Holy Week, Day 7 He is Risen! Today, we celebrate the victory and triumph that Jesus had over death and sin. Read Matthew 28. Jesus was victorious over sin and death. Because he has been there perfect, death could not hold him and God raised him up victorious on the third day. Today is the day that we celebrate and recognize that victory. We understand that no matter what we do, God knew our sin. God knew every shortcoming that we would ever have, past, present, and future. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross paid for all of those and his resurrection is what provides us the victory that we can…

Holy Week, Day 6 Defeat and death. As we think about the time that passed from the crucifixion of Jesus until tomorrow morning when we arises triumphant, we can’t help but thinking about the steps that were taken out of fear to secure the tomb. Read Matthew 27:62-66. They made the tomb as secure as they possibly could. They did everything they knew how. The Lord Jesus was dead and buried in the tomb, but still they feared. Still they tried to get things set up to help them understand the potential difficulty and possibility that what Jesus said might be true. When we can’t see Jesus, do we still…

Holy Week, Day 5 Good Friday. Today is the day that we celebrate and remember Jesus’s perfect sacrifice on the cross. While he didn’t deserve it, Jesus was crucified and killed. He became the perfect sacrifice for all the sins of the entire world. Read Luke 23:32-43. Jesus was not alone when he was crucified. Two criminals were crucified with him. One of these criminals recognized the perfection that Jesus had and realized that he did not deserve the fate he was receiving. Because of this, that criminal put his faith in Jesus there on the cross. As we remember today and all that Jesus’s sacrifice means, we can understand…

Holy Week, Day 3 Epic fail. Peter denying Jesus is certainly one of the more commonly referenced happenings of Holy Week. Read Mark 14:53-72. Why do we resonate with Peter’s betrayal of Jesus so much? Often I think it’s because we know our own shortcomings and our own ways in which we have let Jesus down. We want to be true to be true to him. We may even have boasted about how good we are or how are or how much we follow Jesus. But, in the difficulties and tough times, do we follow through? Or, like Peter, do we betray him? The beautiful piece about Peter and this…

Holy Week, Day 2 How did the disciples respond to holy week? Jesus had been prepping them for 3 years, yet when it came time, they ran. Read Mark 14:27-28. Jesus knew the disciples would run. Jesus knew everything about them. Still, he chose them and loved them and used them anyway. Jesus knew they would return and so he told them that even before they left. Jesus knows all about us. Everything that we do, have done, and will do, He knows. We can’t keep secrets from him, so are we open to him with our entire lives? How do we glorify him in the situations that we find…

Holy Week, Day 1 This week is Holy Week. We are going to look back through the events that lead up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now that we have spent so much time understanding him, let’s understand what he was here to do. Read Isaiah 53. Jesus Christ came to be the perfect sacrifice for you and me. Our sins had created separation between us and God. We are not able to bridge that separation on our own. Jesus took that punishment, just as it was foretold in Isaiah chapter 53. Have we ever thought about what it means for someone to take our punishment? Have…