Message summary: This Good Friday let us give deep, heartfelt thanks to God for His incomparable love and for the demonstration of His love as seen in the One impaled on a bloody cross.

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“This is your hour - when darkness reigns” (Luke 22:53). “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross” (Acts 2:23). "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Galatians 6:14).

In yesterday's message "When The Hour Had Come" we considered the times Jesus spoke of "His hour", that singular moment in space and time, for which Christ had come to this world. Today, let us consider another hour.

Jesus said to the chief priests when He was arrested, “This is your hour–when darkness reigns” (Luke 22:53). This hour of darkness appeared to be a hopeless situation, an excruciating time in the cosmos, from our Lord’s arrest to His final cry on the Cross: a time when our Lord Himself said, “Darkness reigns”!

But some 53 days later a Spirit-empowered Peter stood boldly before the crowd and gave the first recorded sermon of the Church. At Christ's arrest He had cowered in fear as he denied even knowing Christ. But now on the Day of Pentecost he emphatically and unashamedly addressed many of those same people who had put Christ to death.

There's such richness in the entire second daily text but especially ponder one phrase, “By God’s set purpose”.  The KJV translates “the determinate counsel”. The atoning, sacrificial death of God’s only begotten Son was no accident.

Following Abraham’s remarkable encounter with God on Mt. Moriah, when God provided a sacrifice for Isaac, “he called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, ‘On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided’” (Genesis 22:14). This verse contains the Hebrew description Jehovah Jireh for God. Many of us have sung the Jewish tune, ”Jehovah Jireh, my provider, His grace is sufficient for me.” We may take this Hebrew name to mean, “God provides for our everyday needs” but the greatest provision is in regard to our eternal salvation, which was provided at the Cross.

Seven hundred years before Christ came to earth Isaiah spoke of the One who was “led like a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:5). As Jesus began His ministry John prophetically declared, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Even as He was arrested the narrative underscores His foreknowledge, “Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him".  And in the final book of the Bible we read about the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”.

Today we, of the Christian faith, look back nearly 2,000 years ago to the Ultimate Sacrifice.  On this Good Friday we solemnly remember that at the ninth hour our Savior breathed His last at the hands of wicked men.  We realize this day is good because God showed us the full extent of His love by making restitution for our redemption.

The merciful attitude expressed in Joseph’s response to his wicked brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” takes on much greater fulfillment when we see that Christ poured out His goodness on those who sought to do Him evil.

Yes, surely God intended the Cross for good. He even used evil hearts to bring about His set purpose. He was not overcome by evil, but He overcame evil with good.  God’s plan of salvation was divine in nature, but He also helps us every day in our overcoming evil with good. We walk in newness of life and in the power of His resurrection.

This Good Friday let us indeed praise God from whom all blessings flow as we remember the greatest Sacrifice today. Let us give deep, heartfelt thanks to God for His incomparable love and the demonstration of His love as seen in the One impaled on a bloody cross.

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber