Hello everyone, I wanted to share a bit of a word. I know that today is Good Friday, today is really what I believe is an important day of reflection on what our Lord Jesus had done.This is the day that He had gone to the cross, where He would give His life up and bear the penalty of our sins. He would bear the weight of the sins of mankind, He would bear the wrath of his Father against all sin. An innocent man, this Lord Jesus, who was sent to break the works of the devil and to break the work of darkness in our life. This would be the day that He would complete the mission that God had given Him to do. We know that last night being the night before where He had the last supper, the night where He would be betrayed by Judas and placed into the hands of soldiers. All through the wee hours of the morning He was standing before the Sanhedrin, being beaten, spit upon, ridiculed and accused, even though He was innocent. Yet, He would now be led as a lamb to the slaughter, silent. You know, not lashing out, not retaliating, but going through what His Father had destined Him to go through. That He would conquer death and bring forth life.

So today, as we reflect on all these things, as we reflect on this day where Jesus would literally go to the cross and give His life, I want to talk about how He tasted death so that we would taste life. So if you have your Bibles with you, I want to begin with a verse in Hebrews chapter 2 verse nine.

So it says; “But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”

Really thinking about this verse, we see Jesus who is sent from Heaven. Jesus, who became a lowly man. He left the throne, He left all the glory of his Father so that He would complete the mission and the will of God on earth. And this mission was that He would go to the cross, that He would lay down His life, that He would follow through on the will of God and taste death as the word says for everyone. Think about that, Jesus tasted death. You know we were talking about communion and again last night the Last Supper and how Pastor Kris was preaching, communion is an intimate thing. It's a great thing where we commune with God, day in and day out. Not just as we take the bread and the cup, but even as we do those things we’re recognizing how deep communion is and what God is calling us to, to be intimate and to be close with Him and to literally taste of His goodness, taste of the life that comes through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, in order to taste of this life, the Lord Jesus had to taste death. Now we may have heard this before but I was really thinking about these things. What does it mean to taste of death? And see, when Jesus tasted of death it wasn't that He would just taste of a physical death. I want to talk about the different aspects of death, what that means that He would taste.

What did He taste in order for us to taste of life? What does it really mean that He tasted of death?

The first thing is that He tasted of the death that comes through breaking the law of God. Now the scriptures, the word of the Lord, says that the wages of sin is death. See, there’s a penalty for breaking God's laws, there’s a penalty for disobedience, there’s a penalty for our rebellion against God. So Jesus, when He went on that cross, He tasted death. What was it? He tasted the death that was to come to those who had broken the law. We have broken the laws of God. The word of the Lord says that ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory,’ that all of us have gone our own way, all of us at many points of our life have decided to do our own thing, to go and walk apart from what God has intended for our lives to go against the will of God. There is a penalty for that and the penalty is death. It’s death meaning that we’re dead to God, we’re dead to the things of God. It’s where our minds are cluttered and we cannot figure out what God wants us to do because of sin, and sin has caused a depravity where we don't know the difference between right or wrong and we always choose to go the opposite direction of God. It's where our hearts are flooded with disobedience and everything that we do is done in lawlessness. It's where death has come in and maybe we want to try and do right, maybe we want to try and follow the laws of God. But it's impossible because the wages of sin have entered into our lives and we have been separated from God, unable to walk in his ways.

But I want to say today, that as the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and He tasted of death, as He lay there bleeding, as He is there and He walked this road of calvary, He did it! He tasted death so that we would taste life. No longer are we obligated to our sinful nature, no longer do we have to walk in rebellion, no longer do I have to be covered in a mindset. No longer do I have to function in the mindset of rebellion and walk apart from the laws of God, but through the precious blood and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, I can turn to Him. I can trust in Him and turn from my wickedness.

The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is that those who trust in Him, those who turn from their sins and place their faith in Him, no longer do we have to taste death. No longer do we have to walk under the power of lawlessness, but now we can walk in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can fulfill the law of God!

God has called us, not to just come in to do our own thing. He has called us to now be those submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ, those submitted to the will of God. Not only that, those who are able to do the will of God, those who are no longer under the power of death, but now able to taste of life. The life that comes as we follow the laws of God, the life that is promised to those who walk in righteousness. And it is possible today! It is possible today because of what Jesus has done. He has tasted death so that we would taste life.

Do you find today that you have tried to follow the laws of God, but seem to falter every time? Do you find today that every time you look to try and do right you still wind up doing wrong? Have you found today that you have walked in disobedience or in rebellion or whatever it may be apart from the law of God?

Will you turn to the Lord Jesus Christ? Would you reflect on the fact that He has tasted death so that we would taste life and now be those who would follow the goodness of God. Those who would fulfill the law because the Lord Jesus Christ is now fulfilling it in us. He tasted death so that we would taste life, life in fulfilling the laws of God, life that is found in those who walk righteously because the Spirit of God has entered in, because we have trusted in Jesus.

On that cross, Jesus took on the penalty of our sin and our disobedience. He took on the penalty of our waywardness and our decisions apart from God. This innocent man who loved the laws of his Father, who loved the commands of his God, who walked in perfect innocence, took it on the cross, tasted death so that no longer would I walk in waywardness, no longer would I be a lawbreaker, no longer would I be bound by the power of lawlessness, but that I would be free! That you would be free to do the work and the will of God.

Will you turn to Him this day? Will you turn to Him knowing that He tasted death so that no longer will we walk away but we can say - Father, bring me in. Empower me, Holy Spirit to do the work that you've called me to do. To no longer walk in lawlessness but to have lawlessness broken and bound by the power and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that now I would rise and do the will and the work of the Father. Amen!

Secondly, Jesus tasted death, death that comes as the result of now Satan having legal ground in our life because of sinfulness. We see throughout the Scriptures that the Bible commands us to get rid of all anger and malice and sinfulness and witchcraft and idolatry. Why? Because if we carry those things, if we allow those things in our life, it gives ground to the devil. It gives ground to the darkness that it would be able to hold us down.

What is the purpose of darkness? What is the purpose and the mission of the devil and every demonic power? It’s to destroy those that it overtakes, to bring death. That is the only purpose that it serves. It wants to destroy us, it wants to destroy our families. Through sinfulness, through our walking away from God, we experience death because demonic power now floods our minds and our hearts.The demonic power that you know speaks and clutters our judgment. Demonic power that causes hatred, demonic power that brings in lies and all sorts of heaviness that holds us back from truly coming into the light.

You see, the Lord Jesus Crist, He tasted death. Beginning all throughout His life and especially in the garden, as He was sitting there crying out to his Father, as He's about to really take this road to calvary, there was every demonic power that was tempting Him. Every demonic power was coming against Him and ridiculing Him and speaking against Him. Probably lying to Him and saying - this is not the walk that your Father has called you to do. Probably pushing against Him and looking to get his flesh to break down and to settle for less and to not go through with the mission that God has called. But see Jesus, we know that on the cross He defeated death, hell, and the grave. He would taste death that we would taste life. That no longer would we have to live in slavery under the power of the devil, the evil cruel taskmaster, but now we can come into the light of the Lord Jesus. To now live in slavery to righteousness, to now live under a good Father, to live under the Lord Jesus Christ who was a good God. The one who promises life to those who seek His face, the one who had come, as the Scriptures say, to break the works of the devil that we would no longer be in slavery but now we would be able to live in freedom. That we would now come out of Pharoh’s clutches and where God would step in and say ‘let my people go that they may worship me.’

You see, we can't worship when we’re boggled down in these heavy demonic powers, it holds us back. But today Jesus tasted death that we would worship God in life that we would worship the living God, that we would come out of Egypt. We would come out of the clutches of the devil. We would come out of the clutches of the world and every demonic power and now live for Christ! Live in the fullness, that our sons and daughters would come into life in light. That our households would be touched and changed and now that today, we would taste of life.

Have you been held down in some type of demonic power? Have you been held down by the powers of the devil? I want to say today, begin to come to the cross, look to Jesus, may you taste of His life. When you realize that He tasted death, not that we would settle for less, not that we would hold on to our hatred, our darkness, our lies or our bitterness, but that we would let it go because Christ set us free!

Today, will you look to Him, will you taste of the life that has come as a result of Him tasting death.

I pray today that we would find freedom. I pray today that even now, as you’re listening, that the Spirit of God will begin to move. That we would turn from the clutches of darkness, that we would break the strongholds, that we would repent for the strongholds in our life and the demonic power that we have allowed, and now come in to righteousness. To come out of slavery and to come into freedom with God. Freedom to think in Christ with His mind, freedom to move and to decide. Not to clutch down in lies and in darkness. But now, to live in the freedom to serve the living God.

So He tasted death so that we would taste life by being broken from the clutches and the power of the enemy.

Lastly, Jesus tasted death, the death that comes from being under the wrath of God. First Thessalonians chapter 1 verse nine it says; “for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead - Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” The coming wrath of God, even now, the Bible says that the wrath of God has already been released to those who have served idols, to those who have chosen not to recognize His son. To not recognize that He tasted death so that we would taste life. The wrath of God is poured out and Jesus is calling us to himself today to recognize the way that He has made.

You see, to live under the wrath of God is a terrible thing. It's a terrible thing to fall in the hands of an angry God. To live under His wrath is to live in death, it's to live in complete separation from God. Even though we may be walking and walking around and our bodies are still alive, we are yet dead in the inside. We are dead in our Spirit because of the wrath of God against all sin and the works of man that have come against God. The Bible makes it so clear, that because we've chosen the opposite, because we have sinned against God, that wrath has entered in. This wrath of God is a terrible thing, to be under wrath is to be separate from God. To be under the wrath of God is to perish, not only perish here in our souls, but to perish in hell. One day as we are called to judgment, whether we are to die or whether we are to be alive at the second coming of Christ. But God says today, that there is one way to escape this wrath and it is through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus, the innocent man who was upon the cross had taken on the full wrath of his Father. This innocent Jesus who never did a sinful thing, who never walked away from his God, who never walked away from the Father. On that cross, tasted the fullness of death, the fullness of the wrath of God. We know that because He tasted that wrath, He did it looking at the sons of God who would one day come home, who would be delivered and saved from His wrath as we look to Him. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ says that if we turn from our sin, if we turn from our wickedness, if we repent and look to Him, we don’t have to taste of the wrath of God, but we can taste of His grace and mercy found in the Lord Jesus Christ. No longer do we have to live in wrath, no longer do we have to fear the penalty of our sin, no longer do we have to fear the flames of hell, but we can fear the living God who has called us to himself. No longer to walk in darkness, but to now live in His goodness.

Jesus tasted death so that we would taste life. He tasted the wrath of His Father so that now we would be His delight. So that we would delight in God as He delights in us. That we would come home, even this day.

As we reflect on this Good Friday, I'm praying that we would see that Jesus tasting death was more than just a physical death but He tasted the death of our lawlessness. He tasted the death that has come in from Satan having control over our life and legal grounds because of our wickedness and our waywardness. He tasted death of the wrath of God upon those who have lived and who have sinned against God so that we would now taste of His life. That no longer will we live in lawlessness but be those who would fulfill the law because of Christ in me the hope of glory. No longer would we live in death under the power of Satan, but now come alive under the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, under the kingdom, a kingdom of righteousness. That no longer will we taste death living in the wrath of God but we would now resurrect as Jesus resurrected from the grave and come alive even now and one day, come to Him and meet with Him in paradise.

So as we look at this Good Friday, may we stop, may we come in thankfulness saying - father, thank you. Thank you Lord Jesus that you have tasted death that I would taste life but that we would also enter in deeper. That as we reflect, the Spirit of God would touch our hearts this day. If we haven't turned to Him, if we haven't come into the fullness of Christ, that we would come into His fullness this day. He went to the cross this day He would be in the sun, in the harsh heat of the sun. He would be bleeding, He would be breathing his last breath facing all the penalty of our sin, facing all the wrath of his Father on that cross so that we would not just go about and see it as something not important, so that we would not just sit in our homes and just eat at our tables and forget this great sacrifice, but that we church, together, would come into the fullness of the will of God. We church together, would rise up and to come into the fullness of salvation, into what God has for us in this time and in the season.

Praying today, that as you gather with your children, that as you gather your spouses and your roommates and your friends and as you reflect upon this time, that God will bless you. That we would taste of His life, we would no longer taste of His wrath and of anything else but the fullness of what God has called us this day. Church, I'm praying you be blessed and that the word of the Lord would hit your heart as it has hit my heart and it has hit my family's heart. That we would be rejoicing, rejoicing in this great work and in the great power. That we will be rejoicing in the son of God, that we will be thankful for what the Father has done. How deep the Father's love for us that He would call us into glory, that He would make a way.

I'm looking at this last verse in Hebrews also chapter 2 verse 10; “in bringing many sons and daughters to glory it was fitting that God for whom and through whom everything exists should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what He suffered.”

The Lord Jesus suffered for me, He suffered for you. He did the work of God, He saw it as the perfect way to bring us in, out of death and into His life, out of darkness and into his glorious life. May we see these things today, may understanding come in, and may the Lord Jesus receive due honor and due glory for all that He has done and for who He is. I pray that God will bless you this day. That together, we would arise. That together, we would come into the fullness of God and receive the fullness of life that He died for, that He made a way for us to come into.

Thank you Father for your Word and thank you for all that you've done. For your precious son, for His blood, for His work on the cross. Thank you Father, that you have called many sons and daughters to glory, even this day, even this hour. We bless you and we give you praise. In Jesus’ name, amen.