Thank you for joining us for a Good Friday service. My name is Eric Ehmann. I'm the campus pastor in Queen Creek. It was darkness and silence. It was 400 years of darkness and silence. 400 years since Israel had heard from a prophet of God, since they'd heard the voice of God telling them what would come, telling them of the hope of the future. It felt dark. It felt heavy. It was darkness and bleakness, but then it happened. There was a light. It showed in the East, a light came. This is what it was written in John one verse one. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And the word was God. He was with God in the beginning, through him, all things were made without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life. And that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness. And the darkness has not overcome it. This is the beginning of Jesus's story on earth. This is the Christmas story. The story we love to tell it makes us feel nostalgic and hopeful and think of the days of joy. And why wouldn't it? Because we paint the picture of the manger scene as a story of hope. And it is in fact, a story of hope. It's the hope of a mother giving birth to her first son after all of these miraculous and amazing things took place. Hope was here. It was the hope of a husband and a wife who together had hoped for the family of the future. What would be? What would become of their family? The joy that comes to that moment? It was hope for the poor. For the angels came and declared to the shepherds that this divine moment included them too. The most outcast, the most poor, they came to see this hopeful baby in the manger, this light that came in into the world. It was hope for all the nations. The magi I came from far away to see what this King was, what this light was. And there was hope for the world. It was for everyone of every race of every creed that this King came. This Messiah came for everyone. And as he grew, all of this came together. It seemed to point out day after day, week after week, this joy, this hope, pointed to Jesus as Messiah. It says in scripture that he grew in faith and favor with God and men, even as he spoke to the religious elite in the temple as a young man, he astounded them. Was this, the one that come? Was this the one to bring restoration for all mankind restoration for the nation of Israel? Was this, the son of God? And as he started his ministry in this subtle, unique way, as a rabbi. We saw amazing things, take place. We saw healing and teaching and feeding and other miracles. We saw people by the thousands coming to hear what he had to say. There was celebration. There was victory and there was conflict to be sure, but Jesus always seemed to be able to talk his way through, engage in conversation, to argue well, or to simply walk through the crowd to avoid it. He put Pharisees into their place. The religious elite found that they had no way to overcome him. He defended, he uplifted the vulnerable. He strengthened the weak. Lives were changed. Sinners, repented, demons were cast out from people. So healing took place in the land. There was an amazing light that was coming to Israel. There was this profound time of hope and light. And you have to imagine the disciples as they were observing all of this. That they stood in awe and wonder of what Jesus was doing, but in their observation, in this time, did the disciples actually miss something important? See Jesus said there was a price that needed to be paid for redemption. But things were going so well. How, how could there be a price to be paid? And then we come to it. We come to this culmination of ministry. That started actually weeks before Jesus came into Jerusalem, he raised a friend of his name, Lazarus from the dead to something that had not been seen in the land. Something that stirred the hearts of so many that this, this was what we were waiting for. This is a sign of the Messiah. So much so that even those who opposed Jesus started to murmur even more that this is a sign that we need to bring an end to this man. And the disciples just must've thought this is it even more so as the crescendo, as they walk into to Jerusalem, they walk into the city and people are shouting Hosanna. They, the man rides on a colt of a donkey, which is a sign of fulfillment of the prophecy of the King to come. People are celebrating, they are tearing off palm branches. They're laying it at his feet and they are celebrating the arrival of what anybody were looking on would say, this is the arrival of the King. This is it. This is hope at its very peak. This is hope fulfilled. This is what it looks like when the light shines in the land. But somehow Jesus was not overwhelmed by the cheers. See, he knows what we often don't know, that the favor of men can turn and fade in just a moment. Then strange thing happened in this final week. This palm week, Sunday, this exciting time. Jesus, with the zeal for the house of God, went in to clear it, of all those who were exchanging money and diminishing the value of what it was to come and worship. But perhaps this was actually an encouraging time for those looking on as disciples that perhaps as Jesus was pushing these people out of the temple, they were finally seeing the Jesus, the Messiah, they were waiting for a forceful King, a King who would stand up and fight. A warrior King. Maybe that's what they were waiting for after all. And they finally got to see it in Jesus. Then we come to this intimate moment, this intimate time. This last supper where Jesus does something that no King would ever do. He ties a towel around his waist and he begins to wash the feet of his disciples. This was no noble act of suffering. This was humiliating. This was a common house servant task. This was not something a king does. And then Jesus began to talk to his disciples and he does something that we also didn't expect to see. He challenges his disciples, and more than that, he tells them that they will fall away. He tells them that one will deny him three times. He tells them that one will betray them, but that all will flee. This is not expected because why would they flee when such victory has taken place this week? When such an amazing time has come to pass when he is clearly the King, what would there be to flee from? They are standing at the right hand of the King, the rightful King, the one that they had hoped would take control, but even here Jesus spoke plainly of the end. But from our view, it's clear. From our place in history it's is incredibly clear. But to these disciples in this moment in time, it must've seemed so confusing. So complex, so counter to what they'd observed in this week. So very unclear. And then as they go out, the most unexpected of all things took place. Jesus was arrested. Jesus was questioned and taken away in private in the middle of the night. And then Jesus found himself in front of two leaders at different times. Each leader could have set Jesus free, and perhaps this is the way Jesus would be able to get out again, just like you've done in the past. As he was before Pilot, who is known to be one of the most malicious leaders and the most hateful leaders. Who found himself trying proactively and intentionally to release Jesus, that surely this was the way Jesus would get out, but that didn't happen. The crowd was too loud, the cheers of once, which were so clearly in favor of Jesus turned just as Jesus knew against him, the cry for crucifixion, the cry for his death. So they turned him over. They turned him over to be beaten, beaten nearly to death before he even got to the cross. Scripture says that he was so damaged that he was unrecognizable. They couldn't even tell who he was of the man before. And we hear the word mocked and he was in fact mocked in this season, but it wasn't just a mocking, a criticizing. They were spitting on him. They stripped him naked and in a modest culture, this is the utmost of humiliation as he's bleeding covered in spit. And he's so weak that he can't even drag his cross out to where he would be killed later. They actually pull a man from the crowd to carry his cross. As they walk up this hill called the skull. And at this moment, you have to imagine that all the disciples find themselves in this place, thinking hope is gone. In fact, everyone would look on thinking hope is lost. Everyone, but one. See Jesus was crucified between two thieves, two thieves that deserve to be where they were. And yet one saw something divine in this moment. This is so unexpected this moment, this glimmer of hope in this dark time, this man who sought the favor of God. A chance to be restored to God. And he had no chance to give an act of redemption. This is pure grace and Jesus in this moment, Jesus, in this small moment, redeems him, restores him, promises him that he will find himself in eternity with Christ. Even at this moment on the cross, Jesus expressed compassion and a desire to restore man to God. Maybe it is the most appropriate place, especially an appropriate place on the cross for this is why Jesus came. But this can't be can it? The onlookers would just stand in awe and amazement. This cannot be, but even in John chapter 12 verses 23, this is where Jesus states that this is how the glory of the son of man would be seen. This is how he would be glorified. In this setting. But how? Where is the rescue? Where are the angels to come and escape with? Where is the escape and the legion of army to come and rescue them? Where is the miracle? Can Messiah actually die? Can God? In John chapter 19 verse 28, it says this. Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty. A jar of wine vinegar was there. So they soaked a sponge in it and put the sponge on a stalk of hyssop plant, and they lifted it to Jesus. When he had received the drink, Jesus said it is finished. And with that, he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. Jesus says the words, it is finished. What can that possibly mean? I don't want you to turn the page. Don't look to the end of the story. Don't sit in your place in history. Sit in this moment at the disciples feet. In their time in history, at their place in history at this very moment, Jesus says it is finished. Is this it? Is this what three and a half years of ministry culminate to? Is this what they spent time with Jesus? He was telling them they were Messiah, but he says it has finished. Is this, conceding the end? Is this it? Is it finally over? Does the cross actually have the final word? Jesus was able to talk his way out, walk his way out, and get his way through difficult situations before. There must have been such disbelief and denial and brokenness. Was this it? You've been there haven't you? Maybe you're there now. Wondering what happened to your life? What happened to hope? What happened to possibilities? What happened to the miracles you anticipated? Maybe you've been suffering. You've been suffering for more than this last year would suggest. You've been through depression and loss and hurt, and you're waiting for God to show up. You feel what the disciples felt in this moment? Hope is lost. The light is gone out. It's over. And my hope for you in this time is that you find comfort in God, a sense of his presence in this dark time. A sense of help at your side. That you are not alone, that Jesus knows what you're going through. That the disciples felt the bleakness, that darkness as well. That it is not lost on the disciples of Christ, what it is to be without the light. That this light had gone out. But wait. Did the disciples, miss something important again? Did you? There to the East? The light may not yet be up.