"By His Wounds We are Healed"
Good Friday Service
Mililani Community Church
Pastor Rick Bartosik
April 21, 2000

This evening let's take a journey with Jesus from the Garden of Gethsemane to the Cross. Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane Thursday night. Then he was taken to the house of Caiaphas the High Priest--where the teachers of the Law and the elders of Israel were assembled. They were looking for false evidence against Jesus so they could put him to death. But they did not find any--though many false witnesses came forward.

Finally the H.P. stood and said: I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said, Yes I am. And I say to all of you, in the future you will see the son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven. The H.P. tore his clothes--He has spoken blasphemy, why do we need any more witnesses? What do you think? They all cried out--He is worthy of death! Then they spit in his face

Some struck him with their fists

Others slapped him

By early Friday morning, he was bound and handed over to Pilate the Roman Governor. When Judas saw that Jesus was condemned, he was filled with remorse and said to the chief priests saying, I have betrayed innocent blood. They said, what is that to us, that's your problem. Then Judas threw the money into the temple and went out and hung himself.

In the meantime Jesus stood before Pilate. When the chief priests and elders accused him, he did not even open his mouth. Pilate was amazed that he did not try to defend himself. Pilate wanted to set Jesus free. Three times he said, "I find no basis for a charge against him." But each time they shouted back, "Crucify him! Crucify him! Finally Pilate took a bowl of water and washed his hands in front of the crowd saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood." They cried out, "Take him away! Crucify him! His blood be upon us and upon our children."

So Pilate turned Jesus over to the Roman soldiers. First he was scourged with a whip made of leather with pieces of metal and bone tied to the end of the whip. He back was lacerated and covered with blood. Sometimes prisons were known to have died from the scourging itself.

Then the soldiers stripped him, put a purple robe on him, weaved a crown of thorns and put it on his head; then they put a staff in his hand and mocked him, "Hail, King of the Jews!" Then they took the staff and kept beating him on the head. A passage in the OT says that they also pulled out his beard. Then Jesus went out, carrying his own cross to a place called the Place of the Skull or Calvary, where they crucified him.

Why did all this happen to Jesus? Why did the sinless, holy Son of God have to endure all this suffering and shame?---this agony and violent death? The Bible says (Isaiah 53:10) that it was THE LORD'S WILL to crush him and cause him to suffer. WHY WAS IT GOD'S WILL TO ALLOW JESUS TO SUFFER THIS WAY? The prophet Isaiah explains: (READ Isaiah 53:4-6). IT WAS ALL FOR US! He did it all for you and for me.

I John 4:10: "Herein is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

IN THE OLD TESTAMENT THERE WERE MANY FORESHADOWINGS OF CHRIST'S DEATH ON THE CROSS

Genesis 22 is one great example. In verse two we read: "Then God said to Abraham, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you LOVE, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about" (verse 2).

NOTICE: "…your son, your only son, whom you love…" This is the first time the word "love" occurs in the Old Testament. It is the love of a father for his only son. Abraham's love for his precious son Isaac, prefigures the love of God the Father for his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When we turn to the NT, the first time the word "love" appears in the Gospel of John it is in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son…"

It is also significant that God told Abraham to go to Mount Moriah. II Chronicles 3:1 tells us that Moriah was the place where many years later the temple was built.

So Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac foreshadowed all the sacrifices that would later be offered in that place. These sacrifices were all types and shadows of the death of Christ in that very same place---On the slopes of this same mountain, outside the city walls of Jerusalem, God the Father would offer His only Son as the Savior of the world.

Not only does the OT foretell them death of Christ as a sacrifice for our sins…

OVER AND OVER AGAIN THE NEW TESTAMENT ALSO EXPLAINS THE REASON FOR CHRIST'S DEATH

The Apostle Peter says…

I Peter 2:24: "He bore our sins in his own body on the tree."

I Peter 3:18: "Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God."

The Apostle Paul…

II Corinthians 5:21: "God made him who knew no sins, to be sin for us, that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Galatians 3:10,13: "It is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law…" "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

Romans 3:22-25: "Righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that comes by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement…"

Jesus' death on the cross provided a total payment for all our sin.

In Hebrews 10:11 God's Word says, "Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God." In the temple the priests never sat down, because their work was never done. But when Jesus offered himself for our sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, as an indication that his death fully and forever satisfied God as the payment for our sins.

According to Roman custom every criminal who was put to death by crucifixion had an inscription or a placard placed above his head. On this placard was written all the crimes for which he was to die.

Above the head of Jesus, Pilate wrote an inscription: "This is Jesus, King of the Jews." But above Jesus head another inscription was nailed to the cross which no human eye could see. Because the Bible indicates that all your sins and mine were nailed to the cross with Christ. Paul talks about this in Colossians 2:14: "He forgave us all our sins--having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross."

ALL of your sins were nailed to His cross. Listen to Romans 5: 6-8: "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possible dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

The cross is God's one and only provision for our sin. Apart from the cross there is no forgiveness of sin. Let me ask you a question: Are you trusting in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross as your only hope of salvation? Can you say, "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling"?

CONCLUSION: In the slums of London, a woman was very sick. And it frightened her, because she knew that she was dying. She said to her son, "Go find a minister to "get me in" as she put it. He went out and found a church and went to the rectory--

The minister came to the door---My old lady is dying…she wants you to come and get her in.

The minister thought that he meant get her in to a hospital, so he said, Get a policeman to get her in. But the boy said, she's home in bed dying---would you come? He was stunned. What will I say? I can't say what I preach. The people I preach to are people of culture and refinement. I tell them to just keep it up! I can't tell her to reform---its too late! Then he remembered his mother reading John 3:16 to him as a boy.

In desperation he turned to John 3:16: READ.

The lady said, you mean that's all I have to do is trust Jesus?

That’s what it says here! So she trusted Christ right there.

Afterwards the pastor said: "That night I not only got her in…I got myself in!" Are you sure you are in? Can you say, "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling?

This evening we are going to celebrate the wonderful ordinance Jesus gave us which symbolizes His death on the cross for us: the bread and the wine symbolize his broken body and his shed blood. If you are here this evening and have never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior you can do so right now by thanking him for his great work on the cross where he died for sinners. Acknowledge yourself to be a sinner and come to Christ for salvation tonight! If you are a believer, realize once again, the great price Jesus paid so that you might have this wonderful gift of salvation….

Copyright © 1999-2006 Rick Bartosik

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