Luke's Gospel

Father god, we thank you that you are not just a god, you are not just sovereign, ruler, king, maker of all things, which you are all of those things, but you actually are a father. You're kind, you're generous, you're a creator and maker. We thank you that even though we have been so rebellious. We've taken things that you've given us. We've run away from you with them.

We've sometimes dishonored your name by the things we've done, the things we've said, the things we've thought, how we've treated your world and other people. And yet you are a father that loves us and is prepared to take the cost of, all of our wrong by sending your son, the lord Jesus. We thank you for this day, and all that it means What an extraordinary exchange that our sin was on him so that we could become right with you. What an amazing event to make a wretch, his treasure. How great the pain of searing loss.

The father turns his face away as wounds which mar the chosen 1, bring many sons to glory. We thank you for that marvelous hope that you would bring many to glory. We give you great praise. My guilt upon his shoulders, we thank you that our guilt was placed upon the shoulders of a man with his arms stretched out on a cross to take our sin that we may be right with you. What an amazing event we are celebrating, and we give you praise in Jesus' name.

Now what we're gonna do is is read this story. 1 of the accounts of the story. The Bible has, 4 accounts of this amazing Good Friday event. And, we're going to read from Luke's gospel, and you should have it in, your, you should have sheet, you're sitting on it if you can't see it somewhere around. And it'd be great if you can follow along as as I read.

Now what we're gonna do, let me just tell you what we're going to do. I'm gonna read this, but it's an interactive reading. There are all kinds of different people in this true story, this true account, and and there are people in the in the congregation that are suddenly gonna stand up and read. So if some someone does that, you know, you you can jump if you like, but, they're reading fro from here. I'm gonna be the narrator and read the story and then they're they're going to read out.

So what we've got is guards. You'll see there are guards that are guarding Jesus. You'll see that there are priests and elders and and a crowd of people. There is Jesus obviously in the story. There is pilot.

He's like the big official Roman governor. You've got herod. He's like a sort of puppet king. He's a king under the Romans, a very evil man, all the herods were. You've got a man called Barabbas.

He's got a non speaking part. But he's very central to this story. He's a man called Barabbas. We're gonna see that he is someone who, is an insurrectionist. That means he was a very violent man.

Yeah. And a murderer. So he's in the story. We've got 2 criminals in this story that are going to be executed next to Jesus and we've got a centurion So there are all kinds of people in this story. So look out for them.

Watch out for for for these characters. Our part is, I'm gonna read along, whenever we come to priests, elders, and the crowd or people, whenever we come to that, and I'll remind you at the beginning, you all read those bits out. Does that make sense? Yeah. We'll have a go anyway.

So, let's have a go. So this is from Luke chapter 22, the end of chapter 22 in Luke's biography of Jesus, and then we go into to Luke 23. So long reading, but look out for these characters because it's very exciting. And if you listen hard, you'll see how how amazing this event is. Okay?

This is a real historic event. Now, boys and girls, there's words in there that might be quite difficult, but you probably get something of the story. And it's worth you hearing and rehearing and rehearing that for the rest of your lives. It is 1 of the most magnificent true stories in the whole of the world. It is wonderful.

Now the question is, can you just put up the first slide, please? Is why is it called good Friday? Why do we call this good Friday? Just think about it. If someone lied about you.

Imagine someone lied about you and said, you did this when you know you didn't. Is that good? If someone lies about you and says you did something you didn't, is that good? Is that good? No.

If, if someone laughs at you and mocks you, so maybe they don't like your face and they point and they they laugh at you and say, you're, whatever it is they're saying. Is that is that a good thing? Would you come home from school and say, dad, I was laughed and mocked at. Isn't that a wonderful day? No, it's bad.

If someone beats you up and bullies you, is that a good thing? No. It's not nice, is it? All of those things happened to Jesus. He was beaten up and then actually killed.

He was mocked and laughed at. He was slapped around the face. They put a crown of thorns on his head to mock him being a king. And then they took him out publicly and put nails in his hands and in his feet. Why would we call that good Friday?

It's 1 of the saddest events that's ever happened. Why would we call it good fry it should be bad Friday, shouldn't it? It should be horror Friday. It should be horrific Friday. Well, I'll tell you why.

Because Jesus, when he died on the cross, even though it was really horrible, was taking our punishment. He was standing in our place. So instead of me, being slapped and beaten and having a crown of thorns on, he took it. I did the wrong, and he took the punishment. When you do wrong, your mommy says go to bed, sit on the stair or naughty step, or you can't have an ice cream today because you've been naughty.

Well, Jesus took all of the punishment for the wrong that we've done. Let me try to show you. It's very simple. Some of you have seen this before, so I need my volunteers. I need mister Grout, and I need, mister Robson up here, please.

There they are. So here here Here is you and me. This is Jesus, by the way. Yeah. He's never been called out now.

Absolutely. Only in only in us where here. And this is this is us. This is us. Right?

Now, Some of you have seen this before, but, let me get Tom up because he can spell. I can't spell. So think of some of the bad things that we do. So What's what's something that is wrong? We know is wrong, but we do it anyway.

What what is something? Shout out something? Adults can what? Killing. Yeah.

Gosh. Yeah. How do we kill? How do we kill? Sometimes we can kill someone by doing, you know, actually taking their life, or we can kill them by saying, Did you hear What's your name?

Did you hear about Lexi? She's and I say that to all your friends, and then no 1 talks to you. That's like killing you. So, yeah, killing? Yeah.

What else? Yep? Sorry? Disobeying. Yeah.

Particularly your mom and your dad. Disobeying. Are you good at that, Lucas? Yep. Okay.

What else? What about? Swaring? Oh, yes swearing. Yeah.

Sometimes swearing's okay. Pence it depends who you're aiming it at. What? Stealing. Put stealing on there, please.

What else? Lying. Lying. Lion. Yeah.

Yeah. Lying. Just put Lying on there for the sake of it. What else? Yeah?

Unkind. Yeah. Being unkind. What else? Bullying.

Bullying. Yeah. Who said that? You he said it. Yeah.

Bullying. What else? Alright. So we do all of these things. All of us in this room have been unkind to someone some point in life.

All of us have been unkind. We we may not have actually stabbed someone or shot someone or strangled someone, but we can kill them by just gossiping about them. We can kill their character. Disobeying. Well, you may be a very obedient person.

But actually, god says that we are to love him first and love our neighbors ourselves. You always obeyed that? Or swearing. It's when when you're being nasty to someone. That's where where swearing's bad.

It's where you're saying to someone go away in very nasty language and it's you're being rude about someone and lying. We've all done that. Now, this is why it's called Good Friday. We're trying to work out why it's Good Friday. Here is me here.

Yeah? This is normal me. Yeah. This is you. This is me.

This is all the boys and girls. This is he just represents the Average person. Yeah. Mr. Average.

There he is. Yeah. Yep. There he is. Daddy to be that he is.

And he's done all of these things. Yeah. And actually, the thing is, god says wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. And he takes these things so seriously because god is the god of truth.

God is the god that actually honors his word. God is a god that wants us to obey because that's the best way of living. God is the god of life, not death, God is not unkind. He's generous. We can be mean and we could put mean and ungenerous and all of that on here.

So actually, we deserved to die good Friday. You did. That's how horrible it is. But here is Jesus with his lovely new shirt, and he swaps. You know this thing.

Well, let's swap in. He's wearing a plastic sheet that because he's trying to lose weight. Yeah. I'm sorry about that. And this is what happened on Good Friday.

Jesus takes my wrong and my the wrath of god that deserves or the anger of god that deserves that I deserve. He takes it and he gives me his life. You can't get it on, can you? Doesn't matter, but you get the picture. That's good Friday.

That's why it's good Friday. And listen. You can sit down now. Listen. We we got that.

We got that in the story. Do you remember the bloke called Barabbos? Barabbos? Let's have a look at him. Here was the story that we read.

Can you put this up? Here was the story. Here's pilot in the middle there, and he's saying to the crowd, and you were the crowd. Who do you want? Bera Barabbas, who's this man over here, who's a pretty violent man.

He's a murderer, or Jesus who pilot says is innocent. Now why god allowed this event to happen is to show us what I've just shown you with the shirts. Jesus is the 1 going to be crucified and die. And Barabbas, the guilty murderer, is the 1 who's going to be set free. Can you imagine that?

It's an amazing event. And the crowd were saying, kill Jesus. Let Barabbas go. Release Barabbas. Can you imagine how barabbas felt?

Look at the next picture. It's extraordinary. Because Jesus is going to die, a murderer is set free. That's the true story. And it's there to make us understand why it's called Good Friday.

Just imagine Barabbas. He's standing up there before a crowd. Everybody knows he's guilty of none other than murder, killing someone. He's going to be crucified, executed. And suddenly, from no hope He's set free, and Jesus takes his place.

It's a wonderful story. I mean, imagine his wife, his children. He's suddenly free. Tell us the story. Every time he sees a cross, Every time he sees a crucifixion or a cross, he would say, I should have been there, but this bloke Jesus died in my place.

Jesus died in my place. That's why it's called Good Friday. Jesus died in my place. The first criminal who was executed with Jesus said, aren't you the Messiah then save yourself? The fact is he didn't save himself so he could save you and me.

The anger of god will be upon us, but Jesus didn't save himself. He took the anger. He stood in for barabbas, for Paul, for Jessica, for Jackie, for you, for me. It's extraordinary. So that's why it's called Good Friday because we're released.

We're gonna sing a song about the cross. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.