Worship Service Programs

Theme:
"Kingdom Power"

by

William MacLean

Good Friday

1st Hour Sermon Outline

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE 'RINGS' OF THE LORD: SUFFERING

By

Lt. Colonel William MacLean

"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures . . ." (1 Corinthians 15:3).

The premise of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is that good triumphs over evil. Although Tolkien's trilogy is based on fantasy, the scriptures are based on fact. The triumph of good over evil is the true legacy of the Son of God who is the Lord of lords and King of kings. As we consider the climactic aspects of the days of His flesh, we include the fellowship of the "rings" of our Lord, suffering, conquering and offering.

The dramatic events in the earthly life of Jesus Christ leading up to and including His resurrection comprise the high points of the Christian calendar. We begin at Christmas with the birth of Christ, then we go through the sequence of events commemorating His life and then His death for the sins of the world. He's been crucified. He's been buried. He's been raised again to victory over death. And He offers newness of life to everyone who trusts in Him.

When Mary Magdalene stood outside the empty tomb, she hardly knew what to say. Then the risen Jesus asked her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" At that point she knew that Jesus had been crucified and buried, but she did not yet know that he had come back from the dead on the third day. She soon was to realize that it was the most astounding event ever to have occurred in the history of humankind. Now, just imagine for a moment that you were the first one to see the risen Christ that morning when He came forth from the tomb. If you were the first one to see Him, what do you think He might have said to you? Consider that he might have asked you three pointed questions.

The first thing He might have said is this, "Do you understand what happened three days ago?" Unless we understand what happened on Good Friday, we won't have any understanding of what happened on Easter Sunday. What happened on Good Friday? Christ died for sin. That's what 1 Corinthians 15:3 says. Paul writes, "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures . . ." It wouldn't make any difference on Easter if there wasn't a reason why Christ died on Good Friday. Now, since he says He died for our sins, that means that everybody in the world is a sinner. I'm a sinner. You're a sinner. Billy Graham is a sinner. There's not a single person in the world who is not a sinner. And Christ died on the cross to pay for the entire sins of the world. We may want to say it like this: He died as our substitute.

Sometime ago in Hong Kong , two young men were on the way home from their father's business establishment. It was late in the evening, and these two young boys saw an older man. The younger brother began to tease him in a mischievous way. As things sometimes happen, the prank went awry, and the old man was killed. When he was murdered, his blood was splattered all over the shirt of the young man who had killed him. His older brother, having seen what had happened, knew what the consequences would be. So he took the bloodied shirt off of his brother and exchanged it for his shirt. He, the older brother, now wore the bloodied shirt. The authorities put the older brother into prison, tried him, sentenced him and put him to death for his brother's crime. His brother lived all the rest of his life knowing that his older brother had died on his behalf. He was living because his brother had died as his substitute.

If you can take that analogy and transfer it to what God has done for us, you can understand something of what it means when we say that Christ died for our sins. If I were to die for you, or if you were to die for me, that really wouldn't be all that effective, because neither you nor I are perfect. It wouldn't mean that much, because it would just be the death of one person for one other. But when the Son of God dies for us, it's the perfect Son of God dying for imperfect people. And so, He can pay the infinite price of all the sins of the world and He can, therefore, pay for our sins as well.

The first thing our scripture text says is that Christ died on that Good Friday for our sins. A question may well arise at this point. Why would He die for me? There is only one answer, and it is found in Romans 5:8 which says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Do you know why the Lord died for you? It's quite simple. It's just because He loves you. That's the only reason, just because He loves you.

A few years ago there was an article in the National Geographic Magazine about a father and son who had gone fishing on a lake in one of our national parks. Unfortunately, they had taken along only one personal floatation device. A storm came up, and the boat capsized. The father quickly took the one life preserver and put it on his son. The lad recalls that as his father was going beneath the waves and was drowning while pushing him toward the shore, he said to him, "Son, I love you! I love you!" He died for his son because he loved him. The reason that Jesus died for you is just that simple; it was just because He loves you.

Back in Deuteronomy, the Lord assured Israel in the seventh chapter that He had chosen them "out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession," not because they were "more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you . . ." You may come to God and ask, "Lord, why do you love me?" Based on the scripture, we may imagine His response, "Just because; it's just the way I am. I just love you."

So, if you understand what happened on Good Friday, you're in the position of beginning to understand what the resurrection is all about. The first question Jesus might ask every one of us is this: "Do you understand what happened that day?"

The Gospel accounts tell us that the soldiers dragged Jesus to the cross and nailed Him to it. During all of this, Jesus kept bestowing forgiveness. His plea, "Father, forgive them," must have unnerved the executioners. At noontime, darkness settled over the land. During that long and dreadful ordeal, Jesus took on all the sins of the world. He took the place of all the sinners, all the bullies, gangsters, liars, rapists, embezzlers, the indifferent, the sadistic, even the self-righteous. It's a scene of unspeakable horror. Jesus bears the fears of abused children, the anxiety of innocent victims, the anguish of undeserved pain.

Can you imagine that tragic scene of Jesus on the cross, as He gasps for air and shouts, "It is finished!"? The Son of God came to earth. He endured ridicule. He suffered pain. He died. He came back from the dead. Do you know why Jesus did that? He did it because He loves you. He took our place. He accepted our punishment. He did it just because He loves us.

Do you know what happened on Good Friday? Jesus was crucified!