Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, amen and amen. So I got a question for you. I want you to think about this question. I know maybe it seems like an awkward, clunky question, but why did it come up with an answer? Think about this. What is something that you say that you say a lot, or maybe you say in passing, but it actually carries a tremendous amount of meaning. Think about it. I'll ask you again, what's something that you say, or you say a lot, or you say in passing, but it's something that actually has a lot of meaning. I think maybe the first one that comes to our mind would be, I love you. Right? We say it a lot, love ya, love you, bye, but it carries a lot of meaning. Like if I actually get to choose my final words, like I'm gonna say something about Jesus and then I'm gonna tell my family I love them. Or I asked some of our staff this, and here's another one that someone came up with. We say this a lot, how you doing? Now if we were to actually get a full, honest answer every single time we ask that question, I guarantee we'd be asking it a lot less. You know what I mean? Or Christians in the house, how about this? I'll be praying for you. I will be the first to tell you, honestly, I don't bet a thousand when it comes to actually praying over everything I say I'm gonna be praying over. But church, imagine what would happen in this world if we actually prayed as much as we say we do. Now, I got this next one from our facilities director, Matt. He reminded me of this great Midwestern saying, watch out for deer. You know what we're actually saying, right? I love you so much, you mean so much to me, I don't know what I would do if I lost you. We take that and we shorten it to, watch out for deer. You know, but this next one I'm gonna call out the pastors like myself, especially in sermons. We say something a lot, but it carries so, so much meaning. And it's this phrase here,

Jesus died for you.

That phrase Christians throw around, and I'm concerned that we don't feel the weight of that statement. When we think about the fact that Jesus died for us, that phrase cannot be overstated. And today on Good Friday, we're gonna talk about this phrase as we specifically remember that Jesus died for you. Now it's cultural knowledge in our context that people know that Jesus died on a cross. Jesus died by crucifixion. So let's talk about that for a second. Crucifixion was among the most horrendous forms of torture and death ever invented by the depraved mind. It was uniquely horrendous in the realm of torture and death. Crucifixion was specifically designed to give you the most intense pain for the longest period of time. It was specifically designed to hurt you as much as possible without damaging your nerves and keeping you conscious for the longest period of time. You know, I'm not going to be the first to sign up to being burned at the stake. That sounds absolutely horrendous, but that didn't last as long as crucifixion did. People who were burned at the stake, their nerves were burned away, and it didn't last as long as crucifixion. Crucifixion is unique in its horror. Even medieval tortures, if you are sick enough to google some of those. Those were absolutely demonic, but they were shock inducing and a person would pass out fairly fast. But crucifixion was uniquely specifically designed to be horrendous for an extended period of time, app for hours on ends. Crucifixion was so horribly painful. The ancients, they actually came up with a new word to help describe the pain a person would feel in crucifixion. Because you couldn't just say, it hurt a lot. Stepping on a Lego hurts a lot. You couldn't just say it hurt really bad. The ancients actually came up with a specific phrase, a specific word to describe the pain a person would feel during crucifixion. It is the term excrucio. It means of the cross. The pain a person would feel and endure during crucifixion was like none other. It was the pain of the cross. It was the pain excrucio. And it's where we get our English word excruciating. And while we maybe have dumbed down that word even, the truth is that the physical pain that Jesus felt on the cross in our place for our sins was in every sense of the word excruciating. And Jesus knew this was what was before him. Jesus knew this was what was coming, but there is so much more to that. So let's talk about this for a moment. Let's look at verses 27 to 36 here tonight. Now as you're turning there, we're going to pick up in our passage right after where Pastor Nate left off from this past Palm Sunday. So in our passage, this is still Palm Sunday, but we're going to pick up where Pastor Nate left off. Jesus is in his final days. He's staring down his final week and he knows it. intimately aware of what exactly is before him. And despite, despite warning and telling his followers and the crowd what was about to happen, they were oblivious to the gravity of the situation, but not our Lord. He knew what was coming. Jesus enters and enters, enters, enters into Jerusalem, received as a king. Fanfare. People loved him and welcomed him. They celebrated him. But he knows that this city is going to turn on him in less than a week. He knows he's going to be killed. He knows how he's going to be killed. But he enters Jerusalem anyway because he's on mission for you and for me. And with the crowd and his disciples around him, this is what he says. So would you hear the word of the Lord, John chapter 12, verses 27 to 36.

Jesus says this,

now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour, but for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. The crowd that had stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said an angel spoke to him. Jesus answered, this voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now this is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. So the crowd answered him, we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the son of man must be lifted up? Who is this son of man? So Jesus answered them, the light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.

Amen.

This is God's word. Let's pray. We'll continue, let's pray. Father, on this day, we remember the great sacrifice of our Lord. So, Father, I pray that by the preaching of this passage and by the moving of your Holy Spirit, that we would again feel the weight and the beauty and the truth of these words that Jesus died for us. And we pray these things in your holy name. And everyone said, Amen.

So for Good Friday, here's a few things from this passage that we're going to pick up.

1. Jesus wasn't worried about the physical weight of the cross, but the spiritual weight.

2. God wasn't worried about the death of his son, he was going to be glorified in it.

3. Jesus wasn't worried about answering people's questions, but pointing them to the light.

So the Bible is a unique book and it says an incredible amount of incredible things and it says some of the most important things the human race could ever hear but it's not shy about telling us about which ones in particular. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians he says something pretty remarkable. He says this in 1st Corinthians, he says, For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures." Friends, what we're talking about today, the death of Christ is of first importance. See that phrase there, it's a little two-word phrase in English, but the original language Greek that Paul wrote in, he actually used only one word, but that one word was the combination of two words. It was protois, which is the combination of the word before and the word first.

So before the first, meaning the foremost, meaning of all the things that are important, this is before all of that. This is of first importance, meaning more important than anything else. The death of Christ is the most important thing there is on your deathbed. The summation of your life boils down to this question. Do you believe Jesus died for you? It will not matter if you've signed all your legal documents. It will not matter if you've got your inheritance in order. None of that will matter. All that matters is do you believe on the name Jesus Christ? Do you believe he died for you? Do you believe that he rose again? Do you believe in the gospel? This is protois. This is of first importance. So let's talk about what this means for a moment. The first thing our passage tells us is that Jesus wasn't worried about the physical weight of the cross, but the spiritual weight.

So Jesus enters into Jerusalem, and this is the first thing he says, "'Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? "'Father, save me from this hour? "'But for this purpose I have come to this hour.'" Do you hear our Lord's voice? Do you hear the desperation and the determination in what he is saying here? Jesus is saying, yes, I am nervous. But what am I supposed to do? Tell God, I don't want this to happen. This is exactly why I came to this planet. He is staring at the cross, knowing this is his purpose. This is why he came. Jesus is about to die. A death that in many ways we can say is torture perfected. But listen to me, that alone isn't what troubled Jesus so much. There have been many people throughout history who have willingly gone to a horrendous death for something they believed in and they did it with much bravery. Was Jesus just being a chicken here? No, because Jesus truly understood the gravity of the situation. It wasn't the cross that Jesus was thinking about. It was the wrath of God that unnerved him so much. Jesus knew that it wasn't the physical weight and the physical pain of the cross that was the most horrendous. It was the spiritual weight.

Jesus wasn't going to die a good man for something that he believed in. Jesus, the Son of God, was dying for the sins of the world. All of the murder, the hatred, the bigotry, the lust, the gossip, the lying, rape, blasphemy, all of the wicked sins of the world were going to be placed on His shoulders, and He was going to pay the price for all of it. The unmitigated judgment of God was going to be coming upon Christ as he assumed the punishment for your sins and my sins and all the sins of those who would place their faith in him. Jesus was dying for the world. He was dying for you. He was dying for me. And God was going to place those sins upon Jesus and then bring his judgments. Jesus was going to face the unmitigated wrath of God. That is why he said, my soul is troubled. This is what we mean when we say Jesus died for you. That God was going to bring His justice to those sins. Which leads to the next thing, that God wasn't worried about the death of His Son. He was going to be glorified in it. God the Father didn't sit up in heaven, threatened about what was going to happen. God the Father didn't sit up in heaven on His throne saying, Oh no, my little boy, look what they're doing to him. Maybe Mary said that, but that wasn't what God said. And I know this is probably going to be offensive to our modern ears and our modern sensibilities, but God presided over what happened to Christ. This was the wrath of God being poured out, the just wrath of God upon the sins of the world. God wasn't worried about the death of his son. He was going to be glorified in it. Jesus said, Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and I will glorify it again God was to be glorified because God's justice was to be had his wrath Against the sins of the world was to be satisfied The sins of the world were going to face their judgment. That's why we call it Good Friday For those of us who believe it is Good Friday, because for those who place their faith in Christ, we know that our sins are paid for and there's no wrath for us.

Romans 5 tells us,

since we have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by Jesus from the wrath of God? John 3, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life for the wrath of God remains on him. 1 Thessalonians 5, for God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus. Good Friday reminds us that our sins have been paid for and Jesus did this for us on the cross. My friends, this means there's nothing that stands between us and God anymore. Our sins are no longer between us and God. Condemnation, judgments is no longer between us and God. For those who place their faith, we only have love and relationship with God again because of Christ. That's why we say this is of first importance. And this is exactly what Jesus was trying to get across to those crowds. He's telling the crowds and he's telling his disciples what's gonna happen, and what do they do? Typical, they respond back with a bunch of biblical and theological questions. But the next thing we see is that Jesus wasn't worried about answering their questions, but about pointing them to the lights. If you have your Bibles open, go to verse 31. Let's look at this exchange between Jesus and the crowds. It's pretty phenomenal. Verse 31, Jesus says, "'Now this is the judgment of the world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Meaning Satan's time as the ruler was coming to a close. What Jesus is saying is that the cross is a victory. It's a victory over sin and it's a victory over Satan. And then he says, and when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. What Jesus did, he did for the world. He said this to show by what kind of death he was gonna die.

Jesus knew what was coming.

And he knew that his death was gonna be the fulfillment of what he had said earlier when he said that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that those who would believe on him would not perish but have eternal life. Jesus is trying to share the gospel with this crowd, and they snap back with a bunch of questions. Verse 34, so the crowd answered him, we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is the Son of Man? They start firing all these questions, and look at how Jesus responds. He doesn't answer their questions. Verse 35, so Jesus said to them, the light is among you for a little while longer walk while you have the lights lest the darkness overtake you

Jesus doesn't answer their questions, but listen to me. He's not overtalking them and he's not talking past them He's trying to redirect them He's trying to point them to the light and that's a big challenge for us I think one of the lessons we need to learn in this is that our questions that we have, God has no prerogative to answer. Our questions that we have may not be indicative of the most important things that God is doing in this world. Jesus tries to cut through all their questions and bring them to what's most important in that moment. The light is about to go out. They need to believe in the light. With the precious little time that Jesus has left. He says this verse 36 while you have the light believe in the light, but listen, why that you may become sons or children of the light. So listen here, Jesus is the light of the world and his lights are about to go out. And so what does he tell them? He says, believe in the light that you may become children of light. Jesus is saying, if the light is to continue beyond my death, it's going to happen through my people, through my church. You need to believe in the light. When you believe in the light, you become the light. The Gospel of John foreshadowed this way back in chapter 1, verse 4, when it says, the life of Christ is the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Church, for those of us who believe, we believe. We have the light. But you need to understand something. Oh, hear me, you need to understand something. In this world, when you shine the light, the world is going to hate you for it. They're going to hate what you say and they're going to hate what you believe. And it's because they are used to the darkness. And when you shine the light, it's going to be blinding to them. And they're going to recoil from it and they're going to hate it. But Jesus is the light. He's the light of the world. And with the time that he had left, Jesus wasn't worried about answering their questions, but pointing them to believe in the light in himself, because his light was about to go out in a death that was nothing short of excrucio. It was excrucio in ways we will never fully understand.

Jesus was going to be rejected by the people. He was going to be abandoned by his friends. Jesus was going to be scourged by Roman soldiers. He was going to be whipped with leather, laced with pieces of metal and shards of bone specifically designed to bruise and slice his tissue. He would have been scourged to the point where his flesh would have been dangling off his body like strips of bloody meaty linen. Parts of his bones, his skeleton, would be exposed in places. They were going to take a crown of thorns and press it into his head, piercing his scalp and piercing his forehead. And then they would have made him carry his own cross. The beam of the cross is estimated to weigh at least 150 pounds. And he would have had to have done this with a beaten, bloody, exhausted, and dehydrated body. He had to carry it up a hill. And when he got to the top of that hill, they took nine-inch Roman nails and they drove it through his hands and through his feet so that he would literally be hung on a cross. And on top of all this, they crucified him naked to maximize the humiliation. With the weight of his own body pulling on the nails, tearing the flesh around those nails that held him there, with them there with arms outstretched. It was his own body's weight that was slowly suffocating him.

And the crown of all this is that God the Father, Christ's Father, placed on his own son the sins of the world and then poured out his wrath upon those sins as Jesus hung there taking our punishments. Everything you think and believe about the cross you need to understand it should have been you going through all of that but Jesus did it for us in our place. He hung there, listen to me, listen to me, he hung there willingly. He gave himself out of love for this and he hung there experiencing all of this until he said this word these words it is finished do you know what that means when Jesus said it is finished what he was saying was that the sins of mankind your sins my sins were paid in full when Jesus said it is finished what he was saying is that I have done what I set out to do. I have finished the job. He said, it is finished. And then he breathed his final breath and he gave up his spirit and he died. And with his death, that secures our salvation. That secures our eternal life. That secures our relationship with God again. And it's with the weight of all of this that we say these words, Jesus died for you. Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, for those of us who believe in this room, Father, we are so thankful that on this day we are people who look back on the cross and we also look back on the resurrection. We know that Good Friday is not the end of the story, but Good Friday happens. So Father, we are thankful that our Savior stood strong. Our Savior did what he set out to do. Our Savior saved us. So Father, I pray here and now, as we hear the words of this song, Father, I pray they continue to sink this truth into our hearts. This beautiful words of this song, Father, I pray they continue to sink this truth into our hearts. This beautiful truth that Jesus died for us.