Focus: Good Friday!

Text: Mk.15:25

"And it was the third hour, and they crucified him."

What's good about Good Friday? Jesus Christ died on a Friday, a day that should have been recorded in all of history as the ugliest day in the world's calendar. It was a day that man killed his own maker and master. It was a day that the sons of men killed the son of God. It was a day that the Lord of glory was ignorantly crucified by mere mortals. 

Jesus Christ prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do…" Paul writes, "For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." The cross was a mystery to many. Man demonstrated the highest level of ignorance in killing Jesus Christ.

Peter tells us what was good about the Good Friday. He says, "By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom YE CRUCIFIED, whom GOD RAISED from the dead…" (Act.4:10). Mark said, "THEY crucified him." Peter says, "Whom YE crucified," and "Whom GOD raised from the dead." The good thing about the Good Friday is that God vindicated Christ by raising Him from the dead. The good thing about the Good Friday is that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. 

So the death of Christ was redemptive, not vindictive. He died the death of a victor, not the death of a victim. In the death of Christ, Death died and lost its power. Not only did Death die, but Peter also declares, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Act.2:36). 

God made the man crucified both Lord and Christ. He is both our Sovereign and Savior - the anointed one of God. That is what is good about the Good Friday.

What Christ accomplished on the cross six hours on that Friday made it the Good Friday. 

God:

*Cancelled the curse

*Restored order

*Ousted Satan

*Saved man from his own sin

*Settled and sealed a blissful eternity for man

By the way of the cross, God turned ashes into beauty, failure into success, a mistake into a miracle, and death into life.

They crucified Him, but God raised Him from the dead. Like the six days of creation in Gen.1, Christ in six hours gave us a new beginning, a new man, and a new creation. The good thing about the Good Friday is that crucifixion and resurrection are forever connected. He died to rise, and rose never to die again.

Let us bow in worship to the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the crucified and the resurrected!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter