Good Friday - I Believe In Jesus & His Death
March 28, 2024
Key truth: I believe in Jesus’ death and burial.
From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land, for the sun stopped shining. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” – which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
2 Corinthians 5:21 explains this. He (God) made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus died for my sin. My sin put him on the cross.
When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”
Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there. Immediately one man ran and got a sponge. He soaked it with wine vinegar, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. The rest said, “Leave him alone now. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him, to take him down.” When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”
I eagerly await him because:
I believe in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
I do not trust in: my own works or my family upbringing,
I don’t trust in Christ death plus my works.
I put my faith in Christ alone.
Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last; he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
John 19:31-37
Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, “NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN.” And again another Scripture says, “THEY SHALL LOOK ON HIM WHOM THEY PIERCED.”
John 19:35
And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.
I believe that Jesus died on the cross.
Mark 15: 42-45
When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.
1. Jesus died on a cross. This was attested by his executioners and others who were there.
John 19:39-42
Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Matthew 27:60-66
and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave. Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.
2. He was bound with linen cloths and buried in a secure, sealed, soldiered tomb.
The evidence is out on the death and burial of Christ; it demands a verdict.
Why believe this?
1 Corinthians 15: 3-5
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Paul says that these are the truths of first importance, most important, first of all. These truths about Jesus death and burial are part of the gospel (Good News).
TRUE BELIEF CHANGES EVERYTHING.