Good Friday 2023

Links to the scriptures and hymns used during this service are provided below. Click on the hymn title to be taken to a page with sheet music.

Songs have been edited out of the recording.

Order of Service

Call to Worship: Psalm 22:23-24

Invocation

Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 53:1-5

Silent Confession of Sin

Heidelberg Catechism

Q.12 According to God’s righteous judgment we deserve punishment both now and in eternity: how then can we escape this punishment and return to God’s favor?

A. God requires that his justice be satisfied. Therefore, the claims of this justice must be paid in full, either by ourselves or by another.

Q.13 Can we make this payment ourselves?

A. Certainly not. Actually, we increase our debt every day.

Q.14 Can another creature—any at all—pay this debt for us?

A. No. To begin with, God will not punish any other creature for what a human is guilty of. Furthermore, no mere creature can bear the weight of God’s eternal wrath against sin and deliver others from it.

Q.15 What kind of mediator and deliverer should we look for then?

A. One who is a true and righteous human, yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God.

Prayer

Epistle Reading: 1 John 4:7-12

Message

Jesus Prays in Gethsemane: Luke 22:39-46

#249: Tis Midnight; and on Olive’s Brow

Jesus is Betrayed and Arrested: Luke 22:47-53

Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery

Peter Denies Jesus: Luke 22:54-62

#248: Ah, Holy Jesus

Jesus's Trial before the Jews: Luke 22:63-71