Palm Sunday

Sermons from St Andrew's

Todays sermon was given by our reader Julie Taylor for our Lent service on 24/3/24.

Download Mp3 HERE!

Sermon starts at 4:45

Mark 15 (selected verses)
Jesus before Pilate
Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin… bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.
“Are you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate.
“‘You have said so,” Jesus replied.
The chief priests accused him of many things. So again Pilate asked him,
“Aren’t you going to answer? See how many things they are accusing you of.” But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested…
“Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate… But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to get Pilate to release Barabbas instead.
“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked [the crowd]. “Crucify him!” they shouted.
“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers mock Jesus
The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace … and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him.
And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!”
Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spat on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him.
Then they led him out to crucify him.
The death of Jesus
…They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means ‘the place of the skull’). And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get.
It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: THE KING OF THE JEWS.
They crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!”
In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves.
“He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice ”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
… With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.
The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”