Gregg DeMey 0:10
Good morning and welcome to Elmhurst CRC's daily dose of the Word of God. This is Gregg DeMey and it's Friday, March 29 (Good Friday) and we're still walking with Jesus.
Gregg DeMey 0:21
Good Friday is a strange name for a day when so much bad happened. Indeed, this day is proof that our world is so broken and fallen into sin that we are unable to cope with the only perfect person - Jesus, God's Son, our Savior, who ever walked in our midst. But for all the bad and painful things that happened this day, don't make the mistake of thinking that Jesus is a victim in all of this. His life was not taken from him, he laid it down as a willing sacrifice for the consequences of our sin. The result of Jesus sacrifice is THE greatest good that could ever be accomplished and that is what this Sunday is all about. But it's still Friday, Good Friday. So listen to what Jesus purposefully endured for you and me to pay the price in innocent, sinless blood for our guilt, shame and sin. These words come from the Gospel of John, chapter 19.
Gregg DeMey 1:25
Then Pontius Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. Roman soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again saying, "Hail, King of the Jews," and they slapped him in the face. As soon as the Jewish chief priests and officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify, crucify!" So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the Place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha) and there they crucified him, and with him - two others, one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pontius Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Many of the Jews read this sign for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek so everybody could read it. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Don't write the King of the Jews, but that this man claimed to be King of the Jews." Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." Later, knowing that everything had now been finished and so that scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty," and a jar of wine vinegar was there. So they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stock of the hyssop plant and lifted it to Jesus lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." And with that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.