The Shocking Truth about You, Me and Barabbas

This amazing hidden truth in the Easter story will turn your life upside down!

Life Application Booklet

Berni Dymet

THE SHOCKING TRUTH ABOUT YOU, ME AND

BARABBAS

by Berni Dymet

LIFE APPLICATION BOOKLET

Published by Christianityworks© Berni Dymet1st edition - Published 2019

Except where otherwise indicated in the text, the scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design: Mariah Reilly Design, Sydney AustraliaWe gratefully acknowledge the creative contribution of Mariah Reilly in the cover design of this book.

Printed by: Creative Visions Print & Design, Warrawong, NSW, Australia

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CONTENTSCHAPTER 1

Let’s Tarry for a While 5

CHAPTER 2An Innocent Man 17

CHAPTER 3Who is Barabbas? 31

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CHAPTER 1

It’s interesting how quickly Easter passes us by, how quickly we forget it and move on. Sure, it was a long weekend and it was great to have some time off and have a rest and have a bit of chocolate.

Easter comes, we eat chocolate, we have that long weekend, it goes and that’s it. We move on. It’s back to work or school or an empty house or whatever it is that you do day after day after.

That’s why, in this booklet, I’d like you to join me, to dwell and tarry, just stay in this Easter thing for a little while longer.

Because it’s a big thing, this Easter thing. Not just as a religious holiday, I don’t mean that. I, for one, am definitely not into religion, it just doesn’t work for me. So I’m not talking about religion. I’m talking about this big thing that God was and is up

Let’s Tarry for a While

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to at Easter. The thing that Jesus went through, the suffering, the persecution, the beating, the rejection and that death on the cross.

Whether you’ve come to realise it or not, you are so incredibly special to God – which is what makes you worth dying for. He handcrafted you, He made you, He set you free in this amazing universe always loving you, but with the freedom, he gave you a free will to accept Him or reject Him.

As the Psalmist writes, pouring his heart out to God:

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you. (Psalm 138:13-18)

And yet, in our own free will, we turned out backs on God:

For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God … (Romans 3:22,23)

It comes right down to this: He made us, He loves us, He gave us a free will and the point of all that was for us to have the opportunity know

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Him freely, to love Him willingly and to have this fantastic relationship with Him, here and now and for all eternity. But it doesn’t matter which way we cut it, each one of us in our own way, has rejected him. I know I have, more often than I can even imagine or count or recall. And in doing that, we miss the whole point of creation, the whole point of life, the plan and the desire of God’s heart for you and me.

When we turned our backs on God, and we all have, we missed the whole point of life.

Indeed, that’s exactly what the Greek word used for sin in the New Testament means. It means literally, “to miss the mark” or as we might say it these days, to miss the point. I know that when I use the word “sin” people often write in or call in and they say, “Come on, this is some kind of old fuddy-duddy concept, get with it Berni. Get into today, sin just isn’t relevant, it’s something that priests and ministers talked about in the 1950’s, come on - get with it, it’s old fashioned.”

And I know that some people think of sin in that way but let’s come back to Easter and the central point, the central problem of all creation is that we rejected God, we turned our backs on Him. Now that’s hard to come to grips with. People say, “Well, I’m not that bad, I’m okay.”

But let me ask you, from the moment you were old enough to do so, did you put God first? Was God always first in your life? Did you live your life as though you belonged to Him? And the answer for all of us is no, we didn’t! We’ve all done things wrong, we’ve all turned away in our way, in different ways, we’ve all

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turned our backs on God and at that cross at a time that we now call Easter and we celebrate and remember, on that cross God calls us home.

The consequences, the price that we should have paid for rejecting Him, were paid for by his own Son, Jesus. He died to give us a new life.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:22)

Out of his great love, God reached out to us through Jesus, through Him who knew no sin, laid our sin upon His shoulders, in order to open the door to a real and dynamic and exciting and beautiful and wondrous relationship with God. A new life:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

At the heart of the message of Easter is the fact that Jesus paid the price of my sin, of your sin, of our rejection of God, of our missing the whole point of creation.

But the fact that Jesus paid the price seems so unfair, don’t you think? Let’s have a read.

“What is truth?” Pontius Pilate asked, with this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against this Jesus but it’s 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?” And they shouted, “No, not him, give us Barabbas.” Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.

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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 and again saying, “Hail the King of the Jews.” And they struck him in the face. Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” And 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.” But the Jews insisted, “We have a law and according to that law he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God.” And 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?” and 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 have Jesus set free but the Jews 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 bought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place

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known as the Stone Pavement. It was the day of preparation of Passover week, about the sixth hour. “Here is your king.” Pilate said to the Jews but they shouted, “Take him away, take him away and 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 be crucified. ( John 18:38-19:16)

Just tarry for a moment in the incredible injustice of that transaction and let the gravity of God’s love for you sink deep into your heart.

When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. (1 Peter 2:23,24)

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Be honest with yourself. How does Easter usually play itself out in your life? Is it a quick long weekend, perhaps with a trip to church? Or is the message of Easter the bedrock of your faith?

QUESTION 1

LIFE APPLICATION QUESTIONS

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Why do you think that is?

QUESTION 2

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QUESTION 3How often do you turn your mind to the punishment that you deserve for rejecting God, and the injustice of the fact that Jesus bore that punishment on your behalf.

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QUESTION 4Take just another moment to read through John 18:38-19:16. Put yourself in that place. Feel the tension, the hatred, the injustice, the pain.

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QUESTION 5What is the Holy Spirit speaking into your Spirit through His Word.

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QUESTION 6Take some unhurried time to pray, to listen, to pour your heart out to God, to experience deep in your soul this thing that is Easter.

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CHAPTER 2

That was quite a mock trial, wasn’t it? Not much regard for the rules of evidence, if indeed there were any way back then.

A good friend of mine by the name of Paul is a magistrate. Now the more I get to know him, the more I realise how gifted he is to do that job. I’d hate to have to sit in judgment, “this one goes free, this one gets locked up” and to make it even more difficult, he’s a magistrate in the children’s court.

Now Paul has this really balanced thing happening in his outlook. He weighs this against that in everything he does. I was saying to someone else recently that when I look at Paul, what I see is someone that I am really comfortable with being a magistrate, I’m really glad that this guy is on the bench of the children’s court because he is absolutely the right person to be doing it.

An Innocent Man

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And when I look at this story of the crowd and Pontius Pilate and Barabbas and Jesus and that angry, ugly mob, I see some of that in Pilate. Pontius Pilate was the Roman Governor of the Jewish Province and Jesus had been talking to him about truth. And yet he asks, “What is truth?” Finally going out to the mob and declaring, “Look, I’ve looked at this man and I find no case against him, this Jesus.”

He wasn’t swayed in his judgment by the religious leaders who frankly, wanted Jesus dead because He was threatening their comfortable existence and their power base. Jesus was going to the people and making sense when He preached, healing them and caring for them and standing up for them. That’s why the religious leaders wanted him dead. That’s how poison that whole “ruled based religion” thing can become.

No, Pilate wasn’t swayed by the same things that whipped up that mob and all the way through this scene, over and over again, Pontius Pilate finds Jesus not guilty. In John 18:38 he says,

“I find no basis for a charge against him.” And again in John 19:4 Pilate comes out and

says to the crowd, “Look, I’m bringing him out to you to let you

know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” And again, in verse 6 of the same chapter, “ You take him and crucify him, as for me, I find

no basis for a charge against him.” And then down in verse 12, “From then on Pontius Pilate tried to set Jesus free.”

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Here was a man who was objective and he found no guilt in Jesus Christ. Of course, there’s a marked difference between my friend Paul and Pontius Pilate. Pilate was a weak man and he gave in to the crowd. He never changed his judgement mind you, but based on this silly tradition, he just rolled over because of the angry mob. But ultimately he said, in effect, “Look at the life of Jesus, this man who healed people and who reached out to them and who cared for them, who taught them stuff about life that made sense, of course he’s innocent.”

Innocent of everything except the fact that His goodness, His genuineness stood out in sharp contrast to the manipulation and deceit of the religious leaders of the day. He threatened their power base and that’s why they wanted him dead.

Now, the other player in this game is Barabbas. Barabbas is an interesting character, his name literally means, “son” (which is what “bar” means) “of the father, Abba.” Bar-Abba; son of the father Barabbas. Now we’ill come back to that a little later but there’s no doubt that he’s a criminal. John tells us there in chapter 18, verse 40 that he’d taken part in a rebellion.

If you go to Matthew 27:16, Matthew calls him a “...notorious criminal” so it was well known that this man was a crook. Mark 15:7 and Luke 23:19 both tell us that Barabbas had committed murder as a part of an insurrection. So here we have it: a well-known, notorious criminal and murderer, Barabbas, versus Jesus Christ superstar.

This Jesus with rock star status, who’d healed the lame and the sick and the blind, who’d stood

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up for the oppressed and the needs of ordinary people against all those religious rules and all that manipulation, who’d exposed the religious hypocrisy of those leaders. Huge crowds had followed Him, listened to Him, marveled at Him, seen Him heal countless people.

When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. ( John 2:23)Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. (Matthew 4:23-25)He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the sabbath. They were astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority. In the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, “Let us alone! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” When the demon had thrown him down before them, he came out of him without having done him any harm. They

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were all amazed and kept saying to one another, “What kind of utterance is this? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and out they come!” And a report about him began to reach every place in the region. (Luke 4:21-27)

You get the picture, right? Rock star status. Those same crowds, just a few days before this

shabby, mock trial, on the day that we now call Palm Sunday, when Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, threw down palm leaves and they were shouting his praises, literally calling him the King of the Jews, their Messiah, their Saviour.

And yet now, just a few days later, whipped up by the religious leaders, manipulated by them again, here they are baying for His blood, “Crucify him.” What a brutal response! No wonder politicians say that the opinion polls are fickle. There’s a great saying that, “a week is a long time in politics.” It was as true back then as it is today.

Look at it again, when the mob is given a choice, they say, “We want Barabbas, we want Barabbas”, and of Jesus, “Crucify him”. When Pilate asked them about Jesus they screamed, “Crucify him!” To the point that ultimately Pilate went against his own judgement, he was weak, afraid of the crowd, he had Jesus beaten and had him handed over to be crucified, just get this, instead of Barabbas.

Jesus was clearly innocent. Barabbas on the other hand, was a murderer who had led an insurrection against Roman rule, who had threatened the absolute authority and might of the Roman Empire.

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It’s difficult to imagine a greater travesty of justice than that which took place on that day.

But let’s zoom in now on the switcheroo that went on here: the unjust substitution. Barabbas, whose name, as we saw, means son of the father, was the murderer. He should have gone to the cross. But instead, he was set free and the innocent Jesus was crucified in his place.

Who was Jesus, exactly? Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:13-17)

The Son of God. The Son of the Father. Are you getting this? In the Hebrew culture your name was of utmost importance. It wasn’t just your name. It’s meaning defined you.

Barabbas – the son of the father.Jesus – the Son of the Father. Jesus went to the cross instead of Barabbas.

Barabbas deserved it, but Jesus wore it. Barabbas was the murderer, but Jesus was killed. Barabbas was the one who hurt people, and yet Jesus suffered in his place. Barabbas, the son of the

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father was guilty and yet he went free, because Jesus, the Son of the Father who was innocent went to the cross. It was a substitutionary death. Sound vaguely familiar, does it?

And who judged Jesus and Barabbas? Not Pilate. Pilate wasn’t the one who sent Jesus to the cross. It was the angry mob, the religious leaders, the very people whom Jesus had come to set free. His own people whom He’d loved, whom He’d healed, whom He’d taught.

They were the ones who turned against Him; they were the ones who crucified Jesus. What does that mean for you and for me?

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:6-9)

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How has “zooming in” on the trial scene impacted your heart? How has it changed the way you think about “Easter”?

QUESTION 1

LIFE APPLICATION QUESTIONS

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If you’d been there on that Passover, if you’d seen and heard what had gone on, would you have been part of that angry crowd, baying for Jesus’ blood or not? Why do you think that?

QUESTION 2

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QUESTION 3Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes. What do you think was going through His heart and mind during this terrible time? Why?

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QUESTION 4Now, put yourself in Barabbas’ shoes. What do you think was going through his heart and mind during this terrible time? Why?

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QUESTION 5What is God starting to speak into your heart about the relationship between Jesus and Barabbas?

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QUESTION 6Once again, take some time to draw aside and ask the Holy Spirit to write the Easter message on your heart.

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CHAPTER 3

So, let me ask you a question? Who is Barabbas? There was Pilate, there was Jesus, there was Barabbas, and there was the angry mob. To the angry mob, Barabbas was just that criminal and murderer, it was, after all, the Passover festival.

The Passover was a celebration of the time when God had released His people out of slavery in Egypt centuries before, by sending plagues on Egypt, the final plague being the death of the firstborn in every Egyptian household.

And so that, as the angel of death passed over the land of Egypt, the Israelite would be spared, God had said to them, “Get a lamb, take it’s blood, smear it on the top of your door and the angel of death will pass over your house, so that you won’t suffer that death.”

You can read about it in Exodus Chapter 12. That’s a great chapter to read each year around

Who is Barabbas?

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Easter time. And following that, God commanded (Exodus 13) that His people were to celebrate the Passover every year.

But now, over a millennium later (that’s rather a long time) God’s people were once again subjugated to a foreign power, in this case the Romans. And there was this tradition, where the Roman Governor and the Passover festival, all these years later, would release one criminal to the people. As we’ve already seen, Barabbas was the man this year.

Bar Abba, son of the father, one of God’s children. And in that name, lies a shocking truth. A truth about you, me and Barabbas.

You see, in this story as it unfolded under the sovereign hand of God the shocking truth is that you and I are Barabbas.

I said before that attitudes to sin vary enormously in our society today. So many people see sin as an outdated concept, but the whole point of creation was for us to have a relationship with God and yet, in our free will we rejected Him. When we did that, we missed the point and that’s the definition of sin. It’s conspicuous, you can’t hide it, andy more than you could hide the sin of Barabbas. And the truth is that we’re all guilty … and the wages of sin is death.

But how can that possibly be? God is wondrous and perfect and holy and awesome and loving so it’s hard to imagine love and judgement in that same God.

My friend Paul the magistrate, is a fair and compassionate man, but he’s also just. As I look at him it gives me some understanding of how those two things fit together in God’s.

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If God is truly God, then you would expect Him to be just, would you not? At least as just as my magistrate friend, but hopefully, a whole lot more just if that makes sense. If my friend Paul saw a young man, a juvenile, who’d committed a serious crime and from the bench pronounced that this same young man could walk free, would you be happy with that sort of justice? No!

Justice is justice and turning our backs on God is a serious thing. Very serious, punishable by eternal death.

For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. (Matthew 16:27)

And yet, God isn’t just loving. God is love! (1 John 4:8) God doesn’t want you or me to suffer that punishment that we deserve.

So if God is both love and justice, then when it comes to the likes of thee and me, sinners, deserving of eternal separation from Him, eternal death, now He has a huge dilemma.

How does He satisfy both the demands of His justice and the desires of His love for a sinner like you and me? What is He to do?

It turns out that there was only one way:… the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28)… but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:9)

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The only way to do both, was to let Jesus die a substitutionary death for you and me, as He did for Barabbas.

That’s the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s the power of love. That’s the power of God’s grace and mercy that He would send His beloved Son, through whom the whole universe was created, to suffer and die, that we may go free. Just like Barabbas.

So that when we put our faith in Jesus, we’re forgiven.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ( John 3:14-17)

You too are one of the sons and daughters of Abba, Dad, God. We too are loved by Him and we too can put our faith in Jesus and believe with our hearts and with our heads that on that first Easter, on that cross, Jesus paid the price of our sin and when we believe in Him we have complete forgiveness.

Finally Pilate handed him over to be crucified so the soldiers took charge of Jesus, carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the

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skull which is in Aramaic is called Golgotha. Here they crucified him and with him, two others, one on each side and Jesus in the middle and Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened it 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 priest of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Don’t write ‘The King of the Jews’ but that this man claimed to be the king of the Jews.” And Pilate answered them, “What I have written, I have written.”When the soldiers crucified Jesus they took his clothes off, 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, “Lets not tear it.” They said to one another, “Lets decide by lot who gets it.” This happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled which said, “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” 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 his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son.” And to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that time on this disciple took her into his home. Later, knowing that all was completed and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I’m thirsty.”

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A jar of wine vinegar was there so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of hyssop plant and lifted it to Jesus lips. When he had received a drink Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” ( John 19:16-30)

That’s the price, the price that Jesus paid for you and me and as much as we here in the 21st century might have a cultural problem with the notion of sin, it doesn’t change anything, it doesn’t change God, it doesn’t change who God is, why God created us and the reality that you and I both have fallen short of the glory of God, you and I both have rejected God just as Barabbas did.

And above all, it doesn’t change the fact that to fulfill both the demands of justice and the desires of love, God sent His beloved Son to suffer and die on our behalf.

Mercy is when God withholds the punishment that we so richly deserve. Grace is when God pours out the blessings that we so obviously don’t deserve. And the Good News, the utterly Fantastic News of the cross of Christ, is that the gift of forgiveness, the gift of a new life, the gift of life eternal are all completely free, because Jesus has paid the price for you and me!

Hallelujah.And that truth is no less shocking, no less

unjust than the truth that Jesus died on behalf of Barabbas, at the hands of an angry mob.

So many people in our society have this nagging sense that they’re not good enough to go to God and ask for His forgiveness. And the reason for that is that it’s true! We aren’t good enough and

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it precisely for that reason that God comes to us through the cross of Jesus Christ and cries out to us and says, ‘‘I love you. You are my Barabbas. You are my child and I love you and I sent my Son Jesus to pay the price. Look at my Son, look at the cross, put your faith in Him and you can have eternal life, a new life, a fresh life, a life that begins now.”

When we believe in Jesus, we have the forgiveness that Jesus purchased, the door is flung open to a deep relationship with God, we have eternal life. When we believe.

You, me and Barabbas.

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A Final PrayerLord God, We scarce can take it in. The story of Jesus and Barabbas is horrific and yet, no more or less horrific than the story of our own sin, and the death that Jesus tasted on our behalf.My Lord and my God let the gravity of what you did for us through the Cross of Christ sink deep into our hearts, never to be erased, never to evaporate, never to be forgotten. Dear Holy Spirt fill our hearts with gratitude and joy unspeakable, in the knowledge of the gift of life that we have through Jesus. Soften our hearts to the hurting lives around us, that through our thoughts, words and deeds, others would come to know Jesus, and the true life that only He brings.And Lord Jesus, thank you, thank you, thank you for going to that cross for us. We worship you and adore you. We bow our lives down before you. We declare you as the Lord of our lives.Lead us forward to serve you in joy and in sacrifice, with the power of the cross and the life of the empty tomb in our hearts. In Jesus name we pray,Amen.

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Here at Christianityworks our passion is seeing countless lives transformed one by one, as we share the good news of Jesus through the media around the globe.It’s something that we’ve been doing since 1957. Of course back then we were known as Back to the Bible, changing our name to Christianityworks in 2001.Today, the radio and television broadcasts that we produce with the support of friends like you, reach a weekly audience that we conservatively estimate to be over 20 million people in 160 countries.We believe that as we make innovative use of mass media – radio, television, digital + online and print – God works mightily by His Spirit and His Word, transforming lives. In fact, its not something that we just believe, it’s something that we know.We receive so many testimonies each month from around the globe, of lives that have been saved, touched and transformed as God works through the ministry of Christianityworks.Thank you for remembering that Christianityworks is a faith based ministry. We rely on the support of friends like you to reach the lost with the saving love of Jesus.Your secure, online gift today, will make a powerful difference in the lives of so many.To give, just visit: christianityworks.com/donate.Thank you with all my heart.Your friend in Jesus,

Berni Dymet

About Christianityworks

Here at Christianityworks our passion is seeing countless lives transformed one by one, as we share the good news of Jesus through the media around the globe.

It’s something that we’ve been doing since 1957. Of course back then we were known as Back to the Bible, changing our name to Christianityworks in 2001.

Today, the radio and television broadcasts that we produce with the support of friends like you, reach a weekly audience that we conservatively estimate to be over 20 million people in 160 countries.

We believe that as we make innovative use of mass media – radio, television, digital + online and print – God works mightily by His Spirit and His Word, transforming lives.

In fact, its not something that we just believe, it’s something that we know.

We receive so many testimonies each month from around the globe, of lives that have been saved, touched and transformed as God works through the ministry of Christianityworks.

Thank you for remembering that Christianityworks is a faith based ministry. We rely on the support of friends like you to reach the lost with the saving love of Jesus.

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Your friend in Jesus,

Berni Dymet

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This amazing hidden truth in the Easter story will turn your life upside down!

The Shocking Truth about You, Me and Barabbas

Easter’s a bit of a funny time of the year. I mean, in a sense,

we probably understand what God was up to at Easter. But

you know, there’s a real danger that we say, “Well yeah, I

understand Easter” and we just put it in a box on the shelf

marked, “Easter”

But Easter is a time of wonder and awe. And when we open

God’s Word and hear His voice, His heartbeat – Easter is just

completely beyond our understanding. There’s no box that

could contain this thing that we’ve neatly labelled, “Easter”.

In this latest booklet of Christianityworks, Berni Dymet does

just that – opens God’s Word and discovers that in God’s eyes,

we’re worth dying for!

B e r n i D y m e t