[Machine transcription]
Jesus said, I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will
have the light of life.
Dear children of the light, this Lenten season we have watched and reflected on the journey
of our Lord Jesus Christ from Galilee where in Luke 9 it records when the days drew near
for him to be taken up.
He set his face to go to Jerusalem.
Each week we saw him drawing closer and closer to the mount outside the city walls where
there would be three crosses erected for the climax for his coming into the world.
From afar, he could see the coming day when he would be hanging on the sinner one, sentenced
to death, by crucifixion, by crimes he had not committed this past Sunday.
We saw him approaching the city, entering it with a great fanfare.
But within a couple of days, the voices, they morphed.
He went from Hosanna in the highest to crucify him, crucify him.
Now on this night, we see him after many relentless hours of torture and
humiliation, now struggling for breath while fighting to find a position where
there is the voidance of pain, but there is none. As the blood drips from his
weakening body, flowing from every wound from his head to his feet, caused by the
thorns, the nails, the whips, the fist.
Jesus fulfills the prophecy as foretold by the prophet Isaiah, inspired by God to write
his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the
children of mankind.
mind, he was a mass of unrecognizable torn and swollen flesh.
Instead of looking to the cross, he was hanging high upon it and his view was now looking
out over the world.
Through the slits of his eyes that were full of blood and tears, he saw more than those
individuals who were standing at the base of the cross, waiting for the final outcome.
His view was beyond those that were passing on the roadway leading into the city.
He was looking out at the reason he came into the world.
He saw his creation that he had created in concert with his Father and the Holy Spirit
perfectly without blemish, now under horrific eternal bondage, unable to save itself.
He saw the consequences of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden and the sin
being passed down from generation to generation through original sin, causing all people to
be born corrupted and enemies of God.
He saw the spiritual darkness covering the world and eternal death brought upon
all people. He saw the Prince of Darkness deceiving and manipulating the children
of darkness. He saw you and me, conceived in sin, born in bondage, on the road to
hell with no exit points. This was the reason he was hanging there. Even though he was mentally
in shock and emotionally drained, he knew that this was the only way to defeat the enemy
and to pay the price for the sins of the world was to be the sinless, sacrificial substitute.
The greatest event in all of the world’s history would happen on this day.
Jesus was the perfect epitome of the picture of the lion and the lamb.
The lion being the most powerful beast in the different regions of the world, known
as the king of the jungle, the king of kings and the lord of lords.
God in the flesh.
We see the picture in the words of Jesus to his disciples in the Garden of
Gethsemane after one of them cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. He
said, do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once send me
more than twelve legions of angels? And the terms of the Roman legion, a legion
Anything can range between 3 and 5,000 soldiers.
So in other words, Jesus could call down from His Father asking to bring 36 to 60,000 angels
as agents of God.
Now that is authority with power.
But Jesus continued by saying, but how then should the scriptures be fulfilled?
That it must be so. Then he turned and said to the mob that had come out to him,
have you come out against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after
Another day I sat in the temple teaching and you did not seize me.
But all this has taken place that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.”
It was at this point, his disciples, they leave him.
He is all alone, like a lamb being led to slaughter.
He allowed the mob to seize him, to begin his last steps to cross, to go to the cross
and again to fulfill the prophecy recorded in the words of Isaiah, all we
like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, everyone, to his own way and the
Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that was led to the slaughter, like a
sheep that before shears is silent so he opened not his mouth before Herod even
though questioned at length Jesus never made an answer and when it was time even
with Pontius Pilate begging him have you no answer to make see how many charges
they are bringing against you but Jesus made no further answer so Pilate was
amazed. It was on the cross that we see Jesus. He was not concerned for saving
himself, but his first words were for others. Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do. Truly I say to you, you will be with me in paradise today.
all alone on the cross, Jesus cried out to his father, my God, my God, why have
thou forsaken me? Jesus, now the Son of God and the Son of Man, was in a place
that he had never experienced before in all eternity. There was the withholding
grace and mercy from his father communicated in absence with all the
sins of the world cast upon him. He became the object of his father’s wrath.
All the punishment of eternal death and damnation due for our sins was directed
it to Jesus, and he took it. He took it all, all without fighting back, but accepting it.
He did it. He did it. And now it is time to turn that last page of this chapter in his
story, continuing to fulfill the prophecy he said, I thirst. And after receiving the
our wine from a sponge on a hyssop branch, Jesus proclaimed, it is finished.
He has achieved his mission for coming into this world.
He has defeated the enemy of the devil and he has paid the price for the sins of the
world and in the same breath for all to hear he said, Father, into your hands I commit
my spirit.
And having said this, he breathed his last, and Jesus’ work of salvation was accomplished.
The first response to this act of God’s love for the world was from a Gentile with the
words of the centurion who stood at the base of the cross looking up to Jesus and seeing
how he breathed his last.
He said, truly this man was the Son of God.
This past week, Pastor Wolf Mueller has shared a detail of this last moment of Jesus being
on the cross with a couple of different groups and individuals, so it’s relevant.
It’s in relationship to Jesus bowing His head.
It probably wasn’t just a slow, gradual, single motion to a stopping point, but it was probably
a struggle to keep his head up, and then a final relaxing giving a bobbing of the head
in the final position.
This final motion would resemble a head nodding of yes.
In sign language, this is communicated with the fist forward resembling a head motion
of up and down, yes.
This picture affirming all that He had done for you, me, and all the world with the ultimate
question, is it finished?
Is it finished?
And with the nodding of Jesus’ head, He is telling all the world, yes, yes.
The mission is finished and the victory is won.
Like Jesus’ followers, his disciples witnessing the events on that day in the midst of the
darkness, our world seems to be at war with God, seeking to destroy the truth of the word
as it was on that particular day, and it appears that the children of darkness under the prince
of the lies is winning.
The disciples’ world seemed to be turned all upside down as they focused on the events
of that day and not on the words of Jesus that he’d given to them.
Where the sacred scriptures are clear that God is a God of truth, life, light, order,
clarity, unity, love, peace, freedom.
It is the devil and his minions chained with limited abilities who hold the opposing view
of lies, death, darkness, chaos, confusion, division, conflict, hatred, and bondage.
Remember that conversation with Pilate, what is truth?
And with those that struck Jesus, what is right and what is wrong?
The godless ideologies of this world declare that there is no such thing as absolute truth
as they seek to dissolve the differences between right and wrong, good and evil in belief
and practice, leaving people in the lie with that there is no need for God and that sure
foundation.
They invest great energies to twist, dilute, and shroud the law and the gospel of the Bible
to match their agendas and goals for the purpose of controlling people for self-gain.
In a godless environment, the truth is defined by each person based on the source of their
opinions and desires, and no subject is off the table for self-definition.
It is putting self in the position of God.
Thus we saw of those before Jesus.
Without the fear and the love of God called for by Him in the first tablet of the Ten
Commandments, there is no motivation to give attention to the second.
Ultimately, it comes to this, all people, all people are born in sin and are hellbound.
And there is only one way of salvation.
It is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, as revealed
in the sacred scriptures alone, there is one true God who is the source and the norm for
faith and life.
On this day, Good Friday, that we look to the cross and we see God communicating His
love, His love for all people.
God desires for all people to come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved,
but because you hold to this truth, you children of light, you become a target of
the enemies of God in his Word. Jesus tells his disciples, if the world hates
you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the
would love you as its own because you are not of the world but I chose you out
of the world therefore the world will hate you so don’t be surprised for Jesus
says in John 3 the light has come into the world and people love the darkness
rather than the light because their works are evil for whoever does wicked
things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest their work should be
exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be
clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” As a child of light,
you recognize and you rejoice that you are a forgiven sinner through the blood
of Jesus that he paid on the cross for you. And where there is forgiveness, there
is salvation and eternal life. This is why we call this day Good Friday, because
it’s good for us. It comes down to this, at the end of the service in the midst
of the darkness, one light will remain in front and center, and this one candle is reminding
us in the midst of the darkness of this world, Christ is also present in our midst with us
and for us.
And for us to keep our eyes on him, holding steadfast and receiving the gifts that he
has given to us now, while continuing to cling to the promises for the things to
come. Yes, death and darkness fill this night, but wait, but wait, wait for it,
because the life will bust forth in three days, as he has promised. And the
Good news will be proclaimed and as we live in great anticipation with the hope of living
in the heavenly paradise one day with Him where there will be no darkness.
But for now, remember when you depart this night, the light of Christ, your Lord Jesus
goes with you to bless you and to bless others.
Amen.
