Good morning, everyone.
My name is James, and I heard some troubling news recently.
The shops were all out of Easter eggs.
I know, there was groaning.
Thank you, Brian, for sharing my sympathies.
I was worried.
But don't worry.
I've got a way to fix it.
We're going to make our own Easter eggs today.
I looked up the recipe online,
and I've got all the ingredients I believe that we'll need.
So, the ingredients.
Now, I thought, when I was setting out to make Easter eggs,
not everybody can eat Easter eggs,
so we're going to have to just be a little bit careful with the ingredients.
But the things that I read is that you need sugar.
So I've got my sugar from home, just a little bit there.
You can tell my wife likes to do some baking.
There's cocoa butter.
Well, I don't actually know what that is,
but I've got buttery margarine spread, so that's close enough.
I've got full cream milk.
Full cream milk.
I actually have that.
That's good.
There's lecithin.
Does anybody know what lecithin is?
No, nobody knows what that is, so I didn't bring it,
because I actually don't have any.
It needs cocoa and vanilla.
Vanilla flavoring imitation.
Okay.
But I think one of the problems is a number of people in this world are trying to be healthy,
trying to be fit people, and so sugar doesn't really fit into the diet,
so I think we probably need to put this one back.
We're not going to make chocolate with sugar.
And dairy.
Is anybody allergic or intolerant to dairy?
Yeah.
No, I'll put this away.
I'll put this away for you.
Just for you, Aiden.
Okay.
So, okay.
Here we go.
I'm going to make chocolate out of these three ingredients.
And I'm definitely not going to make a mess.
Okay.
So we'll put a bit of...
How much cocoa powder?
Lots.
Thanks, Libby.
I'm so concerned now.
Okay.
There's a...
I don't know if you can see that on the camera.
Here we go.
Imitation flavoring.
I'm thankful for Queen.
You know, these guys do wonderful colors.
Again, lots?
I'm hearing loads.
Okay.
Drops.
How about a good splash?
There we go.
And this is going to taste great, isn't it?
This is going to be the best.
Who needs coals and woolies?
They're missing out.
I'll tell you what.
And then just a good...
Just mix that together.
Does anybody want to come try this?
It's not very good.
Now...
Oh, it's bitter.
There's no sugar in it.
Thank you.
I'm just going to...
Sorry.
In our search for the best chocolate,
something that everyone could have,
something that, you know,
people who are allergic to dairy
and who are trying to be healthy
and not eat sugar...
I've taken out some key ingredients.
I've watered it down so much
so that it's not good for anything.
It's not good for eating.
I've taken the stuff that's made it good.
I wonder, as we come to Easter and the cross,
has Easter been watered down?
Have we lost awe at Easter?
The fear and wonder of Jesus dying in our place.
And without fear and wonder,
Easter has lost its goodness to us.
We lose our fear of God.
We lose our need for Jesus.
We lose our wonder of God,
showing us His amazing grace,
and we end up chasing things that look wonderful.
Today is Good Friday.
And in the weeks leading up to Easter,
we've been looking at Jesus' final days.
His last supper with His disciples,
the Garden of Gethsemane,
where He prepared to be crucified.
And we've seen that awe that we need to have in God,
awe, the combination of fear and wonder.
And when we take away these two things,
just like taking away crucial ingredients,
it just ruins it,
and we're left with nothing good.
And so as we see the crucifixion of Jesus today,
we're going to see two types of responses.
We're going to see the wrong response
and then the right response
as we are called to have fear and wonder,
making up awe of God.
And the challenge for us today
as we seek to restore our awe of God
is to check that it's not a watered down,
sanitized version with the heart ripped out,
with those key ingredients of the crucifixion ripped out.
Let me pray for us as we have a look at Matthew 27.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.
We thank you for the chance to stop,
to gather as a church,
and to remember that your Son died for us.
Be with us today, Lord.
Remind us afresh of the fear and wonder that we have.
Lead us to have awe of you, Lord.
We ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
We're in Matthew 27.
Have your Bibles open, please.
And we're going to start by seeing the wrong responses to Jesus.
Firstly, we're going to see Pilate and his wife.
Pilate and his wife both respond to Jesus out of fear.
So from verse 19,
while Pilate was sitting on the judge's seat,
his wife sent him a message.
Don't have anything to do with that innocent man,
for I have suffered greatly in a dream because of him.
Pilate's wife suffered greatly in a dream.
We actually don't know any more details than this.
I'd really like to know those details.
We can fill it in.
But all we can say with confidence
is that she wanted Pilate to avoid Jesus
because he was innocent
and because she was afraid of suffering and more suffering.
So she's responding to Jesus out of fear.
Pilate himself, well, he didn't listen to his wife.
That was his first mistake.
But instead, motivated by his fear of the crowd,
again, he's fearful just like his wife.
He's motivated by fear.
Verse 20,
Verse 24,
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere,
but that instead an uproar was starting,
he took water.
He washed his hands in front of the crowd and said,
I am innocent of this man's blood.
He said, it is your responsibility.
Pilate was the governor of a city,
and he would be easily replaced
if this city turned into a riot,
if there was an uproar.
And so he calms it down
out of fear of his own position,
out of fear of an uproar.
He's operating from fear just like his wife.
And so Barabbas is released.
Jesus is sent to be flogged and crucified.
And the soldiers mock Jesus.
They dress him up.
They pretend that he is the king.
And they beat him.
Crucifixion is not enough
when you are an enemy of Rome.
You must be utterly humiliated.
He was humiliated so that those who knew him,
those who were associated with Jesus,
they would want to cut all ties.
The Pharisees,
those who were calling for Jesus to be killed,
they themselves are operating out of fear.
They were operating out of fear and self-interest.
They wanted Jesus dead because he was too radical.
He was countercultural.
He was teaching people
that they shouldn't be listening to the Pharisees,
that the Pharisees actually weren't following God.
And so the Pharisees were fearful of the changes
that Jesus wanted to bring,
to know a God who loved them.
And so they killed him.
And then,
when Jesus was hanging on that cross,
they mocked him further.
Verse 39,
those who passed by hurled insults at him,
shaking their heads and saying,
you who are going to destroy the temple
and build it in three days,
save yourself.
Come down from the cross.
If you are the son of God,
in the same way,
the chief priests,
the teachers of the law,
and the elders mocked him.
He saved others,
they said,
but he can't save himself.
He's the king of Israel.
Let him come down now from the cross
and we will believe in him.
He trusts in God.
Let God rescue him now if he wants him.
For he said,
I am the son of God.
The Pharisees rile up the crowd to mock Jesus
and they heap abuse on him.
And we see this build up
from a number of different people
of mocking responses,
of fearful responses leading to it.
But into this moment,
while Pilate,
while the Pharisees,
while the crowd are all against Jesus,
we see the right response.
We see that things just cannot stay as they are.
We see the heavens respond,
we see the earth respond,
and we see the right response to Jesus.
Verse 45,
From noon until three in the afternoon,
darkness came over the land.
The heavens respond to the son of God
dying on the cross.
Darkness comes across the land
as the people have been unable to see
that Jesus is the son of God.
It becomes literally dark
until Jesus cries out in his final moments.
Cries out to his father.
Alone,
his friends have all fled.
He's been betrayed,
and mocked,
abused,
spat on,
cursed.
But this moment,
this is what Jesus had come to do.
And in his death,
he defeats death.
And when he rises on Sunday,
he brings life.
Not only had the heavens closed over
with Jesus on the cross,
now the temple
that has a massive curtain in it,
the curtain is torn in two.
This curtain,
which was designed to separate God from people
and people from God,
because God is holy,
and only one person a year
could go into that innermost place
and come in with blood
because they were sinful.
Now that curtain is torn in two.
No sacrifice is ever needed again
because the sacrifice
has been laid on the cross.
That temple is defunct.
Its job is done
because Jesus,
in his death,
has defeated death.
Verse 51,
the earth shook,
the rocks split,
and the tombs broke open.
The bodies of many people
who had died
were raised to life.
They came out of the tombs
after Jesus' resurrection
and went into the holy city
and appeared to many people.
The heavens respond
by closing over
and becoming dark.
The earth responds
by shaking.
Shaking so much so
that these tombs
open up
and Jesus,
in his death,
defeats death
and people who were dead
come back to life.
Jesus had previously
raised people to life,
but even in his death,
the doors of death
are broken open
and people are brought back to life.
dead people
are coming back to life.
The temple is torn in two.
Jesus' death
has shifted everything.
And two small groups of people,
two small groups of people,
see and understand
what's happened.
verse 55,
many women were there
watching from a distance.
They'd followed Jesus
from Galilee
to care for his needs.
Among them were Mary Magdalene,
Mary,
the mother of James and Joseph,
and the mother
of Zebedee's sons.
Despite all the men
running away,
these women
have remained faithful.
They've seen Jesus
in his power
and in his humility.
And they will see him
in his resurrection
and they will be the first
to proclaim the gospel.
And there's one other group,
one other small group
who has the right response,
who sees Jesus
for who he is.
Verse 54,
when the centurion
and those with him
who were guarding Jesus
saw the earthquake
and all that had happened,
they were terrified.
And they exclaimed,
surely he was
the son of God.
The centurion
and those guarding him.
Well, these are the soldiers
of Pilate
under Pilate's control.
These are the soldiers
who had taken Jesus
from Pilate,
those who had beaten
and mocked him,
those who had pretended
he was the king.
Something rocks them
to their core.
When they saw
what had happened,
they were terrified.
Terror,
absolute terror.
We have killed him.
We've killed the son of God.
We are the ones
who put Jesus to death.
What's going to happen to us?
We've seen the heavens
close over.
We've seen the tombs open up.
Is God going to strike us
down where we stand?
And they exclaim,
surely he was
the son of God.
They have
a terrified response
of fear,
but they also respond
with wonder.
Surely he was
the son of God.
They see in his death
no ordinary execution.
The sun had darkened,
the earth had shook,
it was no ordinary power.
They hadn't heard
from an angel
or a prophet,
but they had seen
God's power
in Jesus
on the cross.
And these people
had awe.
the centurion,
the soldiers.
They had this combination
of fear and wonder.
Fear because they realized
what they had done.
But wonder because
what they had heard
about Jesus
was right all along.
He is the son of God.
Awe is fear and wonder.
And at Easter this year,
we run the risk
of missing out
on these two key ingredients
to seeing
who Jesus is.
There's two things,
awe and wonder.
When you take away one,
you lose awe.
And you lose the heart
of the good news
of Jesus' death
on the cross.
Because the good news
of Easter
is a combination
of these two,
fear and wonder.
God is right
to punish us.
We are right
to fear God,
fear Him for our sin,
for our rebellion.
But we don't need
to fear Him.
Because in His
great love for us,
His son died
in our place.
And so we can wonder
at His amazing love
for us.
When we lose
the fear of God,
we lose the awareness
of our sin.
My sin,
my mistakes,
the people I hurt,
they just become
something to move on from.
I'm not going to dwell
in my mistakes.
I'm not going to consider
that I could be at fault.
I'm just going to move on.
I'm going to hope
I don't get cancelled.
As long as my sin
isn't on a big stage
slapping someone
in front of an
international audience,
I can be guaranteed
I can escape
the repercussions
of my own sin.
I can hide
from my issues.
I can be known
as a good person.
I'm a good guy.
Unless I actually
ask those closest to me.
Or even ask the God
who knows me best.
In the current
political climate
as we head towards
an election,
reporters
and politicians
on all sides
are pulling up
the dirt of the past
and saying,
look at this.
This person's terrible.
Look at their sin.
But can you imagine
someone doing that
to you?
Actually looking through
all the people
you'd hurt,
all of your sin,
all of your
innermost
darkened thoughts
and bringing them
to the light of day.
I'm pretty fearful
of that actually happening.
That would be terrifying.
Terrifying for
you to know
actually what I'm like.
I'm so thankful
for my God
who knows who I am
and yet loves me.
God sees
all of who we are.
He knows
how darkened
and terrible
our hearts are
and we can pretend
it's fine.
We can hide
from that
but the right response
is like the centurions
to be terrified
before God
but also
not to stay there.
To move
to wonder
that He would
forgive.
When we lose
wonder
at God's
amazing love
we're just left
with fear
and so
we can seek
all kinds
of other remedies
to make us feel better.
I'm just left
with fear
so I'm going
to chase success
to bring wonder.
I'm going to
deal with
these issues
of fear
that I have
so I'm going
to make myself
successful
or I'm going
to escape.
I'm going
to chase
being wonderful
because there is
nothing wonderful
in life
other than God
and yet God
says be in awe
of me.
Be fearful
because of who you are
but wonder
because of my
amazing grace
for you.
The cross
is the centerpiece
of Christianity.
When we lose
the importance
of Easter
when we lose
both the fear
and the wonder
it just all
falls apart
and it can just
leave a bitter taste
in our mouth.
And so what
we're going
to do right now
we're going
to seek
to restore
our awe
of God.
We're going
to do both
of those things.
We're going
to sit
in fear
of God
and we're
going
to sit
in wonder
and praise
of God.
We're going
to come
to a time
of the Lord's
Supper now
and we're going
to in a moment
say a confession
together,
celebrate the Lord's
Supper
and then we are
going to stand
and sing praise
and be in wonder
for our God.
So a confession
is going to come
up on the screen.
Let's say
this confession
together.
Almighty God,
Father of our
Lord Jesus
Christ,
you made
all things
and you call
everyone to
account.
With shame
we confess
the sins
we have
committed
against you
in thought,
word and
deed.
We rightly
deserve your
condemnation.
we turn
from our
sins
and are
truly sorry
for them.
They are
a burden
we cannot
bear.
Have mercy
on us,
most merciful
Father,
for the sake
of your
Son,
our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Forgive us
all that is
past.
Let me
continue.
We're going
to continue
now.
I will
say the
unbolded
words and
we'll say
the bold
words together.
Lift up
your hearts.
We lift
them to
the Lord.
Let us
give thanks
to the
Lord our
God.
He is
worthy
of all
praise.
And we
pray you
are worthy
our Lord
and God
to receive
glory and
honour and
power.
For you
created all
things and
by your
will they
existed and
were created.
Therefore
with all
those gathered
around your
throne in
heaven,
we lift
our voices
to praise
you saying
together,
holy,
holy is
the Lord
God
almighty,
who was
and is
to come.
We praise
you especially
for your
son, our
saviour Jesus
Christ,
who by his
death on
the cross
and rising
to new
life,
offered the
one true
sacrifice for
sin and
obtained an
eternal
deliverance for
his people.
Together,
worthy is
the lamb
who was
slain to
receive praise
and honour
and glory
and power
forever and
ever.
Amen.