Good Friday 2012
An Hour at the Cross
Christ’s Cries From The Cross
Welcome!
Notices:
Hot cross buns & coffee
afterwards
Other Easter Services
Introduction:
This service: An Hour at the Cross
It’ll be about an hour!
And it focus on the cross!
In particular, on Christ's 7 cries from the cross.
Opening Scripture:
Some words from the prophet Isaiah, from 800 years before
Christ:
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.
6 We all, like sheep,
have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid
on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and
afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his
mouth.
Is 53
Christ’s silence throughout most of his passion perhaps
makes his cries from the cross all the more remarkable.
Opening prayer:
O Lord, open our eyes, that we may see wonderful things
in your law, for Jesus sake. Amen. (Ps 119:18)
May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our
hearts be now and always acceptable in your sight O Lord, Our rock and our redeemer.
(Ps 19:14)
Eternal
God,
in the
cross of Jesus
we see
the cost of our sin
and the
depth of your love:
in
humble hope and fear
may we
place at his feet
all that
we have and all that we are,
through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
(Times
and Seasons, p307)
Hymn: There is a green hill far away
Reading 1: Luke 23:32-34
It’s extraordinary that even as Jesus died, he prayed for
those who were crucifying him.
In the agony of the cross, Jesus could have be forgiven
for being entirely taken up with himself and his suffering, but as ever, he
lived selflessly.
As the Bible says, “No one ever spoke like this man”
(John 7:46).
Yet, in a way, it’s hardly surprising that Jesus thinks
of others as he dies, because that was the whole manner of his life.
And, after all, he deliberately chooses to die for
others.
He prays that sinners might be forgiven, and he dies that
sinners might be forgiven.
There has never been a more self-less man.
Jesus lived and died for others.
Here is Jesus’ grace, his undeserved love, in action.
Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)
And that’s exactly what Jesus Himself did.
Notice Jesus’ understanding and compassion.
He even manages to find an argument in favour of his
persecutors:
“They no not what they do”.
Their only plea in mitigation could be their ignorance –
to some extent a culpable ignorance, no doubt.
The Bible says: “None of the rulers of this age
understood [the wisdom of God], for if they had, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory.” (1 Cor 2:8)
They did not know what they did.
Which of us can say that we really know what happened at
the cross?
God died!
It is utterly beyond us – mysterious, incomprehensible.
All our sin is really a kind of stupid, futile,
inexplicable madness.
Sin is insane.
Whenever we sin, in a sense, “we know not what we do.”
Sin is not the kind of thing a proper human being in
their right mind would do.
And we never really know the enormity of our sin.
We know not what we do.
Jesus prays for us sinners still.
He always lives to intercede for us (Heb 7:25).
Even now he is at the right hand of God interceding for
us (Rom 8:34).
If anyone sins, we have an advocate with God the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.
He is the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn 2:1-2).
Jesus can plead his own atoning sacrifice:
“Father, forgive them, for I shed my precious blood for
them.”
What stronger argument could there be?
How could we doubt that Jesus’ prayer will prevail?
The choir will sing I
Give You Love by Michael Forster, based on The Good Friday Reproaches –
Finlandia, Jean Sibelius
This piece imagines God speaking to his people.
Reading 2: Luke 23:39-43
Here is Jesus the innocent one, the perfect, sinless, spotless
Lamb of God, numbered with transgressors. (Is 53:12)
Jesus the innocent one dies that the guilty might live.
Jesus dies to open the gate of glory.
The Risen Jesus says: “I am the Living One; I was dead,
and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and
Hades.” (Rev 1:18)
King Jesus may admit whomever he pleases to his heaven.
He says with the authority of a conquering champion, “I
say to you”, on my authority as Almighty God, the Eternal Beloved Son, as the only
Saviour of Sinners and the Lord of Life, and as the vanquisher of death and
hell, “I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
There can be no more sure promise, no stronger guarantee than
the personal word of Jesus himself.
Jesus is able to take his people directly from a hell-ish
cross to paradise, to a garden of delights.
“Today, you
will be with me in paradise”.
Here is a death-bed conversion.
There’s no-one living who is beyond hope.
One deathbed conversion, so that none may despair; but
only one, so that none may presume.
One thief is saved, the other, it seems is lost.
The thief on the cross had no good works to commend him.
He could do nothing to atone for his life of crime.
His hands and feet were nailed to the cross.
And yet Jesus promised him a welcome into paradise.
Here is the undeserved, free grace and mercy of our
redeemer to sinners.
Not
the labours of my hands
can fulfil
thy law's commands;
could
my zeal no respite know,
could
my tears forever flow,
all
for sin could not atone;
thou
must save, and thou alone.
3. Nothing
in my hand I bring,
simply
to the cross I cling;
naked,
come to thee for dress;
helpless,
look to thee for grace;
foul,
I to the fountain fly;
wash
me, Saviour, or I die.
(Rock of
Ages, Cleft For Me)
“O perfect redemption, the
purchase of blood,
To every believer, the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.”
Praise
the Lord!
(To God
Be The Glory)
There
is a fountain filled with blood
drawn
from Emmanuel's veins;
and
sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose
all their guilty stains.
2. The
dying thief rejoiced to see
that
fountain in his day;
and
there may I, though vile as he,
wash all
my sins away.
Bach, St John’s Passion – No. 60 – My dearest Saviour,
wilt thou answer? (Disc 2, no. 11)
My dearest Saviour, wilt thou answer?
As thou upon the cross didst suffer,
thyself hath said that thy work is done.
Have I from death a ransom won?
Am I then through thy cross and passion
an heir to heaven's salvation?
Are all our sins now washed away?
Thou canst for anguish
make no answer,
yet thou dost bow thy head
and say in silence: "Yea".
Jesus thou hast suffered death,
now thou liv'st for ever.
When I draw my latest breath,
o, forsake me never.
Thou'lt forgive all I have done,
my beloved master.
Grant me, Lord,
what thou hast won,
that is all I ask for.
Reading 3: John 19:25-27
Again, here is Jesus thinking of others.
Jesus’ selflessness:
His humanity:
His affection and care for his mother:
His love.
And here is a new kind of relationship established:
The church as a family.
Mary loses her son, Jesus, but she gains a new son, the
disciple Jesus loved.
Those who follow Jesus must be willing to go to the
cross, to lose all things, and are not spared the bitterest sorrows, but they
gain many brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters.
Even in his death, Christ is committed to us and he
commits us to one another that we might care for one another.
In the face of death, we look not only to Christ for
comfort, but also to the family of God, the church, which Christ has provided
for us.
The Collect for Good Friday is a prayer for the church,
the family of God:
Almighty Father,
look with mercy on this your family
for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be
betrayed and given up into the hands of sinners and to suffer death upon the
cross;
who is alive and glorified with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Hymn: Man of Sorrows, what a name
Reading 4: Mark 15:33-34
Jesus, the beloved Son of God, with whom the Father was always
well-pleased, was forsaken by him (Mark 1:11).
The Son who had always known his Father’s smile, now
endures his dreadful frown.
Well might the sun hide and the earth shake.
The wrath of God the Father is poured out on God the Son.
Jesus willingly endures the curse of sin, separated from
the blessings of God’s presence – which include every good thing.
In his infinite person, the Son tasted Hell for us.
God Himself is punishing God Himself for our sin.
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in
him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)
Martin Luther once wrote:
“All the prophets did foresee in spirit, that Christ should
become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel, [and] blasphemer... that ever was….for he, being made a sacrifice for the
sins of the whole world, is not now an innocent
person and without sins….Our most merciful Father…sent his only Son into the
world and laid upon him the sins of all men, saying
[to him]: Be thou Peter that denier; Paul that
persecutor, blasphemer and cruel oppressor; David that
adulterer; that sinner which did eat the [fruit] … in Paradise; that thief which
hanged on the cross; and, briefly, be thou [that] person which hath committed the sins of all men; see
therefore that thou pay and satisfy for them. Here now cometh the law and saith: I find him a sinner…therefore let him die upon
the cross.”
Martin
Luther (found at Galatians, ed.
Philip S. Watson (London: James Clarke, 1953), 269-271; on Gal 3:13)
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so
that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have
been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
He was forsaken, that we might never be.
He was abandoned, that we might be received.
Hymn: O sacred head sore wounded
Reading 5: John 19:28-29
Jesus said, “if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and
drink.” (John 7:37)
But now he himself thirsts.
Here again is Jesus’ humanity: the reality of his
suffering.
He is poured out like water (Ps 22:14)
His strength is dried up, his tongue sticks to the roof
of his mouth and he is laid in the dust of death (Ps 22:15)
He who made the oceans and sends rain on the earth, ran
dry.
Jesus was literally thirsty, but our Blessed Lord hungered
and thirsted for righteousness too (Mt 5:6).
As the deer pants for streams of water, so Christ’s soul pants for God.
His soul thirsts for God, for the living God. (Ps 42:1)
Jesus’ passionate desire, his thirst, was to save
mankind, to please his Father, to finish what he had come to do.
It is through Jesus’ thirst that he is able to offer living
water to the thirst.
When he has died, waters will flow from his side. (John
19:34)
Living water will flow from him to revive and refresh the
world.
Ask him and he will give you living water so that you
will never be thirsty again.
Indeed, the water Christ gives you will become in you a
spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4)
He says to us:
"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”
(Is 55:1)
Jesus has drained the cup of God’s wrath that we might
drink the cup of salvation and blessing.
One day we will drink the fruit of the vine anew with
Jesus in his Father’s kingdom. (Mt 26:29)
Hymn: Here is Love vast as the ocean
Reading 6: John 19:30
Not, “I am finished”, but “it is finished”
Not a cry of defeat but of victory.
In the Greek a single word, “Tetelestai!”
The kind of thing a builder might say as he adds the
final brick to house. – “Tetelestai!”
Or which you might say after 10 years of labour, when you
finally complete your match-stick model of Chichester Cathedral – “Tetelestai!”
Or the kind of thing an elderly couple might say as they
finally pay off their mortgage.
The 90 year old woman hands over the final cheque at the
bank and she waves her walking stick as she cries out, “Tetelestai! It is
finished!”
Completed!
Accomplished!
Fulfilled.
Job done.
Mission achieved.
Jesus has paid the price of sin in full.
He has drunk the cup of God’s wrath to the bitter end.
Death is defeated.
Satan’s power is spent.
It is finished!
Poem: Death be not proud, by John Donne
Death be
not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty
and dreadful, for thou art not so,
For those
whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow,
Die not,
poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest
and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much
pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And
soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of
their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art
slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with
poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And
poppy, or charms can make us sleep as well,
And
better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short
sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death
shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
Reading 7: Luke 23:46
Like Jesus’ cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”,
these words are taken from the Scriptures.
The incarnate Word of God dies with the inspired Word of
God on his lips, trusting his Father, doing his will.
Jesus is obedient to the end, even to death.
He knows his Father loves him with a love stronger than
death. (Song 8:6)
Jesus entrusts himself to him who judges justly. (1 Peter
2:24)
Jesus knows that “the strife is o’er, the battle done;
The victory of life is won;
The powers of death have done their worst;
But Christ their legions hath dispersed;”.
Jesus is returning to His Father and ours. (Jn 13:3;
20:17)
We too can commit our lives and our deaths into the hands
of our loving heavenly Father, knowing that he cares for us.
(Further prayers – adapt Times & Seasons p316-8)
Hymn: When I survey the wondrous cross
Final Prayers:
Most merciful God,
who by
the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered
and saved the world:
grant
that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may
triumph in the power of his victory;
through
Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is
alive and reigns with you,
in the
unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God,
now and for ever. Amen.
Worthy
are you, O Lamb of God who was slain,
To
receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and
honour and glory and praise!
for with
your blood you purchased people for God,
from
every tribe and language and people and nation. (Rev
5)
To him
who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
and has
made us to be a kingdom of priests
to serve his God and Father
to him
be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen (Rev
1:5b-6)
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