Today is the day we have designated as Good Friday. It is the day we choose to contemplate
How much Jesus loves us. Everything you are about to read was suffered for you by Jesus who was God in a flesh suit. Jesus did this for us while we were yet sinners.
It was the horrid price He paid for you because you are His glorious inheritance.
It was the ultimate act of love.
It is impossible to tell this story in one Sunday. So you may learn somethings you haven’t heard before.
Enjoy!
THE GREATEST DAY!
The whole event is baffling in it’s complexity yet so easy to understand that the least among us can grasp it’s meaning and find unimaginable hope and joy!!!! God came to the earth to live and teach and suffer and die, in order to ransom (fill in your name here) from sins and from the power of darkness, and to deliver us into His Kingdom; so that if we believe in Him and cling to Him and truly give our lives to Him, we will be with Him forever. Why because He loves each of us that much!
Read these words from Jesus:
“DO NOT let your hearts be troubled. And don’t be afraid. You believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on God; believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely also on Me. In My Fathers House there are many dwelling places (homes). If it were not so I would have told you; for I am going away to prepare a place for you. And when I go and make ready a place for you, I will come back again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And where I am going you know the way.”
“Thomas said to Him, Lord, we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him,“I am the Way and theTruth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by Me. If you had known Me, you would also have known My Father. From now on you know Him and have seen Him”.
So why is this day called Good Friday? Most linguists believe that the original declaration was Holy Friday. The reality was that Jesus was tortured and crucified on Thursday. But that really does not matter at all. The fact that His earth body died does. WHAT A PARADOX!
The day our beloved King died a horrible death is called a Holy and Good Day because it was a day like none has ever been or will be. It was the day of the greatest joy the world will ever have reason to celebrate! Instead of a day of sadness and gloom and despair it is a day to dance and laugh and praise Our King!
Jesus had entered the city of Jerusalem just one week earlier and was greeted with adoring crowds, picture a Beetles concert. The children of Israel were ebullient! Their King had finally come and fulfilled all of the prophecies about Him. The people knew that now, at last ,they would be freed from the bondage of servitude to the Roman Empire under whose occupation they had been abused for so long.
Now their conqueror would come in His majesty and destroy their hated enemy. He would call on His avenging angels and they would reign and rule over the world. The situation would be reversed.
Their Zionist Hero Barabbas had set the stage with an attempted rebellion in an attempt to force Jesus’ hand. And now His disciple Judas plotted to kick start Jesus’ mighty rise to world dominance by turning Him over to the San Hedrin (the supreme court of Israel).
Judas believed that not only would he be payed well by the Pharisees but that because He had flipped the switch, He would be rewarded by Jesus the Warrior King with a position of greatness.
The people not knowing anything of the Church age, believed that this was the end of the age and that Jesus must now take His seat as ruler over the earth and do so with violence. They believed that Jesus would dispatch the Romans with extreme prejudice, right then.
Now the Pharisees and the rulers of the Jews were anxious to kill Jesus with haste, lest they lose their fortunes and their exalted positions when he came to power.
So they having been led to Jesus by Judas captured Him in the middle of the night and tried and beat him. They spat on Jesus and declared Him a blasphemer. They mocked Him and found Him guilty in a kangaroo court. Outside of the proceedings, Peter denied Jesus three times, Just as Jesus had said that he would.
Since it was illegal for a Jew to condemn and execute a Jew by Roman law, they went to Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor and accused Him of Blasphemy and described Him as preparing a rebellion by calling Himself the king of the Jews. Pilate questioned Jesus and found no sin in Him.
When Pilate learned that Jesus was a Galilean He sent him for Judgement to Herod Antipas the Roman ruler of Galilee, who promptly also found Jesus innocent and sent Him back to Herod for Judgement. Herod took Jesus before the people and declared Him innocent.
Pilate gave the people a choice to free Jesus who was innocent or Barabbas who was a convicted murderer. And now after a week from His triumphal entry. The people had learned that Jesus would not do what they believed, and come into His earthly power. So they demanded the crucifixion of Jesus.
You have seen and heard often what happened next in movies and plays and in church. Jesus was brutally murdered. Whipped and beaten nearly to death! Mocked with a crown of thorns. Jesus was stripped and drug naked through the streets to Golgotha the place of the skulls and hung on a cross. Along the route He was mocked, derided, spat upon, ridiculed and denied.
He took on every disease known and unknown to man in His body at that moment. Not only did He die from the incredible pain of crucifixion but also from all of those diseases. He was not recognizable as a human.
As He hung on the cross He took on every sin that has ever been committed past, present and future. God could not look upon Jesus because He was full of sin. Jesus cried out to God! “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken Me?”. The answer was that God is a purely Holy God and can not look on sin!
No other human has ever, or will ever suffered so much pain!
At the death of His body, Jesus cried out,”IT IS FINISHED!” And darkness overcame the land. The veil of the temple which separated the Jews from the Holy of Holies and God, was torn in half because Jesus fulfilled and nailed the ten commandments and the 603 ordinances to the cross.
Their was a violent earthquake and graves were opened and the dead walked out of their graves. The gentiles were made free from their sins and became the children of God because Jesus drew all people to Himself at that very moment. The astonished Centurion blabbered, “Surely this was the Son of God.”
The Jews did not kill Jesus. Our sins killed Jesus. Our diseases killed Jesus.
Jesus was the light of all men, He shined his light into the darkness and the darkness did not recognize Him. Why, because the people didn’t want a spiritual savior. They wanted an earthly King.
What they would never understand is that Jesus did overcome their enemy. The evil one and death and illness were defeated completely and forever. He offered them an eternal solution to a temporary earthly one.
Jesus taught of the things of the Spirit which are eternal. Jesus died to save us, free us from the powers of darkness, heal us, prosper us, give us all things that pertain to life and Godliness, to give us peace and joy and happiness and to make us joint heirs with Him.
The only requirement to receive these things is to believe on Him and believe in Him.
So here is the question for Good Friday. Will we seek the eternal or the things of this earth?
Will we totally surrender to Him and accept the immeasurable blessings that He bought us on that day? Will we choose eternal life, Joy unspeakable, Love, Peace, Happiness, Health and Prosperity, or are we to smart, to sophisticated and to earthbound to perceive truth? Jesus can’t make us decide. He gave us free will.
I pray that this teaching has blessed you. If it has, please pass it to another who will be blessed.
Please visit our website: KnowJesusKnowGrace.com for more written, audio and video teachings.
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“WHAT IF JESUS TOLD THE TRUTH?” order it right now on Amazon.
You will learn if you really believe Jesus or not.
Throne of Grace Ministries is a 501c3 ministry. We minister through our website to thousands of people in 100 countries around the world and here in America. We minister in Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Addiction Centers, Funeral Homes, Restaurants, Businesses, Homes, Homeless Shelters, Churches, and Bible Study groups. Our primary ministry is one on one personal Pastoring and Counseling to community leaders. We are led only be the Holy Spirit. We have no denominational or other affiliations and supported entirely by the generosity of our Partners.
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Thank You!
Pastor Allen Fleming
Throne of Grace Ministries
P.O.BOX 669153
Marietta, Georgia 30066
