Good Friday Service!
Introduction:
A. Black
Friday is defined as the day after Thanksgiving,
when the Christmas
shopping season begins! Today is
called Good
Friday!
B. For me, this day could more appropriately be
called
Black Friday!
A.
This is the blackest, darkest day in the
Christian year. It is the day Christ was
crucified on the cross!
Trans.
I want to look tonight at the
cross and what it stands
for!
Prayer
Mark 15:1-39
I. It stands for that Cross upon
which Jesus was crucified.
A. It wasn't a very pretty cross as the ones we
have to symbolize it usually are!
B. It was a couple crude logs or possible hewn
timbers put together not for beauty but to drop in a hole and take
someone's life!
C. Think about what Christ went through!
1. He was beaten with tips of bone tied to strands of a whip (cat of 9 tails) within an inch of his life!
2. Then marched through town carrying his cross until
he fell under the load!
3. He was spit upon, hit, mocked, etc.
4. Spikes driven through his hands and feet.
5. Then the cross was Adropped@
in the ground for Jesus to die. Imagine the pain when they dropped the
cross in the ground after having been nailed to
it; that was part of the torture of death on a cross!
a. Do you know what a person dies from on the cross?
b. They hang there until their muscles get too tired,
and they collapse down on their lungs and smother to death!
c. When they wanted to get someone off the cross
before the Sabbath day, they would brake their legs so they couldn't push
up with them and this speeded them along to the
smothering process.
6. We know this isn't how Jesus died though
because
he died too
fast. The Roman soldier came out to
brake his legs,
but he was already dead.
7. Could Christ have died of a broken heart?
a. I think so!
b. He had never sinned. Yet he took on all the filth,
slime, and guilt of the world!
c. We know what guilt and stress does for us!
It brings us to
an early grave, but that's
just for
us! Isn't it?
d. Imagine the load that Christ was carrying!
e. He did it all because he knew in doing this
"he
could" make a way for us to be restored
to God!
II. What does the Cross mean to
us?
A. It means, when you feel like no one cares,
look at the cross!
1. He cares that much! This is the Good Friday Part!
2. He proved it!
3. Oh yes someone cares!
B. It also means you can be dedicated to him
because he's been there! He knows how
it is! He can get you
through! He did it to make a difference for you!
1. We're here to make a difference.
2. Reach Out!
3. "Oh yes you can change and grow!"
C. It also means the cross is the best thing you
can give to someone else.
1. It's the way to get them back to God, to
Heaven,
and to an
abundant life!
2. I like to put it this way! I don't have all the answers, but I
can point you to one who does!
3. When God creates a human, God wants him/her to live for God. This is the way the person can be happiest; this is the way life can have meaning. If the person doesn't live for God then he/she is
lost. Life doesn't seem to have much purpose!
4. But the person might say, "But I can't
live it; I don't want to be a Christian if I can't live it!"
5. The cross says, "Oh yes you can!"
D. The world says:
1. No one cares!
2. You can't live it!
3. You can't make a difference!
E. But the Cross says, "Oh yes you
can!"
III. What does the cross mean to
us as a church?
A. When the world says:
1. You can't grow.
2. You can't have unity.
3. You can't see your loved ones brought to
Christ!
B. A look at the cross says, “Yes you can!!!!”
Conclusion:
A. There is victory, but that doesn=t
come until Sunday! Let=s not go
to the victory to soon; let=s back up
a little
bit! Let=s ponder
this awhile.
B. We have purposely toned things down a
bit. The cross is not on the altar,
the paraments and things that remind us of Christ have been removed, they
thought Jesus was dead!
C. As we continue with songs, the reproaches,
and meditation and prayer, ponder these things.
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