Good Friday - Satan's Greatest Triumph or God's Greatest Victory? - Holy Week

Hey, I'm Steve Holt, the senior pastor of The Road at Chapel Hills.

This is the Road Podcast.

Thanks for joining us.

My heart is to empower you to change the world.

I hope this message impacts you.

If you have your Bible, would you turn to Matthew 27?

And here on Good Friday, I'm entitling this Satan's Greatest Triumph or God's Greatest Victory.

Satan's Greatest Triumph or God's Greatest Victory?

Matthew 27, starting at verse 45.

Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land.

And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabbatani, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, This man is calling for Elijah.

Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed, and offered it to him to drink.

The rest said, Let him alone.

Let us see if Elijah will come to save him.

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and he yielded up his spirit.

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earthquaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

And coming out of the graves, after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, Truly, this was the Son of God.

So, Father God, here this morning, may the word of God come alive in our hearts.

Lord, I pray that this would not be just an intellectual worship service based on tradition, but would be a heartfelt revival based on the power of God.

And so, God, speak to us in a profound way this afternoon for your glory.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Look at verse 45 again.

It says, Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land.

Now, if you go back and you read the rest of the chapter before this and leading up to this, we're picking this up really about noon.

So Jesus was crucified at 9 a.m., the third hour.

And at noon, the sixth hour is where we pick it up, and then there are three hours before he dies, from 6 to 9 p.m.

And it says that darkness covered the earth.

And all the synoptic gospels agree with this.

So Matthew, Mark, and Luke all say that darkness covered the land.

And in the Bible, darkness always symbolizes evil.

It always symbolizes Satan.

So the twin sisters of the power of Satan is darkness and Satan himself at work.

And so Satan is about to have his three hours of glory.

The life giver is giving his life.

And here's what's amazing about the whole thing is this is Satan's greatest moment.

Jesus predicted it, though.

Jesus prophesied.

He knew everything that was happening.

It was all set up by the Father.

Six months before, Jesus has been prophesying of his death.

Jesus prophesied the exact day.

Says in Matthew 26, you know that after two days in the Passover, the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.

Jesus prophesied that he will be killed as a woman anoints his head with oil just a few days before.

At the Last Supper together, Jesus predicts he will be betrayed.

Jesus prophesies of his crucifixion.

And in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus, knowing his torturers are coming, agonizes with the Father about whether this cup might proceed away from him.

But he accepts God's will.

And then as the Romans enter the garden, he says this When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize me.

But this is your hour.

This is your hour and the power of darkness.

Luke 22, 53.

So Satan has three hours of fame.

Noon till 3 p.m., darkness covers the earth.

Did it cover the whole earth?

I don't know.

Maybe it did.

But the reality is that at that point, all the authors, Josephus and others, secular historians say darkness covered the earth.

We don't know if it was an eclipse of the sun, we don't know, but this is the way Satan works.

Satan always brings darkness.

And sometimes he actually uses physical, he seems to be given power by the Father to have power over even the physical universe.

Satan is ruling the earth for three hours.

Darkness and death are his.

He's been given liberty by God the Father to rule over God the Son.

To him to see Jesus maimed and beaten by men, probably with laughter.

All the cruelty and the hatred of men is heaped upon Jesus.

In the movie The Passion, Satan is depicted as an eerie, dark, androgynous figure.

You see him kind of cryptically moving in the back as Jesus is being beaten beyond recognition.

All the evil, all the divisiveness, all the anger and the cruelty and the agony of darkness is heaped upon Jesus for these hours.

Six hours.

Jesus says, This is your hour.

And the power of darkness is given to him.

And some of you feel that way.

Some of you here at the sound of my voice, some of you that are streaming may feel like that the hour of darkness is upon you.

It might have been a really, really tough year or two.

I don't think I've ever seen in my lifetime our whole earth, the whole globe, so constrained by so much evil.

Never has there been such an attack on our liberties and our freedoms as there is today with the church doing so little to combat it.

It is amazing to me that the liberty giver, the one who says that he came to set the captives free, hasn't inspired more of the church to stand for the righteousness, peace, and joy of the kingdom of God that we so believe in.

And yet that's what happened, and I think you need to remember that, that's exactly what happened on that infamous Friday, some 2,000 years ago.

God was still working out his plan.

And right now, God is working out his plan through COVID, through all the stuff that's happening in our country and around the world, from the World Economic Forum to the stealing and the ripping off of our liberties, God is at work.

And he is moving.

And there is a Sunday coming.

But right now it's Friday.

Right now it's Friday.

Verse 46.

About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice.

So this is about 3 p.m., saying, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabbatani, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And this is why we chose 1 o'clock in the afternoon.

Was because we wanted you to come in to a little bit of a symbolic sense or feeling of what the people might have felt, not just at Calvary, not just at those that were there and saw what happened, but all across the Palestine area and maybe even worldwide, there was darkness upon the land.

Jesus feels forsaken.

Some of those who stood there when they heard that said, This man is calling for Elijah.

They're confused about what's happening.

Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed, and offered it to him in a drink.

The rest said, Let him alone.

Let us see if Elijah will come and save him.

So they're still looking for like signs and wonders.

They want to see a sign and a wonder.

They want to see him come off and suddenly be alive, and power of God show up through maybe Elijah, who's been forecast in Scripture to come back in the last days.

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and he yielded up his spirit.

So he died.

And Jesus quotes Psalm 22.

Some have called Psalm 22 the fifth gospel.

Read Psalm 22 sometime.

It's a powerful Psalm.

And Jesus uses the lament of David as he cries out and breathes his last.

And the weight of the sin of the world, the weight of the sin of all of you in this room, has fallen upon him.

Jesus has become our sin bearer.

Isaiah prophesied some 700 years before of the coming Messiah, Isaiah 53.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

He has put him to grief.

When you make his soul an offering for sin, he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many.

In 2 Corinthians we read, For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

All our jealousy, all our manipulation, all of our pride, all of our lust, it all fell upon Jesus.

It's not fair.

But it was God's justice court.

Guess what, men and women, you can't free yourself from you.

You're messed up.

I'm messed up.

And born into sin.

I can't change that sinful side of me.

My heart is unrighteous in all its ways.

And that's why we have to be born again.

To get a new heart.

And to get a new spirit from God.

You have, you that are believers in this room, you have a new heart.

You have a new spirit.

You can change now because of what happened on Friday.

Because of what happened at Calvary, because of what Jesus did, you can be transformed.

You do not have to settle for a half-baked life built on selfishness and self-esteem.

You can be built on surrender to Christ and God esteem with a faith that he puts in you that can see miracles happen.

It all fell upon him.

He became sin, he felt our sin.

In some mysterious way, he felt all of the world's sin.

Jesus has become the Passover Lamb.

He's now a sinner.

And God, in some mysterious way, has to turn his head away from his son because he has taken on our sin.

A poet expressed it beautifully.

Oh, the mystery of his mercy, unguessed depths of matchless grace.

Christ became that which he hated, while God turned away his face.

Turned in wrath from his beloved, hanging there upon the tree, strangely changed and strangely bearing all the sins of you and me.

Angels dared not look upon him, but averted stricken eyes, seeing not the Lord of glory, but a bleeding sacrifice.

Through the circling endless ages, such a sight had never been.

He, the spotless Lamb of heaven, Christ the Lord, becoming sin.

So what happened on Good Friday?

I mean, that's really the question.

Why is it Good Friday?

What's so good about that Friday?

What happened on that Friday that set in motion what happened on that Sunday?

Verse 51 gives us a glimpse, gives us a hint.

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

And the earthquaked, and the rocks were split.

And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

And coming out of the graves after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

I mean, that's bizarre.

That's like three of the most important verses in Scripture.

Jesus passes into eternity.

He enters the fourth dimension, he enters the spiritual world.

The scriptures tell us that he entered paradise at the very moment that he yielded up his spirit.

Luke records that there were two criminals, one on his right and one on his left, and they get in this big argument right before Jesus dies, in which one, in a kind of despicable, prideful way, jeers at Jesus, but then the other criminal has an interesting conversation with Jesus.

Luke 23, we read, but the other thief, answering, rebuked him, saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing that you're under the same condemnation?

And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.

But this man has done nothing wrong.

Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And then Jesus said to him, Assuredly I say to you, today, today you'll be with me in paradise.

Today, Jesus enters paradise.

He's passed through the pain and the agony, he's now entering paradise.

And you may know the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke chapter 16.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

Because the rabbinic understanding of paradise at that time was that there was a great chasm.

And on one side of the chasm were the righteous, and on the other side of the chasm were the unrighteous.

And they could see each other.

And if you remember the story of Lazarus and the rich man, it's not a parable.

It's a real story.

And so Lazarus is a beggar.

Remember that story?

Lazarus is the beggar, and the rich man is the one who's like entranceway into his house, always saw him there.

And then Lazarus dies, and then the rich man dies.

But they can see each other.

The difference is Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham.

He's in paradise, and the rich man is not, and they can see each other, and they begin this conversation about Jesus or someone going back and telling his brothers about the situation that he's in.

So Jesus enters that.

I believe Jesus entered that paradise.

He entered into that situation.

Hell can be seen, Hades can be seen on one side, demons can see what's going on on one side, and Jesus comes to the righteous.

And this is what Paul means in Ephesians, when he said, He ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and he gave gifts to men.

And then it says, parenthetically, now this he ascended, what does it mean, but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?

He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.

Now here's the deal.

He hasn't ascended officially yet.

We're at the descended part.

The ascended part is going to begin on Sunday.

Jesus descended into Hades, and he took the keys of sin and death away from Satan.

So, secondly, Jesus took the keys of sin and death away from Satan.

Revelation 1.18.

I am he who lives and was dead.

And behold, I'm alive forevermore.

Amen.

And I have the keys of Hades and of death.

Jesus marches into paradise, church.

And he says, I'll take those keys right now.

And he takes those keys away.

He takes the keys of death.

He takes the keys of hell away from Satan.

He is walking in victory, you guys, in paradise, and every demon down there can see him.

And he's supposed to be dead-dead.

But he's alive.

Fully alive.

Then, behold, what does it say?

The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

No man could have done that.

It's torn from top to bottom as he enters paradise.

Jesus opened the way into the presence of God.

The curtain of separation between us and God through religion has been torn down.

No man could have done this.

Jesus did it, and the Holy of Holies, Church, has been opened up to us.

You can now, every time you pray, every time you open your Bible and you see God, you can enter into the presence of God.

The presence of God is here right now.

Did you feel it?

The presence of God is here right now.

And when you worship, the presence of God shows up.

When you pray, the presence of God shows up.

When you read God's word, the presence of God shows up in your heart and in your family and in your house.

That's why I've always said it's the introduction to my book on the Godwell marriage.

Listen, I believe this to be true, that the greatest breakthrough that you can have in your marriage is to learn to pray together.

It's like breaking the sound barrier, man.

Because it's really hard for guys to do.

We don't like to pray out loud.

And it's hard.

But learning to pray together, here's what it does: it invites the presence of God because the veil has been ripped down.

It is open now, and we have access into the Holy of Holies.

The Bible says, therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us now draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

We can draw near to God because of the blood of Jesus shed at Calvary.

And then it says, many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

Now I don't know why, there isn't more talk about that.

That's pretty weird, man.

I mean, Uncle Jeremiah or Auntie.

Deborah.

They just show up and they're hungry and they want to eat.

And you're like, what man, you died like 15 years ago.

What is going on?

I mean, when Jesus entered paradise, gang, the veil was torn.

Opening up the presence of God.

And it's my belief that the earthquake was the cataclysmic power encounter that happened between satanic forces in Hades and hell and Jesus Christ entering in to bring a new way.

That's hot stuff right there.

That's good stuff right there.

Jesus is the first resurrection.

It's a picture of a day coming for all of us in this room.

If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you give in your heart and you're surrendered to Him, this is what's going to happen for you.

The Bible says, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.

Some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt.

The Bible says, but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.

He's the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

The Bible says, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice like an archangel, or with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Christ has triumphed in death.

So here we are.

It's Good Friday.

It's great Friday.

It's the darkness over the earth.

But in the spiritual realm, the light is coming.

And God is doing stuff during those three days, man.

He is on the move.

And then our passage concludes with this great verse.

Verse 54.

So when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, Truly, this was the Son of God.

And that's interesting to me, isn't it?

That a Roman soldier who may have played a part in the torture of Jesus is the first one to get it.

What's that?

I mean, the women are distraught, the disciples are cowards, and a Roman soldier gets it first.

You know what that says to me?

That says, sometimes the worst sinners make the greatest saints.

Sometimes the people who've done the most horrendous things, the worst things, the things that they are hampered with guilt and scars on their heart for the things they've done, sometimes make the most dynamic and powerful Christians because they know they're forgiven and nobody else could forgive them, and they know that better than anybody else.

And he got it.

Isn't that good news?

That's good news.

And you know, that's part of what we do here at The Road, and this is what I do in having this Road Podcast is to empower people to change their world.

My passion and desire is that you would take God's word through the power of the Holy Spirit and make that relevant for your life.

You know, the reality is that God has placed your life here on this earth to make a difference.

And if you'd like more information about how to grow in Christ, if you need prayer, if you want more equipping in different areas of your life, go to theroad.org.

God bless you.