Audio Transcript:

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Would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word. Oh God, you are a great God. And there was nothing that we can offer you on this Good Friday. There's nothing that we can ever offer you to bridge the chasm between Holy God and a wicked people, and that's who we are. But praise be to God that you did not leave us in our sins, that you are the Son of God. You broke into reality. You took on flesh. Lord, as we look to the cross, I pray Holy Spirit that you press the severity and the gravitas of this moment upon our souls, pray that we realize the judgment that we deserve. Why would they do that to you? I pray that question turns into why did we do that to you?

And I pray that question turns into why would you let that be done to you? I pray Lord that you today melt our hearts with your grace. Remove any tinge of hardness. As we look to what you went through, what you experienced, pray that we walk out of this place reveling in the cross of Jesus Christ, loves us that much. I pray for those Lord who are not yet yours, not yet awakened, have not yet repented. Pray that you today let them feel the justice, the judgment that is awaiting, and it's real. And I pray, draw them to yourself so that they do not experience, that we do not experience that judgment. Instead, that we ask like a thief on the cross that we ask Lord, remember us when you're in your kingdom, what a great king you are, what a great Lord you are, what a great savior you are. Holy spirit bless our time in the Holy Scriptures today, we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Tell the sermon is three crosses.

And today we gather to remember a God on the cross. Niche scoffed, even at the idea, ridicule the idea. Many today ridicule the idea of a God on a cross. And instead of we do not ridicule, we revel in this truth. We worship this God who was executed on our behalf. We worship Him because He's worthy. And when you meditate on the idea of a God on the cross, and once you meditate in a way that truly seeps into, not just mind but your heart, you realize that there's no other God but the one on the cross. I could not worship any other God because there is no other God, no other God makes sense of the reality that we live in a world of suffering, a world of real pain and real tangible loss, heartbreaking loss, and a world of evil.

And evil, there's more Machiavellian than anyone could have imagined. It is evil. And how could a God be immune to that? A God who is great and a God who is good, how can He just allow us to continue suffering, continue experiencing pain? Where is this guy? Where is the king? Where is the judge? And today we remember a God who's twisted and tortured, left as a corpse on a cross, nails driven through his hands and feet, hatred driven through his heart. His back lacerated, his limbs wrenched, brow and head bleeding from the beating and the scorching, the thorn pricks pierced into his head. His mouth dry, He's intolerably thirsty, his face swollen, plunged into God forsaken darkness. This is our God, a God who laid aside any immunity to pain and to suffering, a God who took on evil head on and one.

He entered our world of flesh and blood and tears and death. He entered space and time and He suffered, why? In order to battle evil. He suffered so that He could read evil without reading the world of us. He suffered to save us, and thus defeating the greatest enemy, Satan, sin and death. Today we'll look at Luke 23:26 through 43. Would you look at the text with me. "And as they led Him away, they see seized when Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus. And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for Him.

But turning to them Jesus said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children for behold the days are coming when they will say blessed are the barren and the wounds that never bore in the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us until the hills cover us for, if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? Two others who were criminals were way to be put to death with Him. 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." And they cast lots to divide his garments.

And the people stood by watching, but the rulers scoffed at him saying, "He saved others, let him save himself. If he is the Christ of God his chosen one." Soldiers also mocked, mocked him coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." There was also an inscription over him. This is the King of the Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him saying, "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 for 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."

This is the reading of God's Holy inerrant, infallible, authoritative word may write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points; we'll look at the king crucified by criminals and the king crucified with criminals and the king crucified for criminals. First, we see the king crucified by criminals. Jesus Christ entered into this world to wage a holy war against Satan. Satan wanted power over God. And he uses people who want power over God. And Satan has craftily orchestrated this plot. He rolled out the plot through his agents, Judas who sold Jesus by betraying, and Pilate who cowardly tried to wash his hands of the judgment that he cast. Herod, who knew that Jesus was innocent, instead he gives up everything to protect his power and position and pleasure. And Caiaphas who was making money off of religion and keeping people from worshiping God.

The political religious leaders, they colluded. They had nothing in common other than their hatred for Jesus and their love for power. And through a series of trials done at night in darkness, on the cover of darkness, they do everything to legally justify the murder of an innocent man. He's not just a man. He's God. They're trying to commit deicide. They're trying to murder God. It's the absolutely worst crime ever committed. They tried to slaughter the Son of God, murder the author of life creatures, killing the creator, why? What were they motivated by? They were motivated by something that many of us are motivated by. May I say most of us, all of us. They were motivated by a love for self and a hatred for anything and everything that threatened their self-interest. And that is a satanic diabolical urge desire.

This is what Jesus told the Pharisees. We thought they were children of Abraham and Jesus tells them, "You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he's a liar and the father of lies." When the fall happened, God promised Eve that from you a child will come. A son of man will come and He will bruise the head of the evil one as the evil one bruises his heel. It's a prophecy about Jesus Christ, Son of man, Son of God, putting his heel in the head of the evil one as the evil one is piercing him, meaning behind every single one of these characters is Satan. Satan exacerbating the sinful desires of our own hearts as he fills his own desires in our hearts. Judas, it says that Satan entered him.

You see Satan behind the scenes, Pilate. What is truth? Obviously the father of lies wants nothing to do with truth. And you see the same with all of the actors here, but let's just pause with Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate tried to remain neutral when it comes to Jesus Christ. He tries to say, "I have nothing against Christ. I'm washing my hands of this man." And God warned him. God tried to warn him, in particular through his wife, we don't see her name here in the scriptures, some call her Claudia, some Procula. In Matthew 27:15 through 19 it says, "Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had been a notorious prisoner called Barnabas. So then when they had gathered, Pilate said to him, "Whom do you want me to release for you? Barnabas or Jesus who is called the Christ? For He knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered Him up.

Besides while he was sitting on the judgment seat his wife sent word to him, "I have nothing to do with that righteous man for I have suffered much because of Him today in the dream." Pilate does not listen to her. In a tragic and cowardly act he is swayed by pride, by a desire to protect his position and power and pleasure. I wonder what was in that dream that caused Pilate's wife so much pain. One common idea that has been given over the course of church history is that she heard her husband's name on the lips of Christians for thousands of years, not praising Pilate for his leadership or lauding his military exploits, instead professing that Pilate crucified their God. The Nicene Creed says this, "For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. The only name in the Nicene Creed of a human other than the Virgin Mary. As Adam's name is forever linked with original sin, Pilate's name is forever linked with the crucifixion of Christ.

But Pilate didn't intend to crucify Christ, Jesus was brought to him already beaten by the Jewish authorities. Pilate wanted to bring Jesus to the brink of death and keep Him alive so he has him scourged. And when the gospels are written, people didn't need details about scourging and crucifixion because they saw it on a daily, on a weekly, on a monthly basis. They knew all too well the horrors of scourging and crucifixion. What happens is they would strip the prisoner and then tie his hands, bind his hands high on a column so that the skin on his back is tense. His arms are held up and as his wrists are tied to a ring and the pillar and then to professional seidths, two professional executioners would take the tool, a cat of nine tails as it was called with either lead balls or pieces of rock or pieces of bone at the very tips of the strap. And one after another, they would wail on the back of the criminal.

The first blows would leave long livid marks and then blue bruises would appear beneath the skin. And then after a while, the flesh would begin to tear, and Jesus's flesh was already sore from sweating blood in Gethsemane, and then from being beaten. And with each stroke, his body gives a painful shutter. The skin breaks, and soon his whole back is a red surface and his blood is scattering like rain. He's scourged. And lacerations would tear and they would grow until skeletal muscles would produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. Obviously He couldn't carry his cross. He wanted to. He was determined to, but He couldn't. That's why in our texts it said, "As they led Him away, verse 26, they seized one Simon of Cyrene who was coming in from the country and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus." What do we know about Simon of Cyrene?

We know that his children became Christians. From the Gospel of Mark, his sons were named Rufus and Alexander. Perhaps this was the day that Simon of Cyrene became a follower of Christ, how could you not, carrying his cross for him? And there followed Him a great multitude of people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for Him. Most likely not professional wailers or low mentors, because nobody knew that this was going to happen because the kangaroo court happened at night. So they start weeping and wailing. We're not sure why, perhaps they knew Jesus or perhaps they just see what has been done to Him. They're weeping over the situation, filled with sympathy and compassion.

And verse 28 it says, "Jesus turning to them said, daughters of Jerusalem do not weep for me, but we for yourselves and for your children, for behold the days are coming when they will say blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed, then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills, cover us for if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" Don't weep for me. What's Jesus talking about here? Even in the midst of his own agony, He pauses. Think of Christ in this moment. Think of his face, virtually unrecognizable, swollen, racked with pain from the beatings he'd received from the soldiers, the cuts in his forehead by the crown of thorns, exhausted by everything. On top of that, the emotional trauma, knowing that He's about to be separated from the father and as determined as he may have been to carry everything, He stumbles along the Via Dolorosa and He stops.

And as He sees everyone weeping, what does He do? He says, "Do not weep for me." A lot of people miss the gospel and they miss salvation because this is where they stop. They look to the cross of Christ, they look to the Son of God suffering and they weep. You feel bad for Him. He says, "Do not weep for me because I know how superficial your tears are. Don't weep for me and weep instead, weep for yourself." Because weeping over Jesus, feeling bad for Jesus, sympathy and empathy toward Jesus it does save. He says, "Weep for yourself. Weep over your own sins and the sins of your children." Because that's why Jesus is where he is. Jesus in particular was talking about very particular judgment.

And Luke 21 in the Olivet Discourse, He talks about a judgment that is coming through Titus and is coming through the Roman empire, where they come into Israel in the year 70 AD and they reduce the city, one of the greatest cities in the history of the world, they reduce it to rubble. The Jewish state was extinguished not to appear until nearly 2000 years later, a judgment so severe and you can do the racers Josephus the great historian writes that people suffered from hunger so much as they were barricaded in the city, that they would start eating their own children. And Jesus says, "Do not weep for me. A judgment is coming. A judgment is looming." They staggered under the way of that, even of that idea.

Luke 23:31, "If they do these things, when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" What's he saying? He's saying, if they do this to the innocent Son of God, what awaits the guilty? It's an impending judgment. That's what he's saying. Weep over your own sins because if you do not repent over your sin, it will be judged in you instead of in Christ. Why does Jesus pause everything as He staggered, as He's barely walking? Why doesn't He ... And He knows exactly what's about to happen. He's not even focused on that why, because He knows the judgment that's coming for Him and He wants to keep everyone from experiencing that same judgment. Israel had rejected the Messiah and judgment was coming for them. And the same way that if we reject the Son of God, dying on the cross for our sins, judgment will come for us. Jesus here is saying, "Lay down your arms, stop fighting with God. Instead, accept the gift of grace and embrace his loving arms."

This reality on Good Friday, we must pause. And before we get to the great news of Jesus dying for our sins, we need to pause and say, "Jesus is dying." Why is he dying? He's dying to absorb the wrath of God that we deserve. That's why. Before the cross of Jesus Christ is a sign of salvation and forgiveness and mercy and grace, it's first and foremost the sign of God's judgment poured out on the Son of God. Many of us we are now moved by the reality of salvation and forgiveness of sins, because we do not understand the gravity of the reality of the judgment that's coming. Jesus knew the judgment that was coming. He knew it so well. He knew that God is a Holy God and a Holy judge, and a Holy God and a Holy judge will not be compromised. Jesus was about to experience the judgment and He tells these women weep not for me. Weep for yourself, weep over your own sin.

Jesus crucified by criminals, the king is also crucified with criminals. Luke 23:32, "Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with Him." The word criminals here is an insurrectionist. They want to throw off the power of Rome. And verse 33, "When they came to the place that called the Skull there, they crucified Him and the criminals one on his right and one on his left. Apparently the hill where the crosses were set up, it looked liked like a skull with three crosses. And here we see the dividing line of history that there's a cross of redemption. And also there's a cross of repentance and a cross of rejection. There's a line right in the middle of separates all of humanity; are we going the way of repentance or are we going the way of rejection?

Isaiah prophesied centuries before the servant of the Lord, Jesus would be numbered with the transgressors in his death. Isaiah 53:12, "Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the many. And He shall divide the spoil with the strong because He poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors." And all it says in the text is, they crucified Him. That's all they needed to say. People knew all too well the crucifixion wave was Jesus with his torn back is placed upon the rugged cross. And then the soldiers begin to, nails into his hands, into his wrists, ripping through the median nerve in the wrist. The same nerve that causes the excruciating symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. And then once Jesus Christ is raised on that cross, the only way He can breathe is by trying to lift himself up off his nailed feet.

And He starts breathing and laboring to breathe. It was impossible to adequately inhale oxygen, exhale carbon dioxide. And eventually the legs get depleted of strengths, experienced severe muscle cramps and spasms begin to overpower the body leading to unrecoverable fatigue. And usually the criminal would die of his fixation. If the criminal would not die, the soldiers would break his legs so that he would. Jesus had already died before the breaking of legs in order to fulfill the prophecy. And John records that blood and water flowed from his womb once a soldier pierced with a lance his side as a result of the sacks surrounding the heart rupturing. And as Jesus Christ died, before He died what does he do? He's still ministering. He's still on the cross and He's still paying attention to the eternal soul there before Him.

He still cares for them as He is dying, as He is breathing with all of his strength, trying to get a gulp of air. Luke 23:34, with his last breaths what was He saying? He says, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." And as he's preaching a sermon, father forgive them, the across turns into a puppet. The king still cares for his servants, the same ones who are crucifying Him. The same ones who have turned this into a game, casting lots for his garments, which garments? Is the garments that Herod gave Him mocking Jesus kingship. And Jesus says, "No, father forgive them. Don't let their judgment fall on them. Let their judgment fall on." How did the people respond? Verse 35. "The people stood by watching, but the rulers scoffed at Him saying He saved others let Him save himself if He is the Christ of God his chosen one. They admit that He performed Miracles. He saved people. They use that fact against Him.

Verse 36, "The soldiers also mocked coming up and offering Him sour wine. Apparently this was a joke because it was accompanied by a challenge, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." Luke 23:38, "There was also an inscription over him, this is the King of the Jews." This is Pilate's way of getting back at the Jewish leaders that forced him into this position that he didn't want to be in crucifying Jesus Christ. He didn't want to do it. He was forced to do it, because of his own pride, because of his fear he gave in. So now he's getting revenge on him by saying, "This is your king, this is the King of the Jews." They begged him. No, no, no, have it say, He said he was the King of the Jews. This was a prophecy that Jesus really was the King of the Jews. He's the King of all of us.

Verse 39. "One of the criminals who were hanged railed at Him saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us." The thief, one of them begins to pick up on the same taunts as everybody else. He's angry and he's better in his lashing out his nearest target. In and the other gospels it says both of the criminals taunted Jesus Christ. Both of them started off by taunting Him, by ridiculing him, by mocking Him. Something happens in one of the thieves, one of the insurrectionists, one of the rebels. Verse 40, "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. Suddenly there's a burst of spiritual moral clarity. He realizes the callous hypocrisy with which he is mocking Jesus Christ.

And he realizes that Jesus is innocent. And he realizes this through Jesus prayers, through way that Jesus is dying with his very last breath, He's still trying to save. This is the third time and the account that Jesus has proclaimed, acknowledged innocent, once by Pilate, once by Herod and here. Verse 42, the thief says this, "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. What in the world the thief do to be saved? What did he have to do? First of all, what did he have to offer? He couldn't offer past obedience. He couldn't offer restoration, I will change my life. He couldn't offer any good works. He could offer Him nothing. What did he do to get saved? All he did was acknowledge, I deserve this death. He does not.

And he realized that Jesus Christ is truly dying for his sins. He realized that Jesus Christ has a kingdom and Jesus Christ is the King. He is the King of Kings. He's the Lord of all Lords. He is the true Messiah, the Son of God and the Son of man. He realizes and he believes, but what a crazy request, what a bold, what an audacious request. I've done nothing to deserve heaven. I've done nothing to deserve forgiveness or grace or mercy. I've done nothing. I've actually done everything to be here. I am receiving inept myself, condemnation. Would you forgive me? And I don't want just to disappear. I don't want my soul just to be annihilated because I was created for eternal life just like everybody, so I'm asking for paradise. I'm asking for your kingdom. I'm asking for heaven for all of eternity. And what's crazier than the requests that Jesus Christ grants it; today you will be with me in paradise, in heaven a final place of bliss, immediate pleasure, perfect peace and joy.

Two criminals ending with completely different eternities. Both equally bad, both start by cursing and mocking Jesus Christ. Both would love to be saved. One of them even says, "Save yourself and us." One understood his guilt. I am guilty. One understood his condemnation, and the only thing he could offer Jesus Christ was a broken and contrite heart. And that's all you need. That's all we need for complete forgiveness. One sees the king and begs for pardon.

Point three Is the king crucified for criminals. This was an execution, not just an execution. This was a sacrifice. Jesus Christ, after He completed his work what does He say? "It is finished." What's finished? The sacrifice. It's completed. The Lamb of God took the sin of the world. The world shook. The Son blocked darkness, not the crucifixion but his cry, cry confessing that He has been forsaken by God, that God forsakenness that right there is judgment. That's hell, because on the cross Jesus Christ isn't just battling Satan sin and death, He's battling all those, but it used also absorbing the wrath of God. He has everybody turn on Him. His disciples betrayed, deny Him. Everybody turns on Him, including his heavenly father, why? Because He became our sin.

On the cross Jesus became the greatest sinner who has ever lived, the greatest murderer, the greatest adulterer, thief, rebel, blasphemer. Jesus became Peter the denier, Paul the persecutor, David the adulterer Adam the sinner. Why? This defies all reason; God, why would you do this? Why would you allow this to be done to you? For the immortal, infinite God, just to empty himself, just to become one of us. That's unimaginable love and humility to begin with but He doesn't end there, He leads down his Life. John 10:18, "No one takes my life from me, I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father." That's fascinating. I thought Satan is the one who crucified Jesus. I thought Pilate was on the crucified Jesus. I thought it was Caiaphas. I thought it was Herod. I thought it was the Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus. Yeah, they did.

And behind the scenes, Jesus has taken the greatest evil act has ever been done, He's orchestrating the whole thing. He lays down his life in order to pick it up. He's not crucified powerlessly. That's why he says, "Don't weep for me. They're not doing this to me. I'm allowing this to be done." He's crucified, not powerlessly but powerfully. Jesus, what is He motivated by? Love and hate, the strongest emotions that there are. Jesus, what is He motivated by? Love and hate; love for God, love for people. Hatred towards sin, Satan, and death. And as Jesus hung on that cross, a corpse on a cross. As the hatred of all these people breaks his heart, He's motivated by what? By love for us.

Jesus is looking down, these same people, He created them. Every single one of them, every single person we just named, He created every single one of them. He gives them every single heartbeat. He gives them every single ounce of energy with which they are crucifying Him. He knew them before they were born, before they were conceived in their mothers womb. He watched them grow up. He watched them live their life. He knew everything about every single one of these people, and He is allowing the gifts that He had given them, He's allowing those gifts to be turned on Him to crucify him. Jesus, why?

Jesus gave them their heartbeat, gives you your heartbeat. I'm giving you a next heartbeat and they're hammering hatred into his heart. Why? This is the power of evil. It's a stranglehold of evil over our hearts. And when God comes into the world, we do everything we can to try to kill Him. It started with Satan. Evil is an intrusion into the world that's alien to creation, and Jesus Christ allows Satan to do this. And as Satan tries to do this, Jesus defangs, Satan snatches captures from the jaws of hell. Satan acts out of pure spite. He knows he can't win. He's just trying everything he can to beat the Son of God. And the Son of God will not be ... He use the enemy's power against him.

Peter Craft refers to the cross as judo. When your enemy comes at you with all he has, you use his against him. And at the cross, evil is conquered by evil, by dying Jesus disables death. Colossians 2:13 through 15, "And you who are dead in your trespasses and the uncertain decision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with this legal demands, this He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him, the king defeats Satan, sin, and death trials."

That brings us to the decision that every single one of us has to make. Mercy has a cost and the cost is the cross and we deserve the cross. And Jesus offers us forgiveness of pardon. He offers us a resurrection. And what's fascinating is after this story about two criminals, one on the left, one on the right, one of them who repents, the other who rejects, after this story in Luke, we get another story of two other criminals, one criminal repents, the other rejects; it's Peter and Judas. One denies, one betrays.

Luke 23:54 through 62, one of the most heartbreaking texts in all of scripture says this, "Then they seized him, Jesus, and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house. And Peter was following at distance. And when they enkindled the fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely and said, this man also was with Him. But he denied saying woman, I do not know him. And a little later, someone else saw him and said, you also are one of them. But Peter said, man, I am not. And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted saying certainly this man also was with him for he too, is a Galilean. But Peter said, man, I do not know what you are talking about.

And immediately, while he was still speaking the rooster crowed, the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly. I wonder what Peter saw in the eyes of Jesus Christ at that moment, you can imagine, there was pain and there was love. Judas did something worse than denying Jesus Christ. He betrayed Him after spending three years with Him, seeing the miracles, seeing Lazarus brought back from the dead, seeing Jesus, his power and authority, he sells Jesus for 30 pieces of silver and he to recognize what he did. There's a difference. Peter accepted the mercy and he got heaven. Jesus rejected the mercy and he got hell.

Judas betrayed Jesus Christ and then he denied the mercy, the spared in his sin and he stayed there. He knew he had sinned. He regretted betraying Jesus. All he needs to do is repent, ask for forgiveness. Jesus would have forgiven him. Jesus, on that resurrection Sunday would have treated him to breakfast on the sea of Galilee, would have embraced him, would have restored him. The difference between Peter and Judas is this, Peter denied Jesus, but Peter did not deny sinning against Jesus. Peter denied Jesus, but he did not deny that he was a sinner in need of forgiveness. Judas did. Not only did Judas betray, but he also denied his need for sin. Judas didn't go to Jesus. Therefore, Good Friday did nothing for Judas. And I pray that that's not the case for you.

Good Friday does nothing for you unless you weep over your own sins, unless you mourn in broken heart and bring your broken heart to God and say "God, forgive me." To claim mercy you must first claim your sin, ask for the mercy, receive the grace. There is mercy today if we ask for, if we choose to accept it. I pray that Good Friday is a great Friday for you as you repent and believe in Jesus Christ. At this point, we are going to transition to celebrating Holy Communion. Holy Communion, Jesus Christ is reversing the curse of the evil that descended upon this earth. Sin comes to Adam and Eve and he tempts them and he says, "Take and eat." And they take and eat that which is forbidden. Jesus Christ comes to reverse the curse by giving his body, not taking by giving his body as a sacrifice for us in the Lord's Supper. He tells us, "Take, eat. Take, drink."

Saint Paul tells us that we are to celebrate Holy Communion by remembering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And he warns us in 1 Corinthians 11, that we are not to do it without repentance. So for whom is communion, communion is for those who have repented of their sin, for those who believe in Christ and turn to Him. If you have repented, if you have asked for forgiveness and mercy and grace, you're welcome to today. If not, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service, instead meditate on the gospel.

(Silence)

Let us pray before we partake. Oh, heavenly father, we thank you for this Good Friday. And I pray by the power of your spirit minister to us right now with grace and mercy, we come to you with repentance and we repent of pride and selfishness and self reliance and self-interest. We repent of all too often loving ourselves and our power and position and pleasure over you. We pray that you today accept our broken hearts, our contrite hearts. As we focus on the cross, as we see the body of Christ that was broken for us, as we see the blood of Christ pouring down, shed for us, not just for us, but in our place, in our stead. We pray that you bless us as we partake in Holy Communion now. We pray this in Christ's name. And the night that He was betrayed, Jesus took the bread and after breaking it He said, "This is my body broken for you, take, eat and do this in remembrance of me."

(Silence)

Then proceeded to take the cup and He said, "This cup is the cup of New Covenant of my blood that was poured out for the sins of many, take, drink and do this in remembrance of me.

(Silence)

Jesus, we worship you, a God who was crucified. We worship you Jesus that you were crucified, not just by sinful criminals, not just with sinful criminals before sinful criminals, and that's every single one of us. We are all insurrectionists and rebels. We have all rebelled against your divine and Holy authority. We asked for forgiveness. We ask that you let us enter the kingdom of God, not because of what we've done, but because we trust in what Jesus has done on the cross for us. Jesus, we thank you that you died, that you were buried, but you didn't stay there. We thank you that you rose triumphantly, conquering Satan, sin, and death. Therefore, we worship you. We worship you Jesus because you alone a worthy of all worship. And we pray this in your name. Amen.