Good Friday Series

Good Friday

There are three days in the New Testament that are the most important days in all Christianity and they are the birth of Jesus, the crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. Each of these days are equally as important to the other and each deserve their own day of remembrance and celebration.

If any one of these three days were eliminated from Christianity then Christianity would cease to exist altogether, that's how crucial each part is to the total.

Today as we approach Easter I wanted to put my focus on the day Jesus was crucified for our sins. Many Christian churches today do not even celebrate this day or give it its just time and focus and I struggle to understand why.

Could it be the guilt associated with the day causes Christians to pass it by? The guilt of their own personal sins and the pain and suffering Jesus had to endure because of it? It is a valid question that needs to be asked of both the church and the individual.

As we look throughout scripture about this day we need to start near the beginning and the fall of mankind into sin.

Genesis 3:1-7 ~ Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

This is the point in which everything had changed for mankind and from this moment on, every person born would inherit the sin of that day. When God had confronted Adam and Eve about their disobedience God also rebuked the serpent and gave revelation about Christ to come.

Genesis 3:14- 15 ~ The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

The women God talks about in verse fifteen is Mary and the offspring being Jesus, the only one who could now pay the penalty for mankind's sin by living His perfect life in our place and dying on the cross for each of our sins.

Later in scripture we see another revelation about the pain and suffering that Jesus would have to pay for the sins of all who would believe.

Isaiah 53:3-6 ~ He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The penalty we deserved for our sins was laid upon Jesus at the cross for all who believe in Him as their Lord and Savior, and the life given for us we know give our life to Him as servants in the hope of bringing more people to Him and salvation.

As we move forward to that day, in the book of John chapter nineteen we read this.

John 19:1-6 ~ Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. 2 And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. 3 They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!”