me. She gave me the fruit. It was her. She gave me the fruit of the tree and I ate. And the woman said, The serpent deceived me and I ate. The Lord God said to the serpent, Because you've done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all the beasts of the field, and your on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life, and I'll put enmity between you and the woman. Between your offspring and her offspring, you shall bruise you shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. And to the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing, and in pain you shall go forth, bring forth your children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you not to eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field, and by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. The man called his wife's name Eve. The man called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living, and the Lord made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. So that may have been the first time God was teaching Adam that he was going to care for him, and an animal had to be slain to get those coverings for them. So God was teaching already that an animal would be slain as a sacrifice for you to be covered, at least a symbol of that. God was covering them. You know, and even when Adam and Eve left the garden, Adam didn't quit worshiping God. He taught his kids and things like that to follow God and to worship him through sacrificies, through sacrifices. You can see God brought these sacrifices down through Seth, all the way up through, you know, Noah and others in between there. He taught them to approach God through a substitutionary sacrifice for their sins. And even after the flood, Noah taught his children, because Noah was as soon as he got out, he made a sacrifice to God. And all throughout, all the way up through Abraham and Moses and the prophets and the kings, all in the Levitical priesthood and all that. They all kept up with the thought and practiced that a sacrifice must be substituted for your sins. And all the way back leading up to Christ. And Christ was the sacrifice that it was leading up to. The perfect sacrifice that God provided was in him. And it's just ironic that the Jews had all that going on in the temple, and on Passover they were crucifying their Savior, the one who had come to substitute his life for them so that they could be forgiven and saved once for all. And I think that applies to us and the fact that we could benefit from all those and all that God had done all throughout those years, providing that and planning that throughout history of mankind. And that as we place our trust in Christ and as his substitution for us on the cross, we can find the forgiveness that God's provided. And the Christ can dwell within us.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

When you think of what's being said, you know, and how it's our hope, our joy, it's all found in the work that was done on that. And how in natural in the natural mind that that was that was despised, that was a shame. The Bible says that that you were cursed by if you were hung on that. That's what they did with the worst of criminals. And and if anybody knows physically what takes place in a crucifixion, it's ghastly. What begins to happen at that in your body, what takes place. And I can't help but marvel as at how the Lord knew every intimate detail of everything that was going to transpire from the moment he came into his ministry. And before, from the foundations of the earth, as as Rich was was talking uh about there, and and how uh alluding to that, from the foundations of the earth the Lamb was slain. Jesus did it, and the Bible says he did it with joy in his heart. Can you imagine that? With joy in his heart, looking forward to doing it. I mean, to the point where without even being aware of it, his disciples were trying to stop him. No, Lord, don't go. They're gonna kill you, they're gonna take you, they're gonna, they're gonna abuse you. And he said, get behind me, Satan, thou art ever in offense. There was nothing. The Bible says that when that moment came, his eyes were steadfastly fixed to Jerusalem. Nothing was gonna dissuade him, nothing was gonna change his mind. And and and on that, I don't want to linger long. I mean, I I can I can really, you know, I can go on that. It's just, it's it's a marvel at what our God did for us. And who are we? Except sinners. Except those. We were those that cried out, crucify, crucify him. We think, you know, you like to think, oh no, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have been, it wouldn't have been me, I'd have been stuck. Yeah, Lord, I love you, Jesus. I would not have denied you, Lord. You know my heart. The disciples were with him for three years every moment. Intimately. They laughed with him, they wept with him, they sat at his feet, they they they saw the miraculous work of God, yet. Big, bold, bad, brave seaman, gnarly old seaman, man of the salt, cursed out a little girl, denying Jesus three times. That's that's who we are. Jesus went to the cross anyway. That's a marvel. Matthew, Matthew 21, there it the triumphal entry, it's found in all four of the gospels, and each one brings out a little nuance than another. And and I I I chose Matthew 21, verses 1 through 11, because it really as as I see it, it it's Jesus comes and he proclaims he's the Messiah in so doing. There were three core prophetic um uh uh fulfillments of prophecy that took place in the entry. There were others, but there were three core prophecies that took place. All leading to Jesus' proclamation that he is Messiah and beginning the process of laying before people a solid option to seek him and submit to him or reject him. And we all know what ended up taking place, right? Verse 1 when they drew near to Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage unto the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village over against you, straightway you shall find an ass tied and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to me. And if any man say to you, you shall say the Lord has need of them, and straightway he will send them. And interestingly, I I love how Pastor Stan last Sunday brought out how Jesus entered in on a on a on a donkey, a lowly animal, instead of the white stallion, that a general of war, that a victor would come in. Right? And and and brought it out that Jesus will return on a white stallion, just not then. The Bible in Zechariah 9 and verse 9, one of the prophecies, says that he entered in and presented himself meekly. And I'm not quoting, it's it says, Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, thy king comes to you. He is just in having salvation, meek in riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foul of an ass, foal of an ass, excuse me. He came in humbly, not majestically. Yet what happened? When they were casting all the palm branches and the garments down before him, what were they saying? Well, traditionally that holds that you are welcoming a king. They saw Jesus as a king. He entered and did not reject what they were saying, to the point where the Pharisees now, as I said, he was he was putting before people the opportunity to either come to him in submission or reject him because he was going contrary to what their expectations were. Remember, the Jew thought in their mind that they were politically going to be saved by a victor coming in with a great army to free them from the Roman oppressor. Didn't happen that way. They couldn't deny the work that Jesus was doing. Even some of the Pharisees would come in quietly because they were afraid of the Jew, they were afraid of being put out from the synagogue. But the Bible says that they believed in who Jesus was. Nicodemus, the Bible says he believed who Jesus was. You know, the man that came and said, How do I get saved? He believed who Jesus was, that he was the Messiah. Yet it says in these chapters, in John, actually, that that refers to this week. It says that he didn't publicly acknowledge Jesus because he was afraid of men. And so Jesus comes in, he proclaims himself to be the Messiah. He hadn't done it openly in mass. There are a few occasions where he hinted to who he was as he ministered to individuals. But here he is for the first time openly before all, proclaiming who he is, fulfilling the prophecies that foretold the Messiah's entry into Jerusalem. The Pharisees in their anger, their their frustration, went to Jesus and demanded that he tell the masses, the people, to stop. And what did he say? He said, If if they don't proclaim this, the very rocks will cry it out, right? And it says that they got angry and they went, and many times through the gospels you see that things like that Jesus would present things and they would get angry and they would go and start making plans on how to capture him. This was the camel's the straw that broke the camel's back. This is when they really started to look into how do we kill this man. To where Caiaphas, the high priest, even prophesied and said, it's better that one die for the whole nation that the nation lives. They knew who he was. They, in their hearts, they knew who Jesus was. But what was happening? He was spinning their heads were spinning because all of their tradition held that a conquering Messiah was going to come and deliver them from the Roman oppressor. Jesus was coming in and saying, No. You're going to endure through trial and you're going to be perfected. Why? Because of the sin that was in the garden. We needed to be perfected. We needed to accept meekly, humbly, confidently, with passion, who Jesus is. To this day, we need to do that. Notice how I said, not who he was, but who he is. Beloved, we have this very same thing presented before us. In this event, and I'll pull out here, in this event, the Lord placed a serious challenge before the people. Who do we want the Lord to be, but who is he really? That's what he placed before them. And here in this time, with one voice, Hosanna. Hosanna, proclaiming the glory of God. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna! Save us, Lord! We pray, save us! A mere five days, four days later, I forget the progression. We want the murderer to crucify the Savior. We want Barabbas. Pilate says, his blood's on your heads. What did they say? We accept it and our children. To this day, the Jewish nation suffers because of the decisions made by their forefathers. Their redemption comes. And many have received that. There are many Jews that love the Lord Jesus. They said, His His blood be on ours and our children's heads. And they shouted, Crucify Him. And so He presents. Who do you want me to be? But who am I? And that's the that's the decision we have to make. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

I'm sure you read through the Passion Week, all the scriptures. I just want to point out one scripture. And that is John 19, 30. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. And when we look at uh Good Friday, a lot of people think that it's the darkest day, but it's the darkest day that brought the brightest hope. Amen? An innocent man is beaten, mocked, nailed to a cross, left to die. The sky grows dark, the earth trembles, and hope seems lost. But then three days later, whoa, whoa, whoa, Jesus rose from the dead. Amen? Praise God for that. What looked like the end was just a turning point of history. Amen. AD, B, C, on that cross, and this is uh a beautiful thing. Jesus didn't say, I am finished. He said, It is finished. Amen. The work of salvation, the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth had done his work on the cross. And when he said, it is finished, that means the debt was paid. Amen. This is the Greek Greek word, Tethelesti. Spoken by Jesus on the cross, it means the debt of sin is paid in full. How many of you have recently paid off a credit card? All right. And you just stare at that page that said paid in full. And you're like, yeah. You dirty rotters, right? Yeah. Paid in full. The debt was paid. This is a beautiful illustration of what Jesus has done for us. Historically, this word was written on ancient receipts and it was stamped, tetalesti. Pay it in full. Accomplished. Completed. Done. The end of a long, successful, completed work or mission, and it is finished. The Greek tense used implies it happened in the past, but has lasting, permanent results of victory, completion, steadfastness, endurance. Amen. The Bible says that we receive Christ by grace through faith. And as we have received him, we walk in him. Amen? We walk in him every day, knowing that the work of Christ is finished in our hearts. There's nothing else that he has to do in our hearts that pertains to our salvation and being accepted by God. Do you believe that today? Amen? Now the process of making us more like himself, that's another thing. Amen. That is another thing. Sanctification, the Holy Spirit's work in our heart is awesome. And Paul said, He who began a good work in you, the Holy Spirit's work of salvation and sanctification, he will continue it, complete it, until we see Jesus face to face. And sometimes we don't like that work because it's the work of maybe cutting up our heart, showing us the reality of where our heart is. Amen. And it is a uh it is a good work that Jesus does. Sin costs. There's a cost to sin, isn't there? He was pierced for our transgressions, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was wounded for our iniquities. The chastisement or the penalty or punishment of our peace was upon him. He took our sin. Sinless Lamb of God, never ever separated from the love and fellowship of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. But when Jesus took on sin, he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Can you imagine that? The love fest of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit separated because of sin. Sin separates us from the life of God, doesn't it? We should have this horrific opinion of sin because it destroys. It is horrific. It brings death, it brings destruction, it brings despair, right? And every time that we have a vision of sin in our hearts and in our lives, we need to put the cross of Christ and his suffering right in view of the sin and the mindset that we have of going after something that is contrary to the will of God, the way of God, the righteousness of God in our hearts and lives. Amen. If you feel like sinning, think about the tragedy of the cross and what it cost Jesus. Amen. The Bible says that when we continue in sin, it's as if we put Christ back on the cross again. The sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit is awesome. Sin was paid on Calvary. The separation was bridged. Amen? The separation was bridged. Sin doesn't just bring guilt, it brings distance between us and God. When Jesus died, something wonderfully extraordinary happened that probably blew the attendance in the temple, and that was that the temple curtain that separated the Holy of Holies was torn in two from top to bottom. Amen. One dude went in there once a year, prepared himself ceremonially, morally before God, and went in with bells on and a rope around his feet in the Old Testament. Because if he was not prepared to go into the presence of God, they would not hear the bells ringing and they would drag him out. Amen. We don't have fear now because we cry, Abba Father. Isn't that something? We have no fear of coming into the presence of our heavenly father. We have a tender, intimate, personal relationship with our heavenly father because of what Christ has done, our elder brother brings us into the presence of God, our heavenly father. The temple curtain was torn in two. The battle was won. Here's uh Colossians chapter 2 and verse 15. This is a powerful portion of scripture. Let's turn over there in your Bibles or devices. Colossians chapter 2. Do we hear the pages of the Bible turning? There it is, right there.

unknown 29:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Alright, Colossians chapter 2. And here we go. We're going to start with verse 6. We brought that up earlier. Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Whenever you see the word walk in Scripture, it means your conduct of life, your words, your actions, your attitudes, your behavior, your conversation. Walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits or principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. And you have been filled in him. Amen. Filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Friends, isn't this wonderful that when we were saved, Christ took the scalpel and he's been cutting away our fleshly nature, all the residue of the filthiness of our flesh, amen. He's cutting away, he's cutting away, he's cutting away, and he's preparing us as a beautiful specimen of God's presence and impassion in our hearts and lives. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead, 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, and this is the beauty of it, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities, put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. Amen. He canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. The word justification is a legal term in a courtroom setting, a legal term that says, You are declared righteous just as if you've never sinned. Yeah. Make you feel good tonight. Just as if you've never sinned. Why do we always think of our sin and our shame and our guilt? The accuser and the slanderer always brings up our past, everything that we've done, everything that we've thought. He throws that at us to destroy the work of Christ in us. But I'd love to bring this verse back up to his mind and heart. We have triumphed over him. Amen. Christ has canceled the record of debt, nailing it to the cross, and he's disarmed the rulers and authorities. Put them to open shame. The battle has been won. Amen. The battle has been won. And the work is complete. It is finished. So whenever you feel like you're done, have you ever said that? You're going through trials and tribulations? Man, I'm done. I've heard that time and time again, and I've probably said it too. There's just too much going on. I'm overwhelmed. I'm done. I'm finished. That's the time when we switch gears and look to the finished work of Jesus Christ that has provided every spiritual blessing for us in heavenly places. Amen. Whatever you need tonight through Christ, He's provided in this wonderful, wonderful aspect of the Holy Spirit's work in our hearts and in our lives. So, Good Friday demands a response. Amen? It demands a response. It's a symbol of love, a declaration of grace, an invitation to come near again to the cross of Christ. Lay down everything that is contrary to the will and the way of God, and give your heart again fresh to Jesus because it is finished. Friends, it's not our doing, it's what He has done. That's what we rest in. Amen? The solid rock who is Christ Jesus. God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How many of you think that you got to clean up your life to come back into the presence of God? You can never, ever, ever do it. You are bankrupt without the righteousness of Christ. We lay down our burdens. We accept his finished work in our heart. We rest in his love. We live in the freedom he paid for. Because the story of Good Friday is not just about what Jesus did, it's about what it means to you tonight. Amen. That we rest in his finished work. Whenever you, maybe this week you want to say, I'm done, I'm finished. Spin it around and say, Christ has finished the work. I'm holy and righteous. I'm a child of God. And I cry, Abba Father. Amen. Abba Father. It is finished. Tetalestii. Paid in full. You don't pay that debt. We're not obligated to pay the debt of the flesh and sin. We're obligated to live according to the Spirit of God in our hearts and lives. Amen. We're going to sing, I believe, hallelujah for the cross. Amen. All right. Let's sing that hallelujah for the cross and say it is finished. Amen.