Why Do They Call It Good Friday? – Part 2

what it means for us now. If you missed part one of this powerful Easter message, you can find it at Bold Steps. Now let's join Mark Jobe as we continue our lesson titled Why Do they Call it Good Friday?

remission of sin. Ever since Jesus died, the church has stopped sacrificing because the perfect sacrifice has been sacrificed. God himself. God himself died on that cross. And when he died on that cross, he carried shame, guilt, rape, bigotry, selfishness, lying, adultery, murder. He carried it upon himself, the sins of humanity. And he said, it's paid in full. And what? Listen, what Jesus has said now is that you have access to the father, but you have to receive the gift. The

gift is offered. It's free, but it has to be received. And that's why Jesus talked about It is by grace that you've been saved through faith, not of yourselves. This is a gift of God, lest anyone should boast. Even though the gift is offered to everybody, not everybody has received that gift. The gift is offered. It's free. The lamb has shed his blood. But when you come to the lamb, you have to come in faith. And you have to say. I can't save myself. I'm not the

ruler of my life. I need you to save me. To be my Lord. To be my Savior. I need to follow your way. The Bible says that then we die to ourselves and live to God. That's the way of Jesus. It's the way of the cross. Good Friday, we celebrate the way of the cross. If you're here and you don't know Jesus, you've never received that gift. It all feels curious. Strange. Unattainable. Unreachable. If you're here and you know Jesus. It's the breath that makes you breathe.

It's the feeling that gives life to you. It's the passion in your praise. It's the strength in your life. It's the power of the resurrected Jesus living within you. And Jesus knew that he was going to die. But he also knew that he would raise again on the third day. If he would have died and never rose, people would have said, well, he was a good teacher, martyred by the Romans. Why was Jesus able to rise? The Bible tells us that, theologically speaking, the Speaking. The

power of death is sin. Before there was sin, there was no death. Sin brought death into the world. Jesus was sinless. Therefore, sin had no power to hold him down. And so on the third day, he rose. People saw him and talked with him. Not metaphorically. Rose. He physically rose, testified by hundreds of people that had seen him die, that had seen him buried and then had seen him alive.

One of the most testified events in ancient history. Witnesses that saw him, touched him, talked with him, knew it was Jesus the Christ. His disciples who saw him die and then rise again. They were willing to die themselves for the message that they had seen. There was no ambiguity about the resurrection of Jesus. They were certain this was Jesus the Christ. They had lived with them for three years. They knew who Jesus was. They knew his voice and his image, and they talked with them when

he rose. They knew this is the man that died and rose again. He is the Messiah, the son of the living God. We celebrate an act that Jesus. Instituted. We call it the Last Supper. But it started hundreds of years before the Jewish people called it the Passover. A practicing Jew still celebrate the Passover starting in a few weeks from now, and they have a whole ceremony around it. Part of that ceremony is a lamb's leg because they celebrate when a lamb was slaughtered. The last

of the ten plagues. And if they put splattered the blood of the lamb on the door of their house, the angel of death that would kill their firstborn child would pass over. It had to be a lamb without blemish. Does that sound familiar? You see, it was predicting what was to come. There would be a lamb. His blood will save you from death. He's the firstborn of all of creation. And so the Jewish people celebrated the Passover.

As they got ready to celebrate the Passover, Jesus gathered with his disciples, and he said, I'm going to put a twist on this. I will no longer be able to celebrate the Passover with you. This will be my last Passover with you, because I'm going to a place where you're not going yet. He called it the Last Supper, and he said, I want you to do this often as you remember me. The disciples didn't know what he was talking about. And by the way, how many of

you have seen Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper? The painting. How many of you have seen that? Yeah, it's a great painting, but it's all wrong. When have you ever seen everybody sit on one side of the table, by the way? You know, you just. No one does that. By the way, they didn't sit on tables like that in the Jewish time. They actually reclined on the floor. They weren't all blonde and blue eyed either. They were Jewish, so they looked a lot different. There was no loaves

of bread like Leonardo da Vinci's. That's French bread. They didn't have. They had unleavened bread, which is like crackers. Leonardo. Great painter, terrible theologian, terrible theologian. But the Last Supper that Jesus, he said, I want you to do this when I'm gone in remembrance of me.

Even the finance. It's helpful for me not to focus on the what ifs and to look to God. And it's just such an encouragement how every day God's Word, whether it's I'm hearing it on the radio or I'm studying. God is so faithful and he puts us where we need to be. And I just want to be a faithful servant. At the beginning, I didn't know why I ended up with this disease. And. But now I really feel it's to bring honor and glory to God no matter what. He's here with me. He provides for me.

And I am just incredibly thankful for all that you guys do. I did have a question. It was about the ten, ten, 80 and I couldn't figure it out. If you could give me any resources to look up, that would be great. But again, thank you so much. And I think that my husband and I are going to try to come up to your church on a weekend and hear you speak in person. It is just such an encouragement to me, and I just thank God for you and for the community of believers that you

have there around you. And just pray that God would continue to bless your efforts there. Thank you so much.

Passover was always a symbol of sin. The Jewish people, before they ate the Passover, they would go throughout the house and they would clean the house to make sure there was no leaven. Leaven causes things to rise. It affects everything. A little leaven causes the whole loaf of bread to rise. And Jesus says, A little leaven in your life. It affects your whole life. So this is a time to examine our hearts and to make sure that there's not areas in our life that are contrary

to God. So we examine Lord, is the area of sin in my life an area of disobedience? An area where I haven't submitted to you because I don't want that to affect me. So the Bible says, examine yourself before you partake of this. The bread symbolizes the body of Christ, and in just a moment we're going to partake of. This symbolizes the body that was broken on that cross for you and I. But take a moment and just examine your life and say, Lord, is there

anything you're dealing with? Pride. Lust? Lying? Any area that I need to confess to you right now? God, Anything I need to get right, Lord. Just allow the Spirit of God to speak to you. Maybe you're here and. You've never surrendered your life to Christ. That's an act of obedience. Now, he took that bread and he said, this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And see, we partake of this unleavened bread that symbolizes the sinless body of Jesus, the sinless

body of Jesus, broken on our behalf. And we partake of it in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. And the Bible says that in the same way he took the cup, the fruit of the vine. This grape juice is red like blood. It symbolizes the blood of Jesus, that blood that dripped from his head, that blood that dripped from his hands, that blood that dripped from his feet. Blood symbolizes life. Jesus gave his life so that you and I could go

into the Holy of Holies. Washed and clean. And so, as we drink of this cup, we say, thank you, Jesus, that you did it. We're extremely grateful. And so we partake of this cup in the name of the father. In the name of the son. In the name of the Holy Spirit. So as we close our time together on this Good Friday, good Friday. I remind you that this is good news for all people, that you may

be here today and you say I'm unworthy of God. Yes, you are, and so am I. It's only the blood of Jesus that makes us worthy to go through the, the, the veil. But the veil is rent. You don't have to stand outside of that which is holy. You don't have to continue to live as someone that feels unclean. Because once you've come and been washed by the blood of Jesus, you have access into the Holy of Holies, not because of what you have done, but what has

been done for you. You say, well, pastor, that seems too easy. Well, it seems easy, but the way of the cross is not easy because you give yourself to God and let him cleanse you. There's no nothing. There's no penance that you can do to cleanse yourself. You can't pray enough Hail Marys or Our Fathers to wash your sins away. You can't do that. It's washed only through the blood of Jesus. There's no penance. There's no pilgrimage that you can kneel on and beat your back to.

Try to pay for the sins that you've committed. You could spend years and years flogging yourself, and still it would not pay. There's one who's paid the price. And his name is Jesus. But once you come to Jesus and you say, I come to you. Wash me, cleanse me. I choose to follow you. Then the Holy Spirit comes inside of you and you become a new person. And now your life follows a different way. It's the way

of the cross. It's the way of Jesus. They called early Christians people of the way because they live different, countercultural. They live now by the beat of a different drum. They lived worshiping God in community. They lived. Their sexuality was submitted to God. Their words were submitted to God. Their lifestyle reflected God. They lived different. Walked different. Why? Because now they were people of the way. And as you come to Christ, it's free. Not cheap, but free.

But your life isn't the same. You become a person of the way. Now he's your lord. Now he's your master. Now he. Now you. You follow and serve and seek him. People around you say, why are you so different? What's happened to you? And all you can say is. Yeah, yeah. It's because Good Friday happened and Easter happened. happen. That's what's happened to me. I've been touched by the power of the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, the son of

the living God. And if you are a believer in Jesus already, if you've bowed your knee, surrendered your heart, allowed the Holy Spirit to come inside of you. You know what I'm talking about. If you have not yet taken that step, then you need to. And maybe, just maybe, God has allowed my voice to come into your life right now. Because that vacuum that you sense, that emptiness that you feel, that longing that is drawing you, is

God himself saying, you need to surrender to me. And so if you've never surrendered your life to God, if you've never taken that step of professing Jesus as your Savior and your Lord. Then on this Good Friday, I think it's a good time to do that. So I just want to stop right now and this season that we celebrate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus to

lead you in prayer. And so if you are saying, pastor, I need God like that, then the Bible says, we believe in our heart, but we confess with our mouth. And so you need to believe that Jesus was all God, that he died on that cross to pay a price that you could not pay, and that he's Lord. And you need to profess him as your Lord and Savior, surrendering your life to him and saying, God, I will follow you. You don't have the power to do this on your own, but God gives you the power through

His Holy Spirit. So pause right now with me and pray. Dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner. God, I cannot save myself. I need you. And so today I surrender myself to you. I turn away from the way that I've been living. I repent, and in faith I ask Jesus the Christ to be the Savior and the Lord of my life. Wash me. Forgive me. And Lord, give me the power to be a transformed new person as I follow you with all my heart, soul, and body. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

death and resurrection of Jesus. We have a special Good Friday edition of the Bold Steps TV program to share with you on radio tomorrow when you join us. Thank you Mark. A reminder to that also on our website this month is our special bold step gift, a transformative book called The Six Conversations by Doctor Heather Holloman. You know, it's ironic in our hyper connected world of texts and social media and video calls, genuine relationships seem harder to

find than ever. That's why we're so excited about Doctor Holloman's practical guide to Building Authentic Relationships. Whether you're looking to deepen family bonds or create meaningful friendships, the Six Conversations provides clear biblical strategies for moving beyond surface level small talk to connections that truly matter. We'll send you a copy of the six conversations with your gift of any amount to support bold steps. Just go online to

Bold steps.org or call us at 800 Moody. That's (800) 356-6639. And if you'd rather send your donation and request this book in the mail, you can write to us at Bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 6006 ten. And as we continue doing all we can to bring sound, clear teaching of the gospel to new listeners, we hope you'll consider joining the growing list of faithful supporters we

call Bold Partners. Thanks to their generous monthly gifts, our bold partners are helping us spread to new cities and new countries, sharing the life changing truth of God's Word all throughout the week. To learn more about the difference your giving makes and to sign up to become a bold partner, just visit Bold Steps. Well, that's our time for today. I'm Wayne Shepherd, inviting you back tomorrow for a very special Good Friday discussion here in the studio

with Mark Jobe. Don't miss Friday's special edition of Bold Steps. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.