Day 52

Acts 9 & 10

And suddenly!

These are great words. God’s “suddenlies” are among His most wonderful works. The book of Acts is filled with “divine suddenlies.”

Pentecost was a divine suddenly.

And suddenly a sound came from heaven.

In chapter 16 we will see Paul and Silas delivered from prison by a divine suddenly.

And suddenly there was a great earthquake.

Here in Acts 9 we see that Paul’s salvation was a divine suddenly.

And suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.

So I believe in sudden revival and sudden deliverance and sudden salvation. Let that be an encouragement to you. God doesn’t need a lot of time to do the thing you are praying for. One moment it looks like nothing is happening…and suddenly!

I have a strong suspicion that this spring and summer is going to be a season of “and suddenly!” Dare to prophesy to your spring and summer and called it a season of suddenlies.

God is the greatest author of all and His sense of drama is unparalleled. I love the drama of divine surprise.

I got saved that way. I didn’t see it coming. One moment I was a typical long-haired Led Zeppelin freak…AND SUDDENLY!…I had a head-on collision with Jesus Christ and became the surprise Jesus freak of Savannah High School. People were surprised. I was more surprised than anyone. I still haven’t got over it. God is full of surprises! You know the Jehovah names of God? Jehovah-Shalom, Jehovah-Rapha, Jehovah-Jireh, etc. I want to give you a new one: Jehovah-Surprise!

God’s got a good surprise for you. Dare to believe it and let it make you happy.

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We are studying the book of Acts as part of the Unvarnished Jesus because we see in Acts how the ministry of Jesus continues and expands through His church. Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father and from there He presides over His church. In Acts 9 we see Jesus making Himself known to the anti-Christian zealot Saul of Tarsus who will come to be known as the Apostle Paul (talk about surprises!) and we see Jesus sending Ananias to Saul to get him healed and filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 10 we see the momentous event of Jesus opening the door of salvation to the Gentiles as Peter preaches the gospel to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea.*

* We always begin our tours of Israel in Caesarea. An appropriate place for Gentiles to begin a tour of the Holy Land. We have already filled one bus for our November Israel tour and now we’re filling up a second one. Get on board!

Jesus is the head of the church and He is calling the shots from the right hand of the throne of God. The church isn’t perfect, but the church is going to win, because it’s the thing Jesus is doing. The gates of hell will not prevail! You must be part of an authentic (shall I say unvarnished?) New Testament church to be a part of what Jesus is doing…to be in on the ACTSion…to have a front row seat to the drama of divine surprise!

Day 51

Acts 7 & 8

Stephen and Philip*. They were deacons in the first church. As such they were part of a team of seven men who oversaw the benevolent ministry of the church in Jerusalem; a church that may have been close to twenty thousand people. They also had powerful evangelistic and miracle ministries. Perhaps most importantly they were Hellenists; that is they were Jews who spoke Greek and adopted many aspects of Greek culture. They weren’t Gentiles, but they were very comfortable with many aspects of Greek culture. Through them God was preparing the church for the opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles that would come about ten years later.

* Don’t confuse Philip the Evangelist (the Hellenist deacon) with Philip the Apostle (one of the twelve disciples). They are two different men. The Philip we read about in Acts is Philip the Evangelist.

Stephen has the honor and distinction of being the first martyr of the church. A gate of the old city of Jerusalem bears his name because it is near the place where he was stoned to death. St. Stephen’s Gate.

Stephen was a first class debater with a keen mind and he also had a powerful miracle ministry. He was greatly used by God to bring many people to faith in Jesus and he was especially effective in leading priests to Jesus. When I think of Stephen I think of a man with an evangelistic and miracle ministry of someone like Reinhard Bonnke and the intellect and apologetic skills of someone like Ravi Zacharias. He was a powerful force for the gospel! A first century Ravi Bonnke!

When the Sanhedrin (the same religious council that had condemned Jesus to death) could not contend with Stephen’s intellectual arguments and his miracle anointing, they resorted to slander. They falsely accused him of blasphemy and put him on trial. You know the outcome. As Stephen was being stoned to death, he was given a vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of God. We are told that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, but Jesus stood to honor His faithful martyr. Present at the stoning of Stephen was a young man named Saul. We will meet him tomorrow. This Saul would have the same kind of ministry as Stephen; a powerful combination of intellect and miracles. Another Ravi Bonnke!

Philip was another powerful evangelist who had lots of miracles in his ministry. He was one of the first preachers to take the gospel beyond Jerusalem. He took the message of Jesus Christ to the Samaritans. The Samaritans were neither fully Jewish nor fully Gentile — they were a sort of hybrid. Again you can see God preparing the church for the gospel to come to the Gentiles.

Philip had great results in Samaria in getting people saved, but the Apostles in Jerusalem weren’t satisfied until the Samaritan believers had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. So they sent them Peter and John to lead them into the baptism in the Holy Spirit. We see very clearly in Acts that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a separate experience from salvation.

Water baptism and baptism in the Holy Spirit were very important to the church in Acts. We need to maintain a strong emphasis on these two baptisms if we want to have what they had. Book of Acts results requires book of Acts methods.

Amen!

BZ

Day 50

Acts 5 & 6

So, you want the church to be like it was in the book of Acts? Does that mean you want Christians who live a lie and you want people to fall over dead in church and you want racially motivated disputes within the church and you want a church that is the subject of vicious rumors and you want to be arrested and beaten for being a Christian? This too is part of the book of Acts. Acts 5 and 6 should deliver you from the naive notion that the early church was always pristine and pure and never a discouraging word was heard and the skies are not cloudy all day. Welcome to a little thing I like to call…REALITY!

POP!

(That’s the sound of your fantasy bubble bursting.)

As we move from the Gospels to Acts, we move from discovering the unvarnished Jesus to exploring the unvarnished church. And a varnish that often distorts our concept of Biblical Christianity is the gloss of perfectionism. The church in Acts was far…sometimes really far…from being perfect. Yes, we have Peter and Paul powerfully preaching the truth of the gospel. But we also have Ananias and Sapphira lying to the Holy Spirit. Yes, we have a church where people like Barnabas are sacrificially giving of their finances to meet the needs of the church. But we also have a church full of racial tension between Semitic Jews and Hellenistic Jews. Yes, we have a church that is marked by miracle ministry. But we also have a church where the leaders are publicly slandered and accused by the religious establishment of being blasphemers.

The book of Acts presents us an unvarnished picture of the church. What we see is the church as it really is — the good, the bad and the ugly. The good of miracles and revival. The bad of slander and persecution. The ugly of deceit and dispute. This is the way it is. And there are two simple reasons why we have the bad and ugly mixed with the good when it comes to the church:

1) The devil hasn’t been thrown into the lake of fire yet.

2) The church is made up of people — and people have problems.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I find this all terribly encouraging. This is not a typo; I said I find it encouraging. Because the truth is this: The church in Acts really did turn the world upside down and powerfully advance the cause of Christ and they did it despite the attacks of the devil and the weakness of human flesh. So the devil attacks and people are carnal. So what? Jesus is still Lord and the Kingdom is still coming and the Holy Spirit is still poured out and the Gospel is still the truth and the grace of God is still real and miracles still happen and the devil is still defeated and the church is still going to win. No mater what happens we can deal with it, we can overcome it. We can press on and see the work of God accomplished no matter what. Praise the Lord!

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In Acts chapter 5 a lot of things happen to the apostles.

They are working miracles and people are getting saved. Praise God!

But then they get thrown in prison. Bummer.

But then an angel lets them out. Praise God!

But then they get arrested again. Bummer.

But then they preach boldly to the Sanhedrin. Praise God!

But then they get beaten. Bummer.

But then they get released. Praise God.

I think that’s the way we approach life too much of the time: Oscillating between “Praise God!” and “Bummer!” depending on our circumstances. We need to mature beyond this. One the greatest signs of real maturity is a consistency in our attitude of praise. We should strive to maintain an attitude of victorious faith and grateful thanksgiving no matter what happens. Because the fact of the matter is that life is filled with devils and trials and we are going to have good times and bad times but Jesus is always Lord and God is always good and we always have a reason to rejoice.

Personally I am inspired to be more like that.

This is what stood out to me the most in my reading from Acts 5 and 6…

And when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded them that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. So they departed from the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. (Acts 5:40-42)

What’s the devil going to do with people like that? They’re unstoppable!

And if we will keep on rejoicing no matter what happens and keep preaching Jesus no matter the cost, we will be unstoppable too!

Yeah!

BZ

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Last night’s set list…

1. Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)
2. Mr. Tambourine Man
3. Down Along The Cove
4. This Wheel’s On Fire
5. Absolutely Sweet Marie
6. Masters Of War
7. Watching The River Flow
8. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
9. Honest With Me
10. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
11. Blind Willie McTell
12. Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
13. Like A Rolling Stone
14. All Along The Watchtower

Day 49

Acts 3 & 4

Jesus has ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father until the time when He will return, set up His Kingdom and rule the nations with a rod of iron. But Jesus has left the authority of His name and sent the power of the Holy Spirit to His church. With the authority of Jesus’ name and the power of the Holy Spirit we are proclaiming the gospel with signs and wonders and bringing the rule of Christ to the hearts of men. We see this pattern powerfully demonstrated in Acts 3 and 4.

May there be more miracles, in Jesus’ name. May we enter into a supernatural spring and summer, in Jesus’ name. Let’s believe for it!

But don’t make the mistake of ever expecting miracles to be common. Miracles are miraculous — an exception to the norm. Even when miracles are regular, they are never common. In Acts 3 we find the miracle healing of the lame man at the temple gate. This man had been born lame and we are told he was laid daily at the temple gate to beg for alms. That means that Peter and John had regularly walked past him and that Jesus had even regularly walked past this man. But in God’s sovereign purposes the hour came for the power of Jesus’ name to be demonstrated in this man, and Peter was sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit and courageous enough in faith to act boldly and see this great miracle. But I don’t want you to get the idea that Peter and John (or Jesus) healed every lame beggar they encountered, they did not. But they did move regularly in the miraculous, and that is what we need much more of. Let’s go for it!

If we will pray more, believe more and take some bold steps of faith, we will see more miracles among us. Amen!

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Life is good.

BZ

Day 48

We have now completed a forty-seven day journey through the Gospels with a revisiting of the Holy Week in our discovery of the Unvarnished Jesus. In the two weeks that remain in our Two Months of Discovery we will be in the Book of Acts where we will discover the ongoing ministry of Jesus through His church. The Book of Acts…twenty-eight chapters…during fourteen days…two chapters a day. It’s easy to do, but if you let it, it will be enormously exciting.

Next Sunday I will be preaching on the Ascension of Jesus and His ministry during the forty day interim between the His Resurrection and His Ascension. On the last day of April (Sunday, April 30) — the last day of our Two Months of Discovery — I will preach on the Second Coming of Christ. Then, during May, June, July and part of August, I will preach 28 messages from the book of Acts (Fridays and Sundays) — one chapter per message. From the Unvarnished Jesus to the Unvarnished Church. It will be a supernatural summer!

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF ACTS

The end of the Gospels is the beginning of a movement called Christianity; a spiritual movement that has changed the world and is changing the world still. The author of Acts is Luke; Luke was a doctor turned historian and the traveling companion of the Apostle Paul. Luke had written the Gospel that bears his name from his interviews with the people who were eyewitnesses of the events surrounding the life of Jesus. Luke concludes His gospel with the ascension of Christ, but this was not the end of the ministry of Jesus on the earth. The ministry of Jesus continued, but in a different way — through His church. Luke is the man who is used by God to record the astounding advance of Christianity during its first generation. The book of Acts is a book of action and adventure. It is full of supernatural events; there are lots of angels and lots of dreams and visions. All kinds of people speak in tongues and prophesy. Demons are cast out, the sick are healed and the dead are raised. Other people are most definitely not healed, instead they suddenly drop dead or are struck blind. There are supernatural escapes from prisons, shipwrecks and snakebites. It is hard to imagine an adventure more filled with excitement and risk than what is recorded in Acts.

Adventure and the miraculous permeate Acts. Acts is the historical record of Jesus on the move. It’s impossible not to notice the priority of prayer and reliance upon the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. These men and women turned the world upside down, not through conventional means, but by an audacious expectation of the supernatural. They constantly risked everything on the wager that God would show up and do His thing.

But the book of Acts is not a glossy account that only covers the highpoints. There are also trials (the hardship kind and the literal kind) and personality conflicts and church disputes and wrangling over doctrine and believers who don’t get a miraculous deliverance but instead get killed. The book of Acts is a faithful record of the good, the bad and the ugly. But even when things are bad and ugly, the Jesus Movement moves on and Christianity keeps advancing. It was that way then and it’s that way now.

So get ready for a fourteen day adventure through the book of Acts. We’ll be in the upper room with the wind and fire. We will see plenty of miracles…and plenty of trials. We’ll be in a shipwreck and hear lots of sermons that have this theme: Jesus is alive! Jesus is Lord! And when we reach the end, this will be the final word: Unhindered. No matter what obstacles hell may throw in the way, hell cannot stop the advance of the movement that Jesus began. The record of the book of Acts ends with chapter 28. But you and I are writing chapter 29 and we have our own adventure to live. Let’s go!

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Acts 1 & 2

Since I will be preaching through the Book of Acts this spring and summer, I don’t feel a need to give a general commentary on our daily readings; there will be ample time for that in the twenty-eight messages I am preparing. Instead, my intention in these daily blogs is to share thoughts, ideas, feelings, impressions I have from our daily readings.

Acts 1 is the going and Acts 2 is the coming.

“As you saw Him go into heaven.” -Acts 1:11

“Suddenly there came from heaven a sound…” -Acts 2:2

Jesus goes into heaven by ascension and ten days later the Holy Spirit comes from heaven to empower the believers and give birth to the church.

The coming is all about the Kingdom coming. Thy Kingdom come. The Kingdom has been coming for a long time.

The call of Abraham was about the Kingdom coming.

The rise of the kingdom of Israel was about the Kingdom coming.

The oracles of the prophets was about the Kingdom coming.

The preaching of John the Baptist was about the Kingdom coming.

The ministry of Jesus was about the Kingdom coming.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and the birth of the church was about the Kingdom coming.

All of these things advance the coming of the Kingdom. When Jesus comes the second time the Kingdom will come in fullness and finality. Maranatha!

Notice how Peter connects the outpouring of the Holy Spirit with the coming of the great and awesome Day of the Lord (when the nations will be judged and the kingdoms of the earth will become the Kingdom of Christ)…

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh…before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the Lord.
(Acts 2:17, 20)

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit leads all the way up to the coming of the Day of the Lord. But like the rains in Israel, there is an early and latter outpouring. The first installment began at Pentecost nearly two thousand years ago. The second installment began at Azusa Street a hundred years ago this month. Everything is moving toward the coming of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. Maranatha!

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The song stuck in my head today…

Ring Them Bells
Bob Dylan

Ring them bells, ye heathen
From the city that dreams,
Ring them bells from the sanctuaries
Cross the valleys and streams,
For they’re deep and they’re wide
And the world’s on its side
And time is running backwards
And so is the bride.

Ring them bells St. Peter
Where the four winds blow,
Ring them bells with an iron hand
So the people will know.
Oh it’s rush hour now
On the wheel and the plow
And the sun is going down
Upon the sacred cow.

Ring them bells Sweet Martha,
For the poor man’s son,
Ring them bells so the world will know
That God is one.
Oh the shepherd is asleep
Where the willows weep
And the mountains are filled
With lost sheep.

Ring them bells for the blind and the deaf,
Ring them bells for all of us who are left,
Ring them bells for the chosen few
Who will judge the many when the game is through.
Ring them bells, for the time that flies,
For the child that cries
When innocence dies.

Ring them bells St. Catherine
From the top of the room,
Ring them from the fortress
For the lilies that bloom.
Oh the lines are long
And the fighting is strong
And they’re breaking down the distance
Between right and wrong.

Day 47

Matthew 28
Mark 16
Luke 24
John 20 & 21

The dramatic and triumphant conclusion to The Greatest Story Ever Told is the resurrection of Jesus. It is the happy ending of all happy endings. It is also to the introduction to the sequel to The Greatest Story Ever Told, which we might call, “To the Ends of the Earth”.

The eyewitness accounts from the events of that first Easter Sunday are honest accounts. The Holy Spirit inspired the Gospel writers to record these accounts, but trying to fit all the details together is difficult (which is further evidence that they are reporting a real event). Nevertheless, let me try to give you a chronology of the key events in Jerusalem on the first Sunday following Passover in the year A.D. 30.

Sometime around 5:00 A.M., maybe a little earlier, Jerusalem was rattled by an earthquake. This is the second earthquake in Jerusalem that weekend. The first one occurred at 3:00 P.M. on Friday — the moment Jesus died. I believe the second earthquake occurred at the moment of the resurrection.

Immediately after the earthquake an angel came to the garden of Joseph of Arimathea and rolled back the large stone that was sealing the tomb. This was not to let Jesus out (apparently the resurrected Christ operates in extra-dimensionality and coming and going is no problem).

At the same time these events are happening, three women from Galilee who are staying in Bethany are making their way to Joseph’s garden. These three women are Mary Magdalene, Mary Clopas and Salome. They are coming at the first opportunity since the crucifixion to add spices to the body of Jesus. If the resurrection occurred in the year A.D. 30, it is April 11. (The other possible year is A.D. 33. I lean toward A.D. 30). It’s not yet light, but they know it will be soon. The temperature is probably in the upper 40’s. Their route from Bethany would take them past the old quarry known as Calvary. The city walls would be on their left and Calvary on their right. They are probably thankful that it is still dark so they don’t have to look at the Place of the Skull and be further reminded of the awful events of Friday.

As they enter the gate into the walled garden it is still dark and they are almost at the tomb before they realize the stone has been rolled away! They can only assume that the body of Jesus has been stolen.

Mary Magdalene, the youngest of the women, runs to the upper city of Jerusalem to tell Peter and John what she has discovered. This will take twenty minutes or more. When she tells Peter and John what she has discovered (that the tomb is empty), Peter and John set off running for the tomb. Mary follows, but she is no longer running.

Meanwhile back in the garden: Mary Clopas and Salome have been waiting by the tomb. Two other women have come to the tomb to join them in anointing the body of Jesus; these women are Joanna and Susanna. These women are married to prominent men and live in the wealthy Hasmonean quarter of Jerusalem. The five of them had probably planned to meet at the tomb on Sunday at sunrise.

With the arrival of Joanna and Susanna (and now that it’s getting lighter), the four women decide to look into the tomb. To their shock they discover that the tomb is not empty! There is a young man in a long robe sitting to the right. They are frightened by this discovery. The young man speaks and says, “Don’t be afraid. I know you’re looking for Jesus. He’s not here, because He has risen. Come and see where He lay.” Then this young man, who perhaps they have now figured out is an angel, tells them to go tell the disciples. Off they go.

Now Peter and John arrive at the garden. For some reason there are no angels at the tomb when Peter and John arrive. I have my ideas about why this is. In their run from the upper city of Jerusalem, John got to the tomb first (he tells us he outran Peter!). But John only looks into the tomb. When Peter gets there, he enters the tomb, followed by John. They inspect the abandoned grave clothes. What John sees is enough evidence for him to believe that Jesus has risen from the dead. Peter and John return to Jerusalem.

Now Mary Magdalene arrives back at the tomb and she is weeping. It’s light now. She looks into the tomb. Maybe she even stuck her head into the doorway of the tomb, because she discovers, not one young man, but two young men (angels) sitting in the tomb. They ask her why she is weeping and she says it’s because the body of Jesus has been stolen. As Mary, still weeping, turns around, she notices a man is standing nearby. She assumes he is the gardener. She asks him about the missing body. The “gardener” says, “Mary.” And Mary says, “Rabboni” and falls at the feet of Jesus worshiping Him.

Mary Magdalene is the first person to see Jesus after He had risen from the dead.

Jesus made four more appearances that day…

1. That morning to the other four women as they were on their way to report to the disciples.

2. Later in the day in a private appearance to Peter.

3. Late in the afternoon to Cleopas and another disciple as they traveled from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

4. That evening to the disciples (without Thomas) in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.

That is the summary of how seventeen people on the first Easter Sunday made the life changing discovery that Jesus is alive.

How did you make your discovery of the risen Savior?

Maybe it was dramatic, maybe it was simple. Maybe it was sudden, maybe it progressive. The important thing is that you have made your own discovery of the greatest fact in history: Jesus is alive!

HE IS RISEN!

Day 46

Matthew 27:57-66
Mark 15:42-47
Luke 23:50-56
John 19:38-42

Jesus in the tomb. Jesus dead. Jesus buried. This is part of the gospel.

We know what happened on Good Friday and we know what happened on Easter Sunday. But what happened on Saturday is also part of the gospel. So what happened on Saturday? Nothing. Nothing happened. Nothing happened because Jesus was dead and buried. Indeed, this is an essential part of the gospel.

The oldest Christian creed is found in Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth. Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians are the earliest New Testament writings, written even before the Gospel of Mark. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul inserts a creed he learned in Aramaic shortly after his conversion. This creed was written in the first few years after the resurrection (probably by the original Apostles while they were still in Jerusalem). It says…

Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
He was buried,
He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
He was seen by Cephas,
Then by the Twelve.
After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once.
After that He was seen by James,
Then by all the apostles.

Paul says, THIS IS THE GOSPEL!

Don’t skip over the second line of the Gospel: “He was buried.” The burial is the death certificate of Christ. We don’t bury people who are alive; we bury people who are dead. And Jesus was dead. Dead and buried.

To be dead is one thing…to be dead and buried is another. Buried means, “beyond hope.” Saturday is harder than Friday. Friday is full of drama and peril; but though it is awful, there is still the glimmer of hope that there might be a miracle. But Saturday there is nothing. Nothing to do but to face the fact that all is lost. Friday has its horrific shock, but Saturday is more cruel still, because on Saturday the shock wears off and the devastating reality sets in. Many people are familiar with Tony Campolo’s famous sermon, It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming! But before Sunday comes, we have to endure Saturday.

What was that Saturday like for the disciples? For Peter? For the women who followed Jesus? It must have been utter hopelessness…and hopelessness is a kind of hell.

While the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky was living in Switzerland, he visited an art museum in Basle where he saw a painting by Hans Holbein entitled Christ in the Tomb. Dostoevsky was profoundly affected by this painting which depicts Jesus dead in the tomb with harrowing realism. When Dostoevsky saw the painting, which was above a door in the gallary, he stood upon a chair to get a closer look at it and then remarked, “Such a painting could make a man lose his faith.” At that time Dostoevsky was writing his novel, The Idiot, and he placed those words in the mouth of the central character, Myshkin. The painting figures prominently in the book; some editions of The Idiot even put this painting on the cover. Later Myshkin comes to realize that instead of making a man lose his faith, knowing (and feeling) that Jesus really was dead, is precisely the antecedent to overcoming faith. Myshkin comes to understand that there surely were those who had seen the dead body of Jesus in just such a horrifying state as depicted by Holbein in his painting, and only one thing could turn them into the apostles and heralds of the Christian faith: The FACT that Jesus Christ rose from the dead! Until we see Jesus as really dead in the tomb, the resurrection is little more than a fairy tale.

Here is Holbein’s painting…

Christ in the Tomb

Jesus really was that dead.

Meditate upon this fact…and then get ready for THE GREATEST FACT IN HISTORY!

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Tomorrow is Easter. It will be the greatest Easter Sunday we’ve ever had at Word of Life! I promise that! You will never forget this Easter celebration!

BZ

Day 45

Matthew 27:1-56
Mark 15:1-41
Luke 23:1-49
John 19:1-37

Good Friday. A strange name for the most awful day in history. The day that God died. But it is an apt name. The ultimate testimony of grace. Yet Good Friday only becomes good on Easter Sunday. The two must remain connected or neither one makes any sense.

I don’t know how to tell you how I feel about tonight’s Good Friday service at Word of Life. “Excited” sounds too trite. But whatever the appropriate word is, I have great, shall we say, anticipation, for what will happen tonight. I will say this much: It will be unlike any service we’ve ever had. The Good Friday observance and the Easter Sunday celebrations at Word of Life this weekend are in reality one thing…with 36 hours in between. I really hope that if at all possible you will be with us tonight at 7:30 for this Good Friday observance. Come willing to experience something different.

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The Place Called Calvary

Tonight I will talk to you about a place called Calvary. I will take you there. So I will save what I have to say about the sacred place called Calvary for tonight. Instead I will focus my thoughts from today’s reading of the Gospel accounts of the Passion of Jesus on one aspect: Jesus being bound.

Then the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound Him.

Then Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

And when they had bound Him, they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.

Christ in Chains

Jesus bound. The King confined. Christ in chains. Why? Why was it necessary to send armed soldiers to arrest Jesus and bind Him as a dangerous criminal? It was unnecessary cruelty. Ah, there we have it — it was cruelty, and cruelty is always the offspring of cowardice. They were afraid of Him.

In the picture of Christ bound we see what the sinner would do if he could. The sinner would put God in chains and worse…if he could, the sinner would kill God. What is the fool doing when he says, “There is no God”? He is killing God as best he knows how.

Men binding Jesus. What does it say? If we cannot convince ourselves there is no God, then let us make sure it is a powerless God we believe in. Sinners will attempt to bind God that they might sit in judgment of God. “God, we find the idea of hell intolerable. Therefore we sentence you to a correctional facility until what time you learn your lesson and amend your ways. You must be rehabilitated.” But if God could not be bound by all the power of death, He cannot be bound by the opinions of men.

The binding of Jesus was completely unnecessary. Those bonds did not keep Him from escaping. Had Jesus wanted to escape He could have burst those bonds far easier than Samson burst the ropes the Philistines tried to bind him with. But Jesus was bound. He was bound with cords of love. His love for the Father’s will and His love for fallen humanity were the cords that bound Christ. That and nothing else could hold Him.

And remember that all the suffering of Christ is redemptive. He suffered the cross that we might be forgiven, the stripes that we might be healed, the shame that we might have peace and the bonds that we might be set free.

He did it all for us.

We love Him because He first loved us.

Now may the love of Christ constrain us. (2 Corinthians 5:14)

Christ in chains. Meditate on this holy thought on this Good Friday.

Day 44

Matthew 26:17-75
Mark 14:12-72
Luke 22:1-62

Meals play an important role in the Bible. God shared a meal with Abraham. Israel’s redemption from Egypt involved a meal and God gave them an annual covenant meal to observe in remembrance of that event: Passover. In the life of Jesus we find Him eating with both tax gatherers and Pharisees. Three of Jesus’ post resurrection appearances involve meals. And now that Jesus is only a few hours away from His passion, He desires to share a meal with His disciples: The Last Supper.

The meal was prepared in the Upper Room near Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Certainly the table in the Upper Room was not as Leonardo da Vinci depicts in his famous painting of The Last Supper, but rather was a low seated three sided triclinium.

With a little bit of detective work I can make a calculated guess as to where four of the people at the Last Supper were seated. Jesus would certainly been at the seat of honor which is the second one in on the left side (as seen in the picture.) We know that John would have been on Jesus’ right because we are told that he leaned upon Jesus and at a triclinium you rested on your left side. I have reason to believe that Judas was seated on the left side of Jesus because we are told that Jesus gave Judas a sop and we are also told that Jesus indicated to Judas that He knew that it was him who would betray Him, and this was apparently done without the other disciples being aware of it (this being so, it would mean that Jesus leaned upon His betrayer at the Last Supper!). Furthermore, I suspect that Peter was seated opposite John (at the far right), because Peter was able to signal to John to ask Jesus who the betrayer was. There is also evidence that Peter was the last one to have his feet washed by Jesus, and the outside seat on the right is the last seat. Did you get all that?

When Jesus sent two disciples to prepare the Passover in the Upper Room, He remarked, “My time is at hand.” Indeed within a few hours Jesus would be sweating blood in Gethsemane and would soon thereafter be arrested. I am amazed at how calm Jesus is at the Last Supper.

Pay close attention to what Jesus does during the meal when He establishes the sacrament of communion. Jesus took bread, blessed bread, broke bread and gave bread. This pattern is repeated over and over by Jesus. You see it at the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, at the Last Supper and at the post resurrection meal in Emmaus (this may have been how Cleopas and the other disciple recognized Jesus).

This pattern of Jesus is repeated in His dealings with us. He takes us, blesses, breaks us and gives us. I know we don’t like the breaking part, but we cannot be a blessing to others until we are broken.

While Jesus was sitting at the table with His disciples, He said…

With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”

Oh, the poignancy of this moment! Jesus is about to enter His suffering — suffering beyond knowing — and His fervent desire is to share one last meal with His disciples.

Now be an unseen disciple in the Upper Room and see Jesus with bread and wine saying…

This is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.

What a holy moment.

Finally Jesus says this…

I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.

Remember that Jesus shared a meal with His disciples three times following His resurrection. What does that mean? It means that with the resurrection of Jesus the Kingdom has come. So when we share in the Lord’s Supper (as we will Friday night), we not only memorialize the Lord’s death, we also declare that the Kingdom of God has come among us.

Hallelujah!

BZ

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Song for the day…

The Sacrifice Lamb
Joel Chernoff

Have you ever heard Messiah has come?
It says in His Word to cleanse every one
Atonement He made iniquity bore
That we can find life in Him evermore

The Sacrifice Lamb has been slain
His blood on the alter a stain
To wipe away guilt and pain
To bring hope eternal
Salvation has come to the world
God’s only Son to the world
Jesus the one for the world
Yeshua is He

The prophets of old speak much of Messiah
His death is foretold the purpose is clear
Isaiah did say ’twas for an atonement
To give us a way that leads not to death

The Sacrifice Lamb has been slain
His blood on the alter a stain
To wipe away guilt and pain
To bring hope eternal
Salvation has come to the world
God’s only Son to the world
Jesus the one for the world
Yeshua is He

So brothers of mine look not to yourselves
For we are but one we all need His help
We’ve broken the Law but He paid our debt
That we can find life by Yeshua’s death

The Sacrifice Lamb has been slain
His Blood on the alter a stain
To wipe away guilt and pain
To bring hope eternal
So final atonement has come
And brought us new hope by God’s Son
If you will believe in your heart
Yeshua you’ll know