When he returned to the disciples, he found them asleep and asked them, "Why are you sleeping? Couldn't you stay awake for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation, for your spirit is willing, but your body is weak." Then he went away for a second time to pray, "My Father, if it is not possible to take this painful thing from me, and if I must do it, I pray that what you want will happen." Jesus went back to his followers and found that they had fallen asleep again, so he went and prayed a third time. When he came back the last time, they were still a sleep so he told them, "Wake up! It is nearly time for the Son of Man to be betrayed by sinners! Here comes my betrayer."

After he left the meal, Judas had gone to the high priests and made arrangements with them and the soldiers about how they would know Jesus. "The one who I kiss is the one to arrest.", he said. When they arrived where Jesus and his disciples were, Judas went up to Jesus and kissed him and said, "Greetings, Teacher." And with that, the soldiers arrested Jesus.

Jesus was taken to the court of Caiaphas (the High Priest), the teachers of the law and the Jewish Elders. Peter followed at a distance into the courtyard. He sat down with the guards to see what would happen. The priests and the Sanhedrin (the name of the Jewish parliament) brought lots of witnesses who told lies about Jesus. But nothing could be proved and Jesus would not say anything to defend himself. Finally, the High Priest said to him, "I ask you under oath: Are you the Son of God?" Jesus replied, "You say that I am." Then the High Priest said, "He has spoken against God!! Do we need any more witnesses?" The other priests replied, "He should die for what he has said!" 

Meanwhile, in the courtyard, a servant girl came up to Peter and said, "You were with Jesus of Galilee." Peter said, "I don't know what you're talking about." Then he went out to the gateway where another girl saw him and told the people around her, "This man was with Jesus of Galilee." Peter said, "I swear I don't know him!" After a little while, the people standing around the gate came up to Peter and said, "Surely you were with him, your accent gives you away." (People from Galilee had a different accent to people in Jerusalem.) Now Peter became angry and said, "I don't know the man!!" Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had told him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." He went outside and cried. He had denied knowing Jesus because he was scared that he might be arrested.

To sentence someone to death, the Jewish leaders had to have the Roman Governor's permission. So even thought it was now getting towards dawn (and against Jewish law!) they took Jesus before the Roman governor, Pilate, who asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus replied, "Those are your words." The priests and chief elders then began accusing him and still, Jesus did nothing to defend himself (much to the amazement of Pilate). The governor said, "Don't you hear how they're accusing you?" But still, Jesus didn't say anything!

Pilate didn't know what to do with Jesus. Because he didn't think he had done anything wrong, he sent him to the Jewish King Herod. Herod was pleased that Jesus had been arrested and questioned him, but again, Jesus said nothing. So, Herod made fun of him and Herod's soldiers beat Jesus up. Then Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate as he didn't know what to do with Jesus either!

It was the custom, at the time Passover, for the Roman governor to release one Jewish prisoner chosen by the ordinary people. At that time, they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. When Pilate asked the crowd who they wanted released. The Priests stirred up the crowd, so they called for Barabbas. Pilate asked them, "What do you want me to do with Jesus, who is called King of the Jews?" They answered back, let by the Priests, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"

Pilate asked them, "Why? What crime has he committed?" But they shouted even louder, "CRUCIFY HIM!! CRUCIFY HIM!!" When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, he took some water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. (This is where we get the phrase 'washing our hands of something' when we want to show that we don't want the blame if something goes wrong!) Then Pilate released Barabbas. Jesus was flogged and handed him over to be crucified.

The governor's soldiers took Jesus into the governor's palace and gathered around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and then twisted together a crown of thorns and rammed it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" They spat on him and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had beaten him up, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

As the soldiers led him away, they grabbed a man named Simon, (who was from Cyrene and on his way in from the country) from the watching crowd and made him carry the cross because Jesus had been beaten so badly, he was too weak to do so.

When they came to the place where they executed people, called Golgotha or 'The Place of the Skull', they offered Jesus cheap wine to drink to help stop the pain, but after he tasted it, he refused to drink it. When they had nailed Jesus up on to the Cross, the Jewish rulers among the crowd sneered at Jesus, saying, "If you are so wonderful and the King of the Jews, save yourself." An inscription, in Greek, Latin and Hebrew, was written on a bit of wood and put over Jesus' head on the cross. It read, "THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS." Jesus prayed to God, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing."

They sat down to dinner and Jesus said grace. As he broke the bread to eat, the disciple realized it was Jesus. (They might have seen the holes in Jesus's hands where the nails had been.) They were amazed and ran all the way back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples in Jerusalem what had happened!

They found the other disciples in a locked room because they were scared of being found by the Jewish leaders. While the two disciples were saying what had happened, Jesus appeared in the room and said, "Peace be with you!" They were scared and thought Jesus was a ghost. But Jesus said "Look at my hands and feet, it is me. Touch my hands where the nails went in. A ghost doesn't have a body!"

He showed them his pierced hands where the nails had gone in and they believed it was him, Alive! Jesus ate some fish with them and explained why he had died and that he would soon go back to heaven. He also explained that he would send a helper, the Holy Spirit, to live in and help all of Jesus's followers. He told them not to leave Jerusalem until the Helper had come. He also told them to go and tell other people about him and that he loves everyone so much he died for them.

But there was one disciple who wasn't there when Jesus first appeared, his name was Thomas and he doubted that Jesus really was alive. He said that unless he saw the holes in Jesus hands, he wouldn't believe that he was raised from the dead.

The next week, the disciples were in the room again. This time Thomas was with them. Even though the room was locked, Jesus still appeared to them. He showed Thomas his hands. Thomas touched him and said, "My Lord and My God!" And believed that Jesus was alive.

40 days after Jesus rose from the dead, he got his followers together and took them out to Bethany. He prayed for them and while he was doing so, he was carried back up into Heaven. A shining cloud covered Jesus, but suddenly two men dressed in white shining clothes stood next to Jesus and said "Why are you looking into the sky? Jesus who you saw going into heaven will return the same way!"

The disciples went back to Jerusalem as Jesus had told them to do. A while later, the disciples were in a house waiting to celebrate Pentecost (the Jewish harvest festival). Suddenly there was a sound like a strong blowing wind in the house. They saw things like flames of fire that came and rested on each of the disciples. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, the helper just as Jesus had promised.

They went outside and to tell people about Jesus and found that people from lots of different countries could understand what they were saying. (People from different countries were staying in Jerusalem then for the Pentecost festival.) The people didn't understand this was possible, some people thought they were all drunk! But Peter said "How can we be drunk? It's nine o'clock in the morning!"

The disciples found that by the power of the Holy Spirit, they could speak lots of different languages. They told all the people about Jesus and what he did for everyone. Over 3000 people became Christians that day!

People have been telling others about Jesus all over the world, even today.