Good Friday Worship St. John’s Lutheran Church April 2, 2021 www.stjohnslutheran.com Welcome To Today’s Worship Service – THE THEME is quite BASIC. Two thousand years ago the Creator of this world took on human flesh to die for the sins of the very world he created. Those who believe in Jesus as their Savior will never face eternal punishment for their sins – but have eternal life. God’s startling, and loving death motivates Christians all across the world to annually gather on this day and hear that the payment for their sins “IS FINISHED!” Thank you for joining us again this year to worship our loving Savior. THE MOOD is UNIQUE. Dead silence can be awkward and sometimes uncomfortable. The silence today reminds us of how uncomfortable our sins make us… and how sad it was that Jesus had to die for us. Today’s darkness reminds us of the ugliness of sin in general – but our sin especially! Although today’s service is very solemn in nature, we joyfully worship as God’s loved and forgiven people. This is not a funeral service for our Lord. We still worship in adoration and thanksgiving for the perfect life that Jesus offered as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And we will see again this Sunday that tonight is anything but a funeral service… Welcome! YOU’LL NOTICE that towards the end of the sevice you’ll hear a strange and loud noise called Strepitus (STREP – e – toos) The word is a Latin word meaning, “great noise.” For some, this loud, rumbling noise represents Jesus’ tomb closing shut, symbolizing the seriousness of Jesus’ love in the finality of his death. Others have appreciated connecting the noise to the sound of Jesus’ tomb powerfully tearing open on Easter morning. This is what casts hope through the gloom of Good Friday reminding us that Christ was raised to life again. Feel free to hear it as it best serves you. At the close of the service, the church will be very dark. There will be no benediction or greeting. No formal dismissal. Stay as long as you like to meditate on what this all means for you ~ the seriousness of our sin and the extraordinary love of God to suffer it for us. Whenever you’re ready, each person is asked to leave silently. 2 GOOD FRIDAY Song of Love – Jesus, I will Ponder Now All () Jesus, I will ponder now On your holy passion; With your Spirit me endow For such meditation. Grant that I in love and faith May the image cherish Of your suff’ring, pain, and death That I may not perish. Make me see your great distress, Anguish, and affliction, Bonds and stripes and wretchedness And your crucifixion; Make me see how scourge and rod, Spear and nails did wound you, How for them you died, O God, Who with thorns had crowned you We worship the One, True God together today: He is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen! And as we worship Him, we pause to consider an important anniversary. It’s the bitter-sweet truth that Jesus, our Savior, died on this day! We can mourn why Jesus died, but we rejoice that he died willingly for us. Today, our eyes are drawn nowhere else but to Jesus’ cross – the only place where our sin meets with God’s amazing grace… All () Go to dark Gethsemane, All who feel the tempter’s pow’r; Your Redeemer’s conflict see. Watch with him one bitter hour; Turn not from his griefs away; Learn of Jesus Christ to pray. Follow to the judgment hall; View the Lord of life arraigned. Oh, the wormwood and the gall! Oh, the pangs his soul sustained! Shun not suff’ring, pain, or loss; Learn of him to bear the cross. (CW104 vs 1,2) Today, O God, as we worship you, we are mindful that we have not met the perfect standards for our lives that you rightly demand. We confess to you just how overwhelming our sins are – staining our every thought, word and action. We often treat our sins so lightly, attempting to excuse or deny them. We are quick to see the sins of others but we are slow to recognize our own sin! Lord, our thoughts are filled with selfishness, our words with unkindness, and our actions are empty of love. 3 Dear Savior, it was for these very sins that you died on a cross on the first Good Friday. We are truly grieved by our transgressions, but we do trust you to forgive them all – through your innocent suffering and death. Amen! Dear ones, this is what Jesus, God’s Son, promises to us all: 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) It is through that perfect sacrifice of Jesus that you and I are fully and freely forgiven for all our sins! He means for us to live in peace and to joyfully praise him with our lives! All () Chief of sinners though I be, Jesus shed his blood for me, Died that I might live on high, Lives that I might never die. As the branch is to the vine, I am his and he is mine! Only Jesus can impart Comfort to a wounded heart: Peace that flows from sin forgiv’n, Joy that lifts the soul to heav’n, Faith and hope to walk with God In the way that Enoch trod. (CW 385 vs 1,3) An Old Testament Prophecy of Good Friday’s Events – Psalm 22 (selected verses) Psalm 22 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, By night, and am not silent. I am a worm and not a man, Scorned by everyone and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; They hurl insults, shaking their heads: “He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.” Do not be far from me, For trouble is near and there is no one to help. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. 4 My mouth is dried up; my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a pack of villains encircles me, They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; People stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them And cast lots for my clothing. Our Song of Praise: Glory Be To Jesus (CW 103 vs 1,2,3,6) All () Glory be to Jesus, Who in bitter pains Poured for me the lifeblood From his sacred veins. Grace and life eternal In that blood I find; Blest be his compassion, Infinitely kind. Blest through endless ages Be the precious stream Which from endless torments Did the world redeem. Lift we, then, our voices, Swell the mighty flood; Louder still and louder Praise the precious blood! The Death of Jesus Christ, True God, Our Savior ~According to the 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. They said to one another: “Let’s not tear it. Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled which said: (Psalm 22) “They divided my garments among themselves and cast lots for my clothing.” So this is what the soldiers did. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him: “He saved others, but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! 5 Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. He said: “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother: “Dear woman, here is your son.” And to the disciple: “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.