Pastor Fredo Ramos: What do you think will be your famous last words? You know, all of us when we come to the end of our lives, we'll have that opportunity where we're with loved ones, the people we care about, and we'll probably have parting words for them. It's a famous phrase we use. Their their last words were this. And in the gospels, we have recorded from Jesus himself on the cross while he's dying.
And in his last few breaths, he offers us a few words, words that are recorded in Matthew's gospel, Mark and Luke and John. And these words, I think, can serve us well on this Good Friday. It's a day for us to, set aside time to reflect and draw attention to what Jesus did in his final moments of life and what that means for us as people who follow him. And so in our time together today, I wanna invite you to allow these last words to be, words that are spoken over you, words that might give you meaning and hope, and might even help in, help deeper deepen a connection, between you and God as you think about and prepare yourself for Easter and and what the hope of the resurrection means for you, for your family, and for your friends. And so we're going to not just be teaching, but also praying, having moments to pray, to reflect.
And so in between these various statements, you're gonna hear a prayer spoken by people who are also following Jesus with you, and they represent people who are part of our church all around the world. And so it'll be a beautiful moment for us to be thinking about how God is moving in and through our church, across the nation and across the globe as well. The first statement that, we draw our attention to is Jesus when he says, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. It's a moment, as I said, where he's being crucified. And in this moment of agony, he's actually having care, care for his enemies.
It kinda makes me think of his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount where he talked about enemy love, and he used this phrase to pray for those who persecute you. We saw Jesus actually embody that in his final moments of life. And he says, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. It's it's hard for us to understand the evil we experience in the world today. It's hard for us, I think, to, come to terms with and reconcile the anger, the violence, the hardship that we see people experience.
And I think Jesus gives us an at least a first step that we can take, which is to pray, to pray for forgiveness, to pray in the face of evil, in the face of violence may be done against you to say, father, forgive them. And so whether it's an evil out there in the world or even an evil that you sense within your own heart, Good Friday first invites us to consider that Jesus is offering you and offering me forgiveness. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. I would imagine there are things in your life that you have done that you don't even understand why you did it or how you came to that place. But let today, Good Friday, this first statement to be a reminder for you that the father stands ready to forgive you as Jesus did while he was hanging on a cross.
Father, forgive them. And so I want you to reflect and to think about what specific sins that you need forgiveness for right now in your life.
Blanche: Lord, if I'm honest, I don't always know how to confess my sin before you because I'm uncomfortable with how great my need really is for your forgiveness. But even in my avoidance or discomfort or shame, you are still merciful. Thank you, God, for your forgiveness for me.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: The second statement we draw our attention to is where Jesus says in Luke's gospel, today, you will be with me in paradise. Now he says this in response to a criminal who hanging there next to him said, lord, remember me when you enter your kingdom. In a moment of vulnerability, he's crying out for mercy. And granted, this is an individual who's been publicly executed outside of the city gates. He's been banished outside of his community.
And in this moment of being pushed out, punished because of what he's done, Jesus responds to his plea for mercy, and he welcomes him in. Someone who's pushed out, Jesus welcomes in. It's one of the most well known statements that I think we draw our attention to because it it's a demonstration of god's unlimited mercy and grace for even the harshest of people. Today, you will be with me in paradise. He tells this person, the sun will not set on your life until you see what life is fully like with me in paradise, in this future home.
And I think 1000 of years later, as we hear those statements, those words spoken over our own lives, it should give us hope. It should remind us of what he said in John's gospel that he goes to prepare a place for us. Do you remember, and and can you bring yourself to this place right now where you know that God has a home waiting for you? The world as it is is not the way it will be in the future. In your place, yes, you have homes here.
Maybe you have a place that you call home, but it's not your final destination. Jesus is preparing a place for you. And may that be a kind of hope, a kind of stability and security that allows you to live well in the present, knowing that he, in his mercy, speaks to you as well today and says, man, you will be with me in paradise. There is a day coming where you will be in a home that you have always dreamed of but never fully seen, never fully experienced, but you will one day. And so may that hope of future glory of of of eternity, of life with God that our souls have longed for, that day is coming.
And so may they give you hope and courage as you wrestle with the present and the reality that you call life as it is right now. So I want you to reflect on what are the ways that maybe you have forgotten about your home, your true home, your future home that God is preparing for you so that you might better live today in the here and now.
Prayer in Portuguese: Lord, help my heart to long for the things of heaven. Jesus, my friend, teach me to remain hopeful when the world around me feels hopeless. So that I can know what it means to experience the joy, a salvation, a salvocell, even now. A God of Israel. Amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: Our third statement, Jesus actually says to his mom and to one of his disciples, woman, behold your son, and then to John, his disciple, behold your mother. Now I can't imagine the agony that Mary would have been in experiencing her son or seeing her son experience that kind of death. I mean, keep in mind, this woman gave birth to him, raised him, changed his diapers, watched him grow, watched him deal with bullies on the playground. Right? Changed, his plate.
He he he she just did a lot for him as his mom. And to think now that she's watching him in agony suffer unjustly, and she's probably the only person in their family who believes him. And so she's got other siblings, other children who may not even recognize Jesus the way that Mary did in that moment. And so I I find it so compelling that in his own agony, he's thinking about caring for his mom, which is why he says, woman, behold your son. In other words, he is showing her where her security will be.
You have a new family now in my disciples with my disciples. You have someone that you can call son. You have someone who will provide for you. You have someone who will take care of you. And I find that to be so telling that Jesus, in our own frustrations with family life, in our own, dynamics at home, with with all of the drama that comes with your family and my family, Jesus, even in that painful moment, reminds us that there is another family he invites us into, and that's his own.
And so I want you to be thinking about, man, how how is it possible that Jesus' family right now in this moment can help you and serve you in your own difficulties? As you try to navigate your life and and the difficult things that you gotta deal with and the people you gotta deal with and the work that you gotta do, how is it that Jesus' family might come alongside and serve you well in the same way that Jesus in his moment of death said to his mom, behold your son, and told John, his disciple, behold your mother. In other words, he's forming a new relationship, a new bond there, and that invitation stands true today for you and I. I want you to consider and think about that.
Kent Jenkins: Heavenly father, in difficult and confusing times, would you help us to embrace the gift of our spiritual family?
Kelli Jenkins: And, Jesus, in your own experience of isolation, you assure us that we don't have to walk through this life alone.
Kent Jenkins: Would you empower us with the courage and the strength to show up for our spiritual family?
Kelli Jenkins: Amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: The 4th statement comes to us from Matthew's gospel, which is actually a, repeated phrase that we see from Psalm 22 where David writes and Jesus ultimately says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's been referred to by many as the cry of dereliction in which Jesus as a human, as God the son is experiencing complete separation from God the father. Why have you forsaken me? To me, it might be one of the most human statements we have recorded in the Bible. I mean, what person who who has lived life hasn't thought to themselves at one point and maybe even said to God, God, where are you?
I feel alone. I feel isolated. Many contemporary writers today say to be human is to be alone, and I don't know of a more relevant statement from the cross than Jesus saying, why have you forsaken me? The why question to God might be one of the most profound and mysterious and yet unanswered questions we get throughout scripture. We see this.
Why, God? Why, God? It might be even a question that's defined you and this season of life that you find yourself in. And so on this Good Friday, would you be reminded that Jesus himself, God the son, said that very thing in his moment of agony as he's being crucified on the cross, why have you forsaken me? And so I think it's helpful for us to pause and to reflect on what areas of our lives do we feel like God has abandoned us, left us alone and in isolation.
Let's reflect on that together.
Diane Hunstman: I feel like you don't see me. I can't find where you are, Lord. Have you forgotten me? Surely, this isn't the plan.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: The 5th statement we see from Jesus on the cross is a short one. John 19, he says, I thirst. Again, here we're reminded of his humanity. The fact that he lived a real human life like you and I. And we understand from history, from people who study it well, that crucifixion is, a torture, man.
It it it drains you of every part of your being, of your physical life, your emotional life, man. It takes a toll on the physical body, and he's expressing that in this moment where he says he thirsts. Now many have understood this to be a, prophetic word, a word that actually finds fulfillment there in that statement because he's drawing attention to the fact that he has accomplished all that he intended to do, with what the father had given him to do, his earthly mission. He's bringing a completion to that. Not only I think we also see Jesus drawing attention to the statements where he had been teaching us what it meant to thirst and to have him as our Lord, as living water actually satisfy us.
And so we see him there on the cross as one whose life is being drained out of him, his very life being drained. And he's doing that so that we who are thirsty, we who actually thirst in life, we who actually have needs and feel desperate at times for God can say like Jesus did, God, I'm thirsty. Would you satisfy me? Would you help me and and meet my needs? And for us to know that our our needs, our cravings, our desires, our longings ultimately find their fulfillment in him, the one who was drained of all life so that we can actually come to really experience what life is, what life in him can look like.
And so I want you to be thinking about not just maybe tangible needs you have, but what are some of the deeper soul longings that maybe you've been looking to on this planet in your life to fulfill and satisfy that only God can And say, God, would you acknowledge those things? Would you help me, God, to find ultimate satisfaction and fulfillment in you?
Craig Huff: Lord, I know I thirst but don't always know what will satisfy my deeper longings. Those longings that you know I have. I don't always know what my needs are, but you know I have them. Help me, God, recognize the real need I have in you and that I would be open to how you would provide in the midst of those needs.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: The 6th statement that we get from Jesus out of his last words, it is finished. It's a phrase that we've heard maybe some sermons on or some messages on to talk about the the work that God had accomplished through his son. It's done. It is complete. Salvation has been accomplished through what Jesus has done.
We celebrate that. But, again, I wanna take us back to the history of this. If you were on-site watching him be crucified and he declares from the cross that it is finished, well, what is finished? This is a moment of defeat. This is embarrassing.
To be publicly executed was not anything that someone would celebrate because it was a demonstration of power, of the Roman system at the time. It it would have been something that Jesus experienced as very vulnerable. He's naked hanging on the cross, and yet in in what appears to be a moment of defeat, he is declaring victory, completion. It is finished. The hope that I think we could find in that is that even in our own experiences of failures, things that you have tried your best in to do and just couldn't, right, everything that maybe has marked your life that you feel like this is not right, be open to the possibility, maybe even more so to the reality, that God can actually use that for good.
That it's actually through defeat that God accomplishes his will and his purposes. In the same way that Jesus experienced not just execution, but death, experiencing the full judgment of God on himself, defeat, failure. Yet through all of that, God was bringing about salvation for you and I. Salvation so that you and I can wake up today on this Good Friday and know that we don't have to do anything to earn what God freely gives to us through his son. So stop trying.
Stop trying to prove yourself. Stop trying to live up to something you think you need to be other than someone who just is a recipient of grace and a recipient of what God has done for you in his son Jesus. He said it is finished, And so we can sit down, we can breathe, and we can receive his finished work on our behalf. And as we do, maybe we reflect and just confess some of the ways that we have been trying to rely on our own effort, our own diligence, our own intelligence, our own good works, and and forsake those things and receive freely the love of God that comes to us through his son and what he's done for us on the cross.
Tim Hawley: I confess that sometimes I believe that there is still more left to be done or said to complete my life, and I get stuck in the endless cycle of self improvement. Jesus, help me to believe and embrace the promise that my place with you is truly secure because of your body broken for me on the cross. Let it be enough for me.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: A final statement that we draw our attention to is when Jesus says, father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. In other words, he entrusts himself as the psalmist says, I entrust my whole self to you. It reminds me when Jesus said in John's gospel, no one takes my life from me. I lay it down on my own accord. And in this moment, Jesus is surrendering his life to God the father.
But remember in a moment of death in this act of crucifixion. Now I don't know about you, but one of the things that gets me scared and fills me with fear is the thought of dying. Like, that actual moment in which everything you've known is gone and and you enter into a a moment and a space that is unknown. Like, who do you know that's died and come back to tell you what happened? I I know one person, Jesus.
But I would imagine that that transition moment of you actually moving from this part of life and stepping into another realm of life that so many people are curious about is a freaky thing. It's a terrifying thing. And I would imagine that Jesus is modeling for us. Man, if we can entrust ourselves to him in that final moment, that final breath, if he is worthy of our trust of our whole life, then we can also trust him in the little things. We can trust him in the day to day moments.
We can, on a regular basis, say, god, I entrust myself to you in this situation, at work, in this relationship, with these feelings, with this crisis because I see Jesus on the cross finally saying, father, into your hands, I entrust my spirit. And so we can also say, god, I entrust myself into your hands too. Even as I get scared and think about that final moment, what it's gonna be like to transition from this place that I've called home and all I'm known into a a new world, a life beyond the grave. What what is a grave like? What do I look like?
What do I feel? How do I think? All kinds of questions, right, begin to fill us. Like, what is actually on the other side of this? Jesus said we can entrust ourselves to him in that moment.
We can do it. And so as we close our time, I want you to reflect on certain areas of your life right now that you are not entrusting to the Lord. Maybe your personal, your private life, maybe your relationships. What are those things that you need to say like Jesus did? I commit these things into your hands.
Prayer in Afrikaans: Lord, I'm. On some level, I know I do not trust you. Even though you are worthy of my trust, help me to see those parts of my life.
Blanche: That
Prayer in Afrikaans: I'm withholding from you. That I might surrender them to you. Find rest at the center of your deep abiding love for me. In order to discover renewed and resurrected life.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: On this good Friday, I hope that Jesus's final words and these prayers have served you well. And maybe even some of these prayers have actually connected with you and resonated with you because of just where you're at in life. And I would encourage you to continue just to offer those up to God as you prepare, not just for today, Good Friday, but as you get ready for Easter, as we celebrate together at Sandals Church, the resurrection of Jesus. And we would love for you to join us this weekend as we remember not just his death, but ultimately his resurrection and the new life that we can have in him. Can't wait to see you there.