Sunday Sermon Summary....What's so good about Good Friday?

Why do we celebrate Easter? According to dictionary.com....

EASTER:

1. A Christian feast commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus.

2. The day on which this feast is observed, the first Sunday following the full moon that occurs on or next after the vernal equinox.

   
   

   What about Good Friday? Why is it called "Good" when so much bad happened to Jesus? Today in church, Ken described in detail what happened to Jesus on Good Friday....the beatings, the torture, the taunting, and ultimately his death. Although I've heard it so many times before, it took my breath away today to imagine it again. He then asked...."Why did Jesus have to die in order for our sins to be forgiven?" Why didn't God just say....You are all forgiven without Jesus having to suffer such a horrible death? He could have done that, but it was His will for Jesus to die for our sins.

   2 Corinthians 5:21:

   ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,^[a] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

   Jesus is the perfect lamb that was sacrificed for us.....just like the perfect lambs that were to be sacrificed at Passover.

   As far as "Good" Friday, it is good; because of what we gained from it. The sacrifice, the beatings, the torture, the taunting, and the death of Jesus was to offer us eternal life. We receive the "good" of Good Friday, and Jesus suffered so much bad for us....for YOU and ME! He suffered, so that when we do sin....which we all do....the separation that occurs between us and God can be forgiven and brought together.

   Isaiah 59

   Separation from God

   
   ¹Behold, ^(A)the LORD'S hand is not so short
   That it cannot save;
   ^(B)Nor is His ear so dull
   That it cannot hear.
   ²But your ^(C)iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
   And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does ^(D)not hear.
   

   If you ask for forgiveness....really ask for it....you will receive it! I have finally started to really understand that. That concept was always so hard for me to grasp....that all I had to do was ask to be forgiven. I use to ask for forgiveness and really want to be forgiven, but then I would find myself asking Him over and over to forgive me for the sin I had already asked for and been forgiven for. Someone told me once that this was making a mockery of the sacrifice of Jesus....because if I really believed I was forgiven....I wouldn't continue to ask for forgiveness for the same situation/sin. That was eye opening for me, and I finally started to grasp it. I started really believing that I was forgiven. I needed to stop harping on that particular mistake or choice, because I had been forgiven when I truly asked for forgiveness the first time. When I saw "The Passion Of The Christ", I wept during most of that interpretation of what occured on Good Friday. What Jesus went through was so horrific, and I found myself feeling so angry and saddened by how He was treated. As a Christian and follower of Jesus, I knew that horrible day of events was all for me....and for you....and although the suffering was more than I would have ever imagined....I knew it was good , and it's called "Good" Friday; because of what was given up for us!