The Bryce Crawford Podcast - A Message On Good Friday (EP 24)

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

In this episode, Bryce releases an exhortation about Good Friday.

What's going on, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. And by the title of this episode, you guys clicked on it, this is coming out on Good Friday. And this is a message for Good Friday. We're going to be talking about Good Friday. But I think it's going to have a little bit of a different style to it. You know, and I'm really excited. Before we jump into it, guys, these shirts, we're on an Easter sale right now.

The second this episode drops till Monday, so through Easter Sunday till the Monday, we've got 20% off. If you go to Jesus in the street.com, use code Easter, all caps. You can get 20% off on your entire order. Go get some fire merch, 20% off, support what we're doing, Easter code. It's cool.

Let's get into it. I think it's so interesting how we call this day Good Friday when in reality, this was probably the most traumatic, most gut-wrenching thing to watch on such a day like this. I mean, if you were one of the,

closest people to Jesus. You know, if you were Mary or maybe you were John, the disciple whom he loved, you're sitting at the foot of the cross, watching Jesus being stripped of his glory, essentially, to a position where he's supposed to be mocked. So today, as believers, it's Good Friday because it's good for us. We call Good Friday good because humanity has a chance to be redeemed. but in the hands of Jesus being in the flesh, Good Friday is going to be the most physical torment he experiences in his body. I mean, if you look at Jesus in the Garden of Gathemone, it says that his sweat was like drops of blood,

and I believe that we have that imagery. Because Jesus is knowing the weight of sin. He's about to take on past, present, and future. That's why his sweat was like drops of blood. I mean, I want you to imagine your best friend that you spent every day, day with turning your back on you just for some chump change. You know, imagine your best friend of three years at school. You guys did all of middle school together. And then when you guys enter high school freshman year trying to find what click to go to, your friend starts gossiping about you to the

popular kids just so that they could sit with them. I mean, they were your friend for three years. You guys spent every day together. You guys were sleeping over every other weekend. And then the second you guys get to high school they sell you out just to be liked by people and in this circumstance you have judas someone that walked closely with jesus christ sells them out for some chunk change some shekels of silver and so when i look at the story of jesus and i look at judas's relationship to jesus and how he reacts you can be in proximity with jesus and still not know them and you can be in proximity to people that know Jesus and you still not know him. And I think there's this disease right now in America where when we go to church camps or we go to church,

right, the pastor is burning hot or one of our friends is burning hot for Jesus. And so when we get near them, we feel the heat of their flame burning for Jesus. And so it gives us this spark, but the second we're not at church or we're not at church camp or we're not with that friend, our flame goes out. And the reason our flame goes out is actually because we didn't have a flame in the first place. We were just trying to benefit off of someone else's relationship with Jesus. And so you can't know Jesus through someone else. You have to know them yourself.

And so Good Friday, when you look at Good Friday, I think it's so interesting because when you read John 19, it says then Pilot took Jesus and flogged him. They took this whip called a cat of nine tails and had strings attached to it and rocks and glass. and when they would whip your back, this whip would wrap around your back, and then when they would pull it, the rocks and the nails and the glass would latch onto your skin, so it would hook in. When they would rip it, it would rip flesh out. 40 times being whipped by this thing was the legal limit. You couldn't get whipped more than 40 times, but they only counted to 39 in case they miscounted. So they would only whip people 39 times because they couldn't go over the legal limit because it would literally kill them. you so they would only whip 39 times. So Jesus gets whipped 39 times with a cat of nine

tails. Just imagine your flesh being ripped open every bit, just a little bit here and there. Just boom, boom, boom, by the end of the 39 whips, you have no more skin on your back. Your muscle and your tendons and ligaments and nerves are showing and the heat of the sun is piercing on it and it's putting you an excruciating pain. and you're nauseous. You know, the actor that played Jesus in the movie The Passion of the Christ, they put a fake back on him to be whipped. But when one of the guys whipped him one time,

just one, one string actually wrapped around and hooked onto his real skin. And when it got ripped off of him, he had to take like a two or three day break. It made him so sick. Just by one string accidentally catching his skin just for a moment. Imagine getting whipped 39 times being nauseous and sick to your stomach, maybe even throwing up. And not only that, you're butt naked in front of every.

one. You're butt naked. I mean, I remember not even just butt naked. I remember when I first started in middle school when I had PE. When I had PE in middle school, I would literally change in the stall in sixth grade. I was too embarrassed to get in my underwear in the guy's locker. And when I was in the sixth grade, can you imagine being shamed butt naked in front of your close friends, people you did life with, and in front of people in your city for something that's not even your blame Little Bryce couldn't even get in his underwear in front of his classmates in the sixth grade

in the locker room. What do I think I would do if I got stripped naked publicly in front of my family and friends in my city for something that I didn't even do and to think that he didn't even speak a word blows my mind because we live in a society today where we have to defend ourselves and we always have to be right.

But Jesus stayed silent and his silence was in agreement with the will of the Father because he knew that the Father had to treat Jesus like Barabbas so that he could treat Barabbas like Jesus. It's so powerful. As you read the story in chapter 19 of John, verse 3, it says they came up to him saying, hail king of the Jews, and they would struck him with their hands. So they would mock him and say, he's the king of the Jews and they would beat him. Pilate went out again and said to them, see, I am bringing him out to you so that you may know I find no. guilt in him. So Jesus came out wearing a crown of thorns and the purple robe. I saw this image one time of this crown of thorns where the thorns were pointed inward and outward. The inward ones just searing into the skull of Jesus, just mocking him. Oh, he's a king. Let's put a crown of thorns

on him. So these things sear in his head. I mean, imagine a headache that is piercing through you from every angle of your head. And you're being put purple, purple, purple, in that time period was a sign of royalty. They didn't have put that on him because they believed in Jesus as being the king and Lord. They put that ominous mockery. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns in the purple robe, and Pilate said to them, Behold the man. When the priests and the officer saw him, they cried out, crucify him, crucify him.

And Pilate said, take him yourselves. The Jews answered, we have a law. And according to the law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God. So they hand over Jesus. and it's so powerful. I love this. Jesus says in verse 11, you would have no authority over me at all

unless it has been given to you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. It's powerful. So powerful. They took Jesus, and he went out bearing his own cross. I want to set the scene for you real quick here.

Barabbas is a thug, a rebel, a murderer, and some documents say that Barabbas was even a rapist. Barabbas is sentenced to death row, a death that he deserves preparing his own cross. Thieves that would get crucified would often prepare their own cross. So imagine a cross that you're preparing for yourself now gets taken by an innocent man. So Jesus isn't just taking his own cross. He's actually taken Barabbas' cross, and he's dying. the death that we deserve so that we can live.

Jesus died a death that you deserve so that we might live through him. So Good Friday is good in the sense that all of our guilt and all of our shame and all of our sorrows can be brought to him and they're nailed to the cross and we leave them there. Repentance looks like this. We look to the cross with our sin and we nail our sin to that cross and say, God, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for nailing this to you on the cross. I'm leaving it at the cross. I love you and after you repent, you turn and you look away from your sin, leave it there in the past, and you start walking the other way. Because three days later, Jesus is going to resurrect and you now have new life in him because of the death and resurrection of him. And because of that, your sin is dead in the ground and your old self that used to drown in the sorrows and shame of the world is dead, buried in the ground and there's not enough shovels that can dig it up. So yes, today is Good Friday. Good Friday in the sense that we have freedom from the things that bound to us that we felt like the things that bind us here on earth feel like an incurable disease. And you could try as many self-help books as you want.

You can try as many substances as you want. You can try as many girlfriends or boyfriends as you want, but you're still going to be bound by the time you're done using those things. And there's only one answer, and it's him. And if we don't go to the cross for this answer, then we're going to be drowned. and in our sorrows and our shame for the rest of our life. And so there's an invitation on Good Friday for you. The good, I mean, it was the will of the Father for Jesus to be crushed and crucified on the cross so that man could be in unison with him again. I mean, God loves us so much that he said, death is something that human beings deserve, but I want to bridge the gap with Jesus.

Jesus is your bridge to eternal life with God. so for Jesus in the physical body Good Friday might not be so good in the physical sense but his eyes were here so it was good but for you and me it's a good day to be a son or a daughter and it's a good day to be free but because of him

we're able to have eternal life and freedom from sin freedom from shame freedom from sorrow and nothing can bind us to this world because your incurable disease has now found a cure through the blood of Jesus Christ. And so I want to pray for you,

if you feel bound, if you feel shame, if you feel guilt, it's not your portion. You don't have to carry your sin anymore. You don't have to carry your shame anymore. You don't have to carry this cross anymore. Jesus said, give me your shame.

give me your sorrow give me that cross I'll take it for you and so I actually want to pray that you'll actually hand it over it because that's that false humility thing of going no God you know you're cool and all but I can

shake myself free you can't shake yourself free you can't shake yourself free from substance abuse you can't shake yourself you can't shake yourself free from drug addiction you can't shake yourself free from sexual sin You can't shake yourself free and fix your marriage on your own.

You need the divine to intervene. And the divine is Jesus Christ. Father, I thank you for anyone watching or listening to this episode. God, I pray that Good Friday will be a day that marks your sons or daughters for the rest of their life. God, I pray that Good Friday will be a day of freedom for people all across the globe. God, I just pray right now that people will feel the freedom and release to hand over their shame, hand over their guilt, hand over their sin to you. Jesus, we love you, and I thank you for everyone watching and listening. In Jesus' name,

Amen. Guys, I don't know how long this episode's been. Don't know how short it is. That's not the point. I think there's this freedom and release right now to enjoy Good Friday and feel the freedom of what it feels like to be a son or a daughter that's free and clean. John 8 says, I got to flip to this. This is so good. This is so good.

I'm about to fall out. I got to leave you guys with this. John 8 says everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not. remain in the house forever. A son remains forever. And so if you've been a slave to sin for a long time, there's freedom for you today. And if you surrender to Jesus, a slave to sin is temporary. But the second you surrender, you become a son or a daughter forever. And that's the invitation. If you felt like an outcast, if you felt like your sin has separated you in relationships and

friendships with your family. There is a father that has open arms for you that says, I will wipe your slate clean and look at you as a clean son and a clean daughter, and that's going to be your identity forever. It's powerful. Sin isn't your portion anymore, my friend. Shame isn't your portion. You don't have to do this alone.

Jesus has always been in your corner. It's just time to turn around and see that he's got open arms for you. Love you guys. Thank you guys for listening. If you like the podcast, subscribe to us on the Bryce Crawford podcast YouTube channel follow us on Instagram Bryce Crawford podcast or on we're on Spotify and Apple if you want to support what we're doing go to jesus in the street.com buy us some fire Jesus merch and if not if you want to

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