Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 7, 2023 | Good Friday

Transcript

April 7, 2023 | Good Friday · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Good evening, everybody.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it was about uh four hours ago that Jesus died on Good Friday.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh it's a bit of a an interesting name, Good Friday, right?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um because it is both the most tragic and what should be unnecessary thing, but because of our sin and God's love, the only solution that could make us right with God again.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we call it Good Friday, is because it is the one thing that has saved us.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh tonight I want to take a couple steps with you back from Good Friday before we revisit it once again.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk with you about the sacrifice that Jesus made and why it was so special, not just because it saved us, but the promise that God was fulfilling.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: See, the night before Thursday night, Jesus was with his disciples, what we would call the Last Supper, and he was eating the Passover meal with them.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he told his disciples, he said, I've been eagerly waiting to eat this meal with you.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Why?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Because I'm going to suffer tomorrow.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that Thursday night before Good Friday, the disciples had no concept, no real way to fathom the depth of what was going to happen over the next 24 hours.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: The betrayal by one that was sitting at the table with them, the arrest, the unfair trial, the beating, the mocking, being placed on a cross with a sign over his head that said King of the Jews, and then his death.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: At that time they they didn't understand what it meant to suffer, but Jesus did.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: And he knew what he was doing.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: See, if you take even one step further back, 1,400 years before Jesus, we see the first Passover meal.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: The first meal where God made a promise to his people that the blood of an innocent lamb was going to be shed for the guilty.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: See, that's what was happening in Egypt.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Israelites were slaves.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: They'd been slaves for 400 years, and God was going to rescue his people, but in order to do that, the tenth plague, he says, My judgment is coming, and in order to protect yourselves, you need to take one that is innocent, and you need to put it over your doorpost.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: You need to paint it so that when I come, you will be able to be set free.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they do that, and the judgment comes, and then there's the Exodus.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a year from that time, so 1,399 years earlier, where the second Passover comes along.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: See, God had told his people, he said, I want this to be something that you never ever forget.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is to be something that you continue through the generations.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: You teach your kids what it means to celebrate the Passover.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: You teach them about the sacrifice that has been made, how the innocent one, their blood is spilled, so that the guilty may go free.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And they're walking through the desert, and God reminds them in the book of Numbers.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: In the first month of the second year after their departure from the land of Egypt, the Lord told Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, the Israelites are to observe the Passover at its appointed time.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: God says, It has been a year since I rescued them.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody who's here with us was a slave, unless they were born in the past year.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: They were a slave back in Egypt.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: They still can remember what it was like to be in bondage.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: They can remember their past life.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've given them a new life, though, and my command is that they still do not forget that I redeemed them and that they have been saved.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I want them to continue this Passover.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: It is now the second time that you're to celebrate it.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: When some people come up to them, come up to Moses, and they have a question.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: They say, Well, we've got some, there's some details we need to work out.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us are on travel, some of us are unclean, and they say, Can we take the Passover too?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be a part of this.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so Moses says, wait right there, I'm gonna go ask God.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he does, and he returns, and he says, Yes, every single person can take part in the Passover.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody has to be excluded.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to be a part of God's plan of redemption and mercy and grace, every single person can do it, and God has made a way for everyone to be a part.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Moses brings them together with all of these things, but he says, There's one detail, though, you need to understand.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: They must observe the Passover according to all of its statutes.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: See, it wasn't a DIY project.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a choose your own adventure.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't something where they could just pick their own path towards this Passover dinner.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, they had to follow the exact instructions that God had given them, otherwise, they were rejecting it.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that ended up becoming a problem for some people.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: It was a problem because even though it had been just a year since God had rescued them from being slaves, some of them had decided that they didn't want to follow the path that God had set for them.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't want to accept his grace, they didn't want to sacrifice the innocent one because they were fine on their own.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: God says, Well, there's a problem here.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: The man who fails to observe the Passover is to be cut off from his people because he did not present the Lord's offering at its appointed time.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: That man will bear the consequences of his sin.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: God says, Look, there's one pathway forward.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's one pathway to grace that I have provided for you.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is the shedding of the innocent blood of this Lamb, and that is how you are to be forgiven of your guilt.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: You are to be passed over.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you will no longer bear the consequences of your sin if you do that.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: But if you choose to reject this, you will be cut off from the people.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because God's people are those who have followed after him and recognized and accepted that gift.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so they gather together one last time and they ask him one more question.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: They say, Okay, this Passover, this thing that represents God's grace and mercy, can anybody be a part of it?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: If an alien resides with you, a foreigner, and wants to observe the Passover to the Lord, he is to do it according to the Passover statute and its ordinances.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: You're to apply the same statute to both the resident foreigner, alien, and the native of the land.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Moses says, God says, anybody who wants to be a part of this is welcome.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody's an Israelite, come on in.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody doesn't, wasn't a part of the Exodus from Egypt, but they have heard about God's power, they have heard about his grace, they want to experience his mercy, they don't want to bear the weight of their sin any longer, come on in.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's welcome.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: No matter where anybody is coming from, they can be a part of God's plan of redemption.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the way they are to do that is by shedding the blood of an innocent lamb.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's uncomfortable doing that kind of thing.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it should be.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's something that is only necessary because of the sin of the people.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, 1400 years in the future, Jesus is seated around a low table with his disciples.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're reclining and he's talking with them.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: They've been in Jerusalem now for a number of days, right?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: They entered with him when everybody was saying, Hosanna, this is the king of Israel.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Glory be to his name.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus knows what's coming.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And he is celebrating, just like he did every single year of his life, the same Passover feast.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is celebrating and eating the same meal that is supposed to be shown to the generations what it means for the innocent to cover the guilty.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And as he's having that meal with his disciples, he begins to tell them once again that he is going to suffer.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, suffer?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: What are you talking about?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: He begins to connect the dots with them by first lifting up the cup of wine that's in front of him.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: What Jesus is doing is he is establishing two very, very important standards.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that he, by his own blood, by his own innocent blood, is going to be the fulfillment of the entire Passover celebration.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that God has been telling his people, everything that they have been working towards, all the generations who have done the same thing year after year after year.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now there's going to be a final sacrifice.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is going to be the Passover Lamb.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: The disciples don't recognize it yet, but he does.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: God himself has come, being fully man and fully human, fully God and fully man.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he has lived a perfect life.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he is going to, in less than 24 hours' time, be sacrificed like a criminal.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing he does is he establishes that he will be the last one.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing he does, though, is he begins a new ritual, a new tradition.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the thing that he shares with his disciples in that moment when he says, My body is going to be broken for you, and my blood is poured out for you.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: No longer will you celebrate the Passover.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: There will be something new that you celebrate, something that explains and reflects back on the greatest moment in human history, which is the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Everything and all the weight and all the meaning of the Passover is fulfilled in Jesus, but the same emphasis is placed on the cross.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody who wants to come is welcome, but there's one pathway forward.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And anybody who accepts that pathway is forgiven of their sin.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: But anybody who rejects it then bears the weight.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: The same story.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: But told one final time.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord's table is what we celebrate when we look back on this.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to leave you, though, with a few quick items, a few quick things that you should be thinking about on Good Friday.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Things that God has been telling his people for thousands of years, and things that you should reflect upon when you consider the cross.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that God rescues his people from slavery.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you might not have been a slave in Egypt, but you were a slave to your past self.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: You were a slave to sin before you knew Jesus Christ.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have not accepted Christ as your Savior and Lord, you are still a slave to your sin.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: It might not feel that way, but that's the truth of the matter.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: You are living for a master that does not care for you and wants to see your ultimate destruction.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're living for a master that does not love you, but only kills and destroys.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: That is what you are a slave to.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And by Jesus Christ dying on the cross for your sins and mine, you have been set free so you may live a new life.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: A life filled with joy and peace because you understand that you have been forgiven.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: You understand that the weight of sin no longer rests on your shoulders.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you had to do nothing except by faith believe.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: God is rescuing his people from slavery.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Second, God provides a way for everyone to participate.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: There is nothing, nothing that you have done, nothing your friends have done, nothing that anybody you can think of they have done that has made them too far gone that the blood of Jesus cannot wash away their sins.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: To say that there is a sin that is too big for God to handle is to say that the cross was insufficient.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that is not true.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: The blood of Jesus spilled for you, that is a sacrifice that is sufficient to cover all of your sins and mine too, no matter how far gone.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: God provides a way for everyone to participate, and that is something that we must remember.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Third and finally, God's way is the only way to salvation.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's really easy to think about the cross and go, well, that's that's one way to solve the problem.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Loved ones, that is the only way to solve the problem that is afflicting your soul.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: The only way to be right with God once again is to accept and believe in Jesus.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: It is to understand the sacrifice that he made for you willingly, knowing that he did it out of love for you and not out of compulsion, knowing that he was going to choose to go to the cross with you in mind.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: But just like the Passover to the Israelites, to reject that pathway is to still bear the weight of your sin.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it is a binary choice.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: It is an on-off switch.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: It is something you believe and trust in or you don't.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And my encouragement to you is that when we think about Good Friday, when we talk about Good Friday, when we live the other 364 days of our life, that we would consider how Jesus is this fulfillment.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: He is the once and final sacrifice for you and for me.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now you've heard in all the songs that we've sang up to this point, and we'll sing in a moment, we've talked a lot about blood.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Blood is something that we should never grow completely comfortable with.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's always a measure of Jesus' sacrifice that should make us uncomfortable because we do not deserve the gift of grace that we have been given.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: And if we ever become too casual with it, if we ever think, well, I'd wish they'd just quit talking so much about blood, then we have lost the edge and the reason for that ritual and that sacrifice.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: It is something we are always supposed to remember.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: It is something we tell to our children and the next generation, and it is something we are never to forget until He comes again.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: When we go to the Lord's table here in a moment and we take communion together, I do want to warn you, though, if you have not trusted in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, the elements of communion, the bread and the juice representing his body and his blood, those are things you should just let pass you by.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because the only ones where a cracker and juice mean anything are those who understand what it represents.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Those who have accepted that sacrifice, who know that Jesus had nails driven into his hands and feet because we are sinners and need a savior.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Only those people are the ones who are to take the Lord's table.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: If that's not you, I pray that you would consider what it would mean to trust in Jesus as your Savior.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that you would believe in him and accept that sacrifice because all it takes is faith.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: But know that rejecting it means that you will still bear the weight of your sin.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to step off here.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: And for just a moment, I would like you to consider these things, to picture the cross in your mind with two criminals on either side of it, but the one in the middle is your Savior.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'll come back up and we'll take the elements of communion together.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: The bread and the juice.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we come before you on this good Friday.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, what a good Friday it is.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, your sacrifice, your blood, which was innocent, it covers us now.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I pray that is something that we never grow too comfortable with.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we are guilty and we need your help.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: God, we do not want to bear the weight of sin any longer, and we are thankful that Christ's sacrifice sets us free from slavery to our past self so that we may live with freedom to you.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we might be free in the Spirit, and we might be people who understand what it means to live by grace and walk in faith.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you for all of these things.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, as right now you would be getting placed in a tomb with a stone being rolled over.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: We simply thank you for the sacrifice.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: What you did, the innocent one for us, Lord, who are very guilty.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: God, may we never lose sight of this.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it is in Jesus' name we pray.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.