Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
"Here as in Heaven."
For more information visit : garden.church
Welcome to the Garden Church podcast. It's Good Friday. We made it to Good Friday. Yeah. Have you ever thought that that was a quizzical name for today?
Ramin Razavi:Has that ever occurred to you? We call it Good Friday and I've always felt there's a question that kinda hangs in the balance, an unspoken question almost. How can the darkest day in human history become something that we call good? Because scripture tells us in the gospel of Luke that when Jesus went to the cross around noon on that Friday, it says that the light of the sun was extinguished. So God pushed pause on the nuclear fusion.
Ramin Razavi:I don't know if you know that, that's how the sun produces light. It's not with oxygen because there's no oxygen there, just a little science thing. But he pushed paws on the sun and darkness covered the land. And so how can a day where the blameless, spotless lamb of God gets executed on a Roman cross be something that we call good today? It has to do with something of the purpose of why Jesus would be willing to do this, doesn't it?
Ramin Razavi:It has to do with the the why behind Jesus setting his face like flint as the scripture saying and taking that hundred mile journey all the way to Jerusalem. It has to do with the fact that everything Jesus was doing in those days had a very royal shape to it if you catch it. When he rode into Jerusalem that day, it was the cries of the king of Israel and they said, Hosanna, which is a way of saying save us king of Israel. But there was a problem. The king didn't come in on a stallion, he kinda threw his leg over a baby donkey called a colt and he said, I think it's gonna work, right?
Ramin Razavi:I'm gonna ride in on the donkey. And then instead of going where we might have imagined that he would go to the central places of religious authority to the temple to set up a new religious system or to the praetorium to take on the Romans and set up a sociopolitical military force, Jesus just continues to defy all expectations. He cleanses the temple. He doesn't seem to flex his authority when he's questioned over and over and over again by the Roman officials because Jesus is on a journey to somewhere else. And what we're gonna see tonight if the Lord would just give us grace to see this tonight is that Jesus was on a mission and that mission needed to get him to a cross.
Ramin Razavi:It needed to get him to a hill that they called the skull outside of Jerusalem because Jesus had come to die because he knew that it was in his dying that life could come to humanity. He knew that it was in his sacrifice that forgiveness could come to humanity. He knew that it was in giving himself up that we could be lifted up and become children of God again. And so we behold Jesus, the lamb of God who turned that ugly Roman instrument of execution into the most beautiful throne the world has ever seen. And from that throne he reigns today with mercy and grace for us.
Ramin Razavi:And so let's join Jesus in that moment. After the triumphal entry we're gonna pick him up in John chapter 12 verse 20. So Jesus says come into Jerusalem on the donkey, the little burrito if you will and now he's at the festival. And as I read this passage I I want you to pay attention to a few things. One is look for the time, look for the pattern, look for the prayer and look for the purpose that Jesus is talking about here.
Ramin Razavi:It says, now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip who was from Bethsaida in Galilee with a request. Sir, they said, we would like to see Jesus. Now isn't that kind of what the world is saying right now? If you're reading anything about religious movements or you're reading anything about social movements right now, you would know that right now there are more people in The United States interested in Jesus than like in the last hundred fifty years.
Ramin Razavi:You would know that in The UK, church attendance has gone up by 50%. You would know that gen z is the most curious about Jesus generation we've ever seen in the world. You would know that there's revival happening on college campuses. You would know that this isn't a thing for just then. Sir, we would like to learn and see about Jesus.
Ramin Razavi:Philip went to tell Andrew, Andrew Philip in turn told Jesus and this is how Jesus replied. The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, this is the pattern, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it.
Ramin Razavi:Anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me and where I am my servant also will be. My father will honor the one who serves me. And here's a prayer. Now my soul is troubled.
Ramin Razavi:What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? No. It was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.
Ramin Razavi:Then a voice came from heaven. Now this is how you know you're praying in concert with the will of God. I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered. Others said an angel had spoken to him.
Ramin Razavi:Jesus said, this voice was for your benefit not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of the world will be driven out and when I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to myself. He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. This is the word of the Lord.
Ramin Razavi:Yeah. So a couple things I wanna lift up here for us. The first is Jesus says that the hour has come, the time has come. And if you would have been tracking with Jesus at this time you would have realized there were a lot of moments where Jesus said, it's not the hour. Remember when he turned the water to wine, he's like, it's not my time yet.
Ramin Razavi:Don't don't let the don't let the people know. And then when he was with the woman at the well in Samaria, he said, it's not the hour yet. And then when there were moments where the religious authorities felt like they had cornered him and were about to pounce, he said, don't worry, it's not time yet. And now the beat changes, the tone changes. He said, now it is the hour.
Ramin Razavi:And what he's saying is there's a definite time where I have ordained that the story and the plotline is going to take a new trajectory. And it gets us already on the wavelength that we have to get on for Good Friday that this did not happen accidentally to Jesus. That Jesus is working out and fleshing out the details of a plan that had been conceived in the mind and heart of God before the foundations of the world. And now Jesus is saying that trajectory is beginning now, the time has now come. And then he gives us this pattern of what it means because he said the time has come for the son of man to be glorified.
Ramin Razavi:And now he gives a pattern of what does it look like for the son of man to be glorified. And he uses this agrarian illustration which was just handy for Jesus because everyone then had an agrarian lifestyle basically and he said it's like this. It's like a kernel of wheat or a seed. He said if that seed just remains a single kernel that's that's all it will ever do. You can polish it, you can wax it.
Ramin Razavi:I don't know if you wax seeds but you can do everything you want to make this thing as impressive as you want. He said, or the seed can fall into the ground and die and be buried and then limitless life will flow from it. What Jesus is establishing here is that the glory of God is seen in self giving love. The glory of God is put on display when life is laid down so life can be given to others, when life is sown into the belly of the earth so that from a sown life, new life can burst out. That's why in first Corinthians, Paul said later that Jesus is the first fruits of the new creation because the seed that was sown had the power of resurrection life and we're gonna get to that on Sunday.
Ramin Razavi:But he burst out of the grave to testify that this is the way that the glory of God flows, through self giving love that reproduces itself into life and more life and more life and more life. This is the pattern Jesus is gonna follow. And then I love the honesty of scripture. I'm so thankful that scripture includes things like Jesus' anxious prayers, aren't you? It says, father my soul's troubled.
Ramin Razavi:The weight of the world's sin and rebellion from you is crushing. This is not easy work. This is not an easy calling. This is not something that just in my incarnate self I can just put off the human side for a minute and just be the God side for a minute and just walk through this without any trouble in my soul. And so what Jesus does here is he prays to the father and he says, father, what shall I say?
Ramin Razavi:It's overwhelming right now. Should I say father, get me out of this? Can we find another way? I'm gonna pray it later in the garden, but I'm praying right now. If father, should I say that right now?
Ramin Razavi:And what the father then Jesus resolves is he's like, no, it's for this hour that I came. This was the purpose of my birth. This was the time that I was birthed into the human narrative for. This is how the author of the story becomes the character in the story. He said it's for this purpose that I came and then he just gives himself to God in surrender and he says, glorify your name.
Ramin Razavi:Lift me up God so they're all can see your glory. And I love the father's response he's like, you got it son. I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. Jesus prays. And finally we get to his purpose and I love this, verse 31.
Ramin Razavi:He says, now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of the world will be driven out and then when I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself. This is why Good Friday is good. Because Jesus is saying, I'm going to be lifted up. And this is a picture that we get earlier in the gospel of John when Jesus is talking about the way that the snake was lifted up in the desert, the golden snake, and that caused anyone who looked on it to be saved and he said in the same way the son of man is gonna be lifted up.
Ramin Razavi:And he's speaking of the cross, he's speaking of the reality that in Roman crucifixion, the cross would be laid on the ground like it is here and once the beams are affixed, his hands and feet would be nailed to the cross and then he would be lifted up. He said when the son of man gets lifted up, two things are gonna happen. The first one and I love this one is that the prince of the world is going to be driven out. This is battle language. This is warfare language.
Ramin Razavi:And he's saying that in order for me, once I get lifted up, the result of that is the conquering and the nullification of the power of Satan. Because all throughout the gospels, Satan is referred to as the prince of this world or the prince of this earth. And what Jesus is saying that on the cross, I'm going to battle. I'm going to battle against sin. I'm going to battle against death.
Ramin Razavi:I'm going to battle against the grave. And on the cross, I'm going to win a victory. Well, the cross that was meant to kill is gonna become a victory song to anyone who believes in my name and I'm going to vanquish and nullify the power of Satan's sin and death on the cross. I'm gonna drive him completely out. And the second thing he said is once I've been lifted up is I'm gonna draw all people to myself.
Ramin Razavi:This is the language of romance. This is a language of love. This is Jesus saying, I am taking that ugly Roman instrument that is going to temporarily suspend me in the air and I'm gonna turn that into the most marvelous throne of grace the world has ever seen because from my very wounds are gonna flow torrents of forgiveness, torrents of mercy, torrents of love that are gonna wash on the shores of every human heart and are gonna wash people clean by my blood because I was pierced for their transgressions. I'll be crushed for their iniquities. The punishment that brings them peace will be upon me and by my wounds, they will get the healing.
Ramin Razavi:And so the cross becomes a battlefield and it becomes a throne of grace, a mercy seat if you will from where Jesus offers the forgiveness of the father to the rest of the world. This is the purpose for which Jesus came to the earth. This is the purpose for which Jesus went to the cross. So Jesus going back to the story of the triumphal entry is a king and he's coming to take a throne. Just not the one we expected or where we expected it to be.
Ramin Razavi:Because as a king coming into a city, what you would do is you would have to go to the very center, the stronghold of your enemy's power. And it's at that place you'd fight a decisive battle and now you have their throne. And so Jesus goes to the temple but in the temple he doesn't set up like a whole new religious system. That would have been an interesting turn. He's like, okay, here is the law four point o and in this new iteration of the law, I'm just adding these things, I'm pulling these things out.
Ramin Razavi:It would have crushed us under the weight of trying to live in obedience to religion again and again and again. He could have rolled into the praetorium and pulled up with his legions of angels that he constantly keeps on the outside. And he could have just for once instead of saying, I am holding back 72,000 angels that are all about the size of a skyscraper carrying swords of light. And if they were to show up, it would be like a Boeing seven thirty seven landing in your backyard. So lose the cherubim image, we're talking about warriors of light.
Ramin Razavi:And he said, and they're gonna show up. And now instead of holding them back, I'll just be like, come on guys, let's go. He could have done that. But what we see in this is Jesus had to get to the cross because the cross was the only doorway to the place where his enemy actually lived, the grave. And it's from the inside out that Jesus had to undermine the power and the authority of Satan.
Ramin Razavi:If Jesus hadn't gotten to the grave, he could not defeat the grave. And Jesus knew that it wasn't enough just to suspend the penalty of sin, just to sort of placate the pain of death, just to kind of alleviate the pressure of the grave. Jesus nullified, defeated, conquered, decimated, stepped on the neck of sin, Satan and death on the cross. He had to go there. And so this is the purpose for which he came.
Ramin Razavi:And so what I wanna do over the next few minutes is invite us on this journey with Jesus as he went to the cross because the way that he goes to the cross creates a pathway for us to come to him. Because the way that Jesus goes to the cross is he just keeps getting lower and lower and lower. He keeps humbling himself to points that I'm like mad at the bible. I'm like don't humble yourself there like stand up for yourself. Everything in us wants him to stand up for himself, doesn't it?
Ramin Razavi:Somebody told me after the last service like they're like, when Jonathan Rumi gets killed in The Chosen, I'm gonna cry. Know, we're like stand up for yourself. Spoiler alert, right? But we would rather have a savior that stands up for himself because that means we can stand up for ourselves but if we have a savior who willingly humbles himself again and again who's in the very nature of God but doesn't consider that equality with God something to be self preserved but he makes himself nothing taking the very nature of his servant becoming obedient to death on a cross that means we might have to too. And so Jesus' way of going to the cross gives us a pathway to his heart.
Ramin Razavi:It's an invitation from him to realize that he is gentle, he's humble, he's lowly and it's in his lowliness that God exalts him to the highest place. So let's look at this, the first way Jesus gets lower is that he does not undermine the conspiracy against him. There's a conspiracy, this is Matthew 26, one through four. It says when Jesus had finished saying all these things he said to his disciples, as you know the Passover is just two days away and the son of man will be handed over to be crucified. He's like I have a I'm going somewhere guys.
Ramin Razavi:Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest whose name was Caiaphas and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. Now I think this is funny because Jesus is saying I'm going somewhere and they're like, well we're gonna scheme to get him. And he's like, that's fine because I'm going somewhere. I'm gonna humble myself. I'm not gonna go Jason Bourne on them and and you know, ruin their conspiracy.
Ramin Razavi:I'm gonna come up with a way. No. He says, I'm going somewhere. I'm going somewhere. I'm glad you can help.
Ramin Razavi:That's where I need. I need to go somewhere. So Jesus humbles himself by not pressing back on the conspiracy. He humbles himself in the garden as he's pressed under the weight of what's coming in Luke 22 verse 39. It says Jesus went out as usual to the Mount Of Olives and his disciples followed him.
Ramin Razavi:On reaching the place he said to them pray that you will not fall into temptation. He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, father if you are willing take this cup from me yet not my will but yours be done. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground and when he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep exhausted from their sorrow. Why are you sleeping? He asked them get up and pray so you not fall into temptation.
Ramin Razavi:And so Jesus is attended to by these angels and instead of saying, okay, I need you to fortify the plan out of here. I need you to fortify another solution. His prayer is one of surrender. It's one of honesty but it's one of surrender. Your will be done father, he keeps getting lower in the pressing.
Ramin Razavi:Eventually Jesus is arrested. I won't read this but it's in John 18 and it's a wild story because it says that Jesus has been praying and now he looks across the hill hillside in the Kidron Valley and he begins to notice coming up the hillside on the switchback trail lanterns carried by what seems like a formidable group of people. And as they come into the the light in the moonlight that would have been shining down very early on Friday morning or late on Thursday night, he can see that there's Judas and Judas comes and he kisses him and betrays him with the kiss. And then scripture says they come out and Jesus actually addresses the soldiers and he's like, who is it that you're looking for? And they're like, we're looking for Jesus and he says, I am he.
Ramin Razavi:And scripture says they all fall down just because of the pure authority and the power of his name. And he doesn't use that moment to say they're on the ground, I'm out of here. They're on the ground, let's finish them off. He says put your sword away, I'm sorry Malchus that Peter chopped your ear off, I'm gonna heal that real quick. I'm going with them, I'm going with them.
Ramin Razavi:Do you see the will of Jesus? See this is so key because early in Jesus' life, all of the verbs associated with Jesus are in the active tense. Jesus is calling disciples. Jesus is speaking the kingdom of God. Jesus healing people.
Ramin Razavi:Jesus casting out demons. And as you get to this last week of Jesus' life, all of the verbs turn passive. And he's allowing the will of God to unfold in his life. He's allowing the will of his father to unfold in his life. He's getting lower, he's getting lower and he's getting lower.
Ramin Razavi:Eventually he's accused first it's at Annas, the former high priest house and then he gets shipped over to Caiaphas' house and he's surrounded by at least 23 members of the Sanhedrin and they're all coming up with accusations and they're like, you know anybody that's got an accusation? We need people with accusations. And they're trying to just build a case against him and nothing is sticking. And eventually they're just like, well you said you're the son of man. Okay, you said you're the son of man.
Ramin Razavi:And Jesus said, well you just said I was the son of man. I'm not saying that right now because I'm not here to defend myself. And you've gotta know that this is the God who authors atomic fusion. This is the God who speaks stars and galaxies. Every one of them known by name Isaiah tells us.
Ramin Razavi:This is the God who shaped the heavens and the earth, who spoke the seas into existence and holds the waters of the oceans in the palm of his hand. You have to know he can philosophically deconstruct 23 bearded guys in the Sanhedrin. He can do that and he doesn't. He's silent before them to fulfill scripture that said he would be silent like a sheep before cheers. And then eventually they take him over to Pilate's house because they can't crucify people as the Jewish nation under Roman occupation.
Ramin Razavi:And Pilate finds out, this guy's Galilean. We've got Herod in town. I'm gonna ship him off to Herod. And Herod just is like, show us a miracle. I've been waiting to see you.
Ramin Razavi:I've heard about the miracles, love to see a miracle. Would love to see a miracle. And Jesus said I'm not doing them. I'm not a trick pony for you bro. I'm not doing miracles.
Ramin Razavi:And he ships him back to Pilate. And I wanna pick up here in the scripture because this is just so powerful. I just want you to see the desperation even in Pilate as a person of authority who recognized who he was dealing with in Jesus. Luke or sorry, John 19 verse one. It says then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged which is brutal beating him within an inch of his life.
Ramin Razavi:The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and they put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again saying, hail king of the Jews and they slapped him in the face. Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, look, I'm bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him. When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, here is the man. As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, crucify, crucify.
Ramin Razavi:But Pilate answered, you take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him. The Jewish leaders insisted we have a law and according to that law he must die because he claimed to be the son of God. When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid and went back inside the palace. Where do you come from?
Ramin Razavi:He asked Jesus. But Jesus gave him no answer. Do you refuse to speak to me? Pilate said. Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?
Ramin Razavi:Jesus answered, you would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. And Jesus in the presence of Pilate, you have to get the picture in your mind, he's been beaten to within an inch of his life. He's got a crown of 12 inch long thorns being pressed into his skull with a rod that they're striking him with. The scars on his back that are beginning to dry in the blood are being draped with this awful heavy probably curtain of some kind and he's standing there defying the one person who could change the situation.
Ramin Razavi:This is submission. This is humility. This is God saying, I will go lower than anyone has ever gone before because I need to get to the cross because it's my road to the grave where I'm actually going to fight a battle. And so scripture picks up in John chapter 19 again. I'm gonna skip through some of this.
Ramin Razavi:It says, carrying his own cross he went out to the place of the skull which is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, nails and spikes in his hand, his feet with two others on each side. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross that read Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek, the whole world needs to know. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, do not write the king of the Jews but that this man claimed to be the king of the Jews.
Ramin Razavi:Pilate answered what I have written, I have written. Then down in verse 28, later knowing that everything had now been finished or completed And so that scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said I'm thirsty. And a jar of wine vinegar was there so they soaked a sponge in it and put the sponge on a stock of a hyssop plant and lifted it to Jesus's lips And when he received the drink, Jesus said, it is finished. And with that he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. And if you would have been standing in the vicinity of this cross, you would have had a different view possibly of what these final words of Jesus's were.
Ramin Razavi:If you were one of the disciples, the hopes that you had bet your future on have now been dismantled as the savior, the Messiah has been executed. And you're wondering, can I go back and go back to fishing or what else am I gonna do? And if you were one of the religious leaders, you would have been standing at the foot of that cross saying finally, this itinerant rabbi from who knows where is finally silenced. He is finished and we can go back to oppressing people with our religious system. If you were one of the Romans, you would have likely said, of course he is, we're good at this.
Ramin Razavi:This is what we do, we kill people. We put people to death except for the few that did see something that day. But I just in imagination wonder this. We know that darkness was encroaching. We know that Satan was present at the crucifixion of Jesus.
Ramin Razavi:We know that the enemy was thinking that he had dealt a final blow to the son of God. But as those spikes are being driven into Jesus's hands, you have to think that there's a tremor going on between Satan and his principalities because all of a sudden they're like, it seems as though he's doing this willingly. And it seems as though the language that he's using, it is finished is an accounting term. It means everything's settled. It means the debt has been paid.
Ramin Razavi:And he's paying for something. What is he paying for? And then he descends to the grave. And scripture says that the curse of the grave is is sin. And in the grave, the only way the grave can hold someone is if there's accusation of sin and they get the spotless one.
Ramin Razavi:They get the one that John the Baptist said, that's the lamb of God. He's gonna take away the sin of the world. They get the one who was pure and blameless. They get the one who before the foundation of the world was chosen by his father to be a sacrificial offering for all of humanity and they get him in the grave and I can't give it away, but they don't have anything on him down there. And so from the inside out, he begins to dismantle sin.
Ramin Razavi:He begins to dismantle death and he ultimately puts a fatal stomp on the neck of Satan from the grave. And so the cross that was meant to kill is the place of our greatest victory. And this is what Jesus has accomplished for us. Which means that Jesus happened to the cross, the cross did not happen to Jesus. And when Jesus happened to the cross, he nullified the power of sin, death and the grave.
Ramin Razavi:So that if we place our trust in him, which is to say I'm gonna lean on him, I'm gonna rely on him, he offers us forgiveness and life. And so as a way of responding tonight to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the God who knew no sin became a sin offering for us so that we could become the children, the righteous ones of God. We are going to take part in a in a practice of of nailing things to these crosses that you see around the room. And these crosses they're symbolic and what it is is our way of saying by faith is you take the pen that's on your chair and the the piece of paper that's on your chair and you just you begin to write on that piece of paper what it is you need to take and allow what Jesus accomplished for you on the cross to settle that for you. And that means you're taking the regrets that you've carried for your life.
Ramin Razavi:It means you're taking the sin that you need to confess to God. It means you're taking the brokenness and pain that you have tried to manage on your own and you are saying, I am placing this with Jesus on the cross where it's nullified, where he deals with it, where he carries it and where he redeems it. We're also going to during this time receive holy communion. You receive that on the way in, if you didn't there are stations around the room. But after you take your sin and your pain, your brokenness to the cross, we're then gonna receive holy communion together.
Ramin Razavi:Because this cross that was meant to kill, it is our victory but it's also the throne of Jesus Christ himself. Because from the cross scripture tells us flows his mercy, his grace and his forgiveness. So we're gonna leave on the cross that which we cannot carry and we're gonna receive in communion that which none of us have ever deserved. The unfailing free gift of the love of the father to wash us from sin, to give us the life in life in the holy spirit and from that place we're gonna worship our lord. So holy spirit, we pray now that you would come and lead us in this time.
Ramin Razavi:Jesus, we honor you. Jesus, we worship you. Jesus, you are more beautiful than any other face we could ever see. And we pray now Holy Spirit that the power of the cross of Christ would come and that we would respond in faith and we would lay before you God the things that we cannot carry, the regrets, the stories we can't redeem on our own and we would allow your power and your love to begin to write a better story today. Because when you said it was finished, you were speaking of sin and death.
Ramin Razavi:You were actually just getting started in our lives. And so we receive that life today and as we receive holy communion, I pray Jesus that your body and your blood would make us one with you and we would receive the full inheritance of being children of God. We honor you and we bless you Jesus. We pray in your holy name. Amen and amen.
Intro/Outro:Thank you for listening. For more information, please visit garden.church.