In this episode we delve right into the bible to find out exactly what happened on the day Jesus died, as written down by Jesus' disciples in the Gospels.  To hear all about WHY Jesus died, listen to the episode on THE GOSPEL STORY: Red from 30th March 2020. In this episode we hear the details written in the Scriptures by John, Luke and a little from Matthew. The story covers EVERYTHING and is a little longer than normal, but sooo comprehensive. I hope you enjoy! John 19:19 "Pilate ordered the charge against Jesus to be written on a board and put above the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” 20 The words were written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. The place where Jesus was taken wasn’t far from the city, and many of the Jewish people read the charge against him. 21 So the chief priests went to Pilate and said, “Why did you write that he is King of the Jews? You should have written, ‘He claimed to be King of the Jews.’” 22 But Pilate told them, “What is written will not be changed!”" Luke 23:26-27 “As Jesus was being led away, some soldiers grabbed hold of a man from Cyrene named Simon. He was coming in from the fields, but they put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large crowd was following Jesus, and in the crowd a lot of women were crying and weeping for him. John 19:23 “After the soldiers had nailed Jesus to the cross, they divided up his clothes into four parts, one for each of them. But his outer garment was made from a single piece of cloth, and it did not have any seams. 24 The soldiers said to each other, “Let’s not rip it apart. We will gamble to see who gets it.” This happened so that the Scriptures would come true, which say, “They divided up my clothes and gambled  for my garments.” The soldiers then did what they had decided." Luke 23:32 “Two criminals were led out to be put to death with Jesus. 33 When the soldiers came to the place called “The Skull,”[d] they nailed Jesus to a cross. They also nailed the two criminals to crosses, one on each side of Jesus. Dying on the cross was a common death in those days. What makes Jesus' death different? What makes is so amazing that it was written about by even non-believers? We talk about it lots because it was different in that: Jesus didn’t deserve it He is God’s son God deserted his only son on the cross He took our sins with him on the cross Discussion Questions: Do you have any questions? What are your thoughts about all this?

In this episode I want you to understand how Jesus chose his friends. He related to a lot of people and was pretty popular with many of them, because he was miraculous. But heaps of people didn’t like him, because he was popular but also because he was changing God’s laws a bit. We know that he IS God, and so could do that, but some of the people felt like he was disrespecting God. I can kind of relate a bit to that. If you were Jesus and had to choose some people to be your disciples, which kind of person would you choose? Someone who is funny and does crazy stuff to make you laugh? Would you choose the educated scholar who has been to university and spent years studying the bible? Would you choose a priest? Or a doctor? or someone else who has proven that they are educated? Or would you choose someone who is well loved by the community? Someone who is generous with their belonging, who gives to the poor and looks after those in need? What about someone with power? Someone who has lots of servants or soldiers to boss around? Or someone with lots of money? Jesus did not choose any of these types of people to become his disciples. He chose 12 men who would tour around Israel with him, listen to him teach and who would be trained by Jesus for approximately 3 years. We aren’t told the occupation of all of the disciples Jesus chose, but we do know that he chose at least 4 fishermen. We also know that he chose a tax collector (which was the career of a scam artist in those days, collecting money for the government and then collecting heaps extra for themselves!) He also chose zealot, which was the term used in those days to refer to a political activist. Here’s the story of Jesus asking Peter, Andrew, James and John to be his disciples from Matthew 4:18-22: “While Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw two brothers. One was Simon, also known as Peter, and the other was Andrew. They were fishermen, and they were casting their net into the lake. Jesus said to them, “Come with me! I will teach you how to bring in people instead of fish.” Right then the two brothers dropped their nets and went with him. Jesus walked on until he saw James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in a boat with their father, mending their nets. Jesus asked them to come with him too. Right away they left the boat and their father and went with Jesus.” Jesus also spent a lot of time with people who were not popular! Matthew 9:10-17 says “Later, Jesus and his disciples were having dinner at Matthew’s house. Many tax collectors and other sinners were also there. 11 Some Pharisees asked Jesus' disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and other sinners?” Jesus heard them and answered, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. Go and learn what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘Instead of offering sacrifices to me, I want you to be merciful to others.’ I didn’t come to invite good people to be my followers. I came to invite sinners.” Discussion Questions: Would you say you are more like a Pharisee or a tax collector? Why/Why not? What are the character traits that you look for in a friend? Are you a good friend and what can you do to be a better friend?

When Jesus taught the crowds he often told them stories about every day life. These stories had a deeper, heavenly, spiritual meaning and are called Parables. This episode is a great introduction to what parables are and why Jesus used them in his teaching. And hundreds of year before Jesus was even born, Matthew remembers that a prophet wrote about parables: Jesus used stories when he spoke to the people. In fact, he did not tell them anything without using stories. 35 So God’s promise came true, just as the prophet[b] had said, “I will use stories  to speak my message and to explain things  that have been hidden since the creation  of the world.” Matthew 13:34-35 And it came true! Jesus did use stories to explain his messages and he had a very good reason for it too! Jesus told parables so that those with the right heart could hear and understand but those with the wrong heart - those who don’t like to hear new things - would not understand and might leave Jesus alone. We know this because Jesus’ disciples actually asked why Jesus often used stories to speak to the people. Jesus’ reply was written down in the bible in Matthew 13:13-17 "Jesus said, “I use stories when I speak to them because when they look, they cannot see, and when they listen, they cannot hear or understand. 14 So God’s promise came true, just as the prophet Isaiah had said, “These people will listen and listen,  but never understand. They will look and look,  but never see. All of them have  stubborn minds! Their ears are stopped up,  and their eyes are covered. They cannot see or hear  or understand. If they could, they would turn to me,  and I would heal them.” 16 But God has blessed you, because your eyes can see and your ears can hear! Many prophets and good people were eager to see what you see and to hear what you hear. But I tell you that they did not see or hear.” If you want to understand Jesus’ parables, you can ask God to give you a brain for understanding! We are also super blessed to be living in a time where we actually have the answers! Sometimes Jesus would tell the crowds the stories and even the disciples were confused. They knew that Jesus would explain the parable to them later, so they wait until they are in safe company and ask for an explanation. These explanations were written down for us so that we don’t have to guess what each story is about! It is like having a maths text book with the answers in the back and you’re allowed to look! How awesome is that!? Later on in the year I will create some episodes for you - telling you some more of Jesus’ parables and what message Jesus wanted us to get from them! Discussion Questions: If you were listening to Jesus tell the parables 2000 years ago, do you think that you would have understood what he was talking about? How do you think the people who didn’t understand the parables felt? What would you do if you were there and didn’t understand the parables? Pray and ask God for an open mind that can understand the parables and Jesus’ teachings.

Jesus was a teacher. 2000 years ago they didn’t have schools like we have, or even universities or churches. It was all very different. I love learning how to do new things by watching Youtube videos and by listening to podcasts. That’s how I learnt how to make this podcast! In Jesus’ day, there was no Youtube or podcasts. There were no TVs or radios or even electricity or microphones. People would stand up on street corners and speak what they wanted to teach in a really loud voice, and if you were walking past and thought that what they were saying was interesting then you’d stop and listen. I have hung out with some indigenous christians and they do something similar. The Christians will meet together in a park with chairs and microphones and will speak really loudly about Jesus. They hope that some of the people in the nearby homes might hear the gospel and come out and ask if they can become Christians. Anyway, Jesus had been doing lots of miracles and so everyone was talking about Jesus. He was big news! So not only did sick people want to come and be healed, but other people wanted to come and see sick people being healed. Even though there was no tv or newspapers, the news spread quickly and soon crowds began following Jesus wherever he went. Not just people from the town he was in, but people from the nearby towns as well! He thought going out of town, into the desert and lonely places would be better - more space and only those who were really keen would come out to hear him. There were no microphones back then either so I am not sure how the thousands and thousands of people could hear him, but they must have! “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21 If I lived back then when Jesus was alive and wanted to teach these things people would probably have laughed at me. They definitely wouldn’t have believed me. They might have even taken me to jail because I was saying things that weren’t the same as what God had taught Moses. That would be saying that their hero Moses was wrong. But because Jesus was teaching these different teachings - the man who did all the miracles - the people listened. Many found themselves understanding, agreeing and wanting to follow Jesus. Not all of them though. Some of the people listening realised that Jesus was changing the laws Moses had given them and they didn’t like that. They didn’t recognise Jesus as being the Messiah even though all the clues from the prophets were there. Those people did not like that Jesus was popular and they plotted to get rid of Jesus. Jesus knew what was happening and had to be very careful with what he did and what he said. Sometimes these people would ask Jesus a question, hoping to trick him into saying something that might mean they could take him to jail, but Jesus was not tricked. He spoke very carefully and often asked them questions in return, stumping them at their own game. Jesus taught so many things and the disciples (plus others!) wrote it down even though writing was really hard back then, because they thought this stuff was important. Since then the letters and writings had been written and rewritten so they wouldn’t perish, and later they were translated into our own language so we can read it. To have these books about Jesus - the gospels - to have access to any time we like is such an amazing blessing. Discussion Questions: Do you like learning new things? Why/why not? Talk together about how you like learning - do you like watching YouTube like I do, or reading books or do you like people explaining things to you? Mum/Dad, what is one thing you have learned from Jesus’ teaching that really struck you as being really memorable and why?

In today’s episode we are going to be looking at Jesus’ miracles. Why did he do them and what did he do? Being a human meant that he would’ve needed to go to the toilet, he ate and slept like any other human, but he actually didn’t have to. He could’ve chosen to create all his meals out of thin air, he could’ve magicked a flying carpet to transport him around and he could’ve prevented himself from dying - forever! Remember John 1:2, which says that  “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Jesus is above the laws of science. He created science! And while Jesus was on the earth he did some amazing things! Being one of Jesus’ disciples must’ve been amazing. Every day they were witnessing incredible events like this! And any time one of them would get a sniffle or a sore throat they’d probably go and ask Jesus to heal them and he would! Why would Jesus do these miracles? It was another way that Jesus showed the people who he was. Only the creator of the world could do the things that Jesus was doing. If Jesus had said “I am the messiah. I am God’s son.” If Jesus had said that he would have gotten arrested. So he had to show them that it was true. He showed the people that he was God’s son by performing miracles. The miracles also meant that the people gave Jesus respect. They listened to his teachings and were curious, asking themselves questions like - Who is this man? Where did he get his power from? How does what he say fit in with what God has said in the past? Should we believe what he says and follow him? There is another reason why Jesus did these miraculous things - to fulfil another prophecy about him. Long before this time, the prophet Isaiah in 35:3-6 said, "Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” We don’t see many miracles these days. Often we use science to try and work out a reason why it wasn’t a miracle. I think that God doesn’t need to use miracles. Jesus used them to let everyone know that he was God. What do we need them for now? When I was a kid I was taught that Jesus could do amazing miracles. I was also taught that if you ask, seek and knock the door will be opened to you, meaning if you ask for something from God then he will answer your prayers. But you have to have faith the size of a mustard seed… so one night before bed I prayed for a packet of Minties, which were the best chewy mint lollies in the world in the 90s. I believed with all my heart and when I woke up in the morning I ran to my shelf where I fully expected the lollies to be, and to my disappointment, they were not there! I was devastated! I didn’t understand! Did God not hear me? Of course he did, he’s God. “Why didn’t you answer my prayer?” I prayed, over and over. I didn’t understand straight away, and it was a long time before I understood, but there has to be a good reason for God to do things. We may not always know the reason, but he is God and he is perfect and has the best reasons for doing everything he does. All Jesus’ miracles were spectacular and were done to show the people, and us today even, that He really is God. He is powerful, he is awesome and he is God. Discussion Questions: If you were there and saw Jesus doing some of the miracles, what would you think about him? If you could ask Jesus to perform a miracle today what would it be? Pray for your miracle, you never know, he may want to say yes and give you what you want.

We are beginning a new series today on Jesus and a heads up - I try and explain the Virgin Birth! I use the term 'mating' instead of saying 'sex' and speak in very general terms. I want you to know this because there may be questions about the birds and the bees, although I can imagine that many children will find my explanation sufficient. I do hope I haven't thrown anyone in the deep end but this is one part of the story of Jesus' birth that I just couldn't skip over! After looking at the gospel over the previous episodes I am sure that you have realised that I think Jesus is pretty awesome. He is the most important part of what Christians believe and is what differentiates us from other religions. Jesus is so awesome and he did so many things while he was here on this earth and the bible has 4 whole books dedicated to all the things he did and said, and so with this series, my hope is to give you an overview. What I hope we can chat about together will be to really discover who he is and what he came for. I’ll tell you stories about his miracles, things he did with the disciples, I will share stories about his teaching, his parables and about what life was like when he lived, because it was over 2000 years ago and the world was very different back then. We are going to start today by looking at his arrival, which was certainly spectacular! We celebrate Jesus’ arrival at Christmas every year, and you might know lots about the nativity story already, but let me tell it again. I don’t think even parents get sick of hearing this! This story is taken from the beginning chapters of both Matthew’s gospel and Luke’s. Jesus was born in Bethlehem after travelling for 4-5 days to get there to be counted. He had some fantastic visitors while he was there - shepherds and wise men, and was given expensive but unusual gifts for a baby.  Angels communicated with Mary, Joseph and the wise men and saved Jesus from coming to harm from the jealous King Herod. After they were counted, Joseph, Mary and little baby Jesus didn’t end up going home to Nazareth for quite some time. They travelled to Egypt, leaving sneakily in the middle of the night, and they stayed there until it was safe and the jealous King Herod passed away. There was no newspaper or internet to find out news in those days, but there were angels! An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him that they could go home because King Herod was dead and no longer a threat. So finally the little family got to go back home to Nazareth to live. Discussion Questions: What do you think the job of an angel is? Are they around anymore? Do they like earth? Do they eat, drink and sleep? There was one big boss in this whole story, in control of every single thing that happened. Who do you think that was? So if God was in control, why would he have worked out the story to be like this - with Jesus being born in a manger and visitors not being family members but wise men and shepherds?

Did you decide you wanted to become a Christian at the end of the last episode? If YES - welcome to the universal church, your name has been written in the book of life and whenever you do end up dying, you get to spend eternity with God and with me! I’ll be praying for you because living as a Christian, trying to please God, love others and not sin is hard, although it is very rewarding. If you said NO, you didn’t want to become a Christian - that’s totally fine - keep listening and learning and thinking, there is no rush. Just remember, if you don’t accept Jesus you reject him. As a Christian, living for God, one of the most important jobs he gives us is telling other people about the gospel. Evangelism Why? So they can go to heaven too! Imagine what it will be like when you get to heaven. Your friends aren’t there because you didn’t tell them. Why wouldn’t you tell your friends? You were too shy to invite them to church. You enjoyed going to kids groups at church with the kids there and didn’t need any more friends at church, so you decided to not invite them. You had told yourself that they would have been too busy to come anyway - playing soccer and dancing and learning musical instruments. Bible verse: How are your friends going to become Christians? In the bible, in Romans 10:13,14 Paul wrote, “All who call out to the Lord will be saved. How can people have faith in the Lord and ask him to save them, if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear, unless someone tells them?” Why don’t I like sharing the gospel - I avoid arguments 3 Things You Can Do to Share The Gospel: Memorise the gospel story by heart and tell them Invite them to a church event Pray One final thing you could do is tell them about this podcast! If your friend hears the gospel in these episodes then they might be able to call out to the Lord and be saved! Also write an apple podcasts review. You could actually help lots of other people - kids and parents who don’t know you - to hear the gospel and become Christians by sharing this podcast, by leaving a review, by subscribing and following us on social media. All these things help the rankings of the show and enable the algorithms to rank us more highly, boosting our downloads, which means even more people may come to know Jesus. Just imagine how cool that is - to help people you don’t even know! I can imagine you getting to heaven and finding out heaps of people are there because of a review you wrote out in 2020 on itunes! Discussion Questions: What things make you hesitant to share the gospel? Who do you want to share the gospel with? Kind of like a role play - can you practise saying out loud what you would say to the person you just mentioned in the second question. I have an additional challenge, and if you’re listening to this a month or a year or even several years after I have posted this, I would love you to still do this challenge: Make a short video of yourself explaining the 5 parts of the gospel story and upload it to our facebook group. It can be as elaborate or as amateur as you like - we are not professionals here and there will be no mark. By doing this, we can get encouraged by you and you can get some practise!

Nobody really likes to talk about death. There is nothing good about dying. Or maybe there is? In this episode I am going to talk about it. Why? Because even though it isn’t a super-fun topic, it is actually a really important one. When you die and you believe Jesus took your sins, then you get to be with God and you will have nothing to fear. Here’s why: You will not be alone - God will be there and he loves you to infinity and beyond There is no sin there - no other people will be mean, hurtful or bullying you at all You know what it is not like - not sad, painful, lonely, depressing You know what you will feel - happy, joyful, content, bliss You know a bit about where you will be - A new Earth - Paradise Eternal life with God! That is what God created us all along for! I still have heaps of trouble imagining what it is ultimately going to look like, but know that it is going to be excellent and very worthwhile, because we are promised that it will be in the bible. How do I know all of this? The bible of course! Here is an awesome bible passage for you from the last book of the bible, Revelation 21:1-4, written by Jesus’ disciple John who saw heaps of things that are to come in the future. He says: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had disappeared, and so had the sea. Then I saw New Jerusalem, that holy city, coming down from God in heaven. It was like a bride dressed in her wedding gown and ready to meet her husband. I heard a loud voice shout from the throne: God’s home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people. He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past are gone forever.” Now there is one more sad thing to mention before the end of this episode and I would rather not talk about it because it is not a good thing. I am referring to the question about what happens to the people who don’t believe in Jesus and that Jesus was able to take away our sins on the cross. What happens to those people when they die? If you don’t believe in Jesus and don’t think you need your sins to be taken away then you will not be allowed to enter into eternal life with God. He has reserved places especially for people who believe in Him. If you don’t believe in him then you will not be let in. The other place people go when they die is usually referred to as Hell, but is really just a place where God is not. If God is loving and free of sin, then I can imagine a place without God would be horrible. The bible refers to it as ‘eternal destruction’ in 2 Thessalonians 1:9. So for those people this earth right now is the best existence they are ever going to get, but for us we are blessed with a perfect Eternal Life with God to look forward to! But we don’t have to be worried, because Jesus said some comforting words to his disciples that we can take comfort in too. Jesus said to his disciples, “Don’t be worried! Have faith in God and have faith in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I wouldn’t tell you this, unless it was true. I am going there to prepare a place for each of you. After I have done this, I will come back and take you with me. Then we will be together.” John 14:1-3 Discussion Questions: Share any concerns you may have about dying. Are there any things that you heard today that make you excited? What 3 words would you use to describe God to someone who has never heard of him?

Jesus. This is what this episode is about.  He is God. He is also God's Son.  It sounds complicated, let me explain... God has 3 parts that are all God, 3 different roles. God The Father, God The Son, Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father sent Jesus to be born, and we celebrate God the Son becoming a human at Christmas. Jesus grew up, proved he was God by doing amazing, miraculous things and teaching amazing things as well, and then he died on the cross, pinning all of the world’s sins there with him. Jesus had no sins, which meant he could take the punishment we should have got because we had sinned, and he did it. Remember how there are consequences for disobeying God? This was the consequence, and Jesus did it so we won’t have to. The reason why God chose to do it like that was because when Jesus did it, he could come back alive again and go to heaven because he is God and perfect and holy! So our sins have been paid for. The sins of the whole world! It doesn’t matter how bad your sins are or how many you have done! Remember back to the beginning, when God created everything? He loves his creation and thought it was worth going through all that terrible suffering in order to get rid of the sin and make us his friends again. Amazing hey!!! We know this because a verse in the bible, John 3:16 says “16 God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and have eternal life.”  Remember in the White Episode (Episode number 2) when I talked about clean, white paper with no smudges on it? Imagine every time I sin is like I get out a big black marker and scribble all over the clean, crisp paper. Sometimes my sin is just one little smudgy scribble, sometimes it is a huge dark blot. Whatever the sin is that’s on our lives it needs to come out to get to heaven right? Imagine that Jesus is the AMAZING MIRACULOUS ERASER, which not only erases out the small smudges and lead pencil marks but can rub out all of the massive black blobs that are there. There is actually no sin that Jesus can’t rub out and get rid of. Through his death, Jesus got rid of them all!!! How absolutely excellent is that?!?? 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that “God put the wrong on him, Jesus, who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.” 1 Peter 3:18 says that “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.” Believing in Jesus, the amazing and miraculous eraser, is what makes me a Christian. Jesus is the reason why I get up in the morning, why I know that I am going to get eternal life after I die from this earth, and he is the reason why I am making this podcast. I believe in the fact that Jesus died for me and it has changed everything about my life! Discussion Questions: Imagine getting into trouble at school and being given a detention but one of your friends works out a way for you to play and says that they would like to do your detention for you. How would you feel? Chat about the worst sins you can think of and talk about whether you think God is capable of forgiving them. Contact… Facebook: @thewordonthestreetpodcast Instagram: @thewordonthestreetpodcast website: thewordonthestreetpodcast.com

This episode is called Black, and I think you will know what I am talking about with this one. SIN. Sin is the thoughts and actions and not doing things too, that goes against what God wants us to do. It is kind of like being naughty, but when you are at home and you’re naughty and get into trouble that is because you are doing thinks your parents don’t want you to do. Sin is doing things God doesn’t want you to do, whether it is on purpose or even if it is an accident. Adam and Eve did this in the Garden of Eden and we do it all the time. We all sin, every single person in the world, I know because it says so in the bible, in Romans 3:23 it says, “ALL HAVE SINNED.” The sin is a bit like drawing on paper. Think about a fresh, clean sheet of white paper, without any smudges or wrinkles or drawing on it. It is perfect, a bit like people when God first created them. Now imagine a big black marker drawing all over it, creasing it and putting holes in it. That marker is the sin. The paper is no longer perfect, just like when people sin, we are no longer perfect and holy either. Even if the marker only did one small dot, it still wouldn’t be perfect. Some people do heaps of sinning and other people do only a bit, but just one tiny sin is enough to stop us from being perfect and holy for God. Sin is not just like a little hiccup - it is a MASSIVE problem. It is ABSOLUTELY IMPORTANT that God does not have any sin in Heaven or in Him.  In the Bible Isaiah the prophet says in Isaiah 59:2, “Your sins are the roadblock between you and your God.”  Adam and Eve just did one small thing and no longer could they hang out with God in the Garden of Eden. They actually had to leave the garden and go and find their own food and water and shelter. God made them clothes from animal fur and was really sad to have to punish them. When God hears that his people have disobeyed him, he does the same as what any parent does when their kids do the wrong thing - he gives them a punishment. For example, the snake gets his legs taken off him, Adam and all men will have to work hard to get food and women will have to go through pain in childbirth. What happens when you do the wrong thing? What happens when we sin against God? We can't spend eternal life with God in Heaven when we die! We will have to go to a place without God, a place we often call Hell. After sin came into the world it meant that life can never go back to how it was in the Garden of Eden, into that perfect, holy life with God. Sin is a BIG DEAL. It is a huge problem for God and for all of us, his creation, his creatures. It is such a massive problem that it is needed to be talked about.  I can't just leave it there on such a negative note, so I will let you know that there is good news - God has already worked out a way to get rid of this sin that separates us from him! Discussion Questions: How do you think Adam and Eve felt when God turned up after they had sinned and eaten the fruit? Do you think you would have eaten the fruit if you were there? Is there something you do that makes God sad that you find really hard not to do? If you want to you can pray about that now and ask him to help you!