A Good Friday Services/Sermon in Longview 22.04.2011

May the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us this evening and always. Let us pray.

Righteous God, our dear Heavenly Father, we come before you this Good Friday evening with hearts of prayer and hearts of thanksgiving. First, thanking you for your Son who we remember today and as we sang in the opening hymn, how He gave His life for our sins. Dear Father, we pray that You would keep us as Your children. Open the work of Good Friday to us for the strengthening of our faith, the encouragement, and the calling for all to repentance.

We also pray as the songwriter writes, Jesus, friend, to You I call. Help me. I am still so small. Bless my night and bless my day as I sleep and as I play. Jesus, in my home today, shield my mom and dad, I pray. As I live and as I grow, bless the seed my parents sow. Jesus, in my sinfulness, I need help, I do confess. Let my daily walk be so that to heaven's home I go.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

For our study, we'll read from the 15th chapter of the Gospel of St. Mark, starting with the 24th verse and reading to the 39th verse. And the words are in Jesus' name.

"And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. And it was the third hour and they crucified him. And the superscription of his accusation was written over, 'The King of the Jews.' And with them they crucified two thieves, the one on his right hand and the other on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, 'And he was numbered with the transgressors.' And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads and saying, 'Ah, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself and come down from the cross.' Likewise, also the chief priests mocking said unto themselves with the scribes, 'He saved others, himself he cannot save. Let Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross that we may see and believe.' And they that were crucified with him reviled him.

And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,' which is being interpreted, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' And some of them that stood by when they heard it said, 'Behold, he calleth Elias.' And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink, saying, 'Let alone, let us see whether Elias will come to take him down.' And Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God.'"

Amen.

We have just sang and we have just heard, read part of the events of Good Friday about 2,000 years ago. A familiar happening, one that was predicted from the very beginning of the Bible, and one, when we read, we understand so little. But yet, the songwriter writes about the death of Jesus in the familiar communion song in a, maybe we could say, interesting way.

The death of Jesus Christ, our Lord, we celebrate with one accord. Here on this solemn day, we remember the death of Jesus. But yet, the songwriter says, we celebrate the death of Jesus Christ, our Lord. We celebrate with one accord. And why? Because it is our comfort in distress, our hearts, we joy and happiness.

So this event that is, if you read from the Gospels, a very almost heart-wrenching tale, each writing a little bit different as they remembered, as they witnessed, and as they were told. But all showing how He suffered much physical punishment. He was beaten. He was mocked. And He hung from the cross here, we can see for from the third hour to the ninth hour according to our text, six hours, and finally gave up the ghost.

How can this be? And what does it mean to us? Maybe it's a thing that is the most easy for children to understand simply through faith. Not with the mind of man cannot comprehend. But only through faith can we hold on to this belief that Jesus died for our sins and He needed to be crucified to save us from our sins.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God."

This crucifixion was already told about many years prior. The Old Testament prophets saw through the eyes of faith, especially one recount of Isaiah, how so many years before he portrayed and pictured what would happen. Through eyes of faith he saw and he believed. And this was counted for righteousness.

Our text in the beginning talks about Jesus' garments. It says John in his gospel explains this a little bit in more detail about this taking of his garments. It says, "They said therefore among themselves, then the soldiers when they had crucified Jesus took his garments and made four parts to every soldier a part. And also his coat. Now the coat was without seam woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be."

So Jesus' last possessions, his clothes, were divided among the soldiers. But this coat that he wore was a coat without seam. And when they noticed this, instead of breaking it into pieces, they decided that this coat could not be broken. And they cast lots for it.

This is the picture of the robe of righteousness. How have you, dear brother and sister, got your robe of righteousness? And what is this robe of righteousness?

Isaiah wrote in his 61st chapter, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decked himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels."

This robe of righteousness is a precious robe that each has received, not from their own good works, their own merits, but simply by a lot. You have drawn the fortunate lot that you can own that robe of righteousness. This pure robe that is a picture of the works of Jesus. This robe that when you believe your sins forgiven is a pure robe washed white as snow in the blood of the Lamb.

How fortunate we are. We can simply thank God our Heavenly Father that he has prepared through his Son Christ this robe.

Zachariah also saw how the high priest Joshua was clothed in filthy raiment and how he was instructed that this raiment would be taken from him and he would be given clean clothes.

I'm sure you children remember many times when you have gone to play in the water, the mud, forest, wherever, and your parents have told you to be careful especially when you have dressed up, let's say for church, and you have lots of energy and you'd like to go play but mom and dad have said, "Hey, be careful, you're going to get your clothes dirty." And sometimes it has happened that you have slipped and fell and your clothes have become dirty.

What happens then when those clothes become dirty? Haven't we gone to mother and asked for mother to clean our clothes, to wash our clothes, or even like Joshua to change our clothes, to put on clean clothes again?

Dear children, do you know that you're also robed in another kind of clothing, clothing that you can't see with your eyes, with your temporal eyes, but you know it's clothing that you can see through eyes of faith? And this clothing is this robe of righteousness.

And as we travel in this life and we face the enemy, you know the enemy as the song says, "I am not too little," and many things about this it explains. One is, if I remember correctly, "I am not too little to know about the tempter, to experience sin, disobedience." This is like falling into that dirt when you are playing outside and you know if you leave that dirt on those clothes the dirt doesn't come off by itself. You need to go to mother and get help to wash it off.

You know this is also like our life of faith. We travel and we sin and we fall into sin each of us in different ways. In fact, we fall into sin in ways that we don't even know. But when we fall into sin we feel the sin on our conscience. It's so important to go to mother, the congregation of God, the believers, our mothers and fathers, our believing friends, and ask and believe and wash those sins away in the name and blood of Jesus.

Then our robe of righteousness, this spiritual robe that we drew by lot from God just as the soldiers here were drawing the lot by chance. Were you, dear child, able to pick where you would be born? Have you ever considered why? Why was I born into this family, into this location here in the area Longview, Washington? Were you able to choose this? But who chose it for you? God the Heavenly Father. And he also gave you this robe of righteousness.

And it said that this robe had no seam. If you look at your clothing you will see many places where someone has stitched the fabric and put it together, but this robe had no seam. It is the beautiful robe of righteousness.

The songwriter writes about this robe so preciously, "My gracious God, how I rejoice, you gave a robe so pure, acceptable in heaven's home toward which I sojourn."

Here it's this robe only that will be acceptable in heaven, this robe that comes from gracious and loving God. We are so fortunate to have this robe.

The songwriter continues, "I cannot fully see its worth. Sometimes we get some new clothes, I know, especially my daughters when they get some nice new clothes they are so happy, so pleased to show their new clothes. But this robe of righteousness is sometimes the same way. We carry it and we cannot always see its worth."

The songwriter says, "Nor praise it perfectly, but when through faith I see this robe, it shines in purity."

Through eyes of faith we can see it and then the songwriter explains what it looks like: "No blemish can be found thereon, nor anything defiled. No matter how corrupt I am in it, I am glorified."

Despite our sinfulness, our weakness, our poorness, our failings, our doubts and our fears, no matter how corrupt I am in it, I am glorified. It is not our goodness, dear brothers and sisters. It is not your goodness either, dear children, from the very youngest to the very oldest. We carry, as we say, so much flesh that's prone to sin. But when we can believe those sins forgiven, simply believe them forgiven, then we are in this robe of righteousness.

It is enough to save my soul. I care for naught beside it is the righteousness of Christ he purchased when he died. Christ's righteousness, Christ's robe, he purchased it for us.

Oh, how could I appear one day to stand before the throne if this great gift of blessedness were not for me to own? We would be hopeless without this robe of righteousness.

On the last day all will come before this judge Jesus Christ. The first time he came to earth in the lowly form and he submitted himself to the cruelty that we remember today, the punishment for our sins. But one day he will come as a righteous judge in power and in glory and all will need to come before him.

And those who do not have this robe of righteousness that is purchased and washed and blemish free in Jesus' blood will be, as Jesus writes, as Jesus said, cast into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

May the message of Good Friday yet call those who are on the outside of God's kingdom. May you, dear lost one, open your heart to receive today the message of Easter.

We pray that this work of Christ firstly would not be in vain for us, that we could personally own this robe of righteousness. We also pray that it could touch you, dear friend, who are on the outside of this kingdom, you who find that you are not partaker of this great gift, you who have maybe as a prodigal one lost this robe of righteousness.

How will you stand on the last day before the righteous judge Jesus Christ? But yet it is still day. It is still time of life for you. The call comes out to you from God's kingdom: come repent and believe the gospel. Be encouraged to believe all sins forgiven in Jesus' name and blood, and even the greatest sin of unbelief can be forgiven, can be believed forgiven through this proclaim gospel from God's kingdom.

But may this robe be never touched by merits of my own. May Jesus always help us all to live by grace alone.

Dear brothers and sisters, we have nothing to offer to God our heavenly Father. Psalm writer writes that God looked down from heaven to see the works of men, to see if anyone do good. He concluded that no, not one, but all have fallen short of the glory of God. We have nothing to offer. It's totally alone by faith, alone by grace alone, by the merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Christ, oh Jesus Christ, we praise your name. You died and rose for us. We praise you for the righteousness you purchased on the cross.

The death of Jesus Christ our Lord we celebrate with one accord. We can celebrate because Jesus gave his life on our behalf.

And those that saw him, they teased him and taunted him. They told him, "Save thyself and come down from the cross." Likewise also the chief priests mocking said unto themselves with the scribes, "He saved others, himself he cannot save. Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross that we may see and believe." And they that were crucified with him reviled him.

There our Lord and Savior stood alone carrying the pain in the flesh, nailed to the cross, bleeding in pain and agony. But yet what weighed him even more was the sins of the entire world, sin.

If we pause for a moment to think how we feel when we have sinned, and even you children know, have experienced when you have been disobedient to your parents, when maybe you have got into a squabble with your friends, your brothers or sisters, how when we have fallen into sin we feel the sin weighs on us and it bothers us.

Now just think of Jesus. He carried not only those sins that we feel at that time but the sins of our whole lifetime and the sins of the entire world were weighing and pressing him down. But yet he wanted to fulfill, he wanted to fulfill all and to complete that perfect sacrifice on our behalf.

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Did God forsake Jesus? Isaiah writes about a mother: "Can a woman forget her suckling child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hand; thy walls are continuing before me."

So why did Jesus call, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" If we think about our child being in a situation where they are dying and if we had the power of the almighty God who created the entire world as we know it, created all things with his word, he could surely have easily helped his son off the cross.

But yet God loved us so that for a moment he did turn his gaze from his son and allowed him to suffer and finally die on the cross for our sins and for the sins of the whole world. And it is because he had compassion on us. He did not forget us. He did not forget the agreement he made with the son already in eternity that the son would come to save sin-fallen man.

We were more precious to Jesus and to God than was Jesus' own life.

And then Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.

The temple had two parts: a holy part and yet the most holy. And this most holy part was so holy that it was a veil separated it from the rest of the temple. And the high priest in the Old Testament would go into this most holy place as commanded by God once a year and to only go into this place, this most holy place, with blood to offer for his own sins and for the sins of the people.

Inside this most holy place among other things was the mercy seat of God, the mercy seat.

Now when Jesus died the veil was open. The veil was rent from top to the bottom.

Now was opened the most holy place for all of us. We all through Jesus' victory have access to the most holy place, the mercy seat, where we can receive and believe our sins forgiven.

Dear brother and sister, believe at this moment all sins forgiven in Jesus' name and blood. You have permission to go and dip from the fountains of grace to receive the washing of your sins.

And when the centurion which stood over against him saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God."

So Jesus had now died. The other gospel writers say how things happened, how some of the saints were walking around, the earth shook, and the centurion here noted that this truly was the Son of God.

But yet this knowledge of the happenings of Good Friday do not in any way save us but only by believing that Jesus died for our sins and through believing in this his perfect sacrifice we have access to the mercy seat where we can believe all our sins forgiven in Jesus' name and blood.

Only through faith can we hold this.

The fact that he died here on the cross was also fulfilled and told the Old Testament law would be for under the accusation that he had of blaspheming God would have been a death of stoning where he would have been stoned until death.

But yet he was crucified, hung on the cross where his blood flowed.

And John relates how the soldiers went to break the legs of those that were hanging on the cross so that they would finally die if there was any life left. And they broke the bones of the thieves but when they came to Jesus he was already dead.

And in this way he died on the cross with no broken bones. This is the picture of the body of Christ, this perfect body of Christ where is no break but is unified through the spirit.

And Paul writes and explains how we are members of this body: "For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body; so also is Christ."

So the body is not one member but many. "Now ye are the body of Christ and the members in particular."

This body of Christ, the kingdom of God, is a perfect one, one where all the members are needed and the I cannot say under the hand, "I have no need of thee," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

Much more than these members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable on these we bestow much more abundant honor.

And our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness, that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one for another.

And whether one member suffer, all members suffer; or if one member be honored, all members rejoice with it.

This body of Christ is the kingdom of God here on earth and all members play a role to as given by God to serve with the gifts that have been given to uplift, to encourage, and most importantly to preach the gospel, the gospel of the forgiveness of sins.

And this preciousness of the unity of the body of Christ also comes evident in this Good Friday happening where Jesus' body was not broken but there he died on the cross, his complete robe was drawn by lot and his body was not broken but he shed his blood on our behalf.

And it is this blood, this innocent blood of the perfect sacrifice that yet today may wash all sins away.

Be encouraged again this Good Friday. You little children, maybe disobediences have come, naughtiness and squabbling. You may believe all these forgiven in Jesus' name precious blood.

And to you youth, you young believers, also this is your hope of salvation. This innocent blood of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it is the power that will carry you to the destination. It is the power that you can hold close when the temptations of youth are pressing, when the draw of the world is close, when you feel the loss of your flesh.

Jesus also was a true man and also true God, our high priest. He felt the same temptations. He grew up from a child to an adult. He felt all the temptations that you feel. He was offered all the glory of the world, so he knows you. He knows how weak the flesh is.

And we have yet such a high priest who knows our infirmities and therefore we can boldly come to him in time of need. We can be free to ask for and believe the gospel.

Dear youth tonight, uplift your heart, simply uplift your heart to believe that all your sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and blood.

Also many parents have come this evening with small children. Jesus loved children and he encouraged the disciples to allow the children to come unto them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

Dear parents, continue to bring your children to the hearing of God's word and continue to accept children if God blesses into your life. Continue to believe also that your many failings, lackings even as a parent can be washed in the blood of the innocent lamb. Believe sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

Also to you older ones, grandmas and grandpas, you have heard the message of Easter and Good Friday for many years but yet the enemy would, I'm sure, come close to you as well even as the end is coming close and you wonder maybe will I have the strength to reach the destination.

That same gospel that has carried you to today will carry you forward. You may believe again, uplift your heart to believe all sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood. Be of good cheer.

And also to my friend, you who may find that you are not a partaker of this robe of righteousness, you do not own this perfect gift, the robe of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You are on the outside of this precious kingdom. You are not a member of the body of Christ.

To you also is offered this same loving call of Jesus. The call encourages you to believe, to simply believe all sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood and be of good cheer.

And to me also, dear brothers and sisters, I need to hear that same gospel for my weak faith, for my many sins and doubts on the journey. Can I yet believe? Together with you I wish to believe and travel with you and all God's children to that destination in heaven's home.

It pays to believe and may we remain believing and in his precious care. In Jesus' name, Amen.