Tag: Easter

Resurrecting

Posted on by Dorci

 

Just before the 6:24 am sunrise in Jerusalem:

“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 
but when they entered,
they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.”
Luke 24:1-3

 

 

 

 

Resurrecting 
by Elevation Worship

The head that once was crowned with thorns
Is crowned with glory now
The Savior knelt to wash our feet
Now at His feet we bow
 
The One who wore our sin and shame
Now robed in majesty
The radiance of perfect love
Now shines for all to see
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our king
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our King
 
The fear that held us now gives way
To Him who is our peace
His final breath upon the cross
Is now alive in me
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our King
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ, our King
 
By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me
In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory (c’mon!)
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected king, is resurrecting me
He’s resurrecting me

Our God is good, oh
The tomb where soldiers watched in vain
Was borrowed for three days
His body there would not remain

Our God has robbed the grave
Our God has robbed the grave (yes He has, yes He has)
 
Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ our King

Your name, Your name
Is victory
All praise, will rise
To Christ our King
 
By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

By Your Spirit I will rise
From the ashes of defeat
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me

In Your name I come alive
To declare Your victory
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me
The resurrected King, is resurrecting me,
Oh yeah

Crucify Him!

Posted on by Dorci

They all answered, “Crucify him!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ultimately, it was our sins that shouted “Crucify him!” that morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And when Pilate told the crowd “I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is your responsibility!” they answered “His blood is on us and on our children!”

All praise and glory to God, it is.

His blood covers us, forgives us, purifies us, so that the penalty of sin – death – passes over us. 

Our Redeemer Lives

Posted on by Dorci

The Place of Victory

Posted on by Dorci

“And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly…”
Luke 22:44

 

I grew up in a small, older house on a hill that had one unusual but useful feature: a sundeck.  When things got especially stressful inside the house, which they often did, and I wanted to run away, I’d walk outside and up the stairs to my solitary place on the roof.  There I sat alone and quiet, as far away from my troubles and the world as I could get, looking out over the valley below.

As I grew older and was able to get away from the house, without really realizing it, I carried my sundeck inside me. And when life got rough, which it often did, I’d run away by crawling inside myself, alone and quiet.

Even after Christ came into my heart, there have still been times when circumstances were so overwhelmingly painful that I did what I always did – withdrew inside myself, running away from the world, even from God.

There I’d sit, alone and quiet, where thoughts and anxiety replaced words.

But words are sometimes necessary for prayer. And without prayer I’d effectively shut God out of my circumstances, out of my pain, and out of my answers.

There can be no more painful trial than what Christ faced in the garden as He prayed about the speeding train that was coming straight for Him – arrest, rejection, torture, and death. Death on a cross.

A death that would cause Him, a perfect man who had never known the guilt and shame of sin, to feel more than an agonizing death, but the weight of every sin that had ever or would ever be committed.

If there were ever a darkness to descend on someone that could cause anxiety and a loss for words, this was it.

“And being in anguish…”

This was not just anxiety or worry.  The Greek word for anguish is agonia, meaning agony, and it comes from another word agone, which is “a place of assembly (as if led), that is, a contest (held there); an effort or anxiety – conflict, contention, fight, race.”

Christ had withdrawn to the garden as He faced the darkest, bleakest time of His life, but not to shut out the world, to run to His Father.  To pray, and not just any prayer. This was a fight.

He agonized with the conflict in His own humanity, asking His Father if it was His will that He would remove the suffering, and He fought against the enemy.

But the harder the prospect of deep suffering pressed in to Him and the anguish weighed on Him, the harder He pressed into the Father.

He prayed more earnestly.

The more He struggled the more intently and more fervently He prayed, so much that He sweat drops of blood falling to the ground.

By the time He left the garden of olive trees, He was strengthened in His Spirit, one with the Father, and resolute in His purpose.  He was ready.

Because He turned to His Father, He went through the suffering and was victorious in accomplishing His will, for the joy set before Him…

Sometimes in our anguish we are tempted to turn to other things.

This world offers a million things and people and ways to get through our times of suffering.

But only one way will bring us through suffering even more strengthened, more courageous, and in the end victorious, and that is by pressing into God through prayer.

Sometimes all we have in prayer are groans, but even then the Holy Spirit knows our hearts and our minds and is able to interpret those groans and intercede to the Father on our behalf. He knows what we need even when we do not. All we need to do is show up.

Christ found victory in the garden through prayer before He ever saw the cross, and we’ll find victory, too, if we’ll show up in our garden, our sundeck, our closet, wherever we seek the Lord and His will and provision, and pray.  Don’t mull, don’t pout, don’t feel sorry for ourselves, and don’t try to figure it out on our own.

Pray.  With whatever faith we have, enter into the throne room of God by the blood of Christ and pray the boldest prayers we know how.

Prayer is the avenue that gives us His strength to keep believing in the darkest trials, to line up our will with God’s, to fill us with His peace, and to give us a vision of the joy set before us…

Christ showed us the way in the garden.  And because He was victorious, in death and in life, so are we.  His joy was to bring reconciliation and relationship between the Lord and us. His joy was to know us now and forever.

And our joy, if we’ll seek Him even in our darkest times, especially in our darkest times, is to be more than conquerors.  To conquer our sins and our fears on the backs of those trials, and through it all to know Christ, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Friend, now and forever.

“Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’m about to call each conqueror to dinner. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.”
Revelation 2:7 The Message

 

The Cross is Just the Beginning

Posted on by Dorci

“Then Jesus said to His disciples,
If anyone desires to come after Me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”
Matthew 16:24
 

It is just into the first century.  The roads are dusty, the work is back-breaking, the nights are long.  The religious leaders are corrupt, and the Roman Empire rules the region with an iron hand.  Taxes are exorbitant and punishment is cruel.  Beheading, strangling, being buried alive, and among the worst: crucifixion.  Being hung on a cross.  The people are afraid, looking for a savior.

A man called Jesus has risen from among them and has garnered a following.  He teaches in the Temple, raises the dead, makes the blind to see, and feeds thousands from five loaves of bread and two fish.

The people begin to have hope, especially the twelve who are His constant companions, those He’s taken under His wing.

But He begins to talk of suffering.  That He “must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”  Luke 9:22

And then He drops a bombshell.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”  Luke 9:23

Those with Him look around at one another with a stunned and confused look on their faces.

Take up our cross?  Daily? What is he talking about?

Jesus would predict His own death two more times. He would lead the way.

Still, His friends couldn’t grasp what He was saying.

The night comes and He is betrayed by one of them and dragged before Herod Antipas, the son of Herod of Great who was responsible for killing all the boys under the age of two when he heard that men had come to worship the one who was born King of the Jews.  Herod Antipas sends him to Pontius Pilate, and Pilate sends Him first to be flogged, and then to the cross.

 

Jesus carries His cross until near collapse from exhaustion and pain. He is nailed to it, and lifted up to a punishment reserved for the worst of criminals.  A punishment designed to not only torture and kill, but to shame and send a message to all those watching.

His friends scatter. Their minds are reeling from the events they’d just seen. They think back to the time Jesus said they must take up their cross.

Are we next?

Darkness comes over the land.  Jesus dies and is buried in a tomb.

And that is that. Hope is lost. Death is the end.

But then the morning of the third day comes.

 

It is evening now and the disciples are gathered together in a room with the doors locked for fear of facing their own torture, grieving over the death of their friend and the hope He’d given them for a better life, when suddenly they hear –

“Peace be with you!”

It’s Him! Wait..is it? Is it a ghost?  No!  It’s Jesus! And their joy comes flooding back.

And again – 

“Peace be with you!”

They laugh and hug and rejoice, and they realize death was not the end. 

It was only the beginning.

Maybe the understanding about what He meant by denying themselves, taking up their cross and following Him came as slowly to them as it does to us.  But He had given them a stark picture.

It doesn’t mean reluctantly accepting a disease, or a difficult relationship.  It doesn’t mean sacrificing any one thing.

It means dying.  To everything.

Sacrificing oneself. 

Willingly, wholeheartedly, just as He had done.

The word Jesus used when He said “deny” themselves is aparneomai – to deny utterly.  To disown.

If we want to follow Christ, to be His disciple, the only way is to follow Him all the way to the cross.  Not a literal cross, of course, but a cross for the flesh, the self will.  It is saying to the Father what He said in the garden: “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Christ might have in mind for us to go and do and say what we wouldn’t dare.  Will we follow? Will we die to our desires, let go of our fears, and go with Him?

Dying to our wishes and desires, giving up the life we had in mind, is not the end!

There is the glorious morning.  A new beginning.

It is the beginning to a bigger, better life than we had ever imagined. Infinitely bigger than a life of catching fish.

We will become fishers of men, and women and children and neighbors and family.

When we walk with the risen Christ, we are filled with Life ourselves, and all that He is and has for us.

Peace be with you!

 

Preparation Day

Posted on by Dorci

“As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”
Matthew 26.2

The timing of Jesus’ crucifixion was no coincidence.  God’s timing never is.

It was Passover, a seven-day holiday commemorating the day some 1336 years before when God delivered His people out of Egypt from the bonds of slavery.

In the last plague carried out before their freedom, the Destroyer would pass through Egypt, striking down every firstborn.

But to the Israelites He gave this command: kill the Passover lamb, spread its blood on the doorposts, remain inside, and the Destroyer will pass over the blood-stained homes and spare the firstborn.

This action more than a 1000 years before Christ’s death foreshadowed the freedom from slavery to sin that would be given to anyone who would choose to find refuge in the blood of the Lamb of God.

“It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. ‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, ‘Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!’”
John 19:14-15

It was the day before the Sabbath. In the Hebrew culture, no work was to be done on the Sabbath, so all the arrangements for it – the cooking, cleaning, everything, had to be done by sundown the day before, known as Preparation Day.

Christ died on Preparation Day.

The work given to Him by His Father – His arrest, trials, beating, and His death on the cross to pay for our sins – was completed that day.

And He rested on the Sabbath.

Because Jesus, the Perfect Lamb of God, completed the work given to Him – the shedding of His blood as payment for sins – anyone who takes refuge in Him, who believes in Him as Lord will be forgiven and freed from the slavery of sin.

And those souls can rest in their freedom.

But God wasn’t finished.

Then came Sunday morning.  The guards, the seal, the stone, even death itself could not hold Him.

He triumphantly rose from the grave, showing His power over death. And because He did, not only do we have freedom from sin, but freedom from spiritual death.

Could there be any greater love?  Any greater gift?

Though we are free from the punishment of sin and death, we still wrestle in our flesh until we are brought into the presence of Christ and fully enter into our eternal rest from these earthly bodies.

As we walk toward that day, let us remember that nothing in Him is a coincidence.  His timing, His choosing of our trials, are all to prepare us for that great and glorious day.

Until then, in this preparation time, let us “prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him” as we “continue to work out {our} salvation with fear and trembling” in expectation of the day we enter our complete and eternal rest.

 

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son to die for our sins in our place.  Thank you, Lord Jesus, for obediently finishing the work The Father gave to you.  And thank you, Holy Spirit, for all you do to help prepare our hearts for our day of eternal rest when you bring us Home. We are so grateful, LORD, for your love and grace and mercy in our lives. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

 

The Resurrection and The Life

Posted on by Dorci

Easter resized

“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.  The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here;
He has risen, just as He said.'”
Matthew 28:1-6

 

Happy Easter!

The King of the Jews

Posted on by Dorci

“Above His head they placed the written charge against Him: “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS” Matthew 27:37

This was the charge.  They had pointedly asked Him “Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

He couldn’t deny it.

They immediately surrounded Him and spit on Him.  They punched Him with their fists and slapped Him. They mocked Him saying “Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?”

It had begun.

Meanwhile, Peter had fallen fast and hard.  After he denied ever knowing Jesus for the third time, a rooster crowed, just like Christ predicted.  Jesus was close enough to look into Peter’s eyes, “And he (Peter) went outside and wept bitterly.” Matthew 26:75

Judas, too, was seized with remorse, and went back to the chief priests and the elders who had paid him money to betray his Friend saying, “I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood.” Matthew 27:4

But they didn’t care, and they didn’t forgive his sin.

The crowd was asking for Barabbas, a notorious insurrectionist and murderer — charges worthy of crucifixion — to be released and for Jesus to take his place.

Why would they want a known murderer back out on the streets, and a man who just a week prior they had celebrated calling Him “Son of David!”?

The murderer hadn’t personally betrayed them, but Jesus had.

Jesus had come into Jerusalem — their beloved city, the city of God — riding on a donkey, a sign of peace.  They thought He was their messiah, their savior, their king…and now He was arrested and at the mercy of the leaders.

He didn’t look at all like a savior or a king.  He had lied to them, and they were angry.

They shouted “Crucify Him!”

But when Pilate pressed them, they answered “His blood is on us and on our children!” Matthew 27:25

Cat-O’-Nine-Tails

And so it would be.  But in His mercy, that was God’s plan all along.

By now Jesus’s face and head would be swollen and dripping with blood, teeth knocked to the ground.

They ordered Him to be scourged.

Prior to crucifixion, Romans routinely used a cat-o’-nine-tails — a whip fixed with small pieces of metal or bone at the end.  He would be whipped up to forty times.  

His flesh was torn from the bone, exposing organs, tendons, nerves.  Blood flowed profusely.  His body began to shake with shock, and then it started to shut down.

Then soldiers dragged Him back inside the court room.  They took off His clothes and put a scarlet robe on Him and gave Him a staff.  Someone ripped a branch off a thorny bush and twisted it into a crown and shoved it on his head, spikes stabbing His flesh.  They spit on Him again, grabbed the staff and hit Him in the head over and over.  They took the robe and put His clothes back on.The pain was excruciating, but there was still the road to Golgotha.

A crossbeam weighing a hundred pounds was heaved onto his mangled, screaming back.  He struggled and stumbled under the weight of it, and Simon from Cyrene was pulled from the crowd to carry His cross.

Some prisoners were only tied to their crosses.  Nailing was left for those who were seen as especially heinous.

His clothes were taken and He was laid on the ground while large nails were driven through flesh and bone, sending burning pain up through His arms and legs.  He was heaved up onto the main beam, and a sign naming His charge was nailed to the top:

THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Through all of it every word He spoke was full of grace and mercy and compassion and forgiveness.  

Even through the magnitude of His torture, none of it matched the pain of the sin — from the garden where sin began to the end of time – that was heaped upon Him.  Every vile murder, every sickening rape, every twisted abuse, every act of adultery… Peter’s and Judas’s betrayal.  Yours and mine. Every sin was laid on Him.

And He bore it all with love.

Once our sin was paid for, it was up to us to choose whether or not to accept that payment.

Judas chose to confess his sin to the wrong men.  No one has authority to forgive sin but God though the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. Confession to anyone else is futile. In his overwhelming guilt, he hung himself. 

Peter would face Christ and his sin would be forgiven, his guilt and shame forever taken away.

Jesus once asked His friends, “Who do you say I am?” Matthew 16:15

He asks every one of us that same question.  People who lived near Jesus believed all kinds of things about Him, but only one thing was true: He really was the King of the Jews, and of anyone who would call on His Name.  But His kingdom wasn’t an earthly one.  They wanted to make Him king, but He wasn’t just king, savior, messiah, He was King, Savior, Messiah! His kingdom was a spiritual one.  He was King of all kings, with all power and authority, for all time and eternity.  He was and is more than they could have ever imagined.

My friend, if you don’t already know it, Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, and that includes you. He died for your sins so you don’t have to.  So you can be free of the weight and the guilt and shame.  So you can live in peace and know you have a home waiting in heaven.

God loves you. It’s why He sent His Son to the cross.  Confess your sin to Him today, and He promises to forgive you, for “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other Name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

Perhaps you’re angry at God.  Maybe you’ve accused Him of some wrongdoing, like the crowd had.  Their expectations drove them into sin, but they would have a chance to confess and be forgiven, too.  Soon they would see that everything Jesus claimed to be was true, because the story was just beginning…

 

The Garden of Crushing

Posted on by Dorci

“Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’  He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled.  Then He said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me’” Matthew 26:36-38

Jesus and the apostles walked around the massive, ancient olive trees, past the cemeteries, to the foot of the mountain and into the garden of Gethsemane.  The word Gethsamane means oil press.

Olives are not just squeezed to make oil, they must be crushed. The better the olive, the better and purer the oil.

Christ walked deep into the garden and allowed the Father to begin to crush Him.

The physician Luke even noted in 22:44 “And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”

He had matured, that is, He had all but finished His work, like the olives that are ready for crushing.  In a garden is where sin entered the world, and there in the garden of Gethsamane would now be the beginning of victory over it.

And there Christ personified the olive oil that was so precious and significant.

In the way it was used as an offering, He would be the sacrifice, once for all.

In the way it was used as currency, He would be the payment for all sins.

In the way it was used to anoint for service, He would anoint His Church.

In the way it was used as fuel for lamps to give light, His Spirit would fill us and make us a light for all the world to see and glorify Him.

In the way it was used to beautify wives, Christ would beautify and prepare His Bride.

In the way the olive branch is a symbol of peace and victory, through Him and His sacrifice there would be peace between God and man, and victory over all sin.

And if there was a shred of doubt left in anyone’s mind about whether or not this was all the Father’s doing —

“So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, ‘Who is it you want?’

‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied.

‘I am He,’ Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, ‘I am He,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.” John 18:3-6

The power of God accomplishes what it will, and when God wants to bring people to their knees, they fall to their knees.  These men who came under their own authority found they had none at all.  All authority rested with God’s Son.

While Jesus’s prayers empowered Him, the apostles’ lack of prayer weakened them, again causing Peter and the others to lean on their own devices instead of Christ.  Peter lobbed off the ear of the servant Malchus, and they would all eventually desert their Friend.

After Jesus healed the servant’s ear, He allowed them to bind him and take Him away.

Tomorrow: The Cross.