What I want to do this afternoon is read the account, at least some of it, of our Lord and His crucifixion. Then I'm going to kind of step back from that and look at the why of the cross. There are many reasons. I'm going to give you four of them. We'll talk about that. Luke, the 23rd chapter, Luke 23, and I'd like to read verses 33 to 46. When they came to the place called the Skull, also called Golgotha, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right, the other on the left, and Jesus was saying, Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. He actually made seven statements from the cross, that's one of them. They cast lots, dividing up his garments among themselves, and the people stood by looking on. Even rulers were sneering at him saying, he saved others, let him save himself if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one. The soldiers also mocked coming up to him and offering him sour wine and saying, if you're the king of the Jews, save yourself. Now there was also an inscription above him, this is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other answered in rebuking him, said, Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. And he was saying, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. It was now about the sixth hour and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour because the sun was obscured. The veil of the temple was torn in two, and Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit, having said this, he breathed his last. Loving Heavenly Father, we are grateful to remember today the price of our salvation. We remember today our Lord, we remember him coming, we remember him stepping into humanity, born of a virgin there in Bethlehem, growing and for a few years ministering in a powerful way. And then, Father, going to the cross. Thank you for that extension, that display of your love there. Thank you for Jesus coming. And Father, we remember his suffering, we remember the great price that was paid for our ransom, for our redemption. Thank you for going on a mission to rescue us. Thank you for today when we can remember. Help us, Father. I pray that our boasting, our courage will always be in Christ and what he's done. Fathers, we walk through this today. Bless our time together. Help me as I proclaim, and the listener as well. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, if we were on Jerusalem time, which we're not, but if we were on that day, Jesus would have about an hour and five minutes left until those last words that we saw, that we read in the scripture there, I should say. Darkness has fallen now upon Jerusalem, so that gets you a little bit. He was crucified as we would see at nine in the morning, breathed his last at three in the afternoon. That was a long six hours. We gather here today to remember To remember where the sacrifice of the Lamb of God took place, we remember that. Today's the day we recall our Lord's suffering and the dread of those six hours, the longest six hours I believe in history. We remember today that he was beaten, he was stripped, he was mocked, and after having been betrayed, his abandon at the cross, we remember his darkest moment when separated by his father, from his father, cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus went to the cross so that we might know God's love, be forgiven, be justified, be reconciled. Those are some of the reasons. Those are the ones I'd like to look at today. You know, you and I could never be good enough to warrant justification with God. We can't do that in and of ourselves. Because we can't live a perfect life. We can't live perfectly keeping every commandment or loving God all the time as we should. that's impossible for us to do. So in order to be declared right by God, and by the way he's the only one who has the authority to do that, someone had to stand in our place, someone had to pay for our sin. That someone was the Lamb of God. Remember when John the Baptist saw him? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's the Lamb of God, the one who would be sacrificed on our behalf at a place called Golgotha, the place of the skull, Calvary. And that's what Jesus did. He went there. I don't know that I can fully grasp it all, but as the scripture says, I'm going to stay here in my thinking. May it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord. Galatians 6.14, the first part of that verse. May it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's my boast today. Now, boasts is sometimes translated exalt, glory, joy, or rejoice. And we can do that. And it is a somber moment. I never come to a Good Friday service without feeling some, of recalling our friend, our Lord, our Master, and what he did for us. That's sobering. But there's four reasons for the cross that I want to touch on just in these few brief moments. The first is that the forgiveness of humanity hinged on the cross. The forgiveness of humanity hinged on the cross. This is from Colossians, the second chapter. I'll just mention a few things there. It's really two verses that really speak to this, and really every aspect of this that I'm going to speak to today would and could be a sermon in itself. I'm just going to kind of move along through each one, though. The first one is the forgiveness of humanity hinged on the cross, Colossians 2.13. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him. How? Having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us. He's taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Well, we were dead. We could do nothing. in order that God would give us life. People often think that I can do something for God, I can just measure up, just do a little better, if I'm better than the person down the road, or my neighbor, or I haven't done this, this, or this, but that's not even close, because God demands perfection. You would have to live a sinless life every moment of every day. And God who knows us best knows we're sinners. So he sent his Son as our Savior. It says here in this text, when you were dead in your transgressions or in your sins, when you were dead, at times you've been by, maybe you've driven by, you've seen where a deer has been hit on the road. and it's laying in a ditch. That deer never moves. There's nothing that animal, it's a dead carcass. It's only good for feeding vultures and so forth. That's all it is. And we can't, that's the picture that God has of it. We can't respond. We don't have anything to offer to him. But he says, when you were dead in your transgression, the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, that's together with Christ. We'll talk about that more on Sunday, but because He lives, we live. And through faith in Christ, we have been forgiven. He's canceled out the certificate of death, that He's forgiven us all our transgressions. we were dead and he gave his life when we came to life when he forgave us he cleansed us from our sin by his blood his blood had to be shed the scripture says without the shedding of blood there's no remission or forgiveness of sin and we access this by faith in Jesus Christ the only thing we can do is to trust, is to accept the gift of eternal life, is to reach out in faith and say, I'm a sinner and I need a Savior. So I don't know what you're believing today, but this is the simplicity of what God has offered in the cross of Christ. He offers life. We're now alive together with Him. Why? Because He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, or on the cross, 1 Peter 2.24. So He took our sin. Two thousand years ago, God, who is all-knowing, and our Lord, who is all-knowing because He's God, had all the sin of all humanity placed on Him. So the forgiveness of humanity hinges on the cross, and in Ephesians 1.7 it says we're forgiven by His blood. So that's there for you and I to tap into. Why the cross? Because we could not be forgiven without the sacrifice that Jesus made there as the perfect Lamb of God. And so you know what? Today I'm going to boast in that. I'm going to say, praise God, I rejoice. There's joy in my heart, I exalt Him. I exalt Him. Secondly, another reason for the why of the cross, why the cross, is because the justification. the justification of sinners hinged on the cross. And justification is a legal term. It means to be declared right. And God is the one who does that, not a pastor, not a priest, not a religious leader. It's God alone who justifies sinners. Tremendous chapter, chapter three of Romans. A couple verses there I want to just have you think of for a minute. Verse 24, being justified or declared right as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God he passed over sins previously committed for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just, that is God would be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. See, the justification of sinners hinges on the cross. How is it possible? How is it possible for God, who is altogether holy, to allow sinful man to have access to him, to be forgiven, to be declared right? Well, it's this. Sin must be dealt with. You and I, we are sinners, and our sin calls for justice. And God simply will not overlook. There's a big lie out there today that says, well God is loving and kind and surely he will bring all people at the end to himself, and we're all God's children, we're all okay, no matter how you access or whatever path you take, in the end everything's good and right and holy. No. That's a lie from the enemy. The scripture does not declare that. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and so forth. But there's only one way. His justice had to be met. Sin must be dealt with, and God simply won't overlook it. He couldn't do that and remain holy. But what God did was to take the initiative and provide sinners a sacrificial lamb. That lamb was Jesus. John stated it. He takes away the sin of the world. And a sacrificial lamb must be sacrificed. God's justice demanded a perfect, spotless, sinless sacrifice. Jesus was perfect, spotless, sinless. He was the only one that could go to the cross and appease or propitiate God's demand for justice. And that's where Jesus went, was to the cross. He met all those qualifications. He took our sin on himself. Our sentence of death was placed on him. Just as the Old Testament priests would take the blood and enter into the Holy of Holies, sprinkle that blood on the mercy seat, Jesus shed his blood. in order that we might have forgiveness of sins. Now that Old Testament priest, that was once a year. It was a continuing thing. But Jesus shed his blood once for all. Hebrews 10.12 says, but he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. So God's justice was met on the cross all those years ago. when Jesus went to the cross and shed his blood and died in our place. And now God can be justified in justifying the sinner. So he is justified in justifying the sinner. because God's, and he says here in Romans 3.26, his righteous, it says, for the demonstration I say of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So because of what Jesus did on the cross, in our place, as a sinless spotless man, having met all the demands of holy God, God now can say to the believing sinner, he can declare him to be right, to be justified, and God is just in doing it. So it's an amazing thing. So the cross is there for the justification of sinners. And our justification hinges on the cross and what was done there. Thirdly, for the declaration of God's love. It is the declaration of God's love, it hinges on the cross. It hinges on the cross. And I say this from, there's a number of places we could go. Many of us are very familiar with John 3.16, for God so loved, so loved the world that he what? Gave. He demonstrated. He put his son out there. In 1 John 4.10, I love how it mentions this, in this is love. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation of our sins. The declaration of God's love hinges on the cross. He defined love in the giving of his son. God is love. And he demonstrated it by what he has done in the giving of his son. An amazing truth. So it is that in this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son. When we look to the cross we understand something. We have tremendous value to God. Have you thought about that? You know when somebody does something for you, and it's some kind of an extension of who they are and the degree of how they care about you. There's no greater love than this, that someone would lay down their life for us. And that's what God has done. It's not that we were loving him so much he thought, you know, wonderful heart those people have, I think I'll send my son. No. No, the cross, it displays to us. And it's said in Romans, the third chapter there, he displayed Jesus Christ publicly. And here it tells us in 1 John that this is love. God defined it. And it's a verb, it's an action. It's not just that God says, I love you. Scripture says he loved us and sent his son. I don't know about you, but to me that is very humbling to think about. Because when I'm not at my best, I know this, that God loves me. How do I know that? He sent His Son. When I'm at my worst, when some days I don't feel like praying, or reading, or loving like I ought to, I know this, there's the cross. Then I know something about that cross. My God loves me. So he not only defined it, but he proved it. He proved it. He sent his son. 1 John 3.16 says, we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us. He laid down his life. That's how we know love. And by the way, the only way we can really love is to know him and have a relationship with him. Finally, the reconciliation of humanity hinged on the cross. The reconciliation of humanity hinged on the cross. This is from 2 Corinthians, the fifth chapter. It says there, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. And that's a description of someone who has come to faith in Jesus Christ. They've simply reached out in faith. It's not they've done a religious work. It's not they've showed up for a Good Friday service or Sunday service or helped their neighbor. or kept some of the commandments, no, they've reached out in faith. God has gloriously saved them, they're someone new in Christ. And then it goes on to say, now all these things are from God who reconciled us, reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. But we've been reconciled through Christ because of the cross. In verse 21 it says, he made him who knew no sin, that is the father, made Him, the Son, who knew no sin, He was sinless, to sin on our behalf, and that was at the cross, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So the reconciliation of humanity, it hinges on the cross. God was reconciling us to Himself. That's what the cross is about. That's God's display of love. That's God saying to you and I, look, I love you. I've prepared a way for you. I'm willing you to myself. I want a relationship with you. And if you'll put your faith in my son, you will be forgiven, you'll be reconciled, you'll be justified, declared right by God. And so it is that he says, I made my son to be sin for you that you might become what you couldn't become. Through faith you can become. Have placed on your account the righteousness of God. That is where we find our relief. Well these are some thoughts about the cross and our Savior is there We remember that today, we remember it was God's declaration of his love for us. We remember that through faith we can be justified. We remember that we have forgiveness, total forgiveness because of his bloodshed. And we tap into that, we access that by faith and we're reconciled to him. We've become new in him and we become the righteousness of God through faith in him. I began by saying we have something to boast about today. You know it is that I boasted about my kids. I like to boast about my kids and my grandkids. I like to boast about you guys to other people, what you're doing, how you're growing. Some, you know, and that's a good boasting and we get boasting about ourselves. I think that's a foolish boasting. But we'll boast in Christ. We'll boast in our God who loves us, who gave his son for us, and our Lord who gave himself up for us. But this is the way that God has chose to redeem us. You know, you and I might think, if I was God, I'd do it a different way. We're not God. And this is the way that the one who knows all things, the one who has all wisdom, has chosen to do it. To question it would be foolish. To reject it would be insane. I hope you know Him. I hope your trust is not in what you have done, but in what Christ has done for you. Today we boast that we have a great Savior. We boast we've been forgiven, we've been reconciled. We boast that God loved us enough that He demonstrated on the cross. And so we exalt, we praise Him, we glorify Him, that would be proper and right. My heart grieves a little bit today to think of my Savior in this way, on the cross, suffering, those nails, He's pinned there, His love is holding Him there, and it won't be long If we were in Jerusalem on that day, 45 minutes, he would be dead. And we, with the disciples, would have mourned, run for our lives, but then Sunday came, right? I always remember those words of, I don't know, a preacher years ago, he had a whole sermon on it. It's Friday, but Sunday's coming. And he ran around that for the whole thing. Well it is Friday and we remember the cross but Sunday is coming and Lord willing I will and you will be here and we will rejoice furthermore in that. Let's pray. Loving Heavenly Father, it's amazing to think about how it is that you chose to redeem us, to draw us to yourselves, to forgive us, to save us, to show us how much you love. That is just amazing. And Father, it's hard to think about the suffering of our Lord. He's been up since, as we would see, a Thursday morning early. way into the night last night with the Gethsemane sweat great drops of blood under the pressure of what it would to become sin for all sinners for all time and then allowing himself to be taken and those trials early in the morning the flogging and then the nails from nine till noon, and at noon darkness covers Jerusalem, and it seems to me that all of creation mourned." And then those words, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit, all with a purpose. He came to seek and to save that which was lost, and we are indebted. Father, we look forward to seeing our Lord face to face. And for us to boast in the cross, in our Savior, we want to do that. It'll fall far short of what it needs to be, but thank you that you do accept our praise. We glorify you. We exalt your name. We give you thanks. Father, we're going to remember even more around the table in the next few minutes. I pray that our hearts will be where they need to be with you and with man. And we pray your blessing on that. In Jesus' name, amen.