[0:00] Tonight, we gather to celebrate Good Friday.
[0:26] But have you ever thought how odd it is to say, Happy Good Friday? As we've read in the accounts tonight from Scripture, we are celebrating today these things.
[0:45] Jesus betrayed by his disciples. Jesus abandoned by his friends. Jesus denied by one of his inner circle.
[0:55] Jesus savagely beaten by Roman soldiers. Jesus handed over by jealous Jewish leaders for execution.
[1:07] Jesus passed over for the offer of clemency in favor of a terrorist. Jesus condemned, though he was deemed innocent.
[1:18] Jesus, mercilessly crucified. Hand or nails driven into his hands, his feet on a wooden cross where he hung in agony.
[1:33] Good Friday? Really? What is so good about Good Friday?
[1:45] That's what we're going to explore tonight. How can such a dark day be celebrated? And to explore this, we're going to look at a passage from Isaiah that was read earlier.
[2:02] Written approximately 600 years before Jesus. Before the events of Good Friday. Isaiah describes the coming of one who would come from God to be a deliverer for his people.
[2:15] In moving, powerful, and poetic language. Isaiah predicts and helps us understand the nature. The true nature of Good Friday.
[2:29] So if you want to turn with me. It's page 613 in the Bibles in the pew in front of you. Or Isaiah chapter 53 verses 4 through 6. It was read, but I think I want to look at it again.
[2:41] Because in these short three verses, we see this collision. This transaction of people. One of the things I want you to see is the pronouns.
[2:56] Because we're going to explore the pronouns and what is connected to all the we's and us's on one hand. And the he and him on the other. So let's read this again.
[3:10] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions.
[3:25] He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes, we are healed.
[3:37] All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Will you pray with me for a minute?
[3:50] God, we pray tonight that you would help us. By your spirit, you would make clear the meaning of this passage. So that we might understand the work that you have done on Good Friday.
[4:05] Help us understand to see how good it really is. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So first I want to look at the we's and the us's of this passage.
[4:20] What do we bring to Good Friday according to Isaiah? Well, in a word, we bring sin. We bring the darkness of sin.
[4:33] And you know, sin isn't a popular word today. When we use it in normal, everyday language, we use it for the most overt and most heinous acts.
[4:44] We think about racism or terrorism or shooting people, innocent people. And these things certainly are sin, for sure.
[4:58] And they are some of the most obvious and most serious expressions of them. But the Bible has a much broader and a much richer understanding of what this concept is.
[5:11] And even here in Isaiah, we see the language. Look with me again. Look with what's attached to us and we in this. Verse 4, it is our griefs and it is our sorrow that we bring to Good Friday.
[5:26] Verse 5, it is our transgressions. It is our iniquities that we bring. And verse 6, it is we who have gone astray.
[5:37] We who have gone our own way. Do you connect with any of those? Maybe you connect with the first one, our griefs and our sorrows.
[5:51] Friends, I am sure that if I sat down with each one of you tonight, we could talk about what you have seen in your own life. And every one of you could tell a story of loss.
[6:06] Every one of you could tell a story of pain, of trial, of grief. It might be trivial. If you're young, the weightiness may not have hit you quite as hard as it has for some of us.
[6:22] We've walked a few more years. And yet, all of us know this is a part of the human condition. We carry this.
[6:33] We experience this. Grief and loss and pain. And this is what we bring to Good Friday.
[6:45] The Bible attributes it to sin. And I need to be very clear here. It is not always our sin that causes our grief. Often it is the sin of another that causes our grief.
[6:58] Some of it is the sin of living in a fallen and broken world. And yet, the root of it has always been sin. For all sickness and all disease.
[7:10] Indeed, even death itself came into the world because of sin. And so, all of our loss, all of our griefs, all of our sorrows have come in by sin.
[7:24] And one of the ways we know this most clearly is because at the very end of the Bible, when God describes what it will be like when he will do away with sin in this world forever, do you know what he says?
[7:36] There will be no sorrow. There will be no grief. There will be no pain. There will be no sickness. There will be no death. And so, one of the things we bring to Good Friday is our grief and our sorrows.
[7:55] A second thing we bring that maybe you identify with is our lostness. Isaiah says, We, like sheep, have gone astray.
[8:08] Each of us has turned to his own way. I think back to my own life. Growing up, I didn't know the Jesus of the Bible.
[8:20] I didn't understand who he was or what he had done for me. And if you could go back and find it, I don't have it anymore. But I remember as a fifth, sixth, seventh grader wondering, Why am I here?
[8:35] What am I here for? Does anyone love me? If I disappeared tomorrow, would anyone care? I wandered through life, looking for something to make sense of it all, something to give me purpose.
[8:52] I was lost. And I know what that felt like. But not only that, but then I decided to begin to develop my own ways to be found.
[9:04] And that's what Isaiah describes here. We have turned to our own way. We have made our own way to try and make it work, make our lives work, to find purpose and meaning, to somehow overcome that deep-seated, in the gut of our soul, I am lost, and I don't know why I'm here, feeling.
[9:23] And so we cover it over with our own ways and our own plans. And this, too, is sin.
[9:37] But then there's a third part, a third part of sin that maybe you connect with, maybe you don't tonight.
[9:49] Verse 5, it's clear. It is our transgressions, and it is our iniquities that we bring. Now, transgressions and iniquities are words that we bring straight out of church lingo, right?
[10:02] This is not words that we use every day. But you know what? You do it every day, right? When you are over on College Street, and you don't want to walk all the way down to the corner to cross in the cost walk, what do you do?
[10:16] You transgress the street. And in doing so, you transgress the law that says that you're not allowed to jaywalk in New Haven. To transgress is to do something against what is right, or the standard that is set.
[10:34] And iniquity is another word that simply means you're not equal to what is right. So another word we might use today would just be unjust.
[10:44] Our iniquity is our injustice. What does this look like? What does it look like when we don't live rightly the way we know we ought to, the way God has said we ought to live?
[11:03] It could look like so many things. Simply losing our temper at our children at the end of the day. When we lie to impress someone.
[11:14] When we grumble and complain. When we gossip about others. When we misrepresent the income on our tax return.
[11:27] When we borrow supplies from the office for personal use. When we spend too much time on our basketball bracket while on company time.
[11:39] If any of you are following that. When we look down on others because they're not like us or they don't meet our standards. When we laugh or scorn at people who are awkward.
[11:55] All of these are ways that we express injustice. Little ways in the world. What I want you to see is that the scriptures and the Bible say that all these things are rooted in an offense against God.
[12:13] Because ultimately our transgressions are against the rightness that God has laid out for us to live. Our iniquity is because we cannot meet God's perfect standard.
[12:24] And so this is what we bring. This is what we bring to Good Friday.
[12:39] We bring our griefs and sorrows. We bring our waywardness and our own ways. We bring our iniquities and our transgressions. And when we look at the darkness.
[12:53] And when we look at the horror. When we look at the injustice. When we look at the tragic things that happen on Good Friday. We recognize that it is sin that has caused this to happen.
[13:11] And if we have eyes to see, we see that it is our sin. We just sang it. It was our sin that put him there. So that's the us and the we in the passage.
[13:31] What about he and him? What did he come? How did he enter into a transaction with us as we brought our sin? As we brought our darkness?
[13:42] As we brought our grief and shame? To Good Friday. Good Friday. Well, let's look. Verse 4. He has borne our griefs and he has carried our sorrows.
[13:56] Jesus stepped into the world identifying with human beings. He laid aside the prerogative that he had as a divine member of the Trinity.
[14:09] And he stepped into humanity so that he could be one of us. And he took on flesh and blood. And he made himself a servant. And he humbled himself and was obedient to God the Father.
[14:25] He was even obedient unto death on the cross. Jesus steps in. He was a man of sorrows. He was a man of sorrows.
[14:36] He is a man of sorrows. Acquainted with grief. As it says in Isaiah 53.3. He is a man who is tempted in every way just as we are.
[14:48] Yet without sin. If there is any grief or sorrow that you think you are alone in. Jesus says no you are not alone.
[15:01] For I have walked in your shoes. I have come and identified myself with you. I have borne your griefs and your sorrows.
[15:16] Verse 5 goes on. And it says he was pierced. I'm sorry. He was wounded for our transgressions. And he was crushed for our iniquities.
[15:29] Jesus didn't simply identify with us. But he took for us something that we could not bear. We come carrying this huge load of sin.
[15:42] And this sin that deserves the wrath of God. And the right response of condemnation and death. And Jesus comes. Perfect. Righteous. Without sin.
[15:52] And he says give it to me. Give it to me and I will take it. I will take it for you. These sins that deserve the wounding and the crushing.
[16:07] I will be wounded for you. I will be crushed for you. The apostle Peter writes this. He committed no sin.
[16:17] Neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled he did not revile in return. When he suffered he did not threaten. But continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
[16:30] He himself bore our sins in his body. On the tree. On the tree. That we might die to sin. And live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
[16:43] For you were straying like sheep. But now have returned to the shepherd. And the overseer of our souls. Friends. Friends.
[16:53] Do you remember that litany that I told you? We celebrate what? These horrific things that happened to this man. What we have to see is. The reason why Good Friday is so good.
[17:04] Is because. He has done that for us. Our sins deserved all that Jesus suffered. And he said. Give it to me. I love you.
[17:17] Give it to me. And I will bear them. For you. I will suffer. Under them for you. I will die. The death that you deserve.
[17:33] What goodness is this? That he would take our place. That we. Would be set free. From the consequences of the sin.
[17:45] That we deserve. What joy is this? That the burden is taken off. That the deepest thing. That we are ashamed of. The deepest guilt that we carry.
[17:58] The greatest grief and sorrow. Jesus says. Come and give it to me. I will bear it for you. I will take it for you.
[18:10] But friends. The good of Good Friday. Is even more than this. Not only has he taken off. The burden.
[18:22] But look with me at verse 5. The second half of it. Upon him was the chastisement. That brought us peace. And with his stripes.
[18:34] We. Are healed. Jesus. And. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Not only takes the darkness. Upon himself. But he gives us.
[18:46] The life. That he himself. Lived. He gives us. As it says in. Second Corinthians. 521.
[18:57] That God made. Jesus. Jesus. Who knew no sin. To be sin for us. So that we might become. The righteousness of God. That is. We might become.
[19:08] Right with God. That we might. Live. A right life. With him. And that life. Is a good life. Not a self-righteous life. But a life. Lived. From God.
[19:18] And to God. And all. His goodness. And all. His mercy. He. He comes. And he brings. Healing. For our soul.
[19:31] So that the grief. And the sorrow. That assail us. Every day. Do not become. Hardened. Scars.
[19:41] That cannot move. That lose. Their flexibility. And cause. Ongoing pain. But Jesus. Steps into those. Griefs and sorrows. And he says. I will bring.
[19:52] Healing to them. them. So that you. Will be renewed. So that your heart. Will not. Fall into bitterness. And despair. But instead.
[20:03] Will live. With hope. And joy. Because of me. By his wounds. We were healed. And the chastisement.
[20:15] That fell on him. Brought us peace. And friends. This is the best news. Of Good Friday. At all. For the sin. That we bear. That we commit.
[20:26] Separates us. From God. It earns God's wrath. And our relationship. With him. Is broken. And Jesus. Comes. And he takes that sin. On us. Not only does he do that.
[20:36] But then he gives us. His righteousness. And by doing that. Then when God. The father. Looks at us. He doesn't see. The sin.
[20:47] He doesn't see. The mess. He doesn't see. The iniquities. And transgressions. The waywardness. Of our hearts. He looks at us.
[20:58] And he sees. The righteousness. Of God. He looks at his son. That he is well pleased with. He looks at the perfect. Obedient son. Who brought life.
[21:09] And love. Wherever he went. And he sees us. Like that. Because God has given. Because Jesus has given us.
[21:21] All of those things. So that we might have peace with God. Friends. This is why Good Friday is good.
[21:34] The events that happened. Are tragic. And horrific. But it was God. Stepping in. To do for us. What we could not do.
[21:44] For ourselves. To bring us. This hope. To bring us. This freedom. To know that Jesus. Takes all of that.
[21:55] In this grand. Transaction. He takes all of our sin. And gives us. All of his. Righteousness. And life. And that's why.
[22:08] Good Friday is good. Let's pray. Jesus. Amen. Jesus.
[22:25] You walked. A lonely. And dark. Path. On this day. Lord. You did this for us. It is the path. That we would walk.
[22:36] In our sin. Lord to meet the judgment of God but instead you walked it for us and you not only freed us from it but you've given us another path to walk that when we forsake our own ways and believe and trust that what God has done in Jesus Christ is for us when we trust in it oh what joy and goodness there is God I pray tonight I pray that this would be fresh like a spring of water flowing up to new life in our hearts Lord for those of us who have walked with you for many years and for those of us who maybe tonight are still seeking to understand who you are and what you have done in Christ God I pray that we would see the glory of this grand transaction incredible love that Christ showed for us that you would capture our hearts with this truth and pray this in Jesus name
[23:50] Amen This music team comes we're going to respond by standing