DISCUSS TOGETHER. What do you do if you need a pick-me-up something to feel a little more hopeful when you're going through something difficult?

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1 DISCUSS TOGETHER All of the material in this guide is provided for fostering healthy discussion in your group. Read through the prompts together and discuss the bolded questions out loud. Hope" is a word that describes that feeling of expectation and desire for something good to happen, even if your circumstances aren t looking so great in the moment. What do you do if you need a pick-me-up something to feel a little more hopeful when you're going through something difficult? Good Friday is a strange way to refer to the death of an innocent man, but on the day we remember Jesus crucifixion, we do it with hope. As one of the thieves in today s passage found out, you are never too far gone to find your hope in Jesus. Out loud, read Luke 23:32-43: Two others criminals were also led away to be executed with him. 33 When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. 34 Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing. And they divided his clothes and cast lots. 32 The people stood watching, and even the leaders were scoffing: He saved others; let him save himself if this is God s Messiah, the Chosen One! 36 The soldiers also mocked him. They came offering him sour wine 37 and said, If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself! An inscription was above him: This Is the King of the Jews. Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at him: Aren t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us! 39 But the other answered, rebuking him: Don t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? 41 We are punished justly, because we re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong. 42 Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom And he said to him, Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. 1 of 5

2 Our passage finds us several hours into an extremely long day for Jesus. He has been betrayed, arrested, mocked, beaten, sentenced to die, and nailed to a cross He wouldn t come down off of until He was dead. They hung Him on a cross between two convicted criminals and posted a sign mocking Him above His head. Read His prayer in verse 34 again. What does this prayer tell us about Jesus? Why is it so difficult to have this mentality toward people who are against us? Out loud, read Romans 5:8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How does Jesus prayer in verse 34 illustrate Romans 5:8? What does Jesus prayer tell us about what our mentality should be toward people who do not believe in Him? Revisit the different things that Jesus persecutors did to mock Him in verses Why do you think these people were so quick to scoff, mock, and yell insults at Him? There was one person there that day who didn t join in with the crowd s mentality, even though he was suffering the same death Jesus was. Re-read his words in verses 40-42: 40 But the other answered, rebuking him: Don t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? 41 We are punished justly, because we re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong. 42 Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. What did this criminal understand about himself? What did he understand about God? Why do you think the message of the gospel is so difficult for some people to accept? How do his words illustrate what faith in Jesus looks like? Out loud, read Matthew 16:24 and then answer some questions on your own: Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. How does your life reflect the daily decision to deny yourself and follow after Christ? What areas of your life are prone to feelings of despair and hopelessness? What is one thing you can do to turn that over to Him this week? As you close your time together, take some time to pray for the following: - That your Life Group would be a beacon of hope in a despairing world - That you would each be individually encouraged to live like someone who has been set free by the Cross - That God would put people in your lives who need to hear the good news of the Gospel 2 of 5

3 Extra material: Greg Gilbert on the essence of faith in Jesus: Putting your faith in Christ means that you utterly renounce any other hope of being counted righteous before God. Do you find yourself trusting in your own good works? Faith means admitting that they are woefully insufficient, and trusting Christ alone. Do you find yourself trusting what you understand to be your good heart? Faith means acknowledging that your heart is not good at all, and trusting Christ alone. To put it another way, it means jumping off the edge of the pool and saying, Jesus, if you don t catch me, I m done. I ve no other hope, no other savior. Save me, Jesus, or I die. Warren Wiersbe on Jesus prayer from the Cross: Our Lord was crucified about 9 a.m. and remained on the cross until 3 p.m.; and from noon to 3 p.m., there was darkness over all the land (Mark 15:25, 33). Jesus spoke seven times during those six terrible hours: 1. Father, forgive them (Luke 23:34). 2. Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise (Luke 23:43). 3. Woman, behold thy son (John 19:25 27). [Three hours of darkness; Jesus is silent] 4. Why hast Thou forsaken Me? (Matt. 27:46) 5. I thirst (John 19:28). 6. It is finished! (John 19:30) 7. Father, into Thy hands (Luke 23:46). Luke recorded only three of these seven statements, the first, the second, and the last. Our Lord s prayer for His enemies, and His ministry to a repentant thief, fit in well with Luke s purpose to show Jesus Christ as the sympathetic Son of man who cared for the needy. While they were nailing Him to the cross, He repeatedly prayed, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Not only was He practicing what He taught (Luke 6:27 28), but He was fulfilling prophecy and making intercession for the transgressors (Isa. 53:12). We must not infer from His prayer that ignorance is a basis for forgiveness, or that those who sinned against Jesus were automatically forgiven because He prayed. Certainly both the Jews and the Romans were ignorant of the enormity of their sin, but that could not absolve them. The Law provided a sacrifice for sins committed ignorantly, but there was no sacrifice for deliberate presumptuous sin (Ex. 21:14; Num. 15:27 31; Ps. 51:16 17). Our Lord s intercession postponed God s judgment on the nation for almost forty years, giving them additional opportunities to be saved (Acts 3:17 19). and on the faith of one of the thieves: It was providential that Jesus was crucified between the two thieves, for this gave both of them equal access to the Saviour. Both could read Pilate s superscription, This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews, and both could watch Him as He graciously gave His life for the sins of the world. 3 of 5

4 The one thief imitated the mockery of the religious leaders and asked Jesus to rescue him from the cross, but the other thief had different ideas. He may have reasoned, If this Man is indeed the Christ, and if He has a kingdom, and if He has saved others, then He can meet my greatest need which is salvation from sin. I am not ready to die! It took courage for this thief to defy the influence of his friend and the mockery of the crowd, and it took faith for him to trust a dying King! When you consider all that he had to overcome, the faith of this thief is astounding. The man was saved wholly by grace; it was the gift of God (Eph. 2:8 9). He did not deserve it and he could not earn it. His salvation was personal and secure, guaranteed by the word of Jesus Christ. The man hoped for some kind of help in the future, but Jesus gave him forgiveness that very day, and he died and went with Jesus to paradise (2 Cor. 12:1 4). Corrie Ten Boom on Jesus dying poor, naked, and humiliated on the Cross: I had read a thousand times the story of Jesus arrest how soldiers had slapped Him, laughed at Him, flogged Him. Now such happenings had faces and voices. Fridays the recurrent humiliation of medical inspection. [We] had to maintain our erect, hands-at-sides position as we filed slowly past a phalanx of grinning guards. How there could have been any pleasure in the sight of these stick-thin legs and hunger-bloated stomachs I could not imagine. Nor could I see the necessity for the complete undressing. But it was one of these mornings while we were waiting, shivering in the corridor, that yet another page in the Bible leapt into life for me. He hung naked on the cross. I had not known I had not thought. The paintings, the carved crucifixes showed at the least a scrap of cloth. But this, I suddenly knew, was the respect and reverence of the artist. But oh at the time itself, on that other Friday morning there had been no reverence. No more than I saw in the faces around us now. I leaned toward Betsie, ahead of me in line. Her shoulder blades stood out sharp and thin beneath her blue-mottled skin. Betsie, they took His clothes too. Ahead of me I heard a little gasp. Oh, Corrie. And I never thanked Him. Philip Ryken on Jesus being mocked by the crowd: These men were Israel s religious leaders. They had been abusing Jesus for a night and a day, trying to get him crucified. Now that he was dying on the cross they gave full vent to their fury, mocking Jesus as a helpless Messiah. Tellingly, and ironically, these men admitted that Jesus had saved others. This was indisputable. Everyone knew that Jesus had performed the many miracles Luke reported in his Gospel. Now they demanded Jesus to come down from the cross, as if they would believe this miracle more than they believed any of the others, and as if the Messiah was even supposed to save himself. Jesus was also mocked by the soldiers who crucified him. It was not simply the Jews who made fun of him, but also the Gentiles in effect, the whole human race. Luke says, The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself! (Luke 23:36 37). These military men did not mock Jesus as a 4 of 5

5 helpless prophet, as the priests did, but as a failed king. Jesus had neither a crown nor a kingdom, only an ignominious death. How then could he be the King? Yet this too was in fulfillment of the ancient prophecies. David foretold that the Christ would be scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him (Ps. 22:6 8; cf. Isa. 53:3). The priests and the soldiers used similar expressions at the cross, taunting Jesus for his person and work. There was even a prophecy about the sour wine the soldiers offered to Jesus. In one of his other psalms, David wrote: for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink (Ps. 69:21). When we see a crucified man mocked and given bitter wine, we should know that we are seeing the Savior that God promised to send. John Calvin on Father, forgive them : By this expression Christ gave evidence that he was that mild and gentle lamb, which was to be led out to be sacrificed, as Isaiah the prophet had foretold, (53:7.) For not only does he abstain from revenge, but pleads with God the Father for the salvation of those by whom he is most cruelly tormented. It would have been a great matter not to think of rendering evil for evil, (1 Pet. 3:9;) as Peter, when he exhorts us to patience by the example of Christ, says that he did not render curses for curses, and did not revenge the injuries done to him, but was fully satisfied with having God for his avenger, (1 Pet. 2:23.) But this is a far higher and more excellent virtue, to pray that God would forgive his enemies. If any one think that this does not agree well with Peter s sentiment, which I have just now quoted, the answer is easy. For when Christ was moved by a feeling of compassion to ask forgiveness from God for his persecutors, this did not hinder him from acquiescing in the righteous judgment of God, which he knew to be ordained for reprobate and obstinate men. Thus when Christ saw that both the Jewish people and the soldiers raged against him with blind fury, though their ignorance was not excusable, he had pity on them, and presented himself as their intercessor. Yet knowing that God would be an avenger, he left to him the exercise of judgment against the desperate. In this manner ought believers also to restrain their feelings in enduring distresses, so as to desire the salvation of their persecutors, and yet to rest assured that their life is under the protection of God, and, relying on this consolation, that the licentiousness of wicked men will not in the end remain unpunished, not to faint under the burden of the cross. 5 of 5