Good Friday: When Wrath Meets Mercy | Pastor Bryan Jarrett | Northplace Church

Hello, my name is Brian Jarrett, and my wife Haley and I have had the privilege of pastoring North Place Church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for almost 20 years. We're one church that meets in multiple locations, even on multiple continents, and today you are one of those locations. The church is not about buildings, it is about people, and we have the privilege today of sharing the hope of the gospel with you right where you are. There is no way I can know exactly what you're going through or dealing with right now, but for almost 30 years I have preached about a God who I know, I am confident, knows you, your struggles, knows the very hairs on your head and the thoughts that you think before you think them, and He is passionately in love with you. And our prayer today is that in our time together you feel our love for you and His presence. And we pray that this time together gives you hope. Thank you for joining us. As we celebrate and we look back to what the Lord has done for each of us, Lord Jesus, we worship you today. Oh, the perfect Son of God, in all His innocence, here walking in the dirt with you and me. He knows what living is, He's acquainted with our grief and our sorrow, Son of suffering. Oh, blood and tears, how can you know? There's a God who lives, there's a God who believes. Oh, praise the one who would reach for me. Hallelujah to the Son of suffering. So imagine you are distant and alone, but you chase us down in merciful pursuit. To the sinner you embrace, and the broken you embrace. And in the end the proof is in your words. Oh, we've seen your goodness, God. And in the end the proof is in your words. Oh, blood and tears, how can you be? There's a God who lives, there's a God who believes. Oh, praise the one who would reach for me.

Hallelujah to the Son of suffering. Oh, you give it all, Jesus. Your cross, my freedom. Your stripes, my healing. Oh, praise King Jesus. Glory to God in heaven. Your blood is still speaking. Your love is still reaching. Oh, praise King Jesus. Glory to God in heaven. Your cross, my freedom. Your stripes, my healing. Oh, praise King Jesus. Glory to God in heaven. Your blood is still speaking. Your love is still reaching. Oh, praise to the King. Glory to God in heaven. Oh, glory, glory in the highest. We worship you, King of kings, yeah. We praise you, God. ♪ Forever ♪ ♪ Sweetest sacrifice ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Glory to God forever ♪ ♪ To God forever ♪ Come on, sing your cross. ♪ Whoa ♪ ♪ Your cross is my freedom ♪ ♪ Your stripes are my healing ♪

♪ Oh praise the King Jesus ♪ ♪ Glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Your blood is still spilling ♪ ♪ Your love is still reaching ♪ ♪ Oh praise the King Jesus ♪ ♪ Glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Your cross is my freedom ♪ ♪ Your stripes are my healing ♪ ♪ Oh praise the King Jesus ♪ ♪ Glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Your blood is still spilling ♪ ♪ Your love is still reaching ♪ ♪ Oh praise the King Jesus ♪ ♪ Glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Oh praise the King Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh praise the King Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh praise the King Jesus ♪ ♪ Glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Oh praise the King Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh praise the King Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh praise the King Jesus ♪ ♪ Glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ Oh praise the King Jesus ♪ ♪ How can it be, there's a God who hears ♪ ♪ There's a God who pleads ♪ ♪ Oh praise the one who would reach for you ♪ ♪ Hallelujah to the Son of Sovereign ♪ ♪ Glory to God in heaven ♪ ♪ And I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪

♪ I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪ Come on, can we just reflect today? ♪ And I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ And I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're mine Lord ♪ ♪ You're all together, you're all together Lord ♪ ♪ All together, all together in need, need, need, need ♪ ♪ All together, wonderful to me ♪ ♪ I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see your sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see your sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To worship, here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether worthy, altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me, here I am, here I am ♪ ♪ Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether lovely, you're altogether worthy ♪

♪ Altogether wonderful to me, here I am, here I am ♪ ♪ Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ This is how we respond today. ♪ You're altogether lovely, you're altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me, here I am, here I am ♪ Amen. It's no surprise that Good Friday is about the cross. That's no surprise to any of us, but sadly in modern culture, the cross has been reduced to a piece of jewelry, some kind of artwork or decoration that we display. But originally it was a tool of terror. Rome didn't just execute people. They made an example out of them. Crucifixion was intended to shock and terrify onlookers all while humiliating and torment the person being crucified. Because a cross wasn't just about death, it was about wrath. It was about Rome saying, this is what happens to you when you oppose us. And Jesus died on one. Not by accident, not by surprise, he chose it. There's a cliche or a Christian saying that goes around, kind of bothers me when Christians will say something like, Jesus spilled his blood. Jesus spilled his lifeblood. They say things like that and that's wrong. He didn't. You spill something by accident.

The cross wasn't Jesus' accident. He said himself in John 10, no one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. He didn't spill his life's blood on a Roman cross. He gave it. The cross was his life's mission. It was his purpose. He said himself in Mark 10, for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. So what went on on that Good Friday is the paradox of all paradoxes where we see this perfect, righteous justice of God and at the same time, this display of how far God will go to extend us mercy. I think there's something in every human heart that demands justice. When we see abuse, we want justice. When we see evil, we want justice. When we've been wronged, we want justice. We all want justice until that justice turns toward us. Injustice makes us angry. The world is full of all that stuff out there, evil, abuse, betrayal, but we're also full of all the stuff in here, shame, regret, sin. And if we were gonna be really honest,

I think we want a God who deals with evil. We just don't want him to deal with ours. All over the world today, pastors, priests, spiritual leaders are gonna lead people in conversations about the cross and how the cross is a beautiful picture of God's grace. And it is. But before we can appreciate the beauty of grace in the image of the cross, we have to understand the fierceness of God's wrath. Everybody wants to have the grace conversation. Nobody wants to have the wrath conversation. We have a hard time reconciling the wrath of God with the grace of God. What most people don't understand is they read the Bible, they read about the wrath of God, they hear the word wrath, and they immediately think emotional rage, but that's not accurate. God's wrath has nothing to do with him losing control or flying off the handle or losing his temper. The wrath of God is his settled, holy opposition to everything that destroys what he loves. God loves people. Sin destroys people. So God turns his wrath towards sin. If God is good, he has to justly deal with evil. Otherwise, he would cease to be good. But here's the problem. Sin isn't just out there in the world, it's in us.

This isn't just a God and humanity thing. This is about God and you. This is about God and me. No shaming here, just honesty. Sin is in us. Pride, lust, greed, bitterness, secrets. Every single one of us has contributed to the brokenness in the world that we hate. So here's God's dilemma. A just God can't ignore sin. At the same time, a loving God doesn't wanna destroy people. So what does God do when justice demands payment, but love wants mercy? The Bible clearly reveals this tension in the heart of God. The writer of Hebrews says, "'Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.'" And we're told in other places in scripture that our righteous efforts at being holy are no more than filthy rags. We will never achieve God's standards of holiness on our own. Someone or something has to raise us to the level of God's standard, because if not, we will never see him. His holiness demands that sin must be dealt with and somehow, some way, we have to become holy or we'll never see him. But the Bible says at the same time in 2 Peter 3, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish,

but everyone to come to repentance. You gotta see the love there. You have to feel the mercy and compassion in that verse. He is so pure and holy. He has to judge sin. Yet he is so merciful and loving that he is waiting patiently while our sinful, wandering hearts decide whether or not we're gonna come to repentance. So I ask the question again, what does God do when justice demands payment, but love wants mercy? The answer to that all-consuming question is found in a powerful prophetic psalm. In Psalm 85, the psalmist pens what is known as a messianic psalm, which means hundreds of years before Jesus was ever born, he's writing about Jesus and he's writing about the cross. And he writes this in Psalm 85 and 10. Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed. Where does God's unfailing love and his truth and justice meet together? Where does his demand for righteousness and his desire to be at peace with man kiss or reconcile? At the cross. One beam of the cross, one arm of the Savior reaches out to satisfy the righteous requirements of God's law, his justice, and the wrath against sin

that his holiness requires. The other beam of the cross, the other arm of the Savior stretches out to satisfy the unfailing love and mercy of God. The cross is where righteousness and peace kiss. The cross is where wrath and mercy meet together. And it all goes back to what? We said a moment ago, we have to understand Jesus was not a victim there. He chose to step into that moment as your substitute. On the cross, Jesus took responsibility for what he didn't do so we could be forgiven of what we'd done. The cross is where God's justice is satisfied. It is where the wrath of God against sin was poured out but not on us. God's righteous justice doesn't allow him to be our doting grandfather that turns the other way and sweeps our sin under the rug. His justice demands payment. So he pours out his wrath on his own son. And Jesus willingly chooses to absorb that holy wrath meant for sin so we can experience the father's mercy. God didn't ignore sin. He absorbed it so he wouldn't have to lose you. The cross is not where God stopped being just. It's where he was most just and most loving at the same time. It's where his wrath against sin met his mercy toward you. Again, this isn't about humanity's sin.

This is about my sin, your sin. This is personal. And it wasn't nails that held him to the cross. It was love. It wasn't their sin that put him there. It was mine. The shame you carry, the regrets you hide, the patterns you can't break. Everything you're carrying, he's already carried. Good Friday is not just a reminder that God is holy. It is a reminder that God is merciful. His word says in 1 John 4, this is real love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Outsiders and newcomers to the Christian faith often wanna know why the Christian faith is so bloody. They wanna know why we talk about the blood of Christ, preach about the blood of Christ and why so many of our songs are about the blood of Christ. This is why. A good and holy God has to enact judgment on sin and evil or else he ceases to be good and holy. And Jesus, the perfect son of God, chose to absorb wrath towards sin so that we might experience the mercy of God. Centuries before Jesus was ever born, the prophet Isaiah foretold of the day when and of the person in whom the wrath of God and the mercy of God would meet. He said in Isaiah 53,

but it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life and the Lord good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier because he has exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels. As an act of worship and reflection, we're gonna sing about the blood of Christ. I'm gonna come back in a moment after this time of worship and we'll give you a specific directions on exactly how to respond and experience tonight in response to the act of the cross and Jesus's sacrifice. But right now I want you to make the cross personal, not an artwork, not a date on the church calendar, but I want you to think about what it means to you. Shut everybody else out for God so loved, not the world, for God so loved, put your name in there. So God so loved your name that he gave his only son. And I want you to think about it personally tonight

as we sing and we sit in this moment, just reflecting. This song will be new to you probably, but let it settle in. Would you stand with me across this place today and let's just have a moment of worship. I'll come back and lead you into the experiences to encounter the Lord in those ways. But just let's be in this moment together. Come on, sing this. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Oh, we plead the blood ♪ ♪ Receive the blood, the blood of Christ ♪ ♪ We need the blood, we plead the blood ♪ ♪ Receive the blood, the blood, one more time we sing ♪ ♪ One more time we sing, we need the blood ♪ ♪ We plead the blood, receive the blood ♪ ♪ The blood of Christ ♪ Without messing with the sacredness that's in the room, if you can just be seated quietly for a moment, I wanna give you some direction and we're gonna step right into response. You probably noticed there were unique areas around the auditorium as you've walked in today. We have four specific areas for you to reflect and experience God's presence in a personal way. There are the crosses, there's communion elements available for you, candles, and then we have some staff members that are gonna be serving in places for prayer for you to come for prayer tonight. You can come to one of these, you can work and go through all four of these stations. We've intentionally made the whole service really about this moment and your response.

The cross, if you have any unresolved business with God, go to the cross. Nail your past, your sin, your burdens to the cross. The cross is the meeting place where God's justice meets his love. It represents the forgiveness of our sins. It's where we leave our burdens. Paul said in Colossians 2, he canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. And that's what we're gonna do tonight. There are people have already done it. You can see there are hammers and nails and there is paper there. And as people write on those and nail them to the cross, we will hear for the next few moments the sound of hammer and nails and a wooden cross. And it is a constant reminder to us what today was all about, communion. When you came in, there was a card on the seats that gave you direction about all four stations. But specifically, if you've never led a communion moment in your family, there is a communion prayer to help you do that. I'm not gonna lead it from the platform. This is a personal moment, a private moment for you or for you and your family to worship the Lord. So we're gonna ask that one person from each family would come and get the elements of communion and go back to where you are.

So we keep the aisles as uncongested as possible. There are communion trays in the middle section. There are communion trays up front on the far walls on both sides, whichever is easiest for you to access, get them, go back and have a moment together alone or as a couple or as a family. The bread of communion symbolizes that he was broken so that we could be made whole, that he redeems our brokenness. The cup represents the power of God to forgive. He paid the price for our sins. And let me just say this, we open communion to any believer. You don't have to be a member of our church. We practice an open communion here. If you are a Jesus follower, we want us to participate as the big family of God. We want you to join us today. The third station is prayer. We're gonna have some staff members. They'll be designated with lanyards up along the walls on the outside walls of the sanctuary. And if you need prayer, we're believing this is an incredible night for God to heal and save and work miracles. Anything that you may have in your life, he saves and heals and restores. Nothing is impossible for you. And let me just say this, if you have never made the decision to follow Jesus

and you sense the spirit of God tugging at your heart today to step over the line of faith and surrender it to him, you have heard enough of the gospel tonight to make that decision. You need to go to the prayer team first. It would be no greater honor for them than to pray a prayer of surrender for you. And then you can move to these other stations and they will be so much more meaningful to you when you have had all that canceled by the blood of Christ. The candles, that may be different for a lot of us, but it's just another way, another touch point for us to prayerfully invite Jesus, the light of the world, to descend into the broken places of our lives. Some faith traditions light candles to saints or to the deceased. That's not at all what we're doing today. Jesus said in John 8, I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness because you will have a light that leads to life. In the opening lines of John's gospel, it says in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. If there is a dark circumstance in your life, Good Friday is all about Jesus, the light of the world, descending into the darkness of human brokenness. And as an invitation for Jesus to shine his glory

into that situation in your life, the larger candles up front are the Christ candles. Take a wick, light it, and then as you prayerfully light another candle, that is you, symbolically, say their name, name the situation, call it out. You are inviting the light of Christ into the darkness of your life. It is an act of invitation. We structured tonight so you have plenty of time to respond. You're used to me coming up at the end of service, praying a benediction. I won't do that on Good Friday. I won't do that on Good Friday because there's not supposed to be an ending to the service tonight. We're not gonna put a period where God has put a comma. There's more to come to the story. So no benediction. It'll just be our worship team in the background leading and making this a moment of worship and you responding as you feel led to one or all of these stations. And when you're done, you're free to go. Would you stand with me all over this room today? I am gonna ask you to be patient as you move. Don't be in a hurry. We're not, not another service after this one. Our team is gonna position themselves.

It may feel like organized chaos because not everybody's not going to the same spot, but it always just works. It's holy, it's sacred. Don't just check boxes, make it personal. Jesus, I don't know how to say it. I'm just afraid we're gonna come and hammer it in or light a candle or take communion and just go through the motions. God, somehow would you strip off all the religious formality and may it be a moment where I feel seen by God. I feel the embrace of your mercy. I see the cross for what it is. It was for me. And may I feel the weight of your love on me. Your attention pointed at me and may it melt my heart tonight. Jesus, will you make the next few moments holy, sacred and life-changing, in Jesus' name, amen. Feel free to move about as you feel led to begin to respond. Hey friends, I just wanted to spend a second with you at the end of this message today and just encourage you. If in some way you've made a spiritual decision, maybe you've given your life to Christ today, you've recently given your life to Christ, you wanna talk to somebody about giving your life to Christ, our team would love to help you. We're on the Pando app and have several ministries and to various prisons because God has called us to you.

We have a heart for forgotten people and forgotten places and that means we serve widows and we serve orphans and we serve special needs kids and God has given us a heart for men and women in the prison system because I believe Jesus died for you. He has a plan and a purpose for your life and we wanna help you know that and discover that. There is an address on the screen that you can communicate with us. We have a team of people that would love to hear from you, especially if you've made a decision to follow Jesus so that we can resource you and point you to tools that can help you grow. Just know that we're praying over you and we're genuinely honored that you've taken time to watch our channel and these messages from North Place Church.