Good Friday Service

[0:00] Good morning and welcome to our service for Good Friday, April 2nd, 2021. Can you believe that? April 2nd. Time seems to be in so many ways flying by so fast and yet in other ways it seems like a crawl.

[0:17] It seems like a snail's pace and so we recognize that. We recognize that life for us is what it is right now. We have joys, we have sorrow and grief, we have highs, we have lows.

[0:30] But in all of it we have Jesus, we have God with us. My name is Kent Dixon and I'm the lead pastor of Braemar Baptist Church here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

[0:42] And welcome to you this morning. If you're joining us this morning online, on Facebook this morning, or if you're tuning in later in the day, later in the week, welcome. Welcome here, welcome to this community of followers of Christ.

[0:58] Here we are. And so welcome as you join us this morning. Today is Good Friday and as followers of Jesus around the world, we gather today.

[1:12] We gather and reflect. Good Friday is probably most, you know, I came to the conclusion recently, it's probably the most ironically named day of the entire church calendar.

[1:26] It's today that we reflect on the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who had come to earth as a human being, who taught about forgiveness and love and acceptance.

[1:37] We recognize that today. But we also recognize that Jesus was betrayed by people who claimed to stand for the same things, to believe in the same things, to value the same things that he did, that he stood for.

[1:55] People were looking for a Messiah, for a deliverer. And they failed to see him. They failed to see him when he walked among them, when he was with them, when he was right before their eyes.

[2:10] And on this day, this Good Friday, we remember that Jesus was mocked and ridiculed. He was beaten and tortured. He was tried and found guilty of being nothing more than exactly who he claimed to be.

[2:29] Good Friday? How can any of this be good? Well, my friends, that's what we reflect on today.

[2:40] We rest in the events that are represented in this day, many of which were anything, most of which, in fact, were anything but good.

[2:52] But we also recognize today that this story doesn't end today. And it doesn't end here. Let's pray.

[3:04] Lord God, Jesus cried out to you on the cross. Why have you forsaken me? You seem so far from his cry and from his distress.

[3:18] Those who stood at the foot of the cross wondered where you were as they saw Jesus mocked and shamed and killed. Where were you then?

[3:28] Lord God, we too ask where you are when there's trouble and suffering and death. And we cry out to you for help.

[3:40] Lord, we ask you to be near to us and save us so that we may praise you for the deliverance you have given. Lord God, we wait on Friday for the resurrection of Sunday.

[3:55] And we admit that sometimes our lives seem like a succession of Fridays. And we just cannot see what is good.

[4:07] Lord, teach us to call your name as Jesus did. Lord, make us to trust in you like little children. And we pray all these things in the name of your son, your wonderful, beautiful son, Jesus Christ.

[4:25] Amen. Well, we're going to join together this morning as we reflect on the events of Good Friday in worship singing. And we're going to sing two songs now and then one at the end of our service.

[4:40] So we're going to be singing now, Man of Sorrows and O Sacred Head. And as much as we sing in worship to God in joy and celebration many times with the songs that we sing, this morning we sing with reverence.

[4:56] We sing with solemn hearts and solemn minds as we recognize what Good Friday means and the weight of it. So let's, the worship leader will lead us in singing and the lyrics will appear on the screen.

[5:11] So again, we'll be singing Man of Sorrows and O Sacred Head. So may God fill your heart and mind as you ponder the words of these songs and as you sing them now.

[5:22] God bless you. God bless you.

[5:56] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Bearing shame and scoffing rude in my place.

[6:12] Condemned he stood. Sealed my pardon with his blood.

[6:23] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. What a Savior. What a Savior. What a Savior. Guilty. Helpless.

[6:34] Lost were we. Blamed as Lamb of God was he. Sacrificed you. Sacrificed you.

[6:47] Set us free. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We are the Savior. We are the Savior. We are the Savior. Lord. He was lifted up to die.

[7:09] He was lifted up to die. He was lifted up to die. It is finished was his cry.

[7:24] Now in heaven. Now in heaven. Salted high. Hallelujah. Would have saved you. Salted high. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Would have saved you.

[7:36] Lord. Lord. Savior. Lord. Hallelujah. Father's Cruel become a Gigac hav� notch now. He may have saved you. Do Whoops. There heard foody do fe рус responses as I am.оры organis Hamilton's theme song Make a word hoolown as we can up to die.

[7:50] See him in the� mentioned poem He was going to be a Photography on the Oh, sacred head, now wounded With grief and shame weighed down Now squandfully surrounded With thorns thy only crown Oh, sacred head, what glory What bliss till now was thine Yet though despised and gory

[8:57] I joy to call thee mine What thou, my Lord, hast suffered Was all for sinners gave My sin was the transgression But thine the deadly pain Lo, here I fall, my cereal Tis I deserve thy place Look on me with thy favor Bouch save me to thy grace

[9:58] The joy can never be spoken Above all joys beside When in thy body broken I thus with safety hide O Lord of life Desiring thy glory now to see Beside the cross expiring I breathe my soul to thee I breathe my soul to thee

[10:58] I breathe my soul to thee I breathe my soul to thee I breathe my soul to thee I breathe my soul to thee I hope those words and the music gave you the opportunity to reflect that time that we spent in singing those songs gave you an opportunity to reflect on the power of this day the impact of this day and the events that happened on this day As Christians we recognize events like Good Friday and Easter Sunday and Christmas every year and I hope that they don't become routine for you become rote and habit for you Sure that's part of it and those are things that we look forward to and things that we recognize on our church calendar but I want us to always be mindful of what these times, these days, these events mean not just for history but for our own lives and our own relationship with Jesus

[12:00] Well now it's my pleasure to welcome Rob Ogilvie Rob is the Executive Minister of our denomination and Rob's going to be bringing our Good Friday reflection this morning I'll be closing our time together with prayer and a benediction after Rob's message and we will be singing another song so may you be blessed by Rob's message now as we listen to that together It's good to be with you on this Good Friday For those of you that don't know me my name is Rob Ogilvie and I serve as the Executive Minister of the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada A few months ago now my wife Bonnie and I moved from Vancouver to a condo in Calgary where we would be closer to our kids and our grandkids I quickly realized that condo living in Calgary actually has two huge advantages The first you don't have to shovel the snow very important The second heated underground parking need I say anymore

[13:04] We live just outside of the downtown core and from there it's about a 30 minute walk to the CBWC offices that are located in the region known as the Beltline in Calgary With COVID I've mostly been working from home these days but one day I did decide to walk to the office not all that long ago just to see how long it would take and as I did so I came across this You can see this picture Right there in the East Village of Calgary was an upside down church It turns out it's a piece of art put there by an artist by the name of Dennis Oppenheim who created it and it's been put on display in a variety of different cities all over North America It was originally named church but the name was later changed to device to root out evil Now I'm not sure of all the implications of that but I did find it interesting that one of the reasons why it has moved around so much is because it's been seen as being controversial and to some it's been seen as being anti-Christian

[14:06] I have to admit I didn't find it offensive and maybe that's because as soon as I saw it as someone who served as a pastor for more than 13 years and then as someone who's been serving in denominational leadership for about 13 years and as someone who's been living through a global pandemic called COVID-19 just like the rest of you have it was a vivid image to me of the church right now COVID has turned the church upside down Now I know the church is the people it's not the building but when the church is so used to using the building to facilitate ministry when March 2020 hit and suddenly gatherings and church buildings were not allowed the church was in many ways turned upside down Online services that never existed before became the norm When would you have ever imagined going to church in your pajamas?

[15:01] Not that I'm suggesting that Drive-up services in church parking lots became common When would you have ever imagined going to church and not getting out of your vehicle?

[15:13] I've got to say that I'm so proud of the creativity of so many of our CBWC churches in finding new ways to connect with their communities even in the midst of these lockdowns A drive-through communion service so that people who've been isolated for months can still participate in the Lord's Supper A weekly early morning prayer meeting that attracted just a couple of people every week before COVID became a daily early morning prayer meeting on Zoom with far more participants than they ever had before Virtual children's programs The creating of gift bags given out to first responders in the community as a way of encouraging them and thanking them for all their efforts during the pandemic These are just a few of the amazing ways that many of our churches have looked beyond themselves to support their communities And yes some hold suspicions about government motives and overreaching and many are concerned that the lockdowns themselves have taken a greater toll than the virus itself

[16:18] I'm not going to get into that debate this morning But I do hope and pray that the vaccines will continue to come at a rapid rate and that we will all get back to some semblance of normal once again soon although it may be somewhat of a new normal And it will be important that we don't get so focused on getting back to where we were before the pandemic that we lose sight of the lessons and the spirit-led creativity that we have learned during COVID and that we need to apply going forward As you're well aware today is Good Friday Good Friday was the day that those who were the closest followers of Jesus you know those who saw him give sight to the blind those who saw him stop the bleeding that a woman had been experiencing for years those who saw him restore the ability of a man to walk who hadn't been able to for years those who saw him feed thousands of people with hardly anything and those who saw him go to his friend Lazarus

[17:22] Lazarus who had already been dead and in the tomb for four days and who called out to him Lazarus come out and he did Good Friday was the day that turned everything those people had seen everything those people had believed and experienced upside down Jesus the Messiah the Savior of the world the one who rode into Jerusalem a few days earlier on a donkey while people lifted their voices shouting blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord and when the Pharisees in that crowd that day told Jesus to rebuke his disciples for this display of worship towards him he replied this way he said even if they keep quiet the stones will cry out this is one of my one of my favorite lines in scripture when Jesus says to them you know realistically even if these people weren't here to say anything at all creation itself would shout out words of praise to him what an amazing triumphal entry for the new king with overwhelming support of the people and yet a few days later everything is turned upside down those who had been secretly conspiring against him made their move the officials who would have stopped who could have stopped what was happening washed their hands of the situation his closest followers denied even knowing him and the fickle crowds of the day went from shouting

[18:56] Hosanna to shouting crucify him and they did now we know the next chapter of this story and sometimes we like to jump right to it and not dwell on the cross but those earliest followers whose world was completely turned upside down that Friday for a couple of days they weren't able to look past the cross and neither should we by now we've already heard in this in this service this morning the whole good Friday story if you will the story of the crucifixion of Jesus I want to share with you another passage of scripture that's probably quite common to many of you as well as it was to me but there's a line in it in this particular passage that jumped out at me about a month or so ago when I read it and I've been dwelling on that line ever since the passages from 1 Corinthians chapter 1 it's verses 10 through 17 they read this way I appeal to you brothers and sisters in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought my brothers and sisters some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you what I mean is this one of you says

[20:18] I follow Paul another I follow Apollos another I follow Cephas and still another I follow Christ is Christ divided was Paul crucified for you were you baptized in the name of Paul I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name yes I also baptized the household of Stephanas beyond that I don't remember if I baptized anyone else just pause for a second I also love this particular line because of the reality of it and how it reminds us of the time that this was actually written this wasn't these words weren't written when there was computers and that line would have been deleted and Paul would have made sure that he got his all of his information totally accurate and there would not have been any flaws whatsoever but he says well yeah I did baptize the household of Stephanas as well beyond that I don't remember if I baptized anyone else but the point is the next passage the next verse for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel not with wisdom and eloquence lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power now obviously there's been some correlating in the church people seem to be putting their emphasis in the wrong place some say they follow Paul others say they follow Apollos others are saying they follow Cephas or Peter as he's known and Paul is trying to set the record straight by reminding them all that these are all just men who have been sent to tell other people about Jesus there's no need for division there's no need to take sides these men are not here to be followed or to be worshipped these men are here to point people to Jesus and he emphasizes the point by saying that he has been sent to preach the gospel not with wisdom and eloquence lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power in other words nothing Paul does or says should focus people's attention on him or build him up or make him seem important it should all be to point people to Jesus and if that doesn't happen the cross of Christ is emptied of its power that's the line that has stuck out to me for the last month or so that I keep dwelling on lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power

[22:51] I can fill so much of my time focusing on trying to look and sound good or to impress others with my wisdom and insight that in doing so the cross of Christ can be emptied of its power I can be so fixated on having the best argument in trying to be right in trying to win that in doing so the cross of Christ can be emptied of its power I can focus so much on the things that I want the stuff the materialism that in doing so the cross of Christ is emptied of its power do you see what the common denominator is in all these things where's the focus the focus is always on me not on Jesus and what he has done for me but it becomes about me and then if I can fit Jesus in alongside of me then that's okay but I'm the first priority and Paul an apostle one called by Jesus himself one who was put in prison flogged shipwrecked and so much more because of his faith one who today we would think we would want to hold up as some type of hero of the day says keep your focus on Jesus not on me lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power and as I think of this the thought of intentionally maybe even unintentionally doing or being someone who takes away or who lessens or who distracts anyone from the power of the cross should give each of us pause to examine ourselves and our true motives about what it is that we are doing you see just because we know the next chapter in the story doesn't mean that we gloss over the cross because without the cross there is no story often as a pastor I do love to focus on resurrection

[24:57] Sunday and to be able to say well if Jesus hasn't risen then he would have been like any other man and that's true but Jesus first had to die in order to be raised again to new life we can't look beyond the cross we have to remember that Jesus died on the cross he took all the wrong all the sin of the world onto his own shoulders and he sacrificed himself for you and for me offering us the gift of eternity with him if only we would believe we cannot lose sight of the cross I don't know how you're feeling these days in this kind of upside world upside down world in which we are living in at the moment but I would expect that many of you are struggling trying to find hope in the midst of so much unknown I want to remind you today of the cross

[25:58] I want to remind you of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross I want to remind you today of the power of the cross and in doing so I want to remind you that even in the midst of this upside down world where there is so much uncertainty that Jesus is the constant and that Jesus went to the cross because of his love for you and because of that we are a people of hope not a people of despair let me show you another picture now you might be saying well that's the same picture you're just showing us the same thing again and you're partly right but as I was walking by the upside down church again the other day I immediately noticed that there was something different there were tables and chairs beside it and I gotta say when I saw this it gave me hope because I began to envision people people sitting around these tables and chairs visiting laughing eating connecting with one another and I realized that yes the church may still be upside down but even in these challenging times the church the people are able to cling to a God who loved them so much that he would send his only son to die on the cross to give his life so that we know that we are not alone to offer hope to a people in need of a savior and we as individuals and the church are called not to draw attention to ourselves not to claim to be more important than others not to say that we are the biggest or the best church not to do things to make things make it all about us but we as the church are called to be the hands and feet of

[27:52] Jesus to those that God brings across our paths and to keep Jesus as our focus lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power may the Lord bless you and keep you on this good Friday well I hope you enjoyed Rob's message this morning lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power it's not about us it is about the sacrifice of Jesus it is about the hope that we have has your life been turned upside down during the past year I'm sure it has in so many ways as has mine my friends I hope that not just the events of good Friday but the presence of

[28:52] Jesus Christ in your life has turned your life upside down in a wonderful way if you're listening to this message if you've joined us this morning and you recognize that you have no direct personal connection to the story of Jesus the life that he lived his suffering and death and his resurrection if you don't know about those things in a personal way then please reach out to me at kent at bremarrbaptist dot com please reach out to me I'd love to connect with you and share how you can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and how that relationship will change your perspective it'll change your life it will change the course of your eternity friends allow the power of the cross of Jesus Christ to change your life my friends the power of the cross of Jesus is the power of hope let's pray father God we remember today the pain and suffering of the cross and all that

[30:13] Jesus was willing to endure so that we could be set free he paid the price such a great sacrifice to offer us that gift of eternal life Lord help us to never take for granted this huge gift of love on our behalf help us to be reminded of the cost of it all forgive us for being too busy or distracted by other things for not fully recognizing what you have freely given us what you have done for us thank you Lord that by the wounds of Jesus we are healed thank you that because of your huge sacrifice we can live as free people thank you that sin and death have been conquered and that your power is everlasting thank you that we can stay with great hope the words of Jesus it is finished for

[31:19] Lord we know what's still to come and that death has lost its sting we praise you Lord for we recognize that you are making all things new we pray all these things in the name of Jesus amen my friends as you return to the activities of your life today don't rush ahead to the events of the coming days allow yourself to mourn this death of Jesus contemplate the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Simon Peter stay by the cross like the women who love Jesus reflect on how much you love Jesus and how much he has taught you so go now knowing that God is always with you and he walks this lonesome valley with you this week amen we're going to close our service this morning as I said by singing one more song were you there this may be familiar to many of you and if it's not you can just reflect on the words the words will appear on the screen as the worship leader leads us so my friends when we have finished this song go in peace and please feel welcome to join us for our

[32:50] Easter Sunday service we'll be here live on Facebook again Easter Sunday morning at 11 a.m. right here on Facebook and God bless you as you sing and as you go forward into your day and the rest of your week God bless you were you there when they crucified my Lord were you there when they crucified my Lord sometimes it causes me to tremble were you there when they crucified my Lord were you there when they nailed to the tree were you there when they nailed to the tree sometimes it causes me to tremble were you there when they nailed to the tree were you there when they laid him in the tomb were you there when they laid him in the tomb sometimes it causes me to tremble were you there when they laid him were you there when God raised from the grave were you there when God raised from the grave sometimes it causes me to tremble were you there when God raised from the grave from the grave from the grave that burning above him and he neết him and

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