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    Apr 14, 2017

    Good Friday: Physical and Relational Justice

    Passage: Matthew 27:1-66

    Speaker: Brian Land

    Series: Easter 2017

    Before the beginning….God. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit were in an eternal other-centered unified Dance. Out of this love came creation, giving us physical life and divine relationship. But we wanted more. And we broke creation by breaking relation. A God that is perfectly pure cannot be stained by treason, nor can a God of perfect Justice turn a blind eye to us betraying his love. So Love intersected with Justice and God payed the price on our behalf. The physical price since we broke his physical creation: this was the torture of Jesus during Holy Week and on the cross. And the relational price since we betrayed his love, denied him and mocked him: this was the Father forsaking his son Jesus, a relationship that had been pure, intimate and eternal from before the beginning. This is why the cross had to be both physical torture as well as relational torture. But in so doing, he redeems and restores both the physical and relational, sweeping us back into the New Creation that can never be broken again.

    Prayer: Regeneration
     

    Sermon Title: Physical and Relational Justice

    Central Texts:
    Matthew 27:28-31
    28 And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

    Matthew 27:45-46
    Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

    John 19:30
    It is Finished

    Mark 15
    38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

    Related Scriptures:

    Genesis 15:17-18a
    When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram

    Matt 26
    75 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

    Matt 27
    21 The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” 22 Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!”

    Matt 26:65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. 66 What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.” 67 Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him, 68 saying, “Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?”


    Matt 27
    28 And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

    Discussion Questions & Applications:

    1. How is sin really a breaking of creation rather than a micro list of rule infractions? What part of creation did we break in sin?
    2. Do you have a hard time owning your culpability to this?
    3. Why couldn’t God just forgive us rather than demand a payment?
    4. Contemplate the physical torture Jesus endured. Why did Jesus have to pay with physical pain rather than just have a “quick and painless” death to pay for our sins?
    5. Now contemplate the emotional and relational torture that Jesus went through. Again, why did Jesus have to be abandoned by the Father for us? What might have that been like?
    6. Why does it matter and what hope do we have because Jesus paid both our physical as well as relational debt? What then do have to look forward to?
    7. As we grow in our appreciation of this, what would be the natural response? If you look at your response, what does it say about your “appreciation”? How can you remedy that?

    Media & Songs:

    Sunday’s Coming