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What Made This Friday a Good Friday? (Romans 5:6-11)
55 Plays2 years ago
What Made This Friday a Good Friday? (Romans 5:6-11)
Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
What Made This Friday a Good Friday?
Romans 5:6-11
For some, perhaps every Friday is an occasion to yell, “TGIF! Thank God, It’s Friday!” But there is something very special took place in history when Jesus gave His life on the cross and shed His blood for our salvation. Many refer to that day as Good Friday.
It was a good Friday in Australia when James Harrison gave blood through the Australian Red Cross on Friday, May 11, 2018. What was so significant about this 81-year old man giving blood? Well, he had given blood like this over 1100 times during the past 60 years of his life! The Red Cross warned him that this should be his last gift due to his age. He actually stated that he wanted to give again but was cautioned about continuing to donate blood. His blood contained an extremely rare antibody called Anti-D. The Red Cross estimated that his blood saved over 2.4 million newborn babies. Without it, some would have perished due to being still born from HDN (Rhesus D Hemocytic Disease). So, it must have been a good day each time that this dear man donated blood, but it must have been extra sweet that day as he gave blood to save lives of little babies one last time. Sweet!
Jesus did something similar when He died on the cross, only His blood saved countless lives in countries all over the world. Romans 5:6-11 gives us some truths related to our spiritual condition before the cross and the amazing results after He shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins. I think these verses can make any day and every day a “good” day!
This passage fits really well into a gospel presentation known as the Bridge Illustration. Picture, if you will, two mountains separated by a deep ravine or gully. On top of one mountain, we could write the name of God. He is holy, and no one is like Him. Then, picture on top of the other mountain the entire human race. We, of course, are sinful and broken. So, once again, we are distant from the God who is holy but who loves us so much.
Now, let’s see what difference this passage about the cross of Christ can make in that hopeless looking scenario. If His cross formed a perfect bridge between the two mountains.
Burdens before the Cross of Christ
· Weak (powerless, helpless)
· Sinners (missing the mark of perfection)
· Enemies (rebelling against God’s standards)
Bridge of the Cross of Christ
· Christ died
· Christ died for us
· By His blood
· By Him
· By the death of His Son
· By His life
· Through our Lord Jesus Christ
· Through Whom
Benefits through the Cross of Christ
· Justification (declared innocent by God)
· Salvation (rescued from the wrath of God)
· Reconciliation (made friends with the Father through the payment of our sin debt)
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Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, FBCColumbusTX.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome to Growing In Grace.
Scripture Reference: Romans 5:6-11
00:00:45
Speaker
So glad you're listening today. I would like to invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter five, verses six through 11. Romans chapter five, verses six through 11. I've been considering something we're two days away from Good Friday.
00:01:01
Speaker
And of course, right on the other side of that Good Friday is coming Easter Sunday. Can't wait to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. But I got to thinking why this Friday became a Good Friday.
Significance of Good Friday
00:01:18
Speaker
There were three verses in the passage I'm about to read that seemed to get my attention. And they all had something in common. Here's what they had in common. It says, while we were, and a couple of them even gone to say, while we were still, but listen to them. While we were still weak, while we were still sinners, while we were enemies. Can't you just hear Barbara Streisand singing the way we were?
00:01:47
Speaker
Well, you know, if we had to stay the way we were, there'd be a lot of problems. I know in my life there'd be big problems, but I'm so glad that because Jesus died on the cross, everything changed. When He shed His blood for me, such an incredible transformation took place. It's the good news that I want to share with you today.
James Harrison's Life-saving Donations
00:02:11
Speaker
I read across an incredible article about a man that lives in Australia. His name is James Harrison. On a Friday, happened to be Friday, May the 11th, 2018, James Harrison donated blood through the Red Cross of Australia. So that may not seem like a big deal, especially when you consider this man is 81 years of age.
00:02:40
Speaker
But here's what makes it a big deal. This man had given blood over 1,100 times. Now, he didn't do it all right back to back. He did it over the course of 60 years. But there was something very special and unique about James Harrison's blood. His blood had a special antibody called anti-D.
00:03:08
Speaker
And that one antibody could help prevent stillborn births. It could help prevent those who face something known in the medical community as HDN, Rhesus Dehemosynic Disease.
00:03:27
Speaker
Do you know that this is from the Red Cross? They estimate that this man's blood saved 2.4 million Australian babies. To me, I'm thinking, why have I never heard of this man's incredible gift
00:03:46
Speaker
Well, perhaps you've never heard of the gift of Jesus Christ.
The Meaning of Jesus' Sacrifice
00:03:51
Speaker
It's touched untold millions in so many different countries around the world. But this passage tells us why the blood of Jesus Christ, why his death on the cross
00:04:05
Speaker
is so significant. Why would it be considered good? So let me read the passage, and then I want to give you three different ideas that kind of outline this passage. It says in verse six, for while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die,
00:04:34
Speaker
But God shows His love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore, we have now been justified by His blood much more, shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God, for if,
00:04:57
Speaker
While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son much more. Now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life? More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom?
00:05:19
Speaker
We have now received reconciliation. Aren't those wonderful words? Wow. When I first became a Christian, I remember struggling. I couldn't believe that we would refer to the day Jesus died on the cross as Good Friday.
00:05:37
Speaker
I loved Jesus. I was glad that he forgave me of my sins. But whenever I saw what he went through in Scripture, on the pages of Scripture, I would read through it and I thought, oh no, why would we call that a good day? Why would we call that Good Friday?
00:05:54
Speaker
Well, now I understand, and I want to share with you in case that has always been sort of an issue with you. I think first we have to understand the way we were, the burden before the cross of Christ. Where was the human race spiritually?
00:06:13
Speaker
before Jesus came and died on the cross for our sins. Well, these three verses that I mentioned earlier, they tell us exactly where we were spiritually.
Humanity's Spiritual Helplessness
00:06:25
Speaker
It says that we were weak, it says we were sinners, and it says that we were enemies to God.
00:06:33
Speaker
You know, the word weak there, that's in the ESV. Do you know in some translations, it uses a different word, not just weak. It uses powerless. We were powerless. Some translations say we were helpless. Kind of has a different feel, doesn't it?
00:06:53
Speaker
Well, that's the way we were without Christ, without what He did for us. There's no way we would ever be able to change our lives. There's no way we could ever spend eternity with the Father in heaven. We were just simply helpless. But then He came.
00:07:14
Speaker
It made all the difference. And then it says that we were also sinners. Do you know the word sin means to miss the target, to miss the mark? It's like whenever you have, let's say, an archery competition. I remember I was in the bow club when I lived in Canada.
00:07:34
Speaker
And people would clear the room whenever I would try to pull back the bow string. It was really hard for me. It was a 60-pound test bow, and I was trying my hardest just to pull that string back. But in trying to pull it back, I sometimes pointed the arrow at them. I don't blame them. But anyway, I rarely would hit the target down there. But that's the way we are spiritually. God says, don't do this. God says, do this.
00:08:01
Speaker
But, you know, we rarely ever hit the target in the bullseye, don't we? Well, here's the thing. Jesus, He obeyed the Father perfectly. And so He's the one who helped us hit a target that we could never hit by ourselves. So when it says that we were
00:08:23
Speaker
week, I just want you to hear the word helpless. When it says that we were sinners, I want you to hear this whole idea, this concept of spiritual truth that we're never going to make it. We're always going to fall short. We'll never be able to hit that
00:08:40
Speaker
perfect bullseye. But then it says that we were enemies. Do you know that we resist God even all the way back to Adam and Eve? God said, you may eat of any of the trees in the Garden of Eden, but you may not eat of this one tree.
00:08:57
Speaker
But you know what? They did. And we've been doing that ever since. It's like whatever God says we should not do, we do it. And so that's why we are like rebels. We're on the opposite side. God views us as enemies because He's holy and He cannot make friends with sin and sinners and people who are in out and out rebellion, resisting Him.
00:09:25
Speaker
But you see, that's this burden before the cross. But I want you to know that Jesus died
Jesus' Redemptive Act
00:09:33
Speaker
on the cross to bridge a gap between all of our brokenness and God's holiness. You see, God is so perfect and we are so imperfect. It kind of makes me think when it says here, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
00:09:55
Speaker
The whole idea of Jesus dying for us while we were still sinners, it makes me think of something I saw in Japan. Do you know that in Japan, they have these products, some merchandise, that's called wakke adi shōhin. Wakke adi shōhin is discounted merchandise. It's discounted because of a very good reason.
00:10:22
Speaker
Let's say it's a package of rice crackers. Well, maybe when it came from the factory, they noticed there's one cracker in that package that is already split. It's in several pieces. Well, the Japanese want excellence. They don't want imperfection. So what they do is they'll take it over there to this Wakayari Shohin shop.
00:10:49
Speaker
and they'll say, let's sell it for a cheaper price. And so people can buy the same rice crackers, but what they know is there's imperfection in there. There's something not quite right in this pack, but they pay a cheaper price, right? So why would I bring this up? I would bring it up because
00:11:13
Speaker
All of us know good and well, we're not perfect. All of us know we fall so short of being what God would want us to be, right? But here's the thing, Jesus didn't pay a cheaper price for us, even though we were flawed and had all of these, you know, made all these mistakes and sinned and resisting him and so forth. You know what he did?
00:11:38
Speaker
He paid the full price for you. That's how very valuable and special and important that you are to God. He paid the full price. He gave the ultimate sacrifice for us by laying down his life. And yet, when he did that,
00:11:58
Speaker
It says here that we were still sinners. I found that phenomenal. But this is the one thing that can bridge the gap between where we stand spiritually in our sin and where God stands spiritually in His holiness and perfection.
00:12:17
Speaker
When I read through the passage again, I heard so many times over and over the reference to the importance of the bridge, the bridge of the cross.
Reconciliation Through Jesus
00:12:27
Speaker
Listen to these words, Christ died. Christ died for us by his blood, by him, by the death of his son, by his life, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom?
00:12:46
Speaker
Everything good spiritually only happens whenever we go through Jesus Christ, whenever we spiritually walk across the bridge over to have fellowship with God through Christ. Now, once we trust Christ,
00:13:05
Speaker
Once we accept what He did for us on that cross, His perfect sinless life laid down in atonement for all of our sins. Once we received that as a gift by faith, knowing that He loved us out of grace and mercy,
Justification and Salvation Explained
00:13:23
Speaker
There are three things that this passage right here helps us to understand this is why it's such a good Friday, whenever Jesus died on the cross for us. Because through his death, we can be justified with the Father. Through his blood, through his death, we can be saved from the wrath that is to come. And through his death, through what he did on the cross for us,
00:13:53
Speaker
we can be reconciled with the Father. I got to thinking about those and I thought,
00:13:59
Speaker
I'm not sure if today we understand what those words really mean. So I wanna just share with you what I've learned just by studying God's word and trying to look up these terms so that I can put it in the terminology that all of us would understand. I think it'll be more meaningful for us if we understand it. So here's the first word, justification.
00:14:25
Speaker
I remember hearing Billy Graham say long time ago that justification means just if I'd never sinned. So in other words, even though I'm guilty of my sins, when I come to faith in Christ, what happens is God declares me innocent.
00:14:47
Speaker
He declares me innocent. Isn't that incredible? He declares me innocent since therefore we have now been justified by His blood. I just find that incredible that Jesus dies for me. And since He perfectly obeyed the Father,
00:15:05
Speaker
His righteousness is credited to my account spiritually, and all of my sins were transferred to be placed upon His shoulders so that when He died, He took my penalty.
00:15:20
Speaker
I just find that incredible, but not only justification where I'm declared innocent by God, but then this word salvation. The word actually means to rescue. You understand that? I understand that. I mean, to be rescued is to be delivered. Someone pulls us out of a bad situation. Well, it says here, much more shall we be saved.
00:15:45
Speaker
by him from the wrath of God, saved from the wrath of God. Do you realize that spiritually because God is holy and because God is just
00:15:58
Speaker
He must deal with sin. And so someone has to pay a penalty because of our sins. If we don't put our faith and trust in Christ, we must pay our own penalty. And someday the wrath of God will be poured out on us. But here's the wonderful news.
00:16:19
Speaker
Jesus volunteered. He offered to die on the cross even though he was innocent. He died in our place. And what happened is all the wrath of God that my sins deserve, all the wrath of God that your sins deserve, all of that
00:16:37
Speaker
was placed upon him. He took the penalty. He paid the penalty. He took the punishment for our sins. I find that wonderful news. As a matter of fact, some have even found through other verses, we'll just limit our discussion to this passage today, but this passage refers to being saved from the penalty of sin.
00:17:01
Speaker
But there are other passages that tell us, oh, that's not all that Jesus does. He doesn't just save us, rescue us, deliver us from just the penalty of sin in the future. He saves us from the power of sin in the present.
00:17:17
Speaker
In other words, the more I allow Christ to give me strength, the more I can resist temptation and it can help me say no before I sin. And so I think that's incredible that he also saves me by giving me power so that I don't have to be whipped around by the master of sin that used to bully me and push me around. Well, that's great, but here's the,
00:17:45
Speaker
the equally good news. That is that we're not talking about something that's just for the past, your sins, something that's just for the present, what you're dealing with now, but someday you're going to be, I'm going to be, we're going to be rescued
00:18:03
Speaker
from the very presence of sin. Do you know that in heaven there will be no sin? We won't have to put up with all this stuff anymore in our lives because someday when we go to be with a father, when we die,
00:18:17
Speaker
If we are covered by the blood of Christ, if we've put our faith and trust in Christ and what He did for us in the cross, then the Lord says, trust me, I'm making a place where you can come and you won't have to deal with sin anymore. Man, I can't wait. Sin has caused so much heartache and trouble. Well, let me close with one last thing that's not just the justification where we're declared innocent by God, even though we were guilty,
00:18:45
Speaker
He looks at Jesus' blood and says, nope, I declare you innocent. And then salvation where we're rescued from the wrath of God. But how about this idea of all of us who have been resisting God all our lives being reconciled? In other words, there used to be hostility and animosity, but now there's peace. Now there's friendship. Now we're actually brought
00:19:11
Speaker
into God's favor and God's family. And I'm thinking, how did that happen? The same way. In verses 10 and 11 says, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life,
00:19:34
Speaker
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. You know right now, sometimes we feel like God is against us, but right now, God is for you. Maybe you feel like, oh, I've had a bad day. Hey, I don't feel good today. I kind of feel like God may be against me today.
00:20:00
Speaker
No, you know, if you're a Christian, if you put your faith and trust in Christ, He's not against you. He's for you. You and God are on the same team. You're on the same side. I think that's incredible. You know, I was just thinking about the death of Christ and how He reconciled us and brought us back into His family and so forth. And I couldn't help but think about something I read
00:20:26
Speaker
Did you realize that in former days, I mean, we're talking ancient times, that there were nomadic tribes that used to move across the land that we now know as Russia? Oh, yeah. As a matter of fact, there are still some of those indigenous groups that live in the Siberian Arctic.
00:20:45
Speaker
For example, there's the tribal group called the Nenets, and they're the largest of these groups. They have about, I don't know, 30,000 or so. But there's this smaller tribe, the Nenets, that are only composed of about 350 people.
00:21:00
Speaker
But there's 41 different nomadic indigenous tribes
Parable of the Tribal Leader
00:21:05
Speaker
that are out there somewhere in the Siberian Arctic, and they're just tribal. But once upon a time, that's the way it was all over. The vast area that we know today is Russia. But here's what I heard. I heard that there was one tribe that really loved their leader, and they loved their leader because he simplified society to two rules.
00:21:30
Speaker
He said, there's only two things that we're gonna do as a people. One is, we're going to love and honor our parents.
00:21:40
Speaker
I want you to know that all of us are going to be bound by this agreement that we're going to love and honor our parents. That's the first rule. The second rule, we're never going to steal what belongs to somebody else, something that someone else worked for, something that someone else, let's say in their time, you know, would have shot, you know, having an animal fur or something in their tent.
00:22:03
Speaker
Well, all of that, he said, you know what? You cannot touch what someone else earned. So no stealing, all right? So those are the only two rules. The people loved him. They trusted him. But you know what they found after a while? Someone in the tribe was stealing. Things were starting to be missing from several people's tents. So the leader says, he calls the group together and says, look, tribe,
00:22:31
Speaker
I'm disappointed, obviously, because you're ignoring my rules. I said, love and honor your parents and no stealing. Somebody's been stealing. Who is it? Come forward. Nobody came forward. He said, okay, we're going to give 10 lashes. Nobody came forward. We're going to give 20 lashes. We're going to give 30 lashes.
00:22:53
Speaker
He got up to 40 lashes and he realized, what's the point? He thought, man, you know, nobody's going to be able to withstand that anyway. I don't want to kill somebody just over stealing. So he said, OK, we're going to just search all the tents then. And you know what? They found the missing items. They were under someone's tent. Guess whose tent it was?
00:23:17
Speaker
The leader of the tribe, it was his mother. So can you imagine? There was a whispering campaign in the camp.
00:23:26
Speaker
And all the people were saying, hey, do you think he's going to love his mom? Of course he's going to love his mom. He gave us the rule. You got to love your mom and your dad. So there's no way he's going to come against his mom on this. But then others in the camp said, if he doesn't go against his mom, wait a minute, then people are not going to respect the second rule of our tribe. No stealing, even if it involves his own mother.
00:23:56
Speaker
So when it came time for the public whipping of his mother, they tied her to a stake and the man with the whip stood behind and he got ready to whip her. But you know what happened?
00:24:08
Speaker
The leader of the tribe saw his dear mother strapped to that post. Do you know what he did? He shielded her with his own body. And of course, the man with the whip said, sir, I cannot whip you. You're innocent. He said, I will take the lashes that my mother deserves. And so he said, no. And he said, do it.
00:24:33
Speaker
because those two rules are very important to me. No one breaks them without the consequences. So if my mother broke these rules, then I will take her punishment. So they punished that king right there, the tribal leader, they punished him and he took those 40 lashes. I couldn't help but think of Jesus Christ.
00:24:58
Speaker
And I thought, you know, what a perfect blend of the justice and the holiness of God, and yet the love, the grace and the mercy of our God. Think about how a cross is like the intersection, right, of a horizontal and a vertical post.
00:25:18
Speaker
You know, it's like it comes together. All of life comes together. And that's why it's such a good Friday. It is because God saw us in all of our brokenness and disobedience and all of our rebellion. And yet He saw us with the eyes of love and compassion. And so what did He do?
00:25:42
Speaker
He provided a way for us to have a restored fellowship with Him through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
The Cross: Love and Justice
00:25:51
Speaker
Oh, friend, let me tell you, that the cross of Christ can make any day. It can make every day.
00:26:01
Speaker
a good day. I want to pray that God would bless you as you go through the rest of this day. I want you to think seriously about how greatly the Father loves you. You know, at this particular time of this recording, we're coming up on Good Friday. Like I said, we're coming up on Resurrection Sunday. I want you to think about how greatly God loves you, that He provided a way
00:26:26
Speaker
at the cost, a very precious deer cost. But when his son laid down his life, the father said, you know what? My son's innocent. So he didn't deserve all of those lashes. So I'm going to raise him from the dead.
00:26:43
Speaker
And that's why he can atone for our sins. It's great. Listen, it takes the burden off of guilt if you'll just trust Jesus Christ. He said, all we have to do is be willing to turn in repentance from our sins and turn in faith and trust to what Jesus did for us on that cross. Wow, I just encourage you to do that today if you haven't. Let's pray together.
00:27:09
Speaker
Lord, I thank you so much for all that we learn here at Growing in Grace. We really just go back to your word. It's your word that is incredibly motivating, inspiring. And so God, help us to be motivated, inspired, filled up to overflowing today with this awareness, a fresh awareness of the great love of God that you provided a way for our sins to be forgiven.
00:27:38
Speaker
but you provided a way that was so costly for you, but it's such a blessing, incredibly freeing for us.
00:27:47
Speaker
Lord, thank you. Thank you for the whip that you received. Thank you, Lord, for the crown of thorns. Thank you for the nails that you took. It should have been me, but you stepped in the way and you took it on my behalf. Thank you for the blood that can wash away my sins. Thank you for the blood that can wash away all of those listening today. Help them to trust Jesus Christ, to put their faith in you.
00:28:14
Speaker
Lord, we love you. Thank you for loving us first. In Jesus' name, amen. Listen, I'm so glad you were listening today. I invite you to go back to Romans five. There are so many other truths in there that we didn't even unpack, but I wanted you to know that's a great place. If you're ever thinking, why did they call it Good Friday? There is a good reason. All right, you take care. Have a blessed day today. Thanks again for listening.
00:28:48
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.