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Good Friday 2026 Reflections · Beyond the Sermon

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  You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast The First
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  Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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  On our podcast, the goal is not just to share the sermons we've
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  preached, but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're
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  learning and what God is doing in US and in our community.
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  You can find more information about our church at
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  fumccollingswood. Dot org.
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  Thanks for listening. I want to invite you to hear the
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  word of God. This not this morning, this
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  afternoon from Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse one, Paul
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  writes to the church in Rome and says, therefore there is now no
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  condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through
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  Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set
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  you free from the law of sin and death.
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  For what the Law was powerless to do because it was weakened by
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  the flesh, God did, by sending His own Son in the likeness of
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  sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
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  And so He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the
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  righteous requirement of the Law might be fully met in US who do
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  not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
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  Those who live according to the flesh have their mind set on
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  what the flesh desires, but those who live in accordance
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  with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
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  The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed
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  by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh
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  is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law,
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  nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of
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  the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the
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  realm of the flesh, but are in the realm of the Spirit, if
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  indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.
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  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not
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  belong to God. But if Christ is in you, then
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  even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the
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  Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
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  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is
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  living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also
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  give life to your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit who lives
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  in you. Therefore, brothers and sisters,
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  we have an obligation. But it is not to the flesh to
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  live according to it. For if you live according to the
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  flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to
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  death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
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  For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children
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  of God. The Spirit you received does not
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  make you slaves, so that you live in fear again.
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  Rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to
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  sonship. And by him we cry, ABBA.
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  Father, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that
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  we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we
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  are heirs, heirs of God and Co heirs with Christ, if indeed we
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  share in His sufferings in order that we might also share in His
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  glory. This is the word of God for the
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  people of God. Jeremy's going to lead us in our
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  first reflection today. I'm.
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  Going to start off the top, we're actually just singing our
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  first song. Singing what I hold dear.
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  I counted all as loss, and at that time, right before I had
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  both of my boys jump up into my arms and I was carrying Him.
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  And So what I was literally holding is dear to me.
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  And yet in comparison to the love of God, I count it as lost.
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  They are but a drop in the ocean of His love for me and for you.
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  And this morning I'm bringing nothing original to you today
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  except for the context of what I'm going to share with you.
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  As most of you know, I am in seminary at Asbury Theological
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  Seminary, the Lord's Seminary. And seminary to many can be
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  known as the faith killer where many go.
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  And as they put in more and more knowledge, sometimes their pride
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  and ego can grow so much that they believe they know better
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  than God or have no need for God, or that they can explain
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  away God. And I had a fear of becoming
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  proud after gaining more knowledge of him, but with a
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  desire and a heart to be humbled by my new understanding of God.
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  As we come to Good Friday, I wanted to share some things from
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  my schooling that I have provided that's been a part of
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  my time there. Part of what I study is
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  Christian history and how the church worked together to have a
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  shared understanding of who Christ is and what Christ is.
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  Many councils of church leaders over centuries debated on how
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  much God Jesus was, how much human he was, how they work
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  together. All of these things though, they
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  believe Christ to be God. And we even have Paul quoting in
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  one of his letters an early creed of the faith.
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  And we have Gentile Greek writers talking about how they
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  worship the crucified Christ as if a God.
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  But it wasn't until the Chalcedonian creed in 451 where
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  they were able to simplify it into a single sentence.
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  Jesus Christ is truly God, truly human, and truly one.
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  I also have incredible professors who have been able to
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  explain the importance of Jesus being 100% human so that he's
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  able to go on our full behalf as humans.
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  He also gave a beautiful portrayal of Christ as deity and
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  a response to one of my discussion post.
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  I'm doing primarily online and for those that haven't done
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  school online, it's a thrill. And instead of talking in
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  person, you talk back and forth online.
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  And usually when I post a couple sentences, no one replies or the
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  teacher will just say good job. Or if I asked a question they
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  would answer my question. I did not propose a question and
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  yet here's just a part of my teacher's response.
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  When we're studying who Jesus is, he says Jesus does save us
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  through his deity. Only God can create, therefore
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  only God can recreate. Our redemption requires both
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  spiritual and physical resurrection, a reconstitution
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  of humanity so powerful it is equal to the act of creation
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  itself. No human or creature, regardless
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  of goodness, resources, or gifts, has such power.
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  Because Jesus is God, we can be confident in His power to
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  transform us in nature. Second, Jesus makes the radical
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  claim that he can forgive sins, something only God can do.
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  And then my teacher quoted TF Torrance.
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  If you cut the bond of being between Jesus Christ and God,
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  then you relegate Jesus Christ entirely to the sphere of
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  creaturely being, in which case His word of forgiveness is
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  merely the word of one creature to another, which may express a
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  kindly sentiment, but actually does nothing.
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  But if Jesus Christ really is the Son of God Incarnate, if he
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  is one with the very being of God, then his word of
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  forgiveness on earth is the very word of God Almighty, a word
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  with ultimate validity, backed up by the power and being of God
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  Himself. Finally, my teacher loves to
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  type. Apparently as truly God, Jesus
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  makes his atoning sacrifice on the cross efficacious for all.
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  His spotless humanity alone is not able to expiate for all sin
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  and for every Sinner, because the one crucified is the eternal
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  Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity.
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  The sacrifice made covers all. We can live in assurance of the
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  full benefits of Christ's atoning work, regardless of who
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  we are or what we have done in life.
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  What a reply, my gosh. This, I believe, connects us
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  well into the opening of our scripture this morning, where it
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  says, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are
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  in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the
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  Spirit who gives life, has set you free from the law of sin and
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  death. For what the law was powerless
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  to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending
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  His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin
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  offering. The more I study, the more I
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  know about God. And if you think you know
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  everything about God, you are farther and farther away from
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  the truth. The more I know about God, the
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  more I realize how little I can know about God.
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  And that's why I wanted us to take some time to rest in the
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  mystery of what's happening on the cross.
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  I can tell you that Jesus died on the cross for your sins.
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  I can tell you that he came as a sin offering.
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  I can also explain in this moment how I'm talking.
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  The microphone is sending a signal, signals going to the
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  speakers through wires and getting to your ears.
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  But that doesn't change all that is happening in this moment, all
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  that you are understanding what the Spirit is doing in your
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  hearts. How some of you will not
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  remember a word of what I said in 30 minutes, and how some of
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  you will chew on this afternoon for years to come.
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  And yet if we dug deeper into what's happening now, we can
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  learn all the electrons and wirings and how your brain
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  functions and your ear receives what you are hearing.
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  But that still wouldn't help you understand understand the
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  profound truths of this experience.
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  Nor do I believe that as we continue to ask very deep
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  questions about what happens on the cross as how Jesus can
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  become a sin offering, why death is necessary at all for this to
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  happen, or even what happens when Jesus is referring or when
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  he cries out to God. My God, my God, why have you
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  forsaken me and we sit at the precipice of the mystery of the
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  Trinity. There are answers to these
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  things, and yet I don't believe those answers will necessarily
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  lead you into a profounder understanding of what God did
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  for you and I. And so I think we need to linger
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  in the mystery of what happened that day with the certainty of
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  what happened that day. I can read to you this from our
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  Scripture this afternoon. The Spirit of Him who raised
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  Jesus from the dead is living in you.
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  He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your
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  mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
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  Hopefully we know that, but how does that work?
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  What does that mean for you when you walk out of this place?
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  The story of Good Friday is so familiar and yet so foreign to
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  us, and I'm going to give us a time to linger in what happened
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  that day and what it means for you and I today.
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  I'll ask you to take whatever posture you'd like for this time
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  and your Pew at the altar. I will have some slides of
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  famous depictions of Good Friday to stir your contemplation, not
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  distract you from leaning into this mystery.
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  I'll give some context and a quick quote before we start.
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  Tim, if you could put up that first image, the image we're
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  seeing now, it's emboldened so that you can see what was
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  engraved in plaster almost 1800 years ago.
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  This is the earliest depiction that we believe to currently
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  have of the crucifixion through art.
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  And if you can tell even from that far away, Jesus's head is a
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  donkey. And it's not because they were
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  making an image out of reverence.
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  They were mocking a Christian named Alex Aminos.
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  And that's the inscription is Alex Aminos worshipping his God?
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  And this is to mock those who follow Christ.
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  Not everyone is going to fully believe or understand even the
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  basics of what took place that day, and we will never fully
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  comprehend what happened that day.
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  But as we enter into this time of reflecting something so
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  familiar, I would like to start us off with a quote from TS
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  Eliot. Before I join you in this time,
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  we shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all
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  our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the
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  place for the first time. For those who are led by the
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  Spirit of God are the children of God.
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  The Spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live
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  in fear again. Rather, the Spirit you received
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  brought about your adoption to sonship, and by him we cry.
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  ABBA Father. Now if we are children, then we
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  are heirs, heirs of God and Co heirs with Christ, if indeed we
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  share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his
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  glory. What a beautiful mystery.
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  Let us pray. Lord, we come humbly before your
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  throne of grace, before the cross, and imagine how we can
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  hold those two together as you took off all that You were owed
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  and put on our sin for our sake. Lord, would you renew in us a
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  depth of understanding of that moment on the cross of who you
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  are and who you are to us. Lord, that we would move forward
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  in the security of knowing the truth of what happened that day
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  while enjoying the mystery of what You did and we could never
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  do on our own. In Jesus name, Amen.
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  Hear the word from another of Paul's epistles to the churches
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  from the book of Colossians, chapter 3.
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  Again, we're beginning in verse one.
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  Since then you have been raised with Christ.
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  Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the
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  right hand of God. Set your minds on things above,
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  not on earthly things, for you died, and your life is now
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  hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life
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  appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
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  Put to death. Therefore, whatever belongs to
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  your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil
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  desires and greed, which is idolatry.
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  Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
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  You used to walk in these ways and the life you once lived, but
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  now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these
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  anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips.
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  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self
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  with its practices and have put on the new self which is being
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  renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
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  Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised,
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  barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and
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  Christ is in all. This is the word of God for the
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  people of God. If I had to wager, I'd bet that
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  most Christians, if they read verses 5 through 8 from that
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  passage that we just read, if they read them in isolation.
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  That part where Paul is talking about putting to death what
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  belongs to the earthly nature. I bet most would think that
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  Paul's talking about something that needs to happen before
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  someone comes to Christ. Or that what Paul is describing
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  is something that happens maybe at that moment of conversion.
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  Or or maybe that it's what it means to actually be converted.
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  When Paul says put to death, which literally in the Greek he
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  says make dead, it sounds fairly synonymous with the idea that
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  we've been talking about all through this Lenten season of
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  denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Jesus.
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  It sounds like what Paul wrote in Galatians 2 too, when he
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  wrote I have been crucified with Christ, therefore I no longer
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  live. But I don't think that quite
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  gets what Paul is communicating here to the Colossians here,
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  this putting to death of that which belongs to our earthly
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  nature that Paul is commanding here in Colossians 3.
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  It's it's, it's a putting to death that's dependent on our
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  already having been raised with Christ.
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  The call to put to death, then, is not for unbelievers who would
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  become Christians. The call to put to death is for
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  us, for those who walk with Jesus.
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  It's for those who have already decided to follow Jesus.
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  It's an ongoing call to put to death what is of our worldly
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  nature, what has been deformed by sin and the sinful world
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  around us. But for us as Christians to to
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  put this worldly nature to death, it's not about just
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  muscling through and trying a little harder.
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  It's not about imposing stricter regulations or exerting stronger
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  willpower. It's not about earning salvation
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  or even somehow making ourselves worthy of it.
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  We could never do any of that. Instead this this putting to
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  death. It's about living out of living
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  from our resurrected with Christ life.
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  It's living from the victory that Christ secured in his death
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  on the cross and in his resurrection from the grave.
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  That's where the power comes from, not from us.
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  Put it in a different metaphor. Paul then goes on to talk about
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  changing our clothes, taking off the old self, putting on the new
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  self. It's it's a change of uniform,
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  so to speak. Anyone wake up this morning in
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  the same clothes you were wearing yesterday and come to
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  church in those same clothes? I doubt it.
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  Don't raise your hand if you did.
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  But it's it's a change of uniform, a change of clothing
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  from who we were and how we lived before Jesus encountered
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  us to who we are now that we have met Jesus.
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  And living according to the way of Jesus, the new self, the, the
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  new life which we are to put on is something that is being
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  renewed. Note that it doesn't say that
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  that this new self was renewed, right?
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  This is a process that Paul is talking about.
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  It's, it's a present ongoing reality that we are being
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  renewed more and more into the image of our Creator, the one
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  who made us and designed us and and sustains us and therefore
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  gets to define who and and what we were created to be and how we
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  are to live. But in both of these metaphors,
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  putting to death, putting off the old self, there are there
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  are two things that stand out to me this afternoon #1 so we have
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  a role to play in this process. This is not just something that
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  happens to us from outside of us while we wait passively for
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  change to come. Jesus doesn't come in and start
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  killing off parts of our old nature or ripping off pieces of
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  the old self. The expectation.
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  It's that we need to cooperate with the transformation which
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  God is working in US and he will empower us to do it.
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  That's the second thing that stands out to me, the power
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  which enables us to participate in our transformation.
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  It comes to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, since
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  we've been raised with Christ. But in order to be raised with
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  Christ, it assumes that we've also been killed with Christ,
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  been buried with Christ, crucified with Christ.
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  When we die with Christ, as we reflect on this Good Friday, we
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  are raised with Christ, which enables us to put off and to put
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  to death that old sinful, worldly nature.
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  And that takes time, right? That process, what we call
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  sanctification, it's how we're being made holy, like God is
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  holy. And so as we reflect on Jesus's
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  crucifixion and the sacrifice on this Good Friday, we remember
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  that Jesus died for us. He sacrificed for us.
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  He suffered for us so that our sin can be forgiven.
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  And because Jesus also rose for us, sin has been defeated.
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  Our sinful nature can be put to death.
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  But He won't do that to us, empowers us to do it.
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  He invites us to take our position in Christ, standing in
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  the reality that sin, death, the devil, and the world no longer
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  control us. We can participate in the
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  process of our transformation as the Spirit applies Christ
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  victory to our lives. If we'll join him in his death,
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  if we'll submit to being crucified with Christ, we too
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  will be raised with Christ. Would you pray with me, Jesus?
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  We, we want to believe that promise that if we, if we are
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  buried with Christ, if we die with Christ, we will be raised
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  with Christ. We are raised with Christ seated
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  even in in heavenly places. And because of that, you want to
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  empower us. You can empower us to live
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  differently than we did in our old lives, our lives controlled
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  by sin and self and the world. So would you empower us today as
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  we reflect on what it means that Christ died for us?
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  Would you help us to remember that we're called to be
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  crucified with Christ right alongside, to put to death that
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  which belongs to our earthly nature, so that you, Spirit, can
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  take up residence and empower us to live in the fullness of all
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  that you promise? Help us, we pray in Jesus name,
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  Amen.