April 6, Good Friday Service 1:00 pm

Lesson: Hebrews 10.1-10, 17, 19, 22-23.

Sermon Title: Not You, Him!

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An old story tells of a company attempting to start a new pension plan, which required 100% participation. Every employee signed up except one.

No amount of argument or persuasion could get this person to change his mind.

Finally, the president of the company called the man into his office. "Here is a copy of the proposed pension plan and here is a pen," he said. "Sign up or you're fired."

Whereupon the man immediately picked up the pen and signed his name.

The president of the company then said, "I don't understand why you refused to sign until now. What was your problem?"

The man replied, "You're the first person who explained it to me clearly."

INTRODUCTION:

  1. Jesus is the first person who explains it clearly for us.

    1. While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way,

    2. "See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised," (Matthew 20:17-19, NRSVA).

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Jesus is the first person, Paul may be the second.

    1. Paul is a boy who has begun to understand the story of the crucifixion.

      1. Paul is 3 years old.

He Couldn't Get Off (1)

It was the season of Lent and little three-year-old Paul was listening attentively in Sunday school. For the first time he began to understand the story of the crucifixion.

That evening at supper he unexpectedly said: "Jesus died on the cross!" Needless to say, his Christian parents were very pleased to hear such a confession come from their little guy.

But then his mother asked him a crucial question: "Why did Jesus die on the cross?"

After a moment of silence and excited anticipation on the parents part, the three-year-old rolled his eyes upward, thought real hard and answered, "Because he couldn't get off!"

The parents looked at each other with surprise.

It appeared their son believed that Jesus was physically stuck on the cross and unable to free himself.

His answer seemed far from the truth.

      1. But the more his mother and father reflected on it, the more accurate, even profound the little fellow's statement sounded to them.

  1. He couldn't get off, of course he could.

    1. Jesus makes a rather bold statement when he says,

"Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?" (Matthew 26:53-54, NRSVA).

    1. Ray Overholt in 1959, wrote Ten Thousand Angels

They bound the hands of Jesus in the garden where he pray
They led him through the street in shame
They spat upon the Saviour so pure and free from sin
They said crucify him he's to blame.

He could have called ten thousand angels
To destroy the world and set him free
He could have called ten thousand angels
But he died alone for you and me.

Upon his precious head they placed a crown of thorns
They laughed and said behold the king
They struck him and they cursed him and mocked his holy name
And all alone he suffered everything.

He could have called ten thousand angels
To destroy the world and set him free
He could have called ten thousand angels
But he died alone for you and me...

    1. But he could not get off.

  1. He didn't want to get off.

    1. He had a responsibility to fulfill.

    2. He had a task to perform.

    3. Allow the thoughts of Hebrews to expand our vision and understanding.

      1. 1Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach.

      2. 2Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?

      3. 3But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year.

      4. 4For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

      5. 5Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

        1. "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

        2. but a body you have prepared for me;

      6. 6in burnt offerings and sin offerings

        1. you have taken no pleasure.

        2. Then I said, 'See, God, I have come to do your will, O God'

        3. (in the scroll of the book it is written of me)."

      7. 8When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law), 9then he added, "See, I have come to do your will."

        1. He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.

        2. 10And it is by God's will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, (Hebrews 10:1-10, NRSVA).

    4. "In a sense, little Paul was right, his parents concluded.

      1. "Even though Jesus could have come down from the cross because of his divine power, he could not get off because he had so much love." (2)

      2. His love and sacrifice provide a role model, an example that may be followed.

In 1943 Mother Maria, a Russian Orthodox nun, was sent to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp where even the guards called her that wonderful Russian nun.
They probably never meant her to die. But one day a new block was built in the camp.

The prisoners were told they were hot baths. A few dozen women were lined up outside the buildings. One girl became hysterical. Mother Maria, who had not been selected, came up to her. 'Don't be frightened, Look, I shall take your turn."

And in line with the rest, she passed in through the doors. And the date? Good Friday 1945.

        1. She couldn't get off.

        2. She had so much love, she couldn't get off.

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  1. Then there are those who choose not to follow

Indifference, G. A. Studdart-Kennedy

Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, MC (June 27, 1883-March 8, 1929), was an Anglican priest and poet. He was nicknamed 'Woodbine Willy' during World War for giving Woodbine cigarettes along with spiritual aid to injured and dying soldiers. (3)

When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged him on a tree,
They drave great nails though hands and feet, and made a Calvary;
They crowned him with a crown of thorns, red were his wounds and deep,
For those were the crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed him by,
They never hurt a hair of him, they only let him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do,"
And still it rained the winter rain that drenched him through and through;
The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall and cried for Calvery.

    1. The indifferent cannot get off.

    2. This is because they never got on.

    3. Without knowing it, the preschooler summed up the depth and width and height of God's love with just one phrase: "He couldn't get off." (4)

  1. We cannot get off, either.

    1. It is not just the cross of Christ, it is also our cross.

    2. If we are going to be faithful, we cannot ignore it, diminish it, reject it, be indifferent it.

    3. We come together on Good Friday to offer a quiet and solemn confession that each of us must shoulder responsibility for the Jesus death on the cross.

      1. We did it.

      2. We, with our weaknesses and failings, complete with our willful disobedience of God's laws, and with our own feelings of hatred, bigotry, jealousy, lust or anger, did it.

      3. We, with our need for salvation, did it.

      4. We, because of our willful sin and rebellion, did it.

      5. We, because we're like sheep that have gone astray, and the Lord "laid on him the iniquity of us all," did it.

        1. If we're reluctant to admit this, consider the weight of Scripture:

          1. "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23);

          2. "God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8);

          3. "For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life" (Romans 5:10).

        2. Is this vital to our understanding of the cross?

    4. Of course, a plea bargain is possible.

      1. We've figured out the causes.

      2. We've made the confession.

      3. Now, it's not time for incarceration; it time for liberation.

      4. It is time to accept his forgiveness and our redemption.

      5. God remembers our sins and our lawless deeds no more.

      6. Let's have confidence that our hearts are now pure, and, in the assurance of faith, let us hold fast to our hope (Hebrews 10:17, 19, 22-23).

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CONCLUSION:

  1. When we do this, it frees us to live again! Notice the effects of the Good Friday death:

    1. God's covenant is written in our hearts and minds (10:16)

      1. Our sins are forgiven (10:17,18)

      2. We can pray (10:19-22)

      3. Our conscience is clean (10:22)

      4. We have hope again (10:23)

    2. We can help each other to love and do good deeds (10:24)

      1. We will want to worship together (10:25)

      2. We will want to encourage each other (10:25)

  2. These are not the actions of condemned, unforgiven criminals.

    1. These are the actions of the people of God who, although acknowledging their complicity in the death of Jesus, live as those forgiven, and now empowered to experience life as God intended it to be experienced.

    2. Christ's sacrifice was made once, for all of us.

      1. We claim the cross for ourselves.

      2. By claiming the cross, we find life.

Amen.

1. Thomas H. Trapp, Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel, Madison, WI

2. Ibid

3. Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4. Ibid

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