Brown's Daily Word 4-22-11

Praise the Lord, it is Good Friday. Those of you who live in the area join us for our Good Friday Television Outreach this Evening at 7 PM on Time Warner Cable Ch 4. Many people often question why we call the day of crucifixion “Good Friday.” Many have said the word good used to have a secondary meaning of “Holy.” Some say God and good got switched around due to their similarity and one case was the phrase God be with you, which is today good-bye. So perhaps Good Friday was originally God’s Friday. But I think we call it Good Friday because in pious retrospect, all that tragedy brought about the greatest goodness there could be. Yet, despite its sadness, Good Friday is truly good. It is Godly sorrow. If it was an accident to make God’s Friday called Good Friday, I say it was not an accident at all. It was God’s own doing to give a sharp prophetic jab at time and culture obsessed by happiness. The commemoration of Christ’s death reminds us of that human sin that caused this death. At the same time of course, Good Friday recalls for us the greatness and wonder of God’s love that he should submit to death for us. No wonder in parts of Europe the day is not called “Good” but “Great” or “Holy” Friday. Good Friday has always challenged merely human goodness. Its sad commemoration reminds us that in the face of sin, our goodness avails nothing. Only one is good enough to save us. That person is Jesus; he did so is cause indeed and his goodness is cause for celebration.
Scripture records a number of supernatural phenomena that occurred while Jesus hung on the cross. Those events were God’s own supernatural commentary on the cross. They gave proof that the execution taking place that day was an event of cosmic importance.
The routes to the city that day were jammed with pilgrims coming and going as they prepared to celebrate Passover. Few if any of them realized what a monumental event was occurring at Calvary. God’s Lamb was dying on that very Passover to provide forgiveness for all the sins of all the redeemed of all time. But relatively few were taking notice. But then suddenly all nature seemed to stop and pay attention.
THE SUN DARKENED:
The first of the miraculous signs that accompanied Jesus’ death was the darkening of the sky. Matthew writes in Matthew 27:45, “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.”
The sixth hour would have been noon. At the precise moment when the noon sun should have been brightest in the sky, darkness fell over all the land, and remained for three hours. This was probably not a total blackness, but rather a severe darkening of the normal daylight intensity of the sun. “Over all the land” is an expression that might refer to the land of Israel, or it could refer to the whole world. I’m inclined to think that the sun itself was dimmed, so that the darkness would have been universal, and not limited to the local area surrounding Jerusalem.
As a matter of fact, according to some of the Church Fathers, the supernatural darkness that accompanied the crucifixion was noticed throughout the world at the time. Tertullian mentioned this event in his Apologeticum—“At the moment of Christ’s death, the light departed from the sun, and the land was darkened at noonday, which wonder is related in your own annals and is preserved in your archives to this day.”
During Moses’ time, darkness had fallen in Egypt because a plague of locusts was so thick that the flying insects had blocked the sun (Exodus 10:14-15). In Joshua’s time the opposite had occurred, and the sun stood still over Israel for a whole 24-hour period (Joshua 10:12-14). In Hezekiah’s day, the shadows turned backward ten degrees, as the earth’s rotation seemed to reverse for about 40 minutes (2 Kings 20:9-11). The darkening of the sun is commonly mentioned in Scripture as an apocalyptic sign of the end times (Isaiah 50:3; Joel 2:31; Revelation 9:2). (Amos 8:9). Throughout Scripture, darkness is connected with judgment, and supernatural darkness of this type signifies cataclysmic doom (cf. Isaiah 5:30; Joel 2:2; Amos 5:20; Zephaniah 1:14-15). So the darkening of the sun at noon like this was certain to evoke widespread fear that catastrophic judgment was about to fall.
This darkness may well have signified the Father’s judgment against the sin Christ bore in His person on our behalf. In any case, the darkness is certainly an appropriate reminder that the cross was a place of judgment. In those awful hours of darkness, Christ was bearing the judgment meant for His people. He was standing in their place as the wrath of God was being poured upon Him for their transgressions. The culmination of the darkness is Christ’s outcry to the Father: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?’” (v. 46). Shortly afterward, “Jesus cried out again with a loud voice” saying, “Tetelestai!” Then commending His spirit to God, He “gave up the ghost” (Matthew 27:50).
THE VEIL TORN. At the very moment of Christ’s death, a series of remarkable miracles occurred. Matthew writes, “Then, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain [torn in two] from top to bottom” (v. 51). The veil was a heavy curtain that blocked the entrance to the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple, the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, symbolizing the sacred presence of God. The tearing of the curtain at the moment of Jesus’ death dramatically symbolized that His sacrifice was a sufficient atonement for sins forever, and the way into the Holy of Holies was now open.
Another miracle also occurred at the exact moment of Christ’s death. “And the earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Matthew 27:51). An earthquake powerful enough to split rocks would be a significant temblor. Earthquakes in Scripture are often used, like darkness, to signify a graphic display of
divine judgment.
THE DEAD RAISED
At that very same moment when Christ died, yet another miracle occurred:
Matthew 27:52-53 . “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, [53] And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” Many of the tombs in and around Jerusalem to this day are hollow stone sepulchers, resting at ground level or just above. The earthquake was evidently powerful enough to split
sepulchers like these. That was not the miracle; that might have occurred in any earthquake. The great miracle is that those who emerged from the broken sepulchers were raised from the dead. Although “many . . . saints who had fallen asleep” were raised, not all were. These were select representatives of the multitude of saints buried in and around Jerusalem. Notice, in fact, that those who rose from the dead did not appear in Jerusalem until after Jesus’ resurrection.
Where these resurrected saints were in the days after they were loosed from the grave and before they appeared in Jerusalem is not specified. But the fact that they waited until after Christ’s resurrection to appear to anyone reminds us that He is the first fruits of those risen from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20). These risen saints most likely came forth from the dead in glorified bodies already fit for heaven (rather than being restored to life in unglorified mortal bodies, as Lazarus had been). They “appeared to many” (v. 53). Again, how many is not specified, but there were enough eyewitnesses to verify the miracle! Their appearance proved that Christ had conquered death, not merely for Himself, but for all the saints. One day “all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth” (John 5:28-29).
Christ was dead, but death had not conquered Him. On the first day of the week, He would burst forth triumphantly from the grave and show Himself alive to hundreds of eyewitnesses (1 Corinthians 15:5-8). He thus not only atoned for sin, but He demonstrated His Mastery over death in the process. Every believer’s deepest yearning should be this: Philip. 3:10
"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death…"
In Christ,
Brown
http://youtu.be/M_LLFfFXaUA

Saturday evening worship service.
Location: First United Methodist Church
53 McKinley Avenue
Endicott
Sponsored by the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128, Maple Drive, Endicott

Saturday, April 23, 2011
6 PM Coffee Fellowship

6:30 PM Worship Service
Worship Music: Winnie Miller, Dave Berry, Al Smith
Speaker: Rev Brown Naik


Easter services of celebration and worship will be held at the Union Center United Methodist Church, 128 Maple drive, Endicott, on Easter Sunday, April 24, at 8:30 and at 11:00 AM. There will be an Easter Celebration at the Wesley United Methodist Church, 1000 Day Hollow Road , Endicott, at 9:30 AM. Pastor Brown Naik will be preaching on: "Easter Faith in a Good Friday World".