"O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

No horror surpasses what transpired on a hill outside Jerusalem almost two millennia ago. And yet we call it "Good" Friday.

The hour has come. All history hinges on this hour. And it is utterly terrifying. Jesus must decide: will he turn to protect his own skin and soul, or will he stay the course and embrace his Father's perfect and painful will?

With the previous three days awash in drama—Sunday's triumphal entry, Monday's temple cleansing, and Tuesday's tense exchanges, with the silencing word from Psalm 110—now Wednesday comes like the calm before the storm. This is the day Judas made a deal with the religious officials to reveal to them Jesus’ whereabouts on the next day. Judas became a betraying spy within the inner circle of Christ’s disciples. 

With each passing hour, Jesus drew nearer to thelion's jays. In just three days, he would be shamed and humiliated, tortured and executed. How did he keep going? On the inside he was singing.

Branches are cut from trees, hands are raised in praise, and the most important figure enters the great city for his final week.

Jesus' body in which he died was not only restored to life but changed.

Imagine the moment when Jesus first sat down on heaven's throne.

Think how it would have been if the resurrected Jesus stayed on earth. There is no way a billion people could relate to him. Even a million believers, we’d be waiting in line our whole lives to speak to him. But in ascending, leaving the earth but staying human, he now can relate to all of us all at once. How? By the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The resurrection of Christ declares even more for those of us who are joined to him by faith. Not only is he unstoppable – so are we. What is the power that is at work in us, even now – we who have faith in him?

O death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus had a physical heart like we all do. “On average 5,000 times each hour” and “Each beat upheld by the hand of his Father, like each beat of your heart.” 

But this particular heart started beating again! Do you think it was instantly, or did the Father slowly wake him up?  

All springs from the Cross?

What makes Jesus’ cross, his spilled blood, his willing sacrifice, so compelling? What does his work achieve for us? 

A covenant is a solemn agreement between two parties more binding than a contract. A contract is a 50-50 proposition. If you don’t do your part, I’m no longer obligated to do my part. A covenant typically signifies “I’m committing to you this particular action or truth regardless of what you do, or death is the outcome.”

Propitiation means to appease wrath. It’s not a word we use every day. Not a concept we like, but a whole industry is built on propitiation! What do we bring to avert wrath?

How is Barabbas a type for all of us, all of us who are insurrectionists against God? How does substitution work in the story of Barabbas and our story? 

Does Jesus’ blood purchase our redemption now AND those sins that the animals were sacrificed for? What does God do with those sins that were covered with “lesser” blood than Jesus? 

Blood=Life

Why can’t you separate the horror of the cross from the wonder of the sacrifice? We can’t fully grasp the wonder without realizing its horror. 

How does Jesus’ method emphasize the power of a few? What hope does that give us as disciple makers?

Jesus’ enemies accused him of “not having studied,” the way we would say, "he didn’t have a degree from a prestigious seminary.” True. But in what ways do you think Jesus did study to prepare for ministry? Did he come with the Bible already hard-wired in his brain or did he have to learn like we do? Why is that important?

How important to Jesus was “ministry in interruption”? Doesn’t it seem like Jesus went out and expected to be interrupted, almost more than he went out with a specific target? 

In what ways do we struggle to be interruptible? What’s happened to our margins? What would you have to do in order to be ready for God-sent interruptions? 

What happens to us when we suppress emotions? What value is given to our emotions when we see Jesus feeling? 

What are we being told when we can’t sleep for worry or restlessness? Or when we fear to sleep? 

Have you ever thought much about how hard Jesus had to work as a carpenter, a tradesman in construction? 

Why do you think Jesus lived in such obscurity for 30 years? 

How could Jesus be so unhurried in his life and ministry amidst so much human need? 

We love to glorify people we love or admire: actors, athletes, writers, scientists. We don’t mind glorifying someone when it comes from such affection.  

But do we fear if we glorify God, it will diminish us? As if when there’s more of God, there’s less of us?

Is that true? 

What does it mean to glorify God? 

Why were his times apart for prayer so necessary to the work of Jesus?