[0:00] pamię менее 19 Amen.
[1:00] Amen. So let's begin as we come to worship God with hymn number 234.
[1:38] 234, Behold the Immortal Lamb on Calvary's Altar Slain. Let's come before the Lord in prayer.
[2:00] Let's all pray together. Our Father, you know that we have come this evening to remember that day when your Son gave his life as a sacrifice for sins on a cross at Calvary.
[2:19] And we pray that you would lift our souls, lift our spirits, so that we may, not just with our lips, but with our souls, as the hymn said, as our souls sing Jesus' praise forevermore.
[2:33] Just grant us to go back in time to that unique moment and the most important moment in the whole of history and be with us, enable us to grasp afresh and even more than we ever have done what it meant for your Son to die upon that cross.
[2:59] So be with us now, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, the first reading is in Luke chapter 22 and describes the time Jesus spent in the Garden of Gethsemane before the cross.
[3:20] So Luke chapter 22 and verses 39 to 46. Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives and his disciples followed him.
[3:39] On reaching the place, he said to them, pray that you will not fall into temptation. He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.
[4:00] An angel from heaven. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
[4:14] When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. Why are you sleeping?
[4:26] Why are you sleeping? Why are you sleeping? I asked them. Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. So I'll pray.
[4:40] Lord Jesus, we bless you that you took upon yourself human nature, and we bless you that we see that human nature exposed to such horror that it caused agony of soul.
[4:57] And even blood as sweat. Lord, we see you in this moment, unlike any other times, with experiencing soul-piercing anguish, being torn apart.
[5:19] And we know that you uttered loud cries and tears, and that these were heard, and an angel was sent to strengthen you. And we know that this was Satan's hour, the moment of greatest and fiercest temptation.
[5:38] You endure the fires of temptation, and yet were not deflected. And we realized that you were feeling the curse of sin falling upon you, the burden of sin.
[5:56] And we cannot imagine how that must feel, since we are sinners. How must it have been for the sinless one to feel the guilt and curse of the horrors, the awfulness of sin?
[6:14] So we thank you that after this terrible time, that you went forward and were not deflected.
[6:26] Satan was defeated, even in that hour at Gethsemane. So grant us that we may pray our way out of temptation, and always seek your will and not ours.
[6:42] In Jesus' name, amen. Shall we turn to our hymn books again, and sing number 247.
[6:59] 247. King of my life, I crown thee now. Now, Linda is going to read to us from John's Gospel.
[7:23] This is John's Gospel, 19th of John, 19 to verses 19 to 18.
[7:36] Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe, and went up to him again and again, saying, Hail, King of the Jews.
[7:55] And they struck him in the face. And once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.
[8:11] When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, Here is the man. As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, Crucify, crucify.
[8:30] But Pilate answered, You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him. The Jews insisted, We have a law, and according to that law, he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.
[8:51] When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. Where do you come from? He asked Jesus.
[9:02] But Jesus gave him no answer. Do you refuse to speak to me? Pilate said. Don't you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you?
[9:16] Jesus answered, You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.
[9:31] From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free. But the Jews kept shouting, If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar.
[9:45] Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar. When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on a judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement, which in Aramaic is Gabbatha.
[10:04] It was the day of preparation of Passover week, about the sixth hour. Here is your king, Pilate said to the Jews.
[10:16] But they shouted, Take him away. Crucify him. Shall I crucify your king? Pilate said. We have no king but Caesar, the chief priests answered.
[10:32] Finally, Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. And so the soldiers took charge of Jesus. And carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.
[10:51] And here they crucified him. And with him, two others, one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
[11:03] And as we meditate on this, we think of our own salvation.
[11:19] We are grateful to the Lord for his sacrifice. If he hadn't gone through the whole of what I've just read, there would be no salvation. And we would be dead still in trespasses and sins.
[11:35] But we are grateful to him for opening our hearts and our minds and our lives to his love. I was in my teens when I came to know Jesus as my saviour.
[11:49] I'd heard about him from a child going to church every Sunday and singing in the choir. I'd heard lots of things about him.
[12:00] I'd sung it all through the hymn book and through hearing the Bible. But it wasn't till I was 17 that I realised he had died for me.
[12:14] Not just died for everyone, but he died for me. And that changed my whole life. The thought that he was my saviour.
[12:24] And it was that my, those two letters, M-I, my saviour. What a difference that made to my life.
[12:36] And so I'm grateful for all these years I've had since then, knowing him as my saviour. And so how special it is today when we can particularly be reminded of that sacrifice he made so long ago.
[12:55] Many people would laugh at us and mock at us because we believe it and we believe what's written here. But we've not only believed it, we've experienced it. Not with just our minds, but in our hearts and in our lives.
[13:11] And each day we can celebrate more and more. And we know even though we're getting older, it doesn't matter because one day we will see him face to face and we'll be all young again and there'll be no pain and suffering and no death.
[13:29] So we have much to rejoice over as we solemnly think of our Lord's sacrifice for us. shall we take up our hymn books again and sing number 255 O sacred head sore wounded number 255 And now Martin will come and continue to read in John's Gospel.
[14:10] Amen. Continue to read in John 19 and from verse 19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross.
[14:38] It read Jesus heard Nazareth the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
[14:55] The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate do not write the King of the Jews but that this man claimed to be King of the Jews. Pilate answered what I have written I have written.
[15:11] When the soldiers crucified Jesus they took his clothes dividing them into four shares one for each of them with the undergarment remaining this garment was seamless woven in one piece from top to bottom.
[15:28] Let's not tear it they said to one another let's decide by lot who will get it. This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that says they divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
[15:44] So this is what the soldiers did. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother his mother's sister Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene.
[15:55] When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby he said to her woman here is your son and to the disciple here is your mother.
[16:09] From that time on this disciple took her into his home. later knowing that everything had now been finished and so that scripture would be fulfilled Jesus said I'm thirsty a jar of wine vinegar was there so they soaked a sponge in it put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant and lifted it to Jesus' lips.
[16:35] When he had received the drink Jesus said it is finished with that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Now it was the day of preparation and the next day was to be a special Sabbath because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.
[17:00] The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead they did not break his legs.
[17:14] Instead one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony and his testimony is true.
[17:26] He knows that he tells the truth and he testifies that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled. not one of his bones will be broken and as another scripture says they will look on the one they have pierced.
[17:48] Shall we all pray? loving heavenly father as we read these words and contemplate what they tell us lord our souls see this as the way for us to go forward.
[18:12] It is truth written down for us and the testimony is there within those words and they fulfill scripture written many years before and yet in this life so many men will deny this and see it as a fairy story.
[18:31] So lord as we see the testimony here of witnesses and as we bear witness to what you have done for us in that great salvation this sacrifice upon a cross this death of god upon a cross for me amen we ask heavenly father that you will help us and strengthen us in the times that we live in to be your witnesses amongst those with whom we have to do in the workplace and at leisure and in our families we thank you heavenly father for the scriptures that we have the liberty to read this to meet together as we are tonight and lord as we remember the death of our saviour all those years ago we thank you we thank you eternally for all you have done for us for it has been said already without this we are lost so lord now continue with us through this time of remembrance and worship in jesus name amen again just a brief time of meditation shall we on this reading shall we take up our hymn books again and sing number 260 there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from immanuel's veins fundo now immanuel's
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