Preacher Unknown - Good Friday Service Part 1 (April 20, 1962)
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Transcript
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- | Forbid, oh God, that we should forget | 0:07 |
amid our earthly comforts, | 0:10 | |
the pains and mortal anguish | 0:13 | |
that our Lord Jesus endured for our salvation. | 0:15 | |
Grant us this day, | 0:19 | |
a true vision of all that He suffered | 0:21 | |
in His betrayal, His lonely agony, | 0:24 | |
His false trial, His mocking and scouring, | 0:28 | |
and the torture of death upon the cross. | 0:32 | |
As thou has given thy self utterly for us, | 0:35 | |
may we give ourselves entirely to thee, | 0:39 | |
Oh Jesus Christ, our only Lord and savior, amen. | 0:43 | |
(soft music) | 0:50 | |
(singing faintly) | 4:30 | |
Let us humbly pray. | 6:18 | |
Almighty and everlasting God, | 6:23 | |
who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, | 6:27 | |
and art want to give more than either we desire or deserve, | 6:32 | |
pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy, | 6:39 | |
for giving us those things | 6:44 | |
where of our conscience is afraid, | 6:45 | |
and giving us those good things | 6:49 | |
which we are not worthy to ask | 6:51 | |
except through the merits and mediation | 6:54 | |
of Jesus Christ, thy son our Lord. | 6:57 | |
Eternal God, thou unseen source of power, | 7:03 | |
we confess our unfaithful to Jesus Christ. | 7:09 | |
We who like ancient Jerusalem, | 7:15 | |
have welcomed Him with profess of loyalty, | 7:17 | |
have crucified Him before the week ended. | 7:21 | |
Amid the waywardness of a violent world, | 7:26 | |
we have denied His faith and forsaken His way, | 7:30 | |
we have not walked kindly with one another, | 7:36 | |
nor humbly with thee, nor honorably with ourselves. | 7:40 | |
We ask thy forgiveness and restoration | 7:47 | |
through this same Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. | 7:53 | |
(soft music) | 7:59 | |
(singing faintly) | 8:31 | |
(soft music) | 11:47 | |
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. | 13:39 | |
How significant it is | 13:47 | |
that Jesus first word from the cross was a plea for others. | 13:50 | |
More specifically, a prayer of intercession | 13:59 | |
for His enemies. | 14:04 | |
For the executioners who had just driven the nails | 14:07 | |
into His hands and feet, | 14:12 | |
for the soldiers who had curly mocked Him and spit upon Him. | 14:15 | |
For the chief priest and scribes Who had accused Him. | 14:24 | |
For the crowd that had cried, crucify Him. | 14:33 | |
For all these He asked forgiveness, | 14:40 | |
although they had not requested it, | 14:44 | |
and they hardly seem to deserve it. | 14:47 | |
Here we have a dramatic living example to match the precept | 14:53 | |
which Jesus had preached on another hill on a happier day, | 15:04 | |
When He said, "Blessed are the merciful." | 15:12 | |
And again, you have heard it. | 15:17 | |
You have heard that it has been said, | 15:21 | |
thou shall love thy neighbor and hates thine enemy. | 15:24 | |
But I say unto you, love your enemies, | 15:28 | |
bless them that course you, | 15:32 | |
do good to them that hate you, | 15:35 | |
and pray for them | 15:38 | |
which spitefully use you and persecute you. | 15:39 | |
That you may be the children of your Father, | 15:44 | |
which is in heaven. | 15:46 | |
For He maketh it His sun to rise on the evil and on the good | 15:48 | |
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. | 15:53 | |
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? | 15:58 | |
Do not even the publicans the same? | 16:03 | |
And if ye salute your brethren only, | 16:06 | |
what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so? | 16:09 | |
With this prayer from the cross, | 16:17 | |
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, | 16:21 | |
Which Carlile once called the sublimest words ever uttered. | 16:26 | |
There was provided the realization in life itself | 16:33 | |
of that divine teaching. | 16:39 | |
What Jesus had taught, He now exemplified Himself. | 16:42 | |
Here was the crowning demonstration of the selflessness, | 16:50 | |
the compassion, the mercy, the love of Christ. | 16:57 | |
Can we who call ourselves Christian after Him | 17:05 | |
be so compassionate, | 17:10 | |
so forgiving, so loving to those who had injured us, | 17:14 | |
but are also the sons of God? | 17:21 | |
Can we accept others as God accepts us? | 17:25 | |
Does not this word suggest more of that, | 17:37 | |
that the church as the body of Christ, | 17:41 | |
has a mission of unlimited range in the world today. | 17:46 | |
If Christ prayed in this way | 17:54 | |
for the ignorant and the wicked in His final agony, | 17:57 | |
it must have been that He cared about them. | 18:04 | |
Is it not therefore incumbent upon His church | 18:10 | |
to be concerned today with the mislead and depraved | 18:15 | |
and debauched elements in society? | 18:22 | |
Is it not true that the churches' mission | 18:27 | |
must not be only to the respectable few | 18:32 | |
who gather together for fellowship | 18:37 | |
and dialogue with one another, | 18:41 | |
it must reach also to those who are most ignorant of, | 18:45 | |
and those opposed to the gospel of Christ, | 18:50 | |
even to those who persecute us. | 18:55 | |
Jesus, not only sets an example for you and me | 19:03 | |
with this word, but He also intercedes on our behalf. | 19:10 | |
And His plea for our forgiveness, | 19:21 | |
was not limited to His immediate executioners | 19:24 | |
who were unaware of what were was really taking place | 19:31 | |
on that hill, | 19:36 | |
but encompassed the entire human race | 19:39 | |
for all mankind shared the guilt of His crucifixion, | 19:44 | |
although they didn't realize it. | 19:49 | |
Moreover, that plea comes ringing down through the centuries | 19:53 | |
to include you and me today. | 19:59 | |
For we who call Jesus, our Lord, | 20:05 | |
mock Him, condemn Him, betray Him, | 20:10 | |
crucify Him a fresh today, | 20:16 | |
without really being conscious of what we are doing. | 20:21 | |
We lead fairly decent and respectful lives. | 20:30 | |
We refrain from calculated and deliberate wrongdoing, | 20:37 | |
and we love our neighbors in this little community of ours, | 20:44 | |
our classmates and colleagues. | 20:50 | |
But let none of us be so blind, so smart, | 20:54 | |
as to think that this is enough. | 20:59 | |
We are all in fact a great deal worse than we realize. | 21:04 | |
We all fall short in so many ways of the will of God. | 21:11 | |
And we are all so far | 21:19 | |
from really accepting and loving our brother man. | 21:22 | |
We are all inadequately sensitive | 21:29 | |
to the pain and anguish of others. | 21:34 | |
Insufficiently aware of the bonds that tie us together. | 21:40 | |
This failure results for most of us | 21:51 | |
from a complacent accommodation | 21:56 | |
to customary attitudes and behavior. | 22:03 | |
And we are so provincial, | 22:09 | |
so ethnocentric, so blinded by our own culture. | 22:15 | |
We do not question the prevailing assumptions. | 22:23 | |
And we remain rather unconcerned | 22:31 | |
about the plight of our fellow man | 22:33 | |
beyond these Gothic and Georgian precincts. | 22:37 | |
For the outside world seems after all to be so remote | 22:42 | |
from our round of lectures, and Committee meetings, | 22:47 | |
and examinations and papers, the things that really matter. | 22:54 | |
And life goes on here so pleasantly for us, happy for you. | 23:02 | |
We do not raise our voices in protest | 23:11 | |
against those forms of discrimination and inequality, | 23:16 | |
which deny the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God, | 23:23 | |
whether in South Africa, or South Carolina Or south Durham, | 23:29 | |
to take an issue which we can hardly ignore any longer. | 23:37 | |
We don't see the problem or we acquiesce. | 23:44 | |
From time to time we gain a fresh insight, | 23:51 | |
a chore of perspective, a glimpse of the truth, | 23:59 | |
a better understanding of the will of God, | 24:05 | |
and we change our attitudes and behavior, | 24:10 | |
or at least feel uncomfortable. | 24:15 | |
But, how much we all continue to neglect and omit? | 24:20 | |
What blind spots Continue to exist? | 24:32 | |
How ignorant we all remain? | 24:38 | |
How unaware of the meaning of God's will for our lives? | 24:43 | |
Estranged from our fellow man, we remain estranged from God. | 24:51 | |
As it's put in the first epistle of John, | 25:02 | |
if a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, | 25:05 | |
he is liar. | 25:10 | |
Luke is saying then in this passage, | 25:16 | |
that forgiveness for unknown sense is necessary, | 25:22 | |
ignorance doesn't excuse the guilt. | 25:29 | |
But fortunately for us as well as for the Roman soldiers | 25:35 | |
and the Jerusalem mob, | 25:41 | |
forgiveness for such sins is possible. | 25:44 | |
Let us ask then on this Good Friday and all humility, | 25:51 | |
that the crucified Son of God | 25:59 | |
will beg forgiveness for us today, | 26:03 | |
for we know not what we do. | 26:07 | |
Let us bow our heads in prayer. | 26:13 | |
Our Father, forgive us our sins of ignorance, | 26:20 | |
by which we daily crucify thy Son a new. | 26:28 | |
Illuminate our dark and ignorant minds. | 26:34 | |
Lead us to a closer understanding of thy will, | 26:41 | |
and grant us thy spirit, | 26:49 | |
that we too may forgive our enemies | 26:53 | |
who through ignorance, prosecute us, | 26:58 | |
and love them as well thou does love us, amen | 27:02 | |
(soft music) | 27:19 | |
(singing faintly) | 30:35 | |
(soft music) | 32:17 | |
Let us pray. | 32:24 | |
Oh almighty God, who art a most strong power | 32:29 | |
to all those who put that trust in thee, | 32:34 | |
to whom all things in heaven, in earth, | 32:38 | |
and under the earth do bow and obey, | 32:41 | |
be now and evermore our defense, | 32:46 | |
and make us know and feel that they is none other name | 32:49 | |
under the heaven given to man. | 32:53 | |
In whom and through whom | 32:56 | |
we may receive health and salvation, | 32:58 | |
but only the name of thou Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. | 33:01 | |
(soft music) | 33:17 | |
(singing faintly) | 33:44 | |
(soft music) | 35:49 | |
Hear of the reading of the second word. | 39:15 | |
"One of the criminals who were hanged, | 39:20 | |
railed at Him saying, | 39:24 | |
'Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.' | 39:27 | |
But the other rebuked him saying, | 39:34 | |
'Do you not fear God, | 39:38 | |
since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? | 39:40 | |
And we indeed justly | 39:46 | |
for we are receiving the due reward of our sins, | 39:50 | |
but this man has done nothing wrong.' | 39:55 | |
And he said, | 40:00 | |
'Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power.' | 40:01 | |
And He said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, | 40:08 | |
today you will be with me in Paradise.'" | 40:14 | |
Here ends the reading of the lesson. | 40:20 | |
I cannot hear the penitent thief | 40:26 | |
say to Jesus, "Remember me," | 40:29 | |
without thinking of another time | 40:34 | |
when a blessing was asked of Jesus. | 40:38 | |
On the road to Jerusalem, | 40:43 | |
the sons of Zebedee, James and John, | 40:46 | |
approached Jesus with the request that He remember them, | 40:50 | |
that He should give to them a promise, | 40:58 | |
that as a reward for their steadfastness, | 41:03 | |
they should sit in His kingdom, | 41:07 | |
one at His right hand, the other at His left. | 41:10 | |
And to these men who shared in His mission on earth, | 41:18 | |
He said, "It is not mine to give." | 41:21 | |
But to a common thief, | 41:28 | |
one who had neither walked with Him | 41:32 | |
nor shared in His ministry, | 41:35 | |
He promised a place in Paradise. | 41:39 | |
And yet we do not consider it strange at all | 41:44 | |
that a blessing came to the thief, | 41:47 | |
and not to the sons of Zebedee. | 41:51 | |
They asked for a reward for their righteousness, | 41:56 | |
their fidelity, their work for Jesus. | 42:00 | |
The thief asked only for mercy and forgiveness. | 42:05 | |
They thought they deserved something for living right, | 42:10 | |
the thief knew that his life | 42:17 | |
deserved only the death he was receiving. | 42:20 | |
The sons of Zebedee approached Jesus in pride, | 42:27 | |
the thief turned to Him out suffering and humiliation. | 42:33 | |
How we wish we knew more concerning this penitent, | 42:43 | |
legend gives him the name Dismas, | 42:49 | |
devotion has made him Saint Dismas, | 42:54 | |
the patron saint of those condemned to death. | 42:58 | |
His name, I believe, | 43:04 | |
is the inspiration for the house of hope | 43:05 | |
made famous in the "Hoodlum Priest." | 43:09 | |
Luther sees it a wonderful thing | 43:14 | |
that, "The last hours of our Lord on earth | 43:19 | |
should have been made more comfortable by Dismas," | 43:24 | |
writes Luther. | 43:30 | |
"He is a wonderful God who allows His son | 43:33 | |
to be comfort by a murderer." | 43:38 | |
But long before Luther, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem | 43:44 | |
saw it a more wonderful thing still | 43:49 | |
that the thief should have turned to Jesus for comfort. | 43:53 | |
He writes, "What power, oh robber, enlightened thee? | 43:59 | |
Who taught thee to worship that despised man, | 44:05 | |
thy companion on the cross?" | 44:11 | |
How we wish we knew more concerning this penitent, | 44:16 | |
but all we have is this passage | 44:22 | |
from just one of the gospels. | 44:27 | |
All we have is his word of rebuke to the thief | 44:32 | |
who hung with him. | 44:35 | |
All we have is his petition, | 44:39 | |
"Jesus, remember me." | 44:42 | |
To that petition | 44:47 | |
comes one of the the last words of our Lord. | 44:49 | |
In a sense, this word is Jesus last will and testament. | 44:55 | |
For it is the only word of the seven | 45:01 | |
in which He promises a gift. | 45:05 | |
He asked forgiveness for those who have crucified Him. | 45:09 | |
He asks His disciple to care for His mother. | 45:16 | |
But in this word, He makes a promise. | 45:21 | |
He says to the thief, | 45:25 | |
"Verily, I say to you, | 45:29 | |
today you will be with me in Paradise." | 45:32 | |
We are, it seems to me, if we spend a great deal of time | 45:38 | |
in seeking to discover the meaning of this word, paradise, | 45:43 | |
a literal translation | 45:49 | |
would be something like the duke gardens. | 45:51 | |
And Jesus would then be saying, | 45:56 | |
"Truly, I say to you, | 45:58 | |
today you will be with me in the duke gardens." | 46:01 | |
G.F. writes concerning this word, | 46:07 | |
"This was no time to choose words | 46:12 | |
with dialectical precision. | 46:16 | |
The consolation needed by the penitent thief, | 46:20 | |
suffering from thirst and agony and shame, | 46:25 | |
was such as was symbolized | 46:31 | |
by the popular conception of Paradise." | 46:35 | |
This is a needful reminder for us | 46:40 | |
that the accent should never be on the word paradise, | 46:44 | |
however, we popularly conceive. | 46:50 | |
Whether as a beautiful garden, a golden city, | 46:57 | |
or even as beyond the sunrise, | 47:04 | |
or in the beautiful aisle of somewhere. | 47:08 | |
The accent should be on the words, with me. | 47:13 | |
"Verily, I saying to you today, you will be with me." | 47:19 | |
The rest is superfluous. | 47:26 | |
We could go on thinking about this thief and Jesus, | 47:30 | |
others have found rich meanings here. | 47:36 | |
Think for example of this. | 47:40 | |
That the faith in Jesus, | 47:43 | |
which had failed in the disciples desertion, | 47:46 | |
denial, betrayal, | 47:51 | |
this faith was born again in the thief. | 47:54 | |
Luther tells us that. | 48:00 | |
And think of this reminder from St Chrysostom, | 48:03 | |
that as Adam, the thief, was expelled from the garden. | 48:07 | |
So Christ took the thief there, | 48:13 | |
before the world, even before the apostles. | 48:17 | |
And says Chrysostom, | 48:23 | |
"By his mere saying, by faith alone, | 48:25 | |
he entered into Paradise | 48:31 | |
that no one after his errors, | 48:34 | |
should despair of an entrance there." | 48:38 | |
The word also of Isaac Williams is important. | 48:43 | |
That, "Dismas is the only one of all Christians, | 48:48 | |
of whom we are sure from God's word, | 48:55 | |
that he found an entrance into the kingdom of our Lord." | 49:00 | |
It is interesting, and it is helpful. | 49:07 | |
Thus to let our minds range and find the rich meanings | 49:11 | |
before the crosses of the thieves and of Jesus. | 49:18 | |
We must confess, however, | 49:24 | |
but to keep our minds centered on the thief and on Christ, | 49:28 | |
is a labor of considerable effort. | 49:35 | |
Rather quickly, our minds turn away from these crosses. | 49:40 | |
For we are not so much concerned | 49:48 | |
with the salvation of the thief, | 49:53 | |
as we are with our own salvation. | 49:56 | |
Perhaps it is wrong to do this, | 50:02 | |
but our honest confession | 50:06 | |
is that we seek help for ourselves | 50:08 | |
for our own destinies. | 50:14 | |
Do we dare to seek comfort for ourselves | 50:18 | |
while others are dying in thirst and shame and agony? | 50:23 | |
Is it proper that we who are not suffering | 50:31 | |
should seek comfort from those who are? | 50:36 | |
Yes, we dare. | 50:43 | |
Yes, it is proper. | 50:46 | |
Indeed, this is the good news, | 50:49 | |
that even now in this horrible moment of remembrance, | 50:54 | |
we are bidden to draw near and take is for our comfort. | 51:03 | |
A prayer of the church reads in this fashion, | 51:12 | |
"Oh God our Father, whose son, Jesus Christ, | 51:15 | |
did answer the cry of the penitent thief | 51:19 | |
with the promise of eternal life, | 51:22 | |
grant that all who suffer for their sins | 51:26 | |
may have of grace to turn to Him for help, | 51:29 | |
and enable them to believe | 51:33 | |
that they are not alone in their suffering, | 51:36 | |
but that the Lord of all remembers them | 51:39 | |
and will bring them to His heavenly kingdom. | 51:43 | |
Here, we find comfort at least in three ways. | 51:47 | |
And the first is this, | 51:52 | |
when you suffer for your sins, | 51:55 | |
punished by your own conscience, | 51:58 | |
or by some other earthly judge, | 52:02 | |
seek only grace to turn away from bitterness | 52:06 | |
and toward the forgiving love of Christ. | 52:13 | |
The fact is that on earth, we do suffer. | 52:18 | |
We suffer punishment. | 52:22 | |
And at first we tend to be moan that punishment | 52:25 | |
to complain that we have been unfairly treated, | 52:29 | |
to think ourselves somehow better | 52:34 | |
than those who suffer the same condemnation and punishment, | 52:37 | |
in such a moment as that. | 52:44 | |
Burdened by the weight of accusation for what we have done. | 52:48 | |
We may find grace to turn from that spirit of bitterness, | 52:55 | |
and toward the forgiving love of God in Christ. | 53:04 | |
The spirit of malice and wickedness | 53:09 | |
is represented by the impenitent thief, gets us nowhere. | 53:12 | |
The spirit of sincerity and truth before the love of God. | 53:19 | |
This is the good to which we are bidden. | 53:27 | |
Therefore, as we see the penitent faith, | 53:34 | |
turn away from the cross of bitterness | 53:38 | |
and toward the cross of Christ, | 53:42 | |
we may pray for or grace to do likewise. | 53:46 | |
The second comfort offered by the example of the thief says, | 53:52 | |
when you suffer for your sins, | 53:58 | |
remember that you are not alone. | 54:01 | |
Even in the moment of his greatest agony. | 54:05 | |
Yet did Jesus take upon Himself, | 54:11 | |
the suffering of Dismas? | 54:14 | |
What a love is that. | 54:18 | |
Which even in the midst of horrible suffering, | 54:21 | |
takes notice and bears the burden of someone else. | 54:26 | |
We get our human comfort sometimes | 54:33 | |
by noticing someone else who is suffering more than we. | 54:37 | |
We get the comfort of the cross of Christ, however, | 54:43 | |
by having Him who is suffering far more than we, | 54:48 | |
take not only His suffering, but ours as well. | 54:55 | |
It was, we may think, only an accident of history, | 55:02 | |
which caused Jesus and the thief to suffer at the same time. | 55:07 | |
The proclamation of the gospel, | 55:13 | |
is that for all men at all times, at all places, | 55:17 | |
Christ bears His cross and shares our suffering. | 55:24 | |
Wherever in this world, there is a cross | 55:31 | |
that man have to bear. | 55:34 | |
Alongside it, is another cross, | 55:38 | |
Christ bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. | 55:43 | |
Therefore, as we see the penitent thief | 55:50 | |
as not alone in his suffering, | 55:54 | |
so we may ask for a faith that we are not alone, | 55:58 | |
but that the Lord of suffering is with us. | 56:05 | |
The final comfort offered us by the thief is this. | 56:11 | |
"When you suffer for your sins, | 56:16 | |
know that this one who is with you now in your suffering, | 56:20 | |
you will be with in His glory. | 56:28 | |
Take comfort and know | 56:34 | |
that even from the cross comes the word of resurrection, | 56:36 | |
that even from a Good Friday service, | 56:43 | |
must come the word of Easter. | 56:46 | |
Know this, that the one who is with you | 56:50 | |
in this hour of sadness, | 56:54 | |
the same one you will be with in His glad some day. | 56:58 | |
Today, you will be with me in Paradise. | 57:05 | |
Now, Christ is with us. | 57:12 | |
With us in a world of suffering and death. | 57:15 | |
Then, we shall be with Him | 57:20 | |
in a world of righteousness and peace." | 57:25 | |
That was the comfort afforded the thief | 57:29 | |
by the words of Jesus. | 57:32 | |
So we may pray in faith | 57:36 | |
that He will bring us to His heavenly kingdom. | 57:41 | |
This then is the second | 57:46 | |
of the words of Jesus upon the cross. | 57:48 | |
It is a word of authority, | 57:52 | |
and more, a word of salvation, | 57:56 | |
not given to His closest disciples, | 58:00 | |
when they seek a reward for what they vainly imagine | 58:05 | |
to be deserving of a reward. | 58:12 | |
It is a word of salvation given to a thief. | 58:16 | |
A thief who confessing his sin, | 58:22 | |
turns from bitterness and toward the mercy of Jesus Christ. | 58:26 | |
And even now in this hour, | 58:34 | |
all you who do truly and earnestly repent you of your sin, | 58:40 | |
draw near in faith and receive this word to your comfort. | 58:47 | |
Verily, I say unto you, | 58:59 | |
today, you will be with me in Paradise. | 59:03 | |
Let us pray. | 59:10 | |
Oh God, our Father, | 59:18 | |
whose son, Jesus Christ | 59:22 | |
did answer the cry of the penitent thief | 59:25 | |
with the promise of eternal life, | 59:30 | |
grant that all who suffer for their sins, | 59:36 | |
may have grace to turn to Him for help, | 59:41 | |
and enable them to believe | 59:48 | |
that they are not alone in their suffering, | 59:51 | |
but that the Lord of all remembers them, | 59:58 | |
and will bring them to His heavenly kingdom, amen. | 1:00:03 | |
(soft music) | 1:00:16 |
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