Sunday Reading: Matthew 28 1-10

Key Verse: Matthew 28 6
6  He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Devotion:
HE HAS RISEN!

“What can I say? I am speechless and yet don’t want to stop talking about it. Does that make sense at all? Well, I now know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God because no other person could ever make Himself come back to life! This reporter is now a firm believer in Jesus Christ!”

Can you imagine the excitement, confusion, fear and great joy all at the same time when people started to find out that Jesus had risen from the grave? It is a real shock when someone very close to you does die and no matter how much you want it not to be true, the truth will sit very hard when it is someone that you love very dearly. That certainty and finality of the situation does not creep in but lunges at you like a freight train. To have that feeling turned upside down and shaken by someone telling you that that person had come back to life must have been earth shattering!

But this was not just hearsay but a fact; Jesus was alive again and was to be seen by many many people so that they could tell us of the wonderful news that Jesus Christ had defeated death for us, not just because He is God but because He wanted us to be able to be forgiven for our sins. He wanted to pay for our sin debt by giving Himself up as the Lamb of God so that His death would be accepted for our sins.

Today we can all join together knowing that Christ gave His life for us. We can all know that Christ is our Saviour. We can all know that Christ wants us to be forgiven... All we need do is to bring our sins before Christ and ask for His personal forgiveness – because He personally gave His life for us!

Points to Ponder:
Do you know that you have sinned?

Do you believe that Christ died for you?

Friday Reading: Matthew 27 54

Key Verse: Matthew 27 54
54  But the centurion and those guarding Jesus, seeing the earthquake, and the things that took place, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this One was Son of God.

Devotion:
What have they done?

Last night Jesus was betrayed by one of His disciples. The local guard came out to take Him away and then all His disciples scattered, nowhere to be found. Jesus was taken away in custody to Caiaphas the high priest where a whole string of people came to testify against Jesus. None of those that came forward were accepted as witnesses because they were all telling lies but two fellows were able to convince the assembly that Jesus was trouble; then Caiaphas accused Jesus of Blasphemy, but I have my doubts because of the words Jesus used.

Jesus was then taken before the governor Pontius Pilate where the chief priests and elders accused Him of many things. Jesus just stood there and refused to be taken up by what these people held against Him. Pilate then gave the people a choice, Jesus or Barabbas. The crowd chose Barabbas, a known criminal! Pilate said that he could not find any fault in Jesus and yet the crowd was egged on by the priests and elders to choose Barabbas and to let Jesus be hanged instead! Then the call came forward for Jesus to be crucified! At this stage Pilate washed his hands publically and the crowd took on the blame – I somehow don’t believe they knew what they were doing.

From there Jesus was taken away and the guards started to mock Him. The mocking grew until they crowned Him with a crown of thorns, dressed Him in a robe and gave Him a reed to look like a pantomime king. And yet this man Jesus took it all without saying anything. The mocking continued in a far worse manner as people started to spit on Him and even hit Him. The guards were told to beat Him and they seemed to go overboard with that drawing blood from the severe beating He took. All this time Jesus did not say a word against the people that did this to Him! The crowd seemed to join in on the mocking until it seemed like everyone was against Him... and yet He continued on in silence.

Jesus was taken to Golgotha and crucified; but this was no ordinary crucifixion because they actually nailed Him to the cross! With Jesus silently hanging on the cross some stayed to watch Him; I too was transfixed but knew in my heart that He had done nothing wrong. He was hung between two thieves one of which actually tried to defend Jesus with his own words. At about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani?” with many thinking that He was instead crying out to Elijah. Jesus then cried again and died there before us; it was as though He gave His own life. There was quite an earthquake at that time and some pretty strange things going on. The centurion that was there turned to me and said “Truly this was the Son of God”. That sentence made me stop and think, putting everything together that had happened and realising that this man was exactly who He claimed to be, the very Son of God. What had we done?

Even at this late stage the chief priests and Pharisees came to Pilate to make sure that guards were posted in front of the tomb where Jesus was laid. What did they think was going to happen!

I still cannot believe all that I have witnessed this day, so much of which is so terrible I cannot bring myself to write it down. How could these people not see the truth? How could these people not see that this was our Messiah? And now they have killed Him. What is going to happen to us now?

I have done so many things wrong in my life that I probably deserve to be hung in His place; and yet Jesus went forward and allowed this all to happen without blaming anyone else. What a man. What a demonstration. What an ending...

Points to Ponder:
Have you been witness to any of this?

Were you looking forward to seeing our Messiah?

Thursday Reading: Matthew 26 26-30

Key Verse: Matthew 26 28
28  For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Devotion:
... the late, late news continues ...

So much has happened today that things have been a bit of a blur but so far nobody has made a move to capture Jesus. Instead He has been allowed to celebrate the feast of the Passover with His disciples and afterward they left to go to the garden of Gethsemane. One thing that struck me about their Passover feast was the fact that Jesus seemed to point to something new and not be looking back at the Passover as it has been celebrated for so many years since leaving Egypt. Jesus was talking about a new covenant, a new testament that was being set up for the remission of sins. These are the things that we have been taught about for so many years, that our Messiah would come and set up this new covenant. But how is this going to be possible? What is He going to do that will cover our sins more than the animals that we have had to sacrifice at the temple?

Another thing that struck me was that Jesus said that all of His disciples would reject Him at some stage very soon. As far as I can make out these disciples have been following Him for some time and for them to reject Him, something big must be about to happen – the only thing I can think is that He is going to confront the authorities and the disciples are going to run the other way. But we will wait and see.

Oh how I look forward to the day when all this infighting and backbiting will end. I know there will be a day when we can all live in peace and that day seems to be getting closer all the time. The world seems to be becoming more corrupt each day as is foretold in the scriptures. If this man is our Messiah then we can and should expect something big and I don’t think that I would want to be standing too close when that happens. Have a peaceful Passover meal. Shalom.

Points to Ponder:
Have you got everything ready for this Passover?

What will we remember a week from now?