This is the Good News | Jesus Gave his Life for you

Intro

Mark 14:32–50 (NIrV)

32 Jesus and his disciples went to a place called Gethsemane. Jesus said to them, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took Peter, James and John along with him. He began to be very upset and troubled. 34 “My soul is very sad. I feel close to death,” he said to them. “Stay here. Keep watch.” 35 He went a little farther. Then he fell to the ground. He prayed that, if possible, the hour might pass by him. 36 “Abba, Father” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup of suffering away from me. But let what you want be done, not what I want.” 37 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? 38 Watch and pray. Then you won’t fall into sin when you are tempted. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” 39 Once more Jesus went away and prayed the same thing. 40 Then he came back. Again he found them sleeping. They couldn’t keep their eyes open. They did not know what to say to him.

41 Jesus returned the third time. He said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look! The Son of Man is about to be handed over to sinners. 42 Get up! Let us go! Here comes the one who is handing me over to them!” 43 Just as Jesus was speaking, Judas appeared. He was one of the 12 disciples. A crowd was with him. They were carrying swords and clubs. The chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders had sent them. 44 Judas, who was going to hand Jesus over, had arranged a signal with them. “The one I kiss is the man,” he said. “Arrest him and have the guards lead him away.” 45 So Judas went to Jesus at once. Judas said, “Rabbi!” And he kissed Jesus. 46 The men grabbed Jesus and arrested him. 47 Then one of those standing nearby pulled his sword out. He struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 48 “Am I leading a band of armed men against you?” asked Jesus. “Do you have to come out with swords and clubs to capture me? 49 Every day I was with you. I taught in the temple courtyard, and you didn’t arrest me. But the Scriptures must come true.” 50 Then everyone left him and ran away.

Summerize 41-50

Three times already in the book of mark we see Jesus telling his friends that he is going to die. (Mark 8:31 , Mark 9:31, and Mark 10:33)

Jesus in this moment as he is praying, asks the Lord for another way. He is experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety about what he is about to do. The Book of Luke says this about Jesus

But at the same time he is willing to be obedient to God the Father every step of the way.

Jesus was experiencing something very hard in his life.

And like some of us when life gets difficult, we have two choices, to follow God or we can do things our own way

Jesus chooses to be obedient to God. Jesus knows that Gods plan is perfect and the best even though Jesus has to do something as difficult as dying.

Point: Jesus chose to obey God because he knew it was worth it.

Mark 14:53–65 (NIrV)

53 The crowd took Jesus to the high priest. All the chief priests, the elders, and the teachers of the law came together. 54 Not too far away, Peter followed Jesus. He went right into the courtyard of the high priest. There he sat with the guards. He warmed himself at the fire. 55 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for something to use against Jesus. They wanted to put him to death. But they did not find any proof. 56 Many witnesses lied about him. But their stories did not agree. 57 Then some of them stood up. Here is what those false witnesses said about him. 58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made by human hands. In three days I will build another temple, not made by human hands.’ ” 59 But what they said did not agree. 60 Then the high priest stood up in front of them. He asked Jesus, “Aren’t you going to answer? What are these charges these men are bringing against you?” 61 But Jesus remained silent. He gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah? Are you the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One. You will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven.” 63 The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. 64 “You have heard him say a very evil thing against God. What do you think?” They all found him guilty and said he must die. 65 Then some began to spit at him. They blindfolded him. They hit him with their fists. They said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him.

Okay, what Jesus said was a BIG deal.

After Jesus got arrested, they took him to some people in charge who would be able to punish him for anything bad he said or did.

However, they could not find anything he did or said that was wrong. So they began to make things up about him. But even then their lies did not stick.

So finally the people in charge, the Priests and the Sanhedrin, asked him a question they have been wanting the answer to for a long time.

They asked him if he is the Messiah, the promised one.

They ask if he is the one they have been waiting thousands of years for. The one the old testament talks about that will save them from slavery.

But Jesus’ answer is something they did not expect and Jesus’ answer is more than they could bear.

He responds to them asking if he is the Messiah by saying yes. But he doesn’t just leave it at this. He kicks it up a notch. He claims to be God.

For the priest and the Sanhedrin, these guys that were in charge. They could not fathom what Jesus just said.

In this moment Jesus could have put a stop to all of this. The lying, the hitting, the humiliation of what they were accusing him of.

Point: Jesus is God but did not use it as a way out.

Philippians 2:6–7 (NIrV)

6 In his very nature he was God. Jesus was equal with God. But Jesus didn’t take advantage of that fact. 7 Instead, he made himself nothing. He did this by taking on the nature of a servant. He was made just like human beings.

Jesus did not fight back. He didn’t bow up. He didn’t try to talk his way out of it, even thought he could have and had every reason to.

Mark 15:6–14 (NIrV)

6 It was the usual practice at the Passover Feast to let one prisoner go free. The people could choose the one they wanted. 7 A man named Barabbas was in prison. He was there with some other people who had fought against the country’s rulers. They had committed murder while they were fighting against the rulers. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. 9 “Do you want me to let the king of the Jews go free?” asked Pilate. 10 He knew that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him because they wanted to get their own way. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd. So the crowd asked Pilate to let Barabbas go free instead. 12 “Then what should I do with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them. 13 “Crucify him!” the crowd shouted. 14 “Why? What wrong has he done?” asked Pilate. But they shouted even louder, “Crucify him!”

In that time if someone commited a crime so bad, they could have him killed.

So when Pilate, the roman governor asked the Israelite people who they wanted to be freed, Jesus, who had done nothing wrong / or Barabbas a man who had killed people, these were the stakes.

The person they let go free was the one who did not have to experience death.

The people chose to let Barabbas go and therefore sentenced Jesus to death.

Point: Jesus got the punishment Barabbas deserved.

But this now meant that Jesus would die.

Mark 15:25–32 (NIrV)

25 It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. 26 They wrote out the charge against him. It read, the king of the jews. 27 They crucified with him two rebels against Rome. One was on his right and one was on his left. 29 Those who passed by shouted at Jesus and made fun of him. They shook their heads and said, “So you are going to destroy the temple and build it again in three days? 30 Then come down from the cross! Save yourself!” 31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law made fun of him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said. “But he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross! When we see that, we will believe.” Those who were being crucified with Jesus also made fun of him.

As Jesus was hanging there on the cross, the passers by and those standing around mocked him. They made fun of him.

They hurled insults at him, the chief priests, the people in charge, said that he saved others but now can’t save himself.

But what they didn't realize is that they were speaking the truth.

Jesus could have chosen to come down off the cross. Stop all the mocking, the pain. In one moment he could have stopped it all. But he didn’t.

Point : Jesus could not save himself and us at the same time. He chose to save us.

Jesus chose to die so that we could live.

Mark 15:37–39 (NIrV)

37 With a loud cry, Jesus took his last breath. 38 The temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. 39 A Roman commander was standing there in front of Jesus. He saw how Jesus died. Then he said, “This man was surely the Son of God!”

In that last moment on the cross Jesus died

Then the curtain of the temple was torn from the top all the way to the bottom.

This curtain was not some random drape to cover a window.

This curtain had a specific function in the temple. It separated God’s holy presense from sinful humans or else we would die.

Once a year, one person would be able to enter this room and make sacrifices on behalf of everyone.

Jesus became that for us

The people did not have direct access to God because we are sinners.

Sin is anything we do that disobeys God.

And the truth is each one of us is a sinner. Meaning, each one of us has at some point and will at some point be disobedient to God. I will, you will, your leaders will.

Be bible says this, Romans 3:23

Romans 3:23 (NLT)

23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

The bible teaches that each of us in this room fails to live up to God’s standard. Not one of us follows God perfectly.

And this is not just like a one time thing. What this is saying is that we have messed up so much and so bad that there is nothing we can do or say. There is not amount of good things we can do to live up to this standard.

Explain in the realm of grades.

Romans chapter one teaches us that by ourselves we never want to obey God. We want to do what we want to do exactly how we want to do it.

Thats why it can be hard to obey our parents. Or tell the whole truth. or even have a good attitude sometimes. It is because we want to do what we want to do instead of doing what God says.

And there is a punishment to this

Romans 6:23 (NIrV)

23 When you sin, the pay you get is death. But God gives you the gift of eternal life. That’s because of what Christ Jesus our Lord has done.

Because we are disobedient to God (AKA sinners) then that means we fail to do what he asks us and there are consequences because of that.

The bible tells us that this consequence or punishment is death. Meaning that, the little lie I told several years ago is just as deserving of the punishment as someone who has broken the Law.

And this is punishment is eternal seperation from God. God is the giver of life so if we are separated from him we experience death and don’t get to be with him forever.

But that’s not how he wanted to leave it. He didn’t want to leave us separated from him

But God is not the kind of God that gives us this standard then leaves us to figure it out on our own. No, the book of John says this about God heart for us.

Mallory Read John

John 3:16–17 (NIrV)

16 God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world. He sent his Son to save the world through him.

God loved you and me so much that he chose to do something about it. He sent his son, Jesus, to save us from our sin by dying on the cross. So that we can now have a relationship with him forever.

The curtain that was torn from top to bottom communicates this. It tells us we can come to God anytime any where because of what Jesus had done

Hebrews 4:15 puts it this way.

Hebrews 4:15–16 (NIrV)

15 We have a high priest who can feel it when we are weak and hurting. We have a high priest who has been tempted in every way, just as we are. But he did not sin. 16 So let us boldly approach God’s throne of grace. Then we will receive mercy. We will find grace to help us when we need it.

Even though Jesus was tempted to disobey God. He did not. He chose to obey God at every step and every turn.

and because he is the only one who has ever fully obeyed God perfectly, he is the only one who was able to save us from our sin.

He accomplished this by dying on the cross. He took the punishment we deserved, death, and traded places with us so we could be free. He payed the price us for our sin. He payed it for us so we no longer have to.

This whole week at camp we have been learning about one thing. And it’s this, its our memory verse. This is the one thing we hope you leave with camp knowing

Mark 10:45 (NIrV)

45 Even the Son of Man did not come to be served. Instead, he came to serve others. He came to give his life as the price for setting many people free.”

jesus did not take his own interest and make them first. He chose to love us by giving his life for us.

Jesus experienced physical death so that we could have eternal life.

Let’s pray

Host transition - wrap up then cues the key question, “How did Jesus demonstrate his love for you?”