Good Friday - Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 – Sin properly dealt with

Sermon Good Friday

Text Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 – Sin properly dealt with

I never know what to write on Good Friday that seems fresh and new.

I’ve started this sermon several times trying to get an angle or opening illustration that you’ll remember.

I can only sympathise with Pastors from previous generations who used pen and paper and typewriters and their frustrations at starting sermons over and over again – ripping out that paper from the typewriter and going through bottles of liquid paper.

I couldn’t understand why I was struggling so much.

And then it hit me.

What I was trying to do was not helpful for you.

I had forgotten the core message of Good Friday.

Good Friday is not about me finding a good sermon point to hit home with or something that you will laugh at and talk about later.

No, Good Friday is about one thing and one thing only.

Proclaiming again that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

Maybe I was feeling a bit self-conscious.

It seems that many today don’t like to hear that they are sinners so how can we make sense of Jesus dying for our sin?

The brutality and harshness of Jesus’ death however should tell us that sin is a serious matter.

Why?

Because it separates us from God.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden it began a life of separation from God for them.

First they hid.

But when they could no longer hide God sent them out of garden – not as a punishment but for their protection from punishment.

As the population of the world grew, so did its sinfulness and God even regretted having made humankind.

He decided to wipe out his creation with a world-wide flood and start again with one righteous person.

Noah and his family.

But that didn’t solve the problem as sin began to multiply again as the population grew.

God devised a system of sacrifices to pay for the sin of the world with one nation representing the world – Israel – and one tribe from that nation – the Levites – from whom a certain group would become priests who would oversee the sacrifices  – and from them one family would be the line of High Priests – and only the High Priest could enter into God’s presence in the Holy of Holies in the temple once a year on the Day of Atonement.

Sin is something we all struggle with and wondering whether it is really that bad.

We only need to listen again to the brutality of Jesus’ death to understand that, yes, sin is serious.

And Jesus’ death should be the central message of any Good Friday message.

And if you ever want to understand the complexity of sin then read the books of Leviticus and Numbers in the Old Testament.

Sin could not be overlook by God but it was how God was going to deal with sin so as to preserve humanity that he had created in his own image.

The grief that wiping out the entire population in the days of Noah brought to God saw God vow that he would never deal with sin that way again. (Genesis 9:13).

But God still had to deal with sin.

And so he sent Jesus – holy and innocent so that his death would pay in full the sins of the world.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that we would become the righteousness of God.

Jesus is the new High Priest who has gained access again to our Heavenly Father for us.

And now, through Jesus, we can approach the throne of grace with boldness, where we will find forgiveness for our sin.

Now maybe none of this really makes sense or you don’t understand the significance of it.

That’s okay.

That’s the point of Good Friday.

Good Friday was to take away the complexity of having the right sacrifice for the particular sin we had commited.

It means we don’t need to worry about having the right sacrifice for the particular sin – or having the right combination of words to say to God.

No, Jesus made it quite plain and simple what Good Friday is about when he said:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16).

As St Paul so simply says: Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:13)

So when Jesus cries out from the cross – It is finished – he meant that the work of reconciling us with God was finished.

No more separation or hiding.

Friends, when God created Adam and Eve he created the world for them to enjoy.

God would come in the cool of the day to speak with them.

That’s what Jesus came to restore.

A life where we became free again to enjoy God’s creation.

Sadly sin in the world continues to create the division that Jesus death overcame.

We continue see a divide between rich and poor because of greed.

We continue to see a divide between nations through war, terrorism and racism.

And again we saw what humankind without an understanding of God’s love and forgiveness can do by the terrorist acts in Brussels.

We are called to go from here and set a new example of love.

To be an example of the extent that God was prepared to go through because of his love for us.

Whether it’s the injustice we seen the world with prejudice, racism, violence, treatment of asylum seekers, anything that goes against love of fellow humanity – we need to remember the extent of God’s love in the death of his own Son and speak out against the sin and injustice.

Thanks be to God that because of Jesus death we no longer have to hide like Adam and Eve did but we can boldly and with confidence approach the throne of God and seek his forgiveness and stand against sin and the evil it produces in the world.