Good Friday Devotional Resources
If you haven’t yet had an opportunity to view the Maundy Thursday service, it is still available by clicking this link
It is Good Friday. On this most solemn of days, after being beaten, spat upon, stripped, humiliated, and abused, Jesus is savagely nailed to a cross.
Mockingly, a crown of thorns was put on his head, with a sign, ‘King of the Jews’.
Even as he hung there at Golgotha, he was given no peace. The jeers and insults continued.
As he cried out at the end of life, the curtain of the Temple was torn in two, thereby opening the holy of holies to all. Opening a gate to God. Innocent death for the life of all.
Our church in Killyleagh was stripped of all decoration after the Maundy Thursday service. It remains bare and empty through Good Friday, a day on which the only adequate way of remembering the desolation of the death of the Son of God is through silence and devotion.
1. As you watch this piece ‘When you prayed beneath the trees’, telling the story of Jesus’ last hours from the Garden of Gethsemane, ponder on who he did it all for. It was for me. And you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhXslaB5h50
2. The appointed Gospel reading for today is a long extract from John. In this dramatic reading of chapters 18 and 19, we hear the whole story from the Garden of Gethsemane to the burial of Jesus in the tomb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGCdrJ6OLPM
3. Hear Stewart Townend sing his own composition about the suffering and cross of Jesus ‘How deep the Father’s love for us’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IQUXJ_H16Y
4. As Jesus hung on the cross, Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It said: Jesus of Nazareth – King of the Jews. As you watch this next film, ask yourself, what does Jesus mean to you? Can you describe him? Is he your king? Is that what you know him as, the one whose Kingdom you want to be a citizen of, the King whom you want to reign for you? Thank you Dr Lockridge for this powerful message ‘My King – do you know him?’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwQqQkdn_5Q
5. Keith Getty is a former pupil of Friends School Lisburn, his wife Kristyn of Ballyclare High School. Along with various collaborators, their 21st century hymns, like ‘In Christ Alone’ have become some of the most well-loved hymns in the world. ‘The Power of the Cross’ talks of the darkest day, with Christ on the road to Calvary. Ultimately, as the Son of God is slain for us, this darkest hour becomes the most victorious. We are forgiven and offered a full life to live. All because of the Power of the Cross
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS7fc7VTJZs
6. We close with a song of worship to the crucified Jesus, followed by the hymn ‘O sacred head, sore wounded’ from Bach’s St Matthew Passion. With no way to measure his worth, Jesus is simply above everything else, above all.