Good Friday, April 10th 2020

John 19 (NIV) : Jesus sentenced to be crucified

19 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.  2  The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put
it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe  3  and went up to him again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king
of the Jews!’ And they slapped him in the face.
4  Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to
let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.’  5  When Jesus came out wearing the crown of
thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’
6  As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify! Crucify!’
But Pilate answered, ‘You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.’

V.12 Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, ‘If you let this man go, you are
no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.’
13  When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the
Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).  14  It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was
about noon.

‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews.
15  But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’
‘Shall I crucify your king?’ Pilate asked.
‘We have no king but Caesar,’ the chief priests answered.
16  Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

Praise: O to see the Dawn (Getty/Townend)

The crucifixion of Jesus
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.  17  Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).  18  There they crucified him, and with him two others – one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

19  Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.  20  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.  21  The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, ‘Do not write “The King of the Jews”, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.’ 22  Pilate answered, ‘What I have written, I have written.’

The death of Jesus
28  Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I am thirsty.’  29  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.  30  When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Praise: Thank You for the Cross Lord 

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What more need be said?

A PRAYER 
​Heavenly Father on this day I am humbled and broken by my burden of sin, I could not
bear its weight, nor stand before you a holy God in the filthiness of my own righteousness. I praise you
that you sent Jesus your Son into this world of darkness to atone for sin and rescue the lost and such
was I, estranged from you and without hope utterly lost until he rescued me. Thank you Lord for your
mercy and for the love divine by which you sought the lost. Thank you for the cross Lord! AMEN

Check the church Facebook page and website www.mcquistonpc.org this evening at 7.30pm for a Good Friday
Meditation.