373: Why do we say GOOD Friday | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

Thank you guys for coming. This is actually my favorite service of the whole year. Obviously, the resurrection is the biggest service and the most important because without the resurrection, all the rest of it is nothing. But this service gets me nervous—good nervous. All through the day, I've been thinking about what Jesus was doing at this moment, what he was doing at this hour. It can't help but make you sad and make you love Christ.

So today, I just want to say thank you for being here. I hope the Lord will meet you. I’ve got a clip, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the first and last time a church of the Holy Spirit will ever show a clip from Hee Haw. Slippin’ Slippin’ could do that. It’s risky, but I think before we get into some pretty heavy stuff, this does help drive a point home. Because why do we call it Good Friday? But I want you to roll tape and go ahead and see.

The Clip and Reflection on Good Friday

He’s got some here. Grandpa and Strang and Junior there. Oh, howdy, boys. Heard you coming in, so they come down and got a front seat. Good. I guess you heard about the terrible misfortune? Oh, yeah. My great uncle died. Oh, that’s bad. No. That’s good. How come? Well, when he died, he left me $50,000. Oh, that’s good. No. That’s bad. How come? Well, when the internal revenue got through with it, all I had left was $25,000. Oh, that’s bad. No. That’s good. How come? Well, I bought me an airplane and learned to fly. Oh, that’s good. No. That’s bad. How come? Well, I was flying upside down the other day, and I fell out of the darn thing. Oh, that’s bad. No. That’s good. That’s good. I missed a pitchfork. Oh, that’s good. What kind of knucklehead would do that on Good Friday?

But it does show how some of the things we think are bad are actually good. And some of the things we—or the world even—think are bad are actually good things. The struggle is real. So why do they call it Good Friday? Seriously, why would they call it Good Friday? I mean, if I go to the doctor and get a shot, I whine and jump off the table. It’s just a shot. You know what Jesus suffered. Why? What thinking person, what feeling person could ever say this is good? You heard the lessons they read from Isaiah and from John. I’d rather just call it bad Friday or sad Friday. But the church—the mothers, the fathers, our parents, and the faith—saw fit from early on to call it Good Friday.

Reflection on Isaiah 53

Now, I want us to do a flyover of just two scriptures because this is a meditation, not a long sermon. I want to look—I want to do a flyover of Isaiah 53. While I read it, you're free—of course, I know our church, you're always free to do whatever the heck you want. You’re Holy Spirit people. You're free to follow along in the Bible or in your app, or you can just listen for keywords. Keywords. I want to remind you of what Christ suffered. What did he suffer? What did the suffering servant of God, the Messiah Jesus, predict? God, speaking through Isaiah seven hundred years before Christ, said this:

He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows acquainted with grief, as from one whom men hide their faces. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. And yet, we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. With his wounds, we are healed.

Did you get the words? Despised, rejected, sorrows, grief, stricken, smitten by God, afflicted, pierced, crushed. Keep those words in mind. Now, I want to skip verse six—we’ll come back to that. It says, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, and he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent. So he, the suffering servant, the Messiah, he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for this generation, who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death. Sound familiar? Although he had done no violence, Pilate said, I see no guilt in this man. Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. God isn’t man that he should lie. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him and to put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt.

The Gospel Hidden in Isaiah 53

Now, I want to go back to verse six, and then I want to look at two things that are hidden in Isaiah 53 because when you read that, it’s pretty sad, and it’s pretty hard, and it’s pretty brutal. Would you agree? It’s rough. It’s the roughest thing that’s ever been done to a man. And I’ll just throw this in for extra—it's not in the notes—the physical pain of Jesus was extraordinary. But the real pain, this is quick speaking, not the Lord— the real pain was not actually the beyond-your-imagination physical pain.

The brutality of the cross was bearing the sin of the world. Think of the worst sin you’ve ever committed. Think how you felt after you did it. And maybe even till this day, think of the condemnation, the weight of sin. And so we have happy news in the midst of Isaiah 53, verse six.

All we like sheep have gone astray. And you say, quick, that didn’t sound like good news. Hold on. All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve turned every one of us to our own way. And this is the happy news: The Lord has laid on him, not on you, the sin or iniquity of us all. He laid it on his son, the precious Lamb of God.

The reason Jesus went through all this—the reason the suffering servant Messiah endured this—is so that the Lord could lay on him your sin. Because the Bible plainly states what we never hear in pulpits: Without Christ, you are an enemy of Christ. You’re under the wrath of God, and you are not—in spite of popular culture—actually a child of God. The Bible says he gives us the right to become children of God by grace, by grace.

And so, in Isaiah 53, we see all the things Messiah is going to suffer. But hidden in there is gospel because it says, the Lord laid on him our sins. Aren’t you so glad that on that day when you appeared before Christ, all your sins will be taken off of you because he already bore them on the cross? He did that for you.

Let’s keep reading. There’s another part of good news hidden in this. I think it’s around verse 10b. It says this:

He shall see his offspring and he shall prolong his days.

Now, this is hard to understand. We’re reading about a man who is despised, rejected, in sorrow, grief, stricken, smitten by God, afflicted, pierced, crushed, oppressed, slaughtered, oppressed, judged, cut off, stricken, died, crushed, and grieved. And yet, we see this verse: it says, he shall see. After this punishment, after this death, it says, he shall see his offspring, and he shall prolong his days.

You see, I think a lot of people that read Isaiah 53 never see that. I want to say to my beloved friends of Israel, who I love deeply: do you see this? This isn’t Israel. This is a man. It’s masculine singular. No, no country could do this. No people could do this. This is one person, it’s a man. And it says he’s going to make his soul an offering for guilt, for our guilt. And he’s going to see his offspring. In other words, he’s going to live.

This foreshadowing, ladies and gentlemen. And it goes down to verse 11, which says:

Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see. Present, future tense. He’s going to see and be satisfied. And by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant—oh, did you hear that? The righteous one? Jesus Christ, the righteous. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous.

Jesus said, I’m going to have people from every tongue, tribe, and nation. There are going to be people there in the kingdom of God that you’ll go, wow, didn’t think you were going to be here. They might say the same to you. He says, many will be made righteous and shall bear their iniquities or sins.

Fulfillment in John 19

Now, let’s go real quick to John 19. It’s a lot shorter than Isaiah 53, but I want to spend time and read it to you because this is a meditation, not a sermon. Hear the word of the Lord. Let it do its work.

You can close your eyes, read along if you want. Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. Flogged him. Flailed the skin of his body. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him saying, Hail, king of the Jews. It’s sarcasm. It’s not honor. It’s mockery. They’re mocking the Son of God, who’s ready to go to the cross and die so that when he’s lifted up, all men or women might be drawn unto him. For God so loved the world. Yet, even though he’s going to die for them, they mock him: Hail, King of the Jews.

It says, and in another gospel version, they spit on him, but here, it says they struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, Look, people of Israel, I’m bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him. Isn’t that amazing? No guilt.

Verse five: So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. The purple robe was mockery. Do you know this? Who could afford purple robes? Only kings, because the dye was made from a mollusk that no regular person could afford. Purple was the color of royalty. So they put a purple robe on him, not to esteem him, but to mock him while spitting on him and hitting him.

After they did that, he came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said to them, behold the man. See the man. When the chief priest and officers saw him, they cried out, crucify him, crucify him. When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they divided his garments into four parts—one for each soldier—and his tunic.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. He hung on the cross, thirsty. A jar of sour wine was brought, and they put a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his mouth. When Jesus received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. No merit in addition to his blood—he paid in full. He bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Conclusion

In light of both the brutal suffering—what happened to the Messiah—and the good news that it also contained, namely that he was going to be raised from the dead and see his children in the future, the best question to ask is, so what?

What would you say? So what? What are you going to do about it? Not to earn his favor, not to earn his love, but how would you respond to someone who would actually give their life for you?

I want to close with four things, then a six-second video. If you and I were truly good—because, a lot of times I think I’m good. This is deception. I look at the world and think, okay, that’s a pretty good person, pretty good person, pretty good person. Not so good, terrible, awful, don’t associate. I know you're better Christians than me, you probably never do that. But through our own lenses, we see ourselves as just a little bit better.

If we were good, Jesus would not have had to die such a horrible death. And it was horrible. He cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Second, God's love for you cost him dearly. So don’t say, God, thanks for the gumball. His love for you cost him dearly. It was his Son, his only Son, his beloved.

Third, thank God—the death of Jesus was not the end of the story. It was the means to the end of the story. First Peter 3:18 says this:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.

So tonight, as we leave, what are you going to do with it? It may be one more year out of sixty-four you've heard this, and thank you very much. Let’s go home.

Maybe today can be a day where we no longer look at the cross and go, hey, thanks for the gumball. But it would actually penetrate us and lead us to say, Lord, I got to stop being my own god. I’ve got to love the one who first loved me. And Lord, I’m going to invite you to take control of my mind, heart, hands, wallet, and time. I want to serve the King who served me even unto death, death on the cross.

How are you going to respond to Christ? How are you going to respond? I want to close with this video. And the father wept. And the father wept. But Scripture recounts that it was the Father who put him to grief—not because he didn’t love his Son, but because he loved you and wanted you not to love him from afar but to be his child.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.