Good Friday – Easter 2025

The prophet Isaiah writes, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

He was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that has brought us peace, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, turned every one to his own way.

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Welcome all to our Good Friday service of worship and reflection.

You're welcome here if you're new or visiting.

My name is Mark.

I'm one of the leaders here at City.

The service tonight will be a mixture of hymns followed by readings followed by pieces of reflection based around the cross of the Lord Jesus and in particular around the seven words spoken from the cross by Jesus as he died.

Various people will be coming up to bring those words and then to read those reflection pieces on announced.

And if you're wondering, well, how do I participate in the service?

Well, when we're when we're singing, we would invite you to stand.

And when uh we're reading, you can uh take your seats again.

I would invite you though to remain seated for this first song, which is offered to you as a uh as a reflection piece as we begin our time together and as we uh still our hearts and focus our minds on the cross of the Lord Jesus.

The first word from the cross is recorded for us in Luke chapter 23, verses 32 to 34.

Luke 23:32–34

Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him.

And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.

And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

The word of the Lord.

Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheap jacks wears.

The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the constellations of religion are thrown away at cut prices.

Grace is represented as the church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits.

Grace without price, grace without cost.

The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance, and because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing.

Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite.

What would grace be if it were not cheap?

Chief grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession, chief grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field.

For the sake of it, a man will go and sell all that he has.

It is a pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods.

It is the kingly will of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble.

It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.

It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.

It is costly because it condemns sin.

And grace because it justifies the sinner.

Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his son.

He reported a price.

And what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.

Above all, it is grace, because God did not reckon his son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.

Costly grace is the incarnation of God.

The second word from the cross is recorded for us in Luke chapter 23, verse 39 to 43.

Luke 23:39–43

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ?

Save yourself and us.

But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.

And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And he said to him, Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

The word of the Lord.

The thief who near the Savior hung in death, how happy he was answered when his dying tongue said, Lord, remember me.

My sins are no less black than those which brought them to the tree.

No thought can give my heart repose, but Lord, remember me.

When Jesus died, there's lots of stink, like the enraged be, and I may now address my king, with Lord, remember me.

I take my pattern from the teeth.

I have no other plea.

For I of sinners am the chief, then Lord remember me.

The lamp upon his glorious throne, as newly slain I see, and trust he will not those disown who plead remember me.

I went before him face to face, I bow my thankful knee, in joyful strains, I'll praise his grace, who now remembers me.

The third word from the cross is recorded for us in John 19, 25 to 27.

But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold, your son.

Then he said to the disciple, Behold, your mother.

And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home, the word of the Lord.

She stood where shadow met the tree.

The wood was dark, the sky gone dim, her sun above, the world beneath.

The sword had found its path through him.

He saw her eyes through blood and pain, and saw beside her, grief worn, still, the one he loved, the faithful friend, two hearts aligned to bear God's will.

Behold, he said, your son, your mother, words not of death, but life begun.

Even as nails held heaven down, love's final gift was gently done.

And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloy, Eloi Lama Sabaktani, which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And some of the bystanders hearing it said, Behold, he is calling Elijah.

This is a depth into which the soul of man must dive, but it can never fathom.

This is a fire into which the spirit must enter, but it can never be consumed.

Here we have the cry of the great substitute, as he bore our sins in his own body on the tree.

He who had who had always been in the bosom of the Father, now felt a separation such as we cannot imagine.

Yet it was real.

The penalty of sin was being paid in full, and the horror of being forsaken by God was part of that dreadful price.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

The words are full of mystery, but they are also rich with comfort.

If our Lord suffered this forsaking, it was so that his people would never have to cry such a cry.

Because he was forsaken, we are accepted.

Because he was cast off, we are brought in.

Because he bore our judgment, we stand justified before God.

This is not the cry of despair, but the cry of substitution.

Jesus knew why he was forsaken, yet he bore it that we might never be forsaken.

Oh, what love is this.

The fifth word from the cross is recorded for us in John 19, 28-29.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, To fulfill the scripture, I thirst.

A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch, and held it to his mouth.

The word of the Lord.

Philosophers have measured mountains, fathomed the depths of seas of states and kings, walked with the staff to heaven, and traced fountains.

There are two vast, spacious things, the which to measure it doth more behove, yet few there are that sound sin and love.

Who would know sin, let him repair, unto Mount Olive, there shall he see a man so wrung with pains that all his hair, his skin, his garments bloody be.

Sin is that press and vice which forceth pain, to hunt his cruel food through every vein.

Who knows not love, let him essay, and taste that juice which on the cross a pike did set again a brooch.

Then let him say, If ever he did taste the like, love is that liquor, sweet and most divine, which my God feels as blood, but I as wine.

The sixth word from the cross is recorded for us in John chapter 19, verse thirty.

John 19 · chapter mention

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished.

And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Truly, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

Woman, behold your son.

Son, behold your mother.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

I thirst.

It is finished.

The words that we've considered uh so far tonight it's amazing the the weight that they carry, isn't it?

You think of those those first three.

There's such self-disregard.

I think at any moment when a person might be thinking about what they themselves are going through, it would be the moment of crucifixion and yet not so.

Not so with Jesus.

And that tells us something of what the cross is about, doesn't it?

That in that event he would pray for others.

That he would offer assurance to a sinner that he might look at in love and provide for his mother.

Words full of love, full of compassion, full of grace.

But it falls to me to reflect briefly on this penultimate word.

One word really word tetalesti.

It is finished.

People are sometimes tempted to look at the death of Jesus and see it as a great example.

Something of sacrificial love to seek in some small way to try and emulate.

Tetaleste doesn't let us stop there.

It says that the cross is much more than that.

The cross achieved something.

Jesus did not cry out in defeat, I am finished, but cried out in victory.

It is accomplished.

The cross achieved something.

What did it achieve?

Tetalestai, it is finished.

Means promises capped.

We've all been let down, haven't we?

Maybe even recently.

Been let down by people.

We've made commitments, not followed through.

We've waited only to find ourselves disappointed.

But Tetalestii means that God keeps his promises.

At the cross, God was keeping his promises to us.

God had prepared humanity for this moment.

He had pointed to it, foreshadowed it, predicted it.

He promised it to Eve on that dark and dreadful day, that one day one would come who would crush the head of that serpent.

He promised that God would provide a ram in the place of Isaac, Abraham's son.

He promised that the angel of death would pass over when he saw the blood of the lamb painted on the lintel and doorposts in Egypt.

The prophet Isaiah, as we read at the start of our gathering, spoke of a servant king who would suffer in the place of his people, who by his wounds we would find healing.

And through the prophet Jeremiah, God told us of a day when he would make our hearts new.

Good Friday is the culmination and climax of all of these promises.

It is why we call it good.

God acting in history to keep his promises, to save his people with the costly grace of his own son.

It is finished.

Means promises kept.

It is finished.

Means price paid.

Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, found no guilt in Jesus, washed his hands famously of his innocent blood.

Yet Christ died and cried at the end, it is finished.

Why?

Because he paid a price not for his own sin, but for yours and mine.

The truth is that our sin separates us from the God who made us.

It alienates us from him and from one another.

It puts us under his judgment and rightly condemns us.

Death is the consequence for all those who reject the life that he offers.

But at the cross, Christ takes that death, takes that judgment, takes that condemnation in our place.

He dies for us, for our sin.

Not like a lamb that would be sacrificed year on year, week on week, month on month, day after day, but once for all.

And so we can sing that old hymn before the throne of God above and say that God indeed was pleased to punish him and to pardon us.

Not only does Christ take our sin, but gloriously he gives us the blessing of his perfect life.

At the cross we find ourselves no longer guilty but righteous, no longer orphaned, but adopted, no longer ashamed, but cleansed, no longer slaves, but free sons and daughters of the living God.

It is finished.

Means price paid.

It is finished.

Means path opened.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they were sent away from the garden.

Humanity doomed to wander.

And we've been a wandering ever since.

Some of you are still wandering tonight.

Our way back to the presence of God was barred back then by that flaming sword.

Do you remember the story?

That flaming sword that God set in place that turned every way, that guarded the way back to the presence of God.

The only way back to him was to go under the sword.

On the cross.

Jesus goes under the sword of God's judgment in order that he might open that glorious way for us.

Mark and his gospel tells us that when Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn into.

That curtain that guarded the way to the most holy place, the very epicenter of God's presence on earth, that curtain was rent asunder.

But that curtain that said, keep out, was done away with.

God does not look at us and say, keep out.

He does not say stay away.

He looks at us in spite of all we have done, in all that we might regret or be ashamed of, and says, Come home.

The way is open.

He is the way.

He has done all that is necessary to be forgiven and to have new life with him.

It is finished, means that there is nothing required from us.

He has done it all.

He invites us to receive it as a gift of his grace.

By placing our faith and trust in him.

By saying, Jesus, you died for me.

Help me to trust you.

It is finished, means not trusting ourselves to work off the debt of our sin or to try and get God on our good side.

It means trusting Jesus alone, resting in that finished work, rejoicing in the salvation that was won for us today.

That is what we gather to remember.

One word tetalesti.

It is finished.

Promises kept.

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