{"id":1578,"date":"2015-04-03T17:04:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T21:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1578"},"modified":"2015-04-03T17:07:34","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T21:07:34","slug":"good-friday-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/good-friday-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Friday 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good Friday<\/a>
\nIsaiah 52:13-53:12
\nHebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9
\nJohn 18:1-19:42
\nApril 3, 2015<\/p>\n

Jesus has been crucified.\u00a0 This is a punishment used only for the worst of criminals but Jesus is not a criminal.\u00a0 When they bring Jesus to Pilate, Pilate asks, \u201cWhat charge do you bring against this man?<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 They only reply, \u201cIf we were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

How could they treat Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah<\/em>, this way?\u00a0 Distraught at what is happening, Peter denies Jesus three times.<\/p>\n

Yet, this should have been expected.\u00a0 Jesus told His disciples that He would suffer but they could not believe or understand it.\u00a0 Yet, it wasn\u2019t new with Jesus.\u00a0 600 years before Jesus, Isaiah speaks of the Suffering Servant.<\/p>\n

Isaiah tells us that the Suffering Servant will be raised high and greatly exalted.\u00a0 This is Jesus.\u00a0 Isaiah also speaks of the servant as the one who will be marred.\u00a0 Jesus is scourged and beaten.\u00a0 The Jews expected a great political king but, as Isaiah spoke of the Suffering Servant, Jesus had \u201cno stately bearing<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why must Jesus suffer?<\/p>\n

Isaiah gives the answer stating, \u201che was pierced for our offenses, cursed for our sins<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 \u201cthrough his suffering, my servant shall justify many.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus dies for us.<\/p>\n

But before He dies for us, He has another purpose to fulfill.\u00a0 As He says to Pilate, \u201cFor this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth<\/strong>.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people today believe that there is no universal truth, that all are free to believe whatever they want.\u00a0 This is not so.\u00a0 There is a truth that lasts forever and it comes from God through Jesus.<\/p>\n

Jesus came knowing that He would die for our sins but before He freely gives His life for us, He teaches us what it means to be disciples.<\/p>\n

What He teaches is the Father\u2019s Will but it is not a popular message.\u00a0 It leads some to oppose Him.\u00a0 Are we willing to say an unpopular message?<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 teaching gets Him arrested.\u00a0 When Jesus was questioned He was given a chance to speak.\u00a0 He could have recanted what He had said or claim to have been misunderstood.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 In fact, when He is questioned, He tells them to ask anyone who has heard Him speak what He has said.\u00a0 Even facing death, Jesus stands by what He had said.\u00a0 Would you?<\/p>\n

If you had spoken what is true, would you change it to save your earthly life?<\/p>\n

If you had lied, would you come clean before death?<\/p>\n

When faced with the possibility of arrest, Peter denies Jesus three times.\u00a0 Would you have done any different?<\/p>\n

If we look at the story of Jesus\u2019 Passion in solely earthly terms, it would seem His life was taken from Him but it is not.<\/p>\n

As the Suffering Servant, Jesus willingly hands His life over, submitting to our Father\u2019s Will.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because He knew that there was a benefit that would come from His Suffering. \u00a0What benefit did Jesus receive from His Crucifixion?\u00a0 He received no benefit for Himself.<\/p>\n

We are the ones who receive the benefit of Jesus\u2019 Crucifixion, the forgiveness of our sins, the salvation of our souls<\/em>.<\/p>\n

What Jesus did, He did for us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good Friday Isaiah 52:13-53:12 Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9 John 18:1-19:42 April 3, 2015 Jesus has been crucified.\u00a0 This is a punishment used only for the worst of criminals but Jesus is not a criminal.\u00a0 When they bring Jesus to Pilate, Pilate asks, \u201cWhat charge do you bring against this man?\u201d\u00a0 They only reply, \u201cIf we were …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Good Friday 2015’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29,26,82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-ps","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1578"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1582,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1578\/revisions\/1582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}