Pilot gives the order for Jesus to be crucified. After hours of suffering, Jesus declares ‘It is finished.’ He paid the price for us so we don’t have to experience death. He is worthy of our worship.

The courtyard outside the house of Caiaphas is the place where Peter denies Jesus three times. Meanwhile Jesus is held in a cell deep below the house, knowing what has happened above. He endured suffering and abandonment so we don’t have to.

The word ‘Gethsemane’ means ‘The place of crushing.’ Jesus prays here, knowing He is going to be crushed by taking on the sins of the world. If Jesus can pray in a place of crushing, so can we. Bring your burdens to the Lord.

Jesus eagerly waited to celebrate the Passover meal with his disciples in the upper room, despite knowing He would be betrayed and denied by his closest friends. But the upper room was a place of radical acceptance - for anyone and everyone who has sinned.

During this last week of Jesus’ life, he experienced many finals - His final time with his disciples, His final meal, His final Passover. Let’s walk with Jesus through this last week.

True freedom is found not in the absence of all restraints, but in a humble, genuine surrender to the leadership of Jesus in your life. He can set you free to grow, to love, to serve, and to become the kind of person He created you to be. That kind of freedom is available to everyone. 

Friends, if you really want to have freedom and if you really want to have fun, and if you really want to have fulfillment in life, I challenge you to look carefully and deeply into what the Bible has to say about how much God is a giver.

God penalizes those deserving of penalty, but He rewards those deserving reward. He is absolutely impartial and incapable of being corrupted. Hallelujah! That is the kind of God we serve!

The late theologian R.C. Sproul wrote, “If God did not punish sin, He would not be just. And if He were not just, He would not be God.” We can take great comfort in knowing that God is just and ultimately will make things right.

Jesus told a parable in Matthew 21 that plays to our desire for justice. Listen this week for the powerful application of this story.