Good Friday Online Service

To end Holy Week we’re meeting together at 10:30am on Friday 10th April for a special, Good Friday service. You can watch it here, or if you want to join the community and be part of the chat click below.

• Stop, still your mind and be fully attentive. Then start with a prayer. “Jesus you are the Teacher, what do you want me to learn from you today?”

  
  

• Read Matthew 22: 34 – 40 slowly, out loud or under your breath.

• Listen – From what you have read, what is Jesus’ invitation to you today, right now?

• Pray your thoughts – Journal or pray out loud, starting your prayer with “ Teacher, I have heard your invitation …”

• Choose one of the following questions that you identify will help you guard your heart today as you answer it:

  • Is there anything hindering me trusting God’s perfect love for me?

  • What/ who is most likely to displace God as my first love?

  • Is there anyone I’m finding especially hard to love?

• Take a moment to still your heart and ask for a teachable heart.

• As you begin, call to mind someone you respect as a teacher. Can you name those qualities you appreciate?

• Read Matthew 22: 34 – 40 slowly out loud/ under your breath.

• Read the passage again but in the wider context from Matthew 22:15 – 23: 3.

• Read Matthew 22: 34 – 40 once more. Imagine the tone of voice the Pharisee and then Jesus use and note any contrast you’ve appreciated.

• From what you know of Jesus, how does He teach what loving God means by His own example?

• What for you is a powerful example of Jesus loving others?

• Why does this example speak to you?

• As you considered some of the qualities you admire in a teacher, what do you see in Jesus that is worthy of praise? Turn your thoughts to prayer and praise. Write out your prayer if it helps or you could use the letters in the image to give focus
  (example: Teacher, Educator, Authentic One, Challenger, Honourable Master, etc.)

• Guard your heart. Touch the deepest colour in the chart, representing sacrificial love. Invite the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with love for Abba Father and for others.

• Jesus calls us to simple service for those around us. His Greatest Command (Matthew 22 v 37-39) to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” is followed straight away with “Love your neighbour as yourself”.

• And here, in Jesus’ last sermon, He moves from teaching parables to prophecies of the future and the end of the world, the Second Coming and judgement, and yet His message is the same. The consequence of loving Jesus is that we love those around us, and this shows through the simplest of actions:

  Food. Drink. Welcome. Clothes. Care. Company.

• Pray your thoughts: take a few moments now to ask Jesus to show you where He wants you to show His love through simple service, today.

• Matthew 25 v 37 “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?”

• In the story everyone asks the same thing – “when did we see you?” His audience were used to seeing poverty and disease around them every day, so how did they not “see”? How could they walk past people begging by the side of the road, helpless and afraid, and not show compassion?

• Maybe they were like us. Maybe they were busy, or in a hurry, or with their children so they didn’t feel that they could do anything, or on their way to work, or on the phone, or on a date. Maybe they felt that the hungry beggar or the lonely prisoner deserved their situation – they had brought it upon themselves. Maybe they thought that things are not that simple, that helping is complex, and needs coordinated action and multiple agencies to get involved. Maybe they felt it better left to the government, or the council… Maybe.

• Jesus talked about this in Luke 10’s Good Samaritan story. Most people walk by on the other side of the road (even crossing the road to avoid getting involved). But the Samaritan acts. Why? Because “When he saw him, he was moved with compassion”.

• Are we brave enough to open our hearts to let God move us with His compassion?

• Guard your heart: to ask Jesus to guard your heart against indifference. To open your eyes and trust Him to guide you to the people and situations that He wants you to act in, to be His hands and feet in a needy and broken world.

• As do that, you may find it helpful to read and pray these simple lyrics in the picture to the right:

This is Joseph. He works as a shepherd in Nazareth Village, an open-air museum that is a reconstruction of Galilee life in Jesus’ time. In Matthew 25, in His last sermon, in His final series of end-times prophecies and warnings, Jesus talks about sheep and goats. Those hearing Him would have known all about sheep and goats. Joseph knows His sheep. He takes care of them, he watches over them, he makes sure they have safe water and good food. He guards them. These are the sort of things that usually come to mind when we think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. But there is a bit more to sheep and goats than that.

Joseph, like any of us, sometimes takes a few days off work, and someone else steps in to look after the sheep. It usually doesn’t go very well – the sheep wander off and the volunteer has to run all over the place to try to keep them in check. When Joseph comes back to work, the sheep come running to him. Not when they see him, but when they HEAR him.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.” (John 10 v 27)

Jesus knew sheep, and so did his audience. They knew that sheep trust the shepherd, know his voice, and follow him. Goats are different. They tried keeping a herd of goats at Nazareth Village but they found that the goats don’t listen, don’t follow the shepherd, and go where they please, eating everything! They are independent, and don’t like being told where to go or what to do. Joseph could call to them all day long, and they simply wouldn’t listen.

In Matthew 25, the “Judgement of the Nations”, the goats don’t seem to be actively evil. They are not persecuting, or oppressing, or harming anyone, they are just… Indifferent. The Bible has some tough things to say about that. The indifferent, lukewarm church of Laodicea (Rev 3 v 14 – 22) is “neither hot nor cold” and as a result is “spit out of my mouth” (literally – vomited). The indifferent goats here in Matthew 25 have a similar unhappy ending.

• Anointing typically dedicated a person or object to God. Dedicate this time to Messiah – the Anointed One.

• Read through Matthew 26:6-12 out loud.

• What do you think this woman’s act reveals of her relationship to Jesus?

• Talk to Jesus about your current relationship with Him. Is there anything you could “pour out” to Him and for Him right now?

• Ask Jesus to gently point out anything that hinders your lavish love for Him. When you are ready, hand it to Him.

• Imagine this alabaster flask represents the next 10 minutes. Give that time to Jesus.

• Read Matthew 26:6-13 out loud, then pause and see which of the following questions most resonate with you.

  • What contrasts in this story do you see?

  • What would be a modern day parallel with the woman’s act?

  • As you consider the question “Why this waste?” what immediately comes to mind?

• Read the passage again and see if Holy Spirit is guiding you into any further insights raised by the questions.

• Are there any questions you would want to ask Jesus right now?

• What could you say to Jesus that could leave Him saying “That’s beautiful”?

• Is there an invitation to show lavish love to someone in your circle now or in the days ahead?

• The Old Testament records that prophets, priests and kings would all be anointed in their service to God. Come into the presence of Jesus, THE Prophet, THE Priest and THE King. Read the context of Jesus being anointed in Matthew 26:1-16.

• As you focus on verses 6 – 13, how does the context add to the significance of the story?

  • What more does it reveal about Jesus?

  • How is human weakness revealed?

  • Pause and give your frailty, weakness and fallibility to Jesus.

• Mark 14: 1-9 adds the details that the very expensive perfume was actually nard, made from the spikenard plant which grows at high altitude and would have been imported from the Himalayas – and hence very rare. The quantity is equivalent to 329 grams, (a tin of tomatoes is 400 grams!) 

• If its value was “more than a year’s wages” what estimate would you give that now? What could you buy with that today? (Don’t get too carried away!)

• Mark’s other detail is that the alabaster container is broken. What could be significant about that?

• John 12 adds that it’s Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, who performs this act and that she also anoints Jesus’ feet.

• What temptations are you facing today? Where are you feeling weak?

• Ask God to give you strength in the face of these challenges.

• Thank God for who He is and for His strength. Say sorry where you have relied on your own strengths. Then let go as you face temptations ahead, afresh in God’s strong and steady presence.

• Take this verse into the rest of your day, as a reminder: “I can do all things through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

• Read Mathew 26: 36-40 twice, concentrate on the words, asking God to highlight to you significant words and phrases.

• Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give you insight into Jesus’ anguish that night:

  • What were the reasons for Jesus’ depth of sorrow? Put yourself in the shoes of Jesus - as a human, as a son, as a friend, as a leader, how might you feel in this situation?  Write these down – you may come up with a few!

  • What did Jesus do to respond to his human emotions of sorrow?

• Give thanks to God for Jesus’ humanity and for sharing in our pain and sufferings.

• Think about how you may have not turned to God over the past week in your own difficulties and situations and ask God to forgive you.

• Let go of your own worries, pain, grief and anguish of the past week and surrender them to God – knowing you can start the day afresh with God.

• Read the passage Mt 26:36-46 and the verses that come just before and after this. Read once or twice more, taking time to take in each word.

• Pray and invite the Holy Spirit to be present in your mind and body.

• Imagine yourself in the Garden of Gethsemane and engage all of your senses:

  • What can you see? Is it fully dark, is there firelight? Who is around you?

  • What can you smell?  The earthiness of the olive grove, pollen on the air, smoke from a fire?

  • What can you hear? Your friends’ chatting or snoring as they sleep, distant animals, sounds of the city far off?

  • What can you feel?  The cool earth of the grove under your feet? A breeze on your skin? Are you warm, sweating, or cold? The roughness of a tree trunk?

  • What can you taste? The wine you have drunk with your last meal?  The salt of your tears?

• Think about how you are feeling:

  • Are you afraid?

  • Are you feeling lonely?

  • Are you hurt at the betrayal of your friends?

  • Are you desperate for the comfort and solace of your Father and your friends?

• Respond by crying out to God as Jesus did with his deepest emotions. Call on the Father’s name to come to you by His Spirit, speak to you, comfort you and guide you. If you are comfortable, respond with your whole body – take off your shoes and raise your hands in worship, sing a song of adoration, bow in holy reverence.

• Reflect on one particular area of God’s character that He may be revealing and unveiling to you in these moments.

• Ponder how you are being changed by this encounter with God’s presence.

• Stop and simply repeat, “Jesus is my Saviour” several times to focus and come to a still place in your heart and mind.

• Read Matthew 27:35-51 slowly, out loud if possible.

• Look again at Matthew 27:39-43

• Listen to what your response is. What is on your heart? What would you like to say to Jesus?

• Is there anything you’d like to ask from your Heavenly Father?

• What one thought do you want to take away from this encounter with Jesus the Saviour?

• Stop and simply repeat, “Jesus is my Saviour” several times to focus and come to a still place in your heart and mind.

• Read Matthew 27:32-56 slowly, out loud if possible.

• Which part of this account of the crucifixion most disturbs you or gets your attention?

• Take a minute and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into truth from what has stood out.

• What do you appreciate about Jesus the Saviour as you reflect on his crucifixion?

• As your prayer, write a letter to Jesus expressing your heart and what you noticed.

  • Now ask Jesus if He wants to say anything to you in reply.

• Finish by reading Matthew 27:32 – 56 again.