Month: April 2021

April 4: Resurrection Sunday

Read: Isaiah 25:6-9; John 20:1-18

⁶ On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. ⁷ And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. ⁸ He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

⁹ It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

These days it’s easy to be discouraged and disappointed and even a bit hopeless. We’ve just come through one of the most challenging years. Racial tensions, political divisions, and the pandemic strengthen the sense of hopelessness that had already invaded many people’s hearts and minds.

We have all around us a crisis of hope. Despite our wealth; despite the advances of technology; despite all the advances we’ve seen over the years, many lack peace and not everyone enjoys prosperity. Even those who have a degree of peace and prosperity find it doesn’t really satisfy. They want something more. So many people set their hearts on something and when they achieve it or receive it, they feel as empty and disappointed with it as they did without.

The resurrection offers something different. It offers true hope. It offers a hope that doesn’t disappoint. It offers hope that is rooted in history. Jesus really lived. He was really crucified. He really rose from the dead! He was seen by hundreds of people. His life, death, and resurrection prove there really is something beyond the grave! There is something better than all the things this world offers to satisfy our deepest desires, In Jesus, there is hope rooted in history!

The four gospels record that the first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection were women. At that time, women were not allowed to testify in a court of law. Their testimony didn’t count. And yet, they were the first recorded witnesses to the greatest work of God ever! Why would the gospel writers record their witness first unless it was true and added weight to the historic event?

The resurrection offers hope because it is powerful. This power that raised Jesus from the dead is now available to all who believe. It is the power to transform a life; to take us from the kingdom of darkness and bring us into the kingdom of light. It is the power of love and forgiveness and a future that is secure. It is the power of hope!

The resurrection offers a hope that is personal. Scripture says God knows our name. He numbers the hairs on our head. He knows our going in and out. He knew us in our mother’s womb. He loves us! He loves you and he loves me. Jesus died for you and for me and his resurrection offers hope that will never disappoint. Revelation 2:17even says that he will give each believer a new name that only he and that person will know.

The resurrection offers a hope that is magnificent. One day every person will face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). At the cross, those who believe have already been declared forgiven and free! The empty tomb declares we are alive and will be forever! Toward the end of his life, D.L. Moody said, “Someday you will read in the papers that Dwight Moody of East Northfield, Massachusetts is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment, I will be more alive than I am now.”

You may remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed because of resistance to Hitler, Before his death, he wrote to his parents from the cell, “I’m about to experience the supreme festival on the road to freedom.”

It’s incredible to think, even back in the days of the prophet Isaiah – nearly eight hundred years before Jesus would be raised from the dead – God told his people he would swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. He told them that one day it would be said, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Our King has come! Despite whatever circumstances we find in our lives and world, he offers us a hope that is historic, personal, powerful, and magnificent! He offers us the hope that he will never leave us in this life and the one to come. He offers us the hope that he will complete the work he began in us.

Do you have such hope? That’s the hope of the resurrection! That’s the hope we have as believers in Christ! That’s the hope that changes everything!

Questions for Reflection

Over the past year, have you had moments when you’ve struggled with a sense of hopelessness? Why do you think you have (or haven’t)?

Take time to imagine being with the disciples in the upper room when the women came back from the tomb and reported it was empty. What would you think? How would you feel?

Imagine you were there when Jesus first appeared to the disciples very much alive? How would you respond? How does the resurrection bring hope to you today? Ask the Lord if there’s any way he’s inviting you to live differently in light of this magnificent hope!

April 2: Good Friday

Read: Isaiah 52:13-53:12; John 18:1-19:42

²⁸ After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” ²⁹ A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. ³⁰ When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Good Friday. A strange name for a day when an innocent man was condemned and crucified, yet appropriate too for its part in changing history. Today we see it as good because we know that it is through the shed blood of Jesus that we have forgiveness of sin. We know his death took the place of all who believe. It is good because without it, we have no hope.

But the “good” in Good Friday actually comes from a sense of the word we’ve lost. The American Heritage Dictionary says that the word “good” used to have a sense of “pious” or “holy”. The day was called Good Friday in the sense of it being a holy day like the Bible is the “good book” because it is a “holy book”.

In Old English Good Friday was called “Long Friday” and it is still called that in Finnish. In German-speaking countries it is “Mourning Friday” or “Silent Friday” or even “High Friday, Holy Friday”.

In Greek, Polish, Hungarian, Arabic and Romanian it is generally called “Great Friday”. In Bulgarian it is sometimes known as “Crucified Friday”.

Whatever we choose to call it, it is a day the disciples of Jesus were saddened and mourned because they did not understand that Jesus’ death was necessary and temporary.

It was a day when evil rejoiced and those who opposed Jesus’ ministry thought they’d gotten rid of the Nazarene once and for all. They did not realize it was a day God had planned from time eternal, from before the foundation of the world when God would begin to undo what Satan had done in the Garden of Eden.

It was a day when the earth trembled. Darkness reigned. Hope was lost. A ransom was paid. Chains were broken. Death’s defeat begun. Judgment finished. A glimmer of hope found in the midst of a darkness.

Perhaps a better name for that Friday so long ago would be “Grace Friday” because on that day, God did for you and I what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus took upon himself the punishment we deserved.

Centuries earlier Isaiah declared that the Messiah would be a suffering servant. He wrote, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt…by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities…he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

When we were lost in sin and unable to save ourselves, Jesus died in our place. Falsely accused, beaten, and mocked, they crucified the King of glory. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4-5).

No matter what you call it, Good Friday, while a time of somber reflection, is also a time of joyful anticipation. Though Jesus’ followers had no understanding when Jesus told them about his death and resurrection, Sunday is coming! A day will dawn when their tears will become joy; the tomb will stand empty; and hope will be restored!

The late pastor, S.M. Lockridge, wrote a poem called “It’s Friday But Sunday’s Coming” (You can listen to the poem read by him here: (https://youtu.be/8gx6_rGLz20). It’s a powerful reminder that God is working in ways the people could not understand. His purposes were being fulfilled. He was using their evil to bring about the greatest good.

It was Friday. The Jewish leaders, the Roman authorities, and Satan himself thought they had won. They thought they had rid themselves of Jesus. But, they too, could not see past Friday or Saturday – all the way to Sunday!

His poem finishes:

It’s Friday
The soldiers nail my Savior’s hands
To the cross
They nail my Savior’s feet
To the cross
And then they raise him up
Next to criminals

It’s Friday
But let me tell you something
Sunday’s comin’

Questions for Reflection

Of the different alternative descriptions for “Good” Friday, which is your preference? Why?

Some people don’t think we should spend so much time reflecting on the cross because of the empty tomb. Do you agree with that? Why or why not? What can be gained by reflecting on the cross and our part in sending Jesus to it?

Is there anything you’ve felt the Holy Spirit impress on you that you want to pursue or avoid as you seek him in the future?