THE CROSS

Good Friday, 2025

Opening reading:

• An excerpt from Birthright by Timothy Alberino.
• Isaiah 52:13–15 and Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53 is Jesus. And it breaks the Father’s heart that His chosen people would reject Him.

But in their rejection, prophecy is fulfilled: the Father’s heart is broken through the Son — Jesus.

The Need for Redemption

The Father wanted to reveal Himself, and there was no other way but through humanity.

• God’s redemptive nature couldn’t be displayed through angels, so He created us.

• 1 Peter 1:12 — angels long to look into the gospel.

• Only redeemed humans can know Him as Savior.

• We were made to be in love with God and be with Him where He is (John 17:24).

We were called to be in love, destined to be with God, and it was for the glory of God that our sin became the chasm between the two — that He might bridge it with His own heart.

• Only His heart could bridge us from calling to destiny.

• Romans 11:32 — He consigned all to disobedience so He could show mercy to all.

• In Exodus 12, the lamb was roasted over fire — Jesus on a tree, suspended over hell, bridging us to Heaven.

The Heart of the Father

God created us as a people that would break His heart, because His broken heart is the only way His redemptive nature could be displayed.

• Jesus is the Heart of the Father, sent to earth to be broken and reveal the Father. (John 1:18)

• He is our Redeemer, the sacrificial Lamb.

Jesus, Heart of the Father, desired nothing more than for us to be with Him where He is.

• Read Luke 4:16–30

  • Jesus announces Himself as Messiah.

  • His own people try to kill Him by throwing Him off a cliff.

  • But something stops them — Scripture doesn’t say what.

  • Instead of walking away, Jesus walks through them — a final act of love.

  • These were people He grew up with. This is the Father saying goodbye… for eternity.

  
  

Jesus, Crushed by Calling

Jesus was crushed by the weight of His calling long before Gethsemane.

• Isaiah 53:3 — a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

• Isaiah 53:5 — crushed for our iniquities.

• Imagine 8-year-old Jesus reading Isaiah 53, knowing it was about Him.

Even as a child, Jesus never ran from the crushing — He never ran from His destiny.

• Read Luke 2:39–47

  • At 12 years old, in Jerusalem for Passover — the feast that would one day mark His death.

  • He was questioning the Pharisees — not yet teaching, but drawing things out of them.

  • He was missing for three days and found in the Temple.

  • A prophetic picture of Matthew 7:7:

    • They asked where He was (v43)

    • They sought Him through the city (v44)

    • They found Him in the Father’s house (v45)

    
    

Even Jesus was hidden.

• For 20 years, we have no record of His life — the Messiah lived in obscurity.

• He wasn’t just standing on the promise — He was the promise.

• And when He finally revealed Himself, He was rejected.

The Proposal at the Cross

In Jewish culture, a proposal (betrothal) was a legal covenant — and that’s what the cross was.

• Hosea 2:16 — “You will call Me Husband, not Master.”

• Hosea 2:19–20 — “I will betroth you to Me forever… in faithfulness.”

The cross is the Father’s heart on a stake, asking, “Will you marry Me?”

• He placed His Son — His heart — before the world and said:

  “This is My Son. Will you be His Bride?”

• The cross wasn’t just sacrifice — it was proposal.

• The Lamb wasn’t just atonement — He was a vow.

• Romans 7:4 — “You have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another… to Him who was raised from the dead.”

Closing

As we move into worship, we respond to Jesus — our Bridegroom — who gave everything for love.

We’re invited tonight into deeper intimacy with Him.