Good Friday: 2008
Vern Peterman · Mar 21, 2008
Holidays
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926056233320

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

But no, it really is a celebration of our Lord's death. One of the things that shows up as you look through the various passages in the New Testament is it says repeatedly that he loved and he gave. He loved and he gave. He loved and he gave. And we're here to celebrate that this evening. I'm getting time mixed up again. We're here to celebrate that. Because the Lord did in fact love us and he intentionally gave his life for us because he loved us. And so we're celebrating that here. Let's just begin our time and go to Lord in prayer. Join me, would you?

Lord, we thank you as we look at this marvelous act of love that you did for us. We just thank you for the time we can share. Thank you for the depths of understanding that we can have because you so lovingly revealed these truths to us. And we just thank you, Lord, for the fellowship that we can share because of who you have made us to be. We who have believed in you and what you've done for us and who you are. And we just pray for our time tonight and thank you for it. In Jesus' name, Amen. Stand with me, would you? Let's begin Lamb of Glory. We'll do two verses here.

Hear the story from God's Word, That kings and priests and prophets heard. There would be a sacrifice, And blood would flow to pay sin's price. Precious Lamb of Glory, Love's most wondrous story, Art of God's redemption of man, Worship the Lamb of Glory. On the cross God loved the world while all the powers of hell were held. No one there could understand. The one they saw was Christ the Lamb. Precious Love's most wondrous story, Heart of God's redemption of man, Worship the Lamb of glory. This next one, Lamb of God, it'll be two verses and then the chorus, then the verse and then the chorus, okay? So, hang on to the pattern there. Alright. Your only son, no sin to hide, but you have sent him from your side to walk upon this guilty sod and to be called the Lamb of God.

They crucified, they laughed and scorned him as he died. The humble king they named a fraud, and sacrificed the Lamb of God. O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God, I love the holy Lamb of God. You've washed me in His precious blood, My Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. I was so lost I should have died, but you have brought me to your side, to be led by your staff and rod, and to be called the Lamb of God. O Lamb of God, sweet Lamb of God, I love the holy Lamb of God. You've washed me in His precious blood, so I am now a Lamb of God.

Very good. Please be seated. Well, I have the privilege this evening of talking about a tremendous verse in scripture, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 through 11. And this talks about the wonderful gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let me read it.

You have a portion of it in the overhead, and I'll refer to some of the pictures as we go through. It starts in verse 1, Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, and after that he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. And he appeared to James, and then to the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also."

And that would be Paul. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain. But I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

Whether then it was I or they, we preached, so you believed. And actually, the last verse of that, and actually I think it's the last little phrase on here, that's man's job. We're going to hear about God's provision and what he did, and what's man's job? To believe the wonderful message that was preached. And what Paul says, interestingly enough, he says, I don't care who preaches it. He can be, he refers to his other people, you or they.

But I want that message preached. So it's a tremendous passage. And I probably prepared too much for it, but Bonnie's always accusing me. Roger, you've got 27 points. How are you going to cover 27 points in 10 minutes? Well, there are more than 27 points in these verses.

So the first phrase in here, Paul says, now I make known to your brethren the gospel which I preach to you. And what's interesting is he's preaching to brethren. So you say, Why isn't he preaching to Antioch or some other place he's been? He's preaching to the brethren. So he's going to remind them. He's going to preach.

He's going to proclaim a message which they already know. But his desire is that they really know it and understand it. So in essence, they can communicate that. So this idea of making known, he wants them to put it in their minds, have it in their minds, fix it in their hearts. Something they already know, but he wants them to do that. And basically what he's asking, he wants them to preach the gospel, or in essence, the good news of Jesus Christ.

And what's interesting in this passage, the gospel is actually in there twice. And let me read you another translation of that. It says, I am making known to your brethren the good news which I brought as glad tidings or announced as glad tidings. So we actually have gospel in there twice. It appears twice in that first passage as good tidings or bring good tidings for the people to know.

And the good news we're talking about here in scripture It's interesting, the good news of Jesus Christ is only about Jesus Christ, which is interesting. It's either about his reign, his millennial kingdom, which is a yet future event, or it's what Paul's talking about here, the good news of God's grace, what Christ accomplished on the cross on our behalf. And that's what we're going to be focusing on in these passages here.

And actually, I was thinking about the good news on Good Friday. And that kind of singsong thing, good news on Good Friday, that sounds pretty good. I said, I wonder where good news came from. So I got on the internet and I started doing this, and lo and behold, you can find amazing stuff on the internet. And so I found that the good news, the word good and God over time, have actually been transposed. Because you think about it, in scripture it says there's none good but God.

So people would use that interchangeably in some situations. For an example, you might say, historically, you might say, God be with you. You're leaving on a trip. God be with you. Well, over time, that turned into goodbye. Kind of a sad letdown from God be with you to goodbye.

But that's what happened, apparently. And what struck me, and actually the author here who I found on the internet, he basically said his thought was that Good Friday used to be God's Friday. I said, wow, that's really super, because that's exactly what it is. It's God's doing on man's behalf, not our doing. So it's just wonderful.

So as we go through here, Paul starts off in this passage, and he kind of gives the results. What are the results of this good news? The results are, and these are believers, you received it, you received the good news and made it your own, and you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, And he made you stand. He made you stand in that good news. And there's a verse in Romans 4-4 which says, the Lord is able to make him, talking about believers, stand. He makes you stand in his good news.

And then the third point is that by which you are saved, or more accurately, by your being saved. Talking about salvation as being an ongoing process. You were saved from the penalty of sin. You're now being saved from the presence of sin, from the power of sin, and you will be saved from the presence of sin.

So he starts off flipping it around, saying, here's the wonderful benefits, and then he goes in to define what he means by the gospel. But he first introduces it. He says, there's some points I want to get clear here. And actually, we have a portion of that on the overhead here, where it says, for I deliver to you as of first importance So he delivered it to them, two ways he delivered it. By voice, he spoke it, he spoke the good news, and then he wrote it down, right? Because we have his writings, Paul's epistles. He wrote the good news, and he spoke the good news.

And he says it's of first importance, or actually better, probably foremost importance, or actually I thought it might be appropriate, the most important thing Paul could tell us is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And a point he wants to make here, he says, what I also received, it's not Paul's, it wasn't Paul's thinking this up. It wasn't what he got from the other apostles. He got this directly from the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that's made clear in Galatians 1.11. For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. In essence, it's not out of man as a source. It does not originate with man. That's pretty astounding. So when we give this message out, this message is to be told, this is not my message. I couldn't think this up. I couldn't make this up. This is God's plan, His doing. And it goes on to say, for I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

At that point, he goes into the four points of the gospel. that Christ died for our sins according to Scripture, He was buried, He was raised, and He appeared to many. There's the four points he wants to make. The first point is kind of, I would say, the pillar. Christ's death for our sins, or better, on behalf of our sins. And there's just a bunch of verses that talk about that, dying on behalf of our sins.

A couple of those are ones in Galatians 4.4, who gave Himself for our sins, and so on.

In 1 Peter 2.24, he himself bore our sins. So he died for our sins, he gave himself for our sins, he bore our sins. All to take care of the sins, plural, issue. And actually not taught in this passage, but he also took care of the sin nature, which is in other passages.

The second point is that he was buried. And you think, well, why do we have to know that he was buried? Well, if you think about it, You normally bury a dead person. You try not to bury people that are alive. They don't like that. Some people have nightmares about, they're going to bury me, I won't be able to say anything. So that was confirmation that his death was genuine, his death was real.

And then the third point is that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. And what's neat is, this is his tense, which he was raised in the past with continual results up into the present on into the future. He is a risen savior. And don't we have a wonderful verse of a song, we serve a risen savior? So I thought, wow, this is the verse that maybe they use for that hymn or whatever. So we serve a risen savior. He's a risen savior today at this moment. He will always be a risen savior.

And in Romans 4.25, he who was delivered over because of our transgressions was raised because of our justification. God declared us righteous because of what Christ had done on the cross. And then the last point is that he appeared or was seen.

And this isn't just looking and saying, oh, there's Sam and Joe and Sally. That's Jesus Christ. That's the one that died. It's a perception you realize That's the one that died. So that appearing, if you think about it, that confirmed it was a true resurrection. It wasn't some kind of game or some kind of pretend thing. He really was risen. So if you think about the four points, he died for our sins according to the scripture. He was buried, validates that, or it's God's proof of that. He was raised on the third day.

God's proof is that he appeared to many. So God proved his case in this passage, which is just wonderful. And then lastly, as I mentioned at the beginning, Paul says, whether it is I or they, so we preach and you believe and you believed. So our part as believers in Lord Jesus Christ is to proclaim this wonderful message. that God has taken care of the sin issue. It's God that's taking care of it, not man. We don't try to be good or better than the next guy, because we can't. God and His Son has ended the sin issue. And our job is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done. Thank you. Okay, let's have you stand again. We're going to sing, And Can It Be. It's amazing love here.

And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me who caused His pain, for me who Him to death pursued? Amazing love, how can it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

He left His Father's throne above So free, so infinite His grace Emptied Himself of all but love And bled for Adam's helpless race Tis mercy all, immense and free, For O my God, it found out me. Tis mercy all, immense and free, For O my God, it found out me. No condemnation now, I dread. Jesus and all in Him is mine. Alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine. All I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own. Hold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown through Christ my own. Please be seated. We have recorded for us in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 23, this account.

Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers and the people and said to them, You brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion, and behold, having examined him before you, I have found no guilt in this man regarding the charges which you make against him. No, nor has Herod, for he sent him back to us, and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by him.

Therefore, I will punish him and release him. Now he was obliged to release for them on the feast one prisoner. But they cried out all together, saying, Away with this man, and release for us Barabbas. He was one who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection made in the city and for murder. Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed him again, but they kept on calling out, saying, Crucify him! Crucify him! And he said to them the third time, Why, what evil has this man done? I have found in him no guilt demanding death. Therefore, I will punish him and release him. But they were insistent and with loud voices asking that he be crucified, and their voices began to prevail. And Pilate pronounced sentence that their demand be granted.

And he released the man they were asking, who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, but he delivered Jesus to their will. When they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country and placed him on the cross to carry behind Jesus. Two others also who were criminals were being led away to be put to death with him. When they came to a place called the Skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.

But Jesus was saying, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing. And they cast lots, dividing up his garments among themselves. And the people stood by, looking on, coming up to him, offering him sour wine and saying, If you're the king of the Jews, save yourself. Now there was an inscription above him, This is the king of the Jews. It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land. until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last.

What is astounding as we read that account, and it tells of this event and that, is to look at that. And what is amazing is the people that were there saw various things. Some people saw a man very exhausted and bloody. Other people saw soldiers doing their job. Soldiers saw someone being nailed just like they had nailed many others. It was just a job. But here, here our Lord loved and He gave. He loved and He gave. And when He was done, He said it was finished.

Are you there when they crucified my Lord? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they laid him in that tomb? Were you there when they laid him in that tomb? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Were you there when he rose up from that grave? Were you there when he rose up from that grave? Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. when he rose up from that grave.

We're going to do the Lord's Table now, and what I'd like to do is pass everything out. Then we'll talk a little bit and then we'll take it together. So the men that I've asked, please come forward. Thank you for your patience. The Lord's Table, as Vern talked about, is to remind us of Christ, of his death.

But it's not to remind us necessarily of our sins, but that our sins have been remitted and ourselves loved. It's God known in grace, iniquity forgiven, and the sins remembered no more. God's forgiveness of sin refers to His act of putting away sin on a judicial basis. It refers to His remitting the guilt. Thus, it's all of His grace and only His grace. So He's in the midst of us here now to give us the enjoyment of His love. in present power. He's recalling our hearts to the sacrifice of himself for our sins and to place us without question and without charge before God. But besides being a memorial of Christ and emphatically of his death, it is now bound up with the body of Christ as seen in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 16 and 17.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread and one body, for we all are partakers of that one bread. This is so true that by partaking of that one loaf, we enjoy the privileges of being in God's church on earth. We are partakers of it and we can't free ourselves from the responsibility of holy fellowship with one another.

And as Paul was the chosen vessel by whom was to be revealed the mystery of Christ and the mystery of the church, so it seemed good with the Lord that he should receive a special revelation of his table. the standing sign of its unity and public witness of our communion.

So, if you have Bibles, you can look on the overhead in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 23 through 25. Paul says, I received of the Lord. Like Roger was talking about, he received authority from God directly about this ordinance or this event. He didn't get it from the other apostles. He got it directly from the Lord. And he says, that which I delivered unto you.

This is a special revelation from the Lord directly to Paul so that he might deliver it primarily to the Gentiles. And here's what the revelation was, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed. It's very significant that Paul uses this language, the very night in which he faces human betrayal and treachery is the night that he gives a great salvation, the same night. And he does it by dying for us. Paul reminds us of the touching circumstances under which the Lord instituted this table. It was the same night in which he was betrayed. The very night in which the evil of man rose to its height, the unselfish love of Christ was most blessedly displayed.

And why do you think Paul takes note of this at this time? I think it's because he wants to emphasize God's grace, that this whole thing that everything that God has done, especially the cross of Christ, is only of grace. And what did he do? He took bread. Take your bread. When the lust led to the betrayal, love instituted the Lord's table.

And when he had given thanks, the word for thanks here is the word Eucharist, which means to give thanks. And it's the believer's way of saying thank you. The only thing that we as believers can do in response to God's grace is to say thank you and to take it. So, this is what the service is really all about. We're here tonight to say thank you, Lord.

And He said, take and eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This little phrase, which is, is a Greek preposition, hupere, which means on behalf of, in substitution for. He took our sins. He took our guilt. He took our penalty. And it was broken. His body was broken for us. And the cross that he was on really centers around two things. That he took man's place of condemnation and that he satisfied all of God's demands regarding sin, all of them.

And then he said, do this in remembrance of me. When he says to do this in remembrance of me, he really puts an obligation on us believers. Both the bread and the cup were to be taken, said the Lord, in remembrance of him. It gives what we're doing a distinctive character because it's a table or it's a service of remembrance. It's not a celebration that existed. It's not a celebration of something existing in the moment, but it's a remembrance of something that's past and already done.

In verse 25, he says, And after this the same manner he also took the cup. And when he had stopped saying, The cup speaks of his blood. It's his work to pour out his blood for sin. The symbols of the body and the blood are separate and they speak of a dead Christ. The cup of the New Testament in my blood. The cup is the new covenant in Christ's blood. It's not the old covenant sealed with the blood of bulls and goats, but it's a new covenant, a new transaction with all its blessings secured by the blood of Christ. A covenant that makes God known in grace and in which sins are remembered no more.

And he said, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. The obligation that the Lord places on us here is to participate. To participate in this sense is to be active, vigorous, intense, an intense calling to mind or a review. We are actively thinking about what he's done. It means strong, really strong mental activity. that we remember what he's done. And then he says, like Roger says, the proclamation of the good news by partaking and by participating. What we have done and what we do is as often as we eat this bread and we drink this cup, we do show, preach, proclaim the Lord's death until he come.

Our dear Father, how thankful we are for the grace extended to us, in particular in the cross of your son. We can't speak words that would adequately describe what it cost you, but the result is that we are no longer attached to our sins. We are seated in the resurrected, ascended Christ. And we look forward to growing continually in the knowledge and grace of him where he is, Father. We thank you. We pray in his precious name. Amen.