Good Friday Service 2026

0:26 We are in just a little bit going to take the elements of communion together. Before we do, I'm going to read the passage of the crucifixion just in part, three verses to be exact, out of the Gospel of Luke chapter 23. The Gospel of Luke chapter 23. It actually begins, the crucifixion story begins in Luke 23 in verse 33, but we're going to begin in verse 44 in just a bit. You know, throughout history, God has spoken. He has been in the broadcasting business, broadcasting his will, revealing who he is. That's the premise that the book of Hebrews begins with. It tells us, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to our fathers by the prophets has spoken. God has been speaking from the beginning, and he's been speaking in two primary ways. God has spoken through his world creation, the natural order of things, and he has spoken in his word. That's special revelation. His world is general revelation.

1:51 You look around, you see design, and so you naturally think there must therefore be a designer. That's why Romans says they are without excuse because God has revealed himself through his world. But then when he wants to be very specific, he uses his word. So, Psalm 19 talks about both types of revelation. It says, That's God's universal voice speaking through nature, through the world. But in the same psalm, it talks about how God speaks through his word. A few verses down from that, the psalmist says, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

2:57 The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. For 15 centuries, God has spoken through the entirety of the Old Testament. He has communicated. and then there was silence. Let me explain. If you were to just open your Bible, you would find in the Old Testament 39 books, beginning in Genesis and ending in Malachi. That represents 1,500 years of Old Testament history. If you were finishing the book of Malachi and you just flipped the page, you'd be in the New Testament. So you might think that God just continued his revelation from the Old Testament into the New, but that didn't happen. What happened is God spoke for 1,500 years, and then there was a 400-year gap where he said absolutely nothing. There was no angelic visit. There were no miracles. There was no prophetic utterance. The prophets weren't speaking. 400 years of silence. That's why they are called the 400 silent years. In the broadcasting business, that's called dead air. And it is the one thing that broadcasters fear the most. If the signal doesn't get out, if there's a mistake on our end, or if there's a user error, or if a wire is severed, or a storm knocks out the tower, you have dead air. There's no broadcast, radio silence. And so there was dead air for 400 silent years. And finally, the silence was broken by a UFO, actually an angel.

4:53 But at first, you didn't know what it was. You'd think it's an unidentified flying object. Well, that unidentified flying object identified himself as Gabriel. He came to Zacharias. It was the first time in 400 years there was a message from heaven. And the Lord spoke through Gabriel to Zacharias to tell him that he and his wife are going to have a son, John the Baptist. Same angel shows up in Nazareth and speaks to Mary, informing her that she is going to have a miraculous child named Jesus. Same angel goes to Joseph. And then nine months later, in Bethlehem, when Emmanuel is born, a whole host of angelic beings sing glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men in whom God is well pleased. So suddenly, after 400 years, God is back in the broadcasting business on KNGL, K-Angel, broadcasting through the heavens.

6:05 But they were talking about somebody who was born in Bethlehem who would become God's ultimate source of revelation. The Word made flesh. That is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is heaven's best. And so back to Hebrews 1, God who at various times and various ways spoke in times past to our fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has made heir of all things. Now, with Jesus being on the earth, God spoke in a human voice. and what an incredible broadcast that was. When they came to arrest him, the temple guards came back not arresting him and their superiors said, why didn't you arrest him?

7:01 And all they could say is no man ever spoke like him. No man ever spoke like that man. When he was up in Nazareth, they marveled at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. and when Jesus said to the disciples will you also leave Peter said where else will we go you alone have the words of eternal life and he gave words like the Sermon on the Mount and the Olivet Discourse and the Kingdom Parables and they were amazing but though God was speaking the leaders, the religious leaders, wanted that voice silenced. Why? Because Jesus called them out on their hypocrisy. Jesus challenged them on their authority. He said things like this unto them, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. I mean, he lambasted them with truth.

8:09 And all they could think of is we have to silence that voice. And one day, their wish came true. Working with the Roman government, finagling them into false accusations, Jesus was put on the cross. And at 3 p.m. one Friday afternoon, the voice was silenced. His last words were spoken. We read about it in Luke chapter 23, verse 44. He breathed his last.

9:09 Now, in those three verses, Luke is telling us what happened in three places. He tells us what happened in the skies. He tells us what happened in the temple. And he tells us what happened at the cross. First of all, he explains what is going on in the heavens with an incredible phenomenon. Now it was about the sixth hour. and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened. Okay, let me give you a quick rundown. Jesus was placed on the cross at nine o'clock in the morning. When he was put on the cross during the first, he was on the cross for six hours in total. He died at three in the afternoon or thereabouts. They didn't have clocks, seconds, and minutes, but around that time. He was placed on the cross at nine in the morning, and he said three, he made three statements almost immediately while he was on the cross.

10:18 Until the sixth hour, 12 noon. That's according to Jewish reckoning. The day in Judaism began at six o'clock in the morning. The third hour when Jesus was placed on the cross was 9 a.m. The sixth hour was noon, and 3 p.m. was the ninth hour. So he speaks, and then there is silence, and there is darkness for a period of three hours. And finally, the silence will be broken by Jesus uttering four more statements in pretty rapid succession from the cross. but at the sixth hour at 12 noon when the sun is at its zenith in that part of the world in Israel in this time of the year the sun is at its apex when it is shining the brightest and it says that darkness covered the earth until the ninth hour and the sun became darken. Total darkness and silence for three hours. When the three hours is over, when it gets to be three o'clock, the silence is broken by a single statement. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. My God, my God in Aramaic, why have you forsaken me? But there was darkness for three hours.

11:49 Three hours. Now, if you think back 33 years before that, what a contrast. When Jesus was born, the heavens lit up. The glory of the Lord shone round about those shepherds that were out in the field. But now there's darkness. Three hours of it. It's a supernatural darkness. I say that because some people have tried to naturalize this, thing. It was probably a sandstorm or an eclipse. No, it was a supernatural darkness. And I tell you why I say that, not only because the Bible says that, but we have two independent accounts, one from Tertullian and one from Origen, who cite Roman historians who talk about this supernatural darkness that was this mystical darkness that fell over Jerusalem. And the way they wrote about it, it's like we all know this happened. It was in the annals of Roman documents.

12:50 Why darkness? Well, interestingly, the Babylonian Talmud says that God reserves darkness when he wants to punish an extraordinarily wicked sin. Think back to the plagues in Egypt. The ninth plague was darkness for three days, and the Bible says it was such a profound darkness that could be felt for three days. And then think ahead to the book of Revelation. One of the judgments God will pour out on the Antichrist at the end of times is darkness over his kingdom.

13:27 This is a profound supernatural darkness. And here's what is happening. God is emptying his wrath onto his son. This is a darkness of supernatural judgment. He's not judging the enemies of God. He's judging his son on the cross, pouring all of his wrath out on his son. As it says in Isaiah 53, it pleased the Lord to bruise him and to make his soul an offering for sin. What you basically have here is hell, hell coming to earth. Jesus described hell as outer darkness. Hell is coming to earth. God brought it for three hours, and for three hours, Jesus absorbed the eternal hell for every single person who would believe in him.

14:28 That's amazing to think about, isn't it? It is summed up in one verse. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, Paul said, That's a Bible way of saying God treated Jesus Christ like you deserve to be treated. So that he could treat you like Jesus deserves to be treated. That's the great exchange. That's substitutionary atonement. So hell comes to earth upon his son, and all of the eternity of hell for everyone who believed was taken by Jesus, and he did it all in three hours until it was finished in his own words. Think of it this way.

15:25 God saved you for himself, and God saved you by himself, and God saved you from himself. he put all of that wrath on his son to give you life. That's what happened in the skies. Then Luke, in the same verse, verse 45, looks to the temple to show us what happened at the temple. Verse 45, just the second half of the verse, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. Now, you probably know the veil of the temple was a separating cloth originally in the tabernacle that separated the holy place from the most holy place or the holy of holies. And the holy of holies, only the high priest could go into that room once a year. And what separated those two chambers was a veil. As time went on and there was a temple, the veil got much, much, much, much bigger. At the time of Christ, according to tradition, because of the height of the temple, the veil was 60 feet high. So take this building times two from its apex, from its pinnacle twice or better than that, 60 feet tall, 30 feet wide, and it was as thick as the palm of a man's hand or roughly four inches thick. It took 300 priests to handle that single veil.

16:55 Mark tells us not only was it torn in two, it was torn in two from top to bottom. So it was unmistakable that God tore that veil. Now, there are four independent testimonies that confirm the veil was torn beside the scripture. There's the writings of a historian by the name of Tacitus, a Roman historian. There's another independent testimony from a Jewish historian by the name of Flavius Josephus. There's also the testimony of the early Christian writings. And finally, the Talmud, the Jewish writings, the Talmud say that the veil of the temple was torn at a particular Passover. And in the Jewish writings, they said that was an omen, a bad omen that would speak of what is coming in the future, and that is the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. Maybe, maybe that is an omen, but more than that, it's a message.

17:57 It's a message from God. God was disturbing their worship service. God was butting into their worship service. And what his message was is the way is now open. Come close. Come close. You remember the temple had corridors and courtyards and places only certain people could go. The priests could go to one place. Men could go to another place. Women could go to another place. Gentiles were in the nosebleed section way out. They couldn't get very close. In fact, there was a wall in the temple that had a sign on it that said, any Gentile who crosses this point will be responsible for his own ensuing death.

18:45 So it was basically a sign that said stop until the veil was ripped and God said, come. Come. Come all the way and have fellowship with me. Now, this is an important event and it is mentioned in the Gospels, not just here, but in the other Gospels. Why? Because the tearing of the veil marks the end of the Old Testament. It is the official end of the old covenant the moment that veil was ripped. God is basically saying that that system, it's done. We don't need a temple anymore. We don't need little lambs anymore. We don't need a priesthood anymore. Because the lamb who takes away the sin of the world has opened the way. And you have to know this. The veil was torn when Jesus died on that cross at the precise moment that they were about to sacrifice all those lambs in the temple. And God said, it's over.

19:45 Old Testament is over. This is the new covenant. They were saying, keep out. God was saying, come in at that moment. There's an interesting report. And that is that. Eventually, they sewed the veil back up. And they kept their religion going. Of course, they did until 70 AD. We know that. But just think about that. God ripped the veil and said, come in. They sewed it up. That's just typical of humanity, isn't it, right? God makes it simple. We have to make it more complicated. God rips the veil. We'll sew it back up. God says the way is open. Oh, no, no, no. We got to close back up. We always like to complicate what God makes simple.

20:34 And that's an insult to God. When you complicate what he simplifies, it's an insult to him. When you place something or someone else between you and God, that's an insult to him. There's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That's what happened at the temple.

20:59 Finally, he shifts to the cross in verse 46. What happened at the cross? and when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. These are Jesus' final words, his last words. Now, a person's first words are not that big of a deal. I know parents think they are, and they think, oh, I know what he just said. He just articulated a sentence. No, he He just kind of grunted, basically, but you might think it's an actual communication, but a person's first words are generally like every other person's first words, but a person's last words, now those are significant. A person's last words are significant because they differ from person to person. People die differently, and I've watched a lot of people die over the years. And I've noticed that people die differently. Some die in hope, some die in despair. And that is because of the way they lived. The way you die is because of how you lived.

22:09 And that is reflected when a person dies. I'll never forget, I went to the hospital here downtown. A dear woman from our church was on her deathbed. They asked if I'd come. I came. It was in the evening. Family was gathered around. She was in a coma. And they said, you know, she hasn't said anything. And they were singing a song and praying. And suddenly, as we were talking, she sat up in bed. I mean, just sat upright. And she smiled. And she said, I'm ready to go. She went back down. And in a few minutes, she was in heaven. That's because of how she lived. so while Jesus was doing his greatest work on earth, he was uttering his greatest words on earth, and he made seven statements on the cross. First thing he said was a prayer to his father. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Those words informed the thief that was next to him that forgiveness is possible, and he cried out and asked for it, and so Jesus' second statement was to the thief on the cross saying, today you'll be with me in paradise.

23:23 His third statement was to his mother and John the apostle at the foot of the cross. Mother, behold your son. Son, behold your mother. In other words, John, take my mom home and take care of her now. And then there was silence for three hours. Darkness and silence as the wrath of God fell upon the Son of God. And then the silence was broken by my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? followed by the words, I thirst, followed by the words, it is finished, and then finally followed by this final and seventh statement, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.

24:05 Jesus gave up his spirit. His life was not taken from him. he gave his life he said as much he said no one takes my life from me i lay it down of myself i have the power to lay it down and i have the power to take it up again that is what he is doing he gave he released after all the wrath was satisfied upon the perfect son of god in just three hours six hours total he knew it was done and he said it's finished to tell us die he gave up his spirit father into your hands i commit my spirit those are words right out of psalm 31 a direct quote from psalm 31 verse 5 and with a final exhale there was silence once again. Silence.

25:00 Dead air. Heaven went radio silent once again. God had spoke for 1,500 years in the Old Testament, and then he was silent for 400 years. Then the angel showed up. Then Jesus showed up. Then he died on a cross, and this was his final statement. And heaven is silent again. but not for 400 years, just three days. In three days, his voice would be heard again. In three days, he would speak again. In three days, he would speak for another 40 days with his disciples. The dead air was shattered by a living Savior. Now, here's what I find interesting. Did you know that Satan's first words recorded words in Scripture, Satan's first words were to a woman in a garden and his words brought death. Jesus' first words post-resurrection were to a woman in a garden and his words brought life.

26:06 Now, three days, three days in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Why three days? Why three days? Why three silent days to demonstrate he was dead, to demonstrate he was good and dead? Otherwise, people would be running around saying, it was a resuscitation. no it was a resurrection he was dead and buried and conquered death came back to life and then Jesus as I said spoke for another 40 days and at the end of 40 days what did he do he ascended up into heaven from the mount of olives and the disciples watched him go up so does that mean heaven is silent again now that Jesus has gone up into heaven is heaven silent I sure hope not because one of the last words Jesus gave to his disciples was a commission remember what it was he said to us go into all the world and do what preach the gospel be the voice of God to your generation speak the truth of God to people who don't know him heaven is not silent he's speaking through you to people in your family to people in your neighborhood to people in your city in your world back in 1936 at the time his name was King Edward VIII. He was king for a short period of time until he abdicated the throne. You might know the story. He fell in love with an American girl. It was a scandal. He had to quit royalty and abdicate the throne, which he was willing to do because he said he loved this girl so much.

28:10 So he had to make the announcement to his people in England that he was leaving the monarchy, abdicating the throne. But he wanted to make that statement not only to the British people, but to the Americans. So the technology was set up so that he could speak live from London to the people of England and the people of America. And it was broadcast. The connection was WJZ in New York. Just before the broadcast went live, somebody was walking across the studio and tripped over the wire, the only line of communication connecting England and the United States. He busted it. Well, now the engineers are frantic. They don't know what to do. And a very quick thinking apprentice was just like counting down 10, 9, 8. He's going live. He grabbed both wires and held them. And for that speech, the king's word was literally transmitted through the body of a human being from wire, low voltage, to wire. He held on to it. The king addressed the people of America transmitted through the body of a man. Here's my point.

29:33 It's your turn to hold the wires. It's your turn to let the king speak through your body, your voice, so that heaven is not silent. Heaven is speaking through the voices of his people. God is speaking today. And the Bible says this, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Do not harden your hearts. What is God saying today? He's still saying, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He's still saying, drink of this water of the world. You'll thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I give will never thirst. He's saying that. And he is saying to us, it is finished. Paid in full. transaction is complete it's finished the question is are you finished yet running from him are you done yet doing your own thing trying to come up with your own plans and not letting God rule your life are you finished with that and will you turn to him he died for you and he conquered death proving that we can have a living hope which is what i'm going to be talking about on easter living hope can be yours tonight good friday this good friday can be your great friday If you receive the greatest gift ever given to us.

31:09 Salvation by faith. By faith. Not by works, not by religion. The veil's been ripped. Believe, trust, commit. Let's bow our heads and just have a word of prayer. We'll take communion in just a little bit, but let's bow our heads. Lord thank you for the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross not only for us but in the place of us that you made your son you made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in him so that father when you looked at the cross and Jesus was hanging on it, you saw us. And when you look at us, you see Jesus, your son, perfect and righteous, because we have received that work, that merit by faith. I pray for anybody who has not done that. I pray that they would, that they would not leave this room without saying yes to the Savior.

32:22 Now our heads are bowed, and this is a holy moment. This is a very precious moment. Because this is a moment for many of you, a moment of choice, a moment of decision. And as you think back over your life, and you think what it has brought you to today, and what you thought life would be like, and maybe you are at a place where you realize, you know, it's not all that I thought it would be. maybe there is something more maybe I was actually created for something more maybe I was made on purpose for God's purpose and I have yet to experience that it's true how do you experience it you come to him you receive him the Bible says as many as received him to them he gave the right or the authority, the power to become children of God to anyone who would believe in his name.

33:28 So I wanna give you that opportunity if you've come. and you've never truly surrendered your life to Christ. you've never laid it down, or maybe you did make some kind of a decision, maybe years ago, maybe in your youth, but to be honest, you haven't been following Jesus. You're not walking with him.

33:55 And you sense that, you feel the distance. you can do something about it. The Bible says that he stands at the door of our hearts and he knocks. Whoever will open the door, he'll come in and have fellowship with him. But the doorknob is on the inside. You've got to open it. You will not push it down. You've got to open it and invite him in. It is by invitation. It is by receiving him. You have to be willing to do that.

34:30 So if you've never done that authentically, honestly, or you wandered away and you need to come back home, I want to pray for you before we take the elements. I want you where you're seated to raise your hand up in the air. Just raise it and keep it up in the air. And by raising your hand, you're saying, Skip, pray for me on this Good Friday that I can give my life to or back to Christ. Just raise it up. God bless you in the back and you and you in the back and several of you in the back here in the middle. I'm just calling out hands that I see them to my right, right over here, to my right over here, in the front to my right. Yes, just keep those hands up and pray for people in this room right now. Anybody else? Raise it up. Just identify yourself. You're just saying, yep, this is the moment of truth. So Father, we pray for all these people in this room. You see each hand, more than that you see every heart, every thought, every situation, the heartache, the good, the bad.

35:32 You are willing to give a brand new start to these who are coming by faith. Strengthen them. Reveal your love and yourself, your heart to them. and I pray they will leave tonight knowing without a doubt that they are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ it's in his name we pray amen now I'm going to ask all of you to stand to your feet for just a moment all of us right now yes we're about to take communion we'll do it on our feet I'm having you stand because I want to make it easier for those around you who raise their hands to do something if you raise your hand up I'm going to ask you as we sing this final song to get up from where you're standing find the nearest aisle and come and walk up here to the front and face me and when you're all up here together I'm going to lead you in that prayer that asked Jesus to come into your heart.

36:35 But let's, as we sing this song, you get up and come. Don't put this step off. Don't say, I raised my hand, you prayed for me good enough. No, you come and make it your own. Make it real, make it public. Everyone Jesus called in the New Testament, or most everyone, he called them publicly. There's something that happens when you are willing to step out of the shadows and make a bold public decision for Jesus Christ. There's something that just cements it in your heart. So begin coming as we sing this song. You get up and come and stand right here and face me. Come on up. Hi sweetheart. Awesome. Come on. Come stand with me.

37:27 Stand right up here. Thank you. Just stay right where you're at. Come on out. I don't know if it's true, but some of you may not be coming because you're thinking, oh, Skip, you don't know how bad I've been living. You don't know what I've done.

38:41 you're right I don't but you don't know what I've done before I gave my life to the Lord some of you who've been here a while you do know because I've told you but thing is God knows anyway and he loves you the way you are he loves you the way you are while we were sinners, Christ died for us. He loves you the way you are. But guess what? He loves you the way you are, but he loves you way too much to leave you the way you are. That's where all the change is going to come. He promises to change your life. Anybody else before we close this up? Come on. Yes, yes, yes. Welcome. Welcome. Okay. For those of you who have come forward, I'm going to now lead you in a prayer. I'm going to pray out loud. I want you to pray out loud after me.

39:47 It's not like a formula. You're just talking to God, but I want you to think about these words and say these from your heart. You ready? Let's pray. Say this. Say, Lord, I give you my life. I know I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. I believe in Jesus, that he came to earth, that he died on a cross for me, that he rose again. I turn from my sin. I turn to Jesus as Savior. and as master of my life. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Help me to live for you in Jesus name. Amen. Now, don't go away. Don't go away. You've come all the way forward. Instead of bringing you back to your seat, we have, we're going to give you the elements. We're going to take communion right where you're standing.

40:48 All of you who have come forward, I'm going to take it with you, and we're all going to take it together. Because now you're a child of God. Now this communion actually means something. It's not a ritual. It means that you personally believe what Jesus did on the cross, he did for you. You're making it your own. Okay, so let's pray. Father, thank you for what Jesus did for all of us in making us whole and making us children of God. Thank you for saving us. thank you for making us your children thank you for the precious blood of Jesus Christ