Luke's Gospel

Please do take a seat. And if you have a Bible, please open it up to Loop chapter 23. If you haven't got a Bible, the words will be appearing on the screen. But we're going to be reading from Luke chapter 23 from verse 26. Luke 23 from verse 26.

I'm just gonna pray before we read this and before Chris comes up. Father, we've just sung about how you've paid the price for us, and we're about to see the lord Jesus go to the cross. And we're about to see how he acts and what he says when he's there. And I pray that as we see those things, we would see your heart for us. Which is that you're turning our hearts back to you.

Our hearts are straying away from you. We don't naturally, easily, often willingly come to you. But we thank you that you are in the business of bringing us back to you. And I pray that as we see Jesus in this passage tonight, that is what you would be doing. We pray that in Jesus' name, amen.

K. Luke chapter 23 from verse 26. As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Irene, who was on his way in from the country and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. Large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, Daughters of Jerusalem do not weep for me.

Weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will say to the mountains fall on us, and to the hills cover us. For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? 2 other men, both criminals were also led out with him to be executed.

When they came to the place called The Skull, they crucified him there. Along with the criminals, 1 on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him.

They said, he saved others, Let him save himself if he is God's Messiah, the chosen 1. The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was a written notice above him which read, this is the king of the Jews. 1 of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him.

Aren't you the Messiah, save yourself and us, but the other criminal rebuked him. Don't you fear God, he said? Since you are under the same sentence, we are punished justly for we're getting what our our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Jesus answered him truly, I tell you. Today, you'll be with me in paradise. Well, good evening everyone. It's it is really great to be back preaching to a live audience. I must say after months of preaching into a camera, I was saying to the first service actually that this this screen, this bit screen is actually nothing more than a placebo because the furthest distance I've ever achieved with piece of spittle whilst preaching was pretty much abbey Kimberly right there.

That's quite a distance. It had a good arc and it I think it was Pete and I think it landed on foot in the end. So if you're there, you're safe, there not so much. But we'll see how we get on. I'll try our trauma hardest, not to our promise.

So I don't know if you remember last week, and Pete was preaching on a vote a vote that we had to make between barabbas and Jesus. You had to make a choice at the end. You had to cast your vote. It was gonna be barabbas or it was gonna be Jesus. Berebous the criminal, the terrorist who deserved to go to the cross, or Jesus, the innocent, the 1 who'd done nothing wrong.

Who's it going to be? And we saw all the reasons. We heard the arguments. We heard the testimonies. We heard the cases.

And Pete's conclusion in the end was actually if it's gonna be him, he's gonna ask for Jesus to go to the cross in his place. Because only Jesus can take his place on the cross. If barabbas goes, then there's no payment then there's no sacrifice, so it was Jesus that Pete was saying, we need him to go to the cross for us. And this week, we're going to follow directly on from that. We're going to see the consequences of that vote.

And it's not easy hearing. I'll be honest. It's it's not the easiest thing to hear. However, we see some absolutely wonderful things here. At the same time.

So let me pray before we get into it and then we'll get we'll get into this next passage. Father, please help us now as we as we look at this this walk through the city with Jesus on his way to be crucified. Please help us now as we come to really what in many ways is the pinnacle of Jesus ministry on earth and and help us to listen. I'm in. I want to stop by asking you if you've ever seen a film called The Green Mile, I'm sure many of you probably have.

I'm I'm guessing some of you probably haven't. Don't worry. It's a very old film and I'm gonna give you all the spoilers and completely ruin it for you. But it's about a guy, a giant of a man called John Coffee, and he's just an absolute legend and he gets arrested for a crime he didn't commit and thrown in prison and put on death row, sentenced to death. And whilst he's there, he does nothing but good people, does nothing but good to everyone that he comes into contact with, and he does get executed in the end.

Now what happens in the film when they when they go to take prisoners out at various points, they they around the prisoner, so you've got the escorts, you've got the prison guards, and you've got the 1 walking out in front. And as they're walking, they'd be going, there's a dead man. Dead man walking. There's a dead man here, dared man walking, and they do that as they walk out. Down the green marks, the green the floor was green, and it was like walking your final mile.

And that really sets the scene in many ways for what we're about to witness here. We're about to witness Jesus walking the green mile as he walks towards his execution. We're gonna we're gonna follow the dead man walking, the result of the vote. And we're going to see what happens along the way. And tell you, there's some surprises.

There's some big surprises, and we're going to meet various characters along the way, and it's the characters we meet on what Jesus has to say to them that we're gonna really focus on this evening. Now, You have to remember at this point. We we haven't really been giving any details of this too much by Luke, but you get them in the other accounts, Matthew Matthew's account specifically. Of Jesus' physical condition. Up to this point, Jesus has been beaten repeatedly by the Jewish leaders.

He was then handed over to pilot, pilot who tried him, couldn't really find anything against him, but handed him over anyway because of the crowd pressure and had him scourged. Now when you sent sentence someone to crucifixion, scourging his part and part and parcel of the of the deal, you get scourged and scourging involves being whipped by something called a flagellum whip. And that's a whip that has iron pieces and pieces of bone worked into the leather so that when it hits whatever it hits, it digs in, and then when it's removed, it rips out whatever it rips out, and it was a horror, it was a feared feared punishment, and there's there's horror stories of organs exposed and all kinds of things. People died from scourging. It was it was a serious punishment.

And then the the soldiers take him and they twist together a crown of thorns, big briar thorns, huge great big things. It'd be like having iron nails hammered into your head and they shove that down on his head, and then they strike him again and again in the head with the staff. It must have been sickening. And then after mocking him a little bit more, they dress him up. They put robe on his head, he's got this horror crown on and it's in this humiliated state that they are ready to go.

They're there. They're at the gates of the barracks. They put the cross on his back, and they've got the other 2 criminals that are being sentenced that day. And the doors open, and the light floods in, and there's the crowds in the city, and everyone's bang for his blood. Some are spitting and throwing stuff, screaming and shouting.

Some are weeping and moaning and they step out. They step out into the city streets and they begin this long walk to the cross as a dead man walking here. Now unsurprisingly, given Jesus' physical state, he can't carry the cross. He's so weakened by the by the abuse that he's already received. He just can't do it, and it becomes immediately clear.

And it's here that we meet our first character. So if you look at verse 26, as the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Irene who was on his way in from the country and they put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. So you got poor you got this poor old guy, Simon from Irene, who's just going about his normal daily business. He's probably come to Jerusalem for all the festivities. He's just coming from the country.

And there's a commotion going on. And he's, oh, I wonder what's going on over there. So he goes over to have a closer look. He gets to the front of crowd and all of a sudden there's a Roman soldier in his face going, oh, you picked that up. Well, no, I've not nothing to do with this.

I was just coming to see what was going and I'd pick it up you're carrying it. You're not in a position to argue. I think you're just gonna do what you're told in that situation. Simon's day has taken a dramatically different turn to to what he anticipated, what he had what he had planned. Whatever it was he had planned, he's not doing that anymore.

So, you've now got Simon, poor old Simon, wrong time, wrong place, Simon, is what I've been calling him as I've been preparing this. Wrong place, wrong time, mate. You just turned up at the wrong time. But He's now got a better view than anyone else of this moment in time. He has a unique perspective on the events that are about to unfold.

He's literally walking in Jesus' footsteps, carrying Jesus' load behind him, watching him stumble through the streets in agony, and he sees things. He sees how Jesus treats people in his final moments. He hears what he says to them. He sees the despicable things that are done to him. And he sees it firsthand in front of his face.

There's no no mistaking what's going on. Now, aside from all of that, it gives us a truly incredible dramatic picture of of what it is to be a follower of Christ. I mean, it's a real like here's a visual image of what it is to be a follower of Christ. Elsewhere in in in Matthew 16 24 when Jesus is talking to his disciples earlier on. He says to them whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

And, well, here's poor old Simon. Suddenly he's got a cross on his back and he's following Jesus. I mean, if that's not a visual image, I don't know what is. So what does a follower of Jesus see? What's it like to take up across and follow Jesus?

Well, Simon Simon's about to witness this firsthand and we're gonna we're gonna follow along with that. We're gonna meet some of the people that they meet see some of the people that they see. And so they carry on through the city. The crowds are still there. Jesus is still staggering.

Simon's still carrying, cursing the fact that he's gone over to have a look. And why me? Why has this happened to me? Well, how on earth did I get myself into this situation. In verse 27, we're told that a large number of people followed Jesus.

Including women who mourned and wailed for him. Now, it seems that these women are are are not the same women that have been following throughout his whole ministry. You know, there was a group of women that were with him for most of his ministry as he went from place to place. They they they doesn't seem to be that these are the same people These are women who were actually present when executions took place. Whenever there was an execution, they would come out and they were sympathetic, gentle, kindhearted ladies of the city.

You know, they they were they were mourning over the loss of another son of Israel, which that kind of thing that's going on. They're mourning the loss of a, you know, a mother's or a sister or a brother or a father might be losing a loved 1 today. And whatever the offense was that the person's committed, you know, they're they're on their way to pay the ultimate price now. So we're going to sympathize and show them a bit of compassion, and they would often, you know, they would often do things and give them things to help ease the pain and the suffering and that that kind of thing. You could call them professional mourners.

Right? And so that's the sort of thing that's going on here. But this time, they're in for a bit of a shock. This time, something different happens, that's never happened before. Something they're totally not expecting.

In verse 28, Jesus stops and turns around and looks at them and addresses them directly. He says, daughters of Jerusalem. Do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children. And then he follows up with some more fairly ominous words for the time will come when you will say blessed to the childless women, the wombs that never bore children and the breasts that never nursed, they will say to the mountains fall on us, and the hills cover us, but then he follows it up with this strange little riddle.

For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it's dry? Now, essentially what Jesus is saying here is if people haven't believed in me and my gospel while I'm here, then what are they going to do when I'm gone? He's saying, you don't need to weep for me Now is not the time, like sure, what's going on here is horrific. This is really horrendous and what you're witnessing, I go get it. I understand it, but it pales in comparison to what will happen to anyone who doesn't believe.

Weap for you. Weap for yourself weep for your children. Do you see Jesus' heart? He's not concerned about what's going to happen to him. He's concerned about what's going to happen to them.

It's about them. His heart is for people, and he's doing this for them, and he's giving them an opportunity whilst he's here, whilst he's in front of them, whilst the tree is green. Why would they listen when he's gone, and the tree is dried up? And dried up trees burn swiftly. If they don't take this opportunity to follow him then there's going to be a day where they have to answer, there's going to be a judgment where they have to give account there's gonna be a time.

And if they haven't accepted this this event here, if they haven't accepted Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Well, then on that day, who's going to plead their case for them? He's offering them an escape route, weep for yourselves, he's saying. Look, I mean, I think it's entirely possible that you can hear about this account of Jesus' final moments and it can be incredibly moving. You could be incredibly moved by this account.

You could be horrified just as these women were, and yet you can completely miss what Jesus is doing for you. You could entirely miss the point, saying, don't weep for me. Think. Think about what I'm doing. I'm doing it for you, weep for yourselves.

And then do something about it. Here's an opportunity. Here's a lifeline. So with the women left wondering what to do next, the grim procession moves on. Simon, wrong place, wrong time.

Simon still bringing up the rear, carrying the cross, seeing and hearing everything. Until they reach their destination, they reach the place of execution, they they reach the place of the skull as as Luke calls it. And there they crucified him, just like that. Luke's as matter of fact as that, and there they crucified him. And what what that actually means is that they laid the cross down on the floor, they attached a cross piece.

They stretch Jesus out on top of it and they drive iron spikes through both hands and through his feet attaching him to the cross They lift the cross upright, drop it into position, something which normally dislocates both shoulders, whoever's attached to the cross. Just with the shock and the impact. And there they crucified him, just like that. He'd done nothing wrong. This should have been barabbas, remember?

If you remember last week, it should have been the son of the father. It should have been, you know, any of us, any of us and that would have been right. It should have been any of us, anyone apart from him, but it needed to be him. It had to be him. He's the only 1 that can go there and pay that price.

He's the only 1 that can go there and pay the price for people. To give him a way of being redeemed. So it's here that we we with everyone now assembled with with everyone at their destination, with everyone in place. It's here that the rest of the scene plays out and that we meet all the other characters in in this this act. And the opening line is an absolute showstopper.

It really is, and it's Jesus that delivers it He's he's there on the cross in the moment of most stress and agony that anyone could endure and he looks around him at the people who have put him there and the enemies that surround him, and he goes father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. They have no idea what they're doing, forgive them. Who would say that? Has a more important sentence ever been spoken for the whole of humanity?

I I don't think it has. He could have been cursing them all. He could easily He could easily have looked around him and cursed. I mean, like the fate of humanity rests on what he says here, rests on this sentence in so many ways. He could have just looked around and seen what they've done and go and farther condemn them because they're all guilty, and that would have been just and that would have been right, and that would have been okay, but we would have all been damned.

No 1 has any hope. No 1 has any redemption. No 1 has any way out. No 1 can ever no God as father. And so he takes it.

In in Matthew chapter 5, when Jesus is giving the the sermon on the Mount, that famous sermon, he he he says this to the listeners. You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your father in heaven, and here he is making good on his word. Father forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

Everyone thought Jesus was a dead man walking. Just a dead man walking here, but in Jesus' eyes, they are the dead people walking. They are the ones who need rescuing. They are the ones who need help and he looks around and he has mercy on them. So he prays, forgive them.

He looks around and he sees, the soldiers. That's the next group of people. You see the soldiers and look at what they are doing at this very moment in time. As Jesus is praying for them to be forgiven, they're dividing up his clothes, casting lots to see who's gonna get what. He's not even dead yet, and they're already seeing who's going to have which piece of clothing.

And they mock him further by, well, he wants a drink. Up. Let's let's offer him something and oh, actually, it's wine vinegar. I don't know if you've ever tried to drink wine vinegar. It's disgusting.

I tried it. It's not good. It's alright for cooking and other things, but it's not good for drinking, and it's the last thing you'd want in that situation. And they know it. They know it, they know how cruel that is, and they make a little sign for him, that says Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

Here is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Hey, King Jesus. You've seen the sign we've made for you. That's a nice crown, by the way. Did you want more drink?

Oh, no. No. No. Sorry. Why can't you just get yourself down off that cross?

You're not a king? You're not that powerful? These are brutal men with brutal humor. They really are. It's a dark sense of humor these guys have got, but they're just being what they're trained and conditioned to be.

They're they're just instruments of the Roman empire. They're hardened. They do this all day every day. This is what they do. They know how to crucify people.

So they may as well have a bit of fun while they're doing it. Right? But Jesus has time to spare even for them. He looks back at them, doing this to him and he goes, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

They've got no idea. Even they are not too far gone to be redeemed out of this situation. There is the option open to them. The prayers been said. Father, forgive them.

And hey, I'll tell you what. I mean, I don't know who's preaching next week, if you look at the centurion in the next passage, when Jesus dies, he goes, surely, this was a righteous man and he praises God. Now it sounds to me like he's come to believe. Is that an answer to prayer? I think so.

I think that's an answer to prayer. That's a direct answer to prayer. The centurion might have even heard Jesus pray that. And over the 2000 years since, there's been countless stories of people like the centurion, brutal hardened people who come to know the forgiveness and love and mercy of Jesus Christ and are changed by his gospel. Jesus looks around and he sees the people.

The people are standing there, verse 35, look at what they're doing. The people stood watching. They're just there watching. They're not doing anything. They're just watching.

They stood and they watched. The same people who only days earlier were cheering him into the city. Who's there to stand by him now? They just stood watching. They stood and they watched.

There's no 1 to argue for him. No 1 stood with him. No 1 took a knee. There's no 1 wearing a Jesus Jesus' life matters t shirt. There's no 1 protesting for him.

There's none of that going on. They stood and they watched. They're on the fence. They don't really care. 1 way or the other.

I don't know about you, but that's been me in the past, definitely. Maybe it is you right now. Maybe you're standing watching, you're not quite sure. Well, Jesus looks at them and has pity, father. Forget them.

They don't know what they're doing. They're like sheep without a shepherd. I have no idea what they're doing. Forget them. I'll tell you what, if you look at what happens in acts, and you look at pentecost, and you look at how the church grows after Jesus dies and and is resurrected, thousands are saved and I don't think it's a stretch of the imagination to say that some of them must have been standing there watching this.

Surely some were standing there and saw this happen and were then saved. An answer to prayer? Yeah, I think I think so. I think so. He looks and he sees the rulers sneering at him and saying, well, he saved others, let him save himself if he's God's Messiah, the chosen 1 in verse 35.

Now to them, The very fact that Jesus is up on that cross means that he can't possibly be the Messiah. The moment he got up on that cross, they wrote him off. Totally a hundred percent, that's it. He's definitely not the 1. No way.

Because in deuteronomy, it says cursed is anyone who hangs on the tree. How can the Messiah be cursed? Therefore, this man hanging on a tree, hanging on the cross, he's no Messiah. He's not worthy of our time. He's just worthy of our dismissal actually, but isn't that precisely the irony?

Jesus becomes a curse in their place. He becomes a curse to break the curse. He comes sin for them so they don't have to pay the price. It should be them up on the cross. He's there instead.

It should be them cursed. He's there instead. He stands in the way of the bullet. He gets in the way of the curse. He breaks it there so that anyone who go and look at that and say, I believe.

You are you are the 1. You are the Messiah. This you're doing this for me. The curse is broken. That's the irony, and these guys don't see it.

And still Jesus looks around and goes, they don't know what they're doing. Forget them. Father. Forgive them. And as we know, Joseph of Aramothea, who takes Jesus down off the cross and takes him to the tomb and buries him He was a leading member of the Jewish ruling council.

Nikodemus, 1 of the Sanhedra and a pharmacy. Who comes and prepares Jesus' body becomes a follower of Jesus. An answer to prayer, Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's an answer to prayer. Father forgive them. And finally, we come to the criminals.

The 2 criminals and I I I love this little interaction. It's 1 of the most touching moments, I think in Jesus' entire ministry. Luke records that there were 2 criminals crucified that day as well. It wasn't just Jesus, there was a criminal, 1 on either side crucified along with him. And he records that 1 of the criminals is hurling insults at Jesus saying, aren't you the Messiah?

Will save yourself and us while you're at it. If you're the messiah, you can do that. Right? And in fact, if you read the other gospels, If you read if you read Mark, both criminals started off this way. They were both heaping insults onto Jesus.

But for 1 of them something changes. Something happens that fundamentally changes. 1 of them perhaps he heard Jesus' prayer, perhaps he saw what was going on. And in the in the face of this, Jesus goes, forgive them. And something just clicks for him.

Maybe it was how he he just took everything. They threw him. I don't know exactly. But what whatever it was, it changed this man. And you get this really touching interaction between 2 dying men.

Verse 40, But the other criminal rebuked him. Don't you fear God, he said? Since you were under the same sentence, talking to the other criminal, that is, we are justly punished for we are getting what our deeds deserved, but this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus. Remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Jesus answered truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise. This very day, in a matter of hours in a short time, you will be with me in paradise. For this criminal, a lifetime of crime getting what he deserved. For this man, Jesus' forgiveness, takes immediate effect. He knows he's wrong.

He knows that he deserves this. So his crimes must have been serious, but that doesn't matter anymore because Jesus' forgiveness is bigger. It's total. And it's immediate. I when I first became a Christian, it was late 20 12, I think.

And in early 20 13, my grandma got rushed into hospital. And I got a call 1 day. I was at work. It was my dad. He said, look, if you want if you want to see her, then you need to get here quick.

Because we don't think she's gonna last. She's in a coma and, yeah, they've taken her off of all life support machines and so, yeah, get here as quick as you can. So I hopped him popped in my car and I went as quickly as I could, which was about 60 miles an hour at the time and it was a it was a snowy day. I remember it really vividly. And the whole way up there, I was thinking no one's ever told Ann the Gospel that I know about.

And being a young Christian, I was sort of like burning with this like desire to tell her and I should have done it already and I knew I should have done it already and I had opportunities and I chickened out. And I knew that this was the last opportunity I was going to have, and I might not even make it in time. And so I've got there, and she's she was in the bed and she couldn't even talk. She'd said her last words already a couple of hours ago. There was she never spoke again after that.

And She barely even registered anything and, you know, you got a noise. You weren't even sure she realized that you were there. But I knew I had to share this because she might have heard She might be able to hear, and it's not too late. So I read that passage, I told her about the thief on the cross. I told her about the forgiveness that Jesus offers, and I'll tell you what, you know, she she was no saint.

My grandfather's dying words to her were you ruined my life. I don't know what was going on, but there was something in the closet there. She was a woman that needed forgiveness. She had crimes that weren't resolved, and she didn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. And I just wonder, I hope, I don't know, but I hope maybe 1 day I'll get a really nice surprise.

The funny thing is is that in the room, there were other family members and there were people scoffing and there were people people laughing, and there were people joking while I was sharing the gospel with her. So it's no different today than it was back then. Nothing's changed. People will still heap insults and those who want to hear and those who want to accept the forgiveness, well, they'll hear and they'll accept. And that's our job, isn't it?

If we're followers of Christ, that is our job. To extend out the forgiveness that Jesus offers to a lost world, a dead man walking. All around us and our jobs to reach out to them along the way. As we as we finish as we wrap up, I just want to focus back again on Simon. I love Simon.

He must have been having such a weird day. Poor our wrong time, wrong place, Simon. Or you could say was he the most fortunate man in Jerusalem that day apart from the criminal on the cross of Jesus. I think so. I think he probably was.

I think he was actually right time, right place, Simon. He got the most unique view of everything we just read about. He encountered Jesus firsthand. He heard the interactions and I don't doubt for a second that he stayed until the end. How could you walk away from that?

After seeing all of that, after getting to that. How could you just walk away? He must have stayed. He must have seen. And on seeing that on hearing those things surely you'd be profoundly affected, wouldn't you?

Well, I think it seems clear that Simon was profoundly affected. All 4 gospel accounts of this event mention Simon of cyrene. How do they know that? How do they know it's Simon of cyrene? When he was told to pick up the crossbar, he was just a bloke in the crowd.

No 1 had a clue who he was. It just got him from the country. He's just a man. So he's become known to all of them afterwards. They've spoken to him.

They found out his name. They found out he's from Irene. And North Africa. Otherwise, how could they write about him? There's just no way.

And Mark introduces This is interesting. Mark introduces Simon as the father of Alexander and Rufa. So we know stuff about his family. In fact, it almost feels like he knows Alexander and Rufus. And it sounds like Mark thinks other people know Alexander and otherwise, why would he bother to put these 2 random names in that no 1 knows about?

So people must know Alexander and Rufus as well. And the interesting thing is, that Mark's gospel was written for the church in Rome. He wrote it specifically for that audience. That was his intended audience originally. And when Paul writes his letter to to the church in Rome, he says, greet rufus.

Chosen in the lord, also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Now, I don't know. Is that same rufus. I mean, there's only 2 rufuses in the bible. 1 is rufus son of Simon and the other is this rufus at the church in Roman.

There seems to just be tons of linkages. You can think what you like about that. I'm not saying, and it's definite, but I think, yeah. I think highly likely. I think really likely that Simon of cyrene was saved and as a result his family was saved and that his chill he doesn't have to weep over his children.

He doesn't have to weep over what might happen because they've come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Right time, right place Simon, but he still had to make the choice, didn't he? With the forgiveness on offer he had still had to accept. So, yeah, I think entirely possible that that's what happened. The real question though is this.

Now that you've all heard all of these things, I know many of you in this room and I know many of you are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I hope it's been an encouragement to to remember what Jesus is all about forgiving and saving and redeeming. And that's now our mission for giving, saving, redeeming, showing people what's on offer from Jesus. Right? There's no better way.

But if you're not sure, Do you accept that you're in need of forgiveness? Because of how you've treated God, because of how you've lived your life, because of how you're living it for yourself, perhaps, Do you accept that Jesus offers that forgiveness for you on the cross and that he went there for you? Let me pray. Father we thank you for sending your son. We thank you for sending him to hang upon a tree to be a curse so that we won't be cursed by by by your judgement that we deserve for our wrongdoings, for our sins.

Thank you so much that you sent him. Thank you for showing us what it is to be a follower of Jesus, that it's to love even enemies. To to show them that forgiveness is real and forgiveness brings profound change redemption in people's lives so that they can know you, so they have certain hope of the future so that they can be with their father in heaven. So they can see the Lord Jesus Christ and how just absolutely stunningly amazingly beautiful he is in how he how he treats people and what he what he's done for for us. Finally, we thank you so much for these things, Armin.