Good Friday Service
Luke 23:26-49 Mark 15:16-41
Candle Lighting
Opening Prayer
Here I Am To Worship (Song)
NARRATOR (One)
So here we are today to worship. Today we join in with our brothers and sisters around the world to remember to remember what may have been the darkest hour in human history. It certainly was the darkest afternoon because the word of God tells us that darkness covered the land from noon until three in the afternoon. The epicenter of the darkness was at the cross of Jesus Christ. Out of that darkness would come the light of the world.
Who could have imagined the great wrath that was poured out from the hand of God as Jesus Christ cried out, “My God, My God Why Have You Forsake Me?” Who could have imagined the great love that was shown for us, when Jesus begged on our behalf, “Father forgive them for they know now what they know not what they do?”
Who could have imagined a triumphant ending, to this malicious and cruel execution, as Jesus said with victory roaring from his dry parched throat and swollen lips, “It is finished, Into thy hands I commit my Spirit?”
Yes, it is because of those words that followers of Christ from Ukraine to Uganda, from Peru to Pakistan, from China to Chile, from Canada to Cameroon, from Korea to Kenya, and from America to Australia that we gather to remember good Friday. For in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female. The events of Good Friday have made us all one in Christ Jesus. We are all invited to come to the foot of the cross.
We will share in the experiences of three of those who were there at the cross so that we might be reminded of what Jesus did on our behalf. There was the Roman Soldier who took part in the crucifixion, there was Mary Magdalene a follower of Jesus, and let me introduce to you, the woman who witnessed Lazarus’s resurrection from the dead and was simply passing by when she saw the crucifixion taking place.
Actor 1 Woman Passing By
I was there. It was just a week or so ago. I was there when Jesus said, “Lazarus come forth.” You had to have been there to believe it. I was so scared when Lazarus spoke for the first time after coming out of that tomb. Some people took off running the moment he came out.
A dead man actually came to life all because Jesus called out his name. I knew then and there that Jesus had to be the Son of God. He wasn’t the least bit afraid of Lazarus. I don’t know if I could have sat there and talked with a dead man like I saw Jesus doing talking to Lazarus.
I couldn’t wait to get home and tell others what I had seen. Some of the people didn’t believe me, but that didn’t bother me. Some of them wanted me to tell the story over and over again trying to relive the moment through me. It was nice being a celebrity for the moment. People were saying when I walked down the street, “there’s the woman that was there when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and saw it all.” I smiled as I walked down the street, knowing I was being looked at with awe and wonder.
But that was all last week. I just couldn’t believe my eyes when I came back from my sister’s home near Bethlehem. There was a lot of confusion and a crowd of people around three crosses. I got to the spot where I could see above the crowd. That’s when I realized, the guy on the cross in the middle looked a lot like Jesus.
I had to get closer to the cross to make sure it was him. You see his face was all battered and bruised and there was blood covering parts of his beard. There was a crown of thorns on his head. It was just awful.
Don’t ask me how I did it, but I pushed through the crowd, and I was at the cross of Jesus. Even in the ugliness of it all, when I looked into his eyes, I saw nothing but grace and love. I couldn’t help but wonder, “why didn’t he do something.” Surely if he could call a dead man to life, he could speak to the nails in his hands and feet, and they would come out of the wood and release Him from the cross.
The longer I stood at the cross, the more I realized that, he was up there for me. He was taking my place for the sin I had done. He was the righteous one paying the penalty for the unrighteous one. Seeing Jesus’ miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead was one thing. Finding him as my Savior at the cross was something altogether different. It was truly at the cross where I first saw the light the light and I had my burdens rolled away.
At The Cross Hymn
Actor 2—The Roman Soldier
I wasn’t that much of a religious person. I was just a Roman soldier, a long ways from home doing my job. I can’t say that I ever really got used to what all that takes place in getting somebody ready for a crucifixion. Many of those condemned to be crucified never made it to the cross.
You see it began with a whipping. We would tie a person’s hands and arms in such a way that they would not get in the way of the executioner’s whip. If you were lucky, you were tied to a tree. That way, only your back would be exposed to the leather whip straps that had bone and metal tied to it. The first blow, would tear into your skin, but then when the whip was pulled back, it would rip out your flesh.
For those poor souls that were tied up with their arms outreached toward the branches of a tree, it was worse. The whip could wrap itself around your back, your sides, and your belly. That was torture as your body spun around each time the executioner pulled back his arm to prepare the whip for another round of beating. Some men looked like a piece of bloody meat waiting to be chopped up and sold in the marketplace by the time the beating was done.
Then there was the carrying of the cross to the place of execution. Many men collapsed under the weight of carrying their cross, have been exhausted from the previous beating. Once at the place, they would be laid on the cross and the nails would be driven through their hands and feet, sometimes through their wrists. They would then be hoisted up with ropes and the bottom of the cross would go into a hole in the ground. There they stayed until they died.
I had heard about this Jesus of Nazareth, but to me he was just another man being crucified. I was surprised by some of the things I heard him say while on the cross as I stood there guarding him and the other two. He promised this one guy, life in another kingdom.
He asked some guy to look after his mother after he was gone. He talked at times as though he was talking to a god in the sky. I really began to take notice, when it got dark at noon. I knew something different was happening here. People were challenging him to come down from the cross. But it looked as though he pitied them as though they were the ones losing out on something. I felt better when the darkness lifted at around 3:00.
Then as Jesus was dying he cried out with a loud voice.” It is finish.” He just sort of gave up his life and died as though he could have done it at any point in the process. I was confused. It wasn’t like we ended his life, it way more that he voluntarily gave it up. Then I heard my boss, the centurion, praise God and say, “Surely this man was the Son Of God.” I didn’t even know the centurion was religious
At that point I felt overwhelmed with my own sin. I didn’t know what to do. I was in utter despair for hours as I watched him hanging dead on the cross. Then came the order to break the legs of the men on the cross to make them die more quickly. But Jesus was already dead.
The soldier sent to break their legs broke the legs of the other two, but he saw that Jesus was already dead. To make sure Jesus was dead, he took his spear and punctured Jesus’s side and out came a rush of water and blood. The moment some of Jesus’ blood splattered on me I felt cleansed and forgiven. Of all the things I had seen and witnessed, it was the power of his blood that convinced me to become a follower of Jesus Christ.
When people ask me, “how did I a Roman soldier who help to crucify many men become a follower of a Jewish Messiah”, I tell them, “I Know it was the blood. One day when I was lost, he died upon a cross, I know it was the blood that saved me.”
I Know It Was The Blood (Hymn)
Actor 3 Mary Magdalene
I never fully understood what grace was until one day my path intersected with Jesus of Nazareth. Before then, you would have been terrified of me. You would not have wanted to have been around me if you knew who I was. Some fools thought they could tame me, and they paid for their mistake with their lives. I had seven different demons inside of me controlling my thoughts and my actions.
Oh I could have been very beautiful to gaze your eyes upon, but trust me, it would have all been a deception. I could have easily slit your throat with a knife with a smile on my face just for the fun of it or blinded you with red hot metal taken from the fire place, poked them into your eyes searing them shut forever, simply because I wanted to hear you scream. It would not have bothered me in the least bit in terms of conscience, because I had none. Demonic power is real, it’s evil and it’s ugly.
But then I ran into Jesus. He cleansed me and cast out all seven demons. Having been set free by his grace and mercy, I vowed then and there to live and to die for him. Wherever he went, I was more than willing to go. I had no idea that I would be following him to the scene of a crucifixion. I never imagined that it would be his own crucifixion. That day was a dark demonic day. If you had been there, you may have sensed the battle going on between the forces of light and darkness.
The more Satan tried to torture and torment Jesus, the more grace kept flowing out of my Lord and Savior. They hurled insults at him, yet he kept quiet. They laughed as they nailed his hands and his feet, yet he did not complain. They challenged him to prove that he was the Son of God by taking himself down from the cross so that they might believe. Yet he stayed up there to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He would not come down, because his blood had not yet been poured out upon the earth for the forgiveness of our sin.
His grace had not been released yet in the fulness of His power. Watching him die on the cross was one of the most difficult moments of my life. Yet I knew the cleansing he had done in me was not going to change.
I didn’t need to fear the return of the demons. I knew when I heard the words “it is finished” that Jesus was reassuring me that I had the victory over Satan’s plans for my life. I once was lost, but I knew I had been found. I will always remember that his body was broken and his blood was shed for me. Oh what boundless amazing grace.
Amazing Grace (Hymn)
Receiving of Communion
Lighting Candles
Closing Prayer
