April 2, 2026 -- Matthew 27:1-2 -- Why is it called "Good" Friday?

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When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. 2 And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor. Matthew 27:1-2
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025).
 
All the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus, that is they acted on their previous scheming to harm Jesus. Those who have been studying Matthew, in our Sunday morning and Wednesday evening studies, will perhaps recall this verse “But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, how to destroy Him” (Matthew 12:14). When Jesus had healed the man with the withered hand, the religious leaders of the Jewish people, rather than rejoicing at the mercy of God, decided on the spot to ruin Jesus’ reputation, to kill Him, and disperse His followers (that is all what is meant by ‘destroy Him’).
 
The verses break into the narrative of Jesus’ inevitable crucifixion; this portion takes place after Jesus’ betrayal, and the trial in a court that was stacked against Him with false witnesses. They prove the religious leadership were well on their way (or so they thought) of accomplishing their mission: destroy Jesus. We need to pause for a moment. It is too easy to think, ‘if I were there, I would have stood up and defended Jesus’. Hmm. Is that really true?
 

  • Didn’t you deny Him when you overate? You smoked? You viewed porn. You took a hit. (Insert here your own secret sin.) You knew the truth of the word, your body is the temple of the LORD, your mind is to remain pure in service to Him, but you sinned anyways.

  • Don’t you deny Him when your bible is right next to you, but instead of reading it, you get busy with the agenda of the day and it happens again, by the end of the day, your bible remains shut. Unread. You have denied Him.

  • Don’t you deny Him when your adversary at work, the person who drives you nuts and always picks at you, tap-dances on your last frayed nerve and instead of humbling yourself before God and acting with patience, you explode in anger? You have, like all the rest, denied Jesus.

  • Don’t you deny Him? Think of the times when you knew the right thing to do, what you are Spirit-led to do and instructed by God’s guidance to accomplish, and you leave it undone. You denied Him.

 
The fact of the matter is, if we were there, we would have crucified the LORD of Glory. By the incredible grace of God, here we are, at this moment of history, sustained by the tremendous grace of God’s Spirit to see the depths of our denials and sins against Jesus, and brought to the place of confession. When we confess our sins, we are agreeing with the word of God, You are right in condemning Me, You are great in Your compassionate mercy, to apply the punishment of my sin to Jesus, and to give me His unblemished record.


We are about to start the Easter weekend. The time when the Christian world acknowledges Good Friday, calling it Good, because God crushed His Son in our place. Punished Him, so that you and I can be set free from God’s proportionate and just wrath against our many sins. It is Good Friday because we pause, lost in wonder in awe at both the massive tangle of sins we carry, and then the immensely greater, stronger, perfect forgiveness which is ours in Christ. Oh, what a cost, the voluntary in our place, death of Jesus. Oh, what a Savior, Who stopped at nothing, even His Own death, so that you and I, at the cost of His blood and His life, are reconciled to God.
 
https://youtu.be/_oHlAoxMXI4?si=AaezYl4GwbPefT4V Ah, Holy Jesus (hymn starts at 2:31)
 
O GOD, THE AUTHOR OF ALL GOOD,
I come to thee for the grace another day
will require for its duties and events.
I step out into a wicked world,
I carry about with me an evil heart,
I know that I can do nothing,
that everything with which I shall be concerned,
however harmless in itself,
may prove an occasion of sin or folly,
unless I am kept by thy power.
Hold thou me up and I shall be safe.
Preserve my understanding from subtilty of error,
my affections from love of idols
my character from stain of vice,
my profession from every form of evil.
May I engage in nothing in which I cannot implore thy blessing,
and in which I cannot invite thy inspection.
Prosper me in all lawful undertakings,
or prepare me for disappointments;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with food convenient for me,
lest I be full and deny thee
and say, Who is the Lord?
Or be poor, and steal, and take thy name in vain.
May every creature be made good to me by prayer and thy will;
teach me how to use the world, and not abuse it,
to improve my talents,
to redeem my time,
to walk in wisdom toward those without,
and in kindness to those within,
to do good to all men, and especially to my fellow Christians.
And to thee be the glory. Amen.
Morning Needs. The Valley of Vision: Puritan Prayers and Devotions. Page 218
 
 

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