As I was sitting in the Lenten luncheon yesterday, Brother David was introducing Ashley as our speaker, he said that she was a great speaker and a Bible scholar. Well, neither of those applies to me. I would imagine, that you all remember being excited about having a substitute teacher in school. They were often much less trained than your regular teacher and did good to even get the class under control. Well, hopefully you guys, will not get too far out of line.
Being the true rookie, I wondered what I could talk to you about today, I thought I would use the kiss method (you know the keep it simple stupid method) and talk about what the absolute biggest strength and biggest weakness of this group is. We are men as just Christ was also a man.
We men, the supposed stronger sex, have been blessed with certain hormones that keep us from being able to accomplish certain tasks. We are easily distracted, easily angered and prone to random acts of stupidity. I told my Mom one time that I was thinking about something and she said “There you go working without tools again”. So, you see.. My Mom had it figured out and I bet your Mom did as well.
For those that don't know it already. I am in the candidacy process to become a part time local pastor. Ted seemed to think that I could practice my preaching on you guys. Hopefully, I will not be too rough around the edges. Most of my past experiences with any kind of speaking had to do with mostly male groups, but they were truck drivers.
One of the questions that I have been asked over and over in my candidacy books is what are my special gifts and talents. I am not sure that I have any and those that I do have probably wouldn't work very well from the pulpit.
I am intelligent by Louisiana public school standards. I think the Louisiana public school system ranks like 49th or something out of 50. So when I finally get my license to preach, it makes me wonder if it will only be good in Louisiana and Mississippi.
My wife says that I sing pretty well, but you have to understand that she is extremely hard of hearing. I think that is why we have such a wonderful relationship. I know that on several occasions where I was brave enough to complain and trying to exercise my man rights that are listed in the Bible. You know the part how wives are supposed to submit themselves to their husbands, Annalee just answers me “I LOVE YOU TOO”. Somehow, I don't think she really understood what I was saying.
Now with that being said.. I think the world of my wife. If God gave me the ingredients to build me a wife, I would make one just like her. We were recently blessed with a baby boy. Annalee believes that men are supposed to be involved with every aspect of child rearing. Did you know that a diaper that says it is for 10 pounds will not hold 10 pounds of poop. Live and Learn.
I have learned lots of new terms during this candidacy process. One of the more unusual ones is License to Preach. After a lot of work and review by both this church and the district board I will hopefully get my License to Preach. Being one that was so well educated in the Louisiana public school system, this brought a lot of questions to mind.
This license to preach, is that anything like a fishing license? Jesus did say that he would make us fishers of men. Does this license expire? Do I have a limit that I can catch? Is there a game warden for preachers out there that will write you a ticket if you preach without a license? Could I be arrested for preaching this morning? I don't have a license yet? Did Ted set me up? You know those State Troopers probably drink coffee with those game wardens. Besides the limit thing.. What kind of men can I fish for? What about murderers and thieves? Is it ok to catch those? If I catch a lawyer or a politician? Do I have to throw him back? Hopefully, you got my humor there.
You know Jesus had the best catch and release program ever. He took the men he caught.. changed their hearts and changed their lives and sent them out to share the Good News. I don't think Jesus had his license to preach either. I think he really angered those Pharisees and Sadducees because he didn't. They were extremely jealous of His wisdom and power. They were so angered by the fact that he didn't have his license that they had him arrested and eventually had him crucified on Good Friday.
Good Friday, I believe deserves more focus by Christians and is definitely not appreciated or even liked by Non-Christians. Many Christians think of Good Friday as anything but good, because it is that horrible day that Jesus was crucified before the joyous day of His resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Many years ago, I worked for a trucking company and they had swapped Good Friday off for Thanksgiving Friday off. I find that more than a little ironic. They were just trying to get a 4 day weekend, but Good Friday should truly be Thanksgiving Friday.
It is the day that God showed His love for us sinners. We should be forever grateful and thankful for that day. Good Friday is does not only happen just one day of the year, it is a day that is relived everyday of the year. Our present, our future and our eternity are all based on what happened on that Friday Afternoon.
Many Non-Christians believe that the horrible agonizing and bloody death that Jesus faced on the cross is reason enough to not even consider Christianity. Total shock is the unbelievers point of few as to how could a Father let his Son be crucified.
For the Christian, Good Friday is the foundation of all that we believe. Without the cross and the crucifixion there is no salvation plan.
Good Friday really means God's Friday just like Good-Bye is short for “God be with you» , both phrases were shortened over time and somehow the word God was removed (imagine that). Jesus made only 7 statements from the cross that were recorded in scripture on that first Good Friday.
I am going to read each one and give my thoughts on each one. Like I said these are my thoughts. Hopefully, John Wesley will not turn over in his grave as I share my thoughts with you.
Jesus first words from the cross are found in Luke 23:34.
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Who was Jesus forgiving? The leaders of His own people? Pontius Pilate? The soldiers that beat Him? The ones that drove the nails? The one that thrust the spear? Is he forgiving Adam so many centuries before that led to this day. Or was he forgiving me and you.
I think that some are guilty but all of us are responsible for that horrible death on the cross.
The forgiveness of Jesus had a great cost. Forgiveness always costs something. Remember that forgiveness is not forgetfulness. The forgiveness that costs is atonement, atonement for our sins. Atonement can also be stated as at-one-ment with God. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, allowed for us, to finally be at one with God, no longer bound to the Laws of Moses, because God knew that we were unable to uphold his commandments.
Jesus second statement from the cross was Luke 23:43
Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.
For those that don't remember the story, Jesus was speaking to one of the 2 thieves hanging on one of the 2 crosses next to him. Jesus spent a lot of his life preaching and just being with the outcasts of his time. I guess that it was only fitting that it continued even to the end.
One thing that we all should take great comfort in is the unchanging nature of God and of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not judge people based on their pasts, their race, their financial condition or any other worldly category that you can place people in to.
Jesus did not judge people and we shouldn't either. So even on the cross Jesus offered salvation to the good thief. I call him the good thief because he is the one that believed. The wonderful thing about the salvation that Jesus offered to that thief and still offers to us today is that it required no training and no waiting period. It was immediate because of his belief. It is often said that the first will become last and the last will become first. Jesus proved that no matter how far we fall, it is never too far that we cannot be redeemed. This to me is assurance or more precisely Blessed Assurance just like the old hymn that we all love to sing.
Jesus third statement from the cross was a personal one to his Mother and John.
In John 19:26-27 Jesus said Woman, behold your son, Son, behold your mother.
How awful must it have been for Mary to watch her Son die on that cross. I think she probably knew that it would come to this. Probably, like me and you would have, she just hoped that it wouldn't ever really happen. Mary probably had the most difficult job in the world, raising the Son of God.
Jesus would often distance himself from Mary and this had to hurt his mother greatly. I think maybe he was trying to prepare her for what was to come. She knew that Jesus had to honor His Father in heaven first and foremost. Mary had to learn the extremely hard love of letting go. Something that all parents go through on some level.
Mary was a model disciple. She was totally available to the will of God. She never questioned what God's plans were for her or for her Son. When Jesus told Mary to behold your son and John to behold your mother. That was truly a very human moment. If you know much about life for a woman in biblical times, women really needed a man both as a provider and a protector. Jesus was just doing what any good son would do for his mother. He was making sure that she would be taken care of.
Jesus fourth statement from the cross in Matthew 27:46 (and also in Mark 15:34) shows the reality of the suffering that Jesus is going through.
My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
No statement from the cross to me shows that Jesus was a man more than this one. Can you even imagine how terrifying this would be if it happened to me or you?
For those that do not know it or maybe don't remember it, the 22nd Psalm talked about the cross and Jesus suffering long before it happened. I am just going to read parts of it.
It starts with the exact same words that Jesus used.
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
8 "He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him."
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother's breast.
10 From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother's womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted away within me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me [b] in the dust of death.
16 Dogs have surrounded me;
a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced [c] my hands and my feet.
17 I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.
19 But you, O LORD, be not far off;
O my Strength, come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver my life from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness
to a people yet unborn—
for he has done it.
Prior to these words from the cross, Jesus had always addressed God as Father. Now, through the awfulness of the cross, Jesus addresses God like any ordinary man of the day would have. Jesus knew that he was fulfilling God's plan. However, fulfilling God's plan was still a excruciating thing for a human body to endure.
Did you know that the word excruciating actually came from the word crucifixion and it means suffering pain like the pain suffered by Christ on the cross?
God calls upon us to deny ourselves. My belief and it is just my belief, I am not a theologian, Jesus in that statement was denying his deity only for a moment. He was being human because that is what His Father's plan was. He had to be totally human and could not even try to save Himself. He had to suffer as a human and die for our salvation.
Jesus fifth statement from the cross in John 19:28 was only 2 words. I thirst.
If you remember when Jesus said this, someone from the crowd offers Him a sponge full of vinegar. Ironically Jesus said just a few chapters earlier in John 7:37 “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink”. Now, He is asking for something to drink. As Christians, we should all kneel at the cross and thirst for him and in this case I think Jesus was thirsting for all of mankind.
Once again a Psalm foretold this event. Psalm 69:21 says “For my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink”. No talk of thirst or drinking when it comes to Jesus can help but to remind us of the Lord's Supper. Our chance to share in that Holy Sacrament were we share the body and the blood of Jesus Christ.
In Isaiah 53: 2-5 once again Jesus great suffering on the cross was foretold.
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
As Jesus thirst on the cross for us, we are to thirst for Him. Our thirst for Him is our desire to share the Good News to the world and to live a good Christian life. We are to be an example to others, so much so that people would take notice and say “You know there is something different about old Bill”.
In Jesus sixth statement from John 19:30 He said It is finished.
One might think this would mean “It's over, the fat lady has sung”, but nothing could be further from the truth. In this case, it means what was foretold is fulfilled. It is brought to perfection. It is finished in any other situation involving someones death would mean that it was over. Just like in the good old days when movies ended with “THE END”.
In this case it was the beginning. On this certain Friday afternoon, the only one like it in history, the world was forever changed. We are all participants in this great drama in some way or another, whether we realize it or not.
It is a great tragedy in someways and a great blessing in others. Such a tremendous cost paid for us. Without the sacrifice there could be no redemption. So it is finished, but it is not over, no not until every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
It is finished refers to something completed and something completed by God.
“It is finished” in this case refers to the only man whose life and work were perfect. This is what we Christian men are supposed to aim for. It should be our goal to be more like Jesus in everything we do.
And finally Jesus last words from the cross are in Luke 23:46
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.
Only Luke's gospel shares these words with us. If you notice Jesus calls God Father again. If that were translated into my simple words it would be “Daddy, I am coming home”. Because of Jesus sacrifice we are all His brothers. His sacrifice made His Father our Father. If it weren't for the death of this man and the life he lived we couldn't address our Heavenly Father at all. Jesus provided us with the way.
Jesus and His Father were One and are One. This sacrifice was the greatest act of love of all time. On that cross, through that one complete act of love, all is offered up. Nothing is forgotten. He bears our scars, from the nails and from the spear for all of eternity.
Because of this great sacrifice for us, Paul writes in Romans 8:38-40
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. «
So you see, Jesus the Man had a will all His own, that is the reason He said “Not My will, but Thy will be done”. Jesus the man surrendered all for you and me. If He hadn't He would not be the man that He was supposed to be. Just like it had been foretold long before, Jesus followed through on God's plan. It had to happen the way that it did. It had to be this Man on the cross. He did it for me and He did it for all of us.
We didn't have a say in how, when, where or even why it happened. Our Heavenly Father knew what was required. We silly humans sometimes think we know something, but compared to the awesome wisdom of God, we are but bumbling fools.
In John's gospel Jesus often speaks of being glorified in His death. The glory in what Jesus did for us in all of this was His tremendous faith and sticking with it to the end. We as Christian men need to have a similar perseverance and keep the promises that we have made to God.
With all of the horrible events of the cross, it is truly difficult to talk about the glory of it. But in Christs utter defeat we find hope. The suffering, the death, the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus are all points of glory. That glory and the amazing grace that came from it, gives us all hope.
These seven statements from the cross, in no way sum up all that happened on that Friday afternoon or after it. My purpose in this message this morning was to remind us that without the cross and without the unwavering love of a man, who also happened to be God's only Son, we would have no Easter, no salvation from sin, and ultimately no hope. As for me, I will take Hope.
So I will end with my lucky 13 scripture. 1st Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Jesus had the Faith in His Father to endure the cross just as we should have Faith in the message of that same cross, and through Jesus sacrifice he gave us the Hope of salvation, and only the purest Love of our heavenly Father could possibly have ever allowed for His one and only perfect son to be crucified on that first ever God's Friday or Good Friday as we call it today. So, yes it was a Good Friday as all things that God has made are good.
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