Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As you know, due to the Coronavirus Covid-19 it is currently advised that public worship should be postponed. So, as we gather in our individual homes this Easter, please feel free to use these resources to guide your Worship @ Home.

from St John’s Worship Team.

Growing in faith; reaching out in love

Friday 10 April – Good Friday

Opening Video

Opening Sentences

God forbid that I should boast of anything
but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In him is salvation, life, and resurrection from the dead;
by him we are redeemed and set free.
May God be gracious to us and bless us,
and make his face shine upon us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Amen.

Bible Reading – The Passion Account from the Gospel of John

Read the Bible reading aloud. If you are with family members, you might like to take turns.

Between each section of the bible reading is a verse or two from a song. Pause to listen to the song or sing along with it. 

JOHN 18: 1-14 Jesus Arrested
When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.
Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.  So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.
Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”
“Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.
Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they said.
Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.”  This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”
Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant,
cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”
Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.

SONG

JOHN 18: 15-27 Jesus before the Council
Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.
“You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter.
He replied, “I am not.”
It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm.
Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.
Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. “I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.”
When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded.
“If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”
He denied it, saying, “I am not.”
One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.

SONG

JOHN 18:28 – 19:16 Jesus before Pilate
Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?” “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.” Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” “But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. This took place to fulfill
what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.
Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” “You are  a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was
born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?” They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.
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!” And they slapped him in the face. Once more Pilate came out and
said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let
you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 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!” But Pilate answered, “You take him
and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.” The
Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, 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?”
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.”
From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”
When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaicis Gabbatha). It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered. Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified

SONG

JOHN 19: 17-30 Jesus is Crucified
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to
the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they
crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the
middle. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS
OF 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. 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.”
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. “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 said, “They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.”
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. 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.” 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 am 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. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

SONG

JOHN 19: 31 – 42 Jesus is Buried
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.  The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to
Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 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. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so 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.” Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of
Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.  Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had
ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

SONG

Confession of Faith

[Luther’s explanation of the 2nd Article of the Apostles’ Creed]
I believe that Jesus Christ – true God, son of the Father from eternity, and true man, born of the Virgin Mary – is my Lord. At great cost he has saved and redeemed me, a lost and condemned person. He has freed me from sin, death and the power of the devil – not with silver or gold, but with his holy and precious blood and his innocent suffering and death.
All this he has done that I may be his own, live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally. This is most certainly true.

Pastor’s Message

Prayer

On this most sacred day when our Lord, who has been lifted up to draw all people to himself, has gone before us to the Father, we his body stand with him before the Father and intercede for his church and his world.
We pray for the holy church of God throughout the world, that God the almighty Father will grant peace to his church, preserve it in unity, and protect it throughout this crisis.
Almighty Father, you have shown your glory to all nations in Christ your Son: Guide the work of your church; help it to persevere in faith, proclaim your name, and bring your salvation to people everywhere.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We pray for the bishop of our church, John Henderson, for our district bishops, for all pastors and servants of the church, and for all the people of God.
Almighty Father, you guide the church and keep it holy. Help all of us to work faithfully for you.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We pray for all Christians, that God will gather us by his Spirit and keep us united in faith and love.
Almighty Father, you have made us your holy people by our common baptism. Make us one in our confession of faith, increase our love for each other, and help us to work together in your mission to the people of the world.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We pray for those who are searching for faith in God, that God will wash them in the waters of new birth, and give them his Holy Spirit.
Almighty Father, you continually add new members to your church. Increase the faith and understanding of all those seeking to know you better. Give them new birth by water and the Spirit, and strengthen them by your grace to life eternal.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We pray for all who do not yet believe in Jesus Christ, that the light of the Holy Spirit will show them the way of salvation.
Heavenly Father, remember those who do not remember you. Have mercy on those who have rejected your grace. Guide those who seek to make sense of their lives, so that they may find their salvation in Jesus Christ.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
We pray for those who serve us in public office, that God may use them to curb what is evil and work for the wellbeing of our nation. Bless our country and all who hold positions of responsibility.
Heavenly Father, direct the parliaments of our nation, so that we may enjoy good
government, and live together in freedom and harmony.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Lord, we ask you to protect those who labour tirelessly to care for the sick and those who provide the necessities of life to our communities at risk to their own wellbeing.
Heavenly Father, heal those who are physically or mentally unwell. Support those who are aged and dying. Comfort those who are hungry and lonely. Relieve those who are oppressed, and free those who are unjustly imprisoned.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.

Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in Heaven,

Hollowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

Your will be done,

on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us today our daily bread,

And forgive us our sins

As we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours,

Now and forever.

Amen

Blessing

Say these words to yourself or over the people in your household. You may like to make the mark of the cross on your forehead or on the forehead of each member of the household.

By your holy cross you have redeemed the world. Lord have mercy,

Take some time for some silent prayer and reflection before you move on to the other activities of you day.

You may like to listen to the following song as you pray. Our church choir had been preparing this for Good Friday. We hope that we will be able to share it with you when we are back together again.

God be with you.