And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King – John 19:14.

The Preparation Day of the Passover refers to the Friday of Passover week. The Sabbath would have been on Saturday, so they prepared that Friday. The sixth hour would have been six o’clock in the morning using Roman time.

Jesus had three trials before being crucified. The trials started on Thursday; the first two were illegal because they were held at night, with Annas and Caiphas being the high priest. The third trial was that Friday morning when the chief priest and elders delivered Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the governor, at six o’clock.

In the hours of six-thirty and seven, Jesus is being scourged, and the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and placed it on Jesus’ head. They also struck Him with their hands. Jesus was scourged with a flagellum that consisted of bone, metal, or glass at the ends of the straps. Each strike would break and tear His skin. He had been beaten so that His appearance was not recognizable. (As many were astonished at thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men – Isaiah 52:14.) He was brutalized for the sins of the world.

After being beaten and wearing a crown of thorns piercing, His head, He was returned to Pilate for questioning. Pilate sentenced Him to crucifixion. Jesus was placed on the cross around 9:00 am. He suffered on the cross for three hours, being in unspeakable pain.

Because He had taken on the world’s sins, the Father turned His head; He couldn’t look upon Him because of the sin He was carrying. This is why Jesus said, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? Darkness covered the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour means from noon to 3:00 p.m.

This physical darkness wasn’t due to an eclipse of the sun since the Passover occurred at full moon; this was a supernatural occurrence. Nothing man-made and nothing man-made could correct what they had done to the Son of God.

From 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., Jesus hung on the cross for the sins of the world, and the majority of the people He was dying for rejected Him as being the Son of God. Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. The Sabbath ended at sundown on Saturday. Early Sunday morning is when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb and did not find Jesus to anoint Him because He had risen from the grave.

Christians celebrate Good Friday because of what Jesus went through on that Friday before His crucifixion. No other human would have been able to live through the torture He went through for long as He did. He didn’t have to go to the cross, but He loved the people of the world so much that He was willing to die for them to be reconciled with the Father.

Jesus went through what He went through so that we could serve God in the beauty of holiness, separate from the actions of the world. Our growth in Christ continues until our spirit departs from our body. Jesus died so that we could have life more abundantly; this is not always financially, but spiritually speaking, there is nothing to be compared to living in Christ and Him living within you!

Spiritual growth comes from spending time with the Father in prayer, reading and studying His Word, and applying the Word of God to our daily lives. Every time you go into the presence of God in prayer or just meditating on His Word, He brings about a spiritual change.

So many professing Christians are in the same stage they were when they first received salvation because they allow too many worldly things to take control of their lives and time rather than spending time with God.

Because of their lack of prayer and reading God’s instructions, they are carrying sin, and the Father is not looking upon them as He did with His Son when He was carrying sin. When we live opposite God’s instructions, we carry sin. It’s in heart and spirit. This is why they can’t hear His voice or feel His Spirit.

Although Jesus died for the sins of the world, each professing Christian is responsible for building their relationship with God, it’s their responsibility to conform to the Word of God if they want to spend eternity with the Father.

He didn’t go through what He went through for Christians to continue to practice sin. He has empowered those who accept His salvation to keep themselves unspotted from the world. Studying His Word gives knowledge of what He has done for the believer and how the believer learns how to be kept from being conformed to the world.

Thank God for Good Friday, thank God for the death of Jesus for the sins of the world, but if He didn’t resurrect, we would still be in enmity with God, but when He resurrected, He took His own blood to the Holy of Holies (Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us – Hebrews 9:12).

Thank God for Good Friday, thank God for what Jesus accomplished on the Cross, and thank God we have life through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!