Good Friday Service 2025

I want to take just a couple of moments and I want to talk to you about that blood we were just singing about. You can take your seat. We've just celebrated Passover. And week before last, we had our Passover Seder here at the refuge. It was such a powerful time commemorating the instructions of God to the Israelites.

When the 10th plague was about to begin, the death angel that would come through the land of Egypt, destroying every firstborn. And God gave instructions and said, take the blood of a lamb and apply it to the doorpost of your homes. And if you do that, the death angel will pass over your home. I want to talk to you about the blood that he shed for us that can be applied to the doorpost of our hearts so that the death angel, the thief, the enemy who desires to take you out and kill you, will have to pass over because of the power of the blood. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1 and 2 says the old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves.

The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. You get the picture. Every year, the priest would enter into the holy of holies. There would be a lamb that was sacrificed, and the blood of that lamb would flow over the altar and the priest would make intercession for the sins of mankind.

Now, it's interesting to note, and I've taught on this before, but the lambs that were used in the sacrifice at the temple were raised only in one place in all of Israel, and that was in Bethlehem. And when a Levitical shepherd would see that a ewe was about to give birth, he would carry that ewe into a cave, and there in the cave, the ewe would give birth to a lamb. And as soon as that lamb was born, the shepherd would then wrap that lamb in what were called swaddling cloths because the lamb had to be without blemish in order to be used in the temple for the sacrifice. But now I want you to hear verse 12 of Hebrews chapter 10 that says this. But our high priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins good for all time.

And then he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. How fitting that Jesus would be born in A cave, Bethlehem, and that he then would be wrapped in swaddling cloths because he was the perfect lamb without spot, without blemish that could give his blood once and for all. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 22 says, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. I want us to think for just a moment about the work that Jesus did as that sacrificial lamb who willingly allowed himself to be hung on a cross and to shed his blood for you and I so that we could be washed and purified. Jesus actually bled from seven different places.

All that were significant, all that point to his finished work on the cross. First of all, the Bible tells us that Jesus bled from his pores. Luke chapter 22, verse 40, 44 says, on reaching the place, referring to the garden of Gethsemane, he said to them, pray that you will not fall into temptation. He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed. Father, if you're willing, take this cup, meaning the cup of suffering from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.

An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Listen to me. On this Good Friday, mankind lost his way and was broken in a garden by choosing to rebel.

And so Jesus fixes what is broken in us in a garden once again. When man sinned in the Garden of Eden, God said that he would toil and sweat from then on in order to produce. Now Jesus is bringing an end to toiling and laboring by doing for us what we cannot do. And he ends the toiling. A man to be made right with God with by shedding his own blood, Jesus wrestled with the willingness to obey to the point that he bled from his pores, signifying the victory that he won for us as it relates to our will and our ability to obey, even when it's costly.

Secondly, Jesus Christ bled on his back. You know the story. You've seen it depicted in movies and pictures of Jesus being tied to a whipping post. And there a Roman soldier who was very skilled as an executioner would pick up into his hand a torturous device known as the Cat of Nine Tails.

Leather straps. Nine leather straps that at the end of each strap had pieces of bone and pieces of metal tied to the leather straps. And then he would begin to torture his victim by whipping across their back in a way that would cause those leather straps to wrap around the torso and those pieces of bone and metal would then dig into the flesh and he literally would rake the flesh open as he pulled that whip back.

And the Bible says that Jesus bore 39 of those stripes on his back.

And blood flowed from every lash. Blood flowed across his back. Isaiah 53, verse 5. And by those 39 stripes we are healed. He bore stripes on his back so you could be free from pain and disease and sickness.

Thirdly, Jesus bled internally. Isaiah 53, verse 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Bruising is a sign of internal bleeding.

Why would Jesus bleed on the inside? Obviously because he was being beaten. But there was intentionality to this. To him bleeding on the inside. That it was one of the seven places from which he bled.

To transgress means to step over a boundary. It's where we get the word trespass. It's an outward act of rebellion, an outward act where we cross over the boundary of holiness, where we step over and trespass against the laws of God into our own desires. And he shed his blood for our transgressions. But the word iniquity speaks of an internal bend or an internal motivation towards sin.

Jesus bled on the inside to cover the sins of the heart, to cover the sins of the mind. And his blood covers our outward transgressions as well as our inward iniquities. Somebody ought to say amen. Number four. Jesus bled from his head.

The Bible says in John 19:2, and the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head. Thorns in Genesis 3 were a sign of a poverty mentality after the curse. Jesus bled from his head to redeem our thought life so that we could experience what the apostle Paul talks about In Romans, chapter 12, verse 2, the renewing of our minds. And what the Apostle Paul also speaks of in Philippians, chapter 4, verse 8, where he admonishes us to think on things that are true and honest and just and pure and lovely and of good report. Jesus bled from his head so that we could be made new in our thinking.

Listen. We know it. Salvation. There's an instantaneous transformation of our spirit and of our heart. Thank God for that.

We're instantly made new.

But the mind is not instantly renewed. It's a process of us washing our minds over and over with the power of His Word and pleading his blood over and over our minds where the real battlefield of the enemy exists. Number five. Jesus bled from his hands. Your hands represent three things.

Your hands represent your work, your hands represent your blessing, and your hands represent Your anointing.

Jesus bled from his hands as those nails were driven into his hands to redeem the work of your hands. Jesus bled from his hands to redeem your ability to bless others, either through your generosity or through the laying on of your hands and the blessing of your hands. Jesus bled from his hands in order to redeem the anointing. Like when priests or kings were anointed and oil was poured on their head and on their hands. Why?

Because Jesus wanted to redeem the anointing of the Holy Spirit on your life that the enemy is after.

Number six. Jesus bled from his feet. Nails not only driven through his hands, but driven through his feet. He bled from his feet to represent the authority of the believer. He bled from his feet to represent the leadership of believers, others following in your footsteps.

He wanted to redeem that. Luke chapter 10, verse 19 says, Behold, I give to you authority to tread or to trample or to stomp on serpents and scorpions, and over all, the authority of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Talking about his blood tonight, Church. The power of his blood. Number seven. He bled from his side. John 19:34.

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out. The fact that blood and water flowed simultaneously from the side of Jesus represents and symbolizes that he died from a broken heart, from the intensity and the anguish of the weight and burden of all of our filth being placed on his perfect purity. And our continual betrayal against him was too much to bear and ultimately caused his heart to stop beating. And it signifies that Jesus won back our joy and he healed us of our broken hearts. Listen.

Jesus needed to shed his blood seven times the number of completion from seven places, seven different areas of his body so that you and I could receive a complete and perfect salvation and freedom from the enemy.

Come on. Can you take a moment and just say thank you for your blood, Jesus? Thank you for your blood, Jesus. You may be here this evening for this Good Friday service. And maybe, maybe your whole life, all you've known is religion.

Maybe you've never known true relationship with Jesus. Maybe you didn't even know you could have that. Maybe you've never understood the power of his blood. There's nothing else that can make you clean on the inside. While you can do a lot of good things, you can serve, you can give to charity.

You can be involved in community activities and service. You can be the most kind person, the most generous person. But none of that, none of that will wash you Cleanse you from your sin. There's only one thing that does that. It's not religious activity.

It's not memorizing scripture. It's not showing up at church. It's allowing his blood to be applied to the doorpost of your heart.

What can wash away my sins? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing, Nothing. Come on, say it with me.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And maybe you're here and you're not in a relationship with Jesus. And I just want to tell you, as a pastor who deeply and dearly loves people, there's absolutely no reason for you to walk out of here tonight without being in a right relationship with him.

And the Bible tells us if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. If you'll take ownership of your mistakes, if you'll take responsibility for it and not blame somebody else and say, I'm the one who chose rebellion. I'm the one who stepped over the boundary. I'm the one who gratified my flesh. I'm the one who chose sin.

But, oh, Jesus, I don't want to cheapen the work that you did on that cross. I want you to come in and to live on the inside of me. The beautiful thing about relationship with him is he doesn't say, hey, listen, in order for us to have relationship, oh, there's a lot of stuff you're gonna have to do. You gotta clean your act up. And then we'll sit down and we'll talk and we'll see how far along that you've come.

Oh, no. How beautiful. How beautiful he is because he says, I want you just like you are with all your filth, with all your selfishness, with all your immorality, with all your addiction, with all your pride. I want you just like you are. And you come to me and he says, I'll put the blood over your heart.

I'll make you clean. I wash you as white as snow. We're gonna receive communion and we're gonna remember the sacrifice of Jesus in a moment. But before we do, would you just bow your heads? Father, I pray right now for any person that might be in this place or maybe watching us online that's not in a right relationship with you.

Maybe they were at one point in their life and they're not tonight. Father, I pray that the accusing voice of the enemy would be silenced in their ears. I pray shame and the reproach of a life in the past would be rolled off of them. And I ask that they would believe and trust that your blood is more powerful than their mistakes. Your blood is more powerful than their addiction.

Your blood is more powerful than their immorality. I pray that they would trust that if they just ask, if they invite you in, you'll come in and do what nobody else and nothing else can do.