Good Friday

Welcome to our Good Friday celebration here at Chapel City Church. Although coming together on Good Friday is common and even traditional, maybe some of you wonder why we bother. After all, we know the end of the story! Jesus Christ is crucified and buried, but he is resurrected to life three days later. That wonderful truth drives our Easter celebrations. So why pause in the darkness of Friday when we anticipate the light of Sunday? The answer comes back to our need for a savior. If we do not understand the perfection of God and the failure of sin, if we do not grasp our complete inability to fix what our failure has broken, then we will see no need for the cross and no victory in the resurrection. If there is no need for Good Friday, then there can be no real understanding of the joy that we have on Easter. So, for tonight, we come together to pause and reflect. We come together to remember the nature and the cost of sin. We come together to gaze on the bruised and bleeding Christ, who suffers for the sake of sinners. And we come together to repent, to turn from our wicked ways and to pursue obedience to God. Although this is a quiet time, a somber time, it’s a time of victory. It’s an evening that is serious, but full of hope. Because on that day, the lamb of God took our place in death, so that we might find new life in Him.