Friday, April 7th | Good Friday 2023

Hello, everyone. Today is Friday, April the 7th. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearviewTodayShow.com.

That's right. You guys can help us keep this conversation going by supporting this podcast, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, wherever you get your podcasting content from. We're going to leave a link in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. But before we do anything else, we've got to start off on the right foot. We've got to start off with the Lord's word. You know that we do.

You know that we do. The verse of the day. The verse of the day today on today comes from 1 Peter 5, verse 10. But may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. I don't like that, Lord. I want the blessings now. I don't want to suffer for a little while.

I don't want to go through the trial. I want it to be about me, and I want it to be now. It is about you.

It's about God refining you. Yeah. It reminds me of, have you ever seen one of those tumblers where they polish rocks? They polish gemstone? Yeah. So the way that those work, you add grit to it that knocks off all the excess particles.

But I would imagine if the gemstone or precious stone could talk to us, it would say that's probably not very comfortable to be tumbled around with all those jagged pieces, kind of knocking those extra excess unwanted bits off of it. But you know, sometimes we go through that in life. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's the thing is this, you suffer for a short while because of why? Because you've been called to eternal glory. May the God of all grace who has called us to his eternal glory. That's something we've been talking about on the worship team here at Clearview for a while is that our worship is designed for something eternal. You know, it's not songs to kill time, to give the pastor time to get up and do his thing.

It's not songs just to get your heart in the right place. Those are all important parts of it, but your worship is designed to be eternal. And so if you've been called to eternal glory, then the sufferings that you go through in this life really are very minuscule. They don't feel minuscule, but again, you are being prepared for something perfect. You're being prepared to be established and strengthened and settled by the Lord. I love that last words.

It will perfect, establish, strengthened and settled. There's a piece to it. Yeah. Yeah.

People, people are kind of bopping around trying to figure out life, trying to, you know, find the next greatest trick to success, but God in his grace and Christ in his glory and a relationship with him that settles you. That's right. That brings a peace. That brings a calmness. Yeah. You know what's not calm.

Oh, I think I know. The gripe vine. I have a gripe today. Welcome to the gripe vine. It irritates me when someone who is not familiar with a pastor refers to that pastor as preacher.

I will take it one step further. I don't care how familiar you are. It's annoying. It's annoying.

Yeah. It's annoying to me either way. I can, I can overlook it if there's like an established rapport relationship. Cause I know some people grew up that way.

I know that that was not my experience, which is probably why it's so off putting to me. But I know some people grew up just referring to the pastor as preacher. I'm fine. That's fine.

I think it's fine. If you're like, Hey, this is my preacher. What I don't like is, Hey preacher, let me ask you something. Did you hear the tone in it? Like it automatically takes it to that place. No one has ever humbly gone up to a preacher and be like, excuse me, preacher.

Could I ask you? It doesn't happen. Hey preacher. Pastor does not have that to me.

It does not have that level of kind of harshness. Some people are like, Hey pastor, I'd like to, I'd like to talk to you. And it's okay.

It might be a little awkward, but it's okay. I've known, I've known pastor Shah for 10 years. I don't call him Abaddon. I don't do that.

There's a, there's a level of respect that comes with the office of pastor and people and something about preacher. And I know there's a bunch of listeners, but I do that. Are you talking to me? Yeah. We love you.

We know that's how you grew up. But for John and I, that's just, Ooh, that's really, that's irksome. Yeah. It's irksome because it's just like, who is not, who do you think you are?

It's just, there's a, I don't know. I've not been, I didn't grow up in church. I really didn't. That being said, I learned respect for the office because I was saved at 15.

And then once it became real to me, I was like, okay, these men, these pastors are shepherds of God's people. There is a level of respect. Just like I wouldn't go up to the president of the United States and be like, Hey, Prezi, what's going on? Hey Prez, we're good with you. You know, you stand up. When the president comes in, you stand up, Mr. President, you shake. I'm not saying the pastor's on the same level as a president.

What I'm saying is there's a respect for the office. And I don't like when people are like, Hey preacher, Hey man, Hey preacher man, let me, let me talk to you. Let me holler at you in a second. Cause that's always the context that I hear it in. Maybe you're different. I don't know.

Write in and let us know. Yeah. If you use preacher unironically in as like a term of endearment, like preacher, I really appreciated that message so much. Then great. That just has not been our experience.

We have not heard that. And it would probably still irk me. Like I'm again, this is my preacher. Fine.

Hey preacher. Not cool. Don't like that.

Not cool. But I don't know. Let us, maybe you disagree. Let us know. Let us know. I don't know.

Maybe it's, maybe it's a how you're raised thing. Yeah. Yeah. So today of course, it's not just part of passion week. Today is good Friday.

That's right. That is very significant. You know, good Friday of course is the, the day where we recognize and remember Jesus hanging on the cross, dying on the cross for our sins. The crucifixion is what we are focused on today.

And that's so profound, so significant. We're talking about that today. We're gonna get Dr. Shah and bring him in in just a minute. But if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text to 252-582-5028 or visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. We'll be back after this. Hey there listeners, I'm Jon Galantis.

And I'm Elli Galantis. And we just want to take a quick second and talk to you about Dr. Shah's and Nicole's book, 30 Days to a New Beginning. Daily devotions to help you move forward.

You know, this is actually the second book in the 30 days series. And the whole point of this devotional is to help us get unstuck from the ruts of life. You know, when it comes to running the race of life, it matters how you start, but a bad start doesn't ultimately determine how you finish the race. You can have a good finish even with a bad start. And that's where this book comes in. No matter who you are or where you are in life, you're gonna get stuck.

Instead of going out and buying some gadget or some planner, like I know I've done several times. I know that's right. 30 days encourages you to find your fresh start in God's word. Life doesn't have a reset button, but our God is a God who does new things.

His mercies are new every day, which means every day is a new chance for you to start over. You can grab 30 Days to a New Beginning on Amazon.com. We're gonna leave a link in the description box below. And if you already have the book, let us know what you think about it.

That's right. Send us a text, 252-582-5028. Share what God has done in your life through this devotional. Hey, maybe we'll even read your story on the air. Ellie, you ready to get back to the show? Welcome back to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. Or if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, send us a text to 252-582-5028.

That's right. And if today's your first time ever tuning in to Clearview Today, we want to welcome you, let you know who's talking to you today. Dr. Abbadon Shah is a PhD in testing and textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can find all of his work, all of it, at AbbadonShah.com. It's so aggressive. All right, guys, I just got a flash of anger. I was like, I just want to let them know. It's all of it.

You can't just find some of it. No, it cheeses me off. Well, just take a second to get your dairy under control. I'm good.

We are. We're talking today, of course, with it being Good Friday. Today is a very significant day in the Christian faith and what we believe in the celebration of Easter. So we want to look at the cross, specifically today, of course, with it being Good Friday, but more so Jesus' attitude on the cross. What was he thinking? What was he feeling? How did he approach the cross?

And how does that change our understanding of both the crucifixion and Easter as a whole? One word, humility. The Bible says in Philippians chapter two, he humbled himself. All of us have some point in time known somebody who's proud or arrogant, or even we feel, yeah, there's an area in my life where I get proud and arrogant. And it's not a good thing.

It's never a good thing. And even humility is so subtle. Just when you think you are humble, you're really not.

And so it's a constant battle that we have to be humble. And yet the cross, you know, at its core was a humbling experience. Not that Jesus had to be humbled, right?

He humbled himself. And that's what Philippians chapter two talks about. A while back, you preached a series through Philippians two, especially this discourse that Paul goes through where he says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

And I was thinking about it when we were going through the Love series back in February, where it said, these things that we call love, these are direct attributes of God. So I kind of thought about that too, when you were just talking about humility. It's not that we need to be humble like Jesus was humble. It's Jesus displayed and almost is humility personified. And so we're being... We're not, hey, because he did this, you do it too.

It's be more like him. You know, just like you said in that, in that series, let this mind be in you. When you're humble, you're being like Jesus.

Right, right. And it all begins with the fact that Jesus came into this world as a doulos, as a slave. He didn't stop being God for a single moment, right? He didn't give up any of his divine attributes.

Sometimes people say that, you know, he kind of set all those things aside and then he, no, no, no. There was never a point in time where Jesus could not at that moment snap his fingers and the whole world could end. There was not a single point in time that when he was walking the streets of Galilee, that he was not also encompassing the whole universe. He was at all places at all times.

Why? Because he's God, he can do that. But he gave up taking on the mind. He gave up by taking on the mind of a slave, the mind of humility and obedience. And it's hard to understand because by nature, we don't want to take up the mind of a servant. We'd rather rule, right? We'd rather get other people to do what we want them to do. You know, we may not have that slave master relationship anymore or to understand this, but in our own way, we play the master to other people.

Yeah. There's always people who try to, I think, sound more spiritual. Well, listen, I'm a servant at heart. You know, I love to serve. That's true, but you're also doing it on your own terms. You're doing it because you're choosing to do it. You wouldn't be saying that if you were made to serve.

Right. Well, and what's your motivation there? Like, are you serving so that you can get that big badge of humility? Which obviously isn't really humility. Are you serving genuinely because you want to be more like Christ?

Yeah. It's not, it's the trophy when you do stuff like that is the accolades that come with being humble, not being humble as the prize itself. That's right. And verse eight says, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient. I mean, that's, that's the heart of, you know, what the gospels are all about. He's, when you read the gospels, he's constantly serving. He is constantly humbly inviting people to come to him so he could serve them. Right. Matthew 11, 28, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. How does he give you rest? Is it, is it like you come to him and say like, okay, here's a ticket called rest.

Cash the sin at the front desk. Yeah. Yeah. Here you go. Here's your cot. Take your nap here. That's right.

No, it's, it's an exchange that happens. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lonely in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So multitudes came to him, you know, they, they knew what he was saying. They felt that he could help them.

I mean, have you ever been to somebody and you felt like they could really help you? They have the answer. They have the solution.

They're there. They can guide you through this problem. It's a great feeling. It's like all of a sudden your shoulders become light because you know, oh, okay, so I don't have to carry this burden because somebody is going to guide me.

Somebody is going to take this worry away from me. That's what Jesus does and many times more. I feel like this is so beautiful because we see that even like all these years later, 2000 years later, people are still coming and they're still exchanging their, their sorrows and their griefs. And I think there's a, there's a beautifulness or beauty, I should say in that exchange, beautifulness, but there is a very deep, profound beauty is that it's an exchange. It's not by any stretch of the imagination and even or equivalent exchange, but there's an exchange where you give me your burdens and I give you rest.

There's something just very peaceful and serene about that. But at the heart of it, Jesus did not come just to, you know, give us a rest or lighten our loads. It says in verse eight and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. So Jesus didn't just live the slave's life. He also died the slave's ultimate death.

Okay. The cross was a slave's ultimate punishment. And I'll explain what that means. And my information, you know, is coming from Martin Hengel's work on the crucifixion in the ancient world and the folly of the message of the cross. It's a great book, by the way, we can secure that book. It's a good one to have. But what does the cross, what did the cross represent? I guess that's the real question.

Yeah. And it's, it's something that I've, I've thought about too, because you've said that many times to me is that the cross was a humiliating death. It's a, it's a slave's death, like you said, but see, I didn't get saved until I was like 15.

And so once I got saved, I started, you know, not researching, but just looking into Christianity, looking online, looking in whatever. And I saw this art, this like Renaissance art of Jesus, like high and lifted up, like he's on the cross and there's like throngs of angels around and people are looking up and they're pointing and he's like the center and the light is behind him. And it looks like this big, glorious, glorified thing. And it was not that way in the ancient world.

No, no. To start with, it was, it was widespread in the ancient world. You know, you've often heard things like the Persians invented crucifixion. Now that may be true, but there have been citations from ancient sources that the Indians practiced it, the Assyrians practiced it, the Scythians, which are modern day Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, even the Celtic, Germanic, Brittany people practiced it. The Greeks with all their high ideals, they also practice crucifixion. And at one time, you know, Alexander the Great had 2000 people crucified for rising and rebellion against him. It's funny. You don't really hear Aristotle and Plato talking too much about that.

We're rational men of reason. Yeah. But I mean, that's a great point because a lot of times the temptation is to view crucifixion as something that's an isolated event. Like this happened to Jesus and not many other people, but I mean, it was pretty widespread. Yeah.

Yeah. And, and, um, the Carthaginians, the Punic people, uh, which, which are ancient Phoenicians, they also knew how to brutally crucify somebody. I saw, I saw a video, I don't know if you ever watch oversimplified his like history. So there is this guy who makes like cartoons about like ancient history and stuff on YouTube and he had something on the first Punic war and it was talking about like the difference between Roman soldiers and Punic, uh, yeah, I guess Phoenician soldiers.

And so I'm at Romans were like really rewarded for being aggressive go getters, but the Phoenicians were like punished if like generals like showed cowardice or whatever. So that was a thing like all throughout the video they would lose and they'd be like, Oh, you better believe that's a crucifixion. Like they would kind of became like a theme, but I, it's funny kind of hearing you say that.

Cause I thought back to that video. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it was common. And so, you know, you know, and let me stop there for a moment. The idea that crucifixion was widespread is such a, um, uh, a new thing.

You know, it seems like, wow, really? Was it really widespread? Because I know the Romans did that, but that's about it.

Right. Or maybe if you have a little bit extra biblical knowledge, it's like the Persians came up with, then the Romans perfected. No, it was widespread.

It was, it was every culture had it. And again, what it tells us is that the gospel, when we talk about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, a lot of times people think, Oh, okay. The Jews, Jewish people probably understood this right. But the other people didn't get it.

No, I think the other people got it very well. I think the whole world understood what in some ways was happening. They may not have understood all the message unless someone came along and explained it to them. But I think the idea of someone dying for you on the cross was not a, huh, explain to me how the cross happens.

Now, what kind of a punishment is this? Oh, so the Romans do these things. I don't think it was like, yeah, they pretty much knew what was going on.

Every culture knew. And secondly, crucifixion among the Romans was for the lower classes of people. So you're talking about the slaves, the violent criminals, the rebels. These are the people who would be crucified, not high officials, not commanders. And the Greeks used it for state criminals, but the Romans used it primarily against slaves and those who were free, but not Roman citizens. So there's like, there's an element of shame that goes along with it or of lower class or of, you know, you're, you're in the place that you belong.

Not only are these people convicted of something, but they are regarded as less. Yeah. How do you kill them?

They kill them with the cross. Let's make an example out of them. So it was like that. And it was very effective. I mean, there are three reasons why they were affected. Number one, it satisfied the human thirst for revenge, especially against rebellious slaves. Like, I mean, you know, there's a lot of ugliness in our, even in our own nation's history. Yeah.

People were lynched or killed and it was done in heinous ways and you go, how can human beings do that to another human being? You know, isn't there a point where you go, okay, enough is enough? No, but that's what the cross was. It was resentful rage. Yeah.

Yeah. You said that like, like you feel like now sitting in a comfortable room, you know, with air condition and technology, it's like, man, that's, that is barbaric, but you're right. That human thirst for revenge and vengeance is deep down in people. And until it's satisfied, you're right.

It won't be enough. Right. And it always, it often began with torture and scourging. And of course, as you know, Jesus was scourged, you know, he was whipped. And so that happened.

It also spread fear among the onlookers. When you're watching this person on this wooden plank, whether that plank was nicely sanded, because we often see the cross, like nice sand, sanded beams. How do we know they were nice, such nice sanded beams?

Perfectly like level. Right. You know, you'd think they really did that for a common criminal.

No. It could have been just two logs, you know, tied together or nailed together. Who knows? And so, and crucifixion did not end in like six hours. I mean, sometimes it would go on for three to eight days. Golly, it's tough to imagine that. It's really tough to imagine that. Yeah.

And usually play somewhere in a high traffic zone. Like, like it would be a crossroads, you know, like a traffic light. Like out of the public square.

Oh yeah. Where everybody coming by will see this. And most times, you know, people don't want to look at it.

Cause it's just like, Oh gosh, look at that. You know, and Jesus was crucified on a hill called Golgotha or Calvary and Golgotha in Aramaic and Calvary in Latin means skull. So it was the place of the skull or hill of the skull. And the Bible tells us that people were shaking their heads and even taunting him as he's up there hanging. He's like, didn't you say that you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days? Why don't you do that now? How about save yourself and come down from the cross?

Come on down. See if you can do it. Show us. Yeah. It's really not the glorious, like glorified death that the people like, I don't know if it's just a Renaissance thing or what, but in all that art, you just see it's this big, magnificent, serene thing. Well, we do that. I mean, we see that too. Like you have the cross on like a necklace or you have the cross on a shirt. I'm not saying any of that's bad, but it does sort of lessen the weight and the horror behind what the cross was. Right.

And usually, usually I hate to even bring this up. Victims were not buried because there was nothing left to bury. By the time the scavengers would come and eat on the corpses, I mean, there was nothing hardly left. I mean, animals, birds, vultures, eating, and they would be left there.

All you would do is discover your nose because it would stink. I wonder, I wonder because you said Jesus's crucifixion was odd in that way and that it was over fairly quickly. Is it, was it because he was Jewish?

Did the Jewish people have like different customs as far as crucifixion? Well, no, he gave up his spirit. You know, he gave up his spirit, which means he did not die because of the pain and the suffering of the crucifixion.

Because that could have taken three to eight days, but he gave up his spirit. And that's when they came by to break the legs of the ones crucified. And when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead. And the reason they would break the legs is to keep them from pulling themselves up and breathing. So they would sort of drown by asphyxiation, you know, or like the fluid building up in their lungs. They would die like that. It was a very painful death.

Gosh. So, you know, this is something that's not discussed among the Romans. They didn't talk about it. They didn't like say, let me explain to you how crucifixion works. Right. That was the manual. Yeah, that was not done.

And that's why people often have to rely on extra biblical sources or archeological sources just to figure out how did this heinous deed happen? Why did they not talk about it? Why did they not bring it up or discuss it? Was it because of the shame of it? Mm hmm. Yeah. It was such a horrible thing that to talk about it is gross.

Yeah. It also just is like, I know it shows his humility, but why choose a slave's death specifically? Why do this thing where, you know, Jesus showed humility in his life. I guess I'm wondering why, what is the significance of choosing a humble death? Like, it doesn't have to be a big glorious death, but like you said, he could give up his spirit.

I guess why all this extra mile? Well, one, we do know that among the Jewish people, it was very shameful. So it lays it out as a shameful death. And there's a passage in Deuteronomy 21 verse 22, 23. It says, if a man has committed his sin deserving of death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall bury him that day so that you do not defile the land, which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. For he who is hanged is accursed of God. So that's why they buried him that day. Because it was in Jerusalem. Right. It was in the land. That's right.

Okay. That makes sense. And why did Jesus choose a slave's death? Why did he choose this as the way to die? Why not just lay in a bed and pull up his feet and go to sleep and never wake up?

You know, why not do that or just drown somewhere in the sea? Because in Isaiah 53 verse three, listen to this is a powerful passage. It says, he is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him.

He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities, that chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearer is silent. So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment.

And who will declare his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgressions of my people, he was stricken and they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit found any deceit in his mouth. So this kind of gives you, in a nutshell, the shame, the suffering accompanying the cross. Yeah. It was, it was a fulfillment of prophecy.

It was, it was a promised deliverance. Yeah. Yeah. And it changes the way that we, that we head into Easter, you know, such as, Hey, it's Good Friday. Hey, we're going to do this. And Hey, we're going into Easter.

Make sure you get your nice clothes out. I mean, just like we've been talking about it, it brings a, a somberness. Right. Yeah. And it brings, I think, a desire to not match that humility, but just to be more humble in your day-to-day life, just to be more like, listen, I could have had it a lot worse.

I could have, I could have really, I could have had to face God's wrath, but because Jesus went through this, I don't have to, I have life. And I have, I have a promised and a future. You understand the price that was paid for you.

Yeah. And lest we think that a slave's death is worthless. No, no, no. Keep in mind, Jesus was not left to rot on a cross or just thrown into any old tomb. He was put into a new tomb in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb in which no one had ever been. And that is not a slave's death.

Okay. He, he may have died the slave's death, but not a slave's burial. It was a fulfillment of a prophecy and, and, and, you know, it is powerful. In Isaiah 53, 10, it says, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul and offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. So this is not just any ordinary humble slave dying and that's all there is to it.

No, no, no. He was God's son. He was a rightful King.

He is the only savior, the ruler for eternity. That's right. Amen. If you enjoyed today's topic, or you have questions or suggestions for future topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at cleavitodayshow.com and you can partner with us financially on that same website.

Click that button there to donate and every gift that you give goes not only to building up this radio show, but countless other ministries for the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's right. You know, I'll close with a quote I found on Good Friday.

This is from Robert Brilt, I think is how you pronounce his last name, Robert Brilt. The lesson of Good Friday is to never lose hope, or if you do, at least give it 48 hours. Yeah. Wow.

That's a great point. A lot can change in 48 hours. Yeah. Things may look dark right now, but give me some time. God's going to work. That's right. We love you guys. Happy Easter from us here at Clearview today. We'll see you next time.