Well, as we come to look at God's word this evening, let me lead
us in prayer.
Lord, you know what distracted hearts we have.
We ask that you give us self recollection.
You know what hard dead hearts we have.
We ask that you would touch and awaken us.
You know how we resist your word and how our lower nature is
reluctant to bow to your scepter.
So, Lord, show forth your power.
Send your spirit on high to work among us to make our hearts
submissive and ourselves capable of living in true union with
you.
Our salvation of yielding totally to your grace.
Amen.
I do want to begin with a confession this evening.
Over the years that I've been in Anna Long, and I've had the opportunity
to speak during your Holy Week services, I've always said I've loved
Holy Week.
I've enjoyed the time that it affords to stop and think about why
this week, and particularly events of this day in particular,
are so important to us as God's people.
Well, my confession is that this year, out of many recent years,
is the year where I feel the least prepared for the celebration
of Easter.
Now, that's for various reasons, a busy week being one of
them, as well as a busy month of March.
And also, it doesn't seem that long ago, does it, since it was Christmas.
And let me tell you, next year, Good Friday will be the Friday
after St. Patrick's Day.
So it's going to be one of the earliest Easters that we can have.
There's Martin Luther that said the manger and the cross are
never far apart.
And perhaps a year like this, we feel that.
That it really does feel as if it's just been a step since Christmas.
And so the world has just been busier and busier, and all of a sudden
we find ourselves here at Easter.
Of course, Martin Luther wasn't talking about the calendar
when he said that the manger and the cross are never far apart.
He's talking about their significance.
The baby who was born in the manger that we celebrate at Christmas
was to be the Savior who would die on Calvary's cross so that we
would know completely and fully why God sent his one and only
son into the world.
His sacrifice so that we would not need to perish for our sins,
but have the gift of life because of his Son.
And that's why this day is a weary day.
It's a day of sadness.
It's a day of sorrow.
It's heavy and it has a burden.
And yet we call it good.
Good Friday is That day where the world does stop.
If you're of an age, you will remember that Northern Ireland had
certain laws about what could and couldn't be done on Good Friday.
Places could open at certain times and then have to close early,
or there would just be different ways of doing things.
Because of the significance this day had, not just in Northern
Irish society, but in the whole Christian church around the
world.
And without shadow of doubt, this is the most significant day
in the Christian calendar.
But yet how little we make of it.
We make so much more of Christmas.
In fact, Christmas now seems to begin on the 30th of October,
and then keeps going some.
And how quickly then we lose Christmas because on the 26th of
December, we simply want to take our decorations down because
we're sick and tired of looking at them, which tells us something
about how the world now portrays Christmas.
And yet isn't it doing the same with Easter?
Chocolate eggs, which we all enjoy, are now marketed to us as
the must have for Christmas or for Easter, although they're for
sale at Christmas, too, for some of them Easter bunnies.
I overheard one person in a shop today wishing a little girl
that she hoped the Easter bunny would bring her all the Easter
eggs she wanted, as if now the Easter bunny is the wish list of
what's needed.
And yet Good Friday is good because of what we know Christ accomplishes
on the cross.
Yet I want to suggest to you tonight that it's not only just a
good day, it's a remarkable day.
And whenever you think of a remarkable day, I wonder what a remarkable
day for you would be.
Maybe a remarkable day in your house would be when your children
tidy up.
That would be a remarkable day.
Maybe a remarkable day for you would be not to have to do any work
in your place of work or at home, but simply get to choose what
you want to do for once.
Maybe a remarkable day is to go somewhere within this fine province
and enjoy the beauty that we have all around us.
Or maybe your remarkable day is simply to have a cup of coffee
or tea and sit in a chair and read a book.
A day that seems dull and boring, but yet is remarkable to
you because of what it allows you to do.
But Good Friday is a remarkable day because of everything
that's been read for us in this passage in Matthew 27.
It begins in the early hours where Jesus is before Pilate, that
kangaroo court that was put in place by the Jewish leaders so that
Jesus would be charged with.
And what they would hope would happen, which did happen, was his
Execution.
And so he's before Pilate, and before he knows it, then he's before
the crowd.
This crowd, remember only a number of days before, were singing
hosanna of him, entering in and welcoming him, waving their palm
branches and putting their cloaks on the ground.
And now a crowd that were shouting, crucify.
Crucify.
And it was a day for them where they actually released and
wanted released, not Jesus of Nazareth, but Barabbas, where Matthew
himself tells us was known as a notorious prisoner.
Now, you know as well as I know that the word notorious is not
a good word.
If someone is notorious, well, you know they've done something that
gives him that notoriety.
And for Barabbas, he wasn't a good man.
And yet before them, they had the opportunity to release and free
the one who was truly good.
And yet, just like every succeeding generation, they want
what is off the world because they believe it is the world that
will satisfy.
And as soon as Barabbas is released, the cross is thrust upon
Jesus, whether it actually be the full cross or just the cross
bar that he would have to carry.
And he would have to walk through those streets of Jerusalem.
And Simon of Cyrene would have been pulled out of the crowd in verse
32 to carry the cross because Jesus was so weak.
Because what had they done to the Savior?
They had beaten him and scourged him within an inch of his
life and forced him in that pain and that suffering and that
sorrow to walk through those streets.
How true the hymn writer is in that wonderful hymn entitled man
of Sorrows.
You see, the man of sorrows is the one who would be hoisted up,
suspended between heaven and earth, so that we would know exactly
what it is to have a Savior who would redeem us.
But it didn't stop with walking through the streets.
Because once at Golgotha, then the mockery began, the insults hurled.
And which one of us like insults?
Which one of us like to be called names that are not kind and
are not true?
And this is what everyone did at Jesus.
They hurled them as if they were in a snowball fight, lifting
it and throwing it.
They say sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but names will never
harm me.
Well, we all know that's not true at all.
And then came that most significant of moments.
On this most remarkable of days, God in flesh died.
Now let that sink in.
The one who poured himself into human flesh, the divine, the
God man, fully human, yet fully God gives up his life on Calvary's
cross for you and for me.
I Wonder, have you ever considered this to be a remarkable
day?
Because it truly is, whenever we recount it in its extent and in
its fullness, of what God did for us.
This morning, as I was on social media, I came across the name
Wes Streeting.
I hope you know who Wes Streeting is.
He's our Health Secretary.
He's a Labour mp.
And I was surprised by what he said, but then I kind of flicked
back and not only did he have something for Good Friday, he had
something for Passover and he had something for Eid Mubarak.
So, like a true politician, he had something for all bases.
But he said he wrote this when Arsene Wenger.
And if you don't know who that is, that was the Arsenal manager
said, christmas is important, but Easter is decisive.
And of course, he was talking about Arsenal's chances in the League.
But whenever you hear that, wasn't he absolutely right?
From a theological perspective, Christmas is important,
but Easter is decisive.
And again, we go back to what the world has shaped us to be, that
we think often more of Christmas and we prepare more for
Christmas than we actually do for what is the most decisive moment
in human history, God on a cross.
And that's why today is heavy.
That's why today is weighty for us.
That's why.
Yet it is still called Good Friday.
Because God not only drew near, but God took on himself, all
of humanity, in that moment, so that we could know the truth of
what it means to trust in him with our very souls.
And so this remarkable day is truly showing us two remarkable events.
And from this passage, the passage is long.
But what I want to do is look at two things.
The first is the curtain of the temple that was torn in two.
And the second one then being the tombs opened and the bodies of
the saints raised to life.
And so the first thing we're going to look at is the curtain in
the temple.
Now, if you want to get the closest thing by what you might have
in your mind about this curtain in the temple is go to any
church hall that has a stage and think of the huge curtain that
covers it.
If you've ever had to take those curtains down, as we have had
to do recently, to have them dry cleaned, you will know the simple
weight of these curtains.
Now, this is probably one eighth of what these curtains in
the temple were like, because these curtains were the symbol of
no access or no entry.
Just like in the tabernacle in Exodus, these curtains represented
that this was a place that no human being could go, because beyond
the Curtain was called the Holy of Holies.
And these were massive curtains.
They were a thick tapestry measuring approximately what scripture
says is 40 cubits high, which is approximately 60ft and 20 cubits
wide, which was approximately 30ft.
And it was meticulously woven with colors of blue, purple, and
scarlet linen.
And it was embroidered with cherubim.
Now, where does that take us?
Well, that takes us back to the Garden of Eden.
Because what did God place in the gardens that humanity could never
return?
Well, he placed cherubim with flaming swords.
And so here they are now, not only in the tabernacle, but now in
the temple, telling people, you cannot go any further, because
beyond this is the dwelling place of God.
And no human can look on God and live.
And so this curtain separated God from the people.
And as much as it was a no entry sign for them, it was also
protection for them.
An access to the Holies of Holies was granted once a year to
the High priest on the Day of Atonement.
He would have to have made sure that he was ceremonially cleaned,
wearing the right clothes, and he even had to have a piece of rope
tied around his ankle that if he was not correctly prepared and
dropped dead in the presence of God, well, then he could be pulled
out.
This is how significant this place was.
The high priest could only enter after the fresh blood of animal
sacrifices for the sins of himself and the sins of his people
had been made, and the proper atonement had been made that would
deal with that sin.
And what we now see in this temple that had been rebuilt under
Ezra and Nehemiah is, as Christ dies, something happens there.
So why from Golgotha or the Hill of the Skull or Calvary, on
one hill of Jerusalem, looking across to the temple, is this significant?
Because the temple was the center of worship for the Jews.
It was the place where God dwelt.
And it was to there that the pilgrims gathered and traveled to
on Palm Sunday so that they would be there for the Passover.
And what's the significance of this curtain now being torn in two?
Well, no longer was this place of worship for the Jews going to
be the place they needed to be.
Worship had shifted.
Worship was now going to be through Jesus Christ.
And the significance of the curtain being ripped from top to
bottom, not bottom to top, like a piece of paper we would rip,
demonstrates that God was the one who acted, telling us that by
his Son he would now dwell with us.
And we know in Pentecost that's exactly what happened.
Not only did God come near through His Son.
But God dwells amongst us by His Holy Spirit.
And so on Good Friday, this curtain was torn in two, telling
us that the days of the priests and the sacrifices were over.
Because now there was one sacrifice for the sins of many, and
the sacrifice of Jesus was enough.
No longer would there be a no entry sign for humanity to approach
God.
Rather, the way was open, open because of Jesus and his sacrifice.
No longer would the blood of the atoning lamb be needed to be
brought through that curtain to settle God's wrath.
The blood of the perfect sacrifice had been presented and
God's wrath against sin was satisfied because Jesus spilt his
blood and died in our place so that we could know the goodness of
God.
And if we want to reflect and think about what the significance
of Good Friday is, then all we have to do is turn to the book of
Hebrews, because Hebrews 7:27 tells us, speaking of Jesus, he has
no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since
he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
You see, the significance of this day is what Jesus has done only
needed to be done once.
No one ever has to die again for the atonement of their sins,
for eternal glory.
Jesus has done it.
And what we're commanded to do is to trust him.
That on this remarkable day, through this image of the curtain
being torn in two, we are now told that as humanity, we have access
to God.
This remarkable day is truly a good day because God came near to
us.
God has done everything we need by which to know him.
Because Jesus did once for all what needed to be done.
The sacrificial lamb's blood shed and God's wrath satisfied.
But don't think that this is a universal thing that simply covers
everyone, no matter who they are.
The command continues that we are to place our trust in Jesus.
Not to reject him and just assume it's going to be okay, but
to trust him that he is the one who died for me and for you.
And to place your trust in him this night so that you will know
that great assurance of the forgiveness of sins and delight in
him.
So that's the first remarkable event of this remarkable day.
The curtain of the temple being torn in two.
But did you pick up the second remarkable thing?
The tombs were opened.
Now the folks down in the Presbyterian will know that I had
a quirky upbringing.
It was a good upbringing, but it was quirky.
I've often told them that I've had An odd relationship with death,
that if my father ever got anything new home, I would always
ask him, daddy, would that be mine when you die?
Of course, I had absolutely no idea what these things were, but
that was the question that I seemed to ask.
But as well as that, I used to spend a lot of time in graveyards.
Now, I wasn't a troublemaker, by the way.
I was taken regularly to walk amongst the graves.
And I was taken by an older lady in our congregation, as well
as a few friends.
And she would simply walk through the graveyard and tell us
who everybody was, because they were people of her generation
and she had outlived them or she remembered them as her Sunday
school teachers.
And I have found myself walking often through our graveyard
here and particularly thinking about the approach of Easter.
And I thought to myself, a graveyard must be the greatest place
to be when Jesus returns.
Have you ever thought of that?
Because we see it here in front of us about what's going to
happen.
We know that Sunday's coming.
We know the resurrection from the dead, but we get to see it foreshadowed
in those of the tombs of the saints of the Old Testament.
Those who truly worshipped God, not knowing Christ fully, but
yet were redeemed because of their worship of God, were raised
onto eternal life.
And what celebration that will be when Christ comes back.
Because the first to rise will be those who have died ahead of us.
And what a celebration that will be as they are taken from the
grave and reunited with their bodies for the new heaven and the
new earth.
So our graveyard on the day when Christ returns will be quite
the place to be for the celebration of the redeemed joining
to the Savior.
And so what we see here is key to the future.
As the tombs were opened, we're seeing something that is profound
about human destiny, because we are not simply reincarnated.
We're not resuscitated.
Nor do we look for any form or sort of existence in Sheol.
That's the underworld or the abode of the dead.
Rather, we watch for God's new life, the same life that is seen
in the resurrected Jesus.
Death has no more hold on those who have trusted him as their
Savior.
Graveyards tell us where the first place of celebration will be
when Jesus returns.
And what a day that will be.
As the songwriter says, when my Jesus I shall see, when I look
upon his face, the one who saved me by his grace, when he takes
me by the hand and leads me to the promised land, what a day, glorious
day that will be.
And so what we're seeing in Matthew 27 is that future hope.
And that future hope is here in John 11:25 to 26, where Jesus
is with his friends Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
Lazarus has died and Jesus has been called.
And Jesus does the most amazing thing of raising him from
the dead.
And Jesus says to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
And then Jesus asks the question, do you believe this?
You see, we can often read these short verses in Matthew's gospel
51 through to 54.
And we can often overlook it, thinking, what significance does
it have?
Because the bigger picture is that Jesus has died.
But because Jesus died, the curtain is torn in two.
Because Jesus has died, the dead are risen to eternal life.
You see, this is all linked and must be paid attention to because
it is our future hope, our present hope is that we can have
a relationship with God through Jesus.
But the future hope is what Jesus says to Mary and Martha, that
whoever believes in him, though he die, yet shall he live.
And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
And so, as Jesus asked the question to Mary and Martha, I asked
the question as he does this night.
Do you believe this?
Do you believe that one day there is coming that day when Jesus
will return?
And if you have not gone to the grave, then you will see him.
But if you have, then you will rise if you've trusted in him.
Because the problem is, if you don't trust in him, then you will
not rise onto eternal life.
You will rise onto eternal death and face the punishment.
You see, this is the significance of this day.
This is what God is telling us, that we have to trust in Christ
to know that forgiveness of sins.
And if we don't, well, then Christ won't have paid it for us.
We will have to pay for it ourselves.
And it will be a place of torment, it will be a place of suffering,
and it will be a place of endless death.
And so this remarkable day presents us with something by which
we must respond to on this day that we still call Good Friday, because
this remarkable day gives us remarkable events.
But it's a day that's good because of the remarkable promise
that is given to us.
Because this changes everything in history.
That's why Good Friday is the day that changes everything.
But because of Jesus, because now we can access and have access
to God through him.
He's now what we call the Mediator.
He's the one who speaks on our behalf.
And this is what we read again in Hebrews chapter 9.
In verse 15, he is the mediator of the new covenant.
Because in Hebrews 9 we read, therefore, he is the mediator of
a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised
eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them
from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
You see, this is what Jesus now does for us.
He is the one who continues to intercede for us.
He mediates.
He is the one who, whenever we come to him seeking that forgiveness
of sins, be it that sins that we need for that first moment of
salvation, forgiveness for, or the sins that we're each caught up
in day and daily, he is the one who mediates because his sacrifice
is good enough before God once and for all so that we can know that
we are his and have this wonderful assurance of salvation.
So this is a remarkable promise, this Good Friday, this remarkable
day.
The promise is we can have a relationship with God.
And it's all because of Jesus.
And if we're really honest as human beings, we want relationship,
we want relationship with others.
But you know what?
We want a good relationship with ourselves.
And sometimes we can't get all of that.
But yet Jesus says he is the one who gives us the perfect relationship
because of what he has accomplished on the cross.
You see, this remarkable promise is that we have a living
hope for eternity, and it's in Christ, in him alone, as Peter writes
in 1st Peter 3 and verse 1.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ.
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead.
This is our hope.
And this is why today is good.
Because Christ means we have hope in eternity.
And some days we all need that hope more than others.
And perhaps today is that day.
Perhaps today is not simply a sad day because it's Good Friday.
It's sad for many other reasons where the sin and hurt of
this world completely bring us down and we feel like the sea is
taking us under.
This is the hope we have that Jesus is our living Savior.
And it is because of his great mercy towards us that he's caused
us to be born again to a living hope because he rose from
the grave.
And I'm sorry for giving away what's going to happen on Sunday,
but we can't look at Friday without thinking about Sunday, because
it is Sunday that brings it all together in that resurrection.
And so a remarkable day gives us a remarkable promise, but finally
it gives us a remarkable future.
Because Sunday is coming.
We mark the death of Christ.
Yes, the sacrifice is paid for all time, but Sunday is coming, which
is the joy of the conquering of death.
Because that's what Jesus has done to prove that he is worthy,
so that we can place our trust in him.
And as he rose from the grave, as Paul writes the first fruits,
so we too will follow as we trust in Him.
That's what this resurrection is all about.
That's what this curtain being torn in two is all about, that we
too can have that future, that remarkable future of resurrected
bodies that are beautiful for the sake and love of Christ.
I guess there's a certain part of our society that is not knowing
about what many of us endured in the 60s and the 70s, the 80s and
the 90s, what we call the Troubles.
But there was a Good Friday in 1998 that completely changed society
here.
And we know that day to have produced the Good Friday agreement.
Now, whether you voted for it or not, whether you liked it or not,
I don't care this evening, and we're not getting into a political
debate about it, but you cannot deny that it did change Northern
Ireland.
You can't deny that at all.
But this document was sold to us as a document of hope.
And it took on itself the name of the day on which it was signed,
Good Friday.
And I distinctly remember watching the television adverts that
were to encourage us to vote for it.
And there were two little boys running along Port Church Strand
with the typical stereotypes of the two communities here.
And Van Morrison was crooning in the background his song, Days
like this.
And it was to fill us with great aspiration of what two communities
could be like running along Port Stewart Strand.
Now, of course, if they'd come to the beaches of Morne, everything
would have been perfect then for the next 30 years.
But they settled for the north coast.
I think it's fair to say, as much as that document changed Northern
Ireland, it did not give us the hope that it was sold to us.
And of course, it could never give the hope, because no human document
can.
The only hope we can have is what happened 2000 years ago on that
most important of Good Fridays.
Because Christ offers hope through his death.
And this will be fully seen and celebrated and glorified on Sunday
through His resurrection.
And maybe this hope is summed up best by Cyril of Jerusalem, the
fourth century bishop of Jerusalem.
This is what he said.
He stretched out his hands on the cross that he might embrace the
ends of the world.
For this, Golgotha is the very center of the earth.
Now, Cyril of Jerusalem was telling us that here was a place
in human time that had eternal spiritual significance, that Jesus
opened his arms wide so that even we here tonight, not taking
it for granted, but opened up a way for us Gentiles to know the
truth of the gospel and salvation that God offered.
And what should our response be to this remarkable day that gives
us a remarkable promise and a remarkable future?
Well, it is the same response as the centurion in verse 54.
For when the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch
over Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled
with awe and said, truly this was the Son of God.
Can we say that tonight in our hearts of hearts when things are
tough?
Maybe we're here and we're only here because it's what you do
at Easter.
And actually Christ means very little to you except for a swear
word.
Can you look upon him tonight on Golgotha's cross, the very center
of the earth, where his arms are open wide for you, so that we
would see it fulfilled.
And what we're told in John 14, Let not your hearts be troubled.
Believe in God.
Believe also in me, says Jesus.
In my Father's house are many rooms.
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare
a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again
and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also, and you
know the way to where I am going.
And Thomas the doubter said to him, lord, we don't know where you're
going, so how can we know the way?
Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
The arms of Christ on Calvary's cross are open wide so
that you may know a resurrected body and an eternal hope
in him, whatever the waves of this life brings.
That's why I love the words of the hymn that we sung, just as our
opening hymn of oh to See the Dawn.
Because it concludes by saying, oh, to see my name written
in the wounds.
For through your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death.
Life is mine to live one through the selfless love.
This the power of the cross.
Son of God slain for us.
What a love, what a cost.
We stand forgiven at the cross.
Sunday's coming and we will celebrate our resurrected Savior.
But tonight his arms are open wide.
He is removed from a cross and he is put into a tomb so that he
will defeat death and we will have hope in him.
Will he be your hope tonight?
Do you know the place to where he is going?
So that when he comes, he will take you to be with himself?
Because he says that he is the only way, the only truth and the
only life.
So come to him and have this.
A truly happy Easter.
As you know, the one who's hoisted up on the middle cross, suspended
between heaven and earth, as your Lord and your Savior now and
forevermore.
And so do take this little book with you by Sarah McLachlan,
entitled Is Easter Unbelievable.
It's good reading, it has good truth as it points us to Scripture,
that we may know Christ and know him fully and know him now forevermore.
Let me pray.
Our Father, for your word.
We thank you.
Asking that it will be in our hearts, not coldness to us, but a
fire that will draw us to the Savior, that our hope will be in
him alone.
And that indeed we will know this day truly to be a remarkable
day because of this remarkable promise and a remarkable future that
is ours, but only in Christ.
So may we respond well to your word this night.
In Jesus name, amen.