For the women present that morning by the empty tomb, and all who believe their testimony, and the testimony of scripture, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the indisputable fact that fuels our faith. By Christ’s resurrection we have the good hope of entering heaven with these very bodies suitably changed, there to experience and enjoy life with Christ forever.
The burial of the Lord Jesus Christ is as much an integral part of the gospel as the death and resurrection of Christ, Paul tells us. Here we consider the fact of Christ's burial, the scriptural significance of Christ's burial, and the power and comfort of Christ's burial for God's people.
As our Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross there was three hours of darkness and an earthquake which shattered rocks and opened graves. Nature groaned as the Son of God suffered. The Saviour felt the absence of His Father’s comfort in the midst of His trials but He drank the cup of suffering to the end and with the satisfaction of God’s justice came a return of the sun and the rending of the temple veil that shielded the holy of holies. A new and living way of access to God was now opened for si...
Our Lord Jesus Christ’s suffering did not end with His physical abuse at the hands of His enemies. Throughout these first three hours of His hanging on the cross the soldiers who crucified Him, the thieves with whom He was crucified, the passers-by, the religious Jews all shouted scorn at the pitiful figure and tempted Him to prove His claims and come down from the cross. But our Saviour would not be distracted from His great work and for the love of His people and for the joy that was set befor...
Our Lord Jesus Christ was brutally treated by Pilate’s soldiers before being crucified. He was physically abused and mocked and paraded to the amusement of His enemies. A crown of thorns was placed on His head and a reed sceptre in His hand. His foes knelt before Him in mock worship. As Christ’s enemies satisfied their evil desires on the Son of God they unwittingly fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ’s death, and verified the truth of Holy Scripture.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was delivered by Pilate to be crucified but Barabbas went free. In today’s passage we see the worthiness and suitability of Christ to save and learn about our own guilt as robbers, rebels and murderers before God. Barabbas is a type of all God’s elect in their natural state. 02 October 2022
Our Lord Jesus Christ was bound by His enemies and delivered to Pilate. Here we learn about the Lord’s suretyship, His kingly office and the meaning of His silence before His accusers.
Peter’s denial of the Lord Jesus Christ was a grave matter and brought about the fall of this dear saint. How prone we all are to sin and how easily we become ensnared by fear and lies. Yet, Peter was a child of grace, an heir of salvation, and the Lord Jesus, despite the offence caused looked lovingly and mercifully upon His needy friend.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was accused of all manner of crimes and condemned to death as guilty. His foolish judges did not know what they were talking about. But God the righteous judge imputed the sin of His chosen, elect people to their Surety. He laid their sin on His Son. He made Christ, who knew no sin to be sin for us, and righty, truly, legally and justly declared Him guilty of death.
Our Lord Jesus Christ met those who came to arrest Him in Gethsemane with boldness and courage yet He was also meek and compliant to the will of His Father that He might fulfil all that was written in the scriptures and satisfy His obligations in the covenant of grace.
The suffering for sin of our Lord Jesus Christ commenced in the Garden of Gethsemane where His soul-suffering is described as Him being ‘in an agony’, ‘exceeding sorrowful unto death’. Here our Saviour felt the judgment of God and the temptation of the devil. Here He lay alone without human support and carried the weight of His people’s sin.
Our Lord Jesus Christ left Jerusalem for the Mt of Olives and Gethsemane, crossing over the Kidron brook. Despite all that lay before Him His thoughts were upon the wellbeing of His people and He tells Peter and the disciples that though they all will be offended because of Him this night He has prayed for them that their faith fail not. Blessed Jesus!
Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper on this evening before His death. When we share in the bread and wine of communion with faith we are showing forth His death and testifying of our hope and trust in the cleansing power of His blood. It is a precious witness to our souls and to one another.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is our passover. He told His disciples that one of them would betray Him to death, generating amongst them great sorrow, self-doubt and self-examination. Our Saviour also preached to them about divine sovereignty and human responsibility for sin.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was the anointed one of God, set apart to redeem, reconcile and save all God’s elect. Here at Bethany a dear lady anticipates the Lord’s death for His people by anointing His head with very precious spikenard. The act pleased the Saviour despite the murmuring of some disciples. He declared that her act would be remembered wherever the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached through the whole world.
Our Blessed Saviour spent much of His final week busily teaching, preaching and ministering to His people and disciples. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday had been days full of activity. On Thursday the Lord would eat the Passover and begin His soul-suffering in Gethsemane. But Wednesday is remarkably silent. None of the Gospel writers speak about the Saviour's activities on this day. It is Silent Wednesday.
The Saviour warned His disciples to take heed, watch and pray and these admonitions apply not only to the times of the disciples’ lives but continue as a proper response from believers to the challenges of every age. The Lord has left His church with a task and a witness to every generation – to every man his work – to take heed, watch and pray, lest coming suddenly He find us sleeping.
When the Lord Jesus explained to His disciples about the coming destruction of Jerusalem, and the temple, He expressly gave warning and advice and comfort to His chosen people, His elect. For their sakes the days of terror would be lessened, they would not be seduced by the false prophets of freewill, works-religion, and they would all be gathered in by the coming of Christ in His power in the gospel.
The Lord Jesus Christ provided His disciples with ‘signs of the times’ for the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. He also warned them to be alert to false and deceptive Christs, to take heed to recognise and avoid false doctrine, and also of the need for the Lord’s preserving care for His church. These are lessons for all His people in every age.
The Lord Jesus Christ pointed out to His disciples a certain poor widow whose faith brought her to give a gift to the Lord in gratitude and praise for her Saviour. He taught them, and us, that our gifts of worship and service must be offered in faith and all we have body and soul is only what He has first given to us.
The Lord Jesus Christ asked, “What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” It is an essential question. Our Lord Jesus is the Messiah of God. He is the God Man mediator according to the scriptures. If we are to know Him and love Him and serve Him it can only be as we learn of Him in scripture by divine revelation. May we so learn Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples and His church that true worship is spiritual worship, built on a knowledge of gospel truth and inspired by personal faith in Jesus Christ. May none of us be content merely to be ‘near the kingdom of God’. May we rather be like those who listened to the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, and who ‘seek … first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness’, ‘Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe’ (Ma...
The Lord Jesus Christ met His antagonists head on when they came attacking His doctrine and ministry. In so doing He teaches us not only that these bodies of ours shall rise gloriously from the dead as spiritual bodies, but that the Gospel of new life in Christ is the only message by which sinners can be saved and find comfort in death.
The Lord Jesus Christ calls upon His people to render to God the things that are God’s. There is but one way to do this and that is by faith. We honour God, worship God, love God, serve God, and obey God to the extent that we trust in Him through the faith of Jesus Christ which He has given to His people for that purpose.
The Lord Jesus Christ often taught using parables. The parable of the fraudulent tenants gives an overview of mankind’s rebellion and opposition to God from the beginning of time to the slaying of God’s own precious Son at Calvary. However, there will be a reckoning, and destruction will overtake all who reject God’s marvellous salvation in Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ faced His enemies in the temple as they demanded He give an account of Himself, and the authority by which He did and said the things He did. The Lord requires an answer first from them which they are unwilling to supply, whereupon the Saviour declaims their hypocrisy.
The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples using many wonderful miracles including, and perhaps surprisingly, a withered fig tree! He told them that faith in God was at the heart of all true religion and the power that would attend their own ministries in the years to come.
The Lord Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem and “looked round about upon all things”. The Lord was no sightseeing tourist, however. This insight and awareness teaches us the Lord knew all that was happening and how to interpret the events and needs of those around Him. We see in His words and actions the glory of His divine majesty and the humility of human need. These endear us to the One who alone could stand in our place and save our souls.
The Lord Jesus Christ sat upon a donkey, an ass and the colt of an ass, on the final part of His journey into Jerusalem where He would suffer and die for His people. Why a donkey now after years of walking, and why an unbroken colt upon whom never man sat?
The Lord Jesus Christ appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos and declared, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Rev 1:18). Believing this makes a difference at to how we live and what we look forward to enjoying.
