Message Theme & Verses: A dark night in the garden: Luke 22, Mark 14, John 18
Memory Verse: Luke 22:40 Pray that you may not enter into temptation.
Jesus finished having the Passover meal with His followers and then they went to the garden to pray. Jesus knew that He would die soon and he prayed with all of His heart. Even blood was dripping from His sweat. He asked His disciples to stay with Him and pray that they would not be tempted, but they fell asleep. Jesus asked God the Father if there was another way to save His people, but said that He would always follow the Father’s will. Sin had to be punished. God is holy and cannot be together with sin. God’s plan since before He created the world was to show His love by Jesus taking on the sin and punishment for all of His people. Jesus was willing to drink the cup of God’s righteous wrath. He was willing even to die. When Jesus was done praying, He woke up His disciples and they saw Judas coming with soldiers. Judas kissed Jesus as a sign and the soldiers moved to arrest Him. Peter swung into action and cut off a man’s ear with his sword. Jesus touched the man’s ear and healed him, telling Peter that this is not the way. Jesus conquered sin and evil and death not by the sword, but by the cross. Jesus’ biggest victory would be by dying. Only by accepting the punishment of God the Father could sin be paid for. You and I could never pay for all the sin we have done. Only the perfect Jesus could pay the price. All of Jesus’ friends ran away and He had to stand trial all alone. Even Peter denied that he knew Jesus. This was Peter’s great shame. Thankfully, Jesus died even for the shame of Peter. The soldiers took Jesus to the council of religious people. They needed the perfect crime. They asked Jesus if He was really the Son of God. When He said “yes,” they wanted to kill Him for saying that He is truly God. They did not believe, but Jesus would prove that He is God when He rises from the grave. The Jews could not have a death penalty so they took Jesus to the Romans. Even though the Roman leaders thought Jesus was good and did no wrong, they decided to crucify Him to please the Jews. Little did they know, this was God’s plan all along and Jesus willingly went to the cross to die.
Barkadang Questions
1. Tell us about a time when you were very sweaty.
2. Can you tell us about a time when you prayed with all of your heart.
3. Have you ever been left hanging by your friends?
4. Did you ever fall asleep when you were supposed to do something important?
5. How do you think Peter felt when Jesus healed the man’s ear?
6. Why do think God is angry with sin? (God is perfect and holy and made us to be like Him. God wants to be in relationship with us and cannot when we are sinful. God also knows that living according to His rules will make us the most happy. He made us to follow His perfect way. God knows that sin messes up everything and wants to protect us. Mostly, God wants His name to be great and when we sin, we bring shame to His name.)
7. Have you ever taken the blame for someone else’s sin?
8. How do you think Jesus felt to take on the sin of the world? (Jesus was perfect and did not deserve to be blamed for the sins of others. It can really hurt to be blamed for someone else’s sin. But Jesus also willingly took on the sin of others. He knew that this was the only way for people to be saved and for God to be known as the great Savior. He was happy to follow God’s will. The Bible says that He thought about the joy that was in front of Him. He knew that He was the one to bring people together with God the Father, their creator and He laid down His life willingly.)
9. What are some ways that you can sacrifice for others?
Comentarios