Rev. David Holwick * Good Friday
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 14, 1995
Galatians 6:14-15
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I. A bummer of a holiday.
A. Easter has little of pizzazz of Christmas, Good Friday has none.
1) Easter is reduced to flowers and bunnies.
2) Good Friday especially is a downer holiday.
3) Negative and gruesome, even primitive.
B. Vivid images I have of Good Friday:
1) Going to a St. Louis Presbyterian church in the 3rd grade.
At Easter, we put daffodils and hyacinth in the wire mesh
around a black cross.
2) While in high school, our newly ordained youth worker who
nailed a cloth-covered cross, which bled real blood.
I don't remember his points, but I can't forget the image.
C. Good Friday is a significant holiday, not a "fun" one.
II. Cross-less Christianity.
A. Religion doesn't need a cross. Gal 2:21
1) Good works, religious rituals can make a decent religion.
During a Billy Graham crusade in Australia, a Melbourne
daily paper received this letter:
"I have heard Dr. Billy Graham on the air, viewed him
on television, and seen reports and letters
concerning his mission.
I am heartily sick of the type of religion that insists
my soul and everyone else's needs saving, whatever
that means.
I have never felt that I was lost nor do I feel that
I daily wallow in the mire of sin, although
repetitious preaching insists that I do.
Give me a practical religion that:
teaches gentleness and tolerance,
that acknowledges no barriers of color or creed,
that remembers the aged and teaches children goodness
and not sin.
If in order to save my soul I must accept such a
philosophy as I have recently heard preached,
I prefer to remain forever damned."
Notice that morality is emphasized, and it's good for
kids.
You don't even need God for a decent religion.
#3115
2) No need for any negatives, even death.
a) Our culture hides death as thoroughly as possible.
b) Funerals: lots of flowers, green mat around coffin.
I am only one who can see hole in ground beneath it.
B. The biblical view of God has been totally eclipsed.
1) We use God as a tool at appropriate moments of need,
like a Santa Claus.
2) The Christian doctrine of the Cross deals with the moral
gulf between God and man.
a) Somehow, that chasm must be bridged.
b) The biblical answer is the blood of Christ.
C. Aren't there other options?
1) Why couldn't God choose simply to forgive us the way we
forgive those who do us wrong?
a) The answer is to be found in the kind of God with whom
we have to deal.
1> He is not a sinful person who takes wrongdoing
lightly and can therefore forgive lightly.
2> He is holy and he takes sin with dreadful
seriousness.
b) The shedding of Christ's blood in our behalf is God's
solution to a dilemma.
1> On one hand, he loves us infinitely and desires even
at infinite cost to accept us into his loving
fellowship and kingdom.
2> On the other hand, he must uphold his own moral law
and the righteousness of his sovereign rule over
the universe. #2938
3> The cross accomplishes both at once.
III. Something to brag about.
A. First Century had even greater problems with cross than us.
1) Polite Roman society would never mention the word "cross."
a) Instrument not just of death, but torture.
b) Citizens could not be crucified - reason Paul beheaded.
2) Jews had further stumbling block that a crucified person
is cursed by God, according to OT.
B. The cross tells us distasteful truths about ourselves.
1) Jesus took a curse upon himself for us sinners.
a) He looks at us and says, I am here because of you.
b) I took your sin, your place, your penalty, your death.
c) Cross is more than a display of love.
2) We cannot save ourselves, which is hard to admit.
C. Paul was far from ashamed - he bragged about it.
1) He saw God's wisdom in taking ultimate sacrifice upon
himself.
a) We cannot boast in cross and ourselves at same time.
b) We have to choose.
2) The cross cuts us down to size.
a) We all have an inflated view of ourselves.
b) At the foot of the cross we shrink to true size.
Francis Asbury is considered the father of American
Methodism.
He traveled hundreds of thousands of miles and preached
tens of thousands of sermons.
Near the end of his notable life he said:
I was converted at the age of sixteen.
At the age of 18 I began to preach.
At twenty-six I left my native land, bid farewell to my
weeping parents, and crossed a boisterous ocean to
spend the rest of my days in a strange land.
In thirty years I have crossed the Allegheny Mountains
58 times.
I have slept in the woods and been without food and
covering.
Through the Southern states I have waded swamps and led
my horse for miles.
As a result of these journeys I took cold that brought
on the diseases that now prey on my body and must
soon end in death.
But I still have the same belief, that through the
merits of Christ and by the grace of God I am saved.
#3116
It is not what we do for God, but what he has done
for us.
IV. The radical renunciation.
A. Crucified to world. (subjective - what we do)
1) World is not physical planet, but realm of sin.
2) More than a lessening of attraction, it is a total break.
a) Christianity is more that giving up a few bad habits
like cursing and cigarettes.
b) World's thoughts and attitudes are no longer ours.
1> Crucified with Christ, live by faith. Gal 2:20
2> Dead to sin - Rom 6:6.
3> Get rid of rage, bitterness... Col 3:8ff
A few years ago the Red Cross was gathering supplies,
medicine, clothing and food for the suffering people
of Biafra.
Inside one of the boxes that showed up at a collection
center one day was a letter.
It said:
"We have recently been converted and because of our
conversion we want to try to help.
We won't ever need these again.
Can you use them for something?
Inside the box were several Ku Klux Klan sheets.
The Red Cross cut them into strips and eventually used
them to bandage the wounds of black victims in Africa.
#3117
B. New creation. (objective - what God does)
1) External religious stuff cannot save.
a) Church membership, baptisms, etc. are not important.
b) A genuine relationship with God is critical.
2) True religion focuses on cross and redemption.
a) The miracle is all God's doing.
b) God remakes us from the ground up. (born again)
c) He puts the Spirit in our hearts to renew us.
3) New creation is fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
Jer 31:33; Ezek 11:19; 18:31; 36:32
a) Law in heart, desire to obey.
b) Joy in Lord.
c) Desire to teach others.
V. Why should you be let in?
A. Evangelistic question: Stand before God, he asks why you should
be let into heaven.
B. One answer alone is acceptable - Jesus gave me admission.
=========================== Extra Notes ============================
A. Meaning of Crucifixion.
1) Injustice and cruelty of humans.
a) We often feel wronged, "crucified" by enemies.
2) Sacrifice, penalty for sins.
a) We have moved away from sacrifice system.
1> (still done in Florida, but repulsive)
b) Valid impulse - a price must be paid.
1> Sin is real and hurts us. (and God?)
2> (Long Island shooting victims at conclusion of trial
- give me 5 minutes alone, you animal!)
c) Primitive for God? Why demand payment?
1> Holy God must uphold moral requirements of law.
B. Why did Jesus die on a cross?
1) Real shame to Jews - cursed by God.
a) Our curse laid on him.
2) Paying our penalty. (expand penalty?)
C. Other applications of Crucifixion.
1) Crucifying Christ afresh.
a) My sins drive nails into Jesus.
b) Christians too "forgiven" driven?
1> God does it automatically - no. Cost him plenty.
D. Negative-Positive twist.
1) Cross goes against expectations.
a) Victory rather than defeat.
b) (unlikely victories in our day- communism gone,
Republicans in, Argentina now democratic...)
E. Isaac Watts and summation of Cross-theology:
"When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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